1. I interact with a third group - non-profits. These are mostly external organisations who want to establish a presence in SL. At one talk I was asked, "How long would you estimate it would take to organize an event in Second Life?"

Overlooking the fact that this was definitely a "How long is a piece of string?" question on a par with asking me how much it would cost to build a website without telling me any of the specs for the website. I answered, "Probably the same time as it would in real life, in terms of talking to people, invites, devising a media strategy for the event. The questioner was dumbfounded - it seemed that she had thought that holding an event electronically meant that things happened instantly.

Posted at 1:17PM on Oct 23rd 2007 by Saffia Widdershins

2. I haven't worked directly with educational institutions in the context of Second Life, but in the context of the Internet in general I think you have them pegged.

My experience with corporate types is along the lines of yours. Very few actually seem interested in tapping the creative side - probably because the creative side is so unpredictable. This gives the unfortunate (and accurate) result of builds labeled 'unimaginative'. Consider the Dell presence - the 'build your own computer' concept was nice, but it was only a novelty.

Posted at 11:30AM on Oct 23rd 2007 by Nobody Fugazi

3. I think educators in SL are likely to have a different perspective but they may still be balancing project and personal objectives. They do, however, have the benefit of some prior art that serves to raise the bar (e.g. Literature Alive!), good communication channels (SLED list), meeting places (e.g. NMC, ISTE) and, for the most part, a spirit of collaboration rather than competition. For them the build, as you say, will be the primary focus in terms of ensuring it delivers, rather than, say, more generally creating a corporate presence or building a brand. Of course, there will be corporate concerns in education too -- it depends who you're dealing with (see U21Global for an interesting take from a university consortium) -- and one might expect some overlap at the more innovative end of commercial practice.

Posted at 8:08PM on Oct 23rd 2007 by Graham Mills

4. I think you missed the fundamental underlying difference between education professionals and corporate or business professionals. This is common amongst people who do not have experience in both fields.

Educators care about people and learning--both of which are difficult to measure accurately, and in many cases don't have to be measured accurately. General trends will suffice; students do learn at varying rates, and happiness is key to being a good teacher or a good student. Education is a long-term investment and somewhat intangible.

Business people have to, ultimately, only worry about one thing: money. And this is often "Other People's Money" (OPM) that carries an ethical and legal responsibility to track to as accurate a level as possible over time and continuously. This is called "due diligence." A business person (or an engineer, for that matter--btw, engineering is a business) should be able to tell a client or customer exactly where they are in resources expended and in their schedule at any time.

So, you're trying to make an apples and oranges comparison, sort of like comparing tending an olive orchard to designing a new airliner--it's invalid and not relevant to understanding either of the disciplines.

Posted at 10:40PM on Oct 24th 2007 by Klang Wopat