What is Second Life?

Second Life is a Virtual World with millions of residents and about one million users every month.
It’s a place where businesses such as IBM have invested time, money and resources to run new kinds of office operations using the full power of Web 2.0 applications.
Hundreds of NGOs and civil associations have established a presence to organise meetings where geographical and financial barriers no longer exist, to gain visibility and combine Real Life working methods with new virtual initiatives.

To get a “second life”, all you need is a computer, an internet connection and the Second Life software. It’s free of charge for all visitors, but if you want to buy land, clothes or other gadgets for your avatar, it costs real money.

How do I get a Second Life?
To get into Second Life, go to www.secondlife.com and click on “Get Started”. This will help you create your avatar in 3 easy steps. Then you’ll be asked to download the software to your computer.
Once the software has been downloaded, double-click on the file to start the installation.
When you are finished, open Second Life and log in with your avatar’s first name, last name and your password.
You will start in an orientation island. To leave it and go straight to Union Island, click on “Search” at the bottom of your screen and type “Union Island” in the places tab search. Finally click “Teleport” to go to Union Island.
There are three main ways of moving around in Second Life:

• Teleporting (using the Search or the Map)
• Walking (using your keyboard arrows)
• Flying (hit the Page Up to fly, and Page Down button on your keyboard to land again)

There are two ways communicating in Second Life:

• Written chat (using the Local Chat field, type your text and hit “enter”)
• Voice (if you have a headset, plug it in and try talking)

Let UNI know you now have a “Second Life” and tell us your avatar name by sending an email to webmaster@uniglobalunion.org! You can also make friends with people you meet by right-clicking avatars and hitting the friends’ button. UNI’s avatar in Second Life is called “UNIglobalunion Oh”.

What’s in Second Life for unions?
In Second Life, unions will find:

• A place to hold open or protected virtual meetings (economy of time and travel, easier to reach out to a wider or different audience)
• A language help for better international communications: Second Life offers free decent instant translation tools
• A complimentary place to campaign and partner with other NGOs
• An opportunity to approach Second Life residents and possibly organise them
• A platform for discussions with companies
• An alternative to phone, email, fax, letter, Skype and MSN: getting in touch with UNI and other union organisations through a virtual office.

How does UNI use Second Life?
Virtual Strike
UNI co-organised the first Virtual “strike” in history on September 27^th 2007 against IBM.
The news story went round the world. In France, Le Monde ran the news prominently under the headline “C’est la lutte virtuelle!”. Stern magazine in Germany told the story: “Die Demonstration ist virtuell, der Arbeitskampf echt”. The Spanish papers La Vanguardia and ABC
ran stories, as did the press in, among other countries, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal and Switzerland. The BBC in the UK carried the news, and so did the national radio station in Canada. Globally, the story received wide coverage on Internet news websites. And naturally the Italian press also gave considerable prominence to the event: La Stampa, for example, told its readers of the birth of a new word to accompany ‘telework’: ‘telestrike’.
The demonstration was called as part of national negotiations with IBM in Italy, which had run into management obstruction. The real-life dispute ended positively for the unions, with a new contract agreed (and with the resignation of IBM’s Italian general manager). The Second Life action has also been judged a great success: approaching 2000 people took part, from all parts of the (real) world.
The Second Life demonstration points up in dramatic form the potential for trade unions of new web-based tools.

Union Island
UNI is co-founder of Union Island, a place in Second Life, intended to be a virtual home for all trade unionists around the world. It’s aimed at facilitating sharing of events, campaigns, discussions, trainings, meetings and much more. Visit: www.slunionisland.org

More help:

• Contact me: webmaster[a]uniglobalunion.org
• Visit: http://www.commoncraft.com where web 2.0 tools are explained in quick and simple videos (in English) – really worth having a look!