Second Life Work/Get Started

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Working in Second Life is Easy

In just a few minutes, you can join Second Life, create your own avatar, and start collaborating with your colleagues around the world without ever leaving your desk. And, here’s the best part: It’s free.

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It’s Time to Try Second Life for Work We understand that working in Second Life, or any virtual world, is a new experience for most organizations. So, we’re here to make it as easy as possible. Here’s the step-by-step guide to help you get started. Confirm Access to Second Life Many organizations have strict firewall policies that prevent Second Life from running on enterprise or government computers. As a first step, you should contact your IT department and find out whether your firewall will accept a UDP protocol. If not, then we encourage you to work with your technology team to authorize the Second Life stream into your network. If they have questions about Second Life security, point them to this article on security in Second Life. Additionally, Second Life runs best on newer computers with advanced graphics cards. To learn more about specific system requirements, click here. Join Second Life It’s simple and free. Just go to the Join Now page and register. You’ll need to choose a standard avatar, an inworld name, and provide basic contact information so that we can confirm your registration by email. Download Second Life Viewer 2 The Second Life Viewer 2 is a small piece of software that is your window into Second Life. You can think of it like your supercharged browser for a 3D environment. Plug in Your Headset Second Life supports both text chat and spatial voice. So, if you have a headset with a microphone, go ahead and plug it into your computer before you login. Of course, Second Life works just fine if you don’t have a headset, but working in Second Life is a much richer, more effective experience when you can and your colleagues can talk to one another. Login and Begin on Welcome Island When you enter Second Life for the first time, you land on Welcome Island, or an orientation experience. Since this is your first time inworld, understand that it will look and feel unfamiliar to you. You will notice a few things—that you have an avatar and that you might be confused about what to do next. Follow the simple activities on Welcome Island, which are designed to help you get started. Design Your Avatar An avatar is a virtual representation of you. Using your basic avatar that you chose during registration as a starting point—you can then change nearly every element of your appearance from body size to hair color to clothing. To learn more about how to customize your avatar, click here. Once you become more familiar with Second Life, you can also purchase new skins, clothes, and accessories on the Second Life Marketplace to continue to personalize your inworld appearance. Learn how to Operate Second Life Getting started in Second Life can be challenging at first, but we’ve created an easy Viewer 2 Quickstart Guide to get you ready for work quickly. Additionally, the best and most current resource for beginners to Second Life is in the Support section. Explore Business and Government Areas in Second Life Second Life has many public business and government regions for you to explore. The Destination Guide is a great place to start to explore business locations and other interesting places in Second Life. We Can Help We’re always here if you have any questions or would like advice, recommendations, or support. Just email us at business@lindenlab.com.

Customers are Saying "You can read about a tsunami in a textbook or you can experience one in a virtual world; I believe that experience has a greater impact." — Eric Hackathorn, NOAA”s Virtual Worlds Program Manager

For more information, contact Linden Lab at business@lindenlab.com.