NEWS

Michiganders Make a Living, Meet and Study in 'Second Life'

Detroit Free Press
March 4, 2008
By Heather Newman

Sometimes it pays to NOT keep your head in the real world.

Almost four years after the launch of the online world "Second Life" (www.secondlife.com) Michiganders are reaping the rewards. From businesses to individuals, nonprofits to colleges, they're using the online space to reach out to each other, customers, givers and students, creating an online life that is a mirror of the real thing -- and yet totally different. As in:

• A Detroit woman makes up to $350,000 a year creating clothes, items, even islands for individual and corporate customers in-world.
• Software created by the University of Michigan 3D Lab is being built into "Second Life."
• Students from Detroit to Mt. Pleasant are learning in-world and working on projects with students from other places.
• Michiganders were among those helping to run (and helping to contribute to) the American Cancer Society's wildly successful Second Life Relay for Life in-world foot race last year, which raised $118,000.

"Second Life" is an online world, run like a computer game but without the competition. You can create an avatar -- a person that represents you -- and then wander the virtual landscape, visiting islands run by other people, businesses and organizations and talking with the other people you see.