{aside} Second Life as a business tool

The following quote from the title link caught my attention:

"The next version of Second Life will be seamlessly integrated with the Web, making it easier for real-world businesses to sell items through SL. For example, a retailer like L.L. Bean could have a “door” to an SL store on its Web site, inviting people to jump from 2-D browsing into a 3-D saunter around, where an avatar with your exact mea­surements could try on clothes for you. Or a consumer-electronics company could offer in-person technical support from an avatar who had a precise 3-D replica of, say, that new digital camera you couldn’t figure out, and could show you which button you needed to push. As the wall between the Web and Second Life grows thinner, having an SL account might become as common as having an e-mail address."

One thing bothers me tho'. SL is server based. Altho' they have promised to release their code as FOSS (presumably looking to emulate Apache), until they do that, all data hits their servers, in their country.

Still think it's a neat idea tho' :-)