Second Life - What is it all about?
Second Life is one of the more popular of a number of 3D virtual worlds which have
sprung up on the internet over the last few years and which have gained massive
popularity.
Once logged in to Second Life, you become immersed in a vast 3D world where you
can move around, chat with others, visit places, build, dance, drive cars, fly airplanes,
ride hover-boards, teleport and even fly around!
With the huge amount of interest virtual worlds generally attract, Second Life provides
an excellent opportunity for involvement in this developing technology early.
As a forward thinking leading provider of legal services, the key is accessibility
to our clients and potential clients. A growing body of potential clients want to
benefit from the convenience and instant nature of the internet and so we have a
presence in this world with an 8th virtual office.
We pride ourselves on a 21st century approach and we constantly embrace cutting
edge technology. Second life is just one example of this.
For our clients:
One of the obvious areas of our current work that we would like to introduce to
Second Life is our Legal Helpline. The Legal Helpline already provides advice to
thousands of callers in a long standing and well known virtual environment - the
telephone call. Second Life can provide an additional route to the Legal Helpline,
but in an environment far richer and more satisfying than the telephone call.
For our firm:
We can also see considerable benefits in using Second Life, and applications like
it, in relation to our training requirements. The regulations imposed by the Solicitors
Regulation Authority and then the Investors in People and Lexel accreditations,
means we have heavy obligations to provide training to our staff which sometimes
proves costly in terms of time and expense of travel. Our virtual office in Second
Life provides us with the prospect to deliver training in a way that reduces impact
on the environment and saves time and money. Not only that, but we believe that
in certain circumstances, the virtual environment actually makes the training experience
more enjoyable, more effective and therefore, more valuable.
How did we get started?
After realising businesses like IBM, Adidas, Mazda and even BBC Radio 1, had experimented
with activities in a virtual world, as well as a number of educational institutions,
like Harvard Law School, we tried an initial free trial before obtaining a premium
account which means we can own virtual land. We purchased some land and started
building our virtual office.
Great importance is given to actively participating in the creation of our virtual
presence rather than paying a third party to do that for us. The sense of community
in Second Life is strong and we understand the activities that the many ‘residents’
in Second Life engage in and we wish to contribute to the community as a whole.
A variety of objects exist that we have built to help us understand and use Second
Life - presentation screens, traffic monitors etc - all of which we created easily
using information freely available over the internet.
Get Involved
Getting involved in Second Life is easy and free. All you need is get a Second Life
account, a good internet connection and a good PC. To get your Second Life account,
simply visit www.secondlife.com and follow the instructions. Once you have your
account, it’s just a case of logging into Second Life and exploring.
You can get a free, basic account or, for the more adventurous among you, you can
pay for a premium account which gives higher levels of support and allows you, or
rather your ‘avatar’, to own land.
For businesses looking to establish a presence in Second Life, it can be remarkably
simple. There are many real life businesses that can help you with this but, with
a little patience and time, there is no reason why a business cannot undertake the
work required to build virtual premises and facilities such as meeting and presentation
rooms. If you would like more information on this, you can speak to us at our offices
in Second Life -
Simpson Millar LLP in Second Life.
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