From social networking to life?

Headlines are beginning to say that Second Life, with 2 million+ users and growing, is the next social-networking phenomenon. If descriptions like "virtual world" or "alternate reality" don't work, try this wordier one from the Fort Worth Star Telegram Fort Worth Star Telegram: "sort of a combination of MySpace, The Sims and Monopoly, with the three-dimensional touch of Star Trek’s holodecks and the video game World of Warcraft, Second Life is not a competitive pursuit so much as an alternative state. In a profile of Second Life founder and CEO Philip Rosedale, USATODAY says "he thinks he is remaking the Internet." No longer a "playground for the ultra-nerdy … Second Life has 10,000 people a day signing up. "CBS chief Leslie Moonves hosted Rosedale on stage at January's Consumer Electronics Show. Reuters set up a virtual Second Life news bureau. It is becoming so vital that politicians are campaigning there, bands such as Duran Duran are giving concerts, and hotel chains are using it to try out new concepts," USATODAY reports. And Sweden plans to be the first country to open an embassy in Second Life, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, is scrambling to make the world accessible to PCs that run Microsoft's new Vista operating system. So far there have been some compatibility issues, CNET reports.