Kiosk.Net V9 Product Info
The Kiosk.Net system is a revolutionary all-in-one item distribution, advertising,
and group messaging system. It is an enterprise ready, scalable, powerful and reliable
system to inform, distribute, and advertise your products. The heart of the system
is a powerful networked and web-integrated kiosk network that can be used to give
out any kind of object - magazines, club schedules, group info, freebies, anything
at all. In addition you have mutiple ways of displaying textures on your kiosks
to advertise your products and services.
It is ideal as a magazine kiosk system and maintaining a list of subscribers
that you can automatically send your next issue out to with just a few clicks.
Kiosk.Net is great for networked advertising displays, giving you a ton of flexibility
to display multiple ads and even give out different items depending on which texture
is clicked.
The system is highly configurable and offers a ton of features in one integrated
package to help you design quality kiosks to reach a wide audience, such as the
integrated subscriber system that allows people to subscribe to your subscriber
list, with all the usual IM and object sending features you'd expect and then
some.
Web Integration
Kiosk.Net is fully web integrated. Data about each Kiosk network is stored internally
on a robust, reliable SQL Server database, allowing you to quickly get valuable
data and reports about all of their kiosks across the grid. You can easily manage
your kiosk networks right from your own personal kiosk network administrator dashboard.
The system does not depend on severly limited and slow in-world "databases" but
on a real database system that is always up-to-date, accurate, and available from
any web browser, any time.
Kiosk.Net owners also have data available to them on which of their kiosks is
getting the most clicks per month, week, or day, available on the website, in simple
bar chart format. This will help you see which of your locations are the most valuable
in terms of reaching your customers.
All administration is done via your own private web page called your Dashboard,
which you can access at any time by clicking the Dashboard menu item on your server.
Click the thumbnails below to see screenshots from the website:
Kiosks
The system comes supplied with a whopping 25 fully-configured, full permission,
professionally designed kiosks that you can use immediately, or take apart and use
as the basis to build your own custom kiosk. No need to be a wiz builder to use
this system and have awesome looking kiosks! If you do want to build your own, it's
very easy to simply copy the configuration of one of the sample kiosks into your
own prims and have a working kiosk in no time.
The kiosks operate in multiple, dynamically updateable modes which can be changed
via settings at the server, at any time. All kiosks will automatically change modes
to adapt to your needs. These new improvements give you more power on how you distribute
mutiple items, giving your customers more choices right from your kiosks.
Kiosk modes include:
- Simple mode, which is the easiest to configure and use. In this mode the kiosks
give out all the items you have put into the server contents and automatically flip
through the textures you put into the server, which can be set to any number of
seconds.
- Simplearrow mode, which adds navigation arrows so that customers can flip through
your textures by clicking the nav arrows. This is accomplished with no additional
prims.
- Cycle mode, where specific items are given out depending on what texture the user
clicks. The textures cycle on a configurable time with no limitations.
- Cyclearrow mode, which cycles textures on a time and adds navigation arrows so customers
can flip through the textures manually. Specific items are given out depending on
which texture is clicked. This mode supports Shared Media shown on the kiosk
as well as textures, too.
- Auto mode, which rezzes and arranges prim buttons in a grid arrangement automatically
with user-defined textures on each button that give out different objects, as defined
by you.
- Virtual mode, which allows you to lay out as many "virtual" clickable buttons on
your texture as you like that give out different objects, but all on a single prim.
A special tool is provided to help you very easily define virtual buttons for your
kiosk.
- Multi mode, which is similar to Auto mode but allows you full customization of up
to 63 display surfaces in one kiosk
If you decide that a different kiosk mode suits your needs better after you have
already deployed kiosks, no problem. Just change the mode you want to use at your
server, configure everything as appropriate, and your existing kiosks in the field
will automatically change to the new mode. It's like having 6 kiosk types in
one, and never needing to replace them in the field if you'd like to try a different
mode!
On your kiosks, you can configure a special banner prim with two optional buttons
to help promote your business: 1) teleport to a specific location such as your headquarters,
and 2) display a web page. These options will be critical for generating direct
teleport traffic to a location of your choice and web page views to help your business.
