second life and its uses: my second life

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Copyright Sheila Webber Second Life and its uses: My Second Life Sheila Webber / Sheila Yoshikawa Department of Information Studies University of Sheffield January 2008

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This presentation was given on 29 January 2008 at the annual general meeting of the CILIP Commercial Legal and Scientific Information Group, in London. The presenter firstly presents some basic information about Second Life, the virtual world. She goes on to talk about her own experience as educator, researcher, fashionista, shopkeeper and procrastinator.She talks about the value of SL in business and professional life, and indicates opportunities for library and information professionals.

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Page 1: 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

Page 2: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

Copyright Sheila Webber

Outline• Second Life• My Second Life• Professional and

Business• SL, libraries and

information management

Page 3: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

Copyright Sheila Webber

Second Life

Page 4: Second Life and its uses: My 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

Page 5: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

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 Dechttp://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php

Page 6: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

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

Page 7: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

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)

Page 8: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

Copyright Sheila Webber

My Second Life

Page 9: Second Life and its uses: 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…..

Page 10: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

Copyright Sheila Webber

A day in the second Life: 28 Jan 2008

Page 11: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

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

Page 12: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

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

Page 13: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

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

Page 14: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

Copyright Sheila Webber

Profession and business in SL

Page 15: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

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

Page 16: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

Copyright Sheila Webber

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.”

Page 17: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

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…

Page 18: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

Copyright Sheila Webber

SL, libraries and information

management

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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

Page 20: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

Copyright Sheila Webber

Sheila Webber [email protected] http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/

http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com/

Sheila Yoshikawa (in SL)

Page 21: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

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

Page 22: Second Life and its uses: My Second Life

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 ….