The Social Networking Girl

While I appreciate your obvious concern for the well-being of the children of America, and I’m certain that running for re-election in your suburban Chicago district must put an extreme amount of pressure on you, allow me to point out that your newfound disdain for Second Life is a bit puzzling.

I do realize that your campaign managers likely felt that taking a stance against a relatively new, exciting, immersive technology that allows for experiential learning and gives children the opportunity to explore and experience learning in new, creative, and engaging ways was a good idea to aid your re-election campaign. It’s good, sometimes, to be the person standing up and defending our children - pointing out the evils of technology and keeping them safe from all of the bad people on the internet. I would imagine that in your view, places of learning like schools and libraries would definitely not want to use these sorts of things. For all we know, children might learn to work together and solve problems and goodness knows we don’t want that, do we Representative Kirk.

I’m sure that all of the children who have used Second Life in libraries and schools would be really pleased to know that you no longer want that to be available to them. I’m sure that the children involved in programs all over the United States that are interacting with other students would agree that this is a terrible, scary place and they’ve just been waiting for a hero like you to come along and slam those doors of opportunity shut.

I am also intrigued by your comment that we should “take action to warn parents of the similar dangers and sexually explicit content found on Second Life.”. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, Representative Kirk so you may want to have a seat… there is sexually explicit content all over the internet. If you don’t want to see it, you don’t look at it. Shocking, I know. Maybe it’s best if we just cut off our children from the internet completely. We wouldn’t want them to see anything inappropriate and God forbid they might receive a spam email from someone rife with these aforementioned ‘dangers’.

In conclusion, Mark (I can call you Mark, I hope) while I can definitely appreciate the fact that you’re under a lot of stress and pressure in your re-election campaign and I’m SURE that you’re  proposing this legislation  out of the goodness of your heart and your inherent need to stand up and protect our children, but…. you’re way off base here.

I would be more than happy to meet you in Second Life and show you some of this explicit ‘dangerous’ content that you’re so focused on, but I’d also very much appreciate the time and opportunity to show you the incredible, amazing things being done in Second Life - many of which are from libraries and schools all over the world.

Sincerely,
Shannon

P.S. You should really not make such a big deal about this sort of legislation, you kind of look like a dork.

A few months ago I saw on someone’s blog (I’m so sorry I can’t remember where) that the Women’s Technology Empowerment Center was looking for volunteers for their “Networking for Success” program. This program teaches women in Nigeria how to use Web 2.0 technologies and tools to advance their work, network, and manage projects.

I’m received an email today that I have been selected and they will be sending out the schedule within the next two weeks. I have to say that I am so looking forward to this opportunity and can’t wait to get involved. The program runs May - July with each volunteer being asked to give a week of their time to blog and engage in discussions with the participants. I think I’m slotted for July so I have to wait for a few weeks, but I’m sure I’ll blog here about the experience.

The older I get the more I seem to be drawn to the fact that what it’s “all about” is really and truly just helping others and doing what you can to make this world a better place. I know that sounds very “*eye roll*” but I honestly think it’s true. Whether we’re helping someone else learn, grow or adapt, I’m not sure there’s anything more fulfilling, and I always seem to end up learning twice as much as I’m teaching.

To the person that emailed me just a few days ago re: vivaty. Please email again - I’m an idiot and accidentally deleted the email. You said you follow this blog so if you see this, email again please. I promise I won’t lose it this time.

Just came across this post on ReadWriteWeb that references a study that will appear in New Scientist Magazine that has found that things like blogs, instant messaging and social media sites are better than traditional media in times of emergency because they connect people and provide warnings in real-time.

It’s a really great post and definitely worth reading. I love that they’ve used real examples of how all of these sites and tools have really been useful recently. They’ve also shown the real value of using these things in emergency situations.

I wonder.. with the proliferation of blogs, twitterers and people using these tools, if at some point “traditional” media will disappear. It seems, at least for myself, that more and more I’m tired of the ‘drama’ that old-school media brings to the table and I just want to get the quick, honest assessment from a ‘real’ person on the front lines.

A discussion took place yesterday on the Second Life Educator’s mailing list that quickly turned into a fairly heated argument with each side stating their positions. I truly got to the point where I just didn’t even read the emails anymore and deleted them immediately upon their arrival in my inbox.

The discussion began when a fairly new educator to Second Life asked how she might go about giving her students a quiz in-world.  Someone responded back to her fairly quickly in what was, in my opinion, a judgmental tone asking why she’d want to do that in Second Life vs. just on the web.  He talked about the use of the virtual space and how we should really just use the best tool for the job and maybe that’s the web instead of Second Life if you’re wanting to give a quiz.

In response, another educator called him out on that and referred to several comments he’d made before about these same things and who was he to judge what would be best?

Fast forward about 4 hours and about 30 emails later with an awful lot of unnecessary back-and-forth and now I’m deleting emails on the subject.

I see the point that it really is important to use the best tool for the job and maybe that means that giving a quiz inside Second Life is not the ‘best’ way to do something. However, things like Sloodle (from what I understand) were developed for this purpose. Believe me, I’m all about using the best tool for the job and I’m a firm believer in the fact that what might be the best thing for me to use, might very well NOT be the best tool for you.  That being said, I also completely value the immersiveness of Second Life and virtual worlds and if we’re teaching students in that environment, then I think that sometimes it’s also beneficial to assess their learning in the same space without removing them and testing them on the web.

My frustration with the discussion stems from this - Why are we so quick to judge and tell people what they should be doing because *we* think that’s the best way. Why are we not recognizing that every person has different methods and goals they want to accomplish and why are we not helping them, unconditionally, to reach those goals?

