Feb 22, 2009

Second Life - Escapism or KM Tool ? - Brief

Is Second Life just for fun, a joke or does it have educative/collaborative aspects & corporate business applications, compared with WOW – World of Warcraft? Can its simulation capabilities be exploited for training programs ? Is it an escapist’s fantasy, blurring reality and virtual worlds ? How does it compare with Pixar’s 2008 hit “Wall-E” – when Captain McCre is forced into reality? (More).

So where is Second Life travelling ? Is it also being hit by the global financial crunch?

Second Life is in reality a game predicated on a capitalist corporatist model – but then wasn’t Monopoly also a capitalist game? This cuts to the heart of the criticism – a single controlling corporate – considered to be a more pervasive situation. Unlike, say the Internet, where there are many corporates and creative commons. Quite a few companies set up in Second Life, some departing when it did not turn out to be the expected money spinner. This smacks of those who naively entered into the Internet world and got badly burnt. An internet presence needed more sophisticated approaches, than the sort of shopping catalogues shoved into your letterbox.

However Education applications reportedly are powering on.... It was a first year Nanotechnology student in 2007 who awakened me to the possibilities of Second Life for collaboration amongst the technology research community in areas such as Nanotech, Rockets & Astronomy eg with NASA and MIT (also used for student orientation). It almost seemed too incredible that a first year student from the University of Wollongong could be networking with these research scientists.

And yet I noted that the Life 2.0 conference on Dr Dobbs Island could only handle 40 virtual attendees (aka avatars) selected via a lottery (the others in their thousands listened through a special website). Forty attendees seems a “boutique” conference size to me.

More ....

Second Life - Detail - Escapism or KM Tool ?

Is Second Life just for fun, a joke or does it have educative/collaborative aspects & corporate business applications, compared with WOW – World of Warcraft? Can its simulation capabilities be exploited for training programs ? Is it an escapist’s fantasy, blurring reality and virtual worlds ? How does it compare with Pixar’s 2008 hit “Wall-E” – when Captain McCre is forced into reality? (More).

So where is Second Life travelling ? Is it also being hit by the global financial crunch?
Virtual Tourism in Second Life was touted as a really big future trend in 2007 - personally I prefer the reality over the virtual when it comes to travel. And some of those hot virtual travel sites in Second Life in 2007 seem to have vanished, along with the Victorian government presence. But should it be dismissed as a fad ?

Consider the mid 1990’s and the Internet. I recall back in 1997, I was just back from a family trip to the Daintree, all researched and arranged over the fledgling Internet. Enthusiastically I advised the local Tourism Authority head honcho’s in Wollongong that they should be starting to get into Tourism Internet Marketing. They looked at me very strangely and shook their heads.

Ten years on, so much has changed. Which tourism operator hasn’t got an internet presence? Who doesn’t check on travel details and book itineraries over the Internet ? This disruptive technology cut a swathe through the travel agency business, with DIY travel. And then we uploaded pics onto Flickr or Facebook to share around. Or emailed the family back home - potentially very helpful, if you manage to get injured in a vehicle smash on the other side of the world.

Second Life is in reality a game predicated on a capitalist corporatist model – but then wasn’t Monopoly also a capitalist game? This cuts to the heart of the criticism – a single controlling corporate – considered to be a more pervasive situation. Unlike, say the Internet, where there are many corporates and creative commons. Quite a few companies set up in Second Life, some departing when it did not turn out to be the expected money spinner. This smacks of those who naively entered into the Internet world and got badly burnt. An internet presence needed more sophisticated approaches, than the sort of shopping catalogues shoved into your letterbox.

However
Education applications reportedly are powering on. Boston based Tony O’Driscoll, discussed the possibilities in his 2007 paper, and Boise Uni had a course in 2007 on Teaching and Learning in Second Life. There seem to be a number of wiki entries on Second Life in Education applications, eg Sim Teach

And
CNN reported in 2006” The classroom of the future isn't on a college campus. It's in the virtual world of "Second Life." In "Second Life," virtual residents -- cartoonish-looking characters controlled via keyboard and mouse -- create anything their hearts desire. Also known as avatars, the residents start up businesses, stage their own concerts, sell real estate and design fashion lines.

Reuters news agency even has a correspondent based in the cyber community. A growing number of educators are getting caught up in the wave. More than 60 schools and educational organizations have set up shop in the virtual world and are exploring ways it can be used to promote learning.

The three-dimensional virtual world makes it possible for students taking a distance course to develop a real sense of community, said Rebecca Nesson, who leads a class jointly offered by Harvard Law School and Harvard Extension School in the world of "Second Life."

It was a first year Nanotechnology student in 2007 who awakened me to the possibilities of Second Life for
collaboration amongst the technology research community in areas such as Nanotech, Rockets & Astronomy eg with NASA and MIT (also used for student orientation). It almost seemed too incredible that a first year student from the University of Wollongong could be networking with these research scientists. Science News reported that Scientists were talking via Second Life in 2008.

In the USA a
Web2.0 in Government Discussion group has been set up in Second Life – "[Second Life] is definitely more dynamic than getting together on a conference call. We have the ability to share documents and items in real time, that we wouldn't otherwise," he said. Other government groups have used it to network on best practices.

I find the
Virtual Earth aspects intriguing. However I noted that the Life 2.0 conference on Dr Dobbs Island could only handle 40 virtual attendees (aka avatars) selected via a lottery (the others in their thousands listened through a special website). Forty attendees seems a “boutique” conference size to me.

