The Semper International Blog

This is a pretty cool option from a 2D social network meetings a 3D social network sort of way. Google Lively gives you the code to add your room(s) to your website. I tested it out on one of my Ning sites and not only could you have one running but multible Lively rooms running at the same time.

I can see this option as a nice customer service tool for many companies websites. It works very well from the social network stand point and with more than one room option it can be a blast for those multitaskers like me.

Hmmm… Interview rooms and client/applicant interaction areas.

Check it out here - CLICK ME

After feeling left out for the last few days as I was on vacation and Google decided to launch Lively… I have been catching up this weekend.

There are some cool features to Lively and I see a lot of potential in this platform. Would like to be able to have more than one video playing in a room and be able to control when they play and stop, but I am sure those are going to be fixed soon enough. 

This VW is nothing like Second Life, not really in the same ball park. I would say at this point it is a great way to introduce a larger audience to virtual worlds and then they can graduate into the amazing world of Second Life or some of the other more powerful VW’s out there.

Really like how the avatar movement is done, very intuitive. In fact as I was bouncing between SL and Lively I kept wishing SL movement was the same as Lively’s.

Was driving home this morning and thought, why not have one of the projects I am working in SL connect to Lively?? Went home and tested out the concept, hoping the in SL browser would open lively (Would have also solved the Mac issue of no Lively option). 

So I made a prim, added the web link script and the URL to the room in Lively I wanted and……  NOPE, platform not supported. Only way to do it was have a separate browser open up which defeats the purpose a bit. 

Would be interesting if this concept did actually work at some point.

Click on image to see larger.

Not 100% sure how to leverage the two platforms together in one immersive experience, but have some ideas…….

Many of you that know me and have heard me rant about Second Life, Video Games and in general Virtual Worlds and how they could become the way the internet looks in the 5 - 10 year range. Another factor in what was running through my mind was the concept of combining Google Earth and Second Life into a real life version of the real world. While there has been a lot of talk on blogs and in the media about these concepts, we all have our own takes and visions of how it will play out.

Thursday April 3, 2008 – 10:30am – EST

“Was sitting at table with Philip as he was interviewed by a woman. She is publishing a book about business in SL and I got her card so SLENTRE.COM can interview her when her book is released. I was even asked to take the picture of the two of them for her article. Philip is really a down to earth philosophical guy–he has a great vibe.”

(Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale interviewed by Sue Mahar)

Thursday April 3, 2008 – 2:18pm - EST

“There is a clear divide in the world of virtual worlds between entertainment and business needs. Never before have these lines been so starkly defined and, in my opinion, it’s a refreshing development. Coming to VW08, I feared that the primary focus would be on teen and children’s virtual worlds. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to see many product launches and discussions geared towards “adult” business needs.
Nonetheless, the field is still blurry–both from a company usage perspective as well as the yet to be clearly answered ROI perspective. There were some clever ideas addressing the issue of the integration of “social capital” within a company. Some of these suggestions involved pulling in the collective intelligence of a firm’s employee base so as to provide additional value and potentially increased revenue. Other arguments involved layering social network elements in 2D around the 3D VW to assist in capturing multiple aspects of the discussions and ideas expressed. Most of these suggestions revolved around the idea of using the VW engagement to encourage discussion with a geographically dispersed team, and then circulating the resultant ideas through company blogs and other types of social networks. The application would basically frame the VW in the center of a screen wrapped by the 2D social network tools.

(CyberExtruder offers the ability to take a picture of your real life face and upload it into SL and apply to your avatar. They have an island in SL called Avatar Island.)

Some of the more pressing issues at the conference involved rapidly transforming management challenges and–oddly enough—the question of avatar identities. Justin Bovington, CEO of Rivers Run Red, eloquently explained his approach to the avatar issue. He has two avatars; one for business purposes and one for social activities. When logged on with his business avatar, he follows strict business protocol. As the CEO of a company, he is expected to behave in a certain way. When using his social avatar, the rules change, allowing for looser, less rigid interactions. This dialogue was triggered by the provocative question: ‘Does your avatar need an avatar?’
There was a lot of discussion regarding tools designed to assist business people with VW access and use—tools like a presentation software that leverages a 3D platform and allows for a choreographed experience-style presentation with the potential to span multiple locations. The software provides the presenter with the capacity to control audience avatar perspectives. This could enable a built-in HUD to allow people to follow the path of the presentation and revisit it as needed–or possibly as a way to take notes within the VW.”

