SECOND LIFE. a vision of the future of business in internet.

Second Life can be an indication of how the next internet revolution is going to be. Taking this into consideration, the companies that get involved in virtual worlds will have a competitive advantage in the world of virtual business. They are part of the theses that centred the conference Second Life as business surroundings, a conference that has been celebrated simultaneously in a conference hall and the virtual world…

The virtual universe of Second Life enjoys an increasing interest between the marketing professionals in Spain. The conference Second Life as businesssurroundings, organized by the companies of virtual business Metafuturing and Novatierra and the magazine “Tendencias 21”, has been dedicated to discover the potentiality of this universe in the field of business.

Luis Sotillo, director of Novatierra and founder of the community Second Life Spain, explains that companies are interested in SL for four reasons:

• To have a leading position in new technologists
• To develop I+D at low cost.
• To associate the brand to the attributes of innovation and vanguard.
• To acquire an early knowledge of virtual business.

Luis Sotillos indicates that in Second Life there are four possible strategies of business that can be developed:

- Make marketing campaigns in Second Life: allows to associate the activities of the digitally active public to the attributes of the brand or the attributes that want to be enhanced. Some brands have trusted in this potentiality, like Universal Pictures or Vodafone. Mercedes Benz has recently incorporated it self offering users the possibility of simulating the experience of driving their cars. BMW, on the contrary, has declared that it won’t get involved in SL because it is impossible to reproduce the real experience of driving.

- Customized Services for the client: Companies can get the client’s attention to virtual the virtual world by creating meeting environments and costumer services tables from which communication between them can be managed. Another option is to develop Informative actions at a distance. Bank ABN AMRO and CEF/UDIMA are some of the organizations who have taken part on this model.

- Celebration of events: Exclusive or complementary events can be made to those made in the real world. Until now it is a method of demonstrated success to multiply the mediatic cover. TV programs such as Big Brother have organized their broadcast in SL. Also Sun Pavillion from Sun Microsystems, the presentation of Toyota Scion or the events of Harvard Law School have settled a landmark. Making these events allows to take advantage of the advantages of Second Life (expressive advantages, limited only by the imagination and programming capabilities). In addition, the experience of a virtual universes is as immersive as the real experience.

- Applications of corporative productivity: SL can be used as a virtual environment of joint work between people located in physically distant places.

Precisions on the network

Adolph Castilla, editing advisor of Tendencies 21, affirms that “what was conceived as information economy is evolving towards a network economy, from which living is possible”. He adds “publicity, as it is right now, does not have much route in the network”.

Daniel Fernandez Leston, said that the new evolution that the network is going through, is right now in a phase of maduration. According to this technician of IBM and member of the IBM community in SL, Internet is heading towards a 3D stage, in which all users get together to co-create.