MCTImagine a world where you can be anyone you want. You can fly through the sky, walk through transparent walls or even live on your own island.
This world really does exist -online.
Second Life, an interactive virtual world, is attracting millions of users, including students, professors, companies and nonprofit organizations to its online land. The site is used in a variety of ways, including marketing, sales, conferences and, well, second lives.
An alternative world
About 10.7 million people have registered for accounts on Second Life since the site was launched in May 2003, said Peter Gray, a Linden Labs external public relations agent from Lewis PR.
In the past month, just under a million people have logged in.
Second Life is an online virtual world in 3-D, Gray said. In the virtual world, there are no levels to pass. It is not a game.
It is a virtual platform, combining applications such as online games, social networking, user-created content and telecommunications for a variety of uses, Gray said.
The virtual world, and everything in it, is created and designed by its users, which are known as residents. All Second Life residents have avatars, Gray said.
An avatar is like a character. The avatar can be anything, human or not.
“One of the Linden Lab executives is a spaghetti monster,” Gray said. “He’s literally made out of spaghetti.”
Users name their avatars and can customize them with countless options, Gray said. The avatars can marry, build homes and have careers.
“It’s the virtual stand-in of yourself,” he said.
Costs are optional in Second Life. A basic account on the site is free. For additional accounts, users must pay a fee of $9.95. When signing up for free account, users are given 250 Linden Dollars to spend in the virtual world, Gray said.
If that is not enough, residents can update to a Premium Account for $9.95 a month, and are given a weekly stipend of 300 Linden Dollars.
Residents can also exchange real money for Linden Dollars to purchase things in the virtual world such as land, clothing and vehicles. The exchange rate for Linden Dollars to U.S. dollars is L270 to $1 USD.
On average, a little more than $1 million a day is transferred between users in Second Life, Gray said.
Educational
Matt Germonprez, assistant professor of Information Systems at UW-Eau Claire, introduced the Web site in his introductory Information Systems class as an alternative space, he said.
“It is unique and it is real,” he said.
Gray said Second Life has a healthy community of educators who use the site for learning.
Architecture is a good example of how the virtual world is used in education, Gray said. Sometimes, a professor builds a structure or building on Second Life and directs his or her students to the construction, which they view in 3-D.
Lectures are also conducted in the virtual world. Gray said the variety of tools makes Second Life a versatile teaching tool.
“I think it lends itself to education in several ways,” he said.
Business and Marketing
Businesses use Second Life in several ways, Gray said. Some of them use the site to promote their products while other companies use the site as an enterprise tool to hold meetings, interviews and training sessions.
Toyota Scion uses Second Life as a marketing tool, Adrian Si, Toyota Scion Interactive Manager said in an e-mail interview.
Residents can purchase a Toyota Scion in Second Life and completely customize the car, much like people can in real life, Si said.
Toyota promotes events on Second Life as well, Si said.
Other companies, such as Coca-Cola and Adidas, market their products on Second Life, according to the Second Life Web site.
Six thousand of IBM’s 300,000 employees belong to some type of virtual world community, said Michelle McIntyre, a spokeswoman for IBM.com.
IBM has also created a policy regarding avatar behavior, McIntyre said.
“It helps employees get around in the environment,” she said.
IBM recently launched a virtual business center in Second Life, McIntyre said. Employees run the center 24 hours a day, five days a week. It acts much like a real-life business center.
“We’re conducting IBM business in Second Life as we could over the phone, on the Internet or in person,” she said. “It’s just a new way to do it.”
The business center looks similar to a real-life business center, McIntyre said. The information is organized as it would be in real life. For example, if an avatar wanted to read a Redbook, a technical manual IBM uses, they would go to the virtual bookshelf in the virtual business center to get the book. McIntyre said many people find the virtual world easy to navigate.
There is one thing people can’t do at the virtual business center in Second Life: finish deals. McIntyre said the site isn’t a secure environment, so deals need to be finished through another method, such as the IBM Web site or via phone.
Since its opening in May 2007, the business center has had 13,000 visitors. McIntyre said the company has received positive feedback from clients and customers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also use Second Life as an enterprise tool, according to the Second Life Web site.
Forums
Second Life is also used as a forum platform.
The virtual world is the setting for a conference about the educational aspects of Second Life, sponsored by the Midwest chapter of the Association for Information Systems.
Germonprez, who is a member of the group, said members of the Midwest chapter will attend the conference via avatar, and the keynote speaker will address them as if they were in person. Germonprez said the chapter expects 50 to 70 people to attend.
The virtual business center also holds speaker events, McIntyre said. Recently, an author of one of IBM’s Redbooks was featured at a meet-the-author event. About 250 people attended the virtual meeting, she said.
Besides the business center, IBM owns 49 other islands in Second Life, McIntyre said. The islands are hosts to events such as meetings and conferences.
Virtual worlds aren’t going away, McIntyre said. According to research by the Gartner Group, 80 percent of Internet users will have some type of virtual life by 2011, according to the Gartner Group, an information technology research company.
These worlds are transforming the current ways of communication, she said.
“Meetings in the virtual world will become the norm,” McIntyre said.
Germonprez isn’t so sure.
“It’s easy to pin a value on something like an iPod or cell phone,” he said. “Second Life leaves a lot of people wondering.”
Germonprez said though he isn’t sure of exactly where Second Life and the other virtual worlds are going, he’s interested in seeing them evolve.
“I’m just curious,” he said. “Totally curious.”
