Liam Kanno Lecture Chat Log

Wednesday, 25 February 2009 11:05

[18:01] Nasus Dumart: Welcome to the Guest Lecture Series at Molaskey's Pub.

[18:01] Nasus Dumart: This evening, Liam Kanno joins us to discuss his virtual world accomplishments, the hurdles he encounters and the vision that keeps him going.

[18:01] Nasus Dumart: Liam is well traveled and educated.

[18:02] Mia Kitchensink: Hi Rinaldo

[18:02] Nasus Dumart: He has his Bachelors degree from Rochester Institute of Technology in Industrial Design, with a minor in Psychology and his Masters degree in International Political Economics from Fordham University in New York.

[18:02] Nasus Dumart: He has gained valuable educational experience in Georgetown University, Vatican City, United Nations and with the Red Cross.

[18:02] Nasus Dumart: He is a great humanitarian and strategic planner.

[18:02] Nasus Dumart: Plus, he loves video games.

[18:02] Liam Kanno: :P

[18:02] Nasus Dumart: Liam stumbled upon Second Life in 2006 while exploring the Apple.com website for games.

[18:02] Nasus Dumart: He downloaded Second Life and began a journey even he could not have planned.

[18:03] Nasus Dumart: Liam's company, The V3 Group, has enticed some of Holllywood's biggest names to Second Life®.

[18:03] Nasus Dumart: His first client was The Picture Production Company, for which he built 'The Silverscreen Sim'.

[18:03] Nasus Dumart: He is also credited with the WTC Memorial wall and Silicon Island, among many credits to his name.

[18:03] Nasus Dumart: Liam Kanno is featured in our publication, 'The Unofficial Guide to Building Your Business in the Second Life® Virtual World'.

[18:04] Nasus Dumart: This interesting and informative lecture will begin shortly. Let me just remind the audience of the structure of this event.

[18:04] Nasus Dumart: This will be a type-chat event.

[18:04] Nasus Dumart: I will ask that the audience to refrain from room chat until your host and Lecturer have completed their presentations.

[18:04] Nasus Dumart: At that time, the audience will be encouraged to participate in a lively period of Questions and Answers.

[18:04] Nasus Dumart: Tonights lecture will go according to a schedule. As moderator, I will give prompts as to when we will proceed.

[18:04] Nasus Dumart: This transcript, including audience participation, will be made available on http://Molaskeys-Pub.com immediately following the lecture.

[18:05] Nasus Dumart: Please make note of tonights schedule:

[18:05] Nasus Dumart: 6pSLT-6:10 - Getting situated
[18:05] Nasus Dumart: 6:10-6:15 - Liam Kanno Intro by Nasus Dumart
[18:05] Nasus Dumart: 6:15-6:30 - Liam Kanno addresses the crowd
[18:05] Nasus Dumart: 6:30-6:45 - Q&A
[18:05] Nasus Dumart: 6:45 - 7pSLT - wrap up Q&A / mix-n-mingle

[18:05] Nasus Dumart: Please take the next few minutes to invite others to join you.

[18:07] Nasus Dumart: OK - Let's continue... (a few min early)

[18:07] Star Pugilist: hello everyone

[18:08] Nasus Dumart: After a few months getting his bearings in Second Life, Liam decided to form a company, known as the V3 Group, LLC.

[18:08] Nasus Dumart: that was in 2006 - I believe

[18:08] Liam Kanno: yes that is correct.

[18:08] Liam Kanno: Pleasure to Meet you all.

[18:08] Nasus Dumart: He created Silicon Island and Silicon City, where you will find some of the best content creation and most exciting projects in Second Life.

[18:08] Nasus Dumart: Several well-known businesses, such as SAP, Steelecase, SLNN, Sun Microsystems, Cattle Puppy Productions and even a virtual world Barak Obama Presidential Campaign office have taken residence in Silicon Island, joining other respected businesses and professionals in Second Life.

[18:09] Nasus Dumart: BTW - I attended the Inauguration Party in SL and it was awesome!

[18:09] Crap Mariner: yes

[18:09] Liam Kanno: it was quite intense

[18:09] Nasus Dumart: Liam states he is a designer first, and believes that what we create is a reflection of how we view ourselves, and others in society. He sees Second Life as a powerful platform to reach the world.

[18:09] Nasus Dumart: Liams first client was The Picture Production Company, www.thePPC.com/silverscreen a film industry marketing agency.

[18:09] Nasus Dumart: The V3 Group created the Silverscreen Sim where they promote movie junkets such as 300, Transformers, Die Hard 4 and Iron Man.

