Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

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 quot;winnersquot; 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) quot;More questions than answers: the reflections of Maggie Kohime, a virtual librarian in Second Life.quot; 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

http://cilass.group.shef.ac.uk	19
http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com	11
http://www.slideshare.net	5
http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.co.uk	2
https://lms.kku.edu.sa	1

Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

by Sheila Webber on Feb 06, 2008

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