SecondLife

Introduction

SecondLife is a metaverse, or virtual universe, that the folks at Linden Labs have created. Essentially, they have created a four-dimensional space and placed within it's confines all the tools needed to create practically anything.

Users can log on and assume a virtual identity represented by an avatar. When in the virtual world, they can walk, run, ride or fly around and 'virtually live'. There are many different communities. Within them, other users have purchased property (purchasing is more like a lease, since there is a monthly fee involved) and built buildings of all sorts. Many of the properties are commercial in nature and offer various things from drinks in a bar, clothing, vehicles, movies to dance parties (yes, your avatar can also dance, even if you can't).

Many freebies are available, but users need to pay for much of the more valuable things. Things are not limited to just objects, but can include scripts or programs that give users special powers like being able to monitor a location when elsewhere. As users buy and/or collect things they are placed in the user's inventory. Since tools are granted as a part of the basic environment, users can use them to create all of the above-mentioned items, including building on the land that they have purchased. They can then sell them, or give them away as is appropriate.

Currency is the Linden Dollar. Users can buy them with US$ from within the metaverse. As they 'sell' items that they have created, users can also 'exchange' Linden Dollars for US$. According to the Economist (September 30-October 6, 2006), "The top ten in-world entrepreneurs are making average profits of just over $200,000 per year."

SecondLife and Education

The extremely pliable nature of the environment has empowered many different people, companies, organizations and institutions to develop virtual presences. These include a variety of education-related individuals and institutions, like the University of Southern California, University of California, Davis, Harvard Law School and other key institutions.

Simulation is one reason that SecondLife has so much appeal to educators. "Peter Yellowlees, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, has been teaching about schizophrenia for 20 years., but says that he was never really able to explain to his students just how their patients suffer. So he went online downloaded some free software and entered SecondLife...Mr. Yellowlees created hallucinations. A resident might walk through a virtual hospital ward, and a picture on the wall would suddenly flash the word "shitface". The floor might fall away, leaving the persion to walk on stepping stones above the clouds." Economist (September 30-October 6, 2006)

[This article is still being written]