Second Life

What is Second Life?
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.

Features
From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to buy and build your house or business.

You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow Residents. Because Residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other Residents.

The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world unit-of-trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden Dollar exchanges.

Second LifePicture of a resident (left) and an in-world snapshot (right).

More and more the real-world is creating links to initiatives inside Second Life -- from businesses to political campaigns plus non-governmental organisations and activists.

There's even a blog for the 'Second Life Left Unity Group' united around social justice and anti-capitalism.

What use is Second Life to a campaign to end VAW?

One reason to use Second Life is because it might just be the Next Big Thing. Whether or not that's true, Second Life is certainly a creative environment in which to reach a large but very different audience.

Some campaign groups are already using it as a powerful tool to convene virtual face-to-face conferences, gatherings, and even protests. These are all activities for which VAW groups could potentially use Second Life to build links between virtual and real-world communities. Groups could even consider buying land and building safe-houses.

Handled carefully Second Life could also provide another "safe haven" resource for women to tell their own Stories of Resistance as a way to empower others in the campaign to prevent violence against women.

What are the risks?
Second Life has a long set of Terms & Conditions which each real-life owner of a Resident must abide by or face suspension/expulsion and/or even a real-life lawsuit. Second Life also has Community Standards definining rights & abuses such as intolerance, harrassment, assault, disclosure (privacy), indecency and disturbing the peace. In addition, there are designated safe areas (or "PG" areas).

Everyone is in control of what their character looks like inside Second Life. This control permits a certain freedom and anonymity. It also means that a person is free to be whatever gender s/he wishes, with any personality, etc.

The freedom increases the possibilities for nasty folks to hide behind their characters, doing nasty things to other Second Life residents. And as the links between the virtual Second world and this real world increase, so the scale of nefarious doings also seems to increase.

So let's not lie here: just as we must take care to protect ourselves in the real world so we must take care in Second Life.

Also it is useful to remember that although technically you own your Resident and anything you build inside Second Life, in fact the whole system is owned and operated by a real-world company based in the U.S.A. and thus abiding by laws pertaining in that country.

Don't panic, just beware. Arm yourself with knowledge, protect yourself and always be careful.

Practical Info
To get started, you'll need to go to the Second Life homepage and create yourself an avatar (your Second Life "self") which will then be the visual representation of your Second Life Resident. This is free to do and permits you to explore the Second Life world. However buying land will cost real money.

You may wish to give your Resident a name that doesn't reflect your real-world name/identity. Consider NOT giving answers to any signup questions that are truthful (in terms of name, contact info, location, etc.) You may want to go so far as to create a special free e-mail account that you link only to your Second Life identity.