A week or so ago, Telstra announced that it was shutting down its island on Second Life and that the "residents" would have to find somewhere new to hang out. While much of the world's attention has been on Twitter and Facebook, it's interesting that Second Life has maintained a small but loyal base of users. Telstra estimate the number of people affected by the shut down will be about 1600 - a very small proportion of their customer base that measure in the hundreds of thousands.

Of course, much of the anger directed at Telstra's exit from Second Life, due to take place on 16 December 2009, comes from the fact that Telstra Bigpond customers had unmetered access to Second Life. However, it also show how committed our society has become on social media properties and that closing down even a moderately used one can have significant impact. It's worth noting that Telstra's exit doesn't mean all that much in the grand scheme of life in Second Life. All it means is that Bigpond customers lose their unmetered usage and some "residents" need to find a new home.

I have to admit that I've never been able to get into Second Life. I've had a couple of brief flirtations with it but I lack the time it would take to really get into it. Mind you, I've been interested in the entire virtual world phenomenon since the 1990s. Back then, a site called Virtual World was a portent of what Second Life would be with personalised avatars interacting in a 3D space. However, it was constrained at the time as computer processing power and the availability of fast Internet access wasn't yet ubiquitous.

I'm certain that there's an awful lot to be gained from Second Life. I'm a little surprised that businesses haven't yet really harnessed it as a tool for carrying out virtual meetings and that community groups haven't really embraced it as a way of uniting members that can't travel easily. Certainly, i suspect that there may be some therapeutic benefits as well for those in the healthcare business.

Bebo to Leave Australia

When you ask folks on the street about social media, it's a fair bet that two brands will dominate their thinking - Facebook and Twitter. So it's no surprise that when Bebo's exit from Australia started to hit the tech newswires that it barely rated a mention.

Bebo's exit signals, for me, the start of the inevitable consolidation that happens in new markets. When a new market starts, a few early entrants come in and start things off. In time, as they become profitable (or successful by whatever other measure they use) more parties enter the market. Over time, the market becomes saturated and participants in the market drop out wither through fatigue or they run out of money and we're left with a market served by a relatively small number of larger participants. That happened with most utilities, ISPs and it's starting to happen in social media.

While Bebo is pulling out of Australia, I;d not be surprised to see the same happen with other services in other markets.

An Apology

Regular readers may have noticed that I've been a tad absent over recent weeks. Simply put, I've had more work that I can poke a stick at and something has had to give. Hopefully, things are now a little less hectic and I'll be able to return to normal transmission.