Interesting article

An interesting article on

A chinese teacher on Second Life who fears SL will go the way of google & advice for effectively engaging students in SL

Welcome to Richmond

As I arrive in “Richmond city” I am greeted by a set of laws that appear to only be effective in Richmond. I have not encountered such a thing before, but in my mind this is certainly a positive discovery. The fact that they have laws implies they have someone who created them and possibly even someone to enforce them. I have a feeling I am on the right track, or at the very least I am hopeful. The rules are as follows:

1. Immaturity and Disrespect will not be tolerated.

2. No roleplaying with kid avatars at all.

3. Your avatars roleplay age MUST be 16 years old on SecondLife to be on this sim alone, under 16 must be with an adult avatar.

4. No automatic or semi automatic weapons allowed, handguns and shot guns only allowed.

5. If you carry a weapon you MUST wear HP meter, please contact any sim official for a HP meter.
(If you are not wearing a HP and are shooting at someone with a HP or involved in ANY form of roleplay it will be considered griefing and could result in a 24 hour or permanant ban)

6. No flying vehicles, objects or avatars in this sim.

7. No Explosives are to be used on the sim.
(Use of explosives will be reported for griefing and banned from the sim)

8. If a person is wearing a RSPD Official or RFD Official or Estate Manager tag no trying to engage them in RP.

9. Zero Tolerance of ANY kind of sexual harrassment on the sim, reports will be investigated

10. When your HP runs out you must stay dead till the end of the roleplay.

11. IF YOU ARE UNDER 15 DAYS OLD ON SECONDLIFE YOU WILL BE TELEPORTED HOME!

Easy enough… Lets give it a whirl.

An avatar pulls up to me in what appears to be a fairly sleek sports car. "Hello there, anything I can help you with," says Davey Shelter. After explaining to him what I am doing and the purpose of my visit he tells me to get in his car, as he wants to show me something. I am obviously apprehensive about getting into a strangers car. My mother did teach me well after all, but seeing is this is my second life I hop in the car and hope for the best...



We safely arrive at what appears to be the white house once again. As it seems Davey's SL father is the president, or at least here in Richmond city he is. from what I have been told he is a rather political man but is unfortunately not available at the moment for an interview. I settle for a tour of the white house, complete with the Oval office. As with the real white house there are certain sections that I do not have access to, but Davey seems to be able to enter them all and I follow in his footsteps. Now I feel as though I am headed in the right direction.

Economy of Second Life

An interesting article on the economy of Second Life, complete with numbers, graphs and what seems like a fair amount of research. Enjoy

"Here are the highlights for the Second Life Economy as a whole in 2009:

Financial

* User-to-User transactions in 2009 totaled US$567 million in 2009, growth of 65% over 2008.
* The total amount of virtual currency in circulation reached L$6.95 billion, growth of 23% over December 2008
* The US Dollar value of L$ in circulation totaled US$26.5 million in December 2009
* Sales of User Generated virtual items on Xstreet SL, reached L$1.6 billion or US$6.1 million, growth of 74% over 2008
*

The total US dollar value of all Linden dollars traded on the LindeX™ currency exchange in 2009 reached US$115 million in value, 7% growth over 2008
*

The total US dollar value of all Linden dollars traded on the Xstreet SL™ currency exchange in 2009 reached US$1.5 million in value, 169% growth over 2008


Usage

* Residents spent 481 million hours in Second Life in 2009, 21% growth over 2008
* User hours lost to downtime as a portion of total user hours were down 66%, to a best-ever low of 0.19% for the whole year
* Monthly Repeat Logins reached an all-time high of 769,000 in December 2009, 15% growth over December 2008


Land

* Resident-owned regions reached 23,900 in December 2009, up 6% over December 2008
* Total Resident-owned land (including Mainland) reached 1.85 billion square meters in December 2009, up 7% over December 2008"

You won't find politics here

New search idea… Let’s find Ottawa. As with before I type “Ottawa” into the game search perameters. The parliament building is located in something called the “Helix CATA (Canadian advanced technology alliance) Canadian innovation centre.” A CTV banner stating “save local television” is prevalent in the distance, I walk over to it to read a petition that I can click to sign. I wander around until I finally find what I assume is the parliament building but once again I am wrong. After entering I can find books on immigration to Canada, in a section clearly labelled “Citizenship and Immigration Canada” maybe I will spend some time reading these. Buy sitting at a computer in this office I can axis the official website for the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration office, I am impressed, but this does not entirely pertain to what I am looking for.