In Australia ABC established its
ABC Island – which was vandalised in 2007, it was joined by the CSIRO and Telstra’s Big Pond Island. In 2008, Stephen Powell, a Telstra tech compared it with Webex & Live Meeting – “You don’t really get the sense of sharing the experience with others - like you do in Second Life. Now I am not unique in recognising this possibility. Organisations like Cisco, IBM, NASA[6], ABC[7] and others regularly host similar sessions. Often its about the convenience of attending a meeting while sitting at your desk, but in a post September 11 world it also about running sessions without the security hassles. It marks an interesting change on Second Life as some users eschew the fantasy aspects of this virtual world and blatantly provide details of their real life identity”.

However
Gartner has pointed out that there are some governance and risk issues that need to be dealt with to avoid huge headaches, eg IT security, confidentiality. More on this subject.

Nevertheless
McKinsey in 2008 warned companies to ignore Second Life at their peril. And so Accenture was recruiting via Second Life and so was EMC ; whilst Candidates for the position of President of France all had Second Life presences. Other high profile corporates include IBM - set up a sales centre in Second Life in 2007. Then in 2008 IBM claimed product launch virtual events in Second Life cost 1/3 of real events. Dell and Cisco had also established presences. Toyota was promoting its Scion brand and Peugot was there too. To save costs a number of organizations are holding conferences in Second Life, eg Intel, and Sun Microsystems – which has a dress code.

The use of avatars instead of photos seems to be an issue for some commentators. But hey, has anyone got a teenager who's into Japanese Manga .... seems that they're all online with their avatars ...why do those avatars all seem to be such science fantasy like characters ? Then there's http://www.taste.com.au/ - my favourite cooking website ... yep I found it peculiar at first that most of the forum participants had avatars not photo's .... And Nintendo’s WII game – more avatars. Why is this so ?? -probably a whole field of study in itself ...

Maybe Second Life, as a capitalist game needs competition, but its demise is probably exaggerated.

Feb 14, 2009

2009 update - Community Social Capital - Web 2.0

As a WCC Councillor, I met many people who contributed to our community in various ways, such as sports, service clubs, scouts, guides etc. Three interesting people whom I met who contributed differently, were Brian Martin and Stephen Hill from UOW, as well as Les Robinson. Today such contributions are recognised as contributing to a community's social capital.

About 20 years ago activists saw the potential for communities facing crises to utilise the then expensive computer technologies. Schweik Action formed in Wollongong, in 1986, to promote nonviolent responses to aggression and repression. Members, such as Brian Martin, saw a role for ICT, but recognised its then limitations. Although social tools, such as Web 2.0, hadn't emerged at that stage. His later work in 2000 reviews the late 1990's application of the use of Web 1.0 technologies - internet and global email networks with the MAI. Interestingly to date there does not appear to have been a similar large scale interconnected global network formed in the wake of the current Global Financial Crisis.

Later, crisis events such as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans generated highly emotive community civil society collapsing stories. However in July 2008 Wikinomics reported that Web 2.0 Social Networking tools were used by citizens, to ensure that rebuilding of their city was done in ways that made sense. Gurus such as Alan Gutierrez ran crash courses in social networking. They used tools such as Flickr, WordPress, Yahoo Groups, and Google Maps to prioritise rebuilding, ie occurred in the right areas soonest. Governments do not always have the right knowledge at hand in such crises to get the prioritisation right. In fact this was recognised in the 1980's, when the concepts of community empowerment & development were being explored. Gartner also observed similar community use of social networking with Hurricane Gustav .. "For example, as Gustav approached, Ning created a hosted wiki. Within 24 hours, volunteers copied useful emergency management information, such as links and feeds from Katrina Web sites, and updated them. These citizens also provided neighborhood and regional updates."

Professor Stephen Hill, former Jakarta-based UNESCO Director, made similar observations of respecting locals' needs in rebuilding Bandar Aceh, Indonesia after the 2004 Tsunami. Huge international aid was unleashed. Despite locals being traumatized, their input was necessary , to ensure the aid efforts were not focused on solutions irrelevant to the local context. Looking to the future, electronic communications - initially radio, but also ICT are considered vital for future tsunami type catastrophes.

And as reported in Geoff Brown's yes!andspace blog, even prior to the tragic February 2009 Victorian Bushfires, an enthusiastic volunteer has directed the Victorian Country Fire Authority's Incident Summary RSS's feeds to a Twitterfeed - saving Bandwidth for the CFA's website. Others are retweeting the message, to provide an even wider contact list. It seems like the 21st Century version of the "phone tree" approach, which communities have used for years to get out urgent messages. The enthusiastic volunteer is hoping that the CFA will set up their own Twitterfeed. There have been suggestions of using phone systems to spread emergency warning messages. Twitterfeed via mobile phones might be one way to spread disaster alert messages as more people become users.

According to Les Robinson, of Social Change Media, it is not just technology that counts in social capital. Les sees the important role of social entrepreneurs in change process- refer his 7 Doors Model & social marketing. He comments on the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, which treats change as a wave passing through society. An example would be changed community perceptions of Climate Change & Global Warming, which former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard failed to recognise. In the wake of the 2008 global economic meltdown and the renewed thoughts of increased governance, Wikinomics February 2009 Blog postings suggesting how communities can use Web 2.0 to engage in participatory regulation echoes the earlier views of Brian Martin and Les Robinson.