SLGrid Update Forum Transcript

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

• SLGrid Website Changes SLDev Forum
• Glenn Linden, Madhavi Linden, Brett Linden

Introduction

• You: Thank you for coming today. We want to go over the proposed changes to the SecondLifeGrid.net website. This sesssion will cover the same content as the one 2 weeks ago. So, thank you all for taking the time to come today. This slide provides an over view of the changes we're proposing. Besides cleaning up the navigation to make it clearer and easier to find content, we are rewriting the pages to better focus on the key messages for businesses to use Second Life. We expect these changes will make the important content more visible, easier to find, and more useful to businesses. We're also changing the overall site to be much more action-focused. The 4 key actions we want to drive are

1. Get an account and get into Second Life
2. Get a Solution Provider to help you plan and build your SL presence
3. Get land
4. Use appropriate programs (such as RegAPI)

• We're making that the focus of the site.

Left Navigation Changes

• The next page shows how this plays out in the left navigation menu. The first section - includes the SLGrid (about) page and the current How Organizations use the Grid. We plan to move the current static How Organizations pages to the new Showcase format that we're using on SL.com. Of course, we'll put in content appropriate for the SLGrid audience in the version of the Showcase we use here. The big advantage of the Showcase is the ease of updating, so we can put in timely examples. The second part of the website is the "Getting Started" section which is really the main focus. We'll continue to provide the information about resources, support, and programs.

The left nav menu will be fixed, so you can always see all the key pages and get to them directly, unlike the current dynamic menu. We'll remove all the right navigation to reduce confusion. I've been going on for awhile... any questions at this point?

Ratings

• PM Sands: All of the points from the last transcript looked great, with the exception of one small concern: Customer Ratings for SLDEV Solution Providers: I suggest the individual person responsible for pushing this idea to please take a closer look. Place yourself in the shoes of a Solution Provider. Ask yourself how you would feel if there was an initiative to rate each Linden. We are the customers of Lindens, should we not also be able to write a Customer Rating regarding you? Oh, ok, lets talk about channeling that rating through your boss first. Now, we are talking about only positive review ratings. Clearly this Customer Review notion needs further consideration. While, I feel the initiative originated to ensure quality for the Solution Provider program, it is important to comprehend that Solution Providers are not commodities on SL Exchange. My suggestion for now, regarding Customer Ratings for SLDEV members is to, set it aside for deliberation. That said, I appreciate the support the SLDEV team leaders and LL in general provides me as a Solution Provider.
• LiquidForce Rasoir: i din t even know about an SLDEV rating rpogram till now

Updating

• Gwynn Gunawan: you gonna change the solution provider webpages for easy update?
• You: Gwynn, we'll get to changes to the Directory in a little bit.

Provider Categories

• Lewis Nerd: i don't like the "full service / consultant" split, as i am a smaller developer i feel like I'm a "second rate" resource... can we remove that distinction and just list tickboxes for skills you provide and search for matches?
• yukiko Omegamu: with choosing a solution provider its best too balance it out so everyone gets a chance at doing stuff I’ve seen a lot of the bigger companies getting it more then the ones lower who offer the same quality
• Lewis Nerd: absolutely yukiko... many of us "little guys" offer a BETTER service than the big companies but they get all the promotion
• Templar Merlin: Lewis, I meant you have to differentiate types and sizes of providers, its not just a matter of how good you build or script, it is also a matter of service and ability to deliver certain things in a certain amount of time
• Lewis Nerd: depends what the customer wants though templar, speed or cost-effective :)
• Templar Merlin: sure
• Templar Merlin: that is why it is important to differentiate, so the customer can choose
• Lewis Nerd: but why not let the developers websites speak for themselves and allow the customer to choose what suits them?
• Templar Merlin: it is still important to differentiate among providers
• Lewis Nerd: differentiate how, templar?
• You: (thanks, we'll get to some of your points in a minute, Templar, Lewis)

Any other comments on Grid changes?

• You: Before we get into changes to the Solution Provider program, any comments on the changes to the SLGrid pages?
• Templar Merlin: they seems all fine Glenn
• Lewis Nerd: no.. seems ok to me glenn
• Gwynn Gunawan: hmm
• Brett Linden: We do hope to create some new site real estate that will showcase selected solution providers, big and small. You can see a version of the showcase structure that Glenn referenced at www.secondlife.com/showcase -- imagine a SL Grid-focused version of this where we are able to selectively highlight the works of our solution provider partners in a higher profile way.

