Web 2.0's Avant Garde Are Avatars: Residents Get Plurked!

So here's a pet theory I'm playing with: if you want a clue what the next big Web 2.0 phenomenon is going to be, watch where the Second Life community goes.  I was initially invited to Facebook by someone studying Second Life in school, got dragged into Twitter by active Residents, and come to think of it, started using YouTube before it went giant largely because so much SL machinima was being uploaded there.  Thanks to the centrality of Second Life's user-created content, I find SL's active user community far more apt to adapt the latest Web 2.0 tool than most Netizens, on average.  That's why, when it comes to Web 2.0, I think the avant garde are avatars.

The latest shift?  Seems to be Plurk, a microblogging network like Twitter but with more functionality and a better user interface.  I joined recently, invited by other Residents, and later learned Plurk's being used to organize impromptu in-world activities, like this Las Vegas in Second Life party SL Plurker Eladrienne Laval reported on recently.  (That's her in full show girl regalia.)  "'Most of us came to Plurk because Twitter's failwhale was getting bigger and bigger and we enjoy the conversation threads of it," she tells me. "There's a fun crazy bunch in there."  She estimates there are a hundred Second Life Plurkers already, and two in-world groups associated with the network.  "Some of the Plurker Euros in the UK got together for a meetup recently," she adds. "There is a SL Plurkers Flickr thread, too."  In other words, avatars using one Web 2.0 system on top another one.

Comments

[dandellion Kimban]

It doesn't sound like a surprise SL residents are (well, most of them) savvy with computers, very social and internet-curious. Compared with SL, Plurk is just a little net toy. On the other side, we need a good share of networking tools aside to support SL activities.

[Dedric Mauriac]

Plurk is so web 2.0 ago.

[Sean McDunnough]

Your theory will break down when the next big thing is the virtual world that eventually replaces Second Life. ;-)

[ArminasX]

There's well over 100 avatars using Plurk now, as I have over 150 avatar plurk-friends, and I know others have well over 200. Some of us are highly active plurkers; you can find some of the busiest Splurkers on a tracking service at: http://kot.ereality.org/plurk/location/second.

Also, resident Thraxis Epsilon has produced an amazing "PlurkHUD" which can be used to plurk from within SL. Unlike other external web2.0 services that attempt to make a community to parallel SL, this one actually works. Unfortunately it works almost too well, as it is perhaps the most addictive services ever. I'd write more, but I have some plurking to do...

[dandellion Kimban]

Unlike other external web2.0 services that attempt to make a community to parallel SL, this one actually works. Yes, tere are so many "myspaces" for SL, though nobody actually found what they are for.

Sean, it will be actually very interesting to see what will happen when next big VW come out. I am not sure that will break the theory, but it will be an interesting moment for sure.

[Sin Trenton]

I think the road after Twitter was "split in twain", so to speak. Not that Twitter itself is dead, abandoned and whatnots. ;o)

But while some people fancied jumping on Plurk, I noticed several of the umm... hardcore tech bloggers, etc preferring FriendFeed instead, saying it catered their needs better.
Of course I know several using both, but they seem to prefer one over the other.
Maybe there is a demographic difference between FriendFeeders and Plurkers?

[dandellion Kimban]

Sure there is. There is no such thing as "ultimate tool". Some people prefer one, others the other, some need both.

[Sin Trenton]

Of course there is no ultimate tool (Nope, not even the iPhone) and that is probably a good thing. :o)

What I think I actually meant was "If there is a demographic difference at all, sex, age, interest, whatnots, between FriendFeeders and Plurkers, what you think it would look like? The difference, that is."

[Sean McDunnough]

dandellion: my point was that if the members of Second Life do jump ship to a new virtual world then, by definition, they will no longer be members of the Second Life community. If they stay loyal to SL and don't jump ship, then Hamlet's theory that Second Life residents will be found in the next big thing will break down.

[radar]

sean's wrong about it breaking the theory. *IF* and when a VW comes along that allows resident freedom in terms of content creation and ownership the way SL does, and it is a better VW, forward-looking SL'ers will be onboard.

the same traits that make them grok SL will make them grok the next truly useful one that doesn't treat them like children who just want to be in a chat room vs. adults who want to create content and stamp their vision of things into the virtual landscape.

What's so hard to grasp about that?

[radar]

it's not whether they are residents of sl for life, sean, it's that the people who currently are tend to be more forward looking in a lot of respects. aka, the same type of people who will get the next thing. so right now, it's true. if they jump ship (or more likely, run both for awhile) for the next VW, it'll still be the same people to look to. they'll just have a different label to satisfy people who need such things.

[Sean McDunnough]

Radar: Sheesh. I was just pointing out the irony.

What's so hard to graps about that?

[Haizo]

There undoubtedly will be better VWs come along in droves because the market is there. The Koreans love VR and have at least one contender - http://nurien.com/pages/main_notice.html
I think the thing that will slow migration will be the difficulty of owning your virtual assets in a way compatible with moving to a different virtual world. Second Life's setup just won't meet peoples requirements and they'll have to change or wither as people start anew on systems that support 'VW churn'.

[Geo Fulton]

I do like plurk but think the interface and tools for managing plurks/comments are a bit limited. It all gets a bit overwhelming causing you to miss the interesting stuff unless you monitor it ‘live’.
I think plurk really needs the ability to filter on plurks you have commented on in a simlular way to Flickr. I would also love to be able to join a new plurk to an existing plurk creating a thread (rather than just responding within a given plurk).
Many moons ago I used a tool called ‘TheBrain’ http://www.thebrain.com/ that was way ahead of it’s time. TheBrain allowed you to link data and info together in a hierarchical structure allowing easy browsing and navigation. Plurk would be cool if it did something similar.

Geo.