However, there are so many ways to use the blog format that I feel the compulsion to explore all of them:

Wisdom of Work—this blog is where I express new ideas

Publishing Pioneer—a more formal look at the industry and a professional exhibit

Idea Initiator—developing self-seminar on creativity

Eleanor Medier—virtual reality avatar who publishes and exhibits in-world

Please enjoy these explorations in publishing and if you have comments not wishing to share in the discussion options, please email me at lianesebastian9@gmail.com.

It astounds me how little the business community knows about virtual reality. Even the most progressive sectors—visionary nonprofits, world class museums, and major universities—may be represented, but how many of them take advantage of what the medium has to offer? My intention has been to find out, though I learn more whenever I am in-world. With a perspective now from having experienced a range of projects, I have to ask without rose-colored glasses: what is the business case? Do organizations use the medium to its potential? I am questioned vigorously about this, as every creative marketer I know is curious. As a Publishing Pioneer, I forage into it like I do any other new technology—asking questions, testing, building, experimenting, and writing. I know in my bones that the future lies here as long as businesses use the internet.

BUSINESS CASE:

As with any new medium, the question has to be: what can I do with this vehicle that I can’t do with any others? That requires a learning curve, however, because potentials can’t be judged without knowing the capabilities. Although I believe in the future of virtual reality to transform businesses, education, and the arts, it has a steep learning curve. Now with a good level of proficiency, I can best evaluate what it can contribute to an organization’s communications. The reason an enterprise should venture into this unknown opens vast options for visibility, resources, and development. There are several virtual worlds now, the best of which interlink. So those who are considering the potential of doing business in a virtual world have several ways to engage. No matter the platform, the uses and expectations are the same. The best uses I have found include:

 Presentation. By having a virtual office with resources, information, an inviting atmosphere, and online help features, customers have a place to visit and interact. Consider it like an expanded website where prospects can walk into an environment that engages them on many levels.

For example, The Stream Team provides streaming services to musicians. In their cozy virtual office, they have screens that show videos upon a click, downloadable tip sheets, online assistants monitoring the group chat, and technical help professionals on staff.

 Building Community. Even small businesses today can work on global collaborations. Virtual reality erases the distance between people and is more ruled by time zone markets and targeted communities of interest than it is geography. Getting feedback, growing international visibility, building resources, are all part of being in an urban environment. Virtual reality is like a short-cut ramp onto the highway of progress.

For example, Nonprofit Commons brings together sixty organizations that are using Second Life to exchange ideas, resources, help, fund raise, and build visibility. Opensim now has 20,000 users, hosted by IBM with a business focus.

 Prototyping. There is no better place to try a new idea than in a virtual world. In fact, the it offers opportunities to try paths not taken in the real world. Developing ideas virtually and testing them is a tiny fraction of what it costs to do the same with real markets where production costs, shipping, travel, or marketing need generous budgets. Museums can mount exhibits that augment themes and help to fund raise for real installations.

For example, a small potential museum wished to open in Wisconsin. Lacking funds, the staff built an exhibit in Second Life to build visibility, to show potential donors, and to evolve with feedback from the community. Then when they had the funds to develop the real museum, their approaches were honed and targeted.

 Cost effective. Expands interactivity to be cost-effective. Every medium has strengths to exploit. Virtual reality expands interactivity so that collaborations in various locations can still have the magic of rapport, working together, and building relationships. Avatars are like walking business cards or self-portraits. Building sophistication does take evolution, but most business people pay to have their avatars polished to their choice. I see no reason not to idealize if given the opportunity, so my avatar is a younger and blonder version of myself. When I do business, appear at events, go to meetings, do research, attend classes, I am interacting with people from around the world there doing similar. We share perspectives. We can meet and discuss in ways that will never be possible physically. I am currently interviewing the Director of Book Island, and she is Brittish. My partner is from Romania. My best friends are from Virginia, California, Germany, Canada, Brittain, Australia, and Desplaines in my backyard!

 Running events. Virtual worlds are driven by groups. Mass marketing, beyond being listed in the Destination Guide and/or on Market Place, is not a good idea. Sims have audience size-limits and there are trouble-makers on the grid. Yet hosting an event is the best way to promote and keep an audience engaged. Attention-spans are short, distractions are many, so staying in front of the groups with activities and offers builds a fan base.

For example: Thothica has built a community of philosophers and artists that love to discuss world-view bigger-picture issues. They have regular round-tables, game events, a library, art gallery, and meditation areas. A place to come together, resources and ideas are also exchanged.

 Tapping resources. If cross-fertilization feeds creativity, there is no better place to find it. Through communities of interest, friends relate their experiences and expand understanding between cultures. Interacting with parallel colleagues is an opportunity only scratched at by social media. Here, real relationships are built through a virtual connection.