Deleted Pages

• You: OK, one more page on the changes then we'll return to your questions about the SP program. These are pages we plan to delete from the website. The pages under "How Organizations Use the Grid" will become part of the Showcase rather than separate pages. (Again, this will be a Showcase with it's own content, separate from the one on SL.com)
• yukiko Omegamu: the faqs pages still should stay
• You: Yes, Yukiko, we got your feedback on that last time and will see how we can integrate it with the Resources page.

Why we’re making changes

• You: We hope these changes to SLGrid.net will do two things:
• # Make it easier for businesses to understand what Second Life offers for them
• # Focus them on action to get into Second Life and contact Solution Providers
• You: By making the Directory visible and part of the action steps, we think it will solve some of the problems caused by the old layout of the Grid site that caused many of you to see a large drop in referrals. Of course, the other part of that is improving the layout of the Directory to make it clearer and more usable.
• Gwynn Gunawan: uhm, ok, so they look at the website, get an account, feel around, want to get into it & have to go back to the web to find us?
• You: Gwynn, yes. Of course, they can go directly to the Directory to find a Solution Provider.
• Brett Linden: and the directory will be better surfaced on the new site, too -- not as many clicks to find

In-world showcase suggestion

• Gwynn Gunawan: ok, but, just a thought, why isn’t there a @Yellow Pages' solution providers sim, some place for each of us to set up a lil stall, limited prims, like a tech fair?
• Fim Fischer: Mhh,i like the idea.
• LiquidForce Rasoir: me too
• Gwynn Gunawan: all providers same plot, same number of prims
• Lewis Nerd: i like it too :)
• Fim Fischer: thats fair
• Gwynn Gunawan: just a first indication with ingame and out of game contact details
• yukiko Omegamu: yes i like that idea lso
• You: Gwynn, interesting idea. We're looking at a number of ways to better engage businesses in Second Life, including a separate registration and orientation, as well as some way to showcase successful business uses of Second Life.
• Gwynn Gunawan: and link to the solution provider webpage, i mean, this *is* sl aint it?
• Gwynn Gunawan grins and winks
• You: LOL, what use our own technology?
• Lewis Nerd: be interesting to see how some of the "big guys" cope with limited prims instead of full islands :)

• You: Ok, one last time - any other comments about the proposed changes to SLGrid website before we talk about the Solution Provider program and Directory?
• Lewis Nerd: i have to go glenn... can i email you my thoughts, many of which you'll probably answer when i'm gone?
• You: Lewis, thank you, yes, Madhavi or I will respond.
• yukiko Omegamu: added perks for the ones that are still starting out for solution providers while the ones already got enough promotional stuff should be less selectable

Directory Changes

• You: OK, since I type fast, I'll do the quick overview of the Directory changes, and Madhavi can fill in details I miss....

1. We're working with ourweb team to enable you to edit your entry. It's a big project, but we agree that it's time to simplify your ability to create and update your entry.
2. Ratings. We've heard a lot from businesses and Solution Providers they want a way to have quality information about providers.