[18:10] Nasus Dumart: This impressive build offers visitors an immersive experience while they view movie trailers, pick up free swag and possibly schmooze some of the movie producers.

[18:10] Nasus Dumart: ;)

[18:10] Nasus Dumart: Although Liam brought the vital movie industry into the Second Life market, he does not pursue companies that conflict with his strong ethical values and human interests.

[18:10] Nasus Dumart: Liam is deeply devoted to his values, never pursuing or promoting anything that is ethically or morally in question, contrary to early Second Life reputation.

[18:11] Nasus Dumart: Liam uses Second Life® and other virtual worlds with the same enthusiasm and high standards. That is why tonight's lecture is titled, 'Many Possibilities, One Standard'.

[18:11] Nasus Dumart: Please welcome Odin Liam Wright, here tonight as as Liam Kanno.

[18:11] Nasus Dumart: ♪♫♥ Cheers!! ♥♫♪

[18:11] Crap Mariner salutes

[18:11] Georgianna Blackburn: ♪♫♥ Applauds!!! ♥♫♪

[18:11] MetalDragon Braveheart: ********APPPLLLAAAUUUSSSEEE********

[18:11] Liam Kanno: Pleasure to Meet you all.

[18:11] Apple MacKay applauds

[18:11] Jameslarken Supply: yay!!

[18:11] Liam Kanno: I think you've said it all Nasus :P

[18:12] Liam Kanno: Any developers in the audience?

[18:12] Nasus Dumart: LOL - I hope NOT!

[18:12] Kiwini Oe: heh

[18:12] Nasus Dumart: we have time to fill

[18:12] Nasus Dumart waves to Kiwini!

[18:12] Kiwini Oe: Hi, Nasus & Liam

[18:12] Liam Kanno: Hey Kiwini

[18:12] Liam Kanno: I would hate to reitterate. but...

[18:12] Liam Kanno: I founded V3 Group, LLC in Dec of 2006 in order to service a variety of clientele.

[18:13] Liam Kanno: Though I fell into this sector as I was looking for something entertaining to do after college.

[18:13] Liam Kanno: I was completely impressed by the User Generated Content capabilities.

[18:13] Liam Kanno: ABOUT MY PERSONAL HISTORY: My original training is in Industrial Design and Psychology yet I have a masters in Political Economy and Development. I have a strong passion for Consumer Products and how they support the human condition - spiritually, physically and mentally.

[18:13] Liam Kanno: ABOUT V3: Our management team was 3 and development team comprised up to 20 developers at one time.

[18:14] Liam Kanno: one of our management peeps is in the audience now... The Tracer

[18:14] The Tracer: hey hey

[18:14] Liam Kanno: "Ted Mikulski"

[18:14] Nasus Dumart: :)

[18:14] Nasus Dumart waves

[18:14] Liam Kanno: Within 16 Months we serviced Allstate Insurance, SAP, SUN, Steelcase furniture, as well as, several other colleges and institutions. Our entertainment clients included projects for 300, Die Hard 4, Iron Man, and Transformers through the Picture Production Company.

[18:14] Liam Kanno: Our private projects included: 1) Silicon Island & Silicon City Sim with 34 RL & SL businesses, 2) the International Technology Expo on Silicon Island where we had 64 Vendors + 15 speakers for 3 days, and 3) the September 11th Memorial which hosted 33,000 visitors in 3 days and stayed open for 2 Memorial holidays.

[18:14] Nasus Dumart: wow.

[18:15] Liam Kanno: Our main focus was to support SLs growth

[18:15] Liam Kanno: We appeared in Reuters, NY Times, Wired, Smart Company, BBC, among others to help promote SL and corporate and brand agendas.

[18:15] Liam Kanno: We were somewhat selective with the types of projects and clients we work with, since we felt building and cultivating a civil virtual environment is important.

[18:15] Star Pugilist: I used to got to this alot

[18:15] Liam Kanno: In terms of client needs:

[18:15] Liam Kanno: Our clients sought to utilize the SL platform for either improving internal business operations or gaining access to their target audience in a new interactive engaging way.

[18:16] Kiwini Oe: ITE was the first conference in SL that I thought matched the experience of a real world conference

[18:16] Liam Kanno: Our mission was to develop environments that evoked a mood, and provided brands and corporations something of value that they could feel proud of and show off to their internal management team.

[18:16] Nasus Dumart nods

[18:16] Liam Kanno: We felt it was important to promote Virtual Worlds as a viable means of social engagement and social media marketing.