For example, I have been designing the interiors for several virtual houses, using art to set up a theme. I asked permission of the house and furniture designer to use his work in a photograph of my installation. He gave enthusiastic permission and asked to see the rooms. So I went to each sent for him, he popped in, and I gave him a tour of what I am working on. We gave each other samples of things we have created. He critiqued some of my technical choices and taught me a few techniques. We discussed collaborative ideas. And we agreed to help promote one another. Then he popped back to whatever he was doing, and the whole process took less than an hour.

 Demonstration. Training takes on a new level when an avatar can explore various options and go to resources that are the most inviting. Through building a community, audience, or fan base, they can be best served by having a center and a place to get more than Frequently Asked Questions or e-forms to fill out. In the future, consumers will go online and INTO the interactive world of each organization to find out solutions, learn new topics, be entertained, or build contacts.

For example: Furniture companies can have virtual showrooms that can be changed frequently, present new designs, give the viewer the ability to try different colors or sizes, demonstrate relevance of use, and direct the customer to further resources such as YouTube, blogs, and websites.

 Education. The potential for classes, illustrations, instruction, and efficient teacher-student relationships is unlimited. Similarly, the musicians who find that they have a closer relationship to their listeners through chat and IM than they do with a real life audience that is gauged by applause and sits in the distance.

For example: Learning languages is one of the early topics to find virtual reality a new way to teach, practice, and interact. Sims that speak other languages can be visited and real field experience gained by using what is learned.

The future of education, art, business will rely on virtual reality. It makes every sense economically, raises the usership of technology, increases global understanding, offers new communication platforms, and will boost small business. It can be frustrating at this point because the origins of virtual worlds comes out of the gaming industry. There are a lot of distractions and time-consuming temptations where discipline must be exercised.

For those who spend their leisure hours in virtual worlds traveling around, making friends, playing games, dancing, shopping, breeding animals, building dream houses, and engaging in fantasies, there is an infrastructure of commerce, education, and culture. Like any real world city, there are all kinds of people present in the virtual world. I avoid public areas, concentrate on my projects and experiments, and learn about various industries. Also I am balanced by my strong personal relationships that grow with sharing. An expanded world, most rules I have learned in business do apply. But there are new ones that I will always be exploring.

Riding the wave of change, being a communication professional has moved to a virtual business. It makes so much sense. The end-product of my creativity is always a tangible but the delivery is cyber. E-publishing has overtaken traditional—one of the industries transformed by convergences. Its creation works best when also the product of cyber collaboration because no one person can both know and be good at every technology needed to run today’s communications.

Adapting to new rules of positioning, presentation, and ways of working, we have to be good at reaching through the keyboard. Messages are more succinct, need an entertainment component, must inspire discussion, and engage participation. Building idea-based communities of interest is international.

New rules of finding complementary talents taps vaster resources as well as vaster audiences. Shared interests motivate people over geographic location—the cross-cultural interchanges are enriching.

I spend more time blogging and participating in online discussion than I do in activities with my friends, which is an unfortunate reality of communications. Sometimes I seen closer to people farther away than those close by! Yet, on the otherhand, interacting with viewpoints all over the world is way too compelling. Discussing issues, viewpoints, cultures, histories, businesses, and selling to them—the community in Second Life demonstrates the potential of cyber reality to form a hybrid culture of education and exchange. The fantasy-quality is secondary to the psychological study of self and others! Blending also with the social media platforms, networking takes on a much wider reach. Distinctions between local, national, and international become part of the pursuit.

Every business has to be obsessed with interactive communications. As a content-developer, I see opportunities almost daily for writers, editors, social media managers, cross-media developers, etc. Every business needs these functions whereas twenty years ago, all this was handled by a business card handed out at the right business events. Some companies had newsletters. Now, having a website, blog, FaceBook page, LinkedIn page, Twitter, online features, presentations, and events, are expected. Cross-platform messages are modular; consistency sought.

New cyber collaboration rules include:

The cyber environment relies greatly on written clarity. Directness matters more when cultural nuances blur interpretations. Collaboration means spending a lot of time together, but it doesn’t mean having to do so physically. It does emphasize:

 1. Great organization and focus. Having a clear message to convey to an audience, strategic goals defined, and modular outline still require pencil-and-paper thinking. Brevity becomes more critical. Branding requires simplification and boldness. And it must capture the interest of readers by providing tools or rewards, something of value. The expectations of receiving something extra is very high. Promises only with payment get passed by. There has to be a vehicle that gives the reader enough to want more. Attention spans are shorter.

