Prior to March of 2007, I knew of Second Life but hadn't paid much attention to it. I was already familiar with other virtual worlds and in the process of sampling the more 'game oriented' of them. I never considered SL seriously enough, me being woefully ill-informed about it. I thought that the user base consisted of a few easily impressed people who were making a big fuss over nothing. It was around this time that I would be messing about with 3D Studio Max and Adobe's Director platform, throwing together various 3D apps in an endeavour to make sense of how the web would transition into the realm of 3D. It was an interesting time but my emotional investment was starting to wear thin, nothing seemed to stick and I had university projects to attend to. I needed to focus on specific tasks rather than experimenting with things.

After having finished my degree in 'Software Systems for the Arts and Media', a few months later I was approached by one of my old course tutors, asking if I had heard about Second Life and whether I'd be interested in doing something for the university. They wanted a presence inside the virtual world, something I'm still working on to this day.

For those of you who aren't familiar with SL, let's quote a brief description from the official website:

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.

Second Life is popular for a number of reasons, the main one being that its members are able to build 3D objects from inside the virtual environment and have them appear in real-time. It's a way for people to express themselves and work together to construct massive virtual settlements, the only limits being the imagination and skill of the users. On top of that, SL has its own virtual currency (Linden Dollars/L$). As of writing, the current exchange rate is 266 Lindens to 1 US dollar. People are able to buy and sell virtual goods made in-world and almost anything you can imagine constructable. There are people who live very comfortably in RL from running virtual businesses inside Second Life. It doesn't end there, it even has its own scripting language named LSL (Linden Scripting Language), similar to PHP, and it allows for all sorts of functionality. The things people have built range from building tools and PHP web interface objects to furniture and clothes.

In Second Life there is no social taboo (or at least not the kind you might be familiar with), so while you might experience some culture shock, it's important to remain open minded about things and understand that people are expressing themselves in the way that seems most appropriate to them, whether it involves dressing up as an angel or a giant robot. The result is a world of intrigue in which people are constantly harnessing their creative abilities to better themselves. I think 'Philip Linden' said it best in his September blog "Long Road Behind, Long Road Ahead"...

Our mission is: “To connect everyone to an online world that improves the human condition.”

So you might be asking yourselves, "what does education have to do with this?"

The answer is, a lot. Besides the fact that children are joining up and learning graphic design and object oriented programming in a virtual environment, outside of any educational establishment, there is a large audience spanning millions of subscribers that universities should be doing their best to reach out to. The implications are beyond massive and yet, not everyone has caught on. The question is, why not?

There are a number of reasons. The main one being that, insofar as education is concerned, there is no standardisation for teaching inside a virtual environment. People are sceptical and unsure of whether or not it's worth the investment of time and money. This kind of thinking isn't very practical when we're talking about innovation and research into what is going to be the next 'big thing', it's the long awaited 3D web and it's manifesting itself right under our noses. This is one area in which competition isn't going to help. There needs to be collaboration between educational establishments to see how we can learn to use these new tools effectively. If we don't, not only will we be missing out on 'getting in on the ground floor' but we'll be willfully ignoring the changes that are happening all around us.

While it may seem like unfamiliar and even hostile territory to some, the potential for education is enormous. However, it will only ever be realised if there is collaboration to understand and make effective use of these new tools.

I leave you with a small video of what I'm currently working on.