The history of Second Life is extensively descibed in the official Second Life guide, [Rymaszweski et al. (2007)].
Beginning 2004, almost out of the blue,
Second Life
appeared with
a high adoption and low churn rate, now counting, March 2007,
over 4 million inhabitants.
Considering the cost of ownership of land, which easily amounts to
200 euro per month rent after an initial investment of 1500 euro for a
single piece of land measuring 65,536 square meters,
the adoption of Second Life by individuals as well as companies such as ABN-AMRO,
Philips and institutions such as Harvard is surprising.