Social Research Foundation Survey Shows Increase in Professional Use for Second Life

The Social Research Foundation has released preliminary results of its first survey of a panel of 11,000 Second Life users, focusing on their activities and efforts in the virtual world. The respondents are self-selected, but very active in Second Life, with 31% spending 16 hours or more in world each week. Metanomics has an extensive early look at the results. One worth noting is that while respondents still favor using Second Life for personal activities like socializing or fun, there's an increase in interest for professional use.

That includes, though, networking, researching, and running a Second Life business as well as conducting real-life business. In fact, the first three generate much more interest currently: 198 of the 1258 respondents reported using Second Life for “any purpose related to your primary occupation"; That represents less than a quarter of their Second Life time, though 71 users reported spending over half of their time on their primary job. Users predict even less real-world work for themselves in 2009. That's based on self-predictions, though, so it may not be representative of organizational interest to come. With an increased focus from Linden Lab on enabling organizational use and a product offering with Rivers Run Red aimed specifically at the enterprise, those numbers may change. [via Metanomics]