"Few people, I said, could say of themselves that they were free of the belief that they could have made the world. Nay, go further, Madame: few people can say of themselves that they are free of the belief that this world which they see around them is in reality the work of their own imagination."
Ok, I signed up for Second Life one Saturday. Spent a couple of hours working through the tutorial, changing my appearance... flying around. However, since I hate shopping and fussing with my appearance in real life (hey, don't laugh), I don't really want to do it virtually, either. I read that Suzanne Vega performed in Second Life-- maybe I'd show up for a virtual concert, but otherwise, I'd rather be killing things with my [Seth's Graphite Fishing Pole] in WoW.
On the other hand, as a distance education tool, Second Life looks promising. SJSU's virtual campus is a fantastic way for professors and students to keep in touch. Are there any statistics yet on how that program is going?
Eventually, video conferencing might be a more practical option for distance ed...
Libraries in Second Life, according to the article, offer images and links to the web. Again, I wonder whether people will log in to Second Life in order to visit a virtual library with no books. Stephen Abram writes, "Second Life Library 2.0, which has been led by our client, the Alliance Library System, regularly attracts over 5,000 visitors in an evening," but how many of these visitors are library professionals, and how many are patrons looking for information?
I will have to visit "Info Island" and find out more.
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