Uncle Sam Gets A (Second) Life

I admit it -- I've had a hard time wrapping my brain around the whole concept of Second Life. I don't even have my own avatar, never mind earned any Linden dollars or participated in a virtual-world meeting (though my editor has). Still, I knew it would be just a matter of time before government got in on the opportunity.

So far, the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and even Congress have set up shop in Second Life. In fact, Congress not only created a virtual version of the Capitol to promote its agenda, but it's also demonstrating its power of the purse string by investigating the tax implications of virtual economies like Second Life. Yes, Second Lifers, even in the virtual world, Big Brother is watching.

The Department of Homeland Security also said it might set up a virtual island for the Safecom program, which is an integration and engineering project for connecting wireless first-response system across federal, state and local agencies. This comes a couple of years after the private island named "Response" was created in Second Life to simulate emergency response behavior to threats. Funded by DHS, the Synthetic Environments for Emergency Response Simulation (SEERS) project provides mission rehearsal and virtual prototyping tools for the emergency response community.

So what does this mean to the channel? A lot, actually. The opportunity to get in front of government customers in Second Life is huge, and programs like Safecom that require collaboration will be more apt to accept pitches in the virtual world than via telephone, e-mail or in-person meetings. It's a safe harbor, in a sense, for solution providers to approach government with ideas without necessarily having an initial in, or struggling through the red tape to get a formal bid submitted.

For example, while the Response island is private, it is indeed open to the public; no doubt, DHS employees are meandering among the academic and vendor representatives to see what kind of ideas are being generated. Why not be among the avatars offering ideas they come across and bring back to the office? (The real office, not the virtual one).

Obviously, the catch here is that solution providers have to register for Second Life and spend some serious time online. If you do it, so will I.