If your location moves, or your website URL changes, no problem. They can be modified
and changed at any time, from your server, and all of your kiosks will update with
the new location and/or website.
Your kiosk can be set up to pre-load textures so no more fuzzy slow-rezzing textures,
they will "snap" into place as they change on your kiosks!
Shared Media
Kiosk.Net supports Shared Media displayed on the kiosk display. This is a very
powerful way to get your message across - any web content can be displayed on your
kiosks, even video. Check out the Shared Media sample in the kit to see shared media
in action. You can have any mix of textures and HTTP URLs configured to display
on the kiosks, and an optional texture to display for people that have shared media
turned off at the time.
Group subscriber messaging/delivery service
The system also includes a group subscription messaging service. Customers can
simply click the "subscribe now" button on your kiosks to join your own subscriber
group associated with your kiosk network. They can optionally receive items immediately
on subscribing, such as an intro notecard and a welcome gift. Using the special
"IM Machine" tool provided, you can IM your subscriber group messages and send them
any kind of items any time you want. There are no limitations on the number of IMs
or objects you can send. Customers can add or remove themselves from the subscriber
group and see a history of messages and objects, and can even click one to be redelivered
at any time, from any kiosk. No need to pay for an external group subscriber service
- it's included for free!
You can also IM or send objects specifically to anyone that is an owner of one
of your kiosks so that you can communicate with them, distribute items to them,
and manage as a special group as well.
Group sending is FAST - 5x faster than the V8 release and competing subscriber
systems and contains some powerful date-based and repeat sending features the others
do not have. You can set your messages to go out at a specific date/time in case
you are not online at the time!
Included in the system is a special HUD gadget you can give out that makes it
very easy for people to get info about your subscriber group, join the group, get
a list of previously sent messages and have them resent, or leave your subscriber
group. This is great when people ask to be subscribed/unsubscribed when you are
in world. All you need to do is send them the subscriber HUD and they can take care
of it!
System Capabilities
The system is scalable and can handle up to 1000 kiosks (due to a hard SL limitation)
with just one server. Grow with confidence that your system can definitely handle
the load. Servers are copyable so you can rez as many as you need and set up as
many networks as you need.
You can assign multiple Administrators for your entire system if you want an
employee to help maintain your kiosk network. They can operate your server and even
access your Dashboard and specific kiosk networks so that they can get access to
all the data to run the entire network if necessary. No longer is your entire system
tied to a single avatar, which makes transferring ownership of the entire network
to someone else very easy.
The system is also the fastest in SL. You will notice with other kiosk systems
there is a very noticeable delay between when a kiosk is clicked and the items are
delivered. Not so with Kiosk.Net. The items are delivered immediately, typically
in under one second! The Kiosk.Net system does not use "llEmail" to communicate,
which has always been a very problematic communication protocol and is not going
to be fixed or improved by LL any longer. Instead Kiosk.Net uses the latest HTTP
communication protocols that are fully supported by LL, so you can be confident
that all the existing bugs with the old, slow, and unreliable llEmail style communication
will never plague you.
System Reliability and Backup
Your Kiosk.Net network of kiosks, unlike other kiosk systems sold today, is impossible
to destroy. If you accidentally pick up or delete a server, all you need to do is
rez a backup copy and with one click your network is back in operation. Making backup
copies of your server is easy - just click "take a copy" from the standard object
pie menu. If you don't have a backup copy, no problem. Rez a new server, configure
it just like your old server, and you're back in business. Be very wary of kiosk
systems that can be destroyed by removing in-world servers by accident. Even systems
that use "back up" servers in-world are vulnerable. Kiosk.Net does not need complicated
configurations of backup servers or routers to keep your system safe.
Since all data is stored on a web server, you can NEVER lose any data by a full
script reset of a kiosk or server, ever. Be careful of systems that store their
data in unreliable, slow in-world LSL scripts. They are always vulnerable to a simple
reset, and your data is gone, unless you take time to make cumbersome email or manual
copy and paste backups of your kiosk list.
