Assignment Two

Part A: Individuals

1. What is Second Life?

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 9,546,938 Residents from around the globe.

2. How much does it cost to create your avatar?

The cost to create an avatar on Second Life depends on the package you choose.  There are three options available, First Basic account is completely free, Additional Basic accounts are available for a one-time fee of $9.95 each.  The Premium account can be purchased at $9.95/mo, $22.95 quarterly, and $72.00 annually. 

3. What are the ten most exciting things you can do on SL (whether you can or cannot do them in real life!)

-Create and/or run a business

-Purchase Linden dollars

-Fly

-Create a person whom you wish to be

-Meet new people

-Live a life where no one on the net does not know who you really are

-Attend virtual school

-Buy land

-Play games

-Take part in the Second Life economy

4. How can you make money?

Through buying and selling products or services (ex. renting land for conferences or concerts)

 

Part B: Businesses

1. List five businesses that exist in the real world, and have presence on Second Life. For each of the five businesses, provide the following information (if applicable and available):

    -How long has the business been on SL?
    -What do they do there?

On August 20, 2006 Scion held a convention in San Francisco to launch  the Scion XB being driven out of the Real World and into the Virtual World.

    Warner Brothers Records used Second Life to advertise their upcoming artist, Regina Spektor on June 14, 2007.

    Sun Microsystems held a press conference on October 10, 2006. Reporters from AP, BusinessWeek, CNET, MIT Tech        Review, Network World, New York Times, InternetNews.com were eager to attend this event.     

    On Thursday October 12th, 2006, Millions of Us developer Versu Richelieu entered a window at the corner of 39th Street and 5th Avenue in New York City for the marketing promotion for the Intel Core 2 Due Processor.

    On May 11, 2007 a party took place for the MS Visual Studio Island.

2. How can SL help a business?

    SL is a unique way of conducting a business.  This will differentiate a company from their competitors since they are taking a step forward in the world of technology.

3. How can a virtual world relate to a brand?

    An example of a company which can take place in the virtual and real world is American Apparel (does no longer exist on SL). This allows the company to test and promote products before actually releasing them in the stores in the real world.

4. How much does it cost the business to exist on SL?

512 m2      $5 USD

1 024 m2    $8

2 048 m2    $15

4 096 m2    $25

8 192 m2    $40

16 384 m2  $75

32 768 m2   $125

65 536 m2    $195

 

Part C: Real Residents

The fashionsta: Nephilaine Protagonist

Nephilaine Protagonist is a well-known content creator. Largely focusing on women's clothing, she is the owner of Pixel Dolls, one of SL's most popular fashion lines. She registered in mid-2003, and had begun her boutique by early 2004. In 2005 she became the focus of a new full-length documentary of her Second Life (and Second Life in general) called Ideal World.

Nephilaine is directly responsible for mentoring a number of other notable content providers, such as Torrid Midnight, Launa Fauna, and Heizeus Khan.

 

http://secondlife.com/

http://www.slhistory.org/index.php/Nephilaine_Protagonist

http://www.millionsofus.com/

 

This website was designed for a school project. Course BADM4040 Fall 2007.
University of Guelph-Humber