Facing Realities: An Introduction to Second Life
Joe Sanchez · Library Technology Reports · 2009
On July 12, 2006, my avatar North Lamar was rezzed (created) in the virtual world of Second Life. I had 250 Linden Dollars (the virtual currency of Second Life and the equivalent of about $1 U.S.), a torch, a flamingo, and a few outfits for my avatar. I initially joined Second Life while working as an instructional technologist on a project for an English professor named Dr. Jerome Bump at the University of Texas at Austin. He had been using a Web-based MOO (MUD Object Orientated visual chat client) in his undergraduate English course for several years, and he was eager to try a 3-D virtual world. As an instructional technologist at the University of Texas at Austin, I was assigned to provide technical and pedagogical assistance to him. We launched his course in Second Life in the fall of 2006. My experiences in Second Life have ultimately been shaped from two perspectives: my perspective as an instructional designer and also as a doctoral student researcher. I didn't create an account in Second Life to explore a virtual world or to live a second life. From the beginning of my work in Second Life, my interest was in using the virtual world as an instructional technology and providing technical support to university faculty. My initial goal was to quickly master the technical aspects of Second Life so that I could devise a plan for faculty development. Starting in July 2006, I spent about thirty hours a week learning how to build objects out of Prims, or primitives, are basic building objects like boxes, cylinders, spheres, tori, and prisms that can be manipulated to create everything from chairs to auditoriums, musical instruments, and even automobiles in Second Life. By the fall of 2006, I was comfortable enough with Second Life to use it in an undergraduate information studies course I was teaching called Social Issues in a Networked Society. Second Life is a virtual world owned by Linden Lab with over fifteen million users. It is currently one of the most popular 3-D social virtual worlds. Second Life is comprised of simulations known as islands. A single server supports four islands, and each server ideally runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. As of October 2008, Second Life contained an estimated 32,000 islands. (1) In addition to land, Second Life consists of users in the form of avatars, a virtual currency called Linden Dollars, and objects created out of prims. Many organizations currently own land in Second Life, including both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. IBM and Sun Microsystems are two of the larger corporations utilizing Second Life, while the American Library Association is an example of a non-profit professional organization with a Second Life presence. (2) Second Life contains the following features: land, communication, groups, navigation, economy, events, and user-generated content. Two types of land are available in Second Life: mainland and private estates. Mainland is land that may be purchased directly from Linden Lab or from individual real estate agents. Mainland is connected into continents that total 5,000 regions, (3) and owners of mainland must pay a monthly tier fee in addition to the purchase price of their land. A tier fee is charged based on the amount of land a user owns. Private estates are typically purchased by a single person or organization and are then divided into smaller pieces for designated projects or sold to other Second Life users. Private estates do not have to be connected to the mainland in Second Life. For instance, if a university purchases a private estate, it may want to keep its land separated from the mainland to reduce the likelihood of having a neighboring island with adult content. Communication in Second Life typically occurs as text chat or through voice chat. Both voice and text chat can be through an open channel, a private instant messaging channel, or a group-messaging channel. Additionally, during events like conferences or concerts, communication may occur through streaming media from a real-life place into Second Life. …