Looking further at the metrics released by Linden Labs, the gender breakdown of unique users shows a couple of interesting things. Firstly, Second Life would have to be one of the most gender-balanced internet offerings around, and for one month there was even a female dominance by a small margin. Secondly, the surge in growth over the past six months has seen more males sign up than females which has widened the gap significantly.

The standard perception of internet-based entertainment is that males will seek out options where there are set goals to achieve, the antithesis of Second Life. The statistics are showing this perception to be flawed. Of course, the true test would be the gender balance of active accounts which isn’t clear from the data provided. Nor is the Australian gender balance.

Linden Labs have put out the call for anyone interested in speaking to the media about how SL plays a role for them spiritually. Read their blog post for details and email catherine@lindenlab.com if you’re interestd. At SLOz we’re also interested in that aspect so if you wanted an aussie religious / spiritual event covered, let us know.

As explained in a Times Online article, haptic interfaces bring sensation to virtual experiences. This means that we may soon have devices that allow you to feel the hand of the avatar you are shaking. It seems an obvious flow on from the visual and aural experience SL currently is.

There are obvious benefits, particularly for those with particular disabilities. However, such interfaces will bring a whole range of challenges as well. We’ve discussed the issue of addiction previously, and it’s arguable that haptic devices are only going to exacerbate the issue for the percentage of users who find the whole SL experience immersive anyway.

In their latest blog posting, Linden Labs have described an upgrade to their IM to Email system which will decrease load whilst increasing the time you can reply to an IM offline from three days to five days.

An embarrassing admission: I actually didn’t realise you could reply to an IM received via email and have it convert back to an IM for the original sender…