second life and its uses: my second life

Copyright Sheila Webber

Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

Sheila Webber / Sheila YoshikawaDepartment of Information StudiesUniversity of SheffieldJanuary 2008

Copyright Sheila Webber

Outline• Second Life• My Second Life• Professional and

Business• SL, libraries and

information management

Copyright Sheila Webber

Second Life

Copyright Sheila Webber

Second Life• 3-D Online Digital world, owned by Linden Labs• Most things created by SL residents: SL fashion

designers, architects, bakers, animal makers ….• Avatars- 3D representation of yourself – free to

signup and can live on freebies, but need Linden dollars if want to own land, buy clothes etc.

• Communication through text chat, Voice and Instant Messaging

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Facts and figures• SL made up of Regions ( “mainland”) or islands, each

65,536 sqm• 3,952 regions on Mainland (slmaps.com) + 12,000 islands• 12million avatars (probably a lot less individual people):

about 50,000 inworld simultaneously • Currency is Linden dollars ( £1= c. L$450): 16,850,580

Linden exchanged in December; 28 Jan spent Spent US$1,436,000

• 341,791 customers spent money inworld in December 2007; 50,000 users had positive Linden flow in Dechttp://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php

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Practical issues• Need broadband and good computer

with right graphics card• Have to upgrade software about every 6

weeks• Learning curve in basics of movement &

communication inworld

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Further issues• Personal concerns about signing up for

avatar or entering dangerous space (possibly more those not used to social software)

• Max of about 40 avatars per region/island, and ?60K on whole grid

• Inclusion issues• Confidentiality/ privacy (corporate &

private)

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My Second Life

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My Second Life• 2 avatars• “Payment information on file”• An office on Eduserv Island• My own (paid for) land• Quarters on Babylon 5• Infolit iSchool: island paid for by

CILASS• Why? Colour! Imagination! Creating things!

Cute hobbit homes! Virtual squirrels! A complete oufit for 70p! + CPD, education and research opportunities of course…..

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A day in the second Life: 28 Jan 2008

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My Department in SL

• July onwards lent office by Eduserv for Centre for Information Literacy Research: started discussion series (every week or 2 – continued on island)

• Successful bid to Centre for Inquiry based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences to fund island for a year

• Island delivered early October: Infolit iSchool

• Started teaching on 22 October

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Infolit iSchool

• Venues for discussion, reflection, chilling: aim to create a relaxing/ welcoming environment

• Some food/play areas• “Build” area left empty (or with temporary stuff) to

allow practice/ exhibition/ experimentation• Teaching, discussions

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Education• Only 18+ on main grid: separate Teen grid• Emerging – but already a lot going on• Many disciplines: English, Psychology, Chemistry,

Biology etc. etc.• Role play, simulations• Discussion, communication• Problem solving, inquiry

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Profession and business in SL

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Business• “Hanging out in virtual worlds” (Roo

Reynolds, IBM) including with Important People (networking around the world)

• Simulating and modellling real world operations; Training personnel

• Making money through SL activities• Building RL brands by connecting with

customers inworld• Issues of confidentiality: organisations

building their own virtual worlds

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http://www.forterrainc.com/medical.php

“Forterra Systems Inc.'s OLIVE™ virtual worlds software platform along with IBM's new chipmakingprocess and Sprint's Xohm high-speed wireless broadband data network are just three of the five projects identified by the editors of IEEE Spectrum as "winners" in the fifth annual issue highlighting the best and worst of global technology.”

Copyright Sheila Webber

Professional development & networking• Opportunities to participate in events which

would be too expensive/time consuming• A lot of educational events and discussions• Easier to meet/ bump into people from

outside the UK• As usual, if proactive, then make more

connections: I have organised a discussion series

• Only networking with other people who are in SL…

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SL, libraries and information

management

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• Inventory problems• Inworld objects• What is information in SL?• Issues of presenting textual information• Libraries focused a lot on reader development role

& reference role• Librarian groups and activities

Copyright Sheila Webber

Sheila Webber s.webber@shef.ac.uk http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/

http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com/

Sheila Yoshikawa (in SL)

Copyright Sheila Webber

Resources on SL• Kay, J and Fitzgerald, S. (2007) Second Life in Education

http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/ (wiki with useful information for educators and students, and information on the authors’ own projects – they are Australian educators)

• Kemp, J (Ed) (2007) Second Life Education Wiki: SimTeachhttp://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki

• Second Life Educators List (SLED). https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators(Very high volume discussion list, but is an invaluable resource)

• There are further resources linked from these e.g. at http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/secondliferesources

Copyright Sheila Webber

Readings• Parker, L. (2008) "More questions than answers: the

reflections of Maggie Kohime, a virtual librarian in Second Life." Aliss Quarterly, 3 (2) January, 13-17.

• Reynolds, R. (2007) My talk at online information 07. http://rooreynolds.com/2007/12/07/my-talk-at-online-information-07/

• Go to www. slideshare.net or youtube.com and search on Second Life ….