We're pleased to announce a brand new Drupal module...

...but first, the reason we created it:

No matter how appealing an online service is, users and developers alike always feel frustrated when their noses bump up against walls.

Facebook users feel it when they receive email messages notifying them that they've received Facebook messages... without saying what those messages contain. LinkedIn users have felt it when they try hunting for a news feed for their own LinkedIn Answers.

And Second Life users feel it when they want to find some way to connect their in-world activity in some way with the rest of the online world; with a few limited exceptions (and to their credit, Linden Lab is working hard to expand them), that can be an exercise in frustration.

Maybe we can help change that.

Introducing the Second Life framework, a free Drupal module that allows scripts within Second Life to interact over the web with applications running on a Drupal web site.

This is an enabling module, built for developers. It allows you to create new Drupal modules with cool Second Life-integration functionality, but doesn't add new functionality in and of itself. It's built to interact with scripts written in LSL, the Second Life scripting language. (We built it as part of a larger project within SL; more on that as it develops.)

The download package includes a sample module and a handy Second Life client emulator. (It lets you test your work even if you aren't running Second Life. That reduces development time and lets you write modules for SL even if your LSL scripts aren't ready yet.)

The module was created by Khalid Baheyeldin of 2bits, our Drupal programmer of choice for brilliant coding. (Khalid is starting to take on mythic qualities. The other day, we mentioned to a friend who moves frequently in Drupal circles that we were working with Khalid. "Ah," the friend said, his eyes widening slightly. "'The Hammer.'" Apparently we aren't the only ones who think there isn't a Drupal problem out there that Khalid can't crack.)

He worked closely with LSL whiz Catherine Winters as they braved the idiosyncracies of LSL and mapped out the protocols needed for Drupal and Second Life to talk to each other.

We have our own cunning plans for employing this module, but we're eager to see how the community puts it to work. Exposing SL activity to the rest of the web? Bringing blog content interactively into SL? Using Drupal as a database for an SL script?

We hope this module will work alongside efforts like SLFeed to help break down the barriers that separate avatars from the wider world of the world-wide web. There's some amazing stuff going on in the walled gardens of the online world; it's time some of those walls came down so we can all have a look.

And if you're working with Drupal and Second Life, drop us a line. We'd love to know what you're up to.

Links: 

• The Drupal project page for the Second Life framework
• Khalid's announcement of the release 

Three things:

1. You can now listen to a podcast of the panel I was on at the "From Mass To Grass" Word of Mouth Marketing Conference in mid-April. You get to hear me mix it up with three very smart people: David Jones, Steve Osgoode and the panel's moderator, Michael Seaton. We talk about marketing, Web 2.0 and virtual worlds; between my co-panelists' expertise, Michael's moderating and the audience's questions, it was a great session.
2. It's the featured item in an episode of Michael's excellent The Client Side marketing podcast. If you're active in marketing and the social web, you're going to want to subscribe – Michael's brilliant.
3. Any chance I get to attend or take part in a panel moderated by Michael, I'm going to jump at. I've rarely been part of such a deftly animated conversation; he provided exactly the right amount of provocative questioning and insightful observation to make it (definitely) lively, (I hope) informative and (judging by the audience reaction) fun and engaging.

One of the biggest criticisms of Second Life is that the numbers frequently hyped aren't accurate. It's true that there were one million user accounts as of 6 months ago and that as of this writing, the SecondLife.com front page indicates there are currently 4,598,897. That number will likely be over 4.6 million by the time you read this blog post. So what does that actually mean in practical usage terms? Are there 4.6 million regular Second Life users? Well, no. Immediately after that, the page goes on to indicate that only 1,629,589 users have logged into Second Life in the past 60 days.

For truly accurate information about Second Life's usage, we need to look at longer-term stats. Let's take a look at a few provided by Second Life users, as well as Second Life's developers, Linden Lab itself.

read more »

I think it was Tod Maffin who mentioned it today at Northern Voice: CBC host George Stroumboulopoulos now has an official crib in Second Life, built by Montomery Nordwind. Click here to visit.

(Y'know, I think that's the most links I've ever put in a single sentence.) 

A few days ago, we received a terrific question from Jenny Edwards (ED of England's Homeless Link, a national organization of frontline agencies dealing with homelessness). She's intrigued by Second Life's potential, but...

