Your Boss or Co-Worker May Be Living A Second Life

Over six million people are living secret lives. They change the way they look, drive different cars, live in different homes, talk to different people, shop in different stores, buy property their family doesn’t know about, and work at different jobs. Six million people are living as an Avatar in a Second Life 3D virtual environment.

If you’ve never heard of Second Life or Avatars, you’re not alone. There are 6 billion people living on the earth today and only 6 million of them are members of Second Life. Ok. I agree that’s alot. But, it’s far from being everyone. There are billions of people that have yet to get a “Second Life” and executive investors like Jeffrey P. Bezos, founder of Amazon.com and Pierre Omidyar, Ebay founder are hoping that they will.

Investing in the promise that Second Life will do well is not the only reason that the corporate world is interested in Second Life though. Corporations like IBM , Microsoft, Amazon, American Apparel, GM, Pontiac, Adidas, Toyota, Dell, Starwood Hotels,  Cisco Systems, Reuters, Sony, BMG Music Entertainment, Sun Microsystems, Nissan, and Adidas/Reebok, are setting up shop on Second Life, too. Corporations use their virtual environments to test their marketing strategies on Second Life citizens, host training sessions for employees in virtual training rooms, host conferences and seminars, find potential employees, and more.

Just as in real life though, corporations, who have set up virtual environments on Second Life, are being hounded by unhappy citizens in the virtual worlds they’ve created. Reports of protesting avatars are showing up at some corporate events. If your company is doing something that consumers don’t like, you can’t hide from them in Second Life. A group called the Second Life Liberation Army has targeted companies like Reebok and American Apparel Stores. They also want voting rights for avatars and stock in Linden Labs. Behind every avatar is a real person, who may or may not like your company, its products, or policies. If you’re thinking about setting up shop on Second Life, keep that in mind. You might want to read Gartner, Inc’s recommendations.

Individuals and corporate America aren’t the only ones interested in the Second Life. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Earth System Research Laboratory also have a presence on Second Life. Their site is geared towards educating its Second Life visitors. Click here to view a YouTube video about their Second Life project. Colleges like Ohio University are jumping on board with Second Life too. Click here to see how they are using Second Life to educate and reach out to students.
 

 

Second Life not only has the potential to increase revenue for businesses and colleges, it is creating new real-world millionaires too!  Ailin Graef, known in her Second Life as Ansche Chung is known as the “Rockefeller of Second Life”. She transformed her Linden dollars (currency used in Second Life) in to real world money by buying large plots of land, subdividing them, and developing them. She now owns a slew of virtual shopping malls, brands, and chain stores. Ailin, originally from China, moved to Germany with her husband, in the mid 1990s to teach English, German, and Chinese.You can read more about her amazing story on Wikipedi. Her success story has also been featured in Business Week, Fortune, & Red Herring.

How can you join Second Life? 

You can get a free account and avatar  simply by registering on their site. Once you sign up, you will have to download the Second Life application to your computer. Then you’re free to create your own virtual environment and explore Second Life for yourself! Have fun!

Tell us what you think about Second Life in our Viewer Discussions area!