![]() ![]() Management consultants McKinsey & Company warned that companies would ignore virtual worlds such as Second Life “at their peril” ( Richards, 2008). Reuters had a reporter based in Second Life, while Sony, IBM, and nearly one in seven other Fortune 500 companies had a visible presence in the world ( Barnetta, 2009). Lampe (2012) characterizes 2007 for Second Life as “the peak of inflated expectations.” This outlook was arguably driven by the mainstream media, which offered strong emphasis on the potential for Second Life as a commercial place. The next year, musician Suzanne Vega (2007) wrote an article for Time magazine listing Linden’s founder Philip Rosedale as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world. In 2006 Second Life was twice the cover story on Business Week ( Hof, 2006a,b), the second time to excitedly announce the world’s first resident to have amassed a million dollars in virtual assets. However, looking back to the hype around Second Life in its media halcyon days of 2006–2008, this would seem hard to believe. While it has made substantial achievements over a 10-year period, looking forward, the platform is not going to challenge Facebook. Second Life, which is free to use, has a relatively stable population of about a million residents, and an in-game gross domestic product of about $US750 million ( Lacy, 2012). In 2013, Second Life celebrated its tenth anniversary, with the theme for the celebrations “looking forward, looking back.” Looking forward, looking back makes for an interesting focus. The world itself is also made up of what the residents have made there, from castles in the sky to detailed recreations of the Sistine Chapel. Second Life allows its users, known as residents, to create their own avatars which represent them in the virtual world. Rather it is a shared social place online. It is not a game there is no way to win, and there is no overt contest with other people in the world. However, the 3D space of Second Life has some significant differences. Second Life is a three-dimensional world rendered on a user’s computer screen, much like popular online games such as World of Warcraft. The virtual world is hosted online and developed by Linden Lab in San Francisco. Ellis, in The Digital Evolution of Live Music, 2015 7.1 Second Life: looking forward, looking backīefore we proceed, it is important to understand a little about Second Life and its history. An avatar may earn L$ by developing goods and selling them in Second Life, or by obtaining a virtual job in Second Life, such as becoming a model or a performer. An avatar may purchase almost anything in Second Life that he or she could buy in the real world - property, clothes, art, automobiles… One purchases these products with Linden dollars (L$), which is the Second Life currency. In any virtual, digital venue to which an avatar has access, the avatar may socialize, perform group projects, develop and barter virtual property and services with other avatars, and build digital virtual venues. However, some virtual venues require permissions, such as passwords to enter thus some areas in Second Life are off limits to one’s avatar unless it receives a password from the creator of the venue. Once inside Second Life, one may use one’s avatar to roam about freely and discover various virtual venues created by others. Obtaining a user name, password, and initial entrance into Second Life (SL) is free. ![]() ![]() In this virtual world each user creates and designs his or her own avatar. Second Life ( ) is a Web 2.0 tool created by Linden Lab that depicts an online virtual world. McKinnon, in The Teaching Librarian, 2013 Second Life ![]()
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