TMW Ideas

Had a very interesting chat with Dvaid Burden of Daden on Friday. While we have dabbled in Second Life, David has been involved in virtual worlds since the mid 90's, so has seen a lot. We had a wander around Second Life with him, and he introduced There, Multiverse, Croquet and a few others. There's a handy overview here.

Key points were -

Virtual worlds will not replace other media, they will work alongside them (he described VW's as “meta” media)
A presence in a virtual world for a brand will predominently be a sales, PR or marketing tool. (The car driving experience, for example, isn't going to convince you to buy a Chrysler)
A key benefit of Second Life is the way some previously disenfranchised people - whether disabled or just plain shy - can fully participate in the community.
The average Second Life user is 33, and approximately 50% Male/Female.
14% of men have female avatars. Only 4% of women have male avatars. (Mind you, some have foxes or dinosaurs, so I'm not sure what that means….)

UPDATE.
Interesting press release from Gartner - 80% of regular internet users will have a second life by 2011……