Taking a Second Look at How Business Is Done

The nontraditional visitors see Burlison Tuesday and Thursday nights as avatars inside the Internet world of Second Life.

In the game, people create characters that walk, fly and teleport through a vast virtual world of eclectic "islands." Today that world includes businesses looking for new ways to interact with a changing digital world.

Virtual Learning

The University of Kansas Medical Center uses Second Life to build virtual clinics, operating rooms and more to help teach students.

Last April, Sprint (NYSE: S) built a virtual Sprint Center in Second Life that hosted Latin music concerts.

Here's how each company has fared attempting to use an imaginary world to do some very real business .

Tango With H&R Block

As the tax deadline nears, H&R Block is serious about giving real-life advice to made-up characters.

Why?

Because those characters are controlled by real people, otherwise known as potential clients.

This is no digital dalliance. Last year Computer World magazine named H&R Block Island one of the eight most useful corporate sites within Second Life. The island, which has been up for more than two years, has eight tax offices, an auditorium, product pavilion and DJ playing pop songs in a nightclub, complete with lighted dance floor and disco ball.

Free Stuff

Since dancing is popular in Second Life, Block gives visitors a free computer script that allows their avatars to dance. (They also give them a virtual H&R Block T-shirt, hoodie and Vespa scooter.)

Block can even teach your avatar to do the tango. It's a nice gesture. It's also savvy marketing since Tango is the name of Block's new online tax preparation product. At US$70, Tango is highly visual and enfolds users into a video story. It comes with anytime access to a tax professional through online chat , phone or e-mail .

Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 to 9 p.m. are "Ask a Tax Adviser" nights on the island. Two H&R Block avatars -- named Hope and Rex (for H&R, get it?) -- stand ready to help any creature with a question. Kathy Burlison, who controls Hope, lives in Leawood, Kan. The man who controls Rex lives in Ohio.

Sitting at her laptop in a small Block office in Overland Park, Kan, Burlison, a middle-aged woman with short hair and a ready smile, logged in and began dancing in Block's virtual club. One by one other avatars arrived and started dancing and asking tax questions.

"The good thing about virtual dancing is you can ask a tax question without being out of breath," Burlison said.

A Bit of the Unusual

Burlison has seen a wide variety of avatar discussions. On this night, one was dressed like Tinker Bell, complete with fairy wings. Another was black and silver with manly wings and hair all over his face.

But it was a Canadian avatar named Garrett, dressed modestly in green shirt, jeans and cowboy boots, who started the tax talk. He wanted to know what was deductible relating to rental property.

Burlison read each question on the screen and typed the answers into her laptop.

Most of the avatars are well-behaved and have real inquiries for Hope. Only a few have crossed the line, such as the pint-sized lothario who was once inappropriately forward with his -- uh -- questions.

Another avatar asked about the economic stimulus refund and how much she would be getting. Rex directed her to IRS.gov, which has a calculator for such inquiries. The game as business model has exceeded expectations.

"We think it's fascinating," said Paula Drum, vice president of marketing for digital tax services, who first had the idea to create a presence in Second Life. "But we also think taxes are fascinating, so we may be a little skewed."

"A lot of what led us to Second Life is that the people who play in this virtual world are people we call early adopters, or technology advocates," she said. "They were a prime audience for us to explore."

Calling Dr. Avatar

Using a virtual world for fun or business is one thing. But is it useful, or advisable, for a medical school?

Actually, it's both, said Dave Antonacci, KU Medical Center's director of teaching and learning technologies.

Take the training of nurses. It can help them learn how to use various pieces of equipment in countless medical procedures.

"And if a nurse anesthetist is prepping a patient for surgery, we don't want them learning and making mistakes on a real person," Antonacci said. Students can log on and head for the private KUMC Isle, where they can train as much as they like in a photorealistic operating room.

Simulating Reality

Other uses of the game include virtual patients who can be programmed with every possible problem, symptom or medical history.

Simulations can help students experience what it might be like to have various medical conditions, such as schizophrenia or a heart murmur. The game also has virtual exam rooms that feature areas that read "Touch me." When students click there, the game shows them clipboards full of medical information.

The school's use of Second Life began by accident.

In September 2004, a coworker sent Antonacci a tongue-in-cheek e-mail suggesting that they and other coworkers get accounts in Second Life and hang out.

"I was too new to know he was joking," Antonacci said. "So I got an account."

After he discovered the joke, he was going to quit the game. But his avatar quickly made friends, including a few friendly vampires. "So I thought, 'What the heck?' " He quickly realized Second Life had a world of useful educational applications.

A Useful Tool

The next month Antonacci made a presentation at the prestigious Educause conference about using Second Life as a teaching tool. It became one of the most viewed presentations on the Educause site. In 2005 he suggested KU Med get its own island.

"In a real clinic, you get what you get," he said. "But in Second Life, you can create a 3-D patient who can talk to you using an actual voice (with) any medical condition imaginable.

"Plus, if the doctor is training to work with Spanish-speaking clients, you can get specific training with Spanish speakers. Where in the middle of Kansas are you going to find native Spanish-speaking doctors to talk about a case?

You could find them, but who would take time out of their practice to come here? In Second Life you can build a clinic and invite Spanish medical students to come into our clinic and discuss a case in Spanish."

Another advantage: In Second Life you can simulate virtually anything, he said. "How does a stent work? How does an artery clog? And you can actually walk into a heart and see what's going on inside of it!"

Best of all, it's relatively cheap. And students can even take advantage of shared simulations built by schools around the world.

Virtual Sprint Center

Last April, Sprint built a Sprint Center in Second Life that was a virtual clone of the real one downtown. As visiting avatars entered the main hall, they viewed Latin music concerts from the big-screen televisions on the main stage.

The performances were from the Sprint-sponsored reality series "Concierto Clandestino," carried on the Telemundo cable network .

The promotion dovetailed with Sprint's sponsorship of the 2007 U.S. tour of the popular Mexican rock band Mana.

Sprint took advantage of the interactive nature of Second Life to engage the tech-savvy Hispanic community. Visitors were exposed to products through virtual billboards and information kiosks linked to Sprint's Web site. The virtual arena also sported a lounge, a gift shop and giveaways for visiting avatars.

Spokesperson Aaron Radelet said the company's music series in Second Life was a success while it lasted. It concluded with the end of the Mana tour sponsorship last year.