Sigma Aldrich

Occasionally I like to see what new islands are appearing at the very edges of the great Second Life grid. These far-flung islands will, soon enough, be gobbled up as the region starts to fill - but for now they lie out in the deep blue ocean as vanguards of the advancing grid. Today I happened upon a small group of 4 such sims belonging to Sigma Aldrich, and thought I would take the opportunity to give them a post.

Sigma Aldrich is a global company, headquartered in the US, who specialise in research chemistry and the supply of "fine chemicals", together with the manufacturer of products for use by research chemists. Their website has some engagingly whimsical pages, such as the Scientific Origamists Gallery and their Design A Lab Coat competition - while the more seriously minded might want to wander into the Stable Isotopes Centre (just one of many product pages) to checkout what's available in the world of NMR solvents (I have no idea what they might be, I hasten to add).

The four Second Life sims are glued to form a single land mass. Two of the sims are at a reasonably advanced state of construction, while the other two are at a very early stage in the build process. In part, the rapid build may be due to the employment of various Clever Zebra prefabs, all the work of Lordfly Digeridoo. However, since a lot of additional items, such as lampposts and fountains, are also the work of Lordfly, it is possible that he is providing rather more hands-on assistance to the build. I am tempted to touch on his recent departure from CZ, but instead I will point you in the direction of Prokofy for the full story. It is an interesting tale*.

As regards the Sigma Aldrich sims, there is little to say, to be honest. The "corporate buildings" look suitably corporate, and the overall build seems to be progressing well. But it is really too early to tell what the site will eventually offer. In the meantime, a few pictures, methinks:


* Thinks: Dunno why I'm driving footfall to Prok's blog, as Prok seems to think I'm a total d*ckhead. Oh well.

Clever Zebra - is it all Black and White?

Now here's the thing. I've been reading Iyan Writer's well-reasoned piece about Clever Zebra in which he makes a strong case that for the view that, basically, they've got their business model screwed. However, while I agree with a lot of what he says, I think he's missing some nuances.

Clever Zebra have been giving away free, Open Source starter packs for a ferw months now, aimed at businesses wanting to build a virtual presence. The latest pack - Zebra Corporate - has just launched, and includes auditoria, offices, presentation areas and various handy tools and landscaping bits and bobs.

Clearly, on its own, just giving stuff away is no way to make money. So CZ actually have 2 offers: free edition (just the pack) and enterprise edition. The latter charges 5000 USD, plus a further 400 USD a month for... ummm... some other stuff. The site says; "Zebra corporate is a simple solution to second life for companies looking to make their entry into the virtual world with confidence. Clever Zebra clients are encouraged to join an engaged, connected community and support network where there is always something happening, and always something to do." So apart from an optional community I might choose to join, it is not clear what I get for the money. An island? A bit of an island? A consultant (whose credentials I have not seen) telling me the time after asking to see my watch?? Perhaps CZ think it is obvious - indeed, I thought it would be, too - but if you read the website, it is not clear what 10K for the first year gets you.

Anyway... I digress. This was not actually what I wanted to say. Iyan's argument is, I think, that any corporation looking at Second Life is not put off by the cost of building, but by a range of other factors: getting their own people to engage; concerns over the stability of the environment and (he reckons) the difficulty of forging lasting and worthwhile relationships with the SL community. I don't think the latter 2 actually apply to companies looking at Second Life for the first time - these concerns come later, when they discover what they've let themselves in for(!). However, I do think lack of a clear business case, the complexity of the viewer interface and concerns over the seamy side of SL are further disincentives.

In any event, none of these are helped by the offer of free stuff - and it is hard to see how the 10K USD is going to solve these concerns either.

That said, I do see 2 primary markets for CZ's wares. First is the non-corporate SME (Small-to-Medium Enterprise) marketplace. SME's looking to get a taste of virtual worlds, and not having the dedicated resources to devote time to investigation, could make use of the CZ offer to get them up and running quickly. However, the number wishing to avail themselves of the Enterprise Edition may be limited. It is not an inconsiderable sum when all you want is to dip your toe in the water.[ I am not claiming this is the "right" way to enter virtual worlds - but it will be, I would contend, a common route. ]

The real corporates - those who may actually have a business case around savings on air travel - may also have a use for CZ's services. A serious involvement in Second Life requires a serious investment of both people and money. But that does not mean that you have to go all-out from day 1. Many companies of my acquaintance are rather more circumspect, and want to trial a low cost/low impact proof of concept in Second Life before getting further engaged. The CZ offering fits nicely with this requrement. Of itself it may not solve the internal engagement issue, but it does make it a great deal easier to get such engagement. I have observed that internal engagement and involvement comes about when there is something people can actually visit. While it remains an idea under discussion, engagement is difficult to achieve.

