SLCC Wrap-Up

Free wireless at the Tampa airport is a beautiful thing. I’m sitting here now reflecting on the weekend and what I am taking with me from the Second Life Community Convention.  As is typically the case at conferences and conventions, I feel like the most valuable discussions happened outside the sessions and I met so many amazing people with such passion this weekend that I am truly quite depressed at the though of leaving.

Part of what is so interesting about The Second Life Community Convention is right in the name – “community”. It’s not the Second Life Education Convention, or the Second Life Business convention, it’s all about everyone. It’s about the community, coming together to celebrate just that – being a community.

I sat in sessions about how folks are teaching science in Second Life, I learned about some of the challenges of getting businesses to understand that new and disruptive technologies are really what’s driving innovation, and I heard some pretty great keynotes that touched on a few things that I’m incredibly passionate about – community and spaces in SL. Robert Bloomfield today in his keynote mentioned that spaces themselves in Second Life can really be used to foster relationships and create emotional connections. He talked about how important those connections to the space can be and how it’s those connections that can truly make people feel as though they are part of a community.  He showed examples of a space on the Cornell campus that everyone enjoys spending time in and then showed the replication of that space in SL.  This is exactly what I’m working on for our campus so I was pretty psyched to hear that he thought it was powerful too.

I also listened to a discussion about the “inSL” logo and the use of the logo which was really interesting and something I knew nothing about.

The best part though, was meeting new people outside the realm of ‘education’ and just spending time listening to them and their perspectives. I listened to live musicians perform to the audience at SLCC, but also for the audience in Second Life. I saw a work of art being created while the music was being performed – the art was inspired by the music and community in attendance. I watched people get dressed for the “masquerade ball” and heard the stories of all the fun that happened there.

I did feel at times that there were people in attendance at SLCC that came for their one focus and in essence kept blinders on the entire time. I saw folks at times throughout the weekend, always with the same people, always in the same sessions and I wondered if they were really experiencing the entire convention and all that was happening. As I said yesterday, I think we all need to listen and learn from everyone else. If we always talk to the same people and hear the same information, are we really learning or are we just continuing to pat ourselves on the back?

I met people this weekend at SLCC that I would never have met if I just stayed in one track of the conference and sat in on every session.  I would have never known that people were disappointed there wasn’t more ’social’ focus this year. I would not have been part of the conversations on how terribly important that ’social’ component is to creating community and I would never have met some of the people in person that I’ve admired and worked with in Second LIfe.  The value of these gatherings is not in the sessions, but in the people. I can’t wait to hop back in-world and continue the discussions that were started this weekend in Tampa and I look forward to next year at SLCC where the social and creative aspects of community will hopefully take on a track of their own.

We Should Really Talk More

So I arrived at Tampa today around noon and was able to attend the keynote session, but I think the discussions that I had with people individually today proved to be the most beneficial thing I’ve done so far, and I have no doubt that over the course of the weekend that will continue to be the case.

Just based on the few conversations I’ve had today with folks from other universities and businesses using Second Life, I really feel like all of us.. and I mean *ALL* of us need to spend some quality time together. Talking. Listening. Learning.

My position is unique in that while I’m the social networks adviser for the online campus of a large public university, I am not tasked with figuring out how those tools would work in a classroom setting. I don’t have to base decisions on pedagogy, curriculum, or evaluations. I have the freedom to use and explore new technologies with the goal of learning if and how they can be used to build a stronger community of online students, faculty and staff.  While this freedom is something I certainly am beyond thankful for, it does make conferences like SLCC a bit challenging because I feel as though I am here representing an educational institution and therefore the educational track is where I should be, but at the same time so much of what is being talked about in the educational track is based on instruction and courses and getting buy-in to teach courses in SL that I really don’t feel it’s solely where I belong.  Don’t get me wrong, I am so thrilled that so many people are using SL in education and that so many more keep learning about it and making efforts to pave those roads and start using this really powerful tool to help us rethink what a classroom might be – I applaud each and every person taking that step. It’s not easy to be the first person on a campus trying a new technology, learning how to use it and making it happen with limited resources and even more limited support from administrators.  Having workshops and sessions related to getting started and ‘best practices’ are invaluable and providing them is something we have to do.  In my position, though, I’m not sure I get the most benefit from these sessions and so I find myself perusing the scheduled sessions for this weekend and thinking that perhaps the session in the community track on Open Source would be a better fit, or perhaps a session on how to create machinima to better promote our Second Life projects might be something I could learn a lot from.  So I think that this weekend I will pick and choose from all three tracks and meet some new people, learn some new things, and have a different perspective when I return.

I think that’s what I’ve gained so far in just the few short hours I’ve been here: the realization that we all need to communicate more. Business needs to sit down with education and talk.. REALLY talk about what’s going on with education these days.  Education needs to sit down and talk about how to create community and what that entails and education also needs to listen to business and think about what we can learn from them. I’m not just talking Second Life here, I’m talking big picture.

Big topics in education now are the ideas of open educational resources and the sharing of information. Openness, Innovation, Collaboration – all hot topics and yet I sat here today and listened to corporate people ask me if we’re keeping social networking internal and how we’re going to ‘authenticate’ and basically control the discussion and keep things amongst ourselves.  To me, that’s completely missing the point.  The point is not to keep the discussion among ourselves but to open up our community, discussions and content to the world so that everyone can participate, learn, and contribute.

Our world is changing, slowly.. but it’s getting there. It’s not about keeping things closed, and guarding our secrets. It’s about opening up, sharing, and trusting that doing so will make us a better stronger community with new and creative ideas of how to collaborate.  I heard some doubt and negativity today in discussions of interoperability and the idea of combining virtual worlds with each other and having one truly connected metaverse, but I also sensed hope. People want to dream, but they’re afraid.  We need to stop guarding our secrets and start opening up and dreaming a bit.

Heading to Tampa

In just 16.5 hours I’ll be boarding a plane on my way to Tampa, FL for the Second Life Community Convention (SLCC).  This will be my first trip to SLCC even though I’ve been active in Second Life since 2004 so I’m fairly excited to meet people and be part of this event.

This is the only conference this fall (out of 6) that I’m attending where I am *not* presenting so I’m really looking forward to relaxing and just being able to learn about all of the amazing things other people are doing in Second Life.  There are several tracks to this conference (community, business, and education) and while I think most of my time will be spent attending the educational sessions, I’d also like to catch some of the community track as well because a big part of what I’m using Second Life for is building community among students and I think there’s always value to be gained from hearing a different perspective and seeing examples of what others are doing.

I’m sure I’ll be posting more about the event when I return or over the course of the weekend so stay tuned for more thoughts on the conference.

September and Virtual Worlds

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.