Live Your Second Life Now
The idea of the Second Life is a growing trend in classrooms, workplaces and even retail establishments. It is the idea that we can experience an online virtual world where we can dive right in. In our second life we can be at two places at once and never leave our computer screen. Second life is a three-dimensional virtual space where students can choose appear as "normal" as they would like, or as silly as they prefer. Universities in the United States are catching on to this new trend and are taking the plunge by encouraging students and professors to create digitally animated versions of their classrooms and "avatars". Avators are cartoon-like versions of ourselves. A Harvard teacher describes the concept of second life teaching, "Second Life gives us the capability to really have a classroom experience with students where avatars can mingle. It really changes the way the classroom conversation proceeds."
IBM has recently started conducting employee orientation in a second life format. They have begun to train new employees in virtual online environments. IBM believes this is the greatest up and coming trend for large companies. Employees working in J
apan or Korea can use avatars in second life and contribute to virtual board meetings with members in the US. Even though miles may separate them, they are still able to mingle, interact and share ideas with their co-workers. Ted Hoff, Vice President of IBM says, "Video game play adds a dimension to training because people don't perceive it as learning. That makes them more willing to take risks and be more flexible in their thinking." The leaders at IBM@Play strongly believe that their company will be most attractive to young employees who have grown up playing video games with 3-D Graphics.Lastly, top brand marketers haven't missed the bus here. They are rising to the popularity of the Second Life virtual world to reach more customers and add sales. The online retailer, American Apparel has taken the offline experience of shopping and brought it online in a very powerful way. They have created a virtual shopping store where customers can purchase items for their avatars for $1. The items sold in the virtual store are the same the retailer sells at their brick and mortar shops. Since American Apparel went virtual, they have sold thousands of dollars in second life and real life.
20 comments:
I think that Second Life is going to become a very powerful tool to be used both for business and educational purposes. I have read that 60 universities, including Harvard, have already signed up to use the system. These universities have actually created virtual classrooms where students can attend class using their avatar, or personalized character.
Also, many companies have begun to use the virtual world in order to promote and advertise their products. Shoe companies and even car companies have begun by creating virtual replicas of their products to be tested out by avatars. I think that Second Life is going to progress into something incredibly powerful and popular. I have a feeling that as it becomes more and more advanced many more people are going to become involved with it. I can't wait to test it out in class!
Latest news is that SL just made their client-side software (the program you would use at home to log in) open-source...meaning that outside programers can add functions and change the interface then send the changes to SL who would integrate them into the end package...development on the interface (what you see and how you interact with the world) is supposed to explode...
SL is currently privately owned...I think we'll see a major company (like Blackboard or WebCT or even bigger...Google or Microsoft) buying SL for a gazillion dollars in the next year or so...
It makes sense to have this kind of collaborative space connected to an educational delivery system like Blackboard...imho
Second Life is definitely a very powerful tool that is rapidly growing in popularity. It has expanded from just an interactive zone for just people on the internet to a tool that trains employees and even sells real estate. Companies like BP have interactive stores online that train employees in different aspects of their store. There are also people who buy "property" in second life, build a house on it, and then sell the house to someone else in second life. These houses go for hundreds of thousdands of dollars, and yes I mean U.S. dollars. There are many people now that design clothes or houses or whatever in this online environment and sell it from real cold, hard cash. It has presented many new opportunities for different artists to get their work out there. It steadily grows in popularity and is a great source of monetary income for many people around the world.
I have no doubt that Second Life is going to become popular and powerful. It is a whole new medium in which to communicate and it opens doors to all kinds of buisness including advertisment, retail, and education. It seems like the new cell phone, one more way that everyone can be connected instantly. It can definitly be taken in a benefical direction.
However, I must question certain aspects of the design. First, who would buy a virtual house and property? And why? I don't understand the thinking behind such a purchase at all. It seems like a complete waste of money. I think the same for the clothing and cars that people are buying in SL. I don't understand why someone would waste money on virtual materials. Also, whenever something that involves money comes along there are going to be people trying to steal that money. I have no doubt that people are already working on ways to corrupt SL in order to benefit themselves. My concern is what then? What happens when real people do damage in a virtual world and who is responsible for fixing that damage?
