Feedback 1 CF

Well done Will -this is exactly the right approach. Keep it up.

Second Life

Second Life is a virtual world created by Linden Lab. In second life real money can be made in cyber space. There are no rules as you create yourself known as an Avatar in this virtual world. With the Avatar you can create your own online personality and socialise with other people, you can go to Pub's and go to concert's. Second life began in 2002 with only four members, five years later, there are now 9.8 million users of Second Life. Linden Lab build the Second Life, they sell land and even islands to people who then rent them out to other people to make profit. The money in Second Life is called Linden Dollars, however it does have a real exchange rate with the Pound, and that is 500 Linden Dollars to 1 Pound. Linden Lab is in San Fransisco, the founder of Second Life, Philip Rosedale quotes that Second Life is a "Wild West" culture, showing that it is routed to American culture, about capitalism and making money. Anshe Chung was the first reported person to make one million dollars in Second Life by making and trading exclusive goods. Companies now have a fond interest in Second Life and have their own shops in the virtual world, companies like Sony, Reebok, Calvin Klein all have shops there. The brands are used the same way as they are in real life and the goods improve the Avatar. There are virtual world creation companies that design offices and shops for these well known brands, one British company being Rivers Run Red.
The video link below from 'YouTube' gives an introduction into Second Life.


There are however negatives to the Second Life. As you can create your own character and you have the freedom to do anything, many things can be created and this allows illegal presences to be shown in the virtual world. Even though Second Life is a place where socialising can happen etc. This can not always be a good thing as you do not know who you are meeting. There has been a recent news report on sky news about the amount of underage sex that is published in Second Life.
This is the report from 'YouTube':

Advantages and Disadvantages of Web 2.0

There are many advantages and disadvantages to Web 2.0.
Advantages; Social networking, Web 2.0 allows you be able to talk and communicate with other people for free (just paying Internet fees) it can also be seen as increasing your social life as you can make new friends as well as catch up with old friends. You can view things for free, such as hearing music on 'MySpace', and watching videos on 'YouTube'.
Disadvantages; Web 2.0 and social networking can be seen as fragmenting your social life, this is because you are not actually seeing the people you are just talking to them so you are not getting out and meeting the person.
Web 2.0 is a global village as the Internet is bringing everyone together through social networking and other ways.
Democratisation is a major is a major issue as Web 2.0 and social networking allows people to publish their own news stories and pictures that wouldn't have been able to be accessed before. Personalisation which allows you to be able to present yourself online through a web page. Second life allows you to create your own character (an avatar) which gives you a sense of personalisation. Interactivity is being able to response to messages and people over the Internet so there is an increased amount of this.
Web 2.0 and Social networking also gives platforms for people to promote themselves, two major websites for this are, 'MySpace' and 'YouTube'.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a perceived second generation of web based communities. Web 2.0 provides technologies such as; weblogs (e.g. Bebo, Facebook etc.), social bookmarking, podcasts and many more. Web 2.0 also provides online web services such as ebay and Gmail which provide enhancements over read-only websites.
Tim O'Rielly has provided examples of companies or products in his four levels of heirachy of Web 2.0. The levels range from 3 to 0 with level 3 being the most Web 2.0 orientated.