[18:16] Liam Kanno: Regading Successful engagements:

[18:16] Liam Kanno: Entertainment projects were most successful due to the high interest level among affinity groups and general consumers.

[18:17] Liam Kanno: Customized branded avatars and virtual goods were the most viral and sought after, such as, the 300, Iron Man & Transformers Avatars - whereas the sims served as an attractive environment for socializing and presenting digital media assets as well as A-List Hollywood talent.

[18:17] Liam Kanno: Steelcase was the most intense corporate project since we took the entire Steelcase 2008 furniture line and re-created it in SL, in time for the NEOCON furniture expo.

[18:17] Nasus Dumart is impressed.

[18:17] Liam Kanno: Transformers was the most intense entertainment project. The Bumblebee and Barricade Transformers avatars were picked up approx 250,000 times - And we built the entire sim, and Bumblebee avatar in 2 weeks with 20 developers.

[18:18] Liam Kanno: We had the opportunity through the Picture Production Company to host entertainment events with Bruce Willis, Michael Bay, Frank Miller, Zach Snyder, Gerard Butler (King Leonidas - 300), Shia LaBeouf (Sam Witwicky - Transformers) to name a few.

[18:18] Liam Kanno: Several of the sims we built were for private viewing, though the Silverscreen Sim is still open to the public and you can view a slideshow of some of our work on http://www.thev3group.com

[18:18] Liam Kanno: While we enjoyed supporting the SL platform by servicing corporate and entertainment clients, we found several fundamental platform impedances that hindered V3 from building a long-term sustainable company.

[18:19] Liam Kanno: Which I won't get into. I believe SL is an incredible platform and enjoy it thoroughly.

[18:19] Liam Kanno: As of 2009 V3 Group has discontinued providing creative content services in Second Life. We are working on a non-SL virtual product that will be launch early 2nd Q of '09.

[18:19] Liam Kanno: If you would like to stay in touch you can visit me on http://www.oliamwright.com

[18:19] Liam Kanno: We would be happy to get to know you.

[18:19] Nasus Dumart: Excellent!

[18:19] Nasus Dumart: Thanks Liam!

[18:19] Liam Kanno: my pleasure

[18:19] Nasus Dumart: ♪♫♥ Cheers!! ♥♫♪
[18
[18:20] Sharlot Breiz: ********APPPLLLAAAUUUSSSEEE********

[18:20] Nasus Dumart: we are running a bit early - so if any one has questions, please present them now

[18:20] Liam Kanno: I figured SL peeps read fast :P

[18:20] Nasus Dumart: LOL - yep

[18:20] Nasus Dumart: Liam, can you tell us about the WTC Memorial a bit more?

[18:21] Liam Kanno: sure.

[18:21] Liam Kanno: hmmm.

[18:21] Ash Marat: were you doing other types of work with entertainment clients and brought that to sl or ...? how did these relationships and projects come about?

[18:21] Liam Kanno: 1) I started a group called School of Archtiecture where I was doing alot of personal projects

[18:21] Liam Kanno: including a fine art gallery

[18:22] Liam Kanno: and Dan Light of the Picture Production COmpany found me through that

[18:22] Liam Kanno: so I fell into servicing PPC

[18:22] Liam Kanno: I think the sector was ready for VW exploration

[18:22] Ash Marat: ah

[18:22] Apple MacKay: question...

[18:22] Ash Marat: they're always ready for something. =)

[18:22] Liam Kanno: Regarding 911

[18:23] Liam Kanno: true dat

[18:23] Apple MacKay: you already answered my question about the past tense references... so do you feel SL has any future economically

[18:23] Crap Mariner: QUESTION: Are you familiar with the recent flak from Valleywag/Gawker/other media forecasting SL/LL's demise and what do you think of the future of SL/LL/Virtual Worlds in light of the economic climate?

[18:23] Liam Kanno: heh. yeah.... the future..... :D

[18:23] Nasus Dumart: hehehe

[18:23] Apple MacKay: damn Crap we think alike

[18:23] Liam Kanno: hehe

[18:23] Mia Kitchensink: lol

[18:23] Nasus Dumart: these are the good 'ole days...

[18:24] Nasus Dumart: hehehe

[18:24] Liam Kanno: Don't get me wrong... I love SL. but...

[18:24] Liam Kanno: I feel there are several impedences

[18:24] Liam Kanno: that hinder adoption and convergence

[18:24] Nasus Dumart nods

[18:24] DrFran Babcock: /until you can get 1,000 avatars in the same place at the same time.