Having joined SL mid December and spending much of the holiday season there I have been thinking about how useful and creative it would be to network those of us round the world who are working to end homelessness and to share ideas and experience. The dilemma for me in thinking of using it for work the amount of adult material and behaviour. It's fine for people privately but inviting others into the world, particularly those from faith based communities, is too problematic for me at the moment. Have you found a way of overcoming this?

It's an issue, all right - and not just for people in faith-based communities. Ask any enthusiast, employee or consultant who finally convinced a friend, parent, boss or client to check out Second Life... only to have them run into X-rated territory.

read more »

We had a great time at yesterday's open house welcoming Catherine to Social Signal. These events have their own unique dynamic: like being at a party, with little knots of people forming and talking... except you can hear everybody else's conversation as well.

The amazing thing is that, despite those potential distractions, you focus on the conversation you're having with the avatars closest to you. And it really feels like I met these folks.

To everyone who came, thanks for making this such a success. We had well over 50 people drop in over the two hours, and some fascinating conversations with people doing very interesting work.

(Update: AgentHandy has a great batch of Flickr photos from the event here. And thanks to Beth Kanter, Monique Trottier, Kate Trgovac, Jordan Behan, Aldon Hynes, Boyd Neil, Tim de Jardine, The Fountain and Bieneff Bruder for their reports on us! Special thanks to Neville Hobson for his kind words of welcome in episode 203 of the For Immediate Release podcast.)

For anyone who couldn't make it, here's a transcript of the opening remarks:

[14:10] Consultini Paperdoll: I just wanted to thank everyone for joining us today. We're really thrilled to be welcoming Catherine Omega to Social Signal and to be launching Social Signal's new Second Life practice. Social Signal is a company based in Vancouver, BC. We build online communities for nonprofits, government organizations and businesses including the NetSguared org site created by CompuMentor's TechSoup. They are our hosts today, so perhaps before I go further I can just take a minute to thank them and to thank Info Island for their generosity in lending us this space. Handyland Fairymeadow is here from TechSoup - Handyland, do you want to explain to folks what TechSoup is, and what you're doing in SL?

[14:15] HandyLand Fairymeadow: :) our pleasure to have you. sure... hi! I am handy of TechSoup. TechSoup is a nonprofit in RL and we are also doing work in SL. In RL-- we are are a nonprofit that assists nonprofits with their tech needs. In SL, we are doing a few projects to help get nonprofits connected in-world. We are doing the following projects:

We have a nonprofit directory which can be seen here to my far right behind you all. You can click and wear it and be taken on a tour of some orgs in-world.

We are also working on a big project which is a nonprofit office complex. We are calling this the nonprofit commons and we are donating free ofices to nonprofits; this sim was donated to us by the anshe chung studios. We are also having weekly meetings here in this space every friday from 8:30-9:30 PST.

To read about what we are doing check out our google group at http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life. Also, feel free to check out our FAQ at http://www.techsoup.org/community/Second%20Life/page4997.cfm, join this group in SL, and feel free to take a notecard about TechSoup.

If you know any nonprofits in-world, please tell them to connect with either me or glitteractica cookie by IMing us inworld.

Enjoy and thanks for coming to this event!

[14:19] Consultini Paperdoll: Thanks, Handyland

First, just a reminder that we have a goodie bag for everyone -- just touch the giant menacing cube behind me to get yours.

Maybe the next thing for me to do is to introduce our team:

Dayglo Maladay, aka Rob Cottingham, is the President of Social Signal
Pravin DeSantis, aka Pravin Pillay, is our new COO
I'm Consultini Paperdoll, aka Alexandra Samuel, and I'm the CEO

And as of today, Catherine Omega, aka Catherine Winters, is our Managing Director of Virtual Worlds.

We're thrilled that Catherine has joined us and we're very excited about what we'll be able to do together in Second Life. We were introduced to Catherine as one of the smartest people ever to hit a virtual world, and she's more than lived up to that billing.

Catherine, do you have a blush animation you want to play now?

[14:21] Catherine Omega: I'm actually getting used to the gushing, to be honest.

[14:21] Ruby Glitter: ;-)

[14:21] Consultini Paperdoll: glad to hear it, because we hope to have lots of occasions to say more great things in the future

[14:21] Catherine Omega: Okay, well maybe not TOTALLY used to it yet... :)

[14:21] Consultini Paperdoll: She's both sharpened and broadened our ideas of what our clients can accomplish, and how SL can trigger social change and innovation.

