Virtual, virtual reality is a term that has become commonplace in the past fifteen to twenty years. The root – virtual, has been used in computer science since the late 1950s to describe technologies of simulating memory space, disk memory and operative environments. The expression virtual reality appears in the early 1980s and indicates computer created visual environments where people can move and interact (Književna smotra, 1999:102).
In the computer science context, this expression signifies, in the simplest terms, an attempt to create reality within the computer screen, within the Net – a type of “interactive computer generated experience” (K. Pimentel, K. Texeira, 1993:11).
Generally, it is a matter of collective, media-computer communication in virtual space – cyberspace, a process that enables communication between individuals and the creation of their common interests independent of real time and space, or geographic, physical distance. As such, cyberspace, established with the help and mediation of computer-digital technology, enables the emergence of the so-called cybersociety, cybercommunity or virtual community as a relatively new social formation. The virtual cybercommunity or cybersociety is made up of those who “meet” and interect within the medium of the Net (the Internet), in the field of cyberspace or virtual space. They are the subjects of virtual reality.

The term virtual space or cyberspace, today a classic toponym in new media research, was first mentioned in William Gibson’s Neuromancer published in 1984. It is a landscape of virtual reality formed within networked computers, a combination of digital information and human perception. Howard Rheingold, one of the leading Internet and new media theoreticians (who saw the Internet as a new form of public space – a virtual Agora, and “Athens without the slaves”) provided a precise definition of virtual communities as “social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace” (H. Rheingold, 1993:5).
The flourishing of Internet culture in the final decade of the 20^th century and everything that culture brought with it opened up a set of new questions such as the relation between the singular and plural self, changes in the ways we create, experience and understand human identity and social community through the possibilities provided by new media, digital-computer technology, as well as issues of the relation between virtual space and subjective identity. The decentralisation of the subject, the de-territorialisation of identity, i.e. fragmentation, the contemporary nomadic subject as a net structure, an identity collage, and not a closed-up mono-entity, a digital-media virtualised social community – these are just some of the determinants used to try to define the effects of new information and communication technologies, the Internet in the postmodern society of today.
Although important pioneering experiments and research into the potentials of the virtual world mediated by computer interactive technology were performed much earlier, already in the 1970s and 1980 by such creative individuals with a recognisable hippy subculture background as Timothy Leary, Jaron Lanier and John Perry Barlow, the realisation of the first real digital-computer virtual world did not happen until the beginning of this millennium.
Second Life
“I have an avatar on Second Life, but I’m nut much of a fan of that world. Sometimes, I log in and walk around a bit to see what’s going on…  One time, I stumbled into a room, I think it was a gallery, and I was alone. All of a sudden, this sign appeared: drop off your clothes and I a bit confused I clicked: yes. Suddenly, my avatar was left nude, completely naked. I didn’t know how to dress him up again. I was terribly uncomfortable, panicked, what would I do if someone came along, I can’t go out into the street like this… This went on for a few minutes until I solved the dressing problem, but it was really uncomfortable.”
Excerpt from a conversation between the author of this text and a Second Life user (in Ljubljana, 20 September 2007)
The virtual world of Second Life is a metaversa, i.e. a “metaphysical universe” (“Wonders of the Metaverse”, Economist.com, created in 2003 by the then 28-year-old Philip Rosedal from San Francisco within his company Linden Lab, and it was partly inspired by reading the science fiction story Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, first published in 1992. In this story, Stephenson described a society of the future whose members spend most of their time in the digital world, a futuristic version of the Internet. Second Life really does indicate the coming of a new era of a virtualised media society where real Internet users from this side of the computer screen have the possibility to create and live their virtual identities transferred to the other side of the computer screen.
This world is easy to access. All you need is a computer, a fast Internet connection, you can register for free and download a programme thorugh which you plug into the virtual world of Second Life. Creating your virtual identity (avatar) by selecting race, sex, age, height, hair colour, etc. is a matter of your own personal choice and imagination. As manifestly pointed out by the creators of Second Life on its homepage: “Second Life is a 3D online digital world imagined and created by its residents” (http://www.secondlife.com/) Your imagined and formed avatar can then start living in this virtual world full of choices for fun, adventure, but also professional career choices and profitable business challenges. 

At the time of writing this text (September 2007), Second Life was “inhabited” by just under 9.5 million permanent residents (a few hundred thousand new users register every month) who hang out in virtual nigh clubs, concerts, go to shopping centres where they buy virtual versions of real products and consume a wide variety of services, start businesses that sell a range of products and services, make acquaintances and friends, start intimate relationships, etc. The United States and Sweden were the first states to open virtual embassies in Second Life, and Mark Warner, the former Governor of Virginia was the first to give an interview in this virtual world. About a year ago, the first Second Life tabloid was launched, there is a Radio Linden, and Reuters is the first news agency with a correspondent from Second Life, Adam Pasick (his avatar name is Adam Reuters). Pasick, a reporter following technology topics in the real world, also reports for Reuters on news and event from the world of Second Life. This is the first time in history that information predominantly originating from the world of created, manifest virtual reality has become a relevant and equal segment of the media construct of social reality.
From Virtual to Real Dollars

The business and profit aspect of Second Life is particularly important and should be scrutinised when analysing this intriguing media-social phenomenon. There are 700 various businesses in Second Life, including some of the world’s largest corporations such as Coca-Cola, Toyota, Microsoft, Adidas, Warner Bros and Intel. Business transactions are conducted in Linden Dollars, a virtual Second Life currency named after Rosedal’s company that can be obtained at a rate of exchange of 300 Linden for 1 US Dollar.