Ratings

• We've looked at a number of ways to do this, including peer review. LL doesn't have the staff or expertise to do this. It seemed the best solution was to enable your clients to rate the projects you do for them. You could decide whether or not to list a project depending on the rating, but it gives some quality feedback.
• Gwynn Gunawan: do we get to rate (incorporate incompetence) of clients to? I mean some of them have *no* idea
• PM Sands: shall I restate my earlier concern on this?
• You: Sure, PM
• PM Sands: All of the points from the last transcript looked great, with the exception of one small concern:
• Fim Fischer: i don't think that system provide useable data for business who want to get into SL
• PM Sands: Customer Ratings for SLDEV Solution Providers: I suggest the individual person responsible for pushing this idea to please take a closer look. Place yourself in the shoes of a Solution Provider. Ask yourself how you would feel if there was an initiative to rate each Linden. We are the customers of Lindens, should we not also be able to write a Customer Rating regarding you? Oh, ok, lets talk about channeling that rating through your boss first. Now, we are talking about only positive review ratings‚ Clearly this Customer Review notion needs further consideration. While, I feel the initiative originated to ensure quality for the Solution Provider program, it is important to comprehend that Solution Providers are not commodities on SL Exchange. My suggestion for now, regarding Customer Ratings for SLDEV members is to, set it aside for deliberation. That said, I appreciate the support the SLDEV team leaders and LL in general provides me as a Solution Provider.
• You: So, we're bringing this up with you to get your input on how we can improve the ability of businesses to sift through over 200 listings to find an appropriate provider. The current system does not work -for you or them.
• Gwynn Gunawan: I'm not that opposed to ratings, perhaps just like the myspace kudo's, you either get a (number of) kudo's / starts, or you dont, but no negative values
• Templar Merlin: indeed...
• Gwynn Gunawan: and we get to give kudo's as well
• You: Ah,Gwynn, the idea would be that you would enter a recent project and an email would be sent to the contact you specify.
• You: You'd get to see the review and decide if you want to list the project or not.
• Templar Merlin: sounds good Glenn
• Gwynn Gunawan: ah
• You: We would only list projects with positive reviews; those without would not be listed
• Madhavi Linden: gywnn: we thought it would it better to set it up that way to prevent any 'gaming' or anything like that
• Gwynn Gunawan: do we get the review you say?
• You: Yes, you could decide to list that project or not after you see the review - which by the way would be a 1-5 star plus one line of text.
• Gwynn Gunawan: so, if its a bad review (because the boss didn't like you) you can’t list the project (even if the physical build is brilliant)?
• You: You could perhaps chose to list it without rating.
• Gwynn Gunawan: aye, that was my thought
• LiquidForce Rasoir: i don’t think it s a bad idea actually
• You: We would add a search by rating, so that encourages you to get ratings for your projects. But you wouldn't be required to, at least for now. We might require it later
• Gwynn Gunawan: list as reference (ie you can go look what it is) separate from 'reviewed' but, can't there be more reviewers, like ppl looking at builds, like record or movie reviews?
• You: Gwynn, after much discussion, we decided that rating would only be by your client.
• Gwynn Gunawan: ok
• You: If it was residents, it's easy to campaign for either bad or good ratings.
• PM Sands: no joyous praise from the group regarding this rating system, all the other initiatives sound awesome.
• Gwynn Gunawan: and does the review hold several 'items' .. building, timely delivery, scripting, within budget etc or how .. just a plain text? not talking but residents, talking bout lindens
• You: Plain text. And the rating is not by Lindens, it's by your client.
• Madhavi Linden: I believe having Lindens rate SPs can be problematic
• Gwynn Gunawan: yes, I know, I meant the 'extra' reviewers, not residents (which you can bribe or intimidate into submission)
• You: Gwynn, the other possibility that might make sense is to create a panel of residents and Solution Providers who could be requested to rate a project.
• Gwynn Gunawan: plain text, so how do you distill a rating from it?
• You: The rating would have 2 parts: 1-5 stars (like eBay or Amazon), and an optional line of text.
• Gwynn Gunawan: I'm all for peer review, really
• You: The other idea was to look at traffic to the site, but some projects aren't a whole sim and it would be hard to get traffic for them.
• Gwynn Gunawan: that is a very bad idea. I like the peer review in combination with client review
• yukiko Omegamu: some of the projects i do are intercommunication with an external server coding so some locations aren’t that big so it complicates that part
• Gwynn Gunawan: hm, I think there should be more star-items .. from the top of my head: building, scripting, reliability .. stuff like that
• You: Yukiko- exactly, which is why traffic seemed a bad idea.
• You: Gwynn, we thought it was worth starting small and simple.
• Gwynn Gunawan: yeah, ok, fair enough
• You: But you're right- some SP's are great at building, but not at scripting, others excel at marketing but not building....
• PM Sands: thanks for your long suffering patience on this topic.
• You: Ultimately, Lewis was right, your website or SLURLS need to be the way you show off what you can do...
• Gwynn Gunawan: and the best solution provider get exactly what the client doesn’t know he wants yet
• You: the directory can only be a starting point.
• yukiko Omegamu: what i would suggest is if the project is small and doesnt require a huge chuck of land which doesnt have much offer the ability too offer the sl project website for it instead and then list the clients sl office

