The Wall Street Journal-20080206-But Who Will Bail Out Wobbly Second Life Loans-

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But Who Will Bail Out Wobbly Second Life Loans?

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I am glad to see The Wall Street Journal covering the banking crisis in the virtual world Second Life ("Cheer Up, Ben: Your Economy Isn't As Bad as This One," by Robin Sidel, page one, Jan. 23). Having spent a good deal of time in virtual world economies, I would caution that terms like "make-believe," "game" and "pretend" obscure the nature of these new bastions of entrepreneurship.

To take one example of particular interest to me, Ms. Sidel notes that I host a "pretend" television show in Second Life. The show, called "Metanomics," airs live on Second Life Cable Network every Monday.

I am not sure which aspect of the show is not "real." The guests seem pretty real, including faculty from Stanford, Emory and various law schools and top-level executives from tech giants like IBM. They also include senior government officials from Congress, the Federal Reserve Bank and NASA.

My audience seems real as well. The Second Life Cable Network reaches close to half of all Second Life residents, and Metanomics is nearing the top of the ratings. This has made the show seem real enough to our sponsors, which include Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, SAP, Saxo Bank and Generali.

Robert Bloomfield

Professor of Accounting

Cornell University

Ithaca, N.Y.