Second Life vs Real Life
Two recent encounters brought Second Life and real life into sharp contrast. And, it has to be said, on this particular occasion I preferred Second Life.
The idea behind my Second Life visit was to see if things had livened up at all in the last year or so. I headed for the library archipelago and was soon redirected to Info Island International where I met a bunch of interesting people who shared my interests.
Before long, I was off exploring their web presences and picking up interesting snippets. One link worth sharing is this one to a free profiling tool associated with the Groundswell book written by analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. Gareth Otsuka (real life name Gareth Osler of Liverpool Libraries) tipped me off about the link, mentioning that it is in his library technology RSS feed. Cheers Gareth - nice feed.
Looking at my notes, I was amazed to find that I'd spent 35 minutes with Gareth and some of his colleagues and passers-by. Time passed quickly because of our common interests.
Contrast this with a physical gathering today. In theory, we all had an interest in 'social media'. But the engagement rules were very different. In Second Life, you can click on an avatar to find out about a person and choose not to engage, or move on without embarrassment. In real life you have to do it through conversation. But by the time you realise you want to be elsewhere, you're trapped.
Both environments rely on serendipity to work its magic but, in the case of Second Life, it's definitely aided and abetted by effective focusing and filtration mechanisms. And, assuming you have the graphics power and broadband width, Second Life scores because it also avoids the inconvenience of physical travel.
David Tebbutt, Consultant & Columnist
Daniel Griffin, IWR Deputy Editor
Peter Williams, IWR Editor
Interesting point on the downsides of physical meetups - a right click option at the start of the conversation could save a lot of time, but might not be half so much fun. I'm still sceptical about the usefulness of Second Life vs other social tools, and you aren't going to put me off attending networking events like the one we were at today. However, I guess there is an argument for SL to reduce travel and your carbon footprint.
Posted by: David Terrar | 28 March 2008 at 17:29
A quote I think worthy of mention:
"new technologies that have made the marginal cost of long distance communication essentially free"
The Reason They Log On: The Evolution of Communication
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Evolution-of-Communication.pdf
The slurl to the reference desk at Info Island International btw is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island%20International/115/237/33/
Posted by: Gareth Osler | 28 March 2008 at 20:26
David: You are made of stronger stuff than me, obviously.
Gareth: Thanks for the links and last night's chat.
Posted by: David Tebbutt | 28 March 2008 at 21:05
You haven't spent enough time inworld yet. Profiles are about as hit or miss as dealing with people in the real world. Info Island is itself a pretty isolated community, too, it seems - most librarians just seem to hang out and avoid the other areas. Sort of like the non-profits and corporates.
Hard to have a presence if you never leave your presence. ;-)
Posted by: Taran Rampersad | 29 March 2008 at 00:08
Thanks for the comments Taran. Frankly, I'm not interested in 'presence' in Second Life. I just want a bit of focused serendipity from time to time. That's why it's good to go to an area where I'll find like minds.
Up to a year ago, I spent more time in SL. In fact I wrote a piece on the subject for IWR: http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/features/2184795/second-life-brave-worlds so I have experienced different parts of it.
This visit was just to see if much has changed and, as these things do, it led me on to the comparisons I made in the blog.
I guess one gets out of SL what one wants. You and I are clearly after different things.
Posted by: David Tebbutt | 29 March 2008 at 07:36