* Everyday, Vishal Sawant, a graphic designer from Pune logs on to a completely different virtual world under the guise of manifold 3D avatars. He talks to people he finds interesting or just spends time flying from one place to another in a world called Second Life.
##CONTINUE##* Bangalore, 29th Jan 2008: IT major IBM announced that it is expanding its business center for India…but the center will not be in India…it will be a virtual center of virtual people in virtual world…the world known as ‘Second Life’.
* Students constantly keep on rushing to the Edinburgh University's cyber campus in Second Life. They discuss their ideas with their tutors. Sometimes they fly across this digital world in search of new learning opportunities.
Role-playing video games may seem less interesting; communicating through chatting windows may sound unimaginative and all social networking sites may appear absolutely boring once you log on to secondlife.com…a virtual world, very much close to the reality.
Your boss’ cynicism, your wife’s constant criticism, burgeoning workloads, cutthroat competition….Second Life is a delightful escape from all the tortures of real world…here in your ‘second life’ you will be a fair, handsome, blue-eyed Adonis controlling and composing the every aspect human life.
Second Life is a 3D digital world imagined and created by its users (Second Life designers have named these users as ‘Residents’). This Internet-based virtual world was developed by Linden Research Inc. in 2003.
Second Life seems like the most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game but if you experience the unlimited freedom Second Life allows to its ‘residents’ you won’t confine its potential to a virtual game. As the designers of the Second Life have aptly said (on their site), “This world really is whatever you make it, and your experience is what you want out of it. If you want to hang out with your friends in a garden or a nightclub, you can. If you want to go shopping or fight dragons, you can. If you want to start a business, create a game or build a skyscraper you can. It’s up to you”.
In Second Life residents obtain their first basic account for free. In later stages if ‘residents’ are interested to buy (virtual) land, they will have to pay monthly fees based on the amount of land they want to have. Leasing rates in Second Life start from $9.95/month for a 512 square meter parcel of land (Remember …this is the ongoing price).
Owning a land on Second Life gives you various kinds of benefits. It allows you to have an on-going presence in the (virtual) world for your home or your business. On Second Life you can buy or sell anything that is made in the actual world. Clothes, jewelry, furniture, weapons, vehicles, games, books, education, entertainment…virtual representation of all the products and services is possible in Second Life. There exist malls, shops in Second Life and the rule of selling is same as in real world; ‘build up a reputation that earns a steady stream of customers’. Almost all the leading companies of the world have realized the significance of targeting virtual customers and have opened their outlets on Second Life. Adidas, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Phillips, Microsoft, Intel, BBC all the major players from all the streams of businesses are carving out their virtual existence on Second Life.
The crucial aspect of any civilization is ‘economy’. Second Life has its own currency called Linden Dollars (L$). The currency exchange is possible in Second Life as residents can exchange real world currencies for L$. The exchange rate fluctuates, on February 2007 it was reasonably stable at around L$ 266 to one US dollar.
‘Education’ is another crucial ‘movement’ on Second Life. All the top Universities of the world like University of Florida, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Rice University, Babson College, University of Derby (UK), Vassar College, University College Dublin, Edinburgh University, Ohio University, New York University and Michigan Technological University have unveiled their cyber campuses on Second Life. Today, islands dedicated exclusively to various streams of education are being created on Second Life and experts agree that this virtual movement is certainly metamorphosing the education field.
Not just for students and businessmen, but Second Life is also a paradise for artists. Live concerts are an important part if Second Life. In these concerts ‘residents’ can make their vocal or instrumental music available from their homes or studios. In few years various bands from all over the world would be definitely touring Second Life to perform in front of live-virtual audience.
Live theatre has also got representation in Second Life. By the end of 2008, the Second Life Shakespeare Company will be performing Hamlet. They will perform on a virtual stage as real life actors will control virtual character recreations of themselves in real-time.
Today Second Life is encompassing every aspect of human life. Banks, NGOs, Companies, Schools, Colleges, Arts, religion, culture… everything is being represented in Second Life. Steadily and surely every facet of human civilization is being carved out in Second Life…. obscuring the peripheries of ‘real’, ‘surreal’ and ‘virtual’.
Linden Lab Inc.
Linden Lab is an American Internet Company founded in 1999. Based in San Francisco today Lined Lab has 200 employees all over the world.
Wipro - the first Indian company on 'Second Life'
Wipro is the first Indian company to launch its offshore development center on Second Life. The campus will comprise the facilities like learning center, office-setup with cubicles, amphitheatre, media hall, data center and library.
Linden Lab, IBM join hands
Soon IBM with Linden Lab will be developing an enterprise-class virtual world. The objective of this world is to convince companies and business organizations about the value of communicating through avatars and 3D environments.
Anuradha Kavhekar, Instructional Designer, Pune
I read somewhere about Second Life - Virtual world. Next day, I found my friend had created his profile on Second Life. He was chatting, roaming and dancing in the virtual world… he was almost lost in enjoying his Second Life. It tempted me to create my login in Second Life. I faced many problems to create login, but somehow, I succeeded to create it. Now, I have met new friends in my virtual world. We dance, chat, roam but as my account is not paid account I cannot shop. My Second Life is giving me change from my routine actual world.
Preeti Kale, Animation student, Pune
I am student of "3D Animation and Visual Effects". I recently heard about an online,3D virtual site called "Second life" from one of my friends. It seemed to me a really unique site where people can create their own 3Davatar. It does not stop only there as one might think. In this virtual world one can buy a piece of virtual space and create his own space of living, decorate it and even buy stuff created by other second life users. It’s really an amazing site where users can show their creativity. Second life will take the world of virtual sites to a whole new level.
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BY Aseem J Tribhuvan
Source：Sakaal Times
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