Back to the White house I go. Arriving at the White House two avatars stand before the building, I approach them somewhat apprehensively, noticing that there titles are SL president and SL first lady. I am welcomed by them and asked if there is anything they can help me with. Finally someone whom I can speak with about politics!

“You won’t find politics here,” says Joker Terasaur (Mr. President himself) “Politics keep things from actually getting done.”

Darn, my political attempts appear to be folied once again.

“Try Richmond,” says Terasaur. “Richmond seems to be rather political.”

Politically unaware

Second Life; Logging in…
After a vary confusing hour setting up my avatar to be the best possible resemblance of myself I am able ready to teleport, did I mention you can fly in this world? I am able teleport to the main island with ease and the adventure begins… now if only I could figure out how to teleport to “capital hill” all would be well. After a couple of failed attempts I search “white house” in the search bar in the table titled “places” the search comes back with a definite possibility for my voyage, upon arrival after teleportation I learn that it will cost me L$50 to enter, a donation claims the sign at the door. A logical idea, but unfortunately this means I need to learn how to make money in this game before I can hear any sort of political speech. This certainly seems like a lot of work just to hear a politician speak, perhaps I am missing the point, perhaps I should stick to Facebook or learn Twitter for that matter. At least there I understand what is going on. I attempt once more the search function, this time under "groups", perhaps this will lead me in the correct direction. As my search returns in a positive means, I join as many free political discussion groups as possible, all the while noticing that this game is very American based. My hope is that these people will be able to keep me informed. Within another five minutes I realize that the place I should be searching for is in fact called “capitol hill,” not “capital hill.” Feeling slightly foolish I attempt to teleport, the feeling that I have gotten myself into something far over my head is looming in the air, it is certainly a good thing I have never claimed myself as being politically aware or knowledgeable in the least bit.

Upon closer examination of my avatar however, a title has appeared above my name, seemingly this game has correctly analyzed and decided what I am attempting to do in my Second Life.

"Politically aware, Kaleena Charisma"

The beginning

After entering the site at http://secondlife.com/ and deciding to join the community; the experience of second life begins by first entering your real life information. The act of creating a character begins with you naming yourself, finally a universe in which your parents are not capable of burdening you with a label you dislike. After picking a first name, a list of 40 randomly selected last names appears for you to choose from. I am curious if this list is something similar to what immigrants would have experienced when moving to North America hundred of years ago, being told that your current last name is not acceptable in the new world is somewhat shocking, but acceptable in creating a new life, or second chance at life for that matter. I feel a strange connection to a person being placed in the witness protection program and after roughly ten minutes I finally select a name.

It’s nice to meet you world my name is “Kaleena Charisma.”

Purpose

Second Life is an online virtual world in which a person is able to escape the real, tangible world around them, through the use of an Avatar (yes something similar to the movie Avatar) a person is able to create a “Second Life” for themselves. A user can be whoever or whatever they want in the second life world. It is a means to escape this universe and enter into one somewhere in the world of the Internet. It allows you the ability to connect to people that the current restraints of things such as gravity, time and space put limitations on in our universe. Politicians have seen the opportunity in this game and are taking advantage of the fact that they can reach people all over the world through this community. As a result, politicians are beginning to use the Second Life universe as a means for political advocacy. The allowance of press conferences and lobbying within this world provides a forum for their messages to be presented.

The purpose of this blog will be to follow my experience through the game and document my understanding of political advocacy through this form of social networking.

I will create an Avatar, find employment and search out the virtual capitol hill, a far less expensive approach than physically travelling to Washington or Ottawa in the real world. The reasoning for chosing the american alternative to Canada's Ottawa is because the game is very much American based and at this point I am uncertain if I can find a Canadian Political hub, but it is certainly worth a try.