Thing 23 - Second Life
Thursday, December 11th, 2008WHAT YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE YOU CAN TICK OFF THING 23.
Come to a workshop on December 16th or December 19th and create a Second Life Avatar OR have completed a “create your avatar” session before OR use the workshop slides below to do it yourself. Please email your avatar name to Kathryn.
FOR THE WORKSHOP, YOU MUST HAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS THAT HAS NOT BEEN USED TO CREATE AN AVATAR BEFORE, AND THAT CAN BE ACCESSED VIA WEBMAIL ON THE DAY .
ONLINE VIRTUAL WORLDS
Online virtual worlds use a similar immersive 3D interface as gaming. Characters called avatars can move around the environment and interact with objects and other avatars. There are however no gameplays, strategies, rules or points.
Educational and library sites in Online Virtual worlds sit side by side with porn and gambling sites, just like on the World Wide Web. Online virtual worlds are still developing and as technology improves, they will get more sophisticated and easier to use.
Virtual Worlds and Other Online Virtual Environments were named by Educause and the New Media Consortium in their 2008 Horizon Report - Australian and New Zealand Edition.as one of six technologies likely to have significant impact on education in the next five years. Gartner Inc., which bills itself as the “world’s leading information and technology research company, claimed on 24th April 2007 that “by the end of 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a “second life,” but not necessarily in Second Life
Many unversities are experimenting with an Online Virtual World called Second Life. Murdoch University has a presence there, as does Harvard, Princeton, University of Oxford, Griffiths, Monash, RMIT, AFTRS and USQ. Over 600 librarians are experimenting with providing library services on the 40 island Information Archipelago where Murdoch Library has a plot of land.
In Second Life, avatars can run, fly, teleport, swim, dance, drive cars and communicate with other avatars through typed chat or (if the user is wearing a headset) voice. Objects can be set up so that touching one (eg. a bookcase) can make the users’ webbrowser got to a specific website (eg. Libraries Australia). Databases like PubMed can be searched within a Second Life building and RSS feeds can be displayed in Second Life. ABC Island, for example, has a dome where the latest ABC news headlines are displayed.
This 23 minute slidecast (audio and slides) explains more about Second Life, Libraries, Universities and Murdoch University Library (Presentation at the Queensland University Libraries Office of Communication event, Social Software in Libraries, Wednesday 9th October 2007)
FURTHER READING
Infoisland.org - blog of the Alliance Library Service in Second Life .
Ten very good reasons why your librarians should be in Second Life
Six very bad reasons to have a library branch in Second Life
