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A recent Associated Press article examined Linden Lab's Second Life, the unique online world which offers users the opportunity to create their own environments. The game's over 800,000 users can buy and sell land, items, and services; allowing some users to operate profitable virtual businesses.

Yes, people pay real money for things they can only use in Rosedale's world, which is created on powerful servers and accessed through the Internet. Hundreds of thousands of real dollars change hands in "Second Life" daily, and it would have an annual gross domestic product of around $150 million if it were to stop growing today.

But Rosedale forecasts it will pass a million users this year. A rush to be part of the "new new thing" is on, and organizations like Major League Baseball, Harvard University, American Apparel Inc., and CNet.com are among the many opening operations in "Second Life," while musicians like Duran Duran and Suzanne Vega have broadcast virtual concerts there using the world's lifelike animated characters.

As chief executive of Linden Research Inc., which owns "Second Life," Rosedale is akin to the world's god, with the software code he approves determining its fundamental laws. But when he enters "Second Life" as his self-created avatar, or character, he claims no special power other than celebrity above the thousands of other intelligent designers who populate its realms.

"I have to admit that I'm vain, like all of us. Nowadays to be Philip Linden (his online alter ego) is to be a rock star," he told The Associated Press in an interview at a recent conference.

Yahoo News: Second Life AP Article

Linden Lab

Second Life

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