Assignment 9 -- Adam Towne

One of the most important ideas that Professor McLeod brings up is the
importance of having a sense of place, a contradictory idea to many since it
seems odd that something virtual could be a place. In Second Life, however, a
3D world on a 2D screen comes to life, and a virtual place is created. This
virtual space imitates the real world, and people are able to conduct mettings
as though they were in the real world through the use of their avators. People
complain about their neighbors, just as they do in real life. The idea of being
able to see 3D objects with someone else without having to actually be in the
real world can be an extremely usefull tool.

This is all well and good for collborating on projects within Second Life. For
example, if Joanie wanted to expand her club, she could work with other users
within Second Life to try and recruit new customers. These customers could then
work together on a new business venture, and within Second Life, people give
each other the benefit of the doubt and collaboration begets collaboration. In
addition, users gain social status through visitors, and users may collaborate
to increase their own social staus within Second Life.

Because of Second Life's steep learning curve, however, it is not useful for
collaboration outside of Second Life. Face to face meetings are always better
than meetings through interfaces, and while Second Life meetings are sort of
face to face through avatars and the 3D environment, it is still too complicated
for writing a word document, or sharing photos. Even picking up a phone for a
conference call is easier than a Second Life meeting, especially when users have
different internet connection speeds.

To sum up, Second Life works well for collaborating within Second Life and
maintaining relationships with people that might be hard to see in the real
world, in a virtual world. It's not quite as good as being with them, but 3D is
better than 2D. Second Life is not good at collaboration outside of Second Life,
or building real-world relationships for collaboration since trust may be an
issue.