Most people have heard of Second Life, a free to join virtual world/community that allows anyone to build a “Second reality”. I wont go into the details of this so if you have never heard of Second Life then be sure to check out their website for all the details.
I must admit I have ignored Second Life for a long time now, I thought why would I join something (Even if its free) where all id do is walk around using my avatar and talk to people? Isnt IM, twitter, email, blogging, etc enough?
What finally broke me down is a conversation with Zain Naboulsi who is part of Microsoft’s Evangelism team and is partially focused on "Virtual Worlds”. Zain told me about our efforts in this space and a place called Microsoft Island. I finally decided to install Second Life (which was a painless process to setup a free account and install the client) and I was exploring our Island in 15 minutes.
As you can see from some of the screenshots above it really is a rich and detailed place, full of Multimedia videos, stadium seating for “virtual events” and fun free gear such as the Visual Studio T-shirt my avatar is wearing!
Overall I am very impressed and encourage others to check out Second Life. I am only starting to get a sense of what is possible but hope to show this to more people as trust me, it will impress.
Here are all the resources you need to get started: