Avi+in+Second+Life

//Post #13 - Concluding Thoughts//
SL Map - each green dot is a person and this is just part of the map...ya it is kinda popular.

This whole experience has been very interesting. If nothing else, I've got experience in an online space that is growing in size and importance. Here are a few of my last thoughts about SL:

1. Second Life, to me, is not a community but a tool for building communities. I think the size of SL is far too large to be considered a community. It would be like calling New York City a community. It, by itself, is not a community but there are communities within it. I think there are communities that have been built around similar ideas, like music, art, etc., within SL and that it has the ability to build an endless number of communities. However, SL is not a community as a whole.

2. SL is a combination of real-life, fantasy, and technology. In many ways SL combines the norms, problems, and characteristics of all three of these things. Almost every inch and every sentence on SL contains a little bit of RL, fantasy, and technology (the Internet more specifically).

3. SL has a growing number of problems. This includes the growing amount of spam and porn, the problems that many users may face due to enormous size of SL slowing down their computers, and the number of people who are on SL to cause harm.

4. SL could have an amazing upside. The community provides a lot of opportunity for discussion and interaction with users from around the globe, this opportunity could lead to something amazing.

5. SL is complicated. The problems that the interface causes really limits its ability to become as big as things like Facebook and Twitter. It just isn't intuitive and the frustration that it causes new users may lead to many giving up quickly.

6. Users of SL vary in their attitude towards SL. What I mean is that some view it as a hobby, some view it as a community that they want to protect, and some view it as a place to meet people. And these are just a few of the views. The idea is that people use SL for many different reasons.

Overall, this experience was eye-opening. I wouldn't have believed that SL was as popular nor as complicated as this project showed me. I think everyone should give it a try.

//Post #12 - 80% Crap//
I often hear people talk about the Internet as being 90% porn. I think SL is about the same. So far SL seems to be made up of 20% useful conversations, relationships, and learning and 80% shopping, listening to club music, and trying to find online sex. I wish I could go back and see how it all started. I have a feeling that, just like the Internet, SL was much more innocent and pure in its early life. It was probably more about sharing ideas and meeting people than about trying to digitally "hook-up." Instead now I keep stumbling across interactions like this:

[11:40] Kukksugeren Bumblefoot: Because your face is fucking ugly [11:40] Taco Sheriffe: thats y it killed itself a few days ago [11:40] brandon Sieberi: lets walk a bit [11:40] Deirdre Hyun: well it's killing me! [11:40] Ahlewf Fairlock: ill sit on your lap if you take the pants off [11:40] Cleo Batistuta: go ahead [11:41] Kukksugeren Bumblefoot: thats the only reason youre here you fucking slut [11:42] Kukksugeren Bumblefoot: Like youre not enjoying it?

I wonder if users might start trying to find other places to meet in order to avoid these type of conversations?

//Post #11 - Fantasy/Reality//
Picture - The fantastic world of SL

As I move around SL I can't help but think how this environment, and the interaction that happens within it is, a complex combination of reality and fantasy. You'd think that one or the other might take hold and dominate the way the environment is build and used, but on a regular basis you come face to face with both. While many of the areas are representations of real places, they often are fantastic versions of those places. Of course there are also those environments that could not exist in real-life (See above). The same holds true for conversations. They are often grounded in real-life issues and topics and yet they seem to have something completely unreal about them. Maybe it is because you don't have to deal with actual face-to-face interaction and the norms that go with it? People are more open, more honest, but can also be much more rude. There doesn't seem to be anything holding people back from expressing what they really want to. However, you also get people who run around yelling profanity just because they can. So there are some obvious deviations from reality.

Through those interactions that I've had, you see that people seem to be attracted to SL for either its reality or its fantasy. My earlier post about the intellectual conversation I happened to stumble across is a great example of people who use SL for its ability to extend real-life interactions. It provides a space to discuss real-life, complicated issues with people from across the globe. On the other hand, some people use SL to try and find sex partners using the most profane language they can, thus using SL as a completely fantastic environment. It just shows the complexity of the environment as a whole.

