[Publib] Second Life 101 course

[Melissa Jeffrey]

I am going to have to say that we have to figure out who we are trying
to contact when we are going to online games. I personally would never
use Second Life and I have played many MMORPGs, and other online games.
My credentials in this area: World of Warcraft, Everquest, Everquest II,
EVE, City of Heroes, DnD Online, Anarchy Online, Final Fantasy XI, Star
Wars Galaxies, and many other Yahoo and Microsoft games (my husband
likes us sharing common hobbies :) ). Many would say SL is unique in
that it is more a social networking site in virtual reality (like in
Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash), so is separated from other online worlds,
but I would say that the whole point of online games is the networking.

According to a recent Fortune magazine article, SL at peak times has
about 58,000 users online. 75% of those are not in the U.S. One article
stated that they had 1.9 million users total. Compare that to World of
Warcraft, which has 9 million subscribers and has had 900,000 concurrent
users (with many of these also being outside of the U.S.). If WoW had a
place to build buildings, would libraries flock there? I just don't see
it.

I do think it would be awesome to integrate these new technologies, and
I wish people who use SL the very best, but I just don't see a rate of
return on the investment of time and energy (other companies don't
either according to the Fortune article).

There is an interesting blog on the way stats work in second life (and
can be extrapolated to include other games:

http://many.corante.com/archives/2006/12/12/second_life_what_are_the_rea
l_numbers.php

Sources:

"Second Life still living its first one"
http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/20/technology/kirkpatrick_rosedale.fortune/
?postversion=2007122105

Melissa Jeffrey
Adult Services Librarian
Southwest Branch
Arlington Public Library
Arlington, TX
817-459-6386
"Working Together To Make Arlington Better ..."

-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Robert L. Balliot
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 12:04 PM
To: 'Donna'; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Publib] Second Life 101 course


There are many libraries and library vendors represented
in SL.  There are virtual library buildings, library
instruction, staffing, databases, archive and museum
collections. In the sense that any of those things are
relevant to libraries, SL is.

As a caveat, high bandwidth is required for a good
end user experience in SL.  So, SL is not relevant to
all libraries or library users.  I think that its greatest
strength is virtual training and collaboration.  I have
enjoyed many of the programs and activities in SL and
meeting many librarians who have explored the virtual
possibilities.

OTOH, when I have used low bandwidth and even Verizon
DSL with the service, to me it is essentially without
value given lag and screen freezing.   

*************************************************
Robert L. Balliot
1-401-441-5763
Skype: RBalliot
Bristol, Rhode Island
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/contact.htm
*************************************************

-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of Donna
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 12:51 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Publib] Second Life 101 course

Hi everyone,

But can someone tell me how Second Life is relevant to Libraries? 


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