It's still widely regarded as an entertainment destination that attracts a youngish demographic, but Second Life — and the larger virtual Web it inhabits — is getting serious attention from big businesses.

A panel discussion on the virtual Web Wednesday at Stanford University's AlwaysOn Summit featured executives from IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc., who argued that virtual communities were becoming a key market for next-generation technologies and applications in development. In addition, they said that Second Life and other virtual Web communities were fast evolving to include the serious business person seeking better ways to connect remotely.

"Everybody here has probably been on a conference call at one point that lasted more than an hour," explained Chris Melissinos, chief gaming officer at Sun. "Every once in a while, you hear a toilet flush in the background. Virtual worlds can change that dynamic, from one where you sit back, to one where you lean forward."

Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a vice president at IBM, added that the virtual Web, which enables people to connect across the Internet in much more realistic, 3-D way, has significantly expanded the number of new applications that can be developed.

An added benefit of connecting through a virtual world, as opposed to other Web 2.0 tools like blogs or YouTube, seems to be civility. "When you are physically next to the person, it is harder to say vile things," Wladawsky-Berger said.

Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab, which produces Second Life, explained that phenomenon of better manners this way: "In Second Life, you have a real identity. You have a job and friends, and you own property. You can't just run — it's the equivalent of killing yourself." —Andrea Orr

See June 20 post from Tech Confidential blog

Tags: second+life, alwayson, alwayson07, alwayson2007, ao2007, ao07, web 2.0