To take what oukel said further, I think the buying and selling of virtual property and materials in the Second Life environment is absurd. Why pay for something that is worthless? I understand the advertising and getting exposure aspect, but the company is making money of an infinant source. The only labor involed is programming product, but after that, it's copying the same set of code and selling it to someone else, whether it's a t-shirt or a plot of land.
Second Life does have many advantages, such as having classes or business training done in the 3d realm, but I'm failing to see the appeal of doing something in cyber-space that one can do in real life...such as on site training and taking classes inside a REAL building. The concept is a surefire way to make a lot of people a lot of money.
Without trying to sound completely nuts, I think overall, Second Life is just adding to the constantly increasing distance we put between ourselves and others. Sure, we can meet on-line, but then we lose human interaction. Can you imagine thousands of people sitting in dark rooms in front of a glowing monitor like they were plugged in themselves, navigating around a pseudo-reality? Sounds like something from the Matrix.
So I think SL is going to be something that is used by many different kinds of people. I mean, it's cool what we're capable of doing with computer and such these days. So you'll have the normal people who just want to join and see what it's like. They'll log on like once or twice a week and just kinda wander and do as they please. Then you'll have the corporations and people in the workforce who want to make it a tool for training or some other job that no one wants to do. And in this case it may be a good training tool and it may allow new employees or sucky existing ones who need retrained how to do something. Or even to communicate with other people in the US working for the same company. They can compare problems or issues they have and try to figure them out together. And then you'll have the creepy weird people who try to cheat and/or destroy everything. They'll be the ones who do mean things to other avators or find a way to make money by stealing or something I dont even know.
And then when I think about it in a whole other light I wonder what kids have to look forward to. Sweet graphics but a bad lifestyle. So we have things like PS2, Wii, XBOX, XBOX 360, computer games, SL and everything else that allows people to sit in front of a screen...pork rhines at hand if needed...and do nothing but play games after school, at night, during the day...whenever. I'm a dorky Exercise Physiology Major who thinks about things like our rising obesity rates and I feel stuff like this just contributes. I dont know I just hope its put to good use.
perhaps I dont have a full understanding of the concept of second life, because it doesnt seem logical. How effective could training an employee online be? Why would I log onto second life to talk to someone when I could just call them? Wouldnt a business meeting be easier on the phone, than typing? Why do I want a virtual house and clothing? I think its a cool concept, and I'm sure it will continue to grow, but it kind of seems unnecessary.
I think that Second Life is going to become very popular once more people start to learn about it.
Second Life seems like a great way to expand networks and conduct business in a way that has never really been done before, which could open up endless doors and opportunities.
Second Life also seems like a great place for people who want to escape the realities of everyday life. Because people can make up characters to represent themselves, they can basically be anyone they would like to be in that virtual world.
I, however, don't understand the idea of having to pay for special features such as certain types of clothing and real estate...I guess I just don't understand why people would be willing to spend there money on something so silly.
I believe that Second Life will absolutely take off in the next couple years. It seems to be that people are taking recognize to the trend of taking offline experiences and bringing them online through SL. In my orginal posting I mentioned how some universities and large companies were going virtual. What about those industries that do not have a significant presence in the SL, such as newspapers and magazines?? I think we will see more efforts made to make almost every situation a virtual one. More companies will experiment with the idea of Second Life as a means to reach more people.
One more thing to add briefly. Once I saw how Second Life worked in class on Thursday I thought to myself this would be the perfect platform for online dating companies. If Match.com let customers create avatars and then members mingled with other singles, this would make real dating much easier for those who are slightly hesistant. anyone know if this is happening in the virtual world???
I had never heard of Second Life until we discussed it in class. I am looking forward to signing up and exploring it myself. I think that the whole concept of SL is awesome; yet there are a few aspects of it that make me wonder if it is really helpful for its users. People can pretend to be someone they are not. Anyone can virtually go to class or work for you on SL. Also, the world is literally at your finger tips. This can be either a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. People may take advantage of the uses of SL. However, if people use it correctly than there should not be any problems. If SL continues to grow and be successful, I think it will become more of a house hold name. Second Life is an exciting and new (to me) program that looks to have a many things to offer it's users.
