whilst this phenomenom might still seem a little unusual to some
it is surely a nod to the technology rich future which sees us having
an existence that is part real and part digital.

one of the things that the mainstream press gets right about SL is
that nearly everything is user-generated, one of SL's greatest
strengths!

second life avatars are valuable customers - they have the
money to spend on high-end computers, and high-speed internet
connections, as well as free time needed to partake of SL.
no wonder that design companies wish to use SL for effective
marketing,building relationships with customers and partners,
and creating business value. with so many places in SL to visit
such as shops, cinemas, galleries - there is plenty to keep the
9 million or so avatars busy. one main past time seems to be
that of spending. the community's currency is the linden dollar,
named after SL's developer linden lab (exchange rate is L$265
to US$1). this past june/july, about 11,500,000 transactions
took place..

trends
many PR agencies are testing the waters of the SL
phenomenon - in may 2007 the german agency ‘trendbüro’
invited 40 persons to their SL 'corecon convention center',
to take part in a 'trend day' entitled ‘karma-capitalism’, which
was defined by the three words: transparency, attitude and
sustainability. it was possible for SL visitors to chat with the
speakers after the talks.

car design
in a computer-generated virtual world where the roads are empty
and the cars are cheap, anything is possible. in november 2006,
toyota's american youth brand 'scion' opened their first car
showroom in SL, where people can test drive the range and even
buy them for as little as 200 linden dollars. in the first two months
alone scion sold more than 500 virtual cars. other car companies
soon followed, and now there's a booming car culture in SL.

nissan went one better - giving away their 'sentra' models for free
at a kind of giant vending machine and provided a death defying
'loop-d-loop' track to test them on. the stunt seemed to prove
popular with around 20,000 sentras given away since the vending
machine opened.

in april this year the italian car designer giorgetto giugiaro
announced that he will present his concept car renders
on SL for a test drive. read more

with such offers available you might be thinking of getting the car
of your dreams, but buying the 'real' deal might not yet be possible.
inside second life there are at least 16 shops advertising that they
sell 'ferrari' cars. one model sells for L$1995 (approximately US $7.75). however, as of yet ferrari does not have an official presence in
second life. (read more about copyrights in SL below)

furniture design
in july 2007, the US company steelcase announced a
SL chair design competition, the winning design will be
showcased in the SL steelcase store ...

the italian company moroso has its own virtual HQ
which of course is furnished with their iconic pieces,
from the likes of marc newson and patricia urquiola.

fashion design
it's not surprising that clothing, hairstyles and accessories
are as attractive as they are to second lifers, it's all part of
individualizing the appearance of a player's online persona.

like offline fashion designers, second lifers can spend hours
or days sketching and developing the textures and patterns
of a garment. 'it's not unlike making real clothing' says
26 year old alyssa laroche who started designing clothes for
SL in 2004 the avatar name of 'aimee weber'. her line originally
consisted of the club wear she'd have worn if she didn't have
a day job as a web designer. skip forward to today and
alyssa no longer has that day job. her online design business
has become full time, aided by the success of her fashions and
other contract work, such as helping american apparel launch
their SL store.

talent zone
anyone with photoshop can become a fashion or industrial
designer and create whatever looks they desire.

but at the moment young designers aren’t that keen on
presenting their collections on SL as yet.
an article on SL’s style page lindenllifestyles.com
encourages new designers to get on board.
the site features a detailed article on how new talents can
promote themselves within SL and the blog circuit
covering fashion and shopping to boost their virtual image.

fashion models & beauty contests
wired news has a story about a beauty contest searching
for the best looking female digital avatar.
the man behind the event is franz cerami, an italian promoter
who's trying to start the world's first CG talent agency.
his dream is to manage a bevy of virtual beauties,
posing and costuming them for pinup calendars,
videogames, ads, and movies.
the benefits of digital models are obvious - they never age,
never have bad hair days, and can be on location in
tokyo, paris, and hollywood simultaneously.

to keep up to date with the latest fashion trends in SL
read the jc fashion report

pet cause
why stage a real protest when you can do it virtually?
that’s what stella mccartney and PETA (people for the
ethical treatment of animals) did this year. in july
there was a peaceful anti-fur protest on a
virtual island created especially for the occasion.
while you were there your character could don a slogan
t-shirt which reads ‘I’d rather be pixilated than wear fur’,
donate virtual money which can be converted to hard
currency by PETA or just enjoy the virtual english
countryside complete with picnic tables and a
linda mccartney veggie burger stand.

copyright infringements
benjamin duranske, founder of the second life bar
association and a real life lawyer, estimated there
was trademark infringement in at least 1 percent of
all second life transactions - about 1.4 million per year.
he noted on his blog that a classifieds search for 'gucci'
generates 106 hits and 'vuitton' gets 39 and 'nike' gets
the most at 186 hits. none of these companies have
endorsed the virtual products.
several stores in SL sell virtual 'iPods'
for avatars. some further the copyright infringement,
by preloading the unlicensed players with songs from
artists ranging from michael jackson to gwen stefani.
apple is not behind these stores.
the current linden labs policy is that if someone files
an abuse report against trademark infringement, they
investigate it and remove the products. however,
so far, the companies haven't actively tried to seek out
trademark violators. the official copyrights policy states,
'linden staff generally remove content that uses trademarks
without apparent authorization, with or without giving
notice to the object owner. this includes all real life corporate
logos and brand names.'
duranske argues that representatives from companies should
be the ones logging in and reporting their complaints to
linden labs:
'consider the real world: the US government doesn’t
seek out trademark infringers. It’s the companies in
question who have to police their marks'.

read more via benjamin duranske's blog
virtually blind

second lifetime expectancy
copyright issues aside, second life still continues to
grow. each month more and more companies venture into
the virtual world in search of business possibliities.
a steady rate of people are jumping on the band waggon
whatever their real life occupation might be all in search of
a new design for life.

more
keep up to date on what’s happening in second life
via reuters, who have their own SL news service

second life: your world, your imagination.