 2. Command of tools. Integrity of media requires using each platform for what it does best. Usually a team approach is best because no one single person can have enough time to learn all the communication tools, master development software, carry out projects, and keep up with all social media. Businesses build by blending professionals great in complementary areas. Teaching each other optimal tools is part of the collaboration as well. Bringing everyone into efficiency means compatibility and meshing the individual communication styles.

 3. Communication system formed. Each contributor has a different strength in communicating. Mine is e-mail. Terrorized by phone batteries, bad reception, and lengthy voice mail messages, I stay away from the phone!  Plus I like how e-mail has a record. Yet I have clients who’s preferred mode of working together is chatting on the phone. Skype is a better alternative but requires more attentiveness.

 4. Multiple processing. Communications online is multi-teared with e-mail accounts, registration pages, instant messaging, discussions, responses, reviews, and inquiries, everyone is talking to everyone. It is a cacophony of sound. Filtering through and keeping current with the flow is a daily on-screen examination.

 5. Staying current. It is impossible. So acceptance of that nasty fact makes coping with it easier. It is a world of being productive in activity more than completing a Things to Do List. If ever there were application for do First Things First (Covey), it is now. That means things will go undone and that is the reality of it. Part of the editing process, there will be difficulties passing up opportunities or not following up fast enough.

 6. Promote one message. Such a commitment is very risky because it is staking a flag on a hill. If the single message is compelling, it can be supported with more services or products. But there must be a spear-head. Selling to all people doesn’t work. The niche marketing of targeted messages take s new analytical and modular thinking. Being flexible and scaling a common message to specific audiences is a practiced skill.

 7. Defined process. Working online means that each contributor know exactly what the others are doing. Duplication of efforts is a waste that easily happens. So breaking down large projects into components is the only way to clarify. Checkpoints need to be built into the process.

 8. Feeding the feedback loop. Working remotely uses the cyber interactivity to be even more connected. Media is power in the hands of the imaginative. So building a cyber audience uses skills from collaborating. Marketing is marketing and getting their feedback is faster via new tools. Having customer feedback help to design the product or service that they need is a base for many new companies. Manufacturing can be personalized.

 9. Filling out profiles and forms. Keeping suites of information current means always operating in toe shoes! Having a system that everyone understands uses the talents of a great project manager.

 10. Learn and adapt fast. The audience attention changes faster than the technology. It is better to do the right things fast and rough than later and polished. People will forgive typos or lag, but they will not forgive weak ideas or unfocused presentations.

Cyber collaboration is in evolution. I learn from every professional that I interact with. The form of interaction is not as important as the visibility it raises, the potential of influencing how each other thinks, and the business community lessons learned.

Getting to know people by attending events and contributing to sim publications, I picked up on an idea that I did as my senior college thesis. At the time, I was about to receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an Art History minor. My final paper was an examination of art created in the year 1900. Cezanne was an old man. The younger impressionists were revolutionizing the images and the business of art, and Chicago was on the incline having just hosted the Columbian Exhibition. It was as if I took a slice from the river of change and exposed it’s cross section.

But truth be told, I really admire the art created in the 1950′s much more. It is my favorite era because it challenged the conformist trends in society. At that time, pure abstraction came into its own, legitimized by new perceptions of color theory, figure/ground relationships, expressive compositions, and a reaction to the realism perpetuated by photography. No longer must art be documentary in a journalistic sense. Art became freed from its utilitarian functions of news, religious expressions, or even portraiture. (This splitting continues today, but through digital media, the merging of photography and art is finding new levels of relevance.)

Though this era of the 1950s is before my time, it influenced my teachers, and their teachers. Traditions began after WWII that continue to influence now as much as then. Wandering around in the 1950′s virtual setting made me wish i could have visited some of the galleries of the time, particularly in New York. What would I most want to see? And I realized that such an exhibit would not have happened then.

Rather, to examine a cross section of a single year reveals more about the era than isolating single galleries and shows that did occur. Virtual reality allows an exhibition to take place that never did and never will. It can gather masterpieces from those contributing during that specific year and compare/contrast their works. Simultaneity expresses the climate, aesthetics, philosophies, and beliefs of the time.

The virtual gallery presents masterpieces together not possible in reality.

By combining the project as a gallery show and as a catalog, each medium can support the other. Wandering through the virtual gallery that I created, visitors can view six artists work as they it would be shown in 1957. Second Life is a fast-paced environment that needs continual change to retain an audience. So the gallery is designed to rotate the show monthly—with a stable of 30 artists, it is easy to modularly break into the first five exhibits with potential to add. The focus of this first collection is American, but other regional collections can add to the visual exploration.

Six artists at a time are shown in the virtual gallery.

