Most of the events I attend in Second Life, including Metaversed events, are not targeted in any way other than implicitly through the content of the event itself. There are no qualifications necessary for entry. We seem content with quantity over quality, which is perfectly natural in a new medium I think. There are surely exceptions to this observation, and I'd love to hear about them.
On the web, provided your content is free of course, there's little need to pre-qualify visitors. Bandwidth is cheap(ish) and hardware costs negligible for many businesses. In Second Life, and other virtual worlds though, there is a limit on how many people can participate in your live event, or visit your server at any one time. There is also a limit on a company's human resources. We talk about engagement a lot when we speak of virtual worlds. About how it's better to engage meaningfully with 10 people than broadcast at 100, or 1000. So why are we not doing that?
Barriers
A good argument against trying to qualify visitors is that it puts a barrier between them and your content. Why would you want to make someone intent on visiting you jump through a hoop?
The other half of the problem may be that if you do decide that you need to pre-qualify, as far as I'm aware, the tools just don't exist. Right now, it would take considerable development to setup even an automated way of managing an islands access list. There are certainly no simple tools available for this. Do correct me if I'm wrong!
Hoop Jumpers
How much more likely are you to have a meaningful conversation with someone that's shown intent, and has been pre-qualitied over someone who wandered in randomly? If you're focused on learning in Second Life, and don't have a clear financial goal it may not make any sense to do any of this stuff. On the other hand, if you do have a clear goal for your presence, and a clear target group to aim at, wouldn't it make sense to spend less time on "everybody", and more time on the hoop jumpers?
In sales, it's preferable to be talking with somebody who wants to buy your product, rather than trying to persuade somebody that doesn't. Isn't it the same here?
Do they always have to be mutually exclusive? One Hoop to jump through for some of the Metaversed events is to just be pro-Active and get there early. Everyone else can still catch it on SLCN or on one of the Partner broadcasts where you've mentioned that some have events of their own.
I think this allows multiple levels of engagement and allows you to focus on those hoop jumpers with your highest cost engagement since you are more likely to get a return from that marketing investment.
Though it does raise the question, if they are already want to buy your product (or watch your show) how much engagement do you really need with them?
Oh I'm not really talking about the current Metaversed events. Just in general Anthony.
Nick, a good topic. Seems as the medium matures in a technical and use sense, maybe similar to real life, there may be thresholds put in place for attendees, be it qualifying who they are, an economic cost, whatever.
I was watching a video keynote from the just held Streaming Media West Business of Technology and Online Video Conference, and discussion was around monetization of the space, be it through subscription service or ad dollars, of which emphasis was on ad dollars. However, the speaker asserted that far better measurement and metrics would be needed to supply potential advertisers, of which one might carry this over to the virtual world space as well.
With the immaturity of the technology, and present lack of user ID, etc. seems to me for the near term flying blind may be the continued path. However, I suspect all of this will change over time. Think I have seen an SL event or two (Beowulf perchance?)where they have set an access list of who may attend the event at the actual live presentation, relegating others to overflow locations. So perhaps this 'control factor' is already going on.
Hey, I'd pay $L to go to some of your events .
Soon many will figure out that VR worlds are NOT an advertising ( commercials and print ad) media but an event marketing/branding and POS media.
but thats for after the bubble bursts..;)
c3
www.cube3.com
www.starbasec3.com
www.mediaverse.net
The limited simulator resources actually act in favor of those who want natural targeting: those who show up early enough to participate are mostly those interested in the topic at hand. This natural filter may not be optimal, but I suspect that it works well enough and that more complex filters would be counterproductive.
Nobody wants to be told that they can't participate in an event because they don't bring enough perceived "value" to the party. With the rare exception of a disruptive participant, it seems rejecting potential participants would create far more ill will than any gains.
The downside I see to such a natural filter is that, if the intent is dialog, a small group of hyper-interested participants may only lead to an echo chamber and actually prevent a real discussion of merit.