//Post #10 - Events//


So I found a new way for meet people. Event listings! However, I quickly found that most of these listing are, like most things in SL, useless...

The conversation from my last post actually led me to find these listings, as the conversation was actually an even that is held once a week. I think it's great that these type of events exist, but am also disappointed that the listings are mostly about club music, shopping, or sex. It is too bad that more intelligent conversation can't be found...believe me I've searched.

//Post #9 - The Intellectuals//


For most of my SL experience so far I've had fairly trivial conversations. SL is a social environment based primarily on fairly shallow interaction. That was until I met the group in the picture above. This was my introduction to the conversation:

[10:54] Rhiannon Dragoone: Amand, isn't that the way we're going? We do have an international governmental structure, its just very eak atm[ [10:54] Rhiannon Dragoone: hi AS! [10:54] Bryce Galbraith: Hi AS [10:54] Parrot Ferrer: look how fast people align sides when war becomes emminant [10:55] Rhiannon Dragoone: *weak [10:55] Khannea Suntzu: AS if :) [10:55] AS Couturier: hi [10:55] Bryce Galbraith: We're part-way through our discussion on geopolitics/geo-economics... [10:55] AS Couturier: nice im glad i came here [10:55] Bryce Galbraith: We've discussed the BRIC countries, China some, and just started a bit on Europe and the EU. [10:55] Rhiannon Dragoone: Bryce, i thought it was a discussion of your work environment [10:55] Rhiannon Dragoone shakes her head in confusion [10:55] Bryce Galbraith: Oh, that was a side-topic :)

I wasn't not expecting to walk into a conversation like this. Talk about unintended encounters of a positive kind! It was great to be able to talk about current events with a group of people with interesting points of view. This is one of the first times that I've actually found SL to be useful and engaging. It makes me feel slightly disappointed that the majority of SL can't interact like this. To run into a bunch of people sitting down for an intellectual conversation from across the globe in encouraging, but you can't help but be saddened that more of this type of interaction doesn't occur. It does give me hope that I can find a community with shared interests in this huge world.

//Post #8 - Technological Divide//


Loading...

Loading....ten minutes later. There are supposed to be buildings in this area. I gave up at this point.



Picture - Map loading, very very slowly.



Picture - Map still loading...3 or 4 minutes later.

Second Life may face some problems going forward. It is a bulky program that causes problems. If you look at the pictures above you can see what I'm talking about. I posted two sets of pictures taken a few minutes apart. I have high speed internet and an almost brand new Mac, yet it takes awhile for the program to load. It is just so large. I think few computers aren't at least slightly slowed down by it. This could cause a problem as SL continues to grow. The more people on SL, the slower it is. If it continues to grow, the technology has to keep up with it, but I don't know if it can.

This situation likely keeps many people from being able to join SL. It creates a technological divide. I can't imagine trying to use SL if you have a slower Internet connection or an older computer. If I didn't have access to this computer, I doubt that I would have been able to complete this project. My old laptop would not have been able to handle the size of the program. It creates a barrier to entry. You have to either be extremely patient or have access to a fast computer. This doesn't even take into account the number of times that SL shuts down. Just to make this one entry I had to reboot SL 4 times. It ends conversations and makes it hard to meet people. Those with strong connections and new computers have the upper hand because they don't get slowed down in their conversations nor do they get kicked off due to a lost connection. It makes new technology socially advantageous. As we move towards more and larger online communities it seems like having the best technology is increasingly important, it is on SL.

//Post #7 - Is SL the Future?//
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I'm still trying to figure out Second Life and dealing with the complexity of the environment. It is amazing how simple it is to start but how complex it is to become a full, non-newbie, member of Second Life. The video I posted here I watched a couple months ago but has really been on my mind while I use SL. The founder of SL tries to argue that the future of the Internet will look a lot more like SL, where the interface relies on images and symbols that are universal instead of relying on text, which is language based.

