* How is Second Life a disruptive technology?
Second Life is a disruptive technology because it combined a series of functions together that served the purposes of entertainment, invention, imagination, social interaction and financial gains and did it in one encompassing environment. Second Life provided a service that was free and that sped up the adoption process because cost was never a factor. Second Life still presented an open ended learning environment where there was never an ending point but game like sensations were still a result of the user. There is also a competitive element in making goods and building items.
* What technology or innovation did it displace?
Second life displaced SIMs games and IMing softwares. Second Life is a much more intricate version of SIMs and would attract the same population of people. The ability to communicate in real time with avatars displaces the need for IM.
* How many years do you think Second Life has left before another emerging technology or disruptive technology replaces it?
Second Life will be replaced soon. Second Life has been around for quite a while and now that it has really emerged, I think copy-cat programs are going to start becoming available. After all these additional programs start to emerge, they will offer additional functions and eventually replace Second Life because of a new need that is met.
* What are the social benefits of Second Life, and what might be the social implications of virtual worlds in your industry?
Second Life provides social benefits because it allows people to be socially successful in a way that they cannot in real life. Phillip Rosedale, talks about being able to create things in a virtual world that you cannot create in the real world, due to time, money and supplies. Second life in its "anything is possible" philosophy allows users to create new identities that might better match the perspective that we have of ourselves versus the perception of others.
The age restriction makes Second Life not viable for my students at this time but at the college level, I think it is an impressive educational tool. I worked on a project about Second Life last summer and I was quite impressed by what students can do on Second Life. Socially students can travel through places that they may never really see, meet people from all over the world and have virtual f2f classroom environment. Here is the video that I made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsS1K945Yy8
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html
