Designers, retailers, artists, performers, businesspeople...all these and more are operating in Second Life.

As in their non-virtual lives, these very different groups rely on software to do their daily business. Residents from across the Second Life spectrum met at Beta Business Park Auditorium recently to discuss the tools they just can't live without.

Participants listed more than a dozen different programs, systems, and Web sites they've found invaluable in-world. Generally speaking, the more specialized the business, the more specialized the tools. For example, club owner Mortus Allen relies on the SHX Radio Board, while designer Ploneglenn Yalen favors the open-source software programs SLOODLE (Simulation Linked Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) and GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program).

Popular Web-based programs also had strong advocates. Graceful Aeon says she can't live without Google apps. "Everything in one place!" she explains. "All my email addresses set up to go there. My documents stored in one place, either on desktop or laptop, [where I can] find them. No more multiple revisions floating around among collaborators. And it works well with GTD," the popular "Getting Things Done" task management system. Melchizedek Blauvelt's tool of choice is Twitter. "It's where you find what's new, hot, and well, which tools are relevant and which aren't"

With retail such an important part of the Second Life business world, much of the discussion focused on LISA, "a complete business management system," says Sage Pexie, who uses the site to sell her products. "[It] allows you to better maintain your inventory, provide inventory safely to other retailers to sell, [and] manage reports on sales. It's a free system too, which is amazing. It costs nothing to start, but the creator get's 2% of sales through the system."

Gayle Cabaret says B2P uses and highly recommends the AeonVox product line, which includes teleporters, a time clock program, merchant and vendor servers, and access control tools to manage your virtual land. And for those wanting to make their Google Calendars visible inworld, MechanizedLife.com's CalendarCog is a must.

B2P is also a beta test client for "a new product that is fast becoming something we can't live without:" Flying Island's 'Roobaab' content and collaboration mangament system.

"In addition to collaborative documents and lists and such, we also have the ability with this [system] to capture transcripts of text meetings inworld and include people in those meeting that aren't able to log in-world...and still have everyone communicating in real time," she says. "It's truly outstanding, and we're really enjoying helping fine-tune it."