Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by more and more people from around the globe.

From the moment you enter the World you will discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you have explored a bit, perhaps you will find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.

You will also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow residents. Because residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents.

The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world currency, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online currency exchanges.

Here is an interview with Catherine Smith, director of marketing at Linden Lab. She also brings us an exclusive photo of Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab.

MMOsite.com: What would you like to tell us about yourself and the company behind?

Catherine Smith: Second Life is a creation of Linden Lab, a company founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale to create a revolutionary new form of shared 3D experience.

Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab

The former CTO of RealNetworks, Rosedale pioneered the development of many of today¡¯s streaming media technologies, including RealVideo. Based in San Francisco, Linden Lab employs a senior team bringing together deep expertise in physics, 3D graphics and networking. Regarding Philip¡¯s motivations for developing Second Life, in a recent interview he is quoted as saying, "As a kid I was always modifying the world around me, like growing up I did electronics from like the fourth grade, and I was pretty comfortable with power tools and making things... and I studied physics, ultimately in college (at the University of California, San Diego)... I always felt that using computers to digitally simulate a world, to simulate the physics of reality was the ultimate thing you wanted to use computers for. And if you could use networking - obviously one computer could not do that well, but a lot of computers could... I left RealNetworks (in 1999) and started working on it at the very moment I thought it was possible."

MMOsite.com: For those who do not already know Second Life, can you give them a brief explanation?

Catherine Smith: Second Life is a virtual 3D world where the best content is user-created - the houses, the furniture, clothes that people wear, and more has been built by its "residents". Once created, objects can be bought and sold using the Second Life virtual currency, known as Linden Dollars. These can be exchanged for U.S. dollars, so that users can make real money from their Second Life activity. There are several thousand virtual retailers and real estate developers running real businesses, making real profits. Second Life is also a meeting place and a playground for artists and other creative people.

MMOsite.com: We usually have a question "what we can do? " while playing other games, but in Second Life we may ask ourselves "what we can not do?" Second Life is a game, which will make your every dream come true. What do you want to say about that?

Catherine Smith: Actually, Second Life is not a game. Instead, it is a completely open-ended experience ¨C a 3D online world where residents create whatever they can imagine and do almost anything they want.