by I’ve often mentioned that Second Life will not necessarily be the end all and be all of virtual worlds, that something will likely replace it. What this next step will be, I’m not exactly sure. Second Life certainly has some problems to overcome at this point. The exciting thing about being part of Second Life at this point is that we can help shape what will happen next, whether it’s Second Life 2.0 or something else entirely. Check out this blog post from Infocult which surmises what the next step might be.
Thanks for the link! Which of the more promising parts of Second Life would you most hope to see appear in whatever comes next?
Thanks for the comment Bryan. I’m not sure which parts will survive – there are a lot of things SL needs to work on yet. I think it’s a great step that SL has opened up their code and I’m hoping we see some innovative people play with it. Right now, I think the strength in SL is it’s social networking rather than a particular tech piece – the collaboration and community that can be found are great. I hope that will continue.
I’ve been rethinking about SL social networking. Initially I had two models in mind: the “big empty” of SL (lots of spaces, few people); SL as golf (Joi Ito on WoW; you go there to meet people in appointments arranged elsewhere).
I still think both of those are valid. But I’ve been wondering about a few other models:
The pub/bar/dance model. “Nice avatar! Can I friend you?” At some level, this certainly works. That’s a small level, in terms of numbers.
The homeowner lust model. “Nice building/plot of land! Can I friend you?” This shifts the social networking ground from person to place, from the videoconferencing-like “emotional bandwidth” use of SL to the virtual reality redux one.
What do you think? Are you seeing these, and/or others?
I’m seeing a lot of professional connections being made where I am. You’re a librarian too, can I friend you? I’ve made a number of connections with individuals in my profession who I would never have met otherwise. Many of these connections aren’t empty friend-ing either. I often consult with them when I’m creating something, am stuck, need assistance, or want to have a discussion on a particular issue.
I know a number of colleagues who have also been friended by people outside of a pub/dance/bar but the manner of friending is similar. It is very easy to begin a conversation (in any place – on the road, in an open field, in a store) and many feel that once a conversation is started, or if they learn they have something in common, they friend each other. I see this as a much less meaning friending – the chances of them contacting each other again is rare.
The idea of friending in SL is similar to MySpace in the fact that there are different levels of friendship – some are much more serious relationships than others.
Ah, that’s a different level indeed. How do you find people by profession? I’ve been looking for professionally-themed spaces, and also checking avs’ profiles.
Do you prefer to consult them by individual or group IM?
PS: do you know Ken the emerging tech librarian at Buffalo?
I’m not sure how others find people by profession – it might be easiest to search through groups. Librarians are lucky, as we have a set of islands now, and being the organized lot that we are, groups to support them. Avatars wander the island with a tag librarian over their head, and that’s a pretty good way to find others to network with.
I prefer to talk with them individually, although if I’m stuck, I’ll send an im to the group and someone is sure to help.
I’m not familiar with Ken, but I’ll have to look him up now 🙂