Second Life

Second Life(SL) is a three-dimensional virtual world created by Linden Research Inc aka Linden Lab. Users of SL are known as Resident, and an avatar is created to represent each user. Residents can interact with each other, do business, participate in activities,etc. SL users has been growing since 2003. Real world companies, banks, schools,etc have been set up in SL. The world in SL is the same as the real world. However, the law of gravity is being defied in SL. People in SL can fly or tele-port themselves to different places. Places can be built in mid air. One may think that SL is only an online game, but it is not. SL has give everyone a second chance to live the life they wanted. Furthermore, it allows people fulfill their dreams which they can't in the real world. Businesses use SL as a place to test out new products or services, and to do market researches. Schools have been using SL to teach students.

SL has become a huge social networking place for people. SL has created an impact on the real world. Things that happen in SL are being brought over to this real world. For example, in The Business Times, 24th January 2008, an article states: "Virtual Credit card moves into the real world." This article is on a Singapore company which has design a virtual credit card based on Linden dollar( US$1 to L$265, approximate rate). This credit card can allow people to buy real goods. But in the mean time, cardholders can only use it to purchase items like wallpaper, ring tones and games for the mobile phone. It is similar to a person using a real credit card to do online shopping. Furthermore, this Sinapore company, First Meta, is paying its own employees in Linden dollars.

I believe that SL would become more real in the times to come. SL may one day, influence the real world, and have a greater impact on our lives.


Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life
http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/e-learning/2008/01/10/a-second-life-for-higher-ed_print.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2007/11/11/sv_secondlife.xml
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/bizit/story/0,4574,265061-1201204740,00.html (access this after 6pm)