A tour through the University of Iowa SLIS | VWU | IMLS Second Life building:
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Hannah Holman Cello Performance:
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Inaugural reading with Kate Thorpe (UI Writers' Workshop Graduate Student)
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About Second Life:
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Some snapshots of the building (always a work in progress):
Inside the cube hovering above the building:
Our inaugural reading:
(before the reading began)
(Jon Winet introduces our poet, Kate Thorpe)
(Kate Thorpe's avatar during reading)
(view from audience)
Beginning phases:
Second Life is an immersive, 3-dimensional online world. It is similar to the popular video game series The Sims. However, unlike The Sims, Second Life is entirely open source. This means that users create the lay of the land and its contents. Users also create scripts, making the space interactive. Second Life differs from The Sims because programmers have pre-determined the possibilities of the world. The only limitation to the Second Life world comes from its users skills and imagination. As a result, Second Life is very experimental.
I make sense of this online platform by comparing it to navigating information in a web browser. One typically scrolls to browse a webpage, and clicks on hyperlinks to enter other webpages. Analogously, in Second Life you walk, run, or fly through areas to browse a particular space, and use teleportation to jump to other spaces, much like hyperlinking.
Second Life is indicative of a potential future for online environments. Faster computers and Internet bandwidth in homes make it possible for online environments to closer resemble real life.
I have constructed a building in Second Life. It is my webpage into this world. The building I've made is a place for readings to take place from authors in The University of Iowa community. There will be a forthcoming concert from the Maia Quartet in this building as well. You may click on the link below to view a map of the building's location. You have an option to teleport directly to the building from this map if you have the Second Life client up and running on your computer. Second Life is a free program. Learn more