Thursday April 3, 2008 – 10:00pm

SLCN TV after party streamed live into Second Life’s North Point.

(Keren, aka Star Song, creator of SLCN TV)

(SLCN after hours party as viewed by those watching the live stream within Second Life)

(SLCN TV after party offered party goers a window into Second Life via a laptop and webcam)

(The simulcast was riddled with technical difficulties making it less than optimal for Second Life viewers. Beer anyone?)

Recruiting in Second Life Part II: “Ghostown or Goldmine?”

Was interviewed by a very nice person from another staffing firm called “Generator Group”. Over the course of a few days and a bit over an hour the following was thrown out ofver text in SL.  Brian Regan PresidentSemper International AKA: PrinterBrian 

Recruiting in Second Life : “SL is not an easy button”

By Lisa Peyton, a.k.a. Avarie Parker

I—well, my avatar Avarie Parker–was recently lucky enough to sit down for a virtual interview with Printer Brian Dowd, real life President of Semper International LLC. Brian Regan, and his Boston based firm Semper International, was the first recruiting agency to enter Second Life in March 2007. He has expanded his in-world presence from candidate sourcing to offering services for other companies looking to go virtual. The interview spanned two meetings; this is our first conversation in its entirety.

Avarie Parker: Why did Semper International decide to enter the world of SL? What were your initial goals?

PrinterBrian Dowd: I’m a big time Online Video Game player. Also interested in Serious Games, or the use of video game technology for business application. Our goal was to use SL as a business tool in connecting with people from a distance, as well as understanding how to interact with people in online worlds. So learning and business application was stage one, more or less. We knew that there was not a large population; however, the population here did match some of our specialties like graphic design and video game staffing. Most people in SL early on had tech or design type backgrounds. We also wanted to find a venue to reach out to an audience accustomed to using the internet as a work condition–things like “Can you have a contractor/employer relationship via an online world?”

AP: Can you give me a rough estimate of the cost involved in your campaign?

PBD: That’s not quite as straightforward as you might think

AP: Perhaps you could give a range…

PBD: You can set up a small location with limited functionality for $500 - $1000. If you wanted to immerse yourself in SL and learn to build and script, you could do a small location for less, and increase the time you spend working on it yourself. For me, I was an online gamer in my personal life, so I took the latter approach. An entire Island like you are on now is a much different situation. There you are talking $10,000 + and a lot of your own personal time–or let developers do it all and spend $20,000.

AP: Thanks, that answers my question - how many people were involved in a project like the island?

PBD: Very few.

AP: Really? Have you taught yourself how to script, etc?

PBD: Basic scripting and building, yes.

AP: Very Cool! I took a stab at designing a garment and found it to be very labor intensive!

PBD: Like online games, it’s a passion thing.

AP: Yes. Has the SL campaign directly contributed to selling Semper services? Which services have been most affected? Employer side? Employee? Or outplacement? Have you traced the campaign directly to an increase in profits?

PBD: We have generated income from SL at this point, yes. We have successfully recruited and placed people we located in SL. Does it compare to investing in a Monster or CB package? No. However it gives a bit more than just people, it gives business side benefits: company meetings, mass recruitment, using it as a tool. So it is more than one element.

(Above: PrinterBrian and his coworker Gia speaking at a recent Interview workshop on Human Resource Island)

AP: About how many RL placements have you had?

PBD: Less than 10, although our database has picked up over 100.

AP: But how long have you been in SL? Less than a year, right?

PBD: Yes, March 1st we launched.

AP: So for such a short time in that seems like a big number!

PBD: Ah, OK.  Now you must consider that I work it here–meaning I am logged in and developing relationships quite often. This location generates traffic, I generate results. Does that make sense?

AP: Hmm, yes. What questions should a recruiting firm ask itself before embarking on an SL campaign?

