wtscils598x08

Second Life has been an interesting experience for me. Before I signed up for an account, I never understood what the big fuss was about and why people were spending so much time and money working on their SL property and avatars. I hardly have time for my first life, let alone a second one.

But I was wrong. It wasn't long before I got immersed in the richness of this virtual world, albeit an empty one. Although it was fun exploring the various islands, I hardly met or interacted with other avatars. Some SL locations were fun -- my previous employer even had a presence there, though it had been vandalized before. My favorite SL locations are Sony BMG where you can listen and purchase music, as well as Dell, where you're able to customize a PC and send your orders directly to the vendor.

I was also impressed by the work done by folks from the Second Life Library Project on Info Island. The objects in the Second Life Library were all nicely sculpted to resemble a real library. There's a reference service as well as subject resources that you can access using the built-in media browser. Regular events such as book discussions are also held in-world.

Overall, I think SL is just one of the ways in which libraries can offer their services to SL residents. I do question the amount of time and effort that goes into creating these services on a proprietary virtual world platform. While Linden Lab claims SL has about 14 million residents today, the number of active users pales in comparison. There are companies like Mercedes Benz that have pulled out of Second Life because of limited activity.

Moreover, SL is unlike the public Internet which is built on open standards. Who is to say that SL will continue to be around 10 years down the road? There are also other virtual worlds out there -- should libraries also create a virtual presence in each of them to avoid discriminating users? What about users who can't afford the higher end hardware that's required to run these virtual worlds? What about non-English speaking users? While SL isn't the only way for these users to access library services, I think a disproportionate amount of attention has been paid to serve a privileged group of information seekers.