Transcript Second Life: What is All The Buzz About

your world, your imagination
Mandeep Singh
Roger Runquist
Karmon Runquist
Second Life
Second Life (SL) is the most successful example of an embodied, dynamically collaborative
content creation platform that’s personally and economically transformative, and scalable
to the entire world.
Embodied
A 3D space navigated by user-controlled avatars that are convincing enough to make their
owners feel a personal and social investment in the simulated world they’re in.
Dynamically collaborative content creation platform
A medium where online multi-user content creation is updated in real time.
SL is often called “a 3D wiki” – an apt analogy.
( reference - http://gigaom.com/2007/09/26/7-reasons-why-second-life-should-matter-for-biz-executives )
Personally transformative
The striking thing is just who is doing this work, even making a living at it.
Often they are :
business-savvy homemakers
talented bohemians
physically or mentally impaired people
retirees
tech workers in developing nations
and people who’ve been otherwise kept out of the mainstream job market through real-world
barriers that become irrelevant in Second Life.
Economically transformative
SL’s virtual currency (which can be bought and sold for US$) and intellectual property rights to
user-created content (which are retained by their creator, even in non-SL projects) are
transferable in and out of the global economy.
( reference - http://gigaom.com/2007/09/26/7-reasons-why-second-life-should-matter-for-biz-executives )
Scalable to the entire world
Last January, Linden open-sourced its client code, and from this flowered a variety of
alternate access portals into SL, including Wii controllers, cell phones, and thanks to a
15 year-old female hacker, the web itself.
This makes SL a lead contender to become a universally accessible mirror world, where all
our physical data is modeled in a dynamic network, an inconceivably valuable resource for
scientists, governments, corporations, and beyond.
( reference - http://gigaom.com/2007/09/26/7-reasons-why-second-lifeshould-matter-for-biz-executives )
What is Second Life?
• 3-D online digital world entirely imagined, built and owned by its Residents
-Second Life
• Second Life is an open-ended virtual world who’s primary focus is socialization &
Education. Second Life gives its users tools to shape its world
-Google
• Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world where its Residents
interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a
social network service.
-Wikipedia
Metrics
Demographics
Total Residents – 9,038,819
29.49% of Second Life's users are
from USA,
Germany is the second-largest
country with 10.37% of residents
The average age of adult users is
30, and the average age of teen
users is 15
( reference - http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/05/10/april-2007-key-metrics-released/#comment-271837 )
Residents increased from 1 million in 2006 to more than 9 million in 2007
( reference - http://www.secondlife.com)
43.03% of users are female, 56.97% users are male
( reference - http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/05/10/april-2007-key-metrics-released/#comment-271837 )
Second Life is growing at a rate of 15% per month
( reference - http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/05/10/april-2007-key-metrics-released/#comment-271837 )
Commercial
• Second Life has its own economy and a currency referred to as Linden Dollars (L$)
• Residents buy from and sell to one another directly, using the Linden, which is
exchangeable for US dollars or other currency
• Second Life economy generated US $3,596,674 in economic activity during the month
of September 2005 and as of September 2006 Second Life was reported to have a GDP of
$64 Million
( reference - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linden_dollar)
Commercial
• Second Life's 2007 GDP is estimated to be between $ 500 million and $ 600 million,
about nine times that of 2006
• There are on an average $5 million USD in virtual transactions per month conducted
between users
• 75% of users are buyers, 25% are sellers
( reference - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linden_dollar)
Linden to US dollar exchange rate
( reference - http://lindenlab.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/lindendollarexchangedata.txt)
Education
• Second life has sold more than 100 islands for educational purposes according to
New York Times
• There are a number of universities, schools, national organizations, Educational
organizations, libraries and museums in Second life such as
 Open University (UK)
 Harvard University
 Stanford University
 Ohio University
 New York University
Land
• There are 2,000 "simulators" used for Second Life, constituting 579.42 square kilometers
of virtual reality
• In July 2007 number of islands owned are 9195
• Number of islands added in July 2007 are 859
• Average L$ paid per square meter is 13.23
• Main island use has doubled and Island growth has tripled in this year
Other Metrics
• Total hours spent in Second Life doubled between January 2007 and May
2007! (Jan=10,817,668 May=20,767,557)
• Germany now leads France as the second most active country based on Avatar count
( reference - http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/05/10/april-2007-key-metrics-released/#comment-271837 )