When You Think Virtual Worlds...

When you think virtual worlds who do you picture spending their time in them? Surprisingly Second Life doesn't map to the photo below.

The average age of users is 32, and the median age of users is 36.
Median age is 36.
43% of users are female, 50% are female "by use."

Make of that what you will.
The rest of the report can be found here.

If You're Going To Start A Second Life Business... Be Sure To Do It Correctly.

I recently posted an article describing the potential of businesses in Second Life. Here's something for those of you who have decided to pursue one of those opportunities. This article on InfoPirate.org provides those unfamiliar, and even those familiar with the world a checklist to remember as you embark on your endeavor.

Example tasks include:

Purchase your name. Not all worlds offer them, but Second Life is offering custom last names which can serve to identify your team or employee avatars.

Embrace the “Game Babies.” Develop for them and win. Hire them – and listen. There are real generational differences that can both challenge and enlighten your teams. Remember that the true “gaming generation” is just beginning to enter the work force and their interactive and social expectations are high, and are a rich source of innovation for your organization.

The list isn't a long one, so you would do well to take a look.

Secondly this article provides insight into marketing practices in Second Life.

Recommendations are items like the following:

Advertising is a relative cheap way of getting attention. Many people use the classifieds section when looking for something particular, so you DEFINATELY want to be present there.

Advertising starts at L$50 a week, but the more you pay, the higher you will rank. Make sure you figure out what market you are in, and what keywords people would use when looking for what you have to sell. Then do that search yourself.

Another Canadian School To Hold Class In Second Life

This time it's Loyalist College, specifically the Post Graduate E-Journalism progam as described on this page.

Additional information is available in audio form by accessing this linked file.

You Too Can Be A Second Life Millionaire

If Anshe can do it why can't you? Why can't you indeed...
Everywhere you go in Second Life someone's selling something... you're not sure if they're making money doing it, but that graph of 24 hour spend on secondlife.reuters.com wouldn't lie.... would it?

This Entrepreneur.com article promises to show you the business opportunities available to you in Second Life. Reality or snake oil?

From that article:

A million dollars of virtual loot. It's a concept that's difficult to wrap your head around, but in November, that's exactly what virtual real-estate developer Anshe Chung accomplished in the 3D virtual world Second Life, in which users live "second" lives as avatars. When her entrepreneurial success story hit the press, it spread like wildfire, leading many to ask: What exactly are the business opportunities available in Second Life?

As you would expect the article quotes a number of people quitting their day jobs for careers in Second Life. Whether or not they'll succeed is another matter entirely.

From the article:

But the bottom line for entrepreneurs is, will Second Life really pan out? Or is it just hype, since the majority of people have never ventured virtually or even heard of it?

Personally, I expect that we're a little early for this to be reality... but that in the relatively near future certain aspects of the world will provide legitimate business opportunities for more than the current handful of successful vendors. The question as always is when will the time be right to dive in head first?

Embassy In Second Life... Is This Getting Out Of Hand?

CNet's doing interviews in Second Life.
Reuters has a news bureau in Second Life.
Now Sweden has announced that they are planning to establish an Embassy in Second Life.

Why?

The first two resulted in good (though often unpredictable) press for both companies, but does Sweden need this kind of press? It will be interesting to see if they pursue this as well as how they plan to leverage the expense to benefit their citizens in this virtual world.

Davidreport.com provides an interview that provides insight into these questions. You can find that interview here.

From that interview:

Our mission is to increase the knowledge about and interest in Sweden around the world. To do that we need to constantly find new ways to communicate with our target groups and to reach them, where they are most likely to be open to our message. Our aim is to find and inspire a selective group of people which is hard to reach through more traditional channels. Second Life is one of many channels to use and explore.

Canadian Schools Open Campus In Second Life

This is cool. The University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr Institute and BCIT will collaborate to create a 'Masters of Digital Media' program scheduled to open in September 2007. The virtual campus will be paired with a new $40 million dollar 'real world' equivalent for the lucky first 35 selected to participate.

From Press Display

Personalities: Anshe Chung

The stories of individuals making good in Second Life are popping up with surprising frequency these days, and one has to wonder how many are fact and how many fiction. The quintessential case in point appears to be Second Life real estate tycoon Anshe Chung (SL name) who along with her husband has successfully created a business that would be envied by most realtors in the 'real world.'

At the time of writing Wikipedia summarizes Chung's accomplishments as:

she has built an online business that engages in development, brokerage and arbitrage of virtual land, items and currencies

While impressive, it warrants reading further to understand the actual power this conveys in a world like Second Life. Business Week speaks to the restrictions she's able to place on those purchasing her land:

Players also wanted neighborhoods that amounted to more than drab slabs of virtual turf, and they wanted some order. So she began creating the equivalent of gated communities, complete with zoning rules. She doesn't allow malls or clubs in certain regions, for instance, and limits the heights of buildings. "She is the government," Rosedale says.

Enough talk, check out the opportunities for yourself at Anshe Chung Studios.