The book brings in a more human element into the virtual reality. Avatars of these artists have the potential for role play, but artists generally are not present when visitors come to a gallery. The book provides historic photos of visits to the artists in their studios, profile-style. A larger collection of artists, but showing less work, makes this book a non-duplicative companion to the exhibit.

Experimenting with exhibition and publication design in Second Life is an extension of my real life work. The book portraying 1957 artistic developments has applications in traditional publishing. Available also as a PDF, it could easily expand into a coffee-table style print book that could be even more comprehensive.

Books are sold at Book Island in Second Life.

Publishing in virtual reality is in its infancy and blurs the lines of traditional categories. Most have blog tie-ins, online viewers, and print book applications. The real charm is to create a virtual environment to test ideas that can then expand relevance to a real world audience.

The entrance doors to the new student union at the University of Wisconsin in Madison were featured at the grand opening of the building yesterday. How could they not be featured when they are the very first thing people see upon arriving? Coming into Union South from the concrete and institutional buildings surrounding the arrivee, literally in their faces (because they walk right up to doors) is enveloped in shimmering panels of prarie images, frozen and frosted in time, textures engulfing like a cloud.

Closeups of the glass show the richness of textures.

Similar to the Japanese concept of “en space,” these panels of drawn images are reminiscent of brush painting, screens, and the use of bridging the outside to the inside. Further, the sweeping forms remind the visitor that this building stands where once the landscape was this kind of prairie.

Having helped to research the plants, visited the prairie, worked with photographs, drew all the images, cut the masks, all the time visualized this result, the piece had its risks. Testing the techniques on small squares of glass in advance gave the team no reassurance that the result would be the atmospheric experience planned.

Glass doors provide transition from outside to inside while paying respect to the landscape that was at the site.

Three years ago, my sister Jill Sebastian, won the commission to be the lead artist for this new public building so needed on campus. About a dozen artists were chosen by the art board to bring the theme of the prairie into this architecture. Wisconsin has the art endowment law that any public building must spend 1% of its building budget on art. And someone has to oversee that. Fortunately for me, they chose my sister. And she proceeded to hire various studio artists to execute the plans. I received two assignments: the first is to illustrate the doors for the entrance. Collaborating with Jill on how it all works together, her design layed out the 17 panels. The doors for me to execute were to be dense close-up vegetation and the glass mural over the doors was to be the further distance and landscape of significant trees.

Getting to know trees by drawing them revealed that each is a character. Whether they cluster as they grow or stand solo in the middle of the field gives them each a role in the landscape. I drew 70 trees—predominately burr oaks—with over 50 used in the final. Trying out various combinations, integrating with the realism of the prairie as portrayed in Jake Fuller’s video, all lend authenticity to the forms. During the day, the outside architecture of this site interacts with the frosted landscape. The light is always changing, so the visual effect is never the same. Next to, and also will be projected onto, Jake’s video expresses the seasons and adds to the structure of the winter images I constructed.

Glass doors surround those outside waiting to come into the new building.

Yesterday the opening was the first chance I had to see the panels installed. After the drawing I cut masks and worked at the glass factory on the various layers of effects. Babying this piece all the way through, it was odd not to be there for its installation, but it is three hours away driving, 1/2 day travel by train systems. Jill was also working on her bronze fire place and several other installations. She has four major pieces there: the doors with me, the fire place, the whirligig fireplace (she collaborated with scupture students on this not-yet-finished work scheduled for the fall), and the Aldo Leopold quotation that I created (see next report).

To finish up on the entrance murals in glass, I am thrilled at the atmospheric and thematic results. However, the opening was a circus. It surprised me to find the place mobbed with people. Readers must understand that I am a person to avoid big crowds. And this building had people dripping out of the wordwork! So needed, the student union was instantly jammed with laptop-focused students—nooks and crannies everywhere for them to escape with headphones and noses inches away from a screen, just like I am now. There is something energizing about being a quiet concentrating island in the middle of a bustling constant activity. I find it hard to interact with art in such a chaos, but was able to sit with my sister and particularly enjoy watching Jake’s video through all the seasonal changes.

Lights create atmospheric effects.

Though I felt overwhelmed by the croweds, I also felt the building itself very confusing, feeling much like a little rat in a maze. I was also astounded at the level of commercialism present. Unlike the student lounge when I was in college where kicking back on couches with friends and a cup of coffee from the little cafeteria cafe, now the such a place is more reminiscent of the airport. It would be much harder to be a poor student today, as the union is buzzing with expresso, nachos, wine bars, tourism bureaus, nachos, sandwiches, and pizza. Every dead-end hallway, and they spider out all over the place, ends up at another counter to spend money. Neon signs everywhere, the art is interspersed as visual oasis in a chaotic jungle of images. But the art is there and that is the point.

