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January 04, 2007, 03:00 PM ET
Second Life's Sketchy Census
Second Life, the virtual world that is becoming increasingly popular with tech-savvy scholars, now boasts more than two million residents — that is, if you believe Linden Lab, the world’s creator. Many observers don’t.
As of last week, the lab counted 2,325,015 citizens, each defined, according to CNET News, as “a uniquely named avatar with the right to log in to Second Life, trade currency, and visit the community pages.” But critics of the census say that figure includes plenty of inactive users — people who joined the community, wandered through it once, and never returned. What’s more, Second Life users can create up to five different avatars, each of which was counted separately by Linden Labs.
In truth, Second Life probably has slightly over 200,000 committed users, CNET says.
The debate over Second Life’s effective population might seem like nitpicking, but it certainly matters to the growing number of businesses that are considering setting up shop in the virtual world. And it might well be important to scholars who are using the community as a site for socioeconomic research (The Chronicle, September 30, 2005). —Brock Read
Categories: Virtual-Worlds, Teaching
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