We decided to get into Second Life because we think this is a crucial space and a crucial moment for the growth of online community. We've all seen what Web 2.0 has done to business, and to the social sector. And we've been working to build online communities that realize the best of that potential and really help people collaborate in ways, and for purposes, that might not otherwise be addressed. For example, the ChangeEverything.ca site which we built for Canadian credit union Vancity recently gathered 76 bags of clothes for homeless people during a cold snap here.

We think that's an example of what online communities can do and what Second Life can do, perhaps even more powerfully than the web: bring people together, bring out the best in them and enable real social change.

We think Catherine's understanding of SL and her dazzling technical skills will help us to realize that potential and we're looking forward to continuing the conversation which we've already begun with many of you about how SL can be a home and a force for positive social change... as well as a good place to displace our socially/environmentally destructive consumerist impulses ;)

Again, Catherine, thanks so much for joining us -- we're really honored to have you as part of our team. Did you want to say a few words yourself?

[14:28] Catherine Omega: Oh, well, thank you. I'm excited to be here. I guess it was Hamlet Au from New World Notes who actually put me in touch with Social Signal initially... Soon after, I met with Rob and Alex and found that Social Signal's goals meshed well with my own, and that this was somewhere I really felt I could contribute.

I'm looking forward to bridging Second Life with the "traditional" web for existing and new online communities, because I think that this is something that we've only really started to see the potential of.

With this new job, I've been given an exciting opportunity to develop some of the things that I've only really speculated about until now... as well as using the skills and experience I HAVE developed in a different direction than I've been able to do in the past.

So I'm pretty excited about being here today, and perhaps a little shy about it... But I'm looking forward to working with Social Signal and with many of you. So, thanks, you guys. It's a pleasure to be here.

[14:31] Consultini Paperdoll: Thanks, Catherine. And thanks to all of you for coming today.

So you've been reading, seeing and hearing all the hype about Second Life, but you're not really, exactly, completely sure... um... what it is. Or why you should care.

I may be able to help. Catherine and I are releasing Social Signal's white paper Second Life: What it is and why it matters today, free for the downloading. (It's a PDF, about 450 kb in size. It's also a pretty quick read, so it's perfect as a crib sheet before your next chichi cocktail party, where you'll be the one who doesn't have to fake-nod-and-laugh their way through the inevitable Second Life conversation.)

But let me spoil the ending. Here's why Second Life matters:

• It's a big community, and growing quickly: from 100,000 user accounts at the end of 2005 to well over 2 million today. That's a lot of people.
• It's social. You can quickly develop an extensive network of contacts, professional and personal, using everything from Second Life's built-in interest group functions to chance encounters.
• It's a community of open-minded, motivated users. Second Life residents are coming to that world expressly to engage, and its very nature encourages active participation.
• It's instantly ready for e-commerce. Whether you want to raise funds or sell virtual widgets, you can set up shop quickly and easily without getting entangled in merchant accounts or security certificates.
• It's a no-to-low-cost way to collaborate and communicate. Your team members can join each other quickly and easily from around the world, whether for an informal chat or a two-hour meeting.
• It's an ideal space for innovation and experimentation. The informal rules and economic structure of Second Life are still shifting, and the opportunities for social and technological innovation abound.
• It's a uniquely rich experience. Think of the intensity of video, the interactivity of the web, the intimacy of face-to-face contact – combined. Now think of how that level of communication can enrich your engagement with an audience.

(By the way, for a healthy reality check on Second Life's numbers, have a look at Wagner James Au's blog post from December. He's suitably skeptical, but his overall conclusions are still very positive.)

I'll remember 2006 as the year when people stopped staring at me blankly when I mentioned my involvement in the virtual world of Second Life. Sure, I still get plenty of questions, but more and more people have heard about this new space where you can create a digital body that walks around and chats with people and buys stuff. Maybe they read a newspaper article describing it as online game, or maybe they read a business story that called it the next big marketplace. But 2006 was the year that blank stares turned into vague nods.

2007 will be the year those vague nods turn into people saying, "yeah, I just logged in!" At the rate Second Life is growing -- from 100,000 registered users a year ago to one million in October, and now all the way up to two million -- it may be over thirty million a year from now. At thirty million users Second Life is no longer a sideshow, but is something everyone has heard of and many people are experiencing for themselves.

