cisco

Cisco Systems Inc. is about to launch a virtual world to "enable its 40,000 global channel partners to meet and exchange information with application providers and device manufacturers". Called the Industry Solutions Partner Network (ISPN), it allows visitors to move through trade show halls, booths, a meeting hall and a lounge. Several companies have already signed on to create presences there, and more are on the way.

While the Cisco ISPN is reasonably sophisticated, several features that Second Life users have come to expect were removed for simplicity's sake. Avatars are automatically generated without the laborious need to tweek and adjust them, users can't accidentally fly away with the press of a button and have to take five minutes trying to work out how to get back, and there's no need to download a separate client. It's just click, log in and go.

This stripped-down philosophy enables people to just get in and start communicating with each other. Communication is text-only for now, but Cisco plans to allow voice communication between ISPN participants through WebEx and Skype. The world was developed in just three months, but a "significant infrastructure" has been set aside to expand things even further in the future.

For now, however, the primary purpose of ISPN is to allow channel partners to gain a greater understanding of the applications Cisco is developing and be able to sell them more effectively to customers. Around 30 independent software vendors have presences there now, including Salesforce.com Inc.; QM Group Ltd., and Nomadix Inc.. Cisco's Solution Incentive Program already provides product discounts to channel partners when they collaborate with developers on new software applications, and ISPN will be a great communications tool to help these partners find each other.

(via Computerworld)

One of the things that Second Life affords companies, is the ability to rapidly change track when the present course no longer makes sense. To make adjustments on the fly, even complete changes in business model (read, virtual world strategy..) is very web2.0, and Second Life, above all, allows for seriously rapid prototyping of ideas and builds through it's object and scripting tools -- at a level you wouldn't normally associate with large companies. In fact, only this week, Christian Renaud over at Cisco was (justifiably) cursing the hoops the corporate machine was making him jump through to get some stuff done. It's interesting to note, that in the virtual world, where he has domain, this is not the case, and more interesting yet to read about how the company has rapidly evolved its Second Life strategy based on first hand experience.

We had planned to do a gradual rollout of new content and some interaction, however the experience of participating quickly changed our direction. By April, we had redesigned our presence in SL, added four islands, and had the governance and infrastructure in place within our company to scale for the foreseeable future.

The first aspect, the redesign, was in direct response to how our customers, partners. Second Life Cisco User Group and employees told us they wanted to use our 'Virtual Campus'. We did away with buildings for the most part so avatars could get in and out easier, and adopted a user-centric model of navigation, so users could decide where they wanted to go (products, training, technology, building in the sandbox) and get quickly there.

This hands on approach to Second Life is what Prokofy and I discussed on Second Rant today. The first wave of corporate washouts in virtual worlds is past, it's time to learn from those experiences and move forward with the benefit of experience.

For those few firms, like Cisco, who entered in that first wave and are making a success of their Second Life strategies, it's time to teach what you know to others.