It is not a game (Special report on Second Life)

Or at least Second Life is more than a game. This is made clear in an article in The Economist which mentions how Second Life is being used to:

• Increase awareness and understanding of schizophrenia
• Rehearse responses to earthquakes
• Experiment with viral marketing (Toyota is mentioned)
• Provide a consequence free environment for helping autistic children

(The article does not provide the details for any of the locations covered; if anybody knows the places discussed, please leave a comment.)

With a three-page article in The Economist, entering Second Life should become a more respectable activity and I hope it becomes easier to convince friends to check it out without too much early-adopter feel about it.

As they gain acceptance, virtual worlds will enter the spectrum of collaboration tools and social software on par with instant messaging, web conferencing, prediction markets etc.

Tags: Second Life The Economist virtual world collaboration

Comments

[Allan]

And now Sun Microsystems held a press conference inside Second Life:

Second Life Insider

Sun Microsystems media section

Apparently they got approval from the SEC. Love the screen-shots on that second link.