BUSINESS IN SECOND LIFEIn 2003,a 3-D vitual world called Second Life(SL)was opened to the public.The world is entirely built and owned by its resident. In 2003,the virtual world consisted of 64 acres. By 2010it had grown to over 100000 acresand was inhabited by millions of residents from around the planet(see ).The virtual world consists of ahuge digital contient,island,people,enterainment,experiences,and opportunities. Thousands of new residents join each day and creat their own avatats through which they travel around the SL world meeting people,communicating,having fun,and buying virtual land and other virtual properties where they can open a business or build a personal space, limited only by their imaginations and their ability To use the virtual 3-D applications.Avatars have unique names and move around in imaginative vehicles including helicopers, submarines, and hot-air balloons. Rsaidents get some free virtual land (and they can buy more)where they build a house, a city, or a business.They can then sell the virtrual properties or the virtual products or servives they create.Residents can also sell real-world products or services.For example,Copeland and Kelleher(2007)report that more than 25000 aspiring entrepreneurs trade virtual products or services at SL. Virtual goods entrepreneurs,landowners,in-world builders, and service providers generated user-to-user transactions totaling US$350 million in 2008(Linder 2009).Stevan Lieberman, an attorney, is one of these people .He uses his expertise in intellectual property and the site to solcit work-mainly from programmers who are looking to patient their code. SL is manage by Linden Labs, which provides Linden dollars that can be converted to U.S dollars.SL uses several Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis,RSS,and tags (from ).Virtual businesses succeed due to the onwers’ingenuity,artistic ability, entrepreneurial expertise, and reputation.Many organizations use SL from 3-D persentations of their products. Even goverment s open viatual embassies on “Diplomacy Island,” localed on the site. Many univer-sities offer educational courses and seminars in virtual classrooms(see “EduIslands” on the SL site and Appendix A in Rymaszewski,et al.[2008]).Roush (2007) describes how to combine SL with Google Earth.Such combinations enable investigation of phenomena that would otherwise be difficult to visualize or understand . Shopping for virtual goods is popular in SL. You can start at the GNUBIE Store(bargin prcies),New Citizens Incorporates(NCI),and free Dove.SL frends will help you choose!You can shop outside SL(for real goods)yet pay Linden dollars, the currency of SL(see ).For SL fashion selection, try .Also /php/shop lets you quickly and easily search and shop for many items.You can even use a shopping cart on this site. Note:We suggest you build your own virtual business in SL in order to experience real-life thrills.For suggestions on how to profit in SL see Chapter 1 in Rymaszewski,et al.(2008).You can work as a musician, hunter, financial,speculator,or a writer. You can also work in many other virtual jobs –you are only limited by your imagination. Example. For some time, real world organizations have been taking a growing interest in cational institutions were the first to recognize the potential of thevirtual world to act as a new communications, adver-tising,and learning platform, and they were quickly followed by corporations doing what most corporations do: Look for profit. Appendix C of Rymaszewki,et a.(2008)provides information about real-life brand presence and retail outlets in SL.At the time of this writing, corporate activity in SL is still in its infancy.Although an impressive number of companies have made or are in the process of making a foray into the virtual world, many treat it as an experiment ehose only sure payoff is the madia publicity it generates in the real world. However,to other-perhaps more visionary-SL offers very tangible adventages：A visit to will educate you in depth on how organizations utilize SL’s virtual environment.For readers interested in the corporate take on virtual world, Rymaszweski et al.(2008)present three voices from three countries, representing companies in difficult fields of business.The most common commercial activities in SL are:AdvertisingJoint designing and prototypingMarket researchMarketing and salesCorporate communicationBroadcasting and entertainmentTravel and tourismTraining and e-learningFor details ,see Chapter 7 and Bell(2008).An increasing number of businesses are using the virtual world.For example,IBM uses it as a location for meetings, training,and recruitment. Amercian Apparel was the first major retailer to set up shop in SL.The Mexican Tourism Board and Morocco Tourism are examples of 3-D presentations of major tourise attractions. Many companies use SL as a hot place to go to try new business ideas(see Rosedale 2007).For example,you can test drive a Toyota Scion,toymakers prototype toys,and anyone can become a virtual architect.For a comprehensive video see /file/242816.Sources: Compiled from Copeland and Kelleher(2007),linden(2009),Robbins and Bell(2008),Rosedale(2007),and Rymaszewski,et al.(2008),Roush(2007),and (accessed April 2011).BUSINESS IN SECOND LIFE第二生命In 2003,a 3-D vitual world called Second Life(SL)was opened to the public.The world is entirely built and owned by its resident. In 2003,the virtual world consisted of 64 acres. By 2010it had grown to over 100000 acresand was inhabited by millions of residents from around the planet(see ).The virtual world consists of ahuge digital contient,island,people,enterainment,experiences,and opportunities. 2003、三维虚拟世界“第二人生（SL）向公众开放，世界完全是建立在居民拥有的。
