Second Life is Surreal!
Submitted by robingrant on Wed, 2007-03-07 14:36.
Okay, I was only vaguely aware that something like Second Life existed. No idea how much you can do with it--or how much money people can spend! The idea that real-life businesses are setting up virtual counterparts and actually making money off of them is astonishing. Buying clothes in a Second Life store that has a real-world presence in your local mall? Even stranger, paying such large sums for property, or rentals!
As a creative writer, I can understand the lure. I think I would enjoy creating an avatar and exploring the world. I can even see myself getting addicted.
The library portion of Second Life has me a little perplexed, however. I read the article from the folks at the Alliance Library System in Illinois about their huge Second Life project. (I was tickled by the explanation that they started with a small rental property but eventually needed to expand and bought an island!) They were excited to start this project because of the need, as they put it, to go where their users are.
I can understand this reasoning with MySpace or FaceBook. You will try to "friend" your actual users, those who attend your college or school, etc. But it would seem to me the Illinois folks are spending a lot of time and effort providing services and programming for people who could be all over the world.
I did see that they've gotten volunteers of librarians from all over the world to help staff the reference services and work on this project. So maybe the Illinois folks are brilliant visionaries. Could this be the future direction of libraries? Instead of local public libraries struggling for local funding, resources will be pooled to provide huge virtual libraries, available to folks online all over the world? Not a bad idea.
This is really fascinating stuff! (And I never would have known without this class!)
»
- robingrant's blog
- Login to post comments
There's a fair bit of
There's a fair bit of skepticism surrounding Second Life as well as the library presence within it. (Google for "Clay Shirky" along with "Second Life" for some of the more evidence-based critiques.) I confess that I'm on the side of the skeptics here. The monetary outlay combined with the high technical requirements combined with the somewhat dubious allure of VR make me think that SL will at best be a very small niche among Internet users, and at worst, a complete flop.
The library presence there has historically had serious trouble accepting criticism, which does not bode well. I'm not against the experimentation, because I approve of any and all experimentation, but I myself do not believe that SL represents a likely library future. What happens if Talis gets bored and pulls out?
"What happens if Talis gets
"What happens if Talis gets bored and pulls out?"
You're forgetting SirsiDynix too.
I feel SL is one of those things that you have to experience for yourself. For me, it was like MySpace -- you have to try it before you can fully understand the appeal. There's nothing quite like fielding a reference question "face to face" with someone who is actually on the other side of the world!
You maybe need to quantify your final comment -- "the library presence there" implies you mean all of the librarians and libraries who use SL, and that is certainly far from being the case in my experience.
I tried out Second Life when
I tried out Second Life when I was writing my book on social software last year. It was interesting, but for me, it wasn't something I really wanted to spend my time on. I can definitely understand why some people are into it though.
I also have wondered about the SL Library 2.0's mission in Second Life. In my view, it's less about going where the patrons are and more about investigating the possibilities for providing library services in 3D immersive virtual worlds. Second Life may not be here in five years (who knows?), but I think there's something to this virtual worlds idea. E-mail was the start of virtual reference, now lots of libraries do synchronous chat reference, but just imagine what we could do in a 3D virtual environment like that. Imagine how much more personal and rich the experience could be. Imagine teaching an information literacy course to a class online where you could actually SEE the other participants (yes, as avatars, but still it beats regular Web conferencing). As a distance learning librarian, I am definitely excited about the possibilities of making a more human connection with my patrons online.
But I don't think we're nearly there yet, in terms of technology or adoption. But I think in the future, we may be providing reference and instruction in virtual worlds, and I'm glad that the Second Lifers are exploring these possibilities for us so that we can steal their ideas when the time is right. ;-) Someone has to lead the way...
I agree with Dave that we shouldn't paint all librarians involved with SL with such a broad brush. That idiot who went after our friend Rochelle surely represents a minority of people involved in the project. But I do think perhaps it spoke to a general unease and uncertainty about the true mission of the Second Life Library. If it's about exploring the possibilities of providing library services in virtual worlds, I get it. If it's about "going where our patrons are", well, it seems like they may be a bit off the mark.
I think that for me the
I think that for me the value of trying out SL has more to do with getting ready for the possibilities the future of Social Networking might bring rather than getting married to a particular environment (like SL). For me, I'm glad that I have tried it and made myself familiar with what it has to offer so that at some point down the road I'm ready to move on to the next big thing.
Someone asked me the other day (when involved in a discussion of using MySpace/Facebook/etc to go where the teens are) what would happen when the teens move on to another venue. What do we do when they get tired of it and of their parents, authority figures, etc invading their space - this is what I think she was getting at. The answer, of course, is that we go where they go. And if that happens to be into a yet-to-be-invented 3D world, then if we have familiarity with SL, we're all the more prepared.
Yep, I agree with that.
Yep, I agree with that. People don't realize how these experiences transfer. Experimenting with almost anything is worthwhile, even if a few things later turn out to be duds.