Category: Social Networking

Despite the lack of response to my original post on Second Life, I will forge on. A number of serendipitous encounters over the past week during lunch-time forays and one particular Sunday evening on the roof of the ALA Tower have convinced me that I have little choice in the matter!

Any skepticism I entertained about Second Life (SL) pretty much vanished last Sunday (March 4th, how appropriate!) while sitting on white-and-green-striped lawn chairs on the roof of the new ALA Tower in SL. I had been organizing my inventory on the ALA grounds, when Galen Noltenius (Washington Office) called down to me from the roof. Because of our Friend status (and that I allowed it to track me), he was notified that I was online. He was working, folks, at about 11:30 p.m. EST, fixing the ALA banners that let people flying over know that this particular building houses ALA. I flew up to the top of the building and he immediately contacted Abbey Zenith, who teleported (TP is the slang for teleport) over. Abbey is sometimes in touch with our anonymous SL sponsor. Galen introduced us (all done using chat windows that put text across the lower left part of the screen) and as we got to know one another, she offered Friendship and membership in the Librarians of Second Life.

Abbey was able to contact Lorelei Junot so she could join us as shown in the screenshot at left. Part of being Friends allows teleporting to each other's locations, exchanging money, notecards and virtual items. One can use internal IM (instant messaging) to speak from different locations and it's best to find out if one really wants to TP before just sending the invitation. Abbey and Lorelei as I understand it, are able to contact whoever has donated the parcel of land and the building to ALA. (Let's also be clear that these are SL names, not real life names.) We discussed what kind of furniture we might need to outfit offices. Yes, furniture and probably much more.

Lorelei informed us that there are 440 people who identify themselves as librarians working in SL. Compared to the more than 4 million registered citizens of SL, that may seem incredibly small, but I was thunderstruck. Outreach to these people is definitely worthwhile. Abbey also asked if we thought ALA would like to help in the beta test of sound zones in SL. What this would mean is that with a microphone headset, you can talk rather than type at whoever's in the zone. SL is taking a huge step toward fulfilling its potential as a viable online education platform.

There's more to say about synchronicity but not a lot of time. In exploring recreational aspects of SL, another friend of mine told me about MechanizedLife and asked if I'd be interested in the Google Calendar Kiosks this SL person had created. You can scroll down the blog page for details, but the gist of the device is that you can use Google Calender to feed to an events display window, for example, in the SL Washington Office, that will trigger announcements as they reach a horizon, say five days ahead of the event date and display it there. I've share the information with Abbey, who thinks it's definitely worth investigating. Networking with SL folk is simply amazing as well as amazingly simple.

Monday, if the dreaded timezone change doesn't defeat our training room PCs, a group of ALA staff are meeting to form a users group and begin to populate the offices of the ALA Tower. I plan on being there to lay claim to space for RUSA.

What do you think?

Let's get the “line” out of the way: “What do I need with Second Life when I barely have a first life?”

I don't have an answer. I've been to some virtual seminars on Second Life and have to admit at being underwhelmed at what presently goes on. But the potential is breathtaking. A youthful generation is online experimenting with virtual life, and it appears that ALA is going to reach out to them.

Let's take a brief tour …

Second Life (SL) “is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 3,659,699 people from around the globe.” (According to Linden Labs, which created the software supporting this world.) Before anything else, you need to check to see if your PC/Mac has the candles to light this world. If you have the power, you can get there by registering (free): choose a name (you must choose from a list of last names, but you can use anything for your first name), enter your birthdate (SL has two virtual worlds, Teen SL for those under 18 and SL for adults), enter a valid e-mail address. The next screen asks you to choose your Avatar, an image that represents you in the world of SL. This alone is marvellous aspect of Second Life, because it invites roleplaying. I can put on a tux and drive a sportscar, or swim trunks and go snorkeling. The final screen asks for the following:

• Your Real Name
• Gender
• Country
• Password (yours to create at this time)
• Security question
• Answer
• Second Life News and Updates (spam): Notices from Second Life, Developer News, and Third-party offers
• Who Referred You? (optional)

You can then download the software—I don't recall whether you need to get an authorization code via the e-mail account you give on registration but that sounds right. Once installed, you can start your adventure in 3-D. You will go through a “base camp” that guides you through editing your avatar's appearance, how to walk and fly, and use the maps to teleport where you want to go. You are given 250 Lindens to spend on virtual goods and services. (Oh, yeah, there's an economy!—at the time of writing the exchange rate was $266 L for one US dollar.) If you plan on buying land and building, the “leasing fees” begin at $9.95 USD per month.

Where ALA Fits In

The screenshot at right should be about “life size” what you see on your PC's screen. (Yes, on the immediate right of where the Washington Office is is the San Jose State University School of Library and Information Sciences!)

You can walk or fly to where ALA is making its presence known, but the Map control button on the bottom of your SL screen allows you to search for places and gives you the ability to teleport where you wish to go if it's not proscribed by the land owners. You can create landmarks that become part of your inventory, so it's easy to return to places you like or want to explore further.

It will probably move to the “Mothership,” once it's established, but for now, the ALA Washington Office has its own place in Cybrary City. I slept a night on the office couch and when I “woke up” I met the avatars of Andy Bridges and someone from MLS talking business. The MLS person left the office and proceeded to climb onto a surfboard-like object and fly away!

Going inside the office, even when no one is there, you can “touch” panels on the walls to receive notecards. These are a versatile delivery mechanisms for messages with embedded links to Web sites, blogs, wikis, and various forms of document files like Microsoft Word .docs or Powerpoint .ppts and Adobe Acrobat .pdfs. They can even include SLurls, the longitude and latitude, if you will, of places in SL.

The example at right is the notecard for Sunshine Week 2007, providing text about the annual event as well as URLs for further information. It's obvious to me that we have some talented staff in this office but that it's also not all that tricky to make information available for the denizens of Second Life.

It would appear that SL may be a niche audience for ALA efforts compared to other venues, but as I have seen from limited travels, it's a very creative and enterprising population, who will make the world of Second Life grow into all of its exciting potential and possibilities. Who knows how ALA might benefit?

If I have captured your interest, and you decide to register and explore Second Life, remember to tell them Oberon Octagon sent you!  And if there's interest, I can provide SLURLs for finding all kinds of free stuff from clothes to flying carpets! Let me know …