The most exciting part of viewing this major project is to watch people going through it, the shadowy forms that augment the shapes becoming a part of the movement and sensation the site provides.  The landscape beautifully reminds the viewer of indigenous world that we are so quickly losing, while at the same time becomes something quite heightened and with its own integrity, enhanced by authencity.

Firmly convinced that virtual reality is a medium to blend with websites, blogs, pdfs, wikis, print, etc., few people bridge between real life and second life very well. Therein lies the challenge to me: how to make the medium relevant in relation to the others. How to find what gifts it can add to the creative pallette. How do the principles of real life marketing and sales play out in a virtual world? And perhaps most importantly, why are ppl there?

The good news is many are there to learn and to be creative. So the launching of Idea Initiator is my newest passion. It wraps into and builds upon my blog of that title, has a print book version, and now has an inworld version. I have done real life discussion groups as pilots and have been happy with the resultss, running one of them for three years.

Book cover for the inworld version of the Idea Initiator.

Now, to try this idea in a virtual world is irresistible. The book is now publishing inword and ready to start marketing. It is impertaive that I creae a series of three so that it can build and cross sell and get discussion groups going. A new adventure awaits me on my computer screen each day!

Idea Initiator is read by my avatar in Second Life.

Rather, building on what I am trying to do in real life is the only way to go. The integration of the two is part of the discovery.

It is with great optimism that I launch my first virtual publication in Second Life: Legacy Ladies: Reliable Relationships. The only publishing in the virtual medium that I have found are a few magazines poorly done, fantasy or science fiction novels, or bookcovers with Amazon links. But no one doing nonfiction or gift books. To start, I have converted one chapter from my Legacy Ladies book into pages designed specifically to be read in virtual reality:

First spread from the virtual book.

Trying to work in virtual reality is a challenge: the division between work and entertainment is blurred and must be exploited. Although guilt prevents me from too much frivolity (although of late I have tried to drive a virtual car and accidently ran over the guy who gave it to me, obtained a baby horse that I unfortunately now have to feed to grow so I can virtually ride her, and went to a Birthday beach party and danced with avatar friends from all over the world).  However, all that fun takes infrastructure and there is a subculture of those doing business—selling products, supporting the clubs, performing, and working to keep the atmosphere free of disruptors. Tying into those with experience, they all have marketing plans. Most techniques are the same in virtual reallity as they are in actual reality. So to promote and sell my book product(s), I am following those with experience while my product is unique. My promotional plan includes:

1. Bookstores. It seems every sim and most business areas have virtual bookshops. The Amazon connection supports most of them. But I see the potential of a bookstore selling inworld titles that have an outworld equivalent. Legacy Ladies: Reliable Relationships it is the beginning of a series where each chapter from the print book becomes a separate 38 page inworld book. The outworld version has all of the chapters in one book with full biographies and writing space. The two are different but can support one another.

2. Coffee shops. There are even more of these than bookstores and they all have posters on the walls that sell the shops or products.

3. Tea shops. This has great potential for discussions as ladies’ teas are growing in popularity. After a few general meetings, they start looking for themes. Legacy Ladies is perfect for a discussion of six to twelve participants which is the level of these mini-events.

4. Book party. Invite a show-and-tell forum. I rent a large and beautiful space for my virtual studio. It is also a place where other creative types can bring their work to rezz and discuss. Formal events cost almost nothing and until there is more competition, there are more advertising opportunities for free than in real life. Groups of like-minded people are very easy to form.

5. Kiosks and carts. The larger commericial islands have places for small vendors to display. Though these do cost, it is nominal.

6. Book Island display. This is the most expensive route for a significant presentation. Authors display their wares, costing about $10 a month. Here are novels that have settings in Second Life, poetry, and children’s titles. Set up as a community, the most serious writers need to have a presence here.

7. Advertising. Because I am involved with virtual periodicals, I can place ads strategically. There are sims that fit my topics. Legacy Ladies can be promoted in niche market magazines and newspapers.

8. Displays. Because I have friends who own property, many have offered to have a bookshelf of my books for sale. Super nice, these most talented individuals have much more experience in virtual reality and enjoy helping me. I am really grateful to have the short-cuts from such generous and fun teachers.

Judging the potential of selling virtual books, active avatars have to acquire a place of their own to keep virtual possessions. In the sims, the players all have apartments where they can visit with friends, work on their avatars, check out products, build their own objects. My friends tend to all have studios where they spend serious time creating environments and products. All of these residential and creative spaces can use “coffee table” books to leave open to favorite pages, enjoy when they are waiting for replies, and that can be given as gifts to friends.

If you want to see and/or purchase Legacy Ladies: Reliable Relationships, go into Second Life and IM Eleanor Medier who is my avatar publisher.