[18:24] Liam Kanno: right

[18:24] Sharlot Breiz grins

[18:24] Liam Kanno: marketing campaings have trouble entering and exiting the VW space

[18:25] MetalDragon Braveheart: i will do that watch

[18:25] Liam Kanno: 3D is great yet it creates a block for some consumers

[18:25] Apple MacKay: lack of focus and determining what success is.... that spans the gamut of social media though

[18:25] Liam Kanno: the fact that it is seperate from Daily social web operations is a bit of an issue too

[18:25] Georgianna Blackburn: agree Apple

[18:26] Liam Kanno: agreed.

[18:26] Liam Kanno: Brands also need to switch from the "Talk To" model to the "Play WIth" model

[18:26] Liam Kanno: i.e. cultivate cultures

[18:26] Nasus Dumart: interesting - yes

[18:26] Liam Kanno: be a concierge

[18:26] Nasus Dumart: exactly

[18:26] Crap Mariner: FOLLOWUP: Sure, 1,000 on a sim/region/event would be nice for mass marketing, but does a kiosk-distributed system like 7Seas fishing demonstrate that a business model can work that provides the service, founds a community, provides tools for creativity, and makes money with multiple microevents?

[18:27] Apple MacKay: how about engage with informatonal value

[18:27] Liam Kanno: do you have a link for 7seas?

[18:27] Crap Mariner: After all, a million people don't see a movie i nthe same theater. They see it in multiple showings at 3,000+ theaters workdwide

[18:27] Crap Mariner: yes. 7seasfishing.com

[18:27] Mia Kitchensink: There is one in front of the pub

[18:28] Liam Kanno: one good thing about SL is that is has strong "self-centric" and "value-centric" modes

[18:28] Apple MacKay: likes Craps analogy

[18:28] Liam Kanno: i.e. I can dev what I choose based on what I like or I can be with others social around what the general audienc likes

[18:29] Liam Kanno: quite a bit of social / personal mobility in a VW space such as SL

[18:30] Liam Kanno: How long has everyon been in SL? here...

[18:30] Liam Kanno: 1 year + ?

[18:30] Mia Kitchensink: 2+

[18:30] MetalDragon Braveheart: 95days

[18:30] Earth Alcott: 2+

[18:30] DrFran Babcock: 2+

[18:30] Svit Schulze: 2+

[18:30] Rinaldo Debevec: almost 2

[18:30] Nasus Dumart: 2.5 years

[18:30] Liam Kanno: woah

[18:30] Apple MacKay: almost 3

[18:31] Ash Marat: 2005

[18:31] Mia Kitchensink: old man

[18:31] Liam Kanno: hehe

[18:31] Apple MacKay: Liam we met you right when you opened the art Gallery

[18:31] Jack Sondergaard: 4

[18:31] Jameslarken Supply: 2.5 years

[18:31] Liam Kanno: woah

[18:31] Nasus Dumart: we've all seen the tide change

[18:31] Liam Kanno: yeah

[18:31] California Condor: 2 and a half years.

[18:31] Liam Kanno: I notice one member has a Metaverse Meetup title

[18:31] Liam Kanno: anyone here use Meetup.com?

[18:31] Georgianna Blackburn: yes

[18:31] Jack Sondergaard: yes

[18:32] Nasus Dumart: California heads up the NJ Meetup

[18:32] Nasus Dumart: I am attending next month

[18:32] Earth Alcott: i've met been introduced to ppl. for Metaverse

[18:32] Earth Alcott: from

[18:32] Crap Mariner: 2 as this av

[18:32] Liam Kanno: nice

[18:32] Apple MacKay: I think SL is just another facet of the larger social web... as it should be...

[18:32] Liam Kanno: Also another quick question... Anyone here service corporate clients in SL?

[18:32] California Condor: Yes, and I do use meetup for NJ Metaverse Meetup... http://gamedev.meetup.com/166

[18:32] Earth Alcott: I do

[18:32] Georgianna Blackburn: I am corporate

[18:32] Liam Kanno: ah cool

[18:33] Apple MacKay: and as the social web grows... SL or 3D web in gereneral will grow propotionally

[18:33] Crap Mariner prefers to be a mercenary

[18:33] Liam Kanno: How long have your dev and engagement cycles been? and have you re-engaged for additional projects with the same client?

[18:33] Liam Kanno: i.e. our dev cycles are 2 weeks to 6 weeks

[18:34] Earth Alcott: Training demos for consulting companies to use virtual spaces to train ..yes, have additional projects

[18:34] Liam Kanno: and mainly the entertainment clients are the ones we have successfuly re-engaged.

