Second Thoughts on Second Life: Lessons from Woodbury University

I’m still not sure how I feel about Second Life in terms of patron interaction. Everyday it seems some new library, college, or corporation is setting up a presence… but so what? I fly around and see islands filled with ghost towns. I think it is a creative environment for librarians and liked minded individuals (artists, teachers, museum and history folks) to gather and chat, but as a branch location, I have some skepticism.

One thing that bothers me is the concept of “banning” people from our premises. I guess this happens in real life too, but the other day I saw someone acting ridiculous during a lecture. That person was swiftly banished from the entire Info Island region. Was that really necessary? This doesn’t seem to embrace the 2.0 philosophy of the user-directed experience. Just because librarians create sexy avatars doesn’t make them any less stodgy. Proper rules, proper behavior, proper etiquette… that sounds more like my grandmother rather than the next generation of library services.

Speaking of which… some unfortunate librarian who has to write peer-reviewed articles in order to make tenure should do a study on the level of service quality at the Second Life Reference Desk. Maybe compare it with email, chat, and in-person services if you’re really ambitious. I was hanging around the Info Island Ref Desk the other day and a patron asked a scientific question. The librarian on duty responded: You should search Google Scholar. And the patron flew away. You can place the librarian into a new location but you can’t get rid of that “go look at those books over there” or “it’s in Academic Search Premier, of course!” attitude.

Everything aside, I was inspired by a recent discovery. I was hovering around several different University islands, beautiful campus environments that are relatively unpopulated, when I noticed a crowd at Woodbury University. I dropped in but could not find anyone. My map picked up at least 15 people, so I wandered around. You can see that it looks pretty straightforward: buildings, roads, trees, a campus.

Then… I came across a secret door that took me underground. Beneath the main campus was an entire second world—the world for students, by students. A handful of them were playing a game, others were uploading photos, and another was looking at a news headline feed. I had found their sanctuary. This is where they hung out. This was their home, just as all the librarians like to hangout together around the Ref Desk.

Dorm rooms:

A large workshop/office space:

A large commons area:

KFC:

It’s very geek-chic.

This was truly user-generated, user-centric, user-designed--- unlike our massive fortresses. Woodbury got it right. On the surface they have the “campus” entity, but down below is the space for students. I spoke with one of the principle designers and he said that the University purchased the island to support the School of Media, Culture, and Design and specifically a course on the study of virtual worlds.

This has recharged my thoughts about the potential of Second Life. I think there is definitely an opportunity to offer compelling, interactive, creative environments for users, but it starts by leