A Second Life Experience

WOW!
And wow again.
Last week I signed up for a free account in Second Life so that I could experience the SL training in Virtual World Librarianship. This was the most amazing trip I could have imagined. Before the first session I spent a bit of time wandering around Info Island trying to get acclimatised. I was also able to change my appearance, learn to fly, make a virtual cup of coffee in a virtual library and relax on the comfortable furniture.

I met several other interesting people wandering around and we communicated using our computer keyboards to type in text.

I'd miscalculated the time in SL compared to Perth RL and the session started at 10:30pm - 2 hours later that I'd anticipated. Still, it was a real buzz. There were a few issues with the presentation - hopefully these will be resolved next time around - but I'd never realised that work could be such fun. When we finished at 12:30 am I was too hyped up to sleep.

The pictures show

1. the class having flying lessons
2. examining exhibits in one of the libraries.

That's me in the striped jumper. I must try and find another pair of jeans - don't like having the crack in my rear showing.

We've been told that next week we'll start having fun - as if the first session wasn't already a load of fun! I also look forward to learning how to use SL for real work.

Some of the issues I have encountered locally

1. TAFE has a firewall that won't allow me to access SL from my office.
2. Must have broadband or cable access - dialup is way too slow.
   
3. SL is very download hungry and I have had to upgrade to a more expensive ISP account.
4. Luckily I have a new computer with good video graphics - very important.