What does that mean for organizations who are trying to stay in touch with customers or supporters -- people who are more and more likely to be in Second Life, and spending more and more time in SL once they get there? It means 2007 is the year those organizations have to figure out Second Life for themselves, and in many cases, establish some sort of Second Life presence.

So, why should your organization think about establishing a presence in Second Life this year? Let me give you seven good reasons.

1. Tap into immersive marketing

2006 saw Second Life emerge as a cutting-edge communications and simulation platform. Just as the web is already replacing and extending the capabilities of traditional print media, Second Life is likewise extending the capabilities of broadcast media and chat. Second Life now surpasses the intensity of broadcast advertising at an even more favourable price point than print. So shake out that ad budget and consider where your dollars are best spent.

2. Earn media coverage

When you invest in a Second Life presence, it's not like you're just advertising to people in Second Life. At this point, simply being a real-world organization with a presence in Second Life is enough to guarantee media interest. However, we’re already seeing a shift away from that, to one where media organizations are not simply content to report on yet another company entering Second Life, but rather, are interested in talking about truly novel uses of virtual worlds. 2007 will see a shift towards media coverage of SL being limited to applications that feature interactivity and community networking. But if you're one of the organizations smart enough to do something interesting, a Second Life presence is still a great way to get free media coverage.

3. Get in on the ground floor

While it's becoming harder to catch people's attention in Second Life, it's still much easier now than it will be in another year or two. As more people and more organizations get into Second Life it's going to become harder -- and more expensive -- to catch people's attention. But by establishing your presence now, you create a profile that will grow as Second Life grows -- the same way that early bloggers have grown into massive audiences as blogging has taken off. As Second Life grows, more people want to use it, and more people want to do business with the organizations who have been around a while.

And don't forget the grandchildren factor: don't you want to tell your grandkids that you got into SL before it got massive and commercialized?

4. Make your web site work harder

A Second Life presence is a great complement to an existing web presence, marketing site or online community. By creating an SL space for members of your online community, you give them a meeting place where they can cement the relationships they're establishing on the web. A Second Life presence also gives your users a chance to directly experience the things they're talking about on the community site. A Second Life simulation can illustrate or elaborate on ideas or information you present on your web site.

5. Amplify your live events

Live events are very popular in Second Life (sometimes TOO popular: a Second Life can actually get filled to capacity during a popular event). Holding an event in Second Life is a great way to make a real-life event accessible to people who can't join you in person. You can hold an event simultaneously in both real life and a corresponding SL space, allowing remote guests to participate and feel as if they’re actually there. You can make your real-life meeting reach further by holding a parallel event in Second Life, or even hold your event in SL entirely.

6. Conquer new markets

I sometimes like to describe Second Life as being like a grown-up version of Lego and Barbies; it's a playful space, where people spend a lot of time building things and dressing up. They spend real dollars on all this fun: hundreds of people are now making a full-time living by selling products and services in Second Life, and thousands more are making something between latte money and a second income. If you sell virtual versions of your products in Second Life -- or run a virtual version of a fundraising campaign -- you can earn Second Life Linden dollars that convert into real-world money. This is more than just a new market and revenue stream: it's a great way to demonstrate your real-world products or message.

7. Play a leadership role

Second Life grew quickly last year, but these are still early days compared to the role it's going to play in our lives in another five or ten years. Maybe the virtual world we end up living in won't look exactly like today's Second Life, but as the biggest virtual world out there (by far!) Second Life is going to have a big impact on how our virtual lives evolve. By getting involved with Second Life now, you have a chance to shape the market, culture and politics of an important online space -- an online space that will become the face of the Internet in the years ahead.

A few months ago, Rob and I decided that Social Signal was ready to expand its development team with another web services consultant; Aaron Pettigrew has had such a transformative impact on our business that we realized another Aaron (as though there could be such a thing) would allow us to serve that many more clients that much more effectively.

