While major businesses and yet another executive (Ginsu Yoon, vice president of corporate development) leave the world of Second Life, questions have formed such as -has the time come and gone for this virtual world? Of course this is nothing new, public virtual worlds such as Second Life have entered what Gartner (2008) refer to as the "trough of disillusionment" in the hype cycle of web 2.0 and related concepts (See Image). While the hype may have come and gone (As well as naive companies, and others that simply don't belong in this virtual world) I believe the true value of such open virtual worlds in their present form and perhaps future potential will shine as more and more sound critical views concerning the technology emerge. With this in mind, the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research has recently released its latest volume (Vol 2, No 1: Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in Virtual Worlds). Personally, I see these environments as sound tools for education and collaborative learning, as well as their obvious social impact which may prove to have high value for those with physical disabilities. See this interesting Cnet news article (by Caroline mcCarthy) on Second Life and its 'second wind'.