Presented 22-Jun-2011 Second Life 8th Birthday Auditorium

1. Sitearm
● Strategist and expediter for virtual worlds
projects
● Le nom en ligne for James Neville
Sitearm - The Creative Economy in Second Life; Of Cyber Mega-Regions And The Three T's
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2. The Creative Economy In SL
● Second Life, like the Real World, can be looked
as an emergent creative economy.
● A creative economy can be looked at as a set of
mega-regions, thriving under conditions of
technology, talent, and tolerance.
Sitearm - The Creative Economy in Second Life; Of Cyber Mega-Regions And The Three T's
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3. The Real World
– Big - geography, population, economy
– Diverse - age, gender, culture, lifestyle
– Dynamic - land, water, biomass
Sitearm - The Creative Economy in Second Life; Of Cyber Mega-Regions And The Three T's
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4. Second Life
– Big
– Diverse
– Constantly changing
Can new insights into the Real World be
applied to Second Life?
Sitearm - The Creative Economy in Second Life; Of Cyber Mega-Regions And The Three T's
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5. Mega Regions - Real World
– Cities and their suburbs and neighbors, where people,
labor, and money move easily
– Replaces “nation” as unit of economic analysis
Mega-Region Mega-Region Mega-Region
Nation Nation Nation
Region Region Region Region Region Region
City City City City City City City City City City
Sitearm - The Creative Economy in Second Life; Of Cyber Mega-Regions And The Three T's
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6. Mega Regions At Night
– Identified based on night time light images plus data on
population, economy, and innovation
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7. 40 Real World Mega-Regions
● Light Based Regional Product (LRP)
– At or exceed 100 Billion USD / Year (2000, 2001)
Nor-Cal Am-Brus-Twerp Hong-Zhen
470 Billion USD 1,500 Billion USD 220 Billion USD
12.8 Million Population 59.3 Million Population 44.9 Million Population
11,567 Patents 6,985 Patents 2,231 Patents
108 Highly Cited Science Authors 29 Highly Cited Science Authors 1 Highly Cited Science Authors
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8. It's A Creative Age
● Creative Class - occupations requiring complex problem
solving and high levels of independent judgment, education, and
attainment
● Super-Creative Core - computer and math occupations;
architecture and engineering; life, physical, and social science;
education, training, and library; arts and design; entertainment,
sports, and media
● Classical Knowledge Workers - management; business
and finance; legal, healthcare, technical, high-end sales and sales
management
Sitearm - The Creative Economy in Second Life; Of Cyber Mega-Regions And The Three T's
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9. It's A Creative Economy
Sitearm - The Creative Economy in Second Life; Of Cyber Mega-Regions And The Three T's
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10. The Three T's – Real World
● Technology - industry
● Talent - educational attainment, occupational attainment
● Tolerance - immigration, openness within industry
toward newcomers, openness within communities toward
gays and lesbians
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11. Three T's And Community Success
Technology China
Study
Talent Sweden
Study
Tolerance Housing U.S.
Value
Study
Bohemian-Gay Index
Sitearm - The Creative Economy in Second Life; Of Cyber Mega-Regions And The Three T's
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12. SL As A Creative Economy
● Can we identify “cyber” mega-regions based on
– Large population, large market, significant economic
capacity, substantial innovative activity, highly skilled
talent
● Can we identity “inworld” community success
predictors based on
– Diversity (tolerance), talent (education, achievment),
amenity (quality of life), language (entry), technology
(invention), output (economy, growth)
Sitearm - The Creative Economy in Second Life; Of Cyber Mega-Regions And The Three T's
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13. Second Life Has Geography
Sitearm - The Creative Economy in Second Life; Of Cyber Mega-Regions And The Three T's
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14. Mega Regions - Second Life?
– Adult regions?
– Rental regions?
– Shopping regions?
– Entertainment regions?
– Language regions?
– Education regions?
Very few are geographic
“neighbors” on the SL Grid
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15. Second Life Has Population
● 100,000,000 User Hours a quarter (Q1 2011)
●
2,000,000 m2 (Q1 2011)
● 800,000 Repeat Logins a month (Q1 2011)
● 17,000 New Registrations a day (Q1 2011)
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16. Second Life Has Green Dots
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17. Second Life Has Industry Sectors
● Places, Events, Creation, Technology,
Commerce, Land
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18. Second Life Has An Economy
● 3,700,000 USD Web Sales a quarter (Q4 2010)
@ 258.8 L$/USD
● 31,500,000 USD LindeX a quarter (Q1 2011)
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19. Second Life Has Diversity
● Avatar - human, tiny, goth, gor, fantasy, vampire, furry,
steampunk
● Intent - exploring, social, shopping, creating, money,
pleasure, research, education
● Home - America, Europe, Asia
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20. SL Creative Economy Issues?
● Tolerance
– Experienced vs. new residents, merchant vs. corporate
commerce, profitable vs. philanthropic
● Talent
– Old skills vs. new, self-taught vs. master classes
● Technology
– Cooperate across sector vs. compete in lone silos
– Acquire detailed economic data vs. scrubbed totals
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21. Reflection
● Applying creative economy principles to Second
Life leads to new insights
– Trade, commerce, and innovation depend on talent,
tolerance, and technology
– These facilitate quality lifestyle and economic success,
and community sustainability
– Is inworld training readily available
– Is SL industry economic data readily available
– What are “creative class” occupations in SL?
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22. Where To Find Out More
● Richard Florida - Director, Martin Prosperity Institute,
Professor of Business and Creativity, University of Toronto
– Richard Florida - World Mega-Regions and The Creative
Economy - an UP Experience Post
sitearm.wordpress.com
– Richard Florida - Creative Class® the source on how we
live, work and play
creativeclass.com
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23. Thank You!
siterma.com
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24. The Creative Economy in SL
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