Well, it was at the MIT Enterprise Forum on Tuesday [April 15, 2008]...but I did learn about my Second Life, and other business uses for Social Media.

Second Life is a Virtual World and Social Network built into one. It's kind of like The Sims and social network rolled into one. While Second Life is best known for fantasy games, it has its own economy, and its first millionaire. It turns out that a character has turned the $9.95 sign-up fee into a cool Million (Exchanged to US) by savvy virtual real estate deals, and made the cover of Newsweek (the real one).

Plus you can fly (with wings) in Second life, a skill that might come in handy. I wonder - do you have to go to flight school?

What I also learned is that Second Life also has job fairs, for some creative jobs hire primarily through Second Life, in a virtual interview process. While it makes sense for designers, it also helps employers cost effectively pre-screen, and determine how someone thinks on his or her feet. There are even some jobs where experience in Second Life is a must (these are primarily jobs to design things within in Second Life).

Back to the event - University of Illinois-Chicago demonstrated some effective real time training and simulations which could be delivered with Second Life. Kevin Harvey described and briefly showed a disaster recovery simulation and a Health Care First Responder simulations.

While Second Life's uses aren't yet widespread, they are predicted to be the next wave.

How could you use Second Life to learn more about companies you'd like to work for?

Article by Phil Rosenberg, President, reCareered & Rainmakers Global and courtesy of reCareered blog.