The first week of September is shaping up to be a really interesting and exciting time.  Not only is the Second Life Community Convention being held from September 5-7 in Tampa, FL with a track dedicated to education, but the Virtual Worlds Conference being held in Los Angeles, CA on September 3,4 is also now featuring education as one of the focuses.

It’ll be a busy week with some pretty fantastic ideas, inspiration and connections. I can’t wait.

I just read a blog post that I saw posted on twitter related to Second Life and businesses. The article refers to McKinsey & Company (a managment consulting firm) and how they are saying that companies and businesses that are not engaging in the use of virtual worlds are doing so ‘at their own peril’.

I found this section of the article really interesting:

“The next phase of Second Life’s development, analysts said, would involve businesses developing very specific 3D applications, which for instance would enable them to conduct virtual meetings, saving on transport costs, and to undertake advanced staff training.

Trucking companies, for instance, are teaching drivers how to parallel park their vehicles using simulations built in Second Life; Hilton, the hotel chain, is collaborating on a tool to train receptionists in virtual lobbies, and energy giants are developing applications that can help them to train staff on how to deal with a hostage situation on an oil rig.”

For me, that’s the difference that virtual worlds bring to the table. It’s experiential. You *do* things there. I had someone tell me in a meeting one day that he’d “rather look at a real photograph than look at that same thing built in Second Life”, because it seemed “fake” to him. I understand what he’s trying to say, and nothing in a virtual world will ever be truly exactly as it is in RL (at least not for the foreseeable future) and so perhaps to some folks it can feel like we’re not being honest or truthful in what we’re representing in a virtual space. The ability, however, to *experience* these spaces is what makes it so powerful. Looking at a photo of a dorm room, for instance, is much different than having your avatar walk into that room and experience the space. That experience, in my opinion, actually IS more real than looking at a photo of the space.

For people not aware of or using virtual worlds to conduct business, meet and socialize with other people, or as a creative outlet, then perhaps these environments do seem ‘false’, but for those of us actively using the space it’s incredibly real.

Here in our office, we’re all about the fun.  One of my co-workers the other day, decided to play a practical joke on our supervisor by taking a small, fake Christmas tree and decorating it with photos she found online.  Those decorations consisted of alien heads, smiley faces, and numerous other delightful items.

This morning I arrived to find that same Christmas tree in *our* office, covered in small photos of the three of US.

I must say, it really doesn’t get much merrier than seeing yourself and your co-workers as tree decorations.

It was announced today - Linden Lab has a new CEO.  Mark Kingdon, formerly of Organic, Inc. is now the CEO of Linden Lab and the man now tasked with bringing Second Life to the next step (and hopefully many more steps after that!).

From the quick amount of reading I’ve done since I saw the announcement on twitter, I have to say that in my opinion, I think Mark might be a great fit and just the person we need right now. I love that he has a background in business, economics, AND art. Maybe he’ll realize how powerful and talented the Second Life community is, and maybe what we’ve seen so far is just the beginning of some really fantastic stuff.

My job is all about bringing people together through the use of technology. I absolutely love it and have no qualms about saying that I think I have one of the best jobs ever. I would never have thought in a million years when I was playing L.O.R.D. on my friend’s BBS in 1994/95 that I’d now have the job title of “Social Networks Adviser”.  I’ve said before though (and I’m saying it again) that I truly and strongly believe that there is such power in online communities. It becomes so much more than the sum of its parts and even saying that it’s synergistic seems to be an understatement.

My journey into social networking started on a friend’s BBS. I met the friend because she hired me (in an interview at my local Dairy Queen, no less) to work in the chiropractic clinic that she managed. She started her own BBS and told me about it. After we purchased our first computer (Macintosh PowerPC) and I connected to her local BBS, I was hooked.  Not long after that the internet arrived in our little town (oooooo). A friend I met on the BBS told me about IRC and I started hanging out there.  That friend led to others and over the course of time, I grew to know many people and became an IRCop on dal.net  (It was a big deal at the time, trust me).  During those “IRC” years, I met and made so many connections online that people started hosting offline ‘gathers’ in their area and friends would travel all over the country to meet people in person. I attended several of these events and it was like a family reunion each and every time.  In 1999 while I was hanging out in an IRC channel on dal.net called #ircbar (which is funny because I really don’t drink that much) I met a man who would later become my husband, but I certainly didn’t know that at the time either.

Skip forward a few years and now social networking takes on an entirely different meaning with completely new tools. We’re using twitter, virtual worlds, blogs, video, podcasts, etc.. to connect with people in ways we never could before. We’re chatting and connecting and making new friends that might live halfway across the world from us, without batting an eye.

My job, I think, is really intended to help our students make these connections with each other, and grow a true sense of community from that.  We’re working on that, and getting there with small steps toward that goal and I think we’re doing a good job.  In doing this, though, there have been some connections that were not intentional and have come to be some of the most amazing people I’ve met.

I feel almost as though I’ve spent so many years connecting with people from all over the US and the world, and now that’s almost completely spun around for me and the most powerful connections I’m making are right here in my small town.  At the same time, though, I honestly believe that even though these people work for the same university I work for, and live in the same town that I live in, I would never have been able to connect with them like I have.. without the use of social networking.

There’s something about online conversations and online community that lends itself so beautifully to opening doors. I’m not sure if it’s the lack of traditional barriers or if it’s just the ease of communication, but once again.. online connections are changing my world. I couldn’t be happier.