Thursday June 20th. Linden Lab has issued a press release ahead of the official 10th Anniversary of Second Life (June 23rd, 2013).
The press release, which is accompanied by a large-format infographic, opens:
Since Second Life first opened to the public in 2003, users have spent the equivalent of more than 217,266 years in the virtual world, which has seen nearly 36 million registrations to date. To mark the tenth anniversary, Linden Lab has published an infographic highlighting these and other facts about Second Life’s history and the current state of the virtual world which is available here: http://lindenlab.com/releases/infographic-10-years-of-second-life. [see below]
Throughout the month of June, Linden Lab has been celebrating Second Life’s tenth ‘birthday’ (SL10B) with special surprises for the virtual world’s users, including limited-edition virtual gifts, contests, and inworld activities. Second Life users are also organizing a number of special events themselves, including a community celebration featuring art exhibitions, parties, and more. Users are urged to keep an eye on the official Second Life blog and the SL10B category of the Destination Guide, which highlights more than 2,400 locations and events in total for Second Life users to explore.
The piece goes on to include a quote from Rod Humble and to highlight the fact that he recently appeared on Draxtor Despres’ The Drax Files, complete with a link to the episode.
The infographic highlights some of the significant “high level” numbers relating to the platform’s first decade of use, which should hopefully make eyebrow-raising reading for the uninitiated among the press and (one would hope) those who have long since considered Second Life to have either “failed” or “dead”.
For those of us who use Second Life daily, some of the figure may appear to be light on substance (how many of the 400,000 monthly sign-ups are new users who become retained users, for example/). Given this, it is likely that some / all of the figures will be questioned, mulled-over, debated and questioned by users – and rightly so.
However as a tool for reaching out to the press at large and reminding them that Second Life is very much at the centre of the Lab’s thinking and is still alive, kicking and vibrant (why else would we all be here otherwise?), the infographic will hopefully act as a firm dig-in-the-ribs for those in the media who are otherwise quick to dismiss the platform as being little more than history long past.
Related Links
- Second Life Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary – Linden Lab
- SL infographic – Linden Lab
- The Drax Files: a Humble view of the world – this blog
With thanks to Pete Linden, Linden Lab.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
“little more than history long past” and/or a virtual porn site in much of the public eye.
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As Rod Humble recently commented – the “porn” on SL is no greater than that “carried” by Google. But perceptions once made, sadly, are the perceptions which last the longest.
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In addition, not all sex in SL is porn, any more than it is in RL, but it is often difficult to get the uninitiated over the “hump” of understanding that virtual can also be “real”.
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Happy birthday SL and LL 🙂 what make this virtual world is people with all of this different kind and mind certainly. It’s great after so long, long times for some of us, we are here to show still exchange and great moments shared over with so comes all around world very different person. I personally will remind the diversity of all people i met over grid, all the amazing places i should put my sl feet on and all the technology and beautiful progress i show across years. Regards amount of $, All company As SL not different others are make to get benefits elsewhere she was desapearing… I thinks personnality conduct to this result : now 10years 🙂 Great post thanks to share Inara
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I’m probably responsible for a big chunk of those 2.1 million hairstyles…
(I’m not proud.)
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Wear your hair with pride, I say (although probably not all at the ame time in SL…)! 🙂
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