What is Second Life

Virtual world environment used for social networking and educational purposes

Second Life is a virtual world platform that allows users to create avatars and engage in a range of social and creative activities. The platform was launched in 2003 and was one of the first virtual worlds to gain mainstream attention. Second Life has been used to explore a range of social, educational, and business applications, and is seen as a precursor to the metaverse.

Sometimes referred to as simply SL, Second Life is a 3D virtual reality developed by the Linden Lab in California, USA, that was launched in 2003. It became more prominent in late 2006 as a number of global corporations and educational institutions opened buildings there. Based on a free downloadable client, Second Life estimates that up to 18 million accounts have been registered there as of early 2008.

Second Life is one of the most widely known non-game virtual worlds, where over 14 million internet users (as of September 2008) from around the world are registered.

A three-dimensional virtual world that was released to the public by Linden Lab in 2003. Basic membership is free, and individuals from around the world create SL accounts.

An online role-playing game centered on commerce.

Second Life is a popular MMOG developed by Linden Lab. It allows users to edit the world and their own characters to their own specifications.

A virtual world developed and maintained by Linden Labs.

Virtual world environment used for social networking and educational purposes (Linden Laboratories, June, 2013).

Internet-based, immersive, three-dimensional, virtual environment developed by Linden Lab, US.

A virtual world where avatars from anywhere on earth can interact in an immersive 3D environment.

A unique MMOG that provides an open virtual world in which players can create, own, and sell their own virtual objects.

A virtual world that was developed by Linden Lab and launched in 2003 and that is accessible from the Internet through a free Second Life or other compatible client.

Second Life is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab (Secondlife.com). It is accessible on the Internet through a client program or viewer that enables its users to interact with each other in a variety of contexts. Currently there is a deal of great interest in its uses in teaching and learning contexts.

A 3D virtual environment created by Linden Lab where “residents” create “avatars” to represent themselves and where a majority of the content is user-created.

A free, open, 3D virtual world where users act and move using avatars, and where they can create, connect, and chat with others using voice and text chat.

A virtual platform offering synchronous or asynchronous virtual leisure experience.

a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents and it allows users to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade items (virtual property) and services with one another. (Wikipedia, n.d.).

An online digital electronic virtual world (MUVE) launched on June 23, 2003 by the American company Linden Lab following an idea of the latter's founder, physicist Philip Rosedale. It is an IT platform in the new media sector that integrates synchronous and asynchronous communication tools and finds application in multiple fields of creativity: entertainment, art, education, music, cinema, role playing, architecture, programming, business, etc.

A computer-based 3-D virtual world environment that is accessible over the Internet and that features massively user-created content

Virtual world environment used for social networking and educational purposes.

An online multi-user three-dimensional environment that caters to general-purpose object creation, interaction, and dynamic script-based manipulation.

A computer-based 3D environment where users control avatars as they experience work, life, and play

Second life is a latest-generation multi-user virtual environment. It is available globally to internet users who meet online to socialize, to create and to share digital identities, objects and locations. See www.secondlife.com

A virtual world developed by Linden Lab that was launched on June 23, 2003 and is accessible via the Internet.

an online 3D virtual world.

A 3D world created where every avatar is a real person and every place is built by people.

A three-dimensional virtual world environment that is inhabited by avatars, and the virtual world is created by the inhabitants of the world.

A virtual world launched in June 2003 by the American company Linden Lab, from an idea of its founder, physicist Philip Rosedale. A free program (client) called Second Life Viewer allows users, represented by Avatars, to interact with each other. Residents can explore, socialize, meet other residents and manage individual or group activities, create partnerships, marry, create projects, teleport and travel through the islands and lands that form the virtual world. Digital data are stored on a grid of servers in San Francisco. The system provides its users (called “residents”) with tools to add new graphic content. Examples of metaverse are MMORPGs and 3D Virtual worlds such as Second Life or Active Worlds.

Second Life (SL) is a social virtual world, emphasizing the general use of immersive worlds for supporting a variety of human activities and interactions, presenting a plethora of new opportunities and challenges for enriching how we learn, work and play ( Boulos, Hetherington & Wheeler, 2007 ; Prasolova-Førland, Sourin & Sourina, 2006 ).

An online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and have a second life in an online virtual world.

A commercial virtual world operated by Linden Research, which conducts business as Linden Lab.

An online, virtual world developed by Linden Research that functions as a social network in which users can develop their own content in the form of buildings, clothing, jewelry, and scripts which cause their characters to act in different ways such as dancing, firing weapons, and breathing fire.

A virtual world developed by Linden Lab used as a learning environment in this chapter. It is a computer-based 3D environment where students meet and interact with each other.

Virtual world and social world.

An advanced three dimensional online virtual world with a complex and realistic digital landscape (known as the grid) where individuals create and author avatars (known as residents) that interact with one another.

An open-ended virtual world where users are provided tools and guidelines to design, create and manipulate the in-world environment and interact with other users from around the world ( Wang & Burton, 2013 ).

is a multi user virtual environment or 3D virtual world where “users can socialize, connect and create using free voice and text chat”.

Web site offering a 3D virtual reality environment in which users interact with others using human-like avatars—characters that represent them—in a virtual world that resembles reality. The use of Second Life as an e-Learning platform or Virtual Learning Environment has been explored by some educators who consider that the virtual reality environment offers is ideal to interact with people from distant places; however Second Life has also been criticized for facilitating the assumption of fake personalities by people.

A 3D virtual world platform developed by Linden Lab Inc. in 2003.

An open-ended virtual world created by San Francisco-based Linden Lab. Its foci are socialization, economic activity, and non-profit interactions. The creation of former RealNetworks CTO Philip Rosedale, Second Life gives its users (referred to as residents) tools to shape its world. (Wikipedia, 2007c)

Second Life is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab. A free client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users (Residents) to interact with each other through using avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities.

Virtual world environment used for social networking and educational purposes

An online virtual world, where people can socialize and connect with other people all over the world ( Boulos, Hetherington, & Wheeler, 2007 ).

An online virtual environment in which users, via a free downloadable client program, interact with other users through avatars and can produce and edit the content.

Second Life is a 3D online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. Second Life provides only online community environment and the every content created by the residents.

A virtual world which enables a wide range of activities and experiences.

A MUVE commonly used by educators, created in 2003 by Linden Lab. It has around 16 million users. A separate Teen Grid for 13 to 17 year olds also exists.

It is a virtual social media environment where people can sign up and create an avatar for the purpose of learning and interacting with others.

A well-known virtual world platform initially developed by Philip Rosedale and Linden Lab.

A three dimensional universe in which avatars can transact business, meet one another, and purchase user created electronic objects (along with pieces of virtual land) using Linden dollars.

Second Life is one of the first Virtual Worlds, which was launched by Linden Lab in 2003. For more information, see http://secondlife.com