by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Imagine being able to virtually reinvent yourself, get into whatever business you like and possibly even make some money?
In Second Life, you can do just that.
At the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors quarterly luncheon, Brad Neff of the Archimedes Group told Realtors that almost anything is possible in Second Life, a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents. Residents are the users who inhabit the world and create it’s context.
According to Neff, since opening to the public in 2003, Second Life has exploded in growth and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.
Neff is a former Florida Association of Realtors technical staff member who now works for the Archimedes Group, developing future technologies in addition to serving as a consultant for Real Estate Industry Solutions (REIS).
“I want to share you with how the Internet is changing,” said Neff. “There is a new virtual world, Second Life, and it’s big. It started out as a game and then it made a very important change.”
Neff told the Realtors that you can buy and sell real or virtual real estate in Second Life.
“It’s like bringing you into the Internet,” said Neff. “The new Internet, the Second Life Internet allows you to control a little animated character (called an avatar) that can actually walk and navigate the Internet to seek out some of the same information that you will find on a Web page. The reason that Second Life is so different is that it’s not a game. Second Life is actually an online society.”
There are more than 10 million people who have accounts in Second Life.
“They interact with one another and what that means is that when you’re controlling this little person in this environment, you can talk to the other people around you,” said Neff. “It’s not just text-based chat. You can actually hear the voice of the other live person that is inside of Second Life with you.”
Neff said the society in Second Life is based on social networking and can help you expand your business.
“In terms of your own business, you get a lot of customers by talking to other people, putting your name out there and using word of mouth marketing,” said Neff. “That is exactly what Second Life is.”
Second Life even has its own monetary unit, Linden dollars. The exchange rate is about $1 to $300 Linden dollars.
“People going into Second Life can buy and sell virtual commodities, but more importantly it’s becoming a vehicle to buy and sell real goods,” said Neff.
Neff explained that companies can use Second Life to hold meetings and training sessions where employees from all over the world can virtually be together in the same room and talk to each other.
He showed a virtual boardroom that is run by the University of North Carolina.
“This is where their board of trustees now meets,” said Neff. “They don’t come to physical meetings at a hotel. They all get onto their computers and log in. They compel their avatar to sit in a chair. They have a microphone and speakers on their computer and they start talking to each other just as if they were on a conference call or in a room together.”
He said rooms can have a projection screen to show information to those attending the meeting, just like in an actual board room.
“When they are having a meeting, they can see whatever they could see in a normal room on that screen,” said Neff. “Beyond that, you could put streaming video on it and everyone who has a Webcam could have their real face appearing in that room.”
Meeting rooms can also be created in outdoor amphitheatres for a more relaxing atmosphere.
Some people have found ways to make real money on Second Life by buying virtual real estate online with Linden dollars and then renting it out for Linden dollars. They can then exchange their Linden dollars they have accrued for real dollars.
“There is money here, serious money,” said Neff.
Neff showed Realtors a Re/Max and a Coldwell Banker office in Second Life where consumers can visit, meet an agent and get shownproperty in 3-D that is actually listed with those companies.
Coldwell Banker has a collection of virtual homes that represent real listings.
“Every single one of those virtual homes represents an actual multi-million dollar listing held by Coldwell Banker that is for sale somewhere in the world,” said Neff. “They can bring their client into this space, no matter where on the planet that client is. They can log onto their computer and walk through this virtual listing so they can get a sense of distance and proportion. For the first time you can bring a client here and show them a 3-D representation of the house you are trying to sell and even allow them to place furniture inside of the home to see what it looks like.”
Neff said Second Life is a great marketing tool for Realtors in International real estate.
“The 10 million people that are in Second Life are not limited to U.S. citizens, so for those of you in International real estate, this is a great inexpensive place for you to find customers who have disposable income and understand the power of looking across the world from their own computer,” said Neff.
Shopping, entertainment, and cruises are also offered in Second Life.
“It’s not just business, there is fun going on in there as well,” said Neff. “You can teach your avatar to surf, hang glide or even skateboard. It’s an interesting way to do things that you can’t do in the real world.”
Neff said everyone should get familiar with Second Life because it is the Internet of the future.
It is free to sign up for Second Life, but to be able to buy and sell real estate, you need to upgrade to a premium account, which runs about $9 a month.
NEFAR and REIS are offering a Second Life Certification Course in December 2007 to help get Realtors familiar with Second Life and teach them how to successfully maneuver this 3-D environment.