What is Second Life?
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by over 345,000 people from around the globe. Currently it is growing at 12% a month and it is one of the most exciting social networking developments on the Net.
It is clear from this article that Victor Keegan is keen. He explains: “When you join at secondlife.com you choose a name and an atavar (a 3D representation of yourself) and you are ready to go. It costs nothing to join and explore until you want to build houses, buy an island for $1,200 (£656) or products from the shops that are springing up.”
He points out:“The demographics are fascinating: the average age is 33, half of users are women and a very large number haven’t played online games before. .. 60% of users create their own content compared with less than 1% of readers of the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.”