PBD: Easy. Does anyone on staff have the energy and willingness to make it work? Spend off-hours doing interviews and getting to know people in SL. Would you rather hang out in SL or on your Myspace account? If the answer is no, then you may end up spinning your wheels and have no traffic.

AP: SL! I would MUCH prefer to spend time in here than on Myspace…: )

PBD: LOL. OK, so when I arrived you were chatting with Lewis. You met him here on the Semper Island?

AP: Yes, while I was waiting for you. He’s a Graphic Artist out of Binghamton, NY. I told him he should perhaps register with you guys as a candidate.

PBD: OK, so there you go - A graphic artist in NY, placeable if good. If you have a location where he is.

AP: Yes. So should the industry the recruiting firm works in be considered? I mean SL is an obvious choice if you are looking for GAs or programmers, etc, but how about other industries? Tower, for example, deals with HR placements…not exactly hi-tech.

PBD: Yes, you should consider it if you expect to extract people from SL. However, if you want to use it in replacement of video conferencing and phone, it brings a different value. You and I both have Voice Enabled, but we are not using it. It is free to use voice here, no charge. 50 people in a room all able to talk at no charge is an interesting thing to think about, to expand upon.

AP: A very useful and cost effective tool for meetings, etc.

PBD: Yes, or mass interviews.

(Above: Attendees at a recently attended SL Conference)

AP: Describe how you began your SL consulting services and do you think they will eclipse your recruiting services?

PBD: No it will not. It’s not our focus; however it allows us to test talent. We are also staffing companies in the game industry as well as Second Life or Virtual Worlds development companies, so interviewing someone for an SL dev firm and then seeing their work is effective for us–and not just from a talent standpoint, but a professional standpoint too. Do they meet deadlines, act a certain way, work in teams or solo, etc.?

AP: Do you have any full-time staff devoted to your SL Consulting?

PBD: No full time staff, but more than one trained person that handles SL consulting.

AP: Do you feel the trend for companies to want in to SL will continue? What do you feel the future of marketing in SL looks like?

PBD: I am not a big fan of the marketing in SL fad. However, if this is a possible direction of the internet in the near future, then any firm that uses the internet as a tool should have an understanding of it.

AP: Can you point to any in-world campaigns that you feel were successful? National campaigns, I mean.

PBD: I am not really focused on that side, so I would likely not be a good judge. Consider this - VW’s allow you to develop your brand in a community or experience that is interactive and that is not understood yet. VW = Virtual Worlds. So if you want to create an online experience around your firm or brand, building a VW whether SL or any number of VW’s out there will have a large impact on how people interact with you.

AP:Yes, but you obviously engage in marketing Semper in-world…and Semper’s services.  But it sounds like you are more interested in an interactive experience than seeing Coke machines all over the place?

PBD: Coke machines all over the place is not the total answer. It helps, but it’s like banner ads on a website.

AP: Would you say there are companies that are “getting it” when it comes to interacting with SL residents?

PBD: Yes, those that build communities.

AP: Speaking of communities, how can a candidate best leverage SL? Any specific groups or locals they should visit?

PBD: Hmmm, that’s a big question.  I would say, there are groups and experiences here for all tastes. A personal taste in their personal time is not likely related to their professional ones. As a recruiter I am sure you can appreciate what I just said.

AP: Yes. : ) There are networking groups that charge to join–do you feel those groups are worth it? Can you give me a short list of the top business networking groups in SL?

PBD: Not really, I don’t pay to be in any of those groups. I would think they may be a good way to start out, but you quickly move past them.

AP: So how does the experienced SLer go about finding a great RL job?

PBD: Come to the Semper location (http://slurl.com/secondlife/HumanResource%20Island/207/101/27); IBM (http://slurl.com/secondlife/IBM/106/5/23) does cool things. TMP (http://slurl.com/secondlife/TMP%20Worldwide/190/43/22) does career fairs.

(Above: Semper International SL Location)

AP: Great, finally something my candidates can sink their teeth into!

PBD: I would say that there is a whole lot of recruiting happening in SL.  It’s just not that obvious.

AP: So how can a recruiter best leverage SL??