Publicity

• yukiko Omegamu: theres two companies that already get enough promotion in sl can we get a limit on how much they show up on the listing for searches its gets frustrating seeing their projects show up so much
• You: Please note, we don't promote any specific solution provider and the directory is an alphabetical listing with search. There is no way to pay for a better position in the SP Directory. We did consider that and decided it didn't really help anyone.
• Gwynn Gunawan: yeah, I'm gonna change my name to 000000 studio gg square :)
• yukiko Omegamu: reason i stated that was because their projects get listed in your news headlines a lot
• Madhavi Linden: yukiko: Communication is a two-way street. We would love to hear about every SP's successful projects, it's better for all of us. Please either contact myself or Glenn or submit a success story.
• yukiko Omegamu: yes but there is no current way too list it on the sl website if its a high profile project unless its listed on the news
• You: (Yukiko, the press listings are based on a automated pull of news stories, we don't promote developers, we pull stories about SL taht are in the news.
• You: We believe that improving the quality of the companies listed in the Directory is good for you, for Second Life, and for businesses entering Second Life.

Search

• You: We're also working with our web design team to simplify and improve the search of the Directory, including whole-text search of your description and projects.
• Madhavi Linden: as part of the improved search is to improve the UI of the current Directory which eliminates the problem of always seeing the 'a' providers first
• PM Sands: cool
• Madhavi Linden: anyone looking for a provider would start on a search page they can search by keyword, skills, ratings, language etc. so they will only get the results they are looking for instead of having to wade through lots of information
• yukiko Omegamu: good
• Templar Merlin: one good thing would be a very prominent button on the home pages to link to the solution provider directory page, so that an individual looking for a provider finds it immediately
• PM Sands: the communities page is really bare...
• You: Templar - what do you mean by "home" pages?
• Templar Merlin: the home of sl.com
• Templar Merlin: and slgrid.net
• You: On SLGrid.net, it will be visible in the left navigation menu all the time, so it's only one click away.
• Templar Merlin: yes, I meant mainly the sl.com
• Templar Merlin: which is more visited
• You: Brett has had some good ideas about callouts to make it more visible on other pages as well.
• Templar Merlin: great
• You: Ironically, SLGrid.net gets more traffic than the old Business & Developer pages on SL.com did.
• PM Sands: or a log in message (besides sl rocks)
• You: The problem is getting people to the Directory once they get to SLGrid.net.
• You: We can look at the SLGrid link we put on SL.com to see if we can make it work better as well.
• Templar Merlin: it should have a clear indication that businesses should go there
• Brett Linden: Templar‚ I’ll pass on your comment about adding a SL Solution Provider button on secondlife.com to the team behind that site. That is a tricky one because the real estate on that page is geared toward the general consumer audience.
• Templar Merlin: the name SLgrid is not recalling anything to do with business
• Templar Merlin: perhaps in the link under the logo
• You: Yes, Templar, I think we may be able to make some simple changes to the SLGRid link on SL.com to better address this.
• Templar Merlin: there should be a statement saying ... if you are a company click here or something like this
• Templar Merlin: thanks
• You: Exactly!
• Brett Linden: We did just add a very prominent new horizontal promo for the Grid site itself and it is performing MUCH better in driving referrals to the Grid site than the older Secondlife.com design
• Templar Merlin: :-)

Closing

• You: Thank you all for coming today and for your input - and patience - on improving the SLGrid site and Directory.
• Templar Merlin: thank you Glenn for all the effort you are putting in this
• You: Madhavi and I are available for further input ro suggestions,
• PM Sands: thank you Glen, Madhavi, and Brett
• Brett Linden: thank you everyone!!!
• You: and you can alwasy reach us via sldevelopers@lists.lindenlab.com
• Gwynn Gunawan: oh, yeah, when do we stop being SLDEV cause we aint DEV at all :)
• Madhavi Linden: thanks to everyone for attending. We always appreciate your feedback!
• You: We particularly appreciate your comments on the ratings - we want to make sure what we do works for you and for businesses.
• You: LOL, Gwynn, moving you all to a new group is a lot of work and we're trying to focus on things that are visible and improve your situation.
• You: We hope to see you at future SLDev Forums (in spite of the SLDev name).
• Gwynn Gunawan: I allways wanted to be a dev but I was never smart enough :)
• Madhavi Linden: a reminder that there is a bug triage forum tomorrow @ 1000 SLT
• You: We'll get a transcript of this session up early next week.
• Gwynn Gunawan: thanks guys, catch you later