Around three months ago, an experiment was conceived. The concept: selling real products through a virtual world, namely Second Life. The company: IWOOT (iwantoneofthose.com). Riel Life Productions (RPL), founded in January 2007 by Brian Meeks (also known in Second Life as Ecocandle Riel), is the boutique Second Life development company who have realized this idea within Second Life for IWOOT.

The thing that IWOOT noticed about large websites selling real products was that there was no sense of community - thousands of people shopping with you at the same time, but no interactivity beyond a few comments. With Second Life, the world begins to bridge the gap between real and virtual, giving people more of a physical sense of shopping together, providing the details of physical shopping, like carts to push and ride, and also giving the customers and the 'e-tailer' a chance to interact in a more meaningful way.

The cart is at the core of the system. Items are added to the cart, and then shoppers purchase their physical world items by clicking on the cart, and paying in Linden dollars. The only time you need to leave Second Life is during the registration process, which is accomplished through a website. The price is exactly the same as on the website; the exchange rate is live and is updated every 15 minutes.

IWOOT island is fancy, almost everything is polished and works perfectly. HUDs, shopping carts, all work almost flawlessly, and are well integrated into the experience. Even the website links all work (amazing, I know). The free HUD allows you to teleport around the island, choosing from a menu of destinations, a superior transportation system to many available. The only flaw in this rather polished setup: a message from the Help System in the HUD - "Support IWOOT: An unexpected event occurred. I'm sorry I can help you at the moment. Please IM Support IWOOT for further help" and that error was only being experience by some people.

IWOOT opened their island today, and you can teleport to it here.