Anshe Chung is the person with the “title” of the first Second life millionaire, that is, the first person who managed to earn a million US Dollars by trading exclusively in this virtual world. Chung, known in Second Life as the avatar named Ailin Graef, managed to timely acquire 400 virtual land plots for only about a dozen US dollars, which she later sold at prices of 1200 to 1600 USD. Accordint to some estimates, the owner Rosedal (avatar Philip Linden) has earned about 19 million USD by selling virtual land. There are already companies specialising for consultancy and mediation in doing business in Second Life and they cater to some of the above multinational giant corporations. One such company is Milionsofus Reubena Steigera (avatar Reuben Milionsofus) whose consultancy and mediation earnings for Coca-Cola, Toyota, Microsof and Warner Bros are estimated at about 6 million USD. Then there is Electric Sheep Co. Sibley Verbeck (avatar Sybley Hartor). Her company employs 55 people and among their Second Life clients are AOL-Time Warner, Reuters, CBS and Sony.

According to some, Second Life is the best example of the current Web 2.0 model, especially in terms of its “user generated contents” and business originality. However, in contrast to many Web 2.0 firms trying to create and audience to which they can later sell a particular type of ad, Second Life was created as a company with virtual ownership that, among other things, earns money by renting its virtual space to its “residents”, for example an “island” for 20 USD a month (for more see “Living a Second Life”, Economist.com, http://www.economist.com/business/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=7963538). Every day, visitors of Second Life make between 1.5 and 2 million USD worth of business transactions, the number of those who make over 5.000 US Dollars every month in Second Life is on an exponential increase, and already tens of thousands of people have left their jobs in the immediate “life reality” and dedicated themselves to making a living in this virtual world.
Manners of conducting business and making profits in Second Life are as endless as they are in real life. Streets of virtual places in Second Life are filled with many shops selling virtual versions of numerous products, fashion trends are started, various offers from hairdresser’s to sex services are provided. A few years ago, Kevin Alderman (avatar Stroker Serpentine) opened the so-called red light district in Second Life consisting of a chain of brothels, and by selling parts of his premises, he recently made 50.000 USD. Or, there is Alysse LaRoche (avatar Aimee Weber), the most famous fashion designer of Second Life whose fashion line Preen sells very well at virtual fashion shows and fantastic parties that have made Aimee known far and wide in Second Life. Six months ago, the Brasilian airline company TAM was the first such company to offer its services in Second Life. Residents can now “fly” with virtual TAM arlines to some of Second Life’s islands: Milan, Paris, New York and England, and the company offers this service as a gift to its customers in the real world. Companies for contries neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina are also entering the business. At the beginning of September this year, the Slovenian telecommunications company Si.mobil-Vodafone opened its island of fun in Second Life. At a party called “Party for a Reason” that officially inaugurated Si.mobile’s branch office in this virtual world, 25 thousand visiting avatars were enterntained by digitalised versions of some of Slovenia’s most famous DJs.
Proponents of working and doing business in the viritual world, such as Tammy Johns, Vice-President for strategic human resource management in the international human resources company Manpower, which joined business in Second Life at the end of July this year, point out a series of advantages to working in a virtual environment. According to these approaches, interactive virtual worlds such as Second Life are the final conquered area of virtualising labour forces, which creates advantages such as: flexible working hours, smooth cooperation regardless of physical, geographic distance, working from home, increse in the employability of special groups such as mothers with small children, people living in remote areas, and the disabled, as well as time efficiency, investigating various areas of work, practicing skills and abilities that can then be transferred to life in the reality of immediate surroundings…

Life as a (Computer) Game
One the other hand, there are also suspicions, concerns and criticism typical for the emergence of a new medium and its social effects. In the Second Life example, these are the already classic issues of the danger for the individual to become so submerged in the reality of the virtual world so as to lose touch with the “real” social reality (these criticisms often fail to take into account that even this “real reality” is actually a standardised cliché, a cannon of the “real and right” way to live as generally accepted by the majority of the population that shares this social reality in a certain space), as well as the dilemmas about the alleged antisocial, digitalised and above all individualised young generation compensating for their social inadequacies in everyday reality with escapes into an alienated virtual world.

