Second Life – moving gently to the mainstream?

by Lee Hopkins on August 9, 2006

in Second Life, miscellaneous

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Second Life logo

Second Life is definitely becoming a ‘hot topic’ around here in the BusComms part of the blogosphere/podosphere, as Neville commented in the latest FIR. Neville’s recent post about Second Life – Reality or Escapism? – has generated a plethora of comments, both positive and negative about SL. So too has my recent post about it; for my blog it is the second largest commented-on blog apart from my PR calendar post.

Shel has recently conducted an email interview with Hunter Glass, the founder of Second Life Business Magazine (and which has a ’staff’ based in Afghanistan, China, Canada and the USA). The magazine itself is exceptionally well designed and covers business in many spheres — programming (of course), investing, copyright law, music, fashion, photography, start ups, and some of the amazing number of jobs (earn income!) in SL: security bouncer (L$100/hr), photographic model (L$300+ per shoot), host at a casino (tips only, possibly up to L$500/hr), photographer (L$1000 per job), writer (L$up to 2,000/piece), DJ (L$250/hr) and more.

Then ‘Text100′, a PR agency, opens a permanent office in Second Life. Starwood Hotels now launch a hotel in Second Life. Business is moving to it — and so far no one has yet figured out how to tax any income in it, as Allan and I discussed in a recent chat of ours (mp3).

There’s also Channel 4’s mini series on it…

And of course there is the potential for a ‘goldrush’ similar to 1999/2000, wherein loads of people were buying up the domain names of famous celebrities and companies in the hope that they could sell them to the ‘real’ person/company for a considerable profit (and some did). If I set up my own Second Life disco under the name ‘Madonna’s Hideaway’, and pretended to be Madge herself, would she pay me to sign over the disco to her?

Let’s not get carried away, it is not something that must take over our business life straight away. It is still a very early development and mid-priority compared to other channels for business and marketing communicators. BUT the oxygen of publicity is definitely trending upward, and quite rapidly.

As Neville said,

And that’s the opportunity for PR pros – figure it out alongside the experimenters and early adopters in a joint learning path that will produce business opportunities for mutual benefit

Visit Allan and my Second Life presence.

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  • Hi Kami,

    I've noticed that you've visited the Cafe's apartment a few times (I have a secret logging tool there -- tee hee), but as I am so infrequently there myself I've never caught up with anyone but Sab.

    I confess the majority of explorations have found me wandering the darker alleyways of SL. And yes, it's pretty seedy.

    I've just purchased some land, a 'first land' 512 plot, but am surrounded by monstrosities of houses. I'm toying with the idea of making that little house into the cafe, but the apartment is so nice and, at L$300/week quite reasonable. The only downside is that because it's not on land, you cannot find it in a search (hence my idea of having my little 512 plot of land turned into the new Cafe home). But the view from the apartment is really nice.

    AS for the business potential -- still absolutely no idea how to turn it into an earner. But like blogging, podcasting and now vidblogging, it all helps to keep me at the forefront of Australian PR social media activities. And the blogging has already brought me prospects (one of whom I hope to turn into a client next week).

    As always, a delight to hear from you.
    Kindests,
    Lee
  • Hey Lee; I am taking a cautious view toward Second Life, but I have not shunned it all together. I have been hanging out in your cafe a good bit. In a sense I have made it my home base in SL. Nice place by the way.

    In the few times I have visited, I have started to see some of the charm of the place, but it also seems to be a pretty nefareous place as well. It's mostly shopping, gambling and "adult" entertainment."

    However, I did visit the University and some of the business spots like American Apparel (where someone left beer at the counter for visitors), Electric Sheep (which builds most of the businesses in SL it seems) and Ceasar's Palace, which I don't think was sanctioned by its namesake. Still, I saw a fabulous fireworks display there.

    But for the life of me I couldn't find Text 100s office.

    Anyway, at least now if there is a conference there I can actually show up.
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