Generation V

UPDATE:  Mike Hendricksen at TechCrunch has a great summary of all of the activity going on in this space here:  Virtual World Hangouts.  What's amazing is the breadth, age range, and global scope...

Q:  What do the CNN YouTube Debate, the Wii, the proliferation of first-person shooter games, Facebook, Second Life and Webkinz have in common?

A: Generation V

What is Gen V?  Gen V is the Virtual Generation.  It's that born-around-early-90's group of people who move as easily among real environments as they do virtual.  It is the generation that expects immersion in their use of technology, the generation of people who don't distinguish between relationships they've developed on line and those created in-person.  It is the generation that feels just as connected in a pub on www.SecondLife.com as they do at the local Starbucks, even though some of Second Life's 8 million users are located halfway around the world.  In some cases, they actually feel more natural in these environments.  It is the generation that no longer gives out their email or IM address, but Facebook account or SecondlLife ID.

Too early, you think.  Consider my eight-year old daughter.  She is completely addicted to www.Webkinz.com and will play as often as we'll let her (which is a constant source of tension in our house). Recently, she was talking about a new friend she'd made and eventually I realized that she was referring to a Webkinz friend.  However, she spoke no differently than if she were talking about someone in her swimming class.  Her dialog moved effortlessly back and forth between real and virtual friends in the way she related to and communicated about them.  To me, it wasn't so much the depth of any one friendship versus another but the alacrity with which she moved between the real and the virtual.  Talk to any regular Facebook or Second Life user and you Will get the same impression.

Professionally, several points are starting to form a line.  A friend in Silicon Valley recently left a position at a big enterprise software vendor and landed the CEO spot at www.linkedin.  Another just started working as a senior officer at www.lindenlabs.com, exiting a job at a successful public company.  A third just launched a Machinima business.  We've seen ever increasing investment opportunities to address various virtual communities sponsored by very strong entrepreneurs.  As a VC, my most important skill needs to be Pattern Recognition.  And when I see several of the smartest people I know all make essentially the same bet, I need to pay close attention.  And all are betting on Gen V.

I think this is what Raj Kapoor was hinting at in his great post about generational disruption (http://vcinme.typepad.com/vc/2007/06/generational_di.html).  The ability to move seamlessly between technologies, and by extension, professional and personal experiences, defines one generation from the next.  Baby Boomers tend to use email less than the phone, Gen X'rs are more comfortable with email than IM, & Gen Y text's and IM's like crazy.  Gen V is defining itself by it's technology choices as well and in many cases those choices are virtual.