Second Life in 3600 seconds

sept 2007
Second Life in 3600 seconds

or “My life in the bush of avatars”
Andy Powell, Eduserv Foundation
andy.powell@eduserv.org.uk
www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation

Second what?
www.secondlife.com

• 3-D virtual world
• run by Linden Lab
• ‘proprietary’, but public
commitment to open
standards and OSS
• populated by avatars,
aka residents
• a ‘metaverse’ (from the
book: Snow Crash)
Oxford Brookes Business School sept 2007

So it’s just a game right?
• looks and feels like a image by J0@nn@ @ flickr.com

gaming environment
• but no purpose as
such
– use it to buy / sell,
entertain, learn,
• can use SL to
collaborate, …
build games –
including shoot
‘em ups
• but such
activities frowned
• do not approach it
on in public
simply as a game –
spaces
you’ll be disappointed!

Ain’t you got a first life mate?


Joining SL
• two steps
– register
– install client software
• note technical
requirements


What does it cost?

• basic accounts are
free
• need to pay monthly
subscription ($10)
to own land
• land can be quite
expensive
• ‘land use fees’ for
owning more than
smallest plot


Naming / identity

• every avatar has a
name
• chosen at
registration
• can’t be changed
• though can have
‘Alt’s
• mine is Art Fossett -
not an anagram!

Identity / appearance

• on the Internet no
one knows you’re a
dog
• in SL no one knows
you’re a bloke
• appearance can be
changed instantly
• wings and tails
(‘furries’) seem
oddly popular!


Communication

• chat
• IM
• group IM
• IM <-> email
• voice – however
support for voice
fairly recent and
not clear what
impact it is having


Getting around
• walking
• flying
• teleporting
– locally via scripted
objects
– longer distances
via ‘landmarks’
• in-world search
engine
• locations exposed
to Web as SLURLs

Virtual land
• rent or buy
• needed for permanent
buildings
– shops, galleries,
universities
• mainland areas
• private islands (~$800
for non-profits) plus
monthly land use fees
• issues with ‘land barons’
buying up available land
and selling for profit

Land-use fees


Building stuff
• anyone can build
• in sandboxes or on own
land
• objects made out of basic
building blocks – prims
(cubes, spheres, …)
• prim limits usually apply
• prims can be textured for
realism – but uploading
costs L$10
• objects as HUDs

Scripting
• scripted objects
• C++ like, event-driven
language
• move, change shape, etc.
• interact via clicking, chat,
sensing the env.
• modify avatar behaviour
• in-world physics engine


Multimedia
• limited integration of
audio and video files
• SL client has built-in
support for Quicktime
• can play anything that
QT supports
• pulled in from URL
associated with land
parcel
• however, significant
limitations currently


SL and Web 2.0
• scripting language can issue HTTP
GET and POST requests
• can integrate with Web 2.0 services
• but significant limitations currently
• no built-in HTML, XML or JSON
parsers so need to parse externally
• SLURLs can be bookmarked in
del.icio.us
• some good examples – Second Talk,
SLoodle, SLtwitter, BlogHUD, RSS
readers

IPR

• IPR on in-world
objects rests with
creator
• e.g. rights to game
designed in-world
subsequently sold
to Nintendo by its
creator
• however, objects
essentially remain
locked in-world

Money

• in-world currency
• Linden dollar (L$)
• $1 = ~L$280
• fluctuates
• but supply influenced
by Linden Lab
• currency market to
buy and sell L$


Commerce

• many big brands
in SL
• hype => presence
• some criticism
from older
residents that SL
is becoming a
‘brandscape’

Entertainment

• hard to tell hype from
reality
• some experimental
use of SL to host
events and/or mirror
RL events
• e.g. BBC One Big
Weekend, SecondFest
• but significant
problems with
scalability

Machinima

• the use of SL to
create movies
• application in film
studies and
related areas
• of interest
because the
techniques are the
same but costs
significantly lower


Crime
image by ay1ene @ flickr.com

• not a significant issue (yet!)
• some anti-social behaviour
• some reports of people
pretending to be shop
owners when they are not
• some reports of fraud
around land sales
• one major incident of
hacking into SL databases

Hype

• SL very over-hyped
• significant complaints that
stats are misleading
• i.e. worse than Web stats
• LL have improved the way
they report usage but…
• SL also (inappropriately)
touted as Web NG

Usage statistics


Demographics
Average Age
Country %
Adult
United States 31.19%
Age % Grid
France 12.73%
13-17 1.23% 33
Germany 10.45%
18-24 27.16%
United Kingdom 8.08%
25-34 38.88%
Netherlands 6.55%
Average Age
Spain 3.83%
on Teen
Brazil 3.77% Grid
35-44 21.13%
Canada 3.30% 45 + 11.61% 15
Belgium 2.63%
F M
Italy 1.93%
2006 September 43.76% 56.24%
Australia 1.48%
2006 October 42.65% 57.35%
Switzerland 1.29%
2006 November 42.14% 57.86%
Japan 1.29%
2006 December 41.42% 58.58%
Sweden 0.95%
2007 January 41.11% 58.89%
Denmark 0.88%
2007 February 41.07% 58.93%
China 0.61%