I think that, in using words like "Corporate" and "Enterprise", CZ may only be fooling themselves about their likely client base. However, there is mileage in the concept - and who knows? They may pull it off. There are many companies offering assistance in starting up in virtual worlds. If your only USP is "our stuff is free" then it could be a long and rocky road ahead. Meanwhile, although 10K USD is a figure not be sniffed at, I do wonder how many of these it takes before one has a viable company, capable of paying people's salaries and servicing its creditors.

How Clever is Clever Zebra?

Things have been rather quiet for a while over at Metaversed.com. Not quite as sepulchral as 3pointD, to be sure, but nevertheless it is a site that has faded from its early days as a young, snotty, opinionated upstart in virtual world news and views. Latterly it has become little more than a vehicle for advertising the Metaversed/Metanomics inworld meetings. I’ve been curious about this, wondering why Nick Wilson, the original voice and founder of Metaversed, had all-but disengaged from the site. It seems the answer is that he has been busy behind the scenes. There is a metamorphosis underway in the world of Metaversed, with the emergence of a whole new site – and more importantly, a whole new concept: Clever Zebra.

I know… I know… from nothing 24 hours ago, this is becoming the “phrase du jour” – but I thought you might like to know a bit more about it.

Broadly, Clever Zebra is a new company that will offer companies and others a new approach to establishing a presence in Second Life. At its crudest, the approach looks like an uber-version of the freebies already available to newbies and the financially-challenged in SL. Clever Zebra’s first product, Zebra Corporate, will be available later in January. This “will include the buildings, productivity tools, furniture and landscaping necessary to form a corporate build that can be adapted to each organization’s individual purpose.”

And it won’t cost you a penny. “By providing companies with enterprise class virtual world solutions for free under an open source license… All Zebra Corporate pieces will have full permissions to copy, modify and transfer under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3. This license allows the redistribution and resale of all or part of the system but stipulates that redistributed copies, whether modified or not, must also carry the same open license.”

Clever Zebra intends to make its money from the services that can be offered alongside, such as customisations, training, support and consultancy.

Won’t this mean a cookie-cutter approach? Well, yes and no. While Zebra Corporate provides a general toolset, it also offers plenty of scope for customisation, branding, layout changes and so forth. And it is worth considering whether “cookie cutter” is such a bad thing. It offers a quick, easy entry point to Second Life for companies that might otherwise have considered the environment too strange – and expensive – to consider. First and foremost, a place has to work as a social environment – looks are secondary.

What about the big building companies? It is unlikely that CZ will have a big impact on the existing virtual world development companies. Large corporates and media groups will still prefer to go the totally bespoke route offered by these specialists. Smaller build companies may well feel the squeeze – but from the conversations I have had over the last 6 months or so, most of these companies are suffering already. I don’t know if this is feasible – but some form of alliance with CZ might actually benefit such companies.

What about artisan builders and craftsfolk? A few people have already voiced concern about the possible threat to existing SL artisans. I don’t see Clever Zebra posing any greater threat than they experience already. In fact, it is part of the company’s ambitions to bring in artisans to broaden the range of objects available under the CZ banner. “By creating a set of standards for Zebra Corporate, including measurements, content, and quality grades, we can invite the creative community to build to those standards and submit variations of the corporate theme for inclusion in the Clever Zebra collection.”

Artisans should benefit from commissions, promotion and direct engagement with enterprise clients. CZ will also offer to help with profiles, contracts and freelance work – in effect acting as an agency.

In the hyperbole coming out of the site all of this is described as a “paradigm shift”. I’m not sure I would go that far – but I do think this is an interesting, new approach for bringing companies into Second Life. The low cost may well attract a large number of new companies to try their hand.

And perhaps here’s the rub…

The business model, in large measure, relies on selling people’s time – time for customising, time for training and support, time for consultancy. Unlike virtual products, which can be sold over and over without any further intervention, people’s time is not a scalable commodity.

Fundamentally, CZ needs to sell time, and that means having bodies, and that has all manner of ramifications. People are expensive. People need to be trained, managed and paid. How do you scale up quickly if there is high demand? In fact, how do you tune resourcing according to peaks and troughs in the market? Sounds like contracting to me.

But it goes a bit further than that: How do you ensure consistent quality? How do you ensure the CZ brand values are preserved? This starts to resemble the Virgin business model. It requires investment in the contractors – and governance mechanisms that allow CZ to monitor quality and conformance.

A final thought is around winning business. The costs associated with bid management, sales and marketing can be high – and the time these activities devour is time that cannot be readily clawed back from charge out. I know this has killed other small companies in SL.

The calculation of running costs, incorporating these and many other factors, looks to be highly complex and full of assumptions. Coupling this with an industry-standard per capita charge-out rate leads me to believe that making a profit will be a real challenge with this model.

I wish CZ good luck with this venture, but I think they need to work through some of these issues if they are to survive (but then, I’m not an open source zealot).

PS: I am glad to see that the "meta" prefix is noticeable by its absence. Here's to a meta-free '08!