LIS S401 Proficiency Project 3C: MUVE-ing Experiences

A couple of years ago, I took a communications class at IUPUI called, "Finding Your E-Voice".  In fact, there are some posts from that class in this blog.  One of the assignments was an adventure in the Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE) called Second Life.  Second Life is just what it sounds like; it's an additional life that you can life in the virtual world.  There are virtual cars, buildings, businesses and people in Second Life where citizens can conduct business and socialize every day.  In fact, some people use their Second Life avatars in second life board rooms to have real business meetings, in fact.

If you explore a while, you can find the Eiffel Tower as it was in the 19th century and then you can go scuba diving in a tropical sea.  Your avatar can talk to other avatars (or not), and it can sit around or have adventures depending on what you feel like doing.  My assignment was to create an avatar and explore places in Second Life and then to explore my feelings about my choices of appearance and activites.  I also had to conduct a group assignment that involved meeting in-game.
What's cool about Second Life is that many parts of the real world are recreated and sometimes improved in the virtual world.  In fact, as many have proven, Second Life can be a great resource for librarians.  The American Library Association has a virtual headquarters there where librarians can find resources and network with each other.  Even better though, is the Caledon Library which is located in the Victorian virtual city of Caledon and contains valuable primary resources entirely from the 19th century that have been digitized and stored there in the virtual world.  The exercise of finding and digitizing those primary source documents helps to keep the past alive.

While SL was cool, I didn't spend time on Second Life after my class was over.  Frankly, my computer at the time had a hard time keeping up with the graphics.  For me,  it's more of an exercise in frustration than fun, but I was impressed with what the users of the world had built.  It was also fun to create a virtual self. Sadly, I must admit that my virtual self was more fit than my real self.