I’ve just been for a wander around Manchester’s newly unveiled Second Life presence. Second Life, for those who don’t know, is an online community with millions of ‘residents’ and it’s own currency, which is convertable to real money.

The virtual city (actually an island) includes Urbis, the Printworks and what is possibly the Great Northern. There are plenty of less recognisable buildings too – and lots of potential space for retail and the like. It is unoccupied at present, other than the odd BrandRepublic stall and shop (for Manchester’s own Second Places, who appear to be the developers).

Urbis, both physically and virtually, hosted the ceremony for the Big Chip Awards last month. A clever move in theory but – according to a comment on North West media site How-Do – ‘a total disaster’ in practice.

Anyway, here are a few snapshots of Second Life’s Manchester (click for full view):

If you’re a Second Life user, you can visit Manchester by clicking here.