Army Launching Second Life Presence Next Month

The U.S. Army will open up two islands in Second Life in the next 30-45 days aimed at recruiting new soldiers. The plans were announced at the Army Science Conference this week, which has a heavy focus on immersive technologies. The project sounds similar to the current implementation of the Air Force's MyBase, which opened in Second Life yesterday.  Users will find a welcome center with information and links to contact a recruiter on one island and military-themed activities like rappelling, shooting, and parachuting on the other. Completing the activities will earn users points toward free Army-branded virtual goods.

Interestingly, Gen. William S. Wallace, the commander of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), said that social networking technologies have probably been "oversold," reports Danger Room.  Regardless, the Army remains interested in virtual worlds as, according to Wallace, “one of the age groups of which there’s about four million young people that routinely interface in Second Life is the age group of the young people who we’re trying to encourage to join the military."

I'm not sure about those numbers based on Linden Lab's overall active users (1.4 million users logged in over the last 60 days) and its last reported demographics that I can find, though those are from August.

I also remember most of the recruiting aimed at me (one of the perks from being from a mostly military family) taking place in high school. So while the Air Force's plans go beyond recruiting to training, which may make sense on a platform like Second Life, I'm a bit surprised to not see the Army targeting users in younger-slanting worlds. 

Wallace's attitude, though, seems at the very least bemused by the project, so it's curious to me overall.

"Over the next thirty to forty-five days you might, if you’re one of them Second Life avatar dudes, that likes to go populate islands within Second Life, you will find an Army island in Second Life,” he said.

[via Danger Room]

Comments

[rudi dutschke]

Fodder for factory and battlefield

[rikomatic]

Is all of this inworld recruitment by the US armed forces indicative of their desperation for recruits?

[bobo]

No, it's indicative of the desperation for "virtual worlds" platform makers to get past their hype, and find dollars. The Military has been and always will fund VR/sim technologies, as to the other big vision/talk of the vr pundits of web2.0...the winter chills.

bobo

[Jake Bruhl]

This is one (encouraging) example of the military's recent decisions to engage new media more effectively. The reality is that sites like SecondLife, MySpace, YouTube, and blogs are here for the foreseeable future and an increasing number of people (young and old) interact through these sites.
By launching their own "worlds" in SecondLife, the Air Force and Army are demonstrating that they're willing to go where the people they're sworn to defend spend some of their time - much like sending recruiters to roam around shopping malls.
If you're interested in this subject, I've got a blog dedicated to the discussion of the military's use of new media. Stop by and join the discussion at soldierblogging.blogspot.com. Thanks!