And we decided that while we were adding another web geek to the team, we might look for someone who knows a little about Second Life -- a virtual world that is the Internet's hottest new home to online community. (Find out more about Second Life here.) So I sent an e-mail to Wagner James Au, a leading Second Life blogger who blew my mind when we met at last year's SXSW. Here's what I asked him:

since I keep hoping that our business may eventually involve doing some Second Life projects for folks, I have the idea that our ideal next hire would be someone who's an experienced Second LIfer – probably not someone who's doing Second LIfe stuff professionally yet (though possibly) but the kind of person who'd be thrilled to make that part of their work. Basically we're just looking for a bright, energetic, progressive and tech-impassioned person who would enjoy bringing their social commitments and tech passions together. Do you happen to know any SL types in Vancouver who'd fit that description?

 

Lucky for us, James had an inspiration:

OK, a Vancouverite is potentially interested, and not just any Vancouverite. Her SL name is Catherine Omega.

Also (and don't tell her I said this): Catherine Omega is one of the most famous Residents in Second Life, and one of the best scripters there. She's also insanely smart and very cool. Hope something can come of this!

He pointed us to Catherine's bio on the Second Life wiki, and that was enough to convince us to get together with her.

A couple of weeks later, we met up with Catherine (known in real life as Catherine Winters) in a local Vancouver restaurant. Over the course of a lively lunch we covered everything from how she first got into Second Life (on a computer she built herself from scavenged parts) to the larger significance of Second Life and other virtual worlds (as a way of bridging social differences and disparities).

That was the first of a series of meetings in which Catherine coached us out of our SL newbieness and started talking with us about how Second Life could support a socially sustainable business approach. We were dazzled by Catherine's brilliant and thought-provoking take on Second Life's social significance, by her strategic insights into how organizations could make innovative and effective use of an SL presence, and by her exceptional clarity and good humor in making Second Life accessible to new users. And we suspected that as one of the co-authors of the new Official Guide to Second Life, she was in a position to take a leadership role in bringing more people to the platform.

Today, we're delighted to announce that Catherine Winters is joining Social Signal as our Manager of Virtual Worlds. Catherine will be leading a new Second Life practice to help businesses, non-profits and government agencies establish innovative, effective presences "in world". This practice will focus on working with organizations that want to create a profoundly interactive presence that stands out in Second Life's every-expanding world, that want an SL presence that integrates with a web-based online community, or that want their SL presence to advance a sustainability or social change agenda.

We'll have more news to share in the coming months about our plans for Second Life, including the forthcoming launch of our own island. Catherine's creative ideas and scripting powers will be put to good use as we introduce new opportunities for organizations to make compelling use of Second Life as a new medium for strategic communication.

Meanwhile our web site can tell you more about Catherine and our new Second Life practice. We also hope you'll join us for an open house to introduce Catherine to our clients, colleagues and friends, and to introduce Social Signal to the Second Life community. The open house will be held from 2-4 pm Second Life time (aka Pacific time) on Wednesday, January 3 at TechSoup's space on Info Island. (Many thanks to CompuMentor for lending their space to us for this event) If you've yet to visit Second Life, this is a great excuse to download their software and try it out (it's free to download and free to register) for yourself.

If you'd like to learn more about Second Life, or about how Social Signal's new practice can help your organization establish an effective Second Life presence, please call (778.371.5445) or e-mail Catherine (catherine [at] socialsignal [dot] com), me (alex [at] socialsignal [dot] com) or Rob (rob [at] socialsignal [dot] com).

We owe that blogger a huge thank-you for making this inspired connection. And yes, this does mean we're still looking for that web services consultant.

Later this evening, I'll be attending a conference in Second Life, the avatar-based virtual world.

CaseCamp, which has already proven to be a popular, effective way to pass along stories about marketing efforts, moves tonight into the virtual realm with CaseCamp Second Life, to be held on Crayon Island. (The event was oversubscribed quickly; I'm one of the lucky folks whose name was chosen in a random draw.)

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. My early concerns about a sudden epidemic of repetitive strain injuries among the Marketing 2.0 set were allayed when I learned we'll have a live audio hookup. That's good, because my experiences with SL text chat conferences haven't been completely encouraging; the lag between one comment and another often leads to confusion in group conversations as to just who's talking to whom.

Congratulations to organizers C.C. Chapman (Cleon Goff), VP new marketing for crayon and host of Managing the Gray; Bryan Person (Zeke Barber), podcaster and blogger at Bryper.com; Eli Singer, who invented CaseCamp; and digital marketing genius Kate Trgovac (Katicus Sparrow) of MyNameIsKate fame.

Meanwhile, do you think maybe I got here a little early?