While I can see the natural benefits of the using images and not having to translate the web into a multitude of languages, I find the SL interface to lack many of the necessary traits for it to become the future of the Internet. It is too complex, to bulky, to clunky, etc. Essentially, it is too complicated and hard to use. While there may be some traits that are integrated into the web in the future, I highly doubt that the Internet will ever become completely image based. It lacks the searchability and flexibility of a text based web. Tim Berners-Lee found hypertext to be the best way to organize the Internet and I hardly think that SL can replace that.

//Post #6 - Second Consumerist Life//
(Linden Dollars market)

So it has a been a few weeks since I've been on SL (thanks to exams). But now that I've come back to the environment, I've become fairly skeptical about the role of business and capitalism in SL. While SL was founded as an place to bring people together, I find it to be a very close representation of a free market, consumer driven world. In fact, I would say that Second Life has more of a consumer driven tilt than the real-world. One of the most important, and popular, activities in SL is going shopping - for clothes, cars, land, houses, etc. In fact, you can buy almost any object in SL. There is even a currency, Linden Dollars, which is a free floating currency, meaning the real dollar/linden dollar exchange rate is based on supply and demand. It kind of scares me to see how important that is to everyone. It's amazing how important money is in determining status in SL. Just as it does in real-life, the size of the land, the number of vehicles, the uniqueness of your clothing all determine status, to some extent, within SL. And I thought SL was an escape from the real-world....

//Post #5 - Community?//
I find it hard to define SL as a community. Other than the virtual environment, there does not seem to be something that really brings these people together. When we looked at phish.com, we saw a group of people brought together by the band Phish. There was a similar interest that brought people together. People in real communities have a physical space that brings them together as well as all the other things that go into a physical community (government, schools, religions, etc.).

But what does Second Life have?

Could the desire to build Second Life and a virtual community be the thing that brings them together?

I personally don't see SL as a community built on anything other than the idea of a virtual community itself. Nor do I see SL as a community by itself. Within SL there may be communities, but the entire thing has become too large to be considered a community to me. To use real communities as an analogy, I do not see New York City as a community but there are communities within in it. SL similarly is too big to be a single community, but within it there are many small communities who come together to share ideas, a language, etc.

//Post #4 - My German Friend//
(talking with my new German friend in her hovercraft)

Another week of SL, another chance to expand on my experiences. This week I was invited back to a German girl's hovercraft (only in SL...). We had a very interesting debate surrounding the ability to be an actor in the community. Essentially, she believed that, given enough time, she could see everyone's true personality shine through their avatar. I leaned more toward the belief that you can play whatever role you like, especially if you are careful to monitor all your experiences and interactions. There are two main characteristics of SL that I believe make it possible to carry on as another person, even if you do spend a lot of time in the environment - 1.) though SL is essentially in 'real time' you have the ability to carefully edit all your communication before it is visible and 2.) you cannot read body language in SL.

While she did not agree with me, I was able to learn a lot about the SL community through our discussion. A few things I found to be particularly interesting. First, diehard SLers seem to believe that pretending to be someone other than yourself is a breach of the community rules. Secondly, I have found that many very active members believe it is their duty to protect the community (much like phish.net). Lastly, you can own a hovercraft!

//Post #3 - 10 Facts about SL//
(my first friend)

Finally, I have a friend!!! Someone likes me!!! I'm finally someone!!!

In all seriousness I did actually find someone who was willing to spend some time teaching me things today. Generally people either are really creepy or don't really want to have anything to do with me. Finally someone actually took the time to tell me about his experience and teach me how to interact in the environment. So I thought I'd avoid making this post really long (because I learned a lot) and make a list. Because we Americans have an obsession with putting things into ordered lists...

10 Interesting things I learned on Second Life Today

1.) You can die in second life. Well sort of...you just end up showing up somewhere else in the environment. The guy I met gave me a flamethrower just in case....apparently second life can be dangerous. (*notice sense of sarcasm...but I really do have a flamethrower)

2.) Though this is a virtual world based on social interaction, people don't like to be bothered a lot of the time. Apparently they have things to do?

