Information Architecture in Second Life / Stacy Merrill Surla, Lori Bell, Andrew Hinton, Beth Kanter, Peter Allison, Josh Knauer

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Introduction

• Online gaming can be goal oriented (World of War Craft) or social networking-oriented (Second Life). Second Life can include goals, but they are created by the users.
• Examples of using Second Life other than a game include for simulations, commerce, meetings, presentations.
• IA of Second Life--visitors find it difficult to wayfind within environment
• High learning curve to use, but then also to make environments (CAD, scripting, etc)

Demo of virtual (public) library area:

• Promote literature through discussions; exhibits; author visits; programs
• Individual libraries can join in
• Answering reference questions
• Created 10 islands in a year
• Can sometimes crash during busy times
• Difficult to control the environment—can be interrupted by anyone/anything
• Can present immersive information (ex: Walk-in books)
  

Possible Application to L&ET:

• Span spatial divide by working on a project (any project) within Second Life.
• Do we have information that can be inserted into Second Life for users to interact with in different ways? Ex: within Second Life, some has combined Google Maps, info feeds and cataclysmic events.

Links for More Info:

• Slide show presentation on SlideShare