Last week, my avatar skied a mountain in second life, found a new suit, and took a shower. Good stuff.
Aside from that, the group made some important steps. First, we had our intial meeting in second life. Although not everyone could attend, we got 2/3 of the microphones working, and laughed the rest of the time at having one team member have to type. We developed a matrix (my first neil hair matrix) to aid in our business decision making. If all else works out, we may be pursuing a not for profit business in SL:
Here's a picture of my avatar, Bean Renilo, in a large store on second life. Please, hold your laughter. I realize my virtual appearance definitely needs some work, and the graphics aren't exactly brilliant. The hair is a little white, and my pants (which I purposefully left out - sorry) are a bit too urban club scene for me. With some more work, I hope Bean Renilo will look as much like me as possible. Now, I realize that much of second life is about escapism, and well, a second life. However, that avatar is a representation of me, and my personal brand. Bean Renilo may be a virtual character, but I see him as a reflection of myself. I do not see my lack of differing features a lack of creativity. Instead, it is how I want to appear, it is how I envision myself in any environment, no matter what world or format I happen to inhabit. I am hoping to incorporate this theme into my banner in second life, and hopefully, in one way or another, into the value I add to our virtual business.
Speaking of virtual business, our product brainstorming has begun - more on that soon! Sorry for the quick piece, but I've got to run to Home Depot to pick up a T6 bit to repair my shot keyboard. Hopefully if all goes well, my baby will be running smoothly again, and I'll have a proper amount of time to give to my online pursuits!
My friend let me on to a brilliant presentation from Rory Sutherland. Aired on CNN, Rory explains how advertising can be a force for good, especially in providing value. I had the chance to sit in on a lecture through Videan's advertising course in London - he's a vibrant presenter with a good sense of humor; and has been on the forefront of new media before I was even understood what media was. Check it out here.
Welcome everyone! It has finally happened – I have broken down and begun the slow decline into virtual social network participation that will undoubtedly overtake my personal life. Well… okay; maybe that was a little strong. Still, it has taken me some time to dip my toes into the virtual water. To be entirely honest, the water is pretty warm. I’ve got a domain name and reconfiguring my DNS settings only took 15 minutes; ten to read enough about what DNS was and five to alter my settings! With an updated profile on facebook & linkedin, a new blog, a resurrected Skype account, and above all, mobile twitter, I feel readily equipped to disperse my interests, thoughts, and reactions, and into the digital world. But thoughts about what, and dispersed for what reason?
Perhaps I should start with the why first, and work backwards to the what (as quickly as possible of course). I am under two trimesters away from graduating from RIT with a BA in Management, and my dual minor in Philosophy & Marketing. I’ve always been drawn in broad directions, was interested in behavior, perspective and needed to work with people. For this reason I quickly left computer engineering as soon as I had entered, and settled down my second trimester at RIT into the management major. My new curriculum provided me a broad perspective of organizational behavior, accounting and finance, market forces, etc. However, I missed the creativity and off-center mindset that was lacking in so many courses, and had been active when I had been formerly crammed in a computer lab for hours, trying to unravel a piece of simple coding logic. I hated having to regurgitate vocabulary - I loved concepts, and the combinations of their application on diverse environments. Concepts were gray and they were messy, but most importantly, they were real. Concepts could be applied outside of academic walls. Management felt right for a lot of reasons, but it wouldn’t be enough.
My interest in marketing became an outlet for creativity, vividly available after my semester spent in London. Yes, there is still research involved, and it bonds quite well with my administrative major, but there is another side to marketing that is not available in other curriculum. Marketing has the ability to combine emotion and creativity with real market application. You can make a product, you may even be able to run a business, but if you cannot create value in the minds of consumers, everything before was a waste of resources. While overseas, I was fortunate enough to take a creative advertising class. Joe Videan, an American who had settled in London years before, was our professor. We were tasked with creating short creative pitches for a multitude of products and brands, and later presented them to a handful of intimidating (at the time) and impressive (upon later contemplation) individuals within the advertising industry. It was nice to exercise my creativity, as it grew to complement my administrative training. I am astonished at what an impact that unique experience had, and continues to have on my life today. But, before I use up all of my later material, and spend the rest of the night rehashing London adventures, I should get to the point – marketing is my passion, should have been my major, and will be the subject of my masters degree.
This brings us to the current trimester, and my latest marketing course – Commercializing Virtual Worlds. Taught by Neil Hair though the Saunders College of Business at RIT, CVW is the catalyst for my recent posting frenzy and my newly developed carpal tunnel. The topics covered in the course will be novel in terms of current material and student contribution to the learning experience. Contribution in this case implies work, and a lot of it. Part of this effort will be to document my experiences throughout the trimester in CVW in a variety of digital forms including (you guessed it!), this blog. My hopes are that the class related posts will help to complement the rest of the blog, dripping periodically into the pool of random expulsions of personal interests, including the novel forms of communication creative marketing is forging between consumers and products through innovative combinations of art, music, literature and all forms of human communication.
Phew! Keep and eye out for some lessintroductory and moreinteresting material coming soon. Thanks for reading.