But first, I am struck continuously with the flexibility of creative blogging. As a traditionally trained designer whose career has gone from rubber cement pasteups to single line digital typesetting to desktop publishing to web sites, usually the work that I do is done when it is done. But with cyber publishing, the most fun is to mold, experiment, and try new techniques. Using this blog as my creative sketchpad and presentation, it has to reflect my new direction.

Little did I know that by exploring virtual reality, not only would I find myself there, discover a greater voice, but that I would develop yet another extension and new dimensions of myself! In creating my avatar, she is taller, blonder, and younger, but my personality has infused her in the same way it rules my real social and artistic life. Already, I have found a character, a voice, and even a profession there!

My avatar looks appropriate for my activities. Very busy, posing from left to right: touring Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, visiting a Tudor Palace, attending a lecture, shopping in a bookstore, and sitting in discussion.

I thought long and hard about being someone else in virtual reality—especially taking on a male persona. It is tempting because the biggest differences I feel between male and female social roles is primarily one of mobility. As in real life (RL), in Second Life (SL), I don’t go to parties or bars by myself. I avoid public places to hang around. And I notice through interactions that male aggressiveness still dominates.

My avatar has defined our interests and discovered not only satisfying activities, but and entire world complete with politics, competition, and complex relationships. Primarily I (we?) spend time:

1.Taking classes. Not only are there free (but you must tip) seminars for building skills in Second Life, there are interactive tutorials for Photoshop and web applications.

2. Doing research. With my preoocupation on nonprofit design, i have reviewed Nonprofit Commons and go to their weekly meetings. Several of my friends have RL offices and find that SL helps them become internationally visible, fundrasie, and do communitiy organization.

3. Attending discussions. Perhaps the most fun for me is participating in several groups of penetrating conversation. There is a freedom of expression present, and ability to confess and vent, that is protected because your ‘friends’ don’t know who you really are. I have connected with a few in RL in case my computer goes down—someone to contact any commitments i have made.

4. Visiting bookstores. Learning about how publishing is handled in SL actually offers several exciting new formats. Most of the bookstores direct sales to a website housing Amazon links. But there is a new presentation that more mirrors an actual publication: IntelliBook. I have found several people who use this new mini-page format really well. I have yet to prepare one myself as the software is about $30. I will do it when i have a solid idea.

5. Tour art galleries. This is also very frustrating. Most of the galleries are really middle-of-the-road. Going through the 1,000 resident there, it is an ongoing preoccupation to find the diamonds in the rough. I keep my ears oopen and ask people i meet for suggestions.

6. Participate in groups. This can be the black hole of my activityies very easily. There is a group, or more than one, for every interest that i have. There are events, presentations, parties, and exhanges offered, as each group leader competes to host the coolest and most attended activities.

7. Explore historic sites. I can’t help it, but this is probably my favorite part of SL. The recreations are absolutely astounding. The educational value of these presentations, I believe, is going to be one of the major forces to legitimize SL from its initial bad reputation of being a place for play and sex.

8. Hear music. there is an explosion of creative mustical presentation in SL! It must be having a major impact on that industry. Combining a lot of technical skills, though, with good musical ones is an editor. Yet, the international arena has opened us innocent avatars to music we could have never heard otherwise.

9. Parties. I don’t do this much, but sometimes I go dancing with my “best friend” on a mountain top. She likes Philosophy Island, which I find way to esoteric, but we share tastes in many of our activities and she is someone I can go places with I wouldn’t otherwise. (In RL, she lives in San Diego and is a health care professional.) The dancing is hilarious to watch. Avatars just click on a dance ball and off they go! The costumes, the antics, and the interactions are very well done! And while the “avis” dance, all participants are listening to music and chatting. These are intense and all-encompassing experiences!

10. Role Play. This is the most serious black hole that can eat up hours without notice! I investigated about ten of them (historic ones) and discovered Chicago Roaring 20s just when the owner/developer had sold it to a new owner. There was a large group that initiated the sim beginning about a year ago, but they have dispersed to other interests. Rather than close the sim, a new group stepped forward. Little did I know all this, but soon discovered that this is a great place to build my professional skills! The developers now are all very helpful, teaching, and experienced. Most of them are couples, to my dismay. Yet it turns out that i am the only player who is actually from chicago, garnering me respect and authority.

There are real advantages jumping into SL now, four years old, versus at the beginning like most of my friends have done, half of which are super-techy scriptors who find creative outlets in constructing islands, buildings, and sims. Most of the women that i know are very into decorating their houses and hostessing events there. The fashion aspect, as a designer, has caught my attention. But unlike the majority of females in SL, I don’t spend a lot of time on outfits. I can’t help but feel it is like playing with dolls. On the other hand, how you look is extremely important—it is your business card. So reluctantly (and i do admit it is fun), I dress my little comic self in ways that i so or wish i could in RL.

