About two months ago, I posted that you should get your clients a Second Life within six months before the PR value diminishes. Already the backlash against this growing enterprise is beginning. New corporations are springing up in Second Life weekly, causing some residents in Second Life to ban companies from their online real estate, but there is debate about whether the backlash is a real threat, or confined to a small vigilant group.
The fact that there is discussion about a backlash at all should be a yellow flag. It’s still worth getting on Second Life because, as the BBC puts it, they are barely out of the news, but make sure that your presence adds value to Second Life members.
The other reason it’s still worth getting on Second Life is the membership: it’s growing faster than ever – about 38% per month – and the monetary and time costs of channel switching are still too high to make it worthwhile for members.
Security concerns are another yellow flag:
- A few days ago, Second Life had to close down due to a worm attack called grey goo.
- In September, Second Life member account data was compromised.
- A script called CopyBot was released that enables users to replicate virtual items without having to pay for them. So take note if you were thinking of recommending that your clients create virtual products.
Second Life seems to handle any issues quickly and efficiently, but nevertheless make sure that your clients don’t compromise any customer or transactional data. Keep a watch on technology limitations and security breaches. The latter is another backlash indicator.
Let’s see how things progress over the next four months; it may prove to be a lifetime for Second Life.