Student attitudes

J uly 2007 s urve y of 501 s tude nts a g e d 16 to 18 from a c ros s th e UK,
c om m is s ione d b y th e J IS C h ttp:/ tinyurl.c om /
/ yw8m vx

Student attitudes (2)
Second Life appeared to be an idea for people
older than themselves, for the generation above
who were interested in technology for its “own
sake”. This is perhaps why the idea amused our
participants and why they felt it was “sad”. The
implications here for HEIs are that they cannot
assume that presenting new technologies
h ttp:/ tinyurl.c om /
/ yw8m vx
automatically makes their institution more
youth-friendly – this new generation like to see J IS C , J uly 2007
the concrete benefits of technologies.

When discussing Second Life, students felt that
games and virtual worlds as part of learning
could easily become “tragic” – technology being
used for its own sake, and used rather childishly.
They would need to understand the educational
benefits of virtual worlds or games, it is not
enough that they are simply ‘new’.


Uptake in UK

• July 2007 snapshot of use of SL in UK HE and FE
• undertaken by John Kirriemuir
• funded by Eduserv
• fragmented and somewhat cloudy picture
• activity happening at multiple levels – sometime
within same institution – not always visible, even
within the institution
• series of snapshots planned over next 12 months

h ttp :/ www.e du s e rv.o rg .u k/ un da tio n / l
/ fo s

Major findings
• some SL activity at 43
institutions
• 15 of those building an
institutional presence
• what are they doing?
– small-scale activities…
– hosting exhibitions of
students’ work
– researching possibilities
– building tools


Eduserv-funded projects


Time

• SL runs on US West
Coast time (GMT-8)
• many events tend to
run on that basis
• SL tends to be empty
during our working day
• actually, SL tends to
look empty, full-stop!
• in-world daylight hours
run on 4 hour cycle

Gambling and porn

• both used to exist… in
abundance!
• porn now banned
• as with early Web, both
areas quick to exploit the
technology
• indicative of flexibility?
• causes problems because
of load on ‘sims’
• not possible to choose who
your neighbours are!

SL rules

• code of conduct in public spaces
– no griefing / hassling of other
residents
– no use of offensive language
– no nudity
– no public sex
• no police as such
• but breaches can be reported to
Linden Lab
• areas can be explicitly marked as
‘mature’ (or for gaming)

Politics
• RL politics surface in
SL every so often –
anti-war, anti-NF, …

• SL politics also feature –
pricing, land policies, IPR,
open sourcing of SL
software

SL and learning
• widespread interest in use
of SL in education
• explicitly encouraged by
Linden Lab
• not clear that people
really know how to use SL
yet
• but some interesting
examples of use
• arts, social sciences, law,
psychology, archaeology,
languages, …

Teen Second Life

• note that SL is
segregated
• Teen SL (14-18) and
SL (18+)
• no cross-over allowed
except in limited cases
(e.g. teachers)
• well enforced
• presumably to prevent
threat of legal action
in US

SL and research

• even less clear
what is possible
here
• but note that
Nature Publishing
have an island
(‘Second Nature’)


SL in context
• SL is one of many virtual worlds
• there.com, World of Warcraft, Entropia
Universe, Active Worlds, Croquet,
Metaverse, …
• not clear that SL is the answer
• SL client now released as open source
• clear demand for server to made OSS
also
• some commitment to this by LL (partly
because people are reverse-engineering
the server anyway)

Finding out more

• SLED list – run by Linden Lab, US-centric but is
the main forum for learning-related SL issues
• secondlife@jiscmasil.ac.uk (UK list)
• in-world UK Educators group (open and free to
join)
• UK Second Life Educators Facebook group
• pointers to other resources on the Linden Lab
Second Life Grid education page

h ttp:/ s e c ondlife g rid.ne t/
/ prog ra ms / duc a tion
e

Conclusions…

 too much hype
•
• no clear best-practice (or even much
 practice) around e-learning
 high technical requirements
•
? impact of voice not clear
•
• but… useful experimental environment

• building and scripting environment very
 powerful
• seems likely that 3-D virtual worlds of
 some kind will be part of the future

Conclusions…

• sustainability, ownership and privacy
 issues around use of and reliance on US-
based commercial-run, externally hosted
service
• unclear what student perceptions and
? attitudes are
•
? but generally accepted that SLandais likely
is
minority sport at the moment
to remain so
• SL appears to be most suitable for active,
? constructive learning styles

Second Life in 3600 seconds

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