The Emerging Virtual Worlds

"Second Life, where Reuters opened a bureau last month, is one of the best-known virtual worlds, with more than 1 million registered users and a well-established economy and currency. The equivalent of more than half a million U.S. dollars change hands there every day."

"...IBM has already established the biggest Second Life presence of any Fortune 500 company. It uses the world primarily for training and meetings but has also built a simulation of the Wimbledon tennis tournament..."

IBM reports that it is "already holding meetings and conducting development inside virtual worlds with about 20 major clients, including telecommunications and aerospace firms, a petroleum company that wants to use virtual worlds for training and 'a major grocer in the UK' that wants to build a virtual storefront that will allow consumers to buy real-world groceries online."

From a recent Wired Magazine feature on Second Life:

"The three main landmasses of Second Life -- Heterocera Atoll, the Main Continent, and the Southern Continent -- presently cover some 26,000 acres, almost twice the size of Manhattan. They are expanding as fast as new servers come online, and each server adds up to four 16-acre regions. Also growing is the number of private islands – 1,350 as of mid-August – that can be purchased by individuals for development. These choice destinations will give you an idea of what Second Life’s industrious residents can create."