Caleb Booker

It’s hardly news that there are small businesses in operation in virtual worlds. What I’ve noticed, however, is that many people in the industry automatically assume these are businesses that deal exclusively in virtual goods - programmers, avatar clothing designers, building artists, that kind of thing.

The case for Universities is well-known, to be sure - apart from independent artists, there is no larger group in virtual worlds than the educational community. We know that lawyers have shown great interest, as have accountants. But who else might be a good fit?

• Wider adoption by architects is long overdue. Initial experiments in fast prototyping of architectural designs, and of bringing clients on very early tours, is very promising. (Click here for a video example.)
• Anyone selling a nation-wide service has a place in virtual worlds. Imagine being able to have “sit-down conversations” with people from all over the country discussing what you do without leaving the office.
• General advertisers and marketers are a good fit here as well, but the gaffes we’ve seen in the past have made many of them gun-shy. What they don’t realize is that the time where it’s ok to make mistakes is coming to a close, and the company that perseveres and truly establishes a presence in this space will have a major competitive advantage.
• Frankly, any independent web developer that isn’t finding a way to work 3D technology into their product offering is going to be scrambling to stay afloat very soon.
• Coaches and independent corporate trainers need to get comfortable with this technology immediately. Enterprises are already actively using this technology for training internally, and it’s no secret that educational institutions are fully on-board.
• The fashion industry is really working up steam in virtual worlds, and is on the verge of a serious explosion. Things we’ve seen in the past, like bringing in customers early in the product development cycle to critique designs, are going to be very common. This is also the space where the old e-commerce dream of trying clothes on a virtual model of yourself will come to fruition.
• Clinics like Greenleaf Medical are making serious progress with patients by leveraging the immersive nature of 3D environments, allowing people to gain distance from their issues and see things from a different perspective.

I just reached a point with this where I realized I could make the point-form list go on for pages and pages. The bottom line: the technology is ready for small businesses. Now it’s just a question of them diving in.

My sincere hope is that my seminar next week will prompt a few to reach a bigger market, hold a major competitive edge over the competition, make sales goals easier, develop a community around their brand, and have memorable meetings with their customers without even leaving the office. Those who don’t move on this will play catch-up for another decade, as many have been doing with the web.

Posted on August 13th, 2008 under futurism, new media. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.