view from a couch

internet - Second Life: new battleground in China

"China is a challenge, we have not yet made any final decision. We are certainly not going to create a separate world for China," said VP David Fleck in the Dutch magazine Emerce of Linden Lab, the maker of Second life.
For those who are not en par with the latest online: The internet feature Second Life has taken off in the world, well, almost as fast as Wikipedia. Its basic account is for free, explaining its partly popularity. In Second Life you can build your own virtual world. Initially, it became mainly famous because it seemed a great way to have virtual sex, but more mainstream organizations have have joined the initiative. for more serious stuff. Reuters and the BBC have opened news desks, universities and schools have their virtual class rooms and companies are discovering second life as a marketing tool. Hilary Clinton is for sure making appearances on Second Life.
I have only limited experience as you need to download a heavy program that blocked my only computer from doing other things. In that short time I barely learned how to move around without plunging into the ocean, let alone have virtual sex or follow classes at Harvard.
Rumors about Google using its China-facilities to develop a competing system appeared in January.
Just imagine: Public Security setting up their own office in second life!
There will be many limitation. First, what is called broadband in China is not really broadband, so it will be hard to get the applications going. Because of the firewall restrictions, it might certainly never work without supporting servers inside China. And then, many of the Chinese PC's might at this stage not have enough capacity to run Second Life.

Update: Standing in the subway I just remembered this other important barrier: China's financial system. Surprisingly, the Linden Lab wants to make money on Second Life. Not sure why, but in some circles that is a habit. Now, they need a local operation to collect the Renminbi's. Or get into a deal with Tencent in stead of dealing with the People's Bank of China.