PBD: Networking, passive recruiting, developing a community, talking to people, gaining friends, leveraging friends, knowing who’s who and becoming a valuable asset to them.

AP: But again, I would assume it’s time consuming - yes?

PBD:Yes, anything worthwhile in life requires effort. SL is not an easy button.

AP: There’s the headline for my article - I love it!

PBD: LOL. Staples is a great client of ours. They will be excited I used it.

AP: Thank you again for taking the time to talk with me today.  I really appreciate it.

PBD: No problem. I will not likely give away the valuable lessons I’ve learned but I would like to make sure the integrity of recruitment and VW’s is upheld and thus I’m willing to help out people on many levels.

AP: Wonderful! Perhaps a few more probing questions tomorrow can loosen you up a bit.

PBD: LOL.

Stay tuned for our second conversation where we dive below the surface of SL discussing consumer-user behavior, relationships within SL, and Avatar creation. If you would like to learn more about the services his company offers, you can contact him via SL on Human Resources Island (http://slurl.com/secondlife/HumanResource%20Island/188/111/27) or email him at bregan@semperllc.com. 

Replied to an interesting LinkedIn question with the below, I added it here as it captured some of the positives we have found in our exploration of Second Life. 

Second Life is a very interesting space. My firm was the first staffing firm in and we have enjoyed some interesting results. Our island HumanResource Island is a professional build, meaning we use it for business purposes. Anywhere from internal Semper training and recruitment to sharing our understanding of interviewing in real life and Second Life with other SL residents for free in the for of free seminars in our virtual conference center. 

The fact is, that SL is not something that you drop money into and sit back and say, ok, let the success start rolling in. Its a lot more dynamic than that. Building is just the start developing and maintaining a community even an internal one is key. In other words, it takes constant effort, but effort that is reward with results.

Our results have come from successful recruitment of candidates from SL and placing them into real life positions. We have hired some internally or use them as contractors. Some of our training is gaining new levels of success as we understand and adapt to how powerful the immersion effect is on people and how it increases they attention span. We have even gained new areas of income generating business as we start to develop other companies locations in SL, even to the point where we may bridge this new off into a new company.

I clearly see a day where I have my 10 geographically dispersed offices working in one virtual office. Where managers can allocate teams based on needs of a geographic region. An office that people thousands of miles apart work shoulder to shoulder. Where their virtual desktops control the real applications they work in daily. A place where a growing number of people for various reasons work from their homes, yet still work in the same room as their teammates.

Very exciting times ahead.

Brian Regan

President

Semper International 

Great insights on the future of video games and virtual worlds at Cyberposium 13 at the Harvard Business School. The panel consisting of the following people:   

Cory Bridges - Executive VP at Multiverse 

Mark Kern - CEO of Red 5 Studios

Chris Carella  - Chief Creative Officer of the Electric Sheep company 

Curt Schilling - Pitcher of the Boston Red Sox and owner of 38 Studio’s a video game development firm working on a self funded MMO.

Philip Rosedale - CEO of Linden Labs, makers of Second Life 

Mike Hirshland - A VC that invests in entertainment, web and gaming. 

The topic for this great panel are Online games and Virtual Worlds more than just entertainment.  Which anyone paying attention to this space right now understands they are. Serious games and virtual worlds are making significant increases in awareness and applications from education to B2B applications. 

Picture of panel: 

This is a piece that I wrote for the PIA/GATF World magazine. Along with this piece I had an opportunity to speak about this subject matter at both the PGSF Educational Summit held at GraphExpo and the Atlanta PIA/GATF Workflow Conference. The facts are clear that the print inndustry has some serious challenges facing it in regards to the future work force. Reaching in and connecting with a new generation of people used to the Internat as their primary communication tool presents unique challenges. These challenges can be over come.

Brian Regan

Where do I find the new breed of employees?
Brian Regan, President, Semper International

We all know that the industry has changed and many of the skills associated with printing have changed, too. None of these is more evident than in prepress. The new workflow solutions are often daunting to a company not versed in them—database management, mailing, digital asset management and fulfillment to name a few. Where does a printer who for years knew how to reproduce the best color work now find the new breed of employee?

What used to require a knowledge base of a very specific and talented craft has become a requirement of the new age and computer skills.

