You in back, yes you, the half-lynx

Sun Microsystems, which makes computer servers and software, owns seven islands in Second Life, two of which are open to the public. The rest are used for training sessions and meetings. During its biggest event, a 12-hour corporate meeting held last month, 14 of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun's top executives hobnobbed with hundreds of employees. Alpine skiing, car racing, live jazz and a sandbox were also part of the event.

At one point, Sun Chairman Scott McNealy, dressed in a San Jose Sharks hockey jersey and holding a golf club, sat in a virtual auditorium next to Chief Gaming Officer Chris Melissinos, who had a mascot for Sun's Java software sitting on his shoulder (the mascot looks a bit like a penguin).

Hundreds of Sun avatars lounged in the audience, some wearing sneakers and jeans, others in business attire, asking questions about new products, Second Life and Sun's competitive position. Thousands of other employees watched the virtual meeting on monitors in Sun's offices in Santa Clara, New York and Tokyo.

Sun decided to hold the event after it acquired a software company called MySQL, which tracks its widespread corps of employees by the 110 airports they live near, rather than their actual locations. Sun was looking for a way to introduce the MySQL employees to their Sun colleagues, and Second Life seemed the best solution.

"No matter where you're working, you can show up to the Town Hall," spokeswoman Kathy Engle said.

Forrester Research, a respected firm that focuses on the technology industry, recently highlighted the potential for its clients in a report titled "Getting Real Work Done in Virtual Worlds."

Swiss construction giant Implenia, for instance, worked with IBM Corp. to test ways to turn off lights in real buildings by flipping virtual switches in Second Life. The University of Maryland simulated a highway emergency and had participants respond in a different virtual world, designed by Forterra Systems Inc. And a company called Qwaq created a zone of oil rigs, refineries and offices to enable energy professionals to walk through their properties and discuss repairs while viewing actual equipment.

"Virtual worlds are relatively inexpensive, don't require a great deal of start-up technology infrastructure, and provide a naturalistic, immersive approach to simulating space, people, and objects," wrote Forrester analysts Erica Driver and Paul Jackson.