Boellstorff says that Second Life allows people to "perceive himself or herself as being present or having 'presence' in the virutal environment". Based on this it would seem that Second Life would work well in situations that normally benefit from face-to-face interactions, because it appears that Second Life can get you pretty close to face-to-face interaction. I can imagine that it could get pretty confusing if there were many people in a small area trying to interact at once, but then again this is a problem in real life as well. You can't have five people standing in a circle all talking at once - no one would understand what was going on.
Boellstorff also speaks about how Second Life allows for very rich inter-personal communication consdiering that you're not actually interacting face-to-face. For example, Second Life allows for speaking as well as gesturing (which can give a lot of cues that you couldn't get from other collaboration technologies) and also has a concept of space, which means that your orientation and proximity in the space can have meaning, just like it does in real life. You can give others a sense of how you're feeling, what your intentions are, and what you're thinking about, all without saying a word.
Second Life runs into trouble when it comes to time. On the one hand, Boellstorf says that "even when place becomes virtual, time remains actual," which means that it's actually a weakness that people from all over the world use the program, because many people are in different time zones. This could lead to grounding issues, especially when trying to coordinate times to meet. Another issue regarding time involves lag and how it makes interactions more asynchronous because of internet connection or processing power, which really hurts the continuity of conversations and therefore weakens collaboration.
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I liked your point about five people talking in a circle. I'd say that the Second Life interface could compel users to show more respect toward each other and to be more receptive of the many visual cues that are offered (like the gestures that you referred to). After all, it does simulate FtF interaction pretty well, better that most other avatar-based interfaces I've seen.
ReplyDeleteIn synchronous text group chats, you often see a lack of established turn-taking. This leads to disorganization and confusion. I haven't conversed much in Second Life, but I wonder if that happens less frequently.
It's true that SL interactions are surprisingly close to RL interactions. Gestures and concepts of place definitely simulate RL interactions much better than is available in most collaboration tools. For example, it really is kind of awkward if someone in SL stands right in your face and talks to you. There is a perceived conception of personal space around your digital avatar. Similarly, Boelstorff mentions the irony of having kitchens and air conditioners in a world where Avatars don't need to eat and don't feel discomfort.
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