A Second look at Second Life
post a comment | posted May 6
I had a play with Second Life when it was still in beta (way back in the pre version 1 days in 2004). At that point it was interesting, a nice concept, you could just build things, do a little scripting, the client was a little flaky at best. But I could see potential, one problem, no residents (users in Second Life), it was hard to find your fellow users. It was seen at that point as little more than a fancy IRC. But business called and I left Second Life behind to focus on my First Life.
What is Second Life, (for those not in the know) it's an Internet-based virtual world developed by Linden Labs, it's based around a free downloaded client application. But you know that Second Life all over the mainstream media.
Later in 2005 I looked back into Second Life, okay better scripting, easier to build things (in relative terms), and at least the client worked most of the time. Some residents had setup business in Second Life. Most of the time it was focused around sex or gambling. I know it's generalising, but how different is this to the real web. The sex (porn) industry and online gambling have led the technological adoption in this area, so why not Second Life too. But again my First Life called, and Second Life remained an unused icon on the desktop.
Fast forward to the present day, recently Kathryn Greenhill has tempted me back into Second Life.
Yeap things have changed. Major real world enterpises have now set themselves up in Second Life, buying up entire islands to promote their real world products. But the real point of interest is the introduction of small business outside of the sex and gambling industries. There is even a community based wiki for Second Life, and there are tutorials all over the blogosphere on Second Life scripting, building, avatar construction, making money, the works. The volume of information on Second Life is just amazing, it really has ramped up over the last year or so, a