Second Life—The Jury is Still Out

One of the great things about working for a company like Accenture is that you are supposed to think about the impact new technologies could make on the way you work—and, more importantly, try to figure out how you can use these technologies to help your clients become high-performance businesses. This means going well beyond how the technology works and how to find your way around it (though of course that is something we do as well).

Second Life, which was launched in 2003 but only really came into prominence in 2006, is a technology phenomenon that continues to pose questions for Accenture and other companies: What use (if any) can we or our clients make of it? For those who have not yet come into contact with it, Second Life is a virtual world that allows one to create a persona, or avatar. The avatar then explores the virtual world, all of which is created by other avatars who buy an island from the site’s owners, Linden Lab. For many people, this is a chance to create either an idealized version of their true selves, or to let their creativity run riot, and create an avatar that reflects some aspect of their personality. The same is true of what avatars do with their real estate holdings in Second Life—they represent a real chance to create what they cannot in the real world.

So far, so good. Clearly, one can have a lot of fun exploring other people’s worlds in the liberating guise of one’s avatar. But for companies, the presence of all these people, albeit by proxy, looks like marketing heaven. Wikipedia says there are some 13 million registered residents of Second Life—but that many of these are inactive accounts. While reliable figures are not available, there is clearly a substantial population of people with active avatars on Second Life. Many companies have purchased islands, for example Toyota and Dell—not to mention pop group Duran Duran. These islands offer visitors the chance to experience things the companies hope they will buy in the real world. Test drive a car and order it there and then, or build your ideal computer and have it delivered. Or listen to a concert and presumably buy the compact disc.

What is interesting is that these marketing sites do not really attract many visitors—as with many new technologies, adult content is what gets the most traffic. If Second Life follows the same trajectory as many new media, mainstream users will in due course figure out what to do with it.

A poll Accenture ran on Digital Forum a while back confirms this observation. At present, Second Life is not about business: 58 percent of people go to Second Life to meet others, and 42 percent to explore. Nobody goes to conduct meetings or to purchase things.

Accenture itself has been using the medium quite effectively in the recruitment space. We have created a Career Island that allows avatars to get exposure to Accenture in a number of ways, and really appreciate what it is like to work for the company. We run events successfully for prospective hires, and let them test themselves in challenges that push them mentally and physically—and that test their ability to work as an effective team member.

BA Media students at Liverpool Hope University are currently running a six-month project to allow people to visit a virtual (and partly imaginative) version of the real-life university. The project aims to connect with students and prospective students in creative way.

In other words, we are using Second Life to allow people to explore, which is what they are there to do anyway. How would you use it?