Second Life: Succeeding in Virtual Times Second Life is a virtual world built and owned by its residents. It is inhabited by millions of residents from around the world. The three main parts to Second Life are:
• The World: The world of Second Life is constantly changing and growing. It is filled with hundreds of games, from multiplayer role-playing games to puzzles and grid-wide contests. There are also dance clubs, shopping malls, space stations, vampire castles, and movie theaters. To find something to do at any time of the day or night, residents simply open the Search menu and click on Events for a listing of discussions, sports, entertainment, games, pageants, education, arts and culture, and charity/support groups.
• The Creations: Second Life is dedicated to creativity. Everything in Second Life is resident-created, from the strobe lights in the nightclubs to the cars (or spaceships) in driveways. Imagine tinkering with the steering and handling program of a motorcycle while a friend tweaks the shape of the fuel tank and gives it a wicked flame paint job, in-world and in real-time, before taking it for a spin down a newly created road to look for land to buy. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a pair of black leather wings? Build them and give it a go.
• The Marketplace: The Marketplace currently supports millions of U.S. dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is transacted with the in-world unit of trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to U.S. dollars at several thriving online Linden dollar exchanges or at LindeX, the official exchange. Users can make real money in a virtual world because Second Life has a fully integrated economy designed to reward risk, innovation, and craftsmanship. Residents create their own virtual goods and services, retain the intellectual property rights of their creations, and sell them at various in-world venues. Businesses succeed on the ingenuity, artistic ability, entrepreneurial acumen, and good reputation of their owners. Businesses on Second Life Second Life is an exciting venue for collaboration, business ventures, distance learning, new media studies, and marketing. Business possibilities there are endless; a few examples include:
• Holding a virtual meeting with sales managers located in Europe and Asia.
• Presenting new sales initiatives and discussing them with the team real-time.
• Allowing Second Life residents to interact with company products or services and test new designs and concepts before they are introduced to the real world.
• Selling products and services in Second Life by creating an event to promote the product: a concert, a class, a famous speaker, a party, a contest. Many companies are excited about the numerous ways they can use Second Life to support their business. 24 A few companies paving the way on Second Life include the following:
1-800-flowers.com
Adidas
Amazon
American Apparel
American Cancer Society
BBC Radio 1
Best Buy Co. Inc.
BMW
Calvin Klein
Circuit City
Cisco
Coca-Cola
Coldwell Banker
Comcast
Crayola
Dell
H&R Block
IBM
Intel
Kraft Food
Lacoste
Major League Baseball
Mazda
Mercedes-Benz
Microsoft
MTV
Nasa
National Basketball
Association
NBC
Nissan
NPR
Sony
Sprint
Student Travel Association
Starwood Hotels
Sundance Channel
Toyota
Universal Motown Records
Visa
Warner Bros. Music
Weather Channel
Wired magazine
Xerox
Yahoo
Yankee Stadium
Questions
1. How could financial companies use neural networks in Second Life to help their businesses?
2. How could a company such as Nike use decision support systems on Second Life to help its business?
3. How could an apparel company use Second Life to build a digital dashboard to monitor virtual operations?
4. How could a company use Second Life to revamp its customer service process?
5. How could a company use Second Life to revamp its order-entry process?
6. How could a company use Second Life to reinvent its relationships with customers, partners, and employees?