Fresh Chat

Vodafone has just introduced a new service into Second Life “SL” www.secondlife.com.  Called “Insider” it’s a way for residents to make and receive untrackable phone calls between the virtual world and this (the real) world. 

Being in SL myself, I know how much most residents appreciate chatting to each other without revealing their identity.   To communicate with someone out of the virtual world itself, they typically guard their privacy by using skype or email addresses under avatar names.

Until now to stay in touch with SL when away from home, you would divert your SL instant messages to a nominated email address, and set your email to divert to your 3G phone.  Then you would SMS the reply which would be received at their email, but not forwarded into SL itself.  More recently this second life product has appeared Freemail a free email to IM: http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=391751

There is no doubt that Vodafone’s “Insider” http://secondlife.vodafone.com/ does offer value by connecting second life and the real world by voice, in an untraceable way.  Many Second World businesses are likely to appreciate this facility, but will average people be prepared to see retail level phone bills as a result of those chats?… less likely. 

How do you think communication between the ‘real world’ and virtual worlds like Second Life will evolve in the future?