Today I was able to attend the "Virtual Worlds: Building Community and Innovation or Just Another Fad? " with speaker Cory Ondrejka, CFO, Linden Lab.
Some info about Cory Ondrejka from the speaker biography
As CTO of Linden Lab, Cory lead the developing "Second Life," Linden Lab;s award winning, user-created digital world. His team has created the revlutionary technologies required to enable collaborative, atomistic creation, including distributed physical simulation, 3D streaming, completely customizable avatars and real-time, in-world editors. He also spearheaded the decision to allow users to retain the IP rights to their creations and helped craft Linden's virtual real estate policy.
Prior to joining Linden Lab in November, 2000, Ondrejka served as Project Lead and Lead Programmer for Pacific Coast Power and Light. At PCP&L, he brought the "Road Rash" franchise to the Nintendo for the first time with "Road Rash 64" and built the core technology teams that completed multiple products for Nintendo and Sony consoles. Previous experience includes Lead Programmer for Acclaim Coin-Operated Entertainment's first internal coin-op title and work on Department of Defense electronic warfare software projects for Lockheed Sanders. While an officer in the United States Navy, he worked at the National Security Agency and graduated from the Navy Nuclear Power School. Ondrejka is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, where he was a Presidential "Thousand Points of Light" recipient and became the first person to earn Bachelors of Science degress in two technical majors: Weapons and Systems Engineering and Computer Science.
Cory spoke about what Second Life was, how it is affecting the communities and business and what we might be able to expect in the near future.
He explained how Second Life was first introduced, much of the community flocked to music. Just like in other technologies like the web, blogs and social networks music helps bring people together. Music is something that we all can relate to. All of the Second Life community is user based, any user at any time can create a virtual world that fits their needs. He went on explaining that blogs and websites are an one way conversation. Second Life allows people to be in conversation and interact in ways that they normally would do. When in Second Life users will be able to interact with buildings, people and any part of the environment. They find that the average age of their users are about 34 and more women than men. The users can range from 13 - 80, however the older you the more likely you would use Second Life again. Since Second Life is not a game but a community that based on what the community has to offer. There is a higher chance that the older you are the more you have experienced and thus be able to add more to the Second Life community.
He goes on to explain that there are some similarities to the early days of the web. When large companies first started creating a web page they would scan there catalog and say that they are done. With the belief that this will make consumers purchase from their site and not ever have to go to the Brick and Mortar store again. As time has showed this was not the case. You can see in Second Life that many large companies have started to develop buildings in Second Life but after they create it they just stop. As time will go on many companies will learn to utilize Second Life in ways that may be more beneficial to them. He went to explain that IBM for example currently has about 4000 users on Second Life. They only know what IBM has divulged to them but the thought behind what large companies are using Second Life for is collaboration. For a large company like IBM who has employees all over the world with all different background it is very hard for them to integrate all of them. By using Second Life they could be able to hold orientations with all new employees from across the globe in a centralized location. Even if this would only reduce travel costs by 1% for a large company like IBM this could potentially mean tons of cash. By still having this orientation in a virtual world, new employees would be able to use their key strengths of communication just like you would be able to in a cocktail party. Unlike websites and online trainings users would be able to interact with the instructors and fellow coworkers, which will help with the integration of the new employees. He also points out that a hotel was created which allowed users to interact with their hotel. They were able to find out by asking the users if they were able to find the front desk or what they thought about the hotel. This is tremendously helpful for them to know what the user thinks and the way that they will react with their environments.
Another space that he points out is Shockproof Island. Shockproof Island was created by users that have experienced strokes. The hardest part for a stroke victim is recovery, in most cases they need an activity that will help them with their motor skills and actively work their brains. Users created Shockproof Island so that victims would be able to play games that will help with their motor skills and interact with other stroke victims.
Many business have emerged from Second Life. He explains how a female person created a million dollar a year business from buying, selling and renting real estate in Second life from a $10 investment. The most popular business in Second Life is clothing. Clothing is highly competitive with trend cycles only lasting about 2 weeks. Second Life has a growing economy which currently has a GDP of about $60 million a year with about $7 million selling back against the dollar.
In the future the hope to make everything open source. They currently have the coding source open source since January and hope to make the servers open source as well. They are working on a localized voice which will allow you to communicate with users like you normally would. You would faintly hear other conversations depending on where you are and how close you are to them. They do not have any plans in the future right now for a phone version of Second Life.
All in all I believe that Second Life is an emerging technology that will have a huge impact in our society. What the impact will be only time will tell.
Here are some other sites that are similar to Second Life - there.com and kaneva.com
Pretty cool Web 2.0 concept it allows you to edit web pages with your comments and notes. You can also share with your friends or even copy to your own blog. The best is that you dont have to install any software.
One thing that 