Most importantly, virtual reality is nothing short of a new communication and creative medium (it is more than that but reflects my interests). Learning how to combine RL publishing, internet platforms, and virtual reality together is my greatest passion at the moment.

Please visit The Sebastian Study for my review of graphic design in Second Life.

Today I was disturbed to find a graphic designer offering free work for any nonprofit in Second Life. Setting aside my feelings as a communication professional that such an offer makes us all look bad, I have to believe, though well-intentioned, this designer is simply clueless. I have to believe she can’t perceive the message that she conveys: designers don’t need to be paid for creative work.

So serious is this misperception of the design process, the biggest issue is that the client is ill-served. The organization that commissions the work, hopefully through naivete, may pat themselves on the back for finding services for free. The self-congratulations don’t even last until the end of the process, however, because this approach to design doesn’t work.

In this blog, I address how such practices are bad for designers who succumb to the temptation as well as the the profession at large through three assertions. In my Sebastian Study post, I address how this is damaging for the client.

SPECULATIVE WORK UNDERMINES PROJECT GOALS
“Spec design” is to volunteer creative concepts for a client’s challenge while competing with other creative contributors without compensation. The assumption is that you will get paid if your design is chosen. If not, oh well, you tried. This is a bad practice for designers because:

1. You can’t contribute your best work. If you make a living as a graphic designer (versus practicing it like a hobby), you are too busy working on paying projects. It is impractical to be able to devote as much time or creative sweat on a project you aren’t getting paid for than on one you are. If you don’t have enough work to pay your bills, giving away your work actually makes you slide backwards because the time you spend doing the free work should be spent prospecting for work that pays. You can’t do this often if you want to make a living.

2. Speculation never works. The sweat equity that you contribute to get the assignment, assuming that you do, is never completed the way you designed it. Changes have to be made. More time must be spent getting the project tweaked where all the decision-makers are happy. By the time this process commences, if you had been paid from the beginning, efforts would have been saved in setting up better parameters to begin with. Most speculative projects aren’t set up as thoroughly as ones where the service is paid for. In the end, it is a case of where the client is penny wise but ends up being pound foolish.

3. You will suffer disrespect. Clients never value what they get for free the way they do what they pay for. If you volunteer, you are vulnerable to the client’s poor planning, lack of collaboration, or  low priority. If they pay for your time, they are less likely to waste it.

4. Freebies express a lack of confidence. By giving away your work, you are saying it isn’t worth what other professionals get paid to do. And if it is worth it, why are you willing to give it away? Rather than portray you as generous, it portrays you as desperate–needing the work because you don’t have any or needing it because you have to build your portfolio trough learning on their project.

5. It isn’t creative. There are better ways to promote your services than to make an offer to give your work away. If clients hire you for creativity, you should demonstrate your creativity to attract the kind of client you want to work for.

6. It is reactive rather than proactive. A designer can realsitically handle about three to five clients at a time (depending on size). If those clients are not good matches, there will be a high turnover. If they are great and sustaining relationships, those clients will be demanding and keep you busy. It is better to choose the clients you want to work for when prospecting than to give away your services to anyone who wants you. Such a reactive approach will end up with disloyal clients because they will drop you for the next free deal they can find. Unless you can afford to still not charge.

7. When you get busy, you neglect the commitment. If you undertake spec or free work when you are slow, it will cost you dearly later. If faced with meeting deadlines for a client who pays versus for one who doesn’t, which makes better business sense to do first? Not only are you a low priority on the freebie client’s project list, they have to become a low priority on yours or you don’t sustain a business.

FREE DESIGN UNDERMINES THE PROFESSION

What really bothered me about this designer (that I’m picking on) offering her services for free is that she made this offeer to all nonprofits in Second Life. The desperation in this act is only surpassed by the ignorant client who would take advantage of this offer. In design, like anything that really matters, you get what you pay for! This is a no-win approach for the designer. It:

1. Shows you are indiscriminate. If you volunteer for an organization that you believe in, contribute pro bono, or participate in an event, your gift is meaningful and rewarding. But to throw the offer out to everyone says that you aren’t fussy and probably won’t be as passionate or dedicated either.

2. Makes you appear vulnerable to whatever is offered. Only those new in business believe that they can serve any client. Like dating and marriage, the match between the client and the designer has to have chemistry. I would be unhappy, for example, working with micro-manager clients. If I need to be online with them all the time instead of doing the work, production and efficiency suffer. For me, design requires focus-time where I unplug from media and go into my thinktank process. Utimately, this is what yields strong ideas and is what clients pay for.