Who am I looking for?

Of course, the first requirement is for anyone to be able to handle prepress skills. (Even press operators have to be computer literate. All you have to do is look at recently introduced presses.) There are a lot of prepress skills that can either be taught as long as a person is comfortable behind a computer, or already exist in today’s job bank (in no particular order):

1) Color management: Someone who can learn how to calibrate and monitor soft and hard proofing using color management solutions.
2) Design skills: Whether a printer provides a design department for true creative work, or if the skills are required to fix existing files, it is always helpful to have a resource of people who can work their way around the Adobe Creative Suite or QuarkXPress.
3) Communications experts: IT departments need people who can work their way around the ‘pipes’ of the company: The Internet, browser, the web site, the internal network, firewall/security, and the other ancillary services.
4) Workflow experts: These are the true, trained prepress workflow experts, who have both computer and prepress knowledge and skills. These are the architects and administrators of a prepress department.
5) Premedia: As we all know, many printers don’t focus on just print, any more. There’s broadband and the Web, Web 2.0, and personalization that requires database expertise.
6) Programming: C++, PERL, HTML, JAVA, PHP and others. If you expect to build a competency, you likely will require some customization.

A state of mind

What my company has also learned is that skills are just one piece of the puzzle. The other is, for lack of a better word, behavioral. Unless someone has been formally trained in a printing school or environment, you have to acquire someone who can do well with the correct skill set or training in the graphic arts.

What do we usually look for? Well, it’s a wide set of traits. Someone who has good math skills is a start. An analytical problem solver is helpful. So is someone who can deal with multitasking. In positions requiring customer interaction, we search for people socially motivated. In fact, we use a behavioral test to hire all internal Semper personnel. It helps us staff our locations with people naturally inclined to work well with others.

Then there are the personal skills. How does the person deal with stress? If the prepress system is down due to a malfunction, you’d better have someone who steps up to the challenge. The same with the ability to work well with a lot of different people.

Where am I looking?

True fact. Our company looks for our own employees through the Internet, without any newspaper advertising (well, almost none). We believe that people who work in a sales office or are recruiters need to be able to use the Internet as a search tool. If they don’t have the computer searching skills that are good enough to find us, we figure they won’t be good candidates to look for high tech printers. This works for our inside positions as well.

The world—and not just the printing world—is a different place. The people who could be good fits for graphic arts/printing companies are not found just at printing schools or at other printing companies. A bit of creativity—and a sense of where prospects could be hanging out—can be helpful.

Remember, the printing industry is not the only place where technology has transformed the world.

So, where can I find these allusive people? There are a number of places:

1) Different colleges: I’m sure many printers have probably called or accessed schools like RIT or CalPoly for future candidates. A good suggestion would be to think out of the box, and it’s not only to find qualified candidates. It’s for ‘thought diversity’, too. I spoke with someone associated with a large investment/mutual fund firm, who said they always recruit from the same schools, with the same degrees, and the same GPA. What do you get? You can get ethnic diversity, but you also unfortunately get people who were educated in the same way, think the same, ‘look’ the same and act the same. You don’t get a variety of thought and new ideas about how to do things. Recruit from the same schools for printing, and the same thing happens. There are certainly engineering schools, design schools, and capable universities that churn out intelligent, computer-capable, ambitious candidates.

2) The Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF) is a not-for-profit, private, industry-directed organization that provides undergraduate college scholarships and graduate fellowship assistance to talented students interested in graphic communications careers. Currently, more than 240 students are receiving financial assistance through PGSF, at colleges, universities, and technical schools across the country, including Rochester Institute of Technology, California Polytechnic State University, Clemson University, Georgia Southern University and Western Michigan University, among others. Approximately 75 PGSF scholarship recipients graduated this past year. What a place to find outstanding talent. Resumes of the participating PGSF scholarship recipients can be found at www.gain.net on the GAIN job bank.

3) Web 2.0 presents both a challenge to the old ways of doing business and an opportunity to gain tremendous leverage. What is Web 2.0? They are untraditional, social web sites that involve the visitor and evolve with the visitor. There are many examples: Myspace, Jobster, Linkedin, flickr, Spoke, YouTube and others. And, there are the blogs, which cover every topic imaginable. To thrive, companies will have to figure out how to engage young people from all over the world. Companies can follow the trail of blogs and social networking sites to find and recruit young employees from every part of the world.

