Second Life and its
uses: My Second Life
Sheila Webber / Sheila Yoshikawa
Department of Information Studies
University of Sheffield
January 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
Copyright Sheila Webber

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 Dec
http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php
Copyright Sheila Webber

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
Copyright Sheila Webber

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)
Copyright Sheila Webber

My Second Life
Copyright Sheila Webber

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…..
Copyright Sheila Webber

A day in the second
Life: 28 Jan 2008
Copyright Sheila Webber

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 Copyright Sheila Webber

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
Copyright Sheila Webber

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
Copyright Sheila Webber

Profession and
business in SL
Copyright Sheila Webber

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
Copyright Sheila Webber

http://www.forterrainc.com/medical.php
“Forterra Systems Inc.'s OLIVE™ virtual worlds
software platform along with IBM's new chipmaking
process 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…
Copyright Sheila Webber

SL, libraries and
information
management
Copyright Sheila Webber

• 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/
Sheila Yoshikawa (in SL)
http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com/
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: SimTeach
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_E
ducation_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 ….
Copyright Sheila Webber