Developed in 2002 by Phillip Rosedale through Linden Lab, Second Life, the online three-dimensional virtual world has achieved a great success, which is seen in the dramatic increase of its “residents” especially from the previous year. In just five months, the number of “residents” inside Second Life has increased up to 5 million registered users from 1 million registered users in October 2006 with 85% of active residents (Wikipedia, 2007). Not a game, Second Life, indeed, is a virtual society and marketplace where individuals can create cultures and enter the entrepreneurship. More importantly, Second Life has also provided a great opportunity not only real life companies but also educators and government officials to interact with both their customers and citizens directly.
A Growing Virtual Marketplace
Second Life Lindel Dollar Exchange
Second Life provides its resident a platform not only to socialize but also to generate culture inside Second Life as they do in their real life similarly in the Sims except that they don’t need to sleep or eat in order to survive because they are immortal. Second Life actually moves beyond creating a life that the Sims has constructed into building a society where individual resident can create, buy, or sell goods and services.
A Shop in Second Life
Like a real society, Second Life’s virtual society Second Life also has its own economy and currency known as Linden Dollar (L$), which is exchangeable to US Dollars and other real world currency at LindeX. Currently, one US dollar is equal to L$270 (Wikipedia, 2007). As of March 2007, the flow of Lindel Dollars into unique users’ account has reached up to $31,929 USD (Lindel Research, 2007).
A House for
In fact, one of the most profitable businesses in Second Life is it s vir
tual real estate. With a premium membership at US$9.95 a month, residents can purchase land 512 m², use it and resell it freely for any purpose such as building their dream island, opening a club, or holding events. A notorious figure in real estate business inside Second Life is Anshe Chung, who was created by Ailin Graef, a Chinese-born language teacher living in
A Jump of Real Life Companies in Second Life’s Band Wagon
Seeing a huge development in Second Life, many real life business organizations have begun to set up their presence in Second Life to conduct training workshops for its employees, market their products and services, or hold virtual conferences. For instance, Leo Burnett, a worldwide renowned organization in advertising industry, has set up "creative hub" in Second Life for its’ globally staff to interact. Reuters has also entered Second Life as the pioneer in news broadcast to report virtual events in Second Life. Indeed, one of the most significant events in Second Life is Sun Microsystem’s first virtual press conference of a Fortune 500 Company on October 10, 2006.
Leo Burnett in Second Life (Posted by Millionsofus)
Second Life and Reuters (Posted by guhanreuters)
According to Mr. Chris Melissinos, Chief gaming officer at Sun Microsystems at an interview with BtoB of Craine Communication Inc. on December 11, 2006, Second Life provides the company two great advantages: access to a global audience who wouldn’t have the means to travel and whom they haven’t met before and ability to offer visual information with spoken or typed information, a “mash up of different modalities” that is impossible in conference call or chat. “It's a club. The world of Second Life provides an excellent approximation of what we do in real life. It's going to increase in personal value. We lose some of the face-to-face interaction but we gain from people being more candid” said Mr. Melissinos (Biba, 2006).
The Participation of Universities and Government Officials in the Crowd
Besides business organization, many universities and government officials have participated in Second Life to conduct a virtual classroom and to communicate directly with citizens. A prominent instance for colleges’ participation in Second Life is Ms. Rebecca Nesson, an instructor at Harvard University, who conducted her Legal Studies class in Second Life during the second half of 2006 (Wikipedia, 2007. “Normally, no matter how good a distance-learning class is, an inherent distance does still exist between you and your students. However, Second Life has really bridged that gap,” Ms. Nesson said. Besides, a great example of government official’s involvement in Second Life is Mr. Mark Warner, a former governor of Virginia, who was the first major politician participating in Second Life on September 1st, 2006 (Millionsofus, 2007).
Harvard's
Rebecca Nesson's Experience with Second Life (Posted by Charlesnesson)
Former Governor of Virgina, Mark Warner's Virtual Interview in Second Life (Posted by Millionsofus)
Second Life has marked an important breakthrough in the Internet’s revolution enabling individuals and real life companies not only to interact but also to bring in their real activities into the virtual world. In my opinion, Second Life is not a game, but indeed a new developed society in virtual world with real economy.
REFERENCES
Biba, E. (2006). Staging Second Life events can be tricky. B to B, 91(17), 17-17. Retrieved 18:00 April 06, 2007 from the Business Source Premier database.
BusinessWeek Online. (n.d.). Cover story - The land baroness. Retireved 10:00 April 06, 2007 from http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/04/avatar/source/2.htm
Linden Research Inc. (2007). Second Life - Economic statistics. Retrieved 8:00 April 07, 2007 from http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php
Wikipedia (2007). Anshe Chung. Retrieved 09:00 April 06, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anshe_Chung
Wikipedia (2007). Business and organization in second life. Retrieved 13:00 April 05, 2007 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Businesses_and_Organizations_in_Second_Life
Wikipedia (2007). Residents (Second Life). Retrieved 14:00 April 06, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_%28Second_Life%29
Wikipedia (2007). Second Life. Retrieved 16:00 April 06, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_life#Businesses_and_organizations_in_Second_Life
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