Glocal surprises at Metanomics

I started exploring Second Life about a year ago. One of the main reasons I decided to stay was Metanomics. The show also helped me explain to colleagues and friends why Second Life could be interesting: creating platforms for cosmopolitan intellectual discussions, a place where cultures can meet, a place for concrete collaboration.

At first I just watched the show, passively. After a few times I could not resist the temptation to use the backchat to participate in the live commentary by the audience.

The inevitable happened: after a while I started to talk privately to other members of the audience, only to discover Metanomics is not just a show, but a community. I got acquainted and befriended to quite a few avatars, but I was in for a big surprise...

Metanomics can be watched from a number of partner sites in Second Life. It is a clever way to allow big crowds to not only watch the show, but also to participate by asking questions and by commenting, using the Chatbridge.
I attended shows on Muse Isle, the main venue, and on partner sites such as Colonia Nova, NMC Outreach and Rockcliffe.

Fairly recently the all-knowing webmaster and event organizer Bjorlyn Loon looked puzzled at me, or rather at my avatar Olando7 Decosta, and said:"Olando, why the heck did you never go to our partner site MetaPartners? Those guys are Belgians, just like you!".

It was true. For some obscure reason I never went to Metapartners. Better have a look there, so I thought.

Belgium is not exactly known as a big presence in Second Life, so I was very surprised to find out that MetaPartners currently owns 19 islands in Second Life, making it the largest sim owner in Belgium.

So what the hell were those guys doing? Why did I not find out about this before? I met in-world avatar Frans Tomsen (Frans Waumans in real life), the CEO and co-founder of MetaPartners, which is the brainchild of the owners of Packaging & Converting Essentials (a content provider for the graphical and packaging industries) and UniPartners (outsourcing of IT specialists).

Packaging & Converting Essentials has been using Second Life for almost a year now as an additional communications tool to its RSS feeds, newsletters and website.

UniPartners, with over 80 IT specialists, uses the virtual world as a recruitment area, a meeting place for its own employees, a place for staff meetings, trainings and conferences. In addition to that, UniPartners also has a competence and R&D center.

Pretty impressive stuff, but that did not explain why I did not know about it. So I looked further. Where in Belgium were those guys? Well... they have their headquarters in Antwerp, the town where I live, behind my street corner, so to speak. The glocal village in action!

The real life typists of Olando7 Decosta and of Frans Tomsen took their very physical cell phones and decided to meet on a beautiful square in Antwerp, and had some beers on a terrace (Frans drinking a slightly stronger version of Belgian beer).

Why did I not learn about all this before? Frans smiled. He explained how he disliked the mindless hype. Frans:

When a company calls me, and tells me they want to get on Second Life, I always ask them for what purpose. Short term, that is not always a good thing for business. Long term, it is the only way to go.

As soon as a company has some insight in what it can do and achieve in Second Life, Frans introduces the management and collaborators in the virtual world, taking his time. It is not an easy ride for the customer: Frans wants a person who is really in charge of the project, and who participates on a very regular basis in in-world meetings.

"It is such a shame that a show like Metanomics is only known by a few people in Belgium", Frans continued. Feeling inspired by Frans, I mused: "Maybe we can change that. Gradually, but collaborating with others in an intense way." He smiled approvingly. Time for another Belgian beer.