November 13th, 2006
Sun's Second Life gimmick
Memo to Sun: Stop trying to be so damn trendy. Taking Java open source is a big development, but then you muck it up with having a developer Q&A in Second Life. No parallel Webcast. No conference call dial-in. No alternate means to drop in. Ask yourself the following: Would any of your peers (grown-up IT companies) have held an earnings call only in Second Life? How about a merger? New development platform? Didn't think so.
Instead we get this:
Today, Sun is hosting a technical Q&A in Sun's SecondLife Pavilion to provide an update on its open source Java progress. Sun's Tim Bray, Simon Phipps as well as Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth will be available (in avatar form) for one hour to address any questions you may have.
Who: Tim Bray, Director of Web Technologies, Sun Microsystems (Co-inventor of XML) Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer, Sun Microsystems Mark Shuttleworth, Founder, Canonical Ltd. and Ubuntu Foundation (First African in space)
Where: In Second Life, go to: "Sun Pavilion" Or click the following shortcut link: http://tinyurl.com/m
Download the application at: http://secondlife.com/community/downloads.php
System requirements are here: http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php
It's all a bit much. Yes we all know Second Life is interesting. It must be since every PR/ad agency/news-outlet-that-wants-to-look-hip/wannabe-kewl-corporation is setting up shop in Second Life. Second Life has gone from zero to cliche in record time as people sit around admiring their avatars. The dirty little secret: It's a productivity drain.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm no Second Life hater. I flew around a bit, got bored and split. But after downloading Second Life (new laptop), teleporting and then crashing it all became just a bit much for a developer discussion. Am I alone? Doubt it. How about those CIOs you're trying so desperately to sell "solutions" to? Maybe they wanted to tune in. Guarantee you that they didn't have the wherewithal to fiddle with Second Life.
The blogosphere has been abuzz trying to figure out what open source Java means out there in the trenches. The least you could do is provide a better real-world alternative to your virtual gimmickry.
Best,
I.M. Annoyed
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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