Reflections on Experience with Second Life - Term Paper Example

Reflections on Experience with Second Life 0 Introduction: "The room of the future isn't on a college campus. It's in the virtual world of 'Second Life'" comments Grace Wong 2006. That is the impact the virtual world has created among the users. One may not be surprised to note that even Reuters news agency has a correspondent based on this cyber community. With the technological advancement, people can enter this three dimensional virtual world, do business there, acquire land, construct building and do whatever they desire. Of course all these activities need to be supported by the virtual currency 'Linden Dollars'. Being a downloadable client programme created by Linden Lab, San Francisco, United States gives the participants known as 'avatars' an opportunity to socialize and interact with other people of the virtual community, exchange views, buy or sell land and present their talents to the community. As per the website of 'Second Life', presently more than three million people have registered themselves with the community. With the growth of the broadband internet connections especially in the United States, where there is an increase from 30 percent (2005) of the Americans having a high-speed connection at home to 42 percent in 2006 has enhanced the passion for participation in this virtual world. This paper attempts to narrate the experience on the environments encountered in 'Second Life', the potential social and political implications of this virtual medium and also the possible future uses. 2.0 Environments Encountered in Second Life: As is being claimed by 'Second Life' this unique digital world offers a lot of opportunities to develop one's own skills by exhibiting what they are capable of creating. Especially people who are introverts and shy of meeting the other people in the real world can improve their socializing behaviour by interacting freely with other 'avatars' of this virtual world. People can give concerts, draw pictures; build houses and hotels and trade in any other commodities. All the trading transactions will be just like as happening in the real world. Because of the three dimensional effect of the site, one gets a feeling that he is interacting with the fellow community member in real life. This gives ample scope for the development of specialized skills of public speaking or playing musical instruments in front of an invited audience. People can shed their inhibitions. In 'Showcase'-one of the environment of 'second life' one can bring out his or her real talent to be appreciated by the fellow avatars. Second Life provides another opportunity of real time sales meetings with the customers and it is possible to make customer presentations through this media. Distance learning is another possibility which would be a very useful feature for the students to acquire a quality education. There are much more environments like business, property development and community interaction available in this virtual world which are distinguishably rare phenomena that need to be evaluated by one's own personal encounter and experience. 3.0 Social Variables Influencing Participation in 'Second Life': The social variables generally influencing any issue of importance are the Family Structure, Ethnicity, Language, Demography, Educational standards. Employment Status, Crime rates, Cultural Factors, Action by community based organsiations, Lifestyle issues, Recreational factors, Psychological factors and Historical dependence. This part of the paper analyses the influence of some of these social factors on the participation in 'Second Life. Of all these variables, recreational and psychological factors may have more impact on the participation than other variables. The people who feel shy and having inhibitions to present themselves to others in the real world may be more susceptible to participation in this virtual world. Similarly people who have more time at their disposal for recreation may well be influenced by this engrossing multimedia interaction and may see this as a worthwhile recreation. Economic status caused by the employment with affordability for the internet, computer and other implements necessary to practice this virtual world living will also influence the participation to a large extent. Since the registration in to the 'Second Life' is almost free and there is no control on the entry to the virtual world, there is every possibility that the cyber crimes may well be on the increase from the interaction on the 'Second Life'. Hence persons of ulterior motive would like to participate and interact more resulting in more cyber crimes. Education, language, urban life and family structure will also play a prominent role in the participation in this media. There may emerge virtual world 'Second Life' associations which would solicit more people to join the virtual world to have their cool second life. 4.0 Potential Social and Political Implications of 'Second Life': With an analysis of the size, structure and operation of this cyber media, there does not appear to be an impact of a noticeable magnitude on the social or political lives of the real world people. The potential area in which the media can have its influence is the cyber crimes as discussed previously. Another important segment where this media may prove helpful and provide some advantage to the society is 'Edcuation' where there is a distinct possibility that the virtual world may be useful as a distant learning centre. Considering the vastness of the real world population, and the proportion of the people who are equipped with the broadband internet facilities the 'Second Life' is not expected to create any wave in either the social or political life of any country. May be the euphoria of the people seeing the site for the first time and joining as avatars will go off after a certain period of time and virtual world virtually will not have any effect in the social life of the people. It has to be assessed that how many of the more than three million members are actively participating in the virtual world movements. Sometimes it may give rise a feeling of going to the same museum second time, when nothing will be a surprise. On the political side also the 'Second Life' may not have much impact, except some satirical events may take place in the virtual world mocking at the real political events or leaders as changing of one's appearance is quite possible in the virtual world. Some of the