Business Week recently published a web article, ‘Children of the Web: about how the second-generation Internet is spawning a global youth culture–and what business can do to cash in.’ (see the video: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/06/0621_global_youth/index_01.htm.) How are younger people influenced? As the article remarks: “Consider Brazilian Fabricio Zuardi, 27. He grew up 180 miles from São Paulo and found a job via the Web with Silicon Valley tech startup Ning Inc. Zuardi now lives in Palo Alto, Calif., in an apartment he located on craigslist.org. He has no traditional phone, preferring Skype Internet-based service. He doesn’t own a TV. In his spare time he posts items on his blog or writes software that he contributes to open-source development projects.”

As noted, companies are using this technology to find new employees. Remember, if these people are using Web 2.0, they are already familiar with most of the skills you probably require in a prepress department.

It is essential to understand that social networks—as the name implies—are social networking sites. People who are savvy on the Internet, and who do not have inhibitions about using the Internet to develop relationships, are the ones who should manage or handle your social networks. I would go even further and suggest that depending on your company size, it is almost imperative to have one or more dedicated people handling this function. Like technology, keeping up with all these networks and keeping your firm’s message fresh, is a full time job.

4) Another form of Web 2.0 are Virtual Worlds which, described in Wikipedia, are fully immersive 3D virtual spaces; environments where humans interact with each other— socially and economically—using the metaphor of the real world, but without physical limitations. The most popular metaverse is Second Life.

Second Life is a user-created 3D virtual world that has many advantages over traditional websites. The power to incorporate people viewing the same content brings tremendous advantages to marketing and business applications—as does the opportunity to add a powerful collaborative tool for training, conferences and recruitment. Residents make up the population of Second Life; characters that you can meet and interact with.

Second Life is filled with creative people and many of them are graphic designers involved in real world design projects. Some are registered with Semper International, and we use them in the real world for graphic design and programming. Others are very tech savvy and work on large projects for real world companies, who are creating their own visions, using the built in scripting language (a poor ‘sister’ to java script). These people are approachable ‘socially’ and relationships can be developed. As discussed above, you must have someone who is able to develop relationships with these people; not just aggressively and latently attempting to get them to help you.

Some companies are already using Second Life to recruit people. Remember, this is a world of computer-savvy people. Semper is an active recruiting force in Second Life, as are TMP, IBM, Cisco, Verizon, Microsoft and others.

Social networks and the Metaverse are just beginning to be understood. However, the impact is quite powerful and worth reviewing and possibly using.

5) Go where techies visit on the Internet. My guess is that your prospective employees are not searching Monster.com. Just refer to the Web sites that would attract the people you are interested in. Follow blogs and other cyber links to find your most qualified candidates. Three print blogs (found with a very quick search) are printmode.net, printceoblog.com and prepressforum.com (printworkers.com has a link). However, not all candidates are reading print blogs, but perhaps they are visiting blogs and tech forums that are specific to their skills. Visit blogs from other industries with fundamentally similar skill sets. How different is an X-ray tech from a prepress tech? What are the primary skills sets a person must have for your position? Could you find those primary skill sets in people from other industries? Sometimes you’ll need a very wide net to capture the highest skilled talent.

6) Go to events and be seen where you share a similar vision of interests. These could be print trade shows, but perhaps there are other technology events that attract people with the skills you are looking for—or maybe there are just popular leisure time spots. People like to join firms with the same or similar vision of the world that they have. Get your company’s vision publicized for people to buy in to. Designate a charismatic person from your staff as an evangelist to talk at events and present a solid message that people will listen to. You goal is to get people in the crowd to subconsciously nod their heads up and down in agreement.

Start surfing
The technology world has opened up a wide variety of options to find and deliver messages to very competent technical help. The same creativity many printers have used to maintain their businesses will be required to find talented candidates. They aren’t visiting the old print haunts any more, but they’re out there—and you don’t even need to leave your office. Start surfing!