[18:34] Liam Kanno: training for educational institutions or government?

[18:34] Earth Alcott: Pharma..corp.

[18:34] Liam Kanno: ah nice

[18:34] Earth Alcott: and educational

[18:35] MetalDragon Braveheart: Seience Sim for educatinal developmemt

[18:35] Sharlot Breiz: Please forgive me Liam im starting a buisness in my field of rl and am highly interested in your sucess and advice for a new start in buisness , but having Metal record this, for my soldier in iraq is on with me at the moment,

[18:35] Liam Kanno: One issue we had with Allstate is the bandwidth and computing power requirements.

[18:36] Earth Alcott: yes, i have security issues with it as well.

[18:36] Ash Marat: it's only a formative market. nascent. and esoteric. i wonder what 'maturity' might mean or if a mrket of any substance will form. my hunch is what goes on now will be a 'cute' refernce point in history if a market matures.

[18:36] Liam Kanno: Could you restate Sharlot?

[18:36] Sharlot Breiz: forgive me Liam im starting a buisness in my field of rl and am highly interested in your sucess and advice for a new start in buisness , but having Metal record this, for my soldier in iraq is on with me at the moment,

[18:36] Liam Kanno: hehe. - ref Ash

[18:37] Nasus Dumart: interesting, Sharlot

[18:37] Sharlot Breiz smiles, yes Army wife with creativity and to much time , using it wisely

[18:37] Sharlot Breiz laughs

[18:37] Nasus Dumart: :)

[18:37] Liam Kanno: ah. :D

[18:37] Nasus Dumart: we save the transcript and post it to http://Molaskeys-Pub.com for reference

[18:38] Liam Kanno: I would be happy to give you as much advice as you need as well as Biz documentation to get started with an LLC

[18:38] Sharlot Breiz: Thankyou Liam very much

[18:38] Liam Kanno: We can chat after event

[18:38] Liam Kanno: We have 5 min left?

[18:38] Nasus Dumart: yes - more or less

[18:38] Liam Kanno: k

[18:38] Nasus Dumart: keeping it fluid

[18:39] Liam Kanno: In wrapping up....

[18:39] Liam Kanno: I am under the impression that - the technology is great, yet its true stickyness is its ability to connect others and for friends to be together.

[18:40] Liam Kanno: Tim Berners Lee- founder of the internet - mentioned he created the web for a social effect - its not a technical toy

[18:40] Liam Kanno: It is designed to improve our web-like existance in the world

[18:40] Nasus Dumart nods

[18:40] Liam Kanno: It appears SL is another component to improve our civil union as a global society

[18:41] Nasus Dumart: :)

[18:41] Nasus Dumart: another quick question -

[18:41] Liam Kanno: sure

[18:41] Nasus Dumart: Did you form a business plan once you decided to form your business?

[18:41] Liam Kanno: ah

[18:41] Liam Kanno: no.. not V3 Group... My business after V3 has a comprehensive Biz Plan

[18:42] Liam Kanno: V3 - we just ran with it to keep up with demand

[18:42] Nasus Dumart: interesting - most SL businesses did the same. :)

[18:42] Liam Kanno: understandable

[18:42] Nasus Dumart: Well, Thank you Liam!

[18:42] Nasus Dumart: This was a very interesting discussion!

[18:42] Liam Kanno: my pleasure. it was an honor to support

[18:42] Nasus Dumart: ♪♫♥ Cheers!! ♥♫♪

[18:42] Jameslarken Supply: awsome!!

[18:42] Mia Kitchensink: Yes, it was a great talk.

[18:43] California Condor: Thank you, Liam.

[18:43] Liam Kanno: very cool. Loved the dialogue

[18:43] Nasus Dumart: :)

[18:43] Svit Schulze: Thank you, Liam!

[18:43] Rinaldo Debevec: thanks Liam

[18:43] Nasus Dumart: We have had many interesting discussions here

[18:43] Nasus Dumart: :)

[18:43] Bermuda Triangle: :-)

[18:43] Codizzo Hax: For the small part I read,seems an excellent discussion.

[18:44] Nasus Dumart: I really wish we could see the Transformer here!

[18:44] Liam Kanno: heh. cod

[18:44] Mia Kitchensink: The whole talk will be on the molaskeys-pub.com website

[18:44] Nasus Dumart: the pic is great!

[18:44] Liam Kanno: Im dropping down boxes for the Ironman, 300 and Transformers

[18:44] Nasus Dumart: thanks for the permission to use it!