Second Life Gathers Pace as Numbers and Excitement Grows

[NewsDesk]

How Far Can This New On-line World Go? How Much Effect will it Have?

By Arron Hendy

The buzz surrounding the phenomenon Second Life, the virtual on-line world, seems to be rising. This year Second Life has made it into various news Pieces and magazines including PC Magazine, Internet News, the San Francisco Business Times, Business week and CNN. On top of this CBS chief Leslie Moonves spoke to creator Phillip Rosedale on stage at a Consumer Electronics Show, Reuters have set up a virtual Second Life news bureau and USA today has interviewed Rosedale and Chairman Mitch Kapor.

So what is all the fuss about? Second Life is an online place with buildings and roads and a population of avatars ? cartoon representations of users- where you can act out your "Second life". Users chat with each other, build houses, start businesses, go to concerts and generally spend time together, just like real life. Rosedale admitted his idea of success would perhaps be reaching a billion people. At the moment a reported ten thousand people a day are signing up. Second Life users are reported by Second Life as allegedly already over 2 million. So what if this Second Life domination actually happens?

"If we create the world from the bottom up, it can be re-imagined," Rosedale told USA Today, who also report that he always believed the place had to evolve organically and be self-governed and that people could look like themselves or whatever they wanted. Wait a minute, self governed? Look like whatever we want? Surely chaos is about to ensue, will everybody roam the streets looting and pillaging? Will the Second Life World descend into war and disorder just as the developed world often does? Apparently not, the Chairman told USA today; "Philip had the idea that Second Life should be like reality, but kinder and gentler," Kapor says.

Hey wait a minute, we don?t know what kinds of characters are going to be created here, can we assume that every user will want to be some kind of sanitized, perfect person? USA Today labeled Rosedale ?The King of Alter Egos?. Alter ego's, this sounds more realistic. Law.com reported on the on-line Second Life conference in which the speaker, a Judge, was distracted by a 6-foot raccoon. The giant animal claimed to be an intellectual property attorney from Washington, D.C. "I like your tail," the judge told him.

If creating alter ego characters is the real issue, maybe Rosedale is in fact the new Stan Lee, who created 90% of marvel comics? creations and was inspired to create characters including the X-men and Spider-man. Stan lee says he created different characters as a reaction against bigotry in the 60?s. In Second Life does all discrimination dissolve? I assume that if you can be a 6-foot raccoon then you are allowed to wear a veil.

How about your on-line personality, will the alter egos play out a kind of Jekyll and Hyde scenario? Rumours that George W Bush has created a peace loving hippy character that wanders the Second Life streets are as yet unfounded, as are news that the character created by a Greenpeace leader has chopped down all the trees and was last seen joy-riding down the high street.

It seems that Second Life is far more business focused at the moment. USA Today reports that ?Sun has been holding press conferences in Second Life. Starwood Hotels set up a virtual version of a concept hotel called Aloft, asking Second Life residents to tour the hotel and give feedback. Harvard's law school built a virtual campus. IBM is using Second Life as a way to hold meetings ? avatars around a conference table ? with people in different parts of the world. Wladawsky-Berger thinks it's better than videoconferencing.? Maybe no one will work from home in the future but more people will travel to work in Second Life. That will clear the real roads and you'll be able to swap jobs with your friends for a day for fun.