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It was Dedric Mauriac who first accidentally noticed it, which prompted him to mention it at his blog; that brought it to the attention of Rik Riel, who mentioned it at his blog; and that brought it to my attention, because I'm a big fan of Rik Riel (as mentioned here before). And the story was this: that Apple Computers was very quietly and sneakily building their first-ever in-grid store...and they were building it on the mainland, too.

Yeah, pretty big news, because...well, you know, companies that size just never build their SL presences on the mainland. Does that make no sense to you readers who have still never actually logged into SL? Well, think of it this way -- that much like a videogame, part of Second Life's universe is a huge block of related land (much like a continent), where individual players can buy suburban plots and small commercial store for the same price as owning cable television or a Netflix account out in the real world; and then there's the opportunity to buy your own island as well, 64,000 square meters total, for roughly US$4,000 a year, like you're seeing in the above screenshot from the main map, in this case owned by the car company Nissan. Many people in the traditional business world, in fact, see absolutely nothing different between paying $4,000 a year for an island in the grid, and $4,000 a year for a reliable eCommerce-based website; these people are often referred to as 'Augmentalists,' as coined by Lys Ware.

Here's a shot of Nissan Island, in fact, from closer in; as you can see, they have a race track where people can try out their cars, including a physics-defying loop-de-loop in the middle, as well as a fantastical "vending machine" for doling out their full-sized cars, something you can just imagine a couple of smart, snotty creatives in an ad agency coming up with, when told that their next assignment was to "build something cool in Second Life." Now, do you look at the above photo and see this really wonderful creative opportunity -- a chance to be handed 64,000 square meters of virtual land, to build something unifying and amazing and that all relates to each other? Or do you look at the photo and think, "My God, I'm already bugged a dozen times a day by MySpace, I don't need this?" Depending on your answer, that makes you either an Augmentalist (if you picked the former choice), or its nemesis, the Immersionalist (the latter choice).

Take, on the other hand, what I found when visiting the mainland space where the Apple store supposedly was. Again, what's going through your mind when you see this? Do you think, "Wow, look at all the cool random stores that are right next to each other; I'm going to have a great afternoon exploring all this?" Or do you think, "My God, look at that clutter and visual pollution and all the crap?" Again, depending on the answer, that makes you an Immersionalist or Augmentalist respectively; and that also determines whether you enjoy the mainland more, or visiting a series of private islands in the middle of the ocean.

As mentioned here before, I believe that there's room in one metaverse for both these types of residents to happily exist; and what's more, I think it's actually beneficial for both groups to be in the same virtual universe, in that they can randomly have occasional days or nights living "the other life," so to speak. My main point, though, is that there is definitely a clear line of decided division in opinion between these two groups regarding many subjects; and the irony is that the Immersionalists clearly see this, while many of the Augmentalists still don't.

I read it all the time, in fact, whenever I go to a marketing blog these days, and hear it all the time at marketing events I attend (which is what I do during the day in real life, by the way, for anyone who's confused); "How do we actually reach SL residents? Why do they keep making fun of our projects and calling us f***tards? Hey, just because we called ourselves 'the first company to actually make money in Second Life' doesn't mean we should be crucified, right?" Well, that's the simple yet elusive thing that marketers need to understand about long-time SL residents: that they've now witnessed MySpace fatally corrupted by corporate influence, and YouTube, and Craigslist, and all the other former interesting and little-known spaces online for libertarian creative freedom; and many of them like SL so much that they've decided to take a stand here, and to say "no more" to these corporate intrusions.

That's what made Apple's apparent project on the mainland so intriguing, and something that immediately brought up red flags with me when I heard about it; because if it was true, they'd be the first company of that size to actually cater to the Immersionalists in Second Life, the first to say, "Yes, we agree that there are too many corporate islands sucking traffic away from your cool little stores. We're instead going to build little stores all over the mainland, rely on foot traffic because you find it important too, and try to blend into the surroundings instead of trying to take over." Listen up, marketers, because it's real simple: Immersionalists in the grid simply want you to respect what they've already been doing, and to create projects that complement their activities instead of killing those activities off. It's not too much more complicated than that; really.

Now alas, by the way, as the smarties out there have already figured out; that as soon as word starting leaking to the mainstream about a secretive Apple store being built on the mainland, the secretive Apple store suddenly disappeared, as did the free t-shirts being handed out, as did the supposed architect who was gabbing all about the future small Apple stores that were to be eventually built all over the mainland. So that then leaves us with a really intriguing question: Did Apple actually start a secret campaign of small retail stores, then pull it when a blogger accidentally stumbled across it, or was it a hacker who was building an illegal store and then freaked out? Hmm, I guess we'll never really know, not until someone official at Apple (i.e. verifiable) finally comes out and mentions the official story, say for example in the comments section of someone's highly opinionated and sometimes self-righteous SL blog (hint hint). I'll say this, though; of all the real-life companies out there who I could imagine coming into Second Life these days, Apple most fits my expectations of the ones who would integrate themselves into the Immersionalists' mainland area.

Now, I almost hate to admit this, given the growing audience around the world I have at this site; but in reality I've actually owned a series of Apple shirts now for over six months, ones that I clearly know are illegal, and in fact wear them all the time. (And just to be even more litigious, here's a shot of me in one and a pair of panties. Seriously, Apple lawyers, don't sue me! I don't actually have any money!) I think it's very smart when people compare Second Life right this moment to the web in 1994; that even as a handful of very famous companies are making their first tentative steps into the environment, it still mostly exists as a lawless area of semi-anarchy, a virtual Hong Kong where the entire environment becomes a kind of perpetual gray market.

Some moments in the grid, frankly, remind me of a night I once had in real-life Berlin in 2003, smoking a joint in plain view in a public bar, in a section of the city where pot was supposedly illegal. It was technically illegal to be sure; but since not a single person in your vicinity actually cared, including the police, it in reality became a socially legal thing to do anyway. That's how I often feel about Second Life these days, no matter how much the PR flaks don't want it to get out; and I think a lot of marketers would do themselves some good by thinking along these lines themselves, and how best they can integrate legally and profitably into such an environment. Again, just like they had to figure out on the web in 1994.