A snapshot of ... in Second Life

A snapshot of … in Second Life UKSG Meeting – Caught up in Web 2.0

Second what?
3-D virtual world
MUVE
run by Linden Lab
‘ proprietary’, but public commitment to open standards and OSS
populated by avatars, aka residents
www.secondlife.com

So it’s just a game right?
can use SL to build games – including shoot ‘em ups
but such activities frowned on in public spaces
looks and feels like a gaming environment
but no purpose as such
use it to buy / sell, entertain, learn, collaborate, …
do not approach it simply as a game – you’ll be disappointed!
image by J0@nn@ @ flickr.com

Joining SL
two steps
register
install client software
note technical requirements

What does it cost?
basic accounts are free
need to pay monthly subscription ($10) to own land
land can be quite expensive
‘ land use fees’ for owning more than smallest plot

Naming / identity
every avatar has a name
chosen at registration
can’t be changed
though can have ‘Alt’s
mine is Art Fossett - not an anagram!

Identity / appearance
on the Internet no one knows you’re a dog
in SL no one knows you’re a bloke
appearance can be changed instantly
wings and tails (‘furries’) seem oddly popular!

Communication
chat
IM
group IM
IM <-> email
voice – however support for voice fairly recent and not clear what impact it is having

Building and selling stuff
anyone can build
objects made out of basic building blocks – prims (cubes, spheres, …)
objects can be textured for realism – but uploading costs L$10
objects can be scripted
in-world currency enables buying and selling of goods

SL and Web 2.0?
prosumer
remote apps
social
API

SL APIs
scripting language can issue HTTP GET and POST requests
can integrate with Web 2.0 services
but significant limitations currently
no built-in HTML, XML or JSON parsers so need to parse externally
SLURLs can be bookmarked in del.icio.us
some good examples – Second Talk, SLoodle, SLtwitter, BlogHUD, RSS readers, Facebook

Hype
SL very over-hyped
significant complaints that stats are misleading
i.e. worse than Web stats
LL have improved the way they report usage but…
SL also (inappropriately) touted as Web 3.0

Usage statistics

Uptake in UK
July 2007 snapshot of use of SL in UK HE and FE
undertaken by John Kirriemuir
funded by Eduserv
fragmented and somewhat cloudy picture
activity happening at multiple levels – sometime within same institution – not always visible, even within the institution
series of snapshots planned over next 12 months
http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation/sl

Major findings
some SL activity at 43 institutions
15 of those building an institutional presence
what are they doing?
small-scale activities…
hosting exhibitions of students’ work
researching possibilities
building tools

SL and learning
widespread interest in use of SL in education
explicitly encouraged by Linden Lab
not clear that people really know how to use SL yet
but some interesting examples of use
arts, social sciences, law, psychology, archaeology, languages, …

SL and research
even less clear what is possible here
but note that Nature Publishing have an 2 islands (‘Second Nature’)

SL and libraries
strong library community in SL
centred around Info Island
reference desk
information literacy
book-related activities

SL in context
SL is one of many virtual worlds
there.com, World of Warcraft, Entropia Universe, Active Worlds, Croquet, Metaverse, …
not clear that SL is the answer
SL client now released as open source
clear demand for server to made OSS also
some commitment to this by LL (partly because people are reverse-engineering the server anyway)

Finding out more
SLED list – run by Linden Lab, US-centric but is the main forum for learning-related SL issues
secondlife@jiscmasil.ac.uk (UK)
alliancesecondlife@googlegroups.com (libraries)
in-world UK Educators group (open and free to join)
lots of Second Life Facebook groups
pointers to other resources on the Linden Lab Second Life Grid education page
http://secondlifegrid.net/programs/education

Conclusions…
too much hype
no clear best-practice (or even much practice) around e-learning
high technical requirements
impact of voice not clear
but… useful experimental environment
building and scripting environment very powerful
seems likely that 3-D virtual worlds of some kind will be part of the future
      ?

Conclusions…
sustainability, ownership and privacy issues around use of and reliance on US-based commercial-run, externally hosted service
unclear what student perceptions and attitudes are
but generally accepted that SL is a minority sport at the moment and is likely to remain so
SL appears to be most suitable for active, constructive learning styles
 ? ? ?

questions…

A snapshot of ... in Second Life

by Eduserv Foundation

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