• Inc. Magazine asks business owners: "Should You Stake Your Claim In a Virtual World?" The author says that, while virtual worlds like Second Life have lost some ground to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, they can definitely be worth the small business oweners' while.
• Linden Lab's Working Inword blog provides three case studies detailing how real world businesses are using Second Life for training. The post profiles nTeams, Human Mosaic Systems and Virtual Training Partners.
• Linden Lab has acquired the social networking site Avatars United, and plans to use it to enhance the Second Life community experience.
• The new season of Metanomics has begun. Their first interview of season went to Frontline correspondent Douglas Rushkoff, whose episode "Digital Nation," airs on PBS on February 2nd. If you missed the broadcast, you can read the transcript at the Metanomics site.
• Venture Beat blog reports that the U.S. virtual goods market will grow to $1.6 billion in 2010. Second Life will see the majority of that business.

Location, location, location.

This mantra for business success doesn't just apply to the "real" world. Choosing your virtual retail or office site within Second Life is a crucial part of establishing your business or brand inworld. 

How to select just the right site was the subject of a recent forum at the Beta Business Park. The discussion, led by B2P General Manager Gayle Cabaret, touched on many of the practical and technical issues involved in virtual real estate shopping. About a dozen new and established residents were on hand to share their experiences.

Sage Pexie, owner of Sage Fashions, has a large main store and several satellites.  "I chose my main [store] by price and prims and made sure it was surrounded by other businesses," she says, "my satellites strictly by traffic."

Three years ago, PCPro.co.uk's Barry Collins spent a week in the hot new world of Second Life, "a truly massive, utterly surreal and dangerously compelling online world that's attracting thousands of new residents every day."

He rented an apartment, did a little bump-and-grind in a club, visited the blackjack tables, joined a sex party, perused a library, (briefly) considered hiring a surrogate mother to carry his virtual child, and literally ran into the arms of Jesus in a beautifully-rendered church. The full experience in about twenty inworld hours.

Last month, he returned and his observations, in an lengthy piece titled "Whatever Happened To Second Life?" have residents scratching their heads.