Second Life has other shortcomings as a business platform, which will hinder its adoption in the enterprise market, Renaud notes. It doesn't support authentication, so you can't be sure that a person in Second Life is who he claims to be. It doesn't support encryption, so you can't ensure your communications are confidential. Real-world businesses can still use Second Life for brand-building and virtual meetings, but businesses could be doing a lot more in Second Life if they had the proper tools. Once Second Life clears the security and other technology hurdles, the service could be extremely useful for any kind of high-touch sales, bringing together knowledgeable salespeople and potential customers, Renaud said.

Improved Collaboration Tools

Second Life also needs to be able to do a better job importing information from other applications and data sources. Once those tools have improved, people will be able to easily collaborate on designing 3-D objects in Second Life, including clothing, furniture, buildings, and 3-D charts representing business workflows, Renaud said. Some of that is being done already, despite Linden Lab's crude tools; for example Studio Wikitecture is a project for collaborative design of buildings in Second Life using the same principles as wiki projects like Wikipedia. The organization used the principles of wikitecture to design a medical facility in Nepal.

IBM is working with Linden Lab on overcoming some of the security and data compatibility issues faced by Second Life users. IBM is working on developing a version of the Second Life server that companies can run behind their firewalls, boosting security and making Second Life more suitable for business.

Big Blue has more than 50 islands in Second Life, where it holds internal meetings and connects with corporate users.

IBM sees virtual worlds, like Second Life and its competitors, as being useful to businesses for collaboration and training, said Colin Parris, VP of digital convergence for IBM. Virtual worlds can be used for low-cost role-playing simulations, without the need to fly people into a central location from far away. Virtual worlds will also prove useful for modeling complex systems, like data centers, cities, and buildings. Indeed, IBM used Second Life for a demo of its green data center in August.

IBM's relationship with Linden Lab isn't exclusive. They run virtual world software from several vendors, including Fortera Systems, and Multiverse. IBM is also working on integrating virtual world tools with Lotus Sametime, so that people having discussions over SameTime can move into a virtual environment for a richer interaction. And IBM and Linden Lab recently partnered on a demonstration of compatibility between Second Life and OpenSim, an open source Second Life clone, by teleporting avatars between Second Life and OpenSim in July.

Power Of Virtual Meetings

Virtual meetings are the main business application Linden Lab is currently pursuing for Second Life. Similarly, education, including in-world classes, is another powerful use. the service is host to colleges and universities offering classes in-world, including Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford University. More than 5,000 educators worldwide are active in Second Life, Linden Lab says.

The illusion of presence is what makes Second Life meetings compelling, Kingdon said. Participants think of themselves as being in a different place, having a shared experience together. Users can import presentations, and use the service's native voice application to communicate.