3. Begins a project with a weak foundation that rarely turns into paying project later. If you aren’t getting paid, you are going to skimp. So this means that you can’t do your best work. If the goal is to fill out your portfolio, be very targeted to whom you offer this service, or you won’t end up with a portfolio piece. Just as most dates don’t lead to marriage, working out a relationship through a first-project is always a shake-out.

4. Anyone who does take you up on your offer won’t be a good client later. You can’t convert them into a profitable relationship because you’ve set up a weak premise. Also if you  haven’t been able to give your best efforts to the design so far, you won’t be able to base more work upon it efficiently.

5. It makes you feel resentful. This is human nature. Generosity in the beginning gets tested through the politics, changes, and indecisions of decision-makers. Every project has its twists and turns. But when getting paid, you feel it is part of the job. When you are giving away your work, the twists and turns feel intrusive. Plus, in the unlikely event that the project is successful, you resent that the client makes money or gets attention from the design and you don’t.

6. Your colleagues resent you. Like me. I believe so strongly in my design work that I offer the best to my clients. Yes, I deserve to be paid, and paid well, because they will grow their businesses from my creativity. Not arrogant enough to think that my work is solely responsible for my clients’ successful visual communications, I see the results in how design impacts audiences. I see directly how design is a piece of the marketing pie. The timing, environment, and convenience all affect the performance of my work—aspects out of my control. When it is my design that attracts, that is collected, and that is praised, those are the rewards that I work for, more than the money—but I have to pay my expenses to provide the business.

7. You can’t afford to do it very often. You can go out of business doing freebies. I could easily devote all my time and talents to organizations that pull my heart strings! But for me, design has a performance responsibility. Money is a validation and measures acceptance. If there is no renumeration for the practice of design, clients suffer the most in the end through being denied ideas that could transform their marketing efforts. It is the responsibility of a professional designer to be dedicated enough to practice full-time, and uphold the profession.

8. Misleads the client. I just crossed paths with a major national association whose marketing director believes that she doesn’t have to pay for photography: just take it from the internet! Apparently the designers who preceded me buried stock photo costs, absorbed subscriptions or usage fees, so that the client perceived there was no payment involved. When I couldn’t deliver the same “advantage,” i.e. maybe I am the only one open about it, the client treated me as if I didn’t know what I was doing. Doing a reality-check with stock agencies and professional photographer friends, I made sure to be on solid footing before accusing this major group of being deluded. The biggest problem, then, is their misperception is carried into future relationships and they have a no knowledge of the legalities of what represents them.

PRO BONO CAN BE A WIN/WIN FOR EVERYONE

Don’t get me wrong: I do believe in contributing talents and time to organizations. 10% of my work is pro bono—but that doesn’t mean it is free. I have found that people don’t value what they get for free in the same way they do what they pay for. I require the pro bono client to pay out-of-pocket expenses, purchase needed technology, help to create initial parameters, and to provide backgrounds. Pro bono projects can offer more creative freedom than paying work, a more casual work environment, and collaboration towards a greater cause. The benefits of doing pro bono are the benefits that you hoped to get by doing speculative or free work. But outlay is covered and something received inkind:

1. Ask for exchange. Work on promoting the design with a press release, build media contacts, or exhibit in an opening celebration. I always find something that will benefit me in trade—a membership, conference attendance, publication, or enough samples of a printed piece to use for my promotion. Rather than undervalue my work by giving it away for free, I get some great rewards by asking for them! I believe that ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get.’

2. Work on a cause that you passionately support. The results are extra fulfilling because they have impact on changes you wish to make, remedies you believe necessary, or participation in helping those who are in need. You make friends with people who share your values.

3. Sometimes you make connections that lead to more business. It can happen, though it is unfortunately rare, that you turn the pro bono client into one that pays. Although this may be a goal that motivates you to get involved, realistically, it only happens about 1/4 of the time.

How do I know all this? I have been burned in competitions where the end result has no participant that wins! Or else the competitor wins that had really won before the judging. Never submitting to purely speculative work, I have always at least recieved a presentation fee or I have not participated in such ‘opportunities.’ Its been hard sometimes to not get seduced by the potential, but even my last dance with a pro bono logo design resulted in discovering a politically divided and frozen committee. The most professional, polished, savvy, and successful clients I have ever known are always ones who are willing to pay for work. They are demanding, tough to please, and put the necessary management time into marketing initiatives. They respect the time of other professionals, are organized, and responsive. Smart and successful, they know how to use design as a tool.

Perhaps I should be happy that this designer offered her services for free. Maybe like a magnet, she will attract all the shards of business that are unprofitable, unfulfilling, and ultimately ineffectual. It leaves the better work for those of us who are committed enough to dedicate our livelihoods to the service of visual progress.