blog.msurveys.com

I'm happy to say that I've been invited to talk about Second Life and survey technology at WARC's What Next For Online Research conference in London this March. It's part of a section titled "new techniques for online research".

Conference programme

If you're planning to attend, come and say hello!

Just came across this interesting sounding piece in the Second Life Insider:

"AOL is getting ready to launch its own presence in Second Life. Its new space, called AOL Pointe, will feature AOL Music, Moviefone, TMZ, among other AOL created content. It is apparently AOL's intent that AOL Pointe will act as a place the company can try out new product features and perform market research."

I've emphasized that last part, since that's obviously what I'm interested in. Unfortunately there is little more information available at the moment, the AOL beta site has "AOL Pointe" listed, but trying to register for it just redirects you to the Second Life site.

Hopefully I'll find more info on this soon, will update this post if anything interesting turns up..

Update: I'm in... I subscribed, received a message in-world to join the beta testing group, and can now visit the AOL Pointe location in Second Life. Will have a look around, but probably won't be able to blog much due to the terms of beta participation.

Just a quick pointer to a report by Adam over at Reuters, summarising the results of a Market Truths survey on womens clothing in Second Life. I'm sure we're going to see more of these kinds of surveys in future.

Surinder over at ResearchTalk has posted a "virtual worlds special" podcast, containing two separate conversations - one with Habbo's Director of user and market insight, and one with David Fleck (Linden Lab) and myself on Second Life.

If you're interested in an introduction to the phenomenon of virtual worlds, with a smattering of MR bias thrown in, may be worth a listen..

With the opensourcing of the Second Life viewer/client last week, I've spent most of the weekend dusting off my C++ knowledge, and managed to compile the viewer in Xcode on my MacBook Pro.

An idea that was previously mentioned - having "real" interviewers walking around Second Life and conducting surveys - now suddenly seemed feasible, at least technically. By the end of the weekend, I had something basic working...

It goes like this: the interviewer logs into Second Life with the modified viewer, and goes around looking for respondents. At this point everything is as usual, they can walk, fly, chat etc. just like anyone else. Once they find someone, they may ask them if they were willing to take a survey. If the respondent agrees - and here's the clever bit, such as it is - the interviewer can switch their avatar to a "data collection" mode, so the avatar automatically starts saying the questions as they have been defined in the survey back-end, and the answers from the respondent are automatically recorded in the survey back-end too. Once the survey is finished, they're back to a "normal" Second Life user.

Here's a quick video I recorded earlier (sorry it runs a little faster than it should, something happened when transferring it between Win and Mac).. "Belle Isbell" is the interviewer coming up to me, and once I say ok to take part in the survey, she becomes a data collection program - until the end of the survey, when she thanks me and walks away. All my answers to her are now stored in the survey back-end.



In reality, especially in a busier setting, we'll probably want to run the survey in the IM channel rather than the public chat channel, not least for privacy reasons, but I left it in the chat channel as it's easier to see.

I've just come across an interesting site, completely by accident (following some referrer links from my latest BBC twitter experiments - twitter itself being a worthy subject for a post here, but just haven't found the time yet):

Laneo, an organisation aimed at eco-conscious outdoor enthusiasts, that appears to put questionnaires and surveys at the center of their activities. In their own words:

- You answer questionnaires about your outdoor activities. We compile research reports.
- Organizations purchase our research reports. We donate the money to eco-cleanups.
- You vote which eco-cleanups get the donations. We report their progress to you.
- You get a cleaner planet to play in.

They describe their idea as...

"We believe the idea of being able to change the planet, simply by giving your opinion is very influential. When people are given an opportunity to be heard, they have incredible power to produce positive and lasting change.

Our members change the health of our planet, simply by donating their opinions and insights on products, services, events, materials, processes and other components of the outdoor sports industry.

We collect and analyze the data into comprehensive research reports and make them available for sale. Proceeds from the sale of the research reports are then donated to organizations cleaning up and repairing nature, especially areas used by outdoor enthusiasts. And members get to vote how donations are distributed and what strategic direction the organization takes.

Members also have opportunities to win free sports gear, test newly released equipment, and purchase exclusive products and services via our online store with proceeds going to protecting outdoor areas. And to ensure that they are conscious of what's available to them, members can use our online Green Label Directory to find products, services, and race events that we have reviewed and certified as eco-friendly."

Having a soft spot both for green issues and outdoor activities, this is intriguing.. an alternative to the usual (more selfish) survey panel communities, with an eco spin. I signed up, just to see how it will all work out.. I'd love this to succeed!

Via Le Blog à Ollie