"Hi! My name is Jada Mathy."

I finally got down to creating a new "Me" in another world - a virtual world. After Stephan's explanation of www.secondlife.com and our intentions of creating a Swissotel in secondlife, I decided it was about time I learnt more about this amazing technology and site. In a nutshell, secondlife is a virtual world which allows one to create personas (humans, animals, half-human - anything you like). It is a world where more than 5 million residents reside to-date. Residents trade in Linden dollars (named after the founder Linden Labs) and Linden dollars can be bought through your credit card (US$1 = approx L$270). There is a 'live' exchange rate as well.

With Linden $ you can buy clothes, bags, land to build a house or a hotel, go for a haircut etc. Your secondlife character is capable of making friends, getting married, going to the pub, teleporting to another island etc. You make friends by typing a message just like msn chat. Starwood has already created their hotel "aloft" in secondlife. The hotel is built based on ideas provided by secondlife residents. This will in turn supposedly inspire Starwood in their creation of the aloft hotel in the REAL world.

Some argue that this site is a cult. Some are in awe of the amazing technology behind it. Some question the real personalities behind the characters in secondlife. Are they individuals unable to fulfill their real life expectations, thus using secondlife as an outlet to live out their imaginary and ideal life? I don't have answers to that. But I'm certain there are many secondlife residents, who, like me, are just curious what this virtual world has to offer. Since I created Jada Mathy, I've made about 10 friends from different walks of life and different parts of the world. So I suppose as long as one uses the techonology appropriately, there's really no harm.

Say hi to me one day - I'm Jada Mathy.