What is second life ? Second life is an internet-based 3D virtual world, entirely built and held by its residents but it’s not a real video game, there’s no rules, no missions, the originators define it as “a burgeoning new online society, shaped entirely by its residents” [1], that’s why we find a very heterogeneous population where each resident is animated by very varied ambitions: to find love, to spend good time by extirpating from their daily routines, to make deals, to advance the political debate, to find opportunites …

Opened to the public in 2003, the developpement started in 1991 by the Linden labs team [2] was massive. Today the world is inhabited by 2 millions people, and the population growing each month around 20%. Second Life is not the first virtual world in 3D but its fulgurating success make it one of the most promising innovations, a recent study shows that more than one hundred countries are respresented into the world, mostly by European union and United states (61% and 16%) [3].

How it works ?

The residents have the rights on their numerical creations, they can buy, sell and make trade with other residents. All the transactions in the virtual world are in “Linden dollars” or “Lindens” which is the in-world currency, you can buy 250 – 320 Linden dollars to US$1 [4], the exchange rate fluctuates, but most part of the time stays within the limit quoted (by the time i write this paper, $US 1 = $L 229,062). Although the exchange rate to the dollars is really bad, every day more than US$1,000,000 are spent in the Second Life world [5].

The “Broadband revolution”

According to the times online, in 1997, people spent 3,8 hours per week to play online; by 2009 this number would increase to 11,2 hours per week … One year ago, World of Warcraft, the best known multiplayer game had 1,7 millions subscribers; today the number of subscribers is more than 4 times higher ! “The growth of broadband, and the desire of a new generation to become immersed online” [6] could explain a part of the virtual world success. The virtual life : instant messengers, forums, blogs, video games etc … is a virgin world, where everything is possible if you have an internet connection.

1. The Real-world business

“This is going to be as big as the World Wide Web.” Steve Prentice

Chosing an avatar, a virtual character to represent themselves in a 3D universe, or installing its company Building there, became very tendancy; there are many reasons which encourage the managers to look at the virtual universes more closely. They can facilitate the work of their teams moved away geographically, they are a means of implying the customers in a process of innovation, they are an evolution of the electronic trade, they are a facilitator of integration of new recruits, the formation is also a sector impacted by virtuality. All these arguments are tracks of reflexion for many companies.

The potential of that virtual environment was highligthed by Gartner Inc. (analysis of the hype and reality around virtual world) in april 2007 to the “Gartner Symposium/ITxpo2007: Emerging trends”. They forecast that “80% of active Internet users would be engaged in virtual world but not necessary Second Life by 2011” [7]. Crunching current data, it would represent 320 million people engaged in all manner of virtual worlds in 2011 [8]. Steve Prentice, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner asserted that “The collaborative and community related aspects of these environments will dominate in the future” and “the majority of active Internet users and major enterprises will find values in participating in this area in the coming years”.

Roos Reynolds, is a Metaverse Evangelist based at IBM’s Hursley Park laboratory UK, he see Second Life as the future of the World Wide Web. He made a very interesting presentation entitled “Web, Web 2.0 and Virtual Worlds” (see below).[9]

[slideshare 25929 web-20-and-virtual-wolrds-11275]The web has moved, in the 90’s it was only text and graphics, then gradually there was audio (mp3) and video (mpeg, divx) more recently the web 2.0 as everybody named it, has developed the social networks and the user generated content phenomenon like Youtube, Flickr or Myspace. Second Life could the next evolution and many well known brand have understood it.

Here a list of some well know brand inside Second Life:

Adidas	sells virtual versions of its a3 Microride shoes
American apparel	Sells virtual versions of its colorful clothing and offers discount on purchases the real thing
Amazon	sells books and other items from within the virtual world, the results are displayed in 3D and when you find the second life client lets you launch the amazon website in your normal browser to make your purchase
Dell	sells virtual computer and real computer as in the real life. The virtual computer could make some basic task like reading rss feeds.
IBM	They have replicated 2 of their real world sites, the hurley labs in England and the Almaden Research centre in California. IBM also holds workshops for developers on a private island using Second Life scripting tools.
Sun Microsystems	Runs development conference, training for Java Technologies and holds press briefing.
Warner Bros.	Releases the last album of Regina Spektor, Avatars were able to hang out, chat and listen.
Toyota	Release a driveable model of its scion xB in the virtual world

The presence of a number of university also shows a real awakening of these establishments for an “other school “. The e-learning (v-learning ?) aspect in second Life is very important because it makes it possible to do it in an interactive, Community and ludic way.