However, virtual movements, gestures and expressions of avatars, as well as their clothes, material assets and lifestyles are programmed so as to simulate a human community and interactions typical of the real world. Second Life can, therefore, be seen as a highly digitalised computer game, a copy of human society and a sort of parody of its reality, which is again very much intertwined with that same social reality and has strong and real effects on it, as can clearly be seen from the circumstances of real monetary transactions and business dealings between these two worlds. Parody also constitutes a critical approach to the phenomenon of Second Life, which became particularly eveident in Daren Barefoot’s project called “Get a First Life”, which is an endeavour of a satirical website to mirror Second Life (http://www.getafirstlife.com/). To others, parody and satire do not seem sufficiently effective modes of criticism of the Second Life world, so they opted for more classical methods of resistance. A guerrilla movement that decided to defy the, in their opinion, unjust division of virtual property in Second Life and which is dedicated to “raising democratic standards” calls itself the “Second Life Liberation Army”.

Already, a new generation of virtual worlds is on the rise, such as Metaplace (www.metaplace.com), constructed with its own programming language metamarkup, and whose final version is expected in the spring of next year. In contrast to previous versions of virtual worlds, as exemplified by Second Life, that were organised within closed online portals, that were unconnected with other similar worlds, Metaplace enables its users to build up their own virtual world on a computer platform, but also for example on their mobile phones, that they can then connect to other virtual worlds and use to socialise, play games or do electronic business, and this world would also be compatible with web pages, Facebook profiles, Myspace and personal blogs. All of this opens up perspectives of previously unimaginable multiplications of virtual worlds that are interconnected precisely on the basic principles of the web. In other words, each virtual world built in the Metaspace form is a type of web server potentially connectable to other worlds.
Second Life as a New Form of Socialisation

But, hasn’t human reality always been virtual in a sense, that is, hasn’t it always been mediated by signs of symbolic communication? Isn’t it true that some elements making up the basis of organisation of a human community – such as monetary exchanges or the principles of the stock market as the precondition for the capital market – function thanks to a virtually constructed system of values? Such forms of virtual order in the background of objective institutional basis for the functioning of society have clear and crucially real effects, but in the representative-manifestation sense they are often concealed under the shroud of the “living” immediate reality. In that context, and seen from that perspective, Second Life is rather a step backwards, and not a step towards affirming virtual reality, because it makes virtual reality technologically concrete, clearly visible, explicit, almost tangible, it gives it a sort of material realisation and thus actually de-virtualises it. This makes the main impact of Second Life a type of materialisation of virtual non-materiality, a materialisation of the basic dimension of the virtual reality that we have, in effect, always been living.

The participants, residents or avatars of Second Life can be seen and analysed as a form of a new paradigm of interactive media audiences. In its development process, understanding the phenomenon of media audiences has gone trough various transformational models, from the mass audiences of mass media (with their characteristic “pessimistic” understanding of the allegedly manipulative effect of mass media on passive, uncritical receptors of media contents); through the focus on active media audiences in the second half of the 20^th century (where the emphasis was shifted to the interest for various audience reception practices brought about through its active participation in the media process); up to current perspectives of media audiences where we can situate models of interactive participation phenomena such as Second Life. Among other things, these audiences are characteristically diffused (more new, diverse media technologies – more individual, intimate user practices), then there is the media audience as a version of the “consumer society”, a product, a market niche that is positioned in terms of interests and profits between media producers and marketing and advertising agencies and advertisers… Therefore, apart from the “typical” media related issues such as: the phenomena of general media digitalising, social and cultural “remediatisation” and digital-media convergence or multimediatisation, recent research concerning the audiences of new media will have to include research of contemporary economic developments and global trends of capital circulation.
We are also witnessing parallel trends of seemingly opposed tendencies in the development of transformation of today’s media audiences. What is characteristic of contemporary media audiences, on the one hand, is their noticeable “fragmentation” into separate individuals. Since, for today’s market advertisers, a smaller media audience also means a simpler target group. As said before, the media audience today is more divided than ever before, it is “atomised”, individualised, and a great contribution to this effect was provided by the medium of the Internet and computer technology in general. On the other hand, there is also an evident opposite trend. Second Life is one of the best examples of this new form of socialisation supported by interactive digital-media technology, it is an example of a virtual social community intertwined with a web of the most diverse interrelations between the people who participate in it.

RESOURCES:

GIBSON, William, Neuromancer, Ace Books, New York, 1984.
Književna smotra, world literature journal; Vol. XXXI/1999, No. 114 (4), Zagreb.
PIMENTEL, Ken, TEXEIRA, Kevin, Virtual Reality: Through the New Looking–Glass, Intel/Windcrest McGraw Hill, 1993. 
RHEINGOLD, Howard, Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, Reading MA: Addison–Wesley, 1993 (the book is available free of charge at: http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/intro.html).
Second Life resources:
»Čisto pravi milionarji Second Lifa«, Delo, 25 April 2007, p. 18.
»Kaj ima navidezni svet, česar nima resnični«, Delo, 23 March 2007, p. 25.
»Living a Second Life, economist.com
»Second Life: Slovenija je dobila umetni otok, se uresničuje vladna strategija?«, Dnevnik, 7 September 2007, www.dnevnik.si.
 »Virtualni svet Second life dobil še letalskega prevoznika«, Dnevnik, 16 April 2007, www.dnevnik.si.
»Virtualni šampanjec za uspešen posel«, Dnevnik, 11 August 2007, p. 22.
Wonders of the metaverse ecoonomist.com