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Thanks to the pioneering efforts of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA) and Katz, Abosch, Windesheim, Gershman & Freedman PA (KAWG&F), a Maryland CPA firm, the public accounting profession has joined the ranks of leading corporations, organizations, universities and millions of individuals with a presence on Second Life (www.secondlife.com).
Second what? second Life is a virtual 3-D world on the Internet. Think of it as the marriage of online video game technology and social networking tools, like MySpace and Facebook, with e-commerce potential. It is not really a game and isn't intended for children. Public accounting's presence in second Life is called CPA Island. CPA Island may be a way to attract the next generation of young professionals to careers in public accounting. (Figure 1 shows the welcome sign outside the MACPA headquarters on CPA Island in second Life.)
In this article we introduce readers to second Life via CPA Island and describe the emerging importance of second Life to accountants, as it goes beyond recruiting and continuing professional education.
Second Life is just one example of emerging virtual worlds developing on the Internet that may be a catalyst for a new range of public accounting business opportunities. It has attracted mainstream business media attention, including coverage in Business Week and The WaH Street Journal, and a CNN blog featuring stories about Second Life. The Reuters news agency has a bureau in Second Life. IBM, Pontiac, Toyota, H&R Block, Sears and many other corporate groups are found there. On the education front, Ohio University, Princeton University, and other universities have established virtual Second Life campuses.
SECOND LIFE ORIGIN AND BASICS
An interesting folklore surrounds the origins of second Life. A quick Google search indicates that the inspiration for second Life is the science fiction novel Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson, in which he coins the term "metaverse." The definition of metaverse can't be found in a paper dictionary, but online Wikipedia describes it as "a user-defined world of general use in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate" under its definition for Second Life.
Second Life was introduced in 2003 by Linden Research Inc. (also known as Linden Lab), a privately held corporation based in San Francisco. Accountants may recognize...