1. Bertie Bosrédon

    Digital engagement & Social Media expert at Bertie.fr

    04 April 2007 14:59pm

    Bertie Bosrédon

    Hello,

    I assume you have heard or even tried the fascinating world of Second Life.
    Several companies and charities in the UK are now present there.
    Save the Children built a virtual farm where you can buy a Yak and customise it. WorldVision are also present and several other charities are working on their presence.

    It is a fascinating and exciting prospect. I had fun flying around and being teleported in the past few months. But I found this "world" empty most of the time: 25,000 people at most.

    I have done more research and came across some interesting articles.
    The Register published an article in December: The phony economics of Second Life http://tinyurl.com/26dbw8 .
    Conclusion of their article:
    " from the three million residents who, we are told, are living the dream of a virtual economy, we arrive at a figure of around 3,000 economically active users at any one time - most of whom are turning over only a token sum."

    According to another article Second Life is not eco-friendly.  On his blog, editor Nicholas Carr looks at the electricity needed to run SL: http://tinyurl.com/ybpzq7 . He makes a complicated calculation of the kWH per capita. There are many comments on this article including the following: “"looking at CO2 production, 1,752 kWH/year per avatar is about 1.17 tons of CO2. That's the equivalent of driving an SUV around 2,300 miles (or a Prius around 4,000). This fact has been discussed and disputed on many blogs.

    I don't feel I can justify spending donation money on this project but I would really like to have your views, experience, success story...

    Thanks,

    Bertie

  2. Justine Wyness

    Head of Digital Marketing at Future Publishing

    05 April 2007 11:42am

    Avatar-blank-50x50

    2nd Life is briliiant, I'd love to meet the guys behind it (http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/discover-interview/philip-rosedale)  Up at Linden Towers their aim is to let the 'world' emerge into its own economy and monitor the ways an economy develops. The FBI are currently investigating gambling in Linden's casino. One of our sites has run a few funny stories on the subject: Its great, but tedious to 'play'. Its seems RedNoseDay ran a  campaign in Second Life too:
    http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/internet-and-broadband/news/fbi-probes-gambling-in-second-life-casinos?articleid=1773511384
    http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/internet-and-broadband/news/red-nose-day-on-second-life?articleid=983817526

    However, the people who play it all the time really should http://www.getafirstlife.com

    Justine

    On 14:59:06 4 April 2007 BertieB wrote:

    Hello,

    I assume you have heard or even tried the fascinating world of Second Life.
    Several companies and charities in the UK are now present there.
    Save the Children built a virtual farm where you can buy a Yak and customise it. WorldVision are also present and several other charities are working on their presence.

    It is a fascinating and exciting prospect. I had fun flying around and being teleported in the past few months. But I found this "world" empty most of the time: 25,000 people at most.

    I have done more research and came across some interesting articles.
    The Register published an article in December: The phony economics of Second Life http://tinyurl.com/26dbw8 .
    Conclusion of their article:
    " from the three million residents who, we are told, are living the dream of a virtual economy, we arrive at a figure of around 3,000 economically active users at any one time - most of whom are turning over only a token sum."

    According to another article Second Life is not eco-friendly.  On his blog, editor Nicholas Carr looks at the electricity needed to run SL: http://tinyurl.com/ybpzq7 . He makes a complicated calculation of the kWH per capita. There are many comments on this article including the following: “"looking at CO2 production, 1,752 kWH/year per avatar is about 1.17 tons of CO2. That's the equivalent of driving an SUV around 2,300 miles (or a Prius around 4,000). This fact has been discussed and disputed on many blogs.

    I don't feel I can justify spending donation money on this project but I would really like to have your views, experience, success story...

    Thanks,

    Bertie

  3. dan barker

    E-Business Consultant at Dan Barker

    10 April 2007 11:42am

    dan barker

    hi, Bertie, how are you?

    How much are you talking about spending & what kind of package are you being offered? Just a presence within SecondLife, or PR alongside?

    I think that the perception of SecondLife is almost all a result of fantastic PR. As you say, hardly anyone uses it, yet big brands have bought into it, it's regularly mentioned in national newspapers, and the general perception is that it's 'big time'.

    It seems to be talked about much more than it's used. I have a feeling that many of these 'big brands' supposedly embracing SecondLife realise this & are actually just using it as the focal point of a PR campaign. A quick google search for "save the children" "second life" is a good example of how well that can work - returning almost 13000 results:

    http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22save+the+children%22+%22secondlife%22&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

    In conclusion, In terms of direct return on investment, I don't think Second Life will do much for you. But, as a focal point for a PR drive & a way to position your brand as 'forward thinking', it can be fantastic.

    Does that help?

    daniel

  4. David McCann

    Director at Teamspirit

    12 April 2007 16:15pm

    David McCann

    We have a lot of clients who ask about second life or at least want to know what it is.  The reality is its probably fun to play around with but getting the basics of your digital marketing sorted out is probably more beneficial to most clients.

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