I want to add to Bill’s post from June 2 because of some exciting developments and details about our upcoming CPE in Second Life.
The June edition of the Journal of Accountancy contains an article, “Accounting for Second Life”, featuring the virtual world of Second Life, and chronicles our work at the MACPA in Second Life and the development of CPA Island. Kudos to Frostburg University professors Richard Johnson and Joyce Middleton for authoring the piece.
It starts with an opening that says, “Think of it as the marriage of online video game technology and social networking tools with e-commerce potential. It’s where public accounting meets virtual reality.”
So why should CPAs think about Second Life when it is hard enough keeping track of our first lives? Here are my top six reasons (and why we have been exploring its potential):
- Where there is an economy and real money, CPAs are needed. There are an estimated 47,000 profitable small businesses operating in Second Life today.
- Students and educators are there. Over 250 eductaional institutions have built virtual campuses where they are offering classes in Second Life. What will happen when these students graduate and enter the CPA profession? Will they expect to see virtual CPE classes?
- Second Life offers a chance to add a familiar gaming interface to meetings, learning and events, offering a great way to connect with the newest generation of digital natives that everyone is worrying about. See the details below for our preview of getting CPE via Second Life at our upcoming Maryland Business and Accounting Expo on June 18.
- It is a vibrant growing social network. I have met some very cool and innovative people since joining Second Life. See the article for two of the innovative accounting educators I met through Second Life.
- It’s global. Like the Internet, it has no boundaries.
- It’s fun!
Join us in-world at CPA Island for the first virtual tradeshow for accounting and business and two CPE sessions on June 18. We will be hostng this “mixed reality” event live at the Expo and virtually in Second Life. Here are the details of our CPE sessions at the Expo and in-world:
First, CPE in Second Life, June 18 at the BLI Conference Center on CPA Island. To visit CPA Island, you must be a member of the SLACPA in Second Life. Join the group “SLACPA” (it is free).
Intuit’s Future of Small Business Report and What it means to CPAs: June 18 8:10 to 10 a.m. EST, 5:10 to 7 a.m. SLT / PST.
Steve Blundell, CPA, and Cathernine Harrell will present Intuit‘s three-part study authored by the Institute for the Future. The presentation will look at the significant trends and forces affecting entrepeneurship over the next decade, including the changing face of small business, technology trends and their impact on small busines formation and operation, and how these concepts are shaping an envrionment where small businesses can thrive, benefitting from collaboration with big business, access to enhanced computing power and a global marketplace.
The Virtual World of Second Life: June 18, 2:15 to 3:05 p.m. EST, 11:15 a.m. to 12:05 p.m. SLT / PST.
Johns Zdanowski, CFO of Linden Lab (the company that created of Second Life), will present from in-world to take you into a future that is already here, where real business gets done in virtual worlds like Second Life. If you think you have enough to do in this life, you may need to step out of your comfort zone and find out how real money is being made in virtual worlds.
Plans are already under way to host a session on XBRL in the next month.
The Expo has several sessions that focus on Web 2.0 and Second Life (see session 150 on Tuesday and 231 on Wednesday), if you want to learn about these exciting technologies and how to use them as a CPA.
So are you ready to get a second life?
More resources:
- Brochure for the Maryland Business and Accounting Expo. Register by clicking here.
- Interviews about CPAs in Second Life
— Voices in Business: Virtual Worlds Business Cast, an interview I did with Mike O’Hara.
— Metanomics (by Professor Robert Bloomfield) video interview: Accountants in SL. This featured me and two members of the first CPA firm in Second Life (Maryland CPA firm KAWG&F).
— Listen to a podcast interview with Linden Lab CFO, John Zdanowski here.
— Check out our last event for CFO magazine when we hosted a session at the CFO Rising Conference in Orlando. - For details of how to get CPE for the upcoming session, visit our Second Life blog.
- Second Life Association of CPAs blog.