One of the nice things about having a column in the Active Worlds newsletter is being able to voice concerns that all of us have. This month I want to address the dwindling population in Active Worlds. It should be very obvious to everyone on this that most of the ground zeros are unpopulated. There was a time when there were hundreds of users in the worlds and lots of builders. A lot of our current builders date to the heyday of the universe. We need new builders!
Limited Budget
It has not escaped my attention that Active Worlds does not advertise. Many of you think that Active Worlds is a very large corporation but in actuality it's only seven people living in tiny cubicles in Newburyport, Massachusetts and they operate on a limited budget. There is no money for advertising. On the other hand Second Life does advertise and has an online population in the thousands. Strange as it may seem Active Worlds is in many regards a much better platform. We have better infrastructure, no virtual economy, excellent objects, new capabilities and finally avatars that are the equal of any other universe (albeit our avatar still can't sit down).
Our universe is the oldest continuously operated virtual-reality service on the web. The reason Active Worlds keeps it running may be partially out of nostalgia. But, the citizens of our universe actually provide very valuable service to the company and don’t know it. We do a lot of beta testing. We get the first shot at new stuff before the company sells it to other clients.
Every citizen and tourist that uses Active Worlds on a regular basis does so as an investment of time and effort in the various builds and friendships they have. If we are to keep what we have operational in the long run we have to make it profitable to the company to do so even if they will not assist.
Post to YouTube
What can you do to help? It's very simple. Simply tell everybody you know how great Active Worlds is. You could take your laptop to a store with WiFi and play in AW telling anyone who asks about it. Further, volunteer to demonstrate at your school or at a function. I have done this with a degree of success already if you recall several months ago I demonstrated Active Worlds at the National Building Museum to over 3000 people.
I am also a speaker at several conferences and use Active Worlds as part of my presentations. I am older and well establish in industry but those of you who are younger can still generate interest. Try writing an AW story for your school newspaper or if you are in a small town for your local newspaper. You can also join any number of forums outside of AW and post information about your experiences here. Tell your Facebook friends to tell their Facebook friends! Post a cool video on YouTube!
Find a New Person Month
The key to success is for everyone to get involved and make it a priority to welcome every new person who visits. There are two groups hard at work at this already the first is the Gatekeepers, the welcome wagon for Active Worlds, and the Peacekeepers who keep it safe and enforce the guidelines. I should also add there are teachers at AWSchool and the guides for AWTours.
There are also building communities like SW City. Joining any one of these organizations supports the overall community but nothing beats dragging a new person along for the ride. So in closing, everyone who reads this is to try their best to get as many new people in world as possible. Further, use the AW forum to post any ideas for events as well as ideas for places to get the word out. And by “out” I mean completely out of Active Worlds to places where no one has ever heard of us. (And that's just about every place in the world!)
I hereby declare the month of February to be "Find a New Person" month. Learn more on the AW Forums.