Kiosk script upgrades, should that ever become necessary due to bugs or added
features in future versions that you may want to take advantage of, are simple for
your customers. All they need to do is drop a special supplied upgrader object near
their kiosks, and they will upgrade automatically. That's it. It doesn't get any
simpler. No need to replace kiosks.
Customer Service is a keystone of my business success, as any of my customers
will be glad to attest when they have needed help. You are not alone, I will be
there for you if you get stuck or don't understand how to make something work.
I am constantly improving the extensive online documentation to help you get the
most out of your product and give you all the info you need to have a trouble-free,
enterprise-ready kiosk network that will help your be successful with your business.
Sample Networks
With all of these many features, there are many many options avaialble to configuring
your server and kiosks. To make it very easy to get a good idea of what a complete,
working configuration looks like, I have supplied 5 complete working sample networks
for you to rez and examine. There's simply nothing better to help learn a new
system than a working example, and I've supplied one example for every type
of kiosk mode available so you always have a working version to start with. This
greatly simplifies the getting started process and also gives you a great visual
example of what exactly all these crazy kiosk modes are and what they do!
Kiosk Donation Mode
This is a very powerful feature that can turn your kiosks into "donation"
kiosks that will accept donation payments. This is a great way to run a fund raiser
or collect contributions for sim/club expenses, etc. Full detailed records of every
payment made are stored online for you to view and the donation system is secure
and dependable to avoid potential fraud. You can give out an object whenever a donation
is made (such as a thank you gift/notecard) and customize the messages given to
donors. The kiosks will display the total donations (from all kiosks) above each
kiosk, updated hourly. You can easily split donation payments and customize the
amounts shown in the standard payment dialog. All of this can be modified at any
time from the server.
Subscription Payment Mode
This mode allows you to collect regular payments from kiosk owners for any kind
of value-add service that you provide your kiosk owner customers. Tou can set your
fees to be a flat rate, a per kiosk rate, or any combo of the two, and also specifiy
a weekly cap (maximum) weekly payment. The current number of days left on each subscription
are shown on your kiosk list on the website so you can easily track who is expired
and who is active.
Disaster Recovery and Fail-Over
If your server is ever accidentally returned, recovery is simple - just re-rez
the server and with a few clicks your network is back to normal. Backing up a server
is very simple - just make a copy of it. If it ever vanishes, just rez the copy
somewhere and your network will instanly be back in business. In addition, the system
supports a fail-over technology that allows you to rez multiple copies of the same
server in different sims, and if one sim goes down, the other copies of your server
will automatically take over as the main server and your network will quickly recover
and remain operational. Moving a server is a snap, just pick it up and rez it somewhere
else. No complicated and risky procedures for moving a server.
System Admins
You can add people to a special list of system admins, and with a few clicks
they will have full access to your kiosk list online to help you manage your network,
and will be allowed to send IMs to your customers as well. This is a great way to
have your employees help maintain your system and do everything that you can do
as well.
Server Groups
This feature allows you to easy expand a single kiosk network by letting you
group physical networks of kiosks into one logical network. On the website, all
of the data from these grouped networks appears as one logical network that you
can manage as one. This essentially lets you add as many kiosks to one logical network
as you want - there is no limit. If your main network gets too big, you can simply
add a server, set up a new network, and group the new network with the existing
network and continue to expand as far as you want.
Showing Your Kiosks Online
In the V9 documentation online, I have some HTML you can use to easily show your
list of kiosks on any website. This is a great way to make a clickable list of your
kiosk locations available to anyone. They can just click the SLURL and go. In addition
there is some HTML you can use for a gadget to put on your blog that shows a very
small clickable list of your locations. This is a fantastic way to show a list of
real estate locations, for example. Just drop a kiosk on each parcel you have for
sale and it will instantly be visible on your website list of parcel locations for
sale.
Kiosk Ring Addon
Included in the system is an additional capability to easily create and automaticaly
manage a traditional "ring" system, where each location has a standard
kiosk.net kiosk as a "welcome" kiosk and an additional addon kiosk that
gives out a free gift (placed into the kiosk by the kiosk owner) and an automatic
map popup to the next location in the ring. This is by far the easiest way to create
and maintain a reliable and accurate ring of locations to encourage people to visit
your kiosk locations!
