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About two years ago I took a maiden stroll in Second Life.

I signed on, created an avatar and spent several unfulfilling afternoons visiting a mix of islands. Most lacked much in the way of traffic and there was limited interaction among the residents I did happen upon. I haven’t logged on since.

While I understand the appeal of virtual worlds to gamers who test their mettle against distant competitors, these environments have fallen way short when it comes to business relevance.

Granted, some progressive companies like IBM have used virtual worlds for work teams to collaborate (http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-6127448-7.html). However, my impression is most virtual residents are a curious mix of techie geeks, experimenters and, even, the lonely and desperate. They are not the sort who offers much in the way of value to Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) clients.

It may be time though to take a fresh look at the potential business ROI of virtual worlds. For starters, if you believe the numbers, the virtual population continues to swell.

Consultancy K Zero (http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/) recently reported that membership in virtual worlds jumped by 39 percent during Q2 2009 to nearly 580 million. Second Life now boasts 750,000 unique monthly visitors while World of Wars’ subscriber base tops 12 million.

Even the kid-set has jumped into the virtual fray. Habbo sports 135 million registered users, Neopets has 54 million and Club Penguin weighs in at 28 million – most under the age of 15. Consider these online teens (and pre-teens) will be entering the work force in as little as five years.

In addition, industry groups have now formed to help translate the residential traffic in virtual worlds into measurable ROI.

The National Defense University’s Information Resources Management College has played a lead role organizing the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds (http://www.ndu.edu/IRMC/fedconsortium.html). With a mission to share best practices, this group includes members from all levels of government, academia and corporate enterprise. It’s most recent virtual event attracted more than 500 participants.

And finally, tools have been introduced to help organizations tap into virtual worlds in a customizable fashion, comparably to how Ning enables social network creation.

OpenSimulator (http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page) is one such offering. This software application allows a user to build a virtual world on the hard drive of a computer and then connect it to compatible virtual environments, such as Second Life.

Last week I sat with a client who explained she has allocated budget in their new fiscal year for a series of events in virtual worlds to communicate with customers and prospects. OK...looks like I need to dust off my avatar and give Second Life another whirl.