On 3/1/08, Roger Smith <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Speaking perosnally, I want to communicate online in realtime and not to > have to enter a 3D surrealistic realm to do so. That's my problem with Second Life as well. We've got webcams and VOIP; why bother with creating a virtual person when you can talk to a real one? Now the answer to this is that it's either a) a novelty and the excitement will soon wear off, or, b) people don't like themselves so they create a persona of how they want to look and act. > My point being, that people will use online options if they are of immediate > relevance to their daily professional and personal lives. I frankly do not > see Second Life in this category. I enjoy discovering the universe we live > in every day and see no need to inhabit a second one! I was at a eLearning conference last year and saw 2 presentations on Second Life. Up until then, I had never heard of it and I consider myself pretty internet savy. While the presenation was going on, I tried to log onto Second Life and check it out. First, I had to download an application to even access the site which was annoying. Secondly, my 2 year-old laptop which was state of the art when I got it, didn't have the graphics capability to run application. Ridiculus!! That's enough to deter most people from using the product. When I got back to work, tried using my work computer which had a slightly better card. It worked okay but was still a little slow and I still spent about 2 hours futzing with my avatar to get her to look just normal, let alone anything like me. I also was a bit puzzled about why we had to choose one of their last names. Why can't we use our own names, especially if it is going to be used for real business meetings, conferences, or university courses? There were a few things that were kind of cool about Second Life. One lady had taken old plans to Egyptian temples and recreated them in full color on SL. That was cool. Another university had their own island and set up their own economics scenerios because the SL currency, the "Linden", was more stable than the dollar. I think these are great applications of SL. But the flip side of all this is while it is free to create an avatar and sightsee, you have to pay to build anything permanent. And even though there are widgets to create clothing, furnature, and buildings, you really need to have access to a graphics program to make the really cool stuff. For museums, I think they need to look at their purpose and mission. I don't want to get into a debate about "what is a museum" but IMHO, museums are firmly rooted in "real", tangible, objects. I think SL has some great opportunities for marketing and exploration of other times and places, but not for creating virtual museums. Brick and mortar buildings are the best places to see museum exhibits, not online. SL should be used to compliment museums, not recreate them. And like others have mentioned, there's a lot of time and money that go into creating things on SL. Does your museum have that to spare? Are there other things you could be doing with that money? So in conclusion, I think SL type environments are the future. What that future will be is uncertain. It's something to keep an eye on but the cost and time involved to even just experiment with it are rather prohibitive at the moment and I think museums looking to do more online should look at other avenues like podcasting, social networking, and Web 2.0. Deb ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).