Who's Your Data?

Second Life is a web browser in 3D. You go online, for free and create an Avatar. You can spend 10 minutes or 10 hours creating your Avatar. I am opting for the gradual approach…changing a hairline here, elongating the finger nails there…you can go crazy with your Avatar. Some participants have opted for the chicken look. Once you have created your Avatar you enter the humongous world of Second Life. It is best to start out in the beginner’s land and learn to navigate around.

I got the hang of it in short order and was soon teleporting to nightclubs, parks and most interestingly of all…islands created and run by some of the top tech companies in the world. We’re talking Cisco, IBM, Sun and lots more. The Geek Squad has an area. Sears has a store. Why in the world would IBM create multiple sites on Second Life? My extensive lack of research suggests the following reasons: they want to anticipate the next myspace, facebook or youtube. There are now 6 million people (and chickens) signed up for Second Life. It is already a vastly superior experience to today’s boring Power Point driven webinar. Go to Sun Microsystems island and sit in on a presentation. You can interact directly with other attendees.

You can buy land on Second Life. I own 512 square meters of land. You can buy an entire island. It’s cheap. You convert real world money into Linden Dollars, named after the creators at Linden Labs.

Yes, there is some rough stuff on Second Life. There are R rated areas. If you go into it with the understanding that you are working with a web browser…it shouldn’t surprise you that there are a variety of experiences on Second Life. There are a variety of experiences all over the world wide web.

I have no idea where this thing is going. It could flame out in a few years or grow like crazy. I am impressed with the roster of corporations that already have a significant presence on Second Life. I have seen the lite.