Will Second Life Transform the Way We Do Business?

By Lynda LarsenSpecial to The Epoch Times Sep 4, 2008

ATLANTA—Your profile is not on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn? You don’t subscribe to Twitter? Not a member of Ning? New Web 2.0 social networking applications, the interactive communication devices based on internet technology, appear weekly. Why should you be interested? Just because Wolf Blitzer on CNN has his own blog, and interactivity through blogging, voting or texting is now mainstream? If media adoption of Web 2.0 applications isn’t convincing, then maybe predictions of the future prospects of 3-D will do the job.Intel spokesman Bill Calder was quoted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution as saying the 3-D computing is “an area that’s going to explode” due to intense consumer demand for high definition movies, gaming and digital photography. 3-D is where the creative edge of computer programming lies.Second Life is a 3-D game that has taken social networking to the next level. Wagner James Au, freelancer and (formerly) embedded reporter in Second Life, is quoted as saying in his book blurb that many believe that user-created worlds like Second Life will become the framework for a revolution in the way we shop, work and interact. In addition, the technology analyst firm, Gartner Inc., has projected that 80 percent of all active Internet users will be involved in virtual worlds by 2011, according to their website.Second Life is unique in that it is entirely built and owned by its residents. As of June 2008, according to the Alliance Trends Report, SL had over 12 million avatars or residents from around the world. The users of Second Life have created their own social scene, clothing stores, buildings and classes using currency called Lindens.I’m a member of the Special Libraries Association Working Group in Second Life where I’m still considered a Newbie. My SL birth date is July 1, 2008. On July 31st, I attended my first professional meeting in Second Life where we discussed what we as professional librarians want to do “in world.” We asked, “What does our profession have to offer” in this electronic world of beautiful scenery, people and imagination? We may have to rethink what our profession does and how we do it.Using search techniques I already knew as professional researcher, I quickly learned to check the “Events” tab, selecting education as my topic area, to find interesting places to explore in Second Life. Classes and discussion groups are popular in-world. The classes teach how to alter your avatar’s appearance, how to build structures, how to buy land. Alternatively, you can search ads and find someone to build for you.The most obvious content rich applications of Second Life are likely to be in education, training and recruiting. Universities are already a major presence in Second Life.Large corporations such as IBM have set up virtual office space for meetings, conferences and training. The technology in Second Life for meetings will only get better, my British IBM tour guide advised me. IBM uses their space for new employee orientations, training and staff meetings according to Lee Fox on Blogspot.com. Fox says that IBM finds this virtual environment far superior to teleconferencing or web conferencing. Recruiting is the third promising application of the Second Life environment. A recent CPA Daily article describes how firms like Ernst & Young are increasingly using social networks to find job prospects. The article suggests testing how an applicant would handle a real situation through observing his interactions in Second Life. In his 2006 book, The Making of Second Life, Wagner James Au estimated that the economy in-world averages more than $1,000,000 in transactions every day. Corporations and other organizations are betting their money that Second Life and other virtual worlds have a future in the real world.