Here a list of some well know University inside Second Life:

RMIT University

Harvard University

Buena Vista University

INSEAD – The Business School for the World

New York University – McGhee Division

Stanford University

London College of Communication

2. The Virtual Business ( v-business )

A lot of people who sign up for Second Life expect to make money, and many of them expect to make a lot of money. But just a few have succeeded, however the article “My virtual life” of Business week [10] claim that around 3100 residents earch a net profit on an average of $US 20,000 in annual revenues.

One SL residents who symbolizes sucess is Ailin Graef, more known under its pseudonym Anshe Chung. This chinese-born language teacher started her “second life” in 2004 with only $US 9,95, today her firm : Anshe CHung Stuios, has a net worth exceeding $US1 Million from profits entirely earned inside the virtual world. Her company, based in China is currently seeking to increase from 25 to 50 employees. “Anshe/Ailin achieved her fortune by beginning with small scale purchases of virtual real estate which she then subdivided and developed with landscaping and themed architectural builds for rental and resale. Her operations have since grown to include the development and sale of properties for large scale real world corporations”. [11]

Another sucess story in Second life is Nathan Keir, more known under “Kermit Quirk”, he is 31 year old programmer and live in Australia. He invented a game , Tringo a combination of bingo, sudoku and crosswords, The game became so popular with 300 selling at 15000 Linden Dollars (around $ 50 in Australian dollars ) that a real world company : Donnerwoord Media, early this year, bought the right to sell Tringo in the real world, and will be rolling out soon on a number of plateform, including the famous Nintendo Game Boy advance and cellphones. [12]
But as Michael Rymaszewki said in “Second Life : the official Guide”, “Getting rich in Second Life requires roughly as much effort, skill, and luck as getting rich in real life.”[13]

To summary …

Although Second Life may be known as a fantasy world, it’s increasingly becoming a marketing platform for real products from the best-know companies. I’m not sure that virtual worlds are good replacements for what we do today on the traditional World Wide Web, but when i see the success of Google earth for example i could imagine that there will be a “flat web” and a “3D Web”. The interests for the company at this times is more to be able to understand the virtual worlds and most of all survey what is happening here than to make a significative business, Gartner company tells its enterprise clients they should investigate and experiment with virtual world but “limit substancial financial investments until the environment stabilize and mature”. [14]

If you live in a place like China where average incomes are low, your second life income could be sgnificant. It’s interesting to think about that, a place like a Virtual World could help a country. And by the time, many rich countries outsources their developments or anything else, it’s not hard to imagine holding a full time job or attending a class there.

The virtual worlds is not to be taken lightly, it could become in the next 5 or 10 years as important as the World Wide Web today.

References

[1] Second Life company website (accessed 20/08/2007) http://lindenlab.com/press/releases/03_04_28_2

[2] Rymaszewski, Michael (2007, p.6) Second Life : the official guide Hoboken, NJ : Wiley Publishing

[3] (acessed 20/08/2007) http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1425

[4] Rymaszewski, Michael (2007, p.11) Second Life : the official guide Hoboken, NJ : Wiley Publishing

[5] Second Life website (accessed 20/08/2007) http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php

[6] Times Online (accessed 20/08/2007) http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article721298.ece

[7] Valleywag (accessed 20/08/2007) http://valleywag.com/tech/second-life/gartner-researchers-clarify-virtual-enthusiasm-290814.php

[8] accessed (20/08/2007 ) http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/04/25/gartner-sees-80-virtual-world-penetration-by-2011/

[9] Blog of Roo Reynolds (accessed 20/08/2007) http://rooreynolds.com/2007/02/22/web-20-and-virtual-worlds-presentation/

[10] Business Week “My virtual life” (20/08/2007) http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm

[11] Ailin Graef / Anshe Chung website http://www.anshechung.com/include/press/press_release251106.html

[12] The Sydney Morning Herald (accessed 20/08/2007) http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/its-here-your-chance-at-a-second-life/2006/10/13/1160246273858.html

[13] Rymaszewski, Michael (2007, p.212) Second Life : the official guide Hoboken, NJ : Wiley Publishing

[14] Bizreport (acessed 20/08/2007) http://www.bizreport.com/2007/04/by_2011_80_percent_of_internet_users_will_have_a_virtual_lif.html