3.) The interface is far more difficult than you'd think, even with someone explaining things to you.

4.) Second Life is actually partially open sourced. This allows users to edit the environment but also allows some people to steal and cheat. Second Life crime is on the rise...glad i have may flamethrower.

5.) You can do a backflip. Awsome.

6.) Second Life makes a lot more sense to people who know programming and allows them to take advantage of loop holes and exploit the whole system.

7.) While there is lingo, there isn't a lot of it. Most of it has to do with being kicked off the system or having your connection interrupted (at least that's what I've been told)

8.) Many people have multiple versions of themselves, some of them are not the same sex as they are in real life. Most of them dress ridiculously, if they even wear clothes.

9.) The exchange rate is based on supply and demand. Capitalism very much extends to this virtual community.

10.) To make money you can build, sell, steal, or "become an ewhore"....and that is a direct quote. I don't understand what that means, but apparently it is a real thing. I'll look into it.

Bonus learning - apparently the people who designed the avatars in second life took a page out of barbie designers book....no pants=no problem.

//Post #2 - UW Area//


As you can see, The University of Wisconsin has put a lot of time into creating a space for students, faculty, alumni, etc. to interact on Second Life. The entire landscape is fairly impressive. It includes a small version of Bascom Hill and impressive recreations of Bascom Hall, Memorial Union, and The Terrace (as you can see). This area was created to provide an environment for classes and University groups to meet and exchange ideas. My mom is currently finishing up her masters degree online through UW-Milwaukee and has had more than one class in which discussions were located solely on Second Life. The whole experience is starting to challenge my preconceptions about the usefulness of the site; however, I do think there are limitations to interactions based only in a virtual environment. So far the experience has been odd in the way interactions are very detached from reality. It is supposed to be Second Life, which to me would mean a fairly equivalent, maybe more utopian, environment; however, every interaction I have had thus far has been much more like a chat room than a real life interaction. People are rude, awkward, and strange. My first conversation went something like this (sorry I don't have a screen capture):

Me: Hey hows it goin? Other Guy: You're a poop head Me: Ok...and why am I a poop head? Other Guy: we're all poop heads!!!!!

Right...Maybe I'm just meeting the wrong people?

//Post #1 - The Intro//
(My Avatar)

Started living that very exciting Second Life of mine yesterday. I hope to make my first million by the time I'm three days old...stay tuned.

That's a picture of me above. I look kinda like Michael Jackson....but I don't know how to change it. I just hope I don't scare people off....

On a side note, when I made my "virtual self" I got to pick my first name - great feature, I didn't get that option in my first life (?). But in a surprise twist...you don't get to pick your last name. Well not from scratch at least, because in Second Life apparently they have to draw the line somewhere. They can't have you running around making up last names, that would just be too ridiculous! What do you think this is? Some sort of made up world where you can be anyone you want? Apologies for the sarcasm. Anyway, in a strange twist you get to pick from a long list of very common names such as....Blaukempt, Bovarro, Bressig, Broono, Carpaccio, Catnap, Chrome, Citron, Falmer, Ferengeto...and the list goes on with my personal favorites being Sabretooth and of course that infamous last name...MacFanatic (ad placement?). This whole name thing creates a hurdle for me when I want to log on. I can't remember what my last name is. It just happens to be Courturier (AS Courturier) if you're looking for me. And if you are looking for me...please be my friend because the Second Lifers are avoiding me like I have the Hamthrax (aka H1N1).

Anyway, I'm trying my hardest not to judge this world, just thought the name thing was kinda random. I'm finding it hard to overcome my preconceptions about Second Lifers (see the episode of True Life), but that's why this was one of my choices. I think if I participate in Second Life I'll better understand why it so important to some people. We'll have to see.


 * Disclaimer - I have no idea what I'm doing...you'd think they'd stupid proof Second Life. Now I feel incompetent in both my lives.