features in business and economy reminds the board game 'Monopoly' in a three dimensional environment. These activities may not have any possible impact on the real economy or political scenario except some incidents like; holding of meetings and conventions in a national or regional level openly in the virtual world, making election campaigns, raising political funds on line and announcing the policies and programmes which would be followed when any candidate comes to power. However, "Second Life in particular and the metaverse as a whole are very much in their infancies. The future of the virtual world in the political context will likely be a road paved with more failures than successes." (Nancy Scola) 5.0 Future uses of 'Second Life': One of the future purposes for which the virtual world may be useful is the employee selection and recruitment. "It is not a stretch to imagine that smart organizations will begin to realize that such virtual brick-and-mortar presence can also be used to help create and reinforce an employment brand." (Dr. Charles Handler 2007) This will provide a link for all the potential ways in which the virtual world can be used as an exchange for information of the available positions as well as available candidates for senior positions in large industrial and business organizations. "The fact that major corporations such as GM and IBM are starting to create virtual businesses within Second Life tells me that the corporate world is starting to see some of the possibilities available to them via virtual worlds." (Dr. Charles Handler 2007) In the field of education also we can expect the 'Second Life' to contribute much. The three dimensional virtual world makes it possible for the students taking a distance course to develop a real sense of community. Besides improving the quality of distance learning, educators are finding 'Second Life' as a good way to introduce international perspectives. The quality of the distance education may improve because of the real time interactions of the students. Large software and other information technology companies worldwide may begin to use the virtual world for training their new employees in company culture. IBM tried to use the virtual world to train their new employees using this medium. Technological development in the areas information technology especially visual media will be greatly facilitated by Second Life with more creative people contributing to the development of the virtual world. Economic advance though a distinct possibility can not be ruled out. If the company Linden Lab is able to cope up with the infrastructure facilities to accommodate more number of avatars in the virtual world, then the dream of Linden Lab to rope in the major companies to come into the virtual world to support their business activities in the real world. "For now, Linden is enjoying its moment in the limelight and is trying to cope with the infrastructure-straining influx of new visitors. That's not a minor problem: If its server crash or its software is hard to use, Linden risks missing its chance to enchant millions of new users." (David Kirkpatrick 2007) 6.0 Equiveillance and the Economy of Second Life: Equiveillance or equilibrium is the mid position between surveillance and souveillance. While surveillance involves the 'looking down' of people in lower levels by the people in authority, souveillance is about looking at people either at equal levels or from both up and down involving small person-centric imaging, using ultra small electronic gadgets and cameras. Surveillance normally uses architecture or enviro-centric equipments to accomplish its purpose. Neither of them could really be used in the normal life quite frequently, as both involve their own contexts and circumstances in which they will be useful. Hence it becomes necessary to arrive at a via media phenomenon so that it can be used effectively to arrive at the maximum advantage. In a similar analogy, the real world economy is too large for a common man to comprehend where millions and billions only scare the common man and drive him away from doing any business or acquiring any assets. In the same way because of the magnitude of the economy and its ramifications, man cannot confine himself to his own small world where he works for others, earns and saves a bit and ends his life without any purpose. In order that man gets the pleasure and thrills of real world business and big money accumulation, Second Life provides an opportunity to deal in the virtual world in any business, acquire any asset, earn, save or spend money in Linden dollars as he would have otherwise done in his real life. That is the kick in the virtual world and that is all about the economy in the 'second life.' 7.0 Conclusion: Within the digital realm of 'Second Life' one can go anywhere to stores, beaches, golf courses, bars, ski areas, high-rise office buildings and create things, trade in things, create wealth and acquire any kind of assets. This is the virtual world 'Second Life' has introduced to educate mankind the realities of the worldly life in a simulated way. This paper narrated the experience of the environments available in the second life. While discussing the social factors that affect the participation in the virtual environment, the paper also analysed in detail the impact of the virtual world on the political and social environments of the real world. The paper also saw some of the future uses of the 'Second Life'. Finally the similarity between equiveillance and the virtual economy of 'Second Life' was also discussed by the paper. Reference List: 1. Grace Wong 2006 Educators Explore Second Life Welcome to The Future CNN.com [Online] Available from http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/11/13/second.life.university/index.html Accessed on 19th February 2007 2. Nancy Scola Avatar Politics: The Social Applications of Second Life National Journal [Online] Available from http://www.ipdi.org/UploadedFiles/Avatar%20Politics.pdf Accessed on 19th February 2007 3. Dr. Charles Handler 2007 Employee Selection in the Second Life Article on ere.net [Online] Available from http://www.ere.net/articles/db/FF0945C9EB1E43CC81ABABDED557BF1A.asp Accessed on 19th February 2007 4. David Kirkpatrick 2007 Second Life: It's not a Game Fortune Outlook 2007 CNN.com [Online] Available from http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/22/magazines/fortune/whatsnext_secondlife.fortune/index.htm Accessed on 19th February 2007 Read More