When we learned about Second Life, I had two conflicting reactions. One was, wow, look at the amazing things technology can do? Where else will it be able to take us? My other reaction was wondering if people are ever going to leave their computers. Not that it bothers me if they don't, but
I always liked first life. Now i might have to learn how to live all over again. I'm so lazy I'm still on the orientation island of first life.
What's really funny to me is that people use Second Life to have sex. It reminds me of the video-game the Sims. When it came out, everyone wanted to know how to make the characters have sex. Perhaps that's why they made Second Life. Regardless of whether that's the intention or not, I'm pro. You can never have enough ways to have sex.
Second Life is a very impressive program that I am excited to become more familiar with. However with the growing amount of technology used in educating and training individuals, it makes me nervous that eventually there will be no real interactions and relationships in schools and businesses. As a future teacher I believe that is it important for teachers and students to be able to interact and socialize with each other instead of sitting and staring at a computer screen.
Technology is a very useful tool that has made everyone's lives much easier, but we need to make sure that we don't take it too far. People need to worry about living their real lives before they focus all their attention on their virtual world avator.
When reading and learning about Second Life I have a split opinion about it. One way I feel that it is really cool and can't wait to use and experiment with it. I feel it gives an entire new meaning to an "online class". I think Second Life can really help our society and businesses in what people really want and trying things out in a virtual world before bringing it into the real world. However on the other hand Second Life kind of scares me. With basically free rein in another world I worry about people and what they might do in this other world; mainly kids. Since I don't know a lot about Second Life yet I suppose my main concern is how are we going to regulate what kids can do in this Second Life? In class we discussed Second Life having erotic stores and such; how do we keep kids from going into these places? I guess since I don't know a lot about it I wonder what kind of things kids can be introduced to.
believe second life to be a very useful tool. Although we haven't actually done it yet in class, I booted it up on my computer and messed around for awhile.. it seemed pretty fun, even though I only played for about 5 minutes. I really like the idea pretty much regardless of how good it actually ends up working. Maybe it's just the gamer in me that likes it, but it seems like something I could have a lot more fun with than sitting in a classroom listening all day.
So now not only can we tune out and venture to another place in our minds as we walk and listen to our iPods, we can actually forget about real life and live vicariously through cartoons? Creepy.
There were one million users registered in October and two million in December of this year. Obviously people are interested and supporting this “game”, however I might not be convinced just yet.
I guess I agree with those who have said, “Why?” I understand and agree that there is something very entertaining about building a life from scratch where you oversee progress and relationships without actually physically participating, however this sounds like simply a game to me.
Businesses would severely lose out on interpersonal relationships and honest contact with others, which is vital to growth and development within any company that is more than a factory line. I disagree that it is beneficial to take classes or do any kind of training in a virtual world.
What happens in the future? We lose all contact with other human beings and our lives become so fundamentally abstract that we measure time and progress by points and health displayed in the corner of our computer screens? Nah, no thanks.
After reading a few articles on Second Life I was very excited to use the program to learn more about it. It seems like it could be a program that could be used for many useful things through businesses.
The things that people can do through technology continue to shock me and Second Life is a perfect example. However I hope that people use this program for the right reasons. It's almost scary how real life the program is, and it worries me that anyone can sign into the program and do whatever they want.
I have the advantage in this post because i was late in posting. We have used Second life twice now and i think it is an AMAZING program, and environment. the first time we used it, it was basically madness because everyone was just playing with there character and testing the limits of SL. I think SL is definately going to take off over the next year because gamers will love it the same way they love WOW. Mainly because it is another way to create a new person and do new things. As someone who got a free trial of WOW i kno how addicting it can be i had 10 free days and i'm pretty sure i used it to its maximum. Games like that and like second life are very addicting if your real life is currently boring.
I wasn't sure what to think about Second Life prior to trying it out in class. Now I have to admit that I find it to be very interesting and I can see why so many people have joined the Second Life community. I can also see why companies are using it to advertise for their products. I do not understand why people are spending their real money to buy virtual houses, clothing, or anything else! I think that is completely crazy! I mean Second Life already provides your avatar with a choice of wardrobe, so why would you want to buy more?
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