Znetlady: Modern Media

Virtual Business Gets a Real Magazine: Business Magazine for Second Life Launches

Second Life, one of the growing virtual worlds, has a new magazine dedicated to real world issues surrounding doing business in Second Life.  SL Business Magazine launched yesterday.  And true to modern media it is available in both ”real world” formats, like PDF and hard-copy, as well as “virtual formats,” like in-world note cards, and a full-color “prim” version (a prim is an in-world virtual object).

The premier issue is very nicely designed.  The content of the issue is geared to those fairly new to business in Second Life but the magazine’s goal is to cover topics such as Law, Building, the rich music scene and success stories. And, it contains both Second Life (SL) and real life (RL) advertisers. 

Second Life has had a couple of news publications for quite a while (in online time), but the SL Business Magazine hopes to focus on issues of both doing business “in world” and the intersection of RL and SL business.

While the reviews of the first issue are mixed, I’m hoping that SL Business Magazine will tell the story of the evolving business side of Second Life without the “novelty” factor given most mainstream media coverage of SL.  Some very serious work is going on in Second Life as both a media channel and a business environment. 

I hope as it matures the magazine will serve to affirm that very real business is being conducted in virtual worlds. Some believe SL is about escapism, however the facts are that some visionary companies are grabbing onto SL to leapfrog their real world businesses.  American Express, Intel and Wal-Mart, for example, are part of a consortium exploring using SL for training.  American Apparel has opened up a virtual retail outlet. The University of Southern California has built a Public Diplomacy and Virtual Worlds Center to explore how virtual worlds can be used in diplomatic endeavors.  The American Cancer Society raised over $40,000 last week in an in-world relay. And, then there are the Second Life Library and the International Space Museum which both regularly hold discussions, presentations and lectures in world - not to mention their amazingly rich exhibits.

Check out the new magazine, and if you are interested in exploring SL business implications with other business people, please join the SL Business Communicators group in SL.  We'll be holding the first meeting in mid-August.

Business Communicators Group in Second Life – Join!

We (MarCom:Interactive) have begun an SL Business Communicators group in Second Life.  Joining is free to any Second Life resident.  Please join us.

The business, communications, sociologic and economic, implications of Second Life and other virtual worlds crossing over into Real Life (SL into RL) are vast – and we are inviting other business communicators to explore the implications of virtual worlds on marketing, media, journalism, communications and information sharing by joining SL Business Communicators.

What is Second Life ?  It’s a virtual world!  It’s just one of several virtual worlds where people live, work, play and socialize.  You adopt a persona (an avatar), visit places, join groups, earn in-world money, buy products and services, and attend meetings.  It’s not fringe, it’s not online gaming, and it’s not to be ignored.  Second Life is growing by the thousands each week, and as I write this, there are 314,244 residents, uh, 314,247, …260…

Some fascinating work is going on in Second Life.  Museums are being built, real life business are offering virtual products there, and media in all its forms is being published.  The Second Life Library 2.0  project driven by the Alliance Library System in Illinois is in serious work mode building a virtual library, exploring how library services and information dissemination might be needed in virtual worlds by “virtual people”  or real people operating in virtual worlds.  Fascinating and impressive work being done by fascinating, impressive, visionary people. 

Our short SL Business Communicators charter is  “to explore the culture and potential of Second Life for business communications and information dissemination.”  We’d also like to act as a resource group for communicators new to Second Life.

Please join us if you are interested in leading the way on exploring and experimenting with media and information in virtual environments.  To join, once you are in world, go to Find/Groups (on your menu), search on “Business.”  You’ll see SL Business Communicators in the list– that’s us.  Click on it, click Join Now and you’re in!  We don’t have a meeting center yet, but there are plenty of public in world meeting places where we can gather from time to time.  And just maybe the group will decide to build a meeting center of the virtual kind.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll have an SL Business Communicators blog to announce in world meetings and to discuss SL in the RL - as time allows.  Yes, I know, we have RL jobs too!

I hope you join in and give us all the benefit of your thinking.

Attending an International Space Musuem presentation
June 25, 2006