Tour HUD
Included is a complete system for easily creating an automatic Tour HUD to all
your kiosk locations. This is a great way to get customers to visit those locations
and demonstrate to your customers that you are sending traffic their way. The HUD
is simple to operate, with a menu of options and two navigation arrows to go to
the next/previous location. The HUD is always up-to-date and no updates are necessary
as kiosk locations come and go. If you do ever need to send out an updated tour
HUD, an update server is included so that if someone wears an outdated HUD,
they automatically get sent the new one.
Kiosk.Net Tools
Included in the kit are some auxilary tools to help you monitor and maintain
your kiosk network.
Each network is monitored by a special tool called the Watchdog that will keep
an eye on your connectivity to the kiosk network and alert you via email (I have
my alerts sent to my cell phone, for instance) if something is interrupting your
network so that you can proactively handle problems and not be caught unaware.
I have also included a very handy kiosk distribution tool called the MDOG (Menu-Driven
Object Giver) to make it very easy to distribute your kiosks (or multiple types
of kiosks) through multiple distribution paths - your in world vendors, SL Marketplace,
(and other shopping networks), group notices, etc. etc. Everything
can be simplified to ONE object, the MDOG kiosk requester, to give out via all these
paths, which makes updating your kiosk a snap - no need to go update all those vendor
boxes, you just update your one MDOG server with your new kiosk(s) and they are
instantly available to everyone getting your kiosks no matter what the source is.
Product Comparison
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Kiosk.Net
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IntelliNet
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Price
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L$5,750
|
L$2,395
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|
Distributes Any Object
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|
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Auto Language Detection for Notecards
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|
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Rotates Multiple Textures
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|
|
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Give Different Items Per Texture
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|
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Clickable Kiosk Arrows (Texture Cycle)
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|
|
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Kiosk Capacity Per Network
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unlimited
|
1000
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|
NO Risk of All Kiosk Permanent Disconnetion
|
|
|
|
Subscription system
|
full-featured
|
basic
|
|
Full-Perm Sample Kiosks Provided
|
23
|
28
|
|
Administer Kiosk List Online
|
|
|
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Kiosk Click Charts Online
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|
|
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Dynamic Kiosk Modes
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|
|
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Shared Media Support
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|
|
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Virtual Button 1-Prim Kiosk Mode
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|
|
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Separate Display Prims Per Kiosk Allowed
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63
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1
|
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Subscriber limits
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unlimited
|
limited
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Transfer Entire Network to New Owner
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|
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"Copy + Rez" Easy Server Backup/Restore
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|
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Auto Fail-Over Multiple Server Redundancy
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|
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All Data Safe from Script Reset Loss
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|
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Sample Networks Provided
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8
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0
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Kiosk Donation Payment Mode
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|
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Kiosk Subscription Payment Mode
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|
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Kiosk Location Tour HUD
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|
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Kiosk Ring Addon
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|
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Kiosk Network Monitoring Tool
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|
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Kiosk Distribution Tool
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sold separately
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Manage Subscriber IM History Online
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Subscriber Resends
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Subscriber HUD
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Subscriber Auto-Repeat Send
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Subscriber Send at Set Day/Time
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Subscriber Send Speed
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8x
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1x
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Subscriber Welcome Gift/Message
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|
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Kiosk Teleport Button
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Kiosk Website Button
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Full Updated Documentation Online
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Kiosk Listing On Your Website
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Kiosk Communication Protocol
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HTTP (Fast)
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Email (Slower)
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Kiosk.Net has been chosen by Linden Labs as the official kiosk network of the
SL6B birthday event as well as Burning Life 2009.
In summary, Kiosk.Net v8is the most powerful, reliable, scalable, enterprise-ready
advertising, subscriber messaging, and item distribution system available in Second
Life. If you are determined to make your business grow, don't get caught stuck
with an inferior product unable to meet your changing needs or grow along with your
business. Go with the best, Kiosk.Net!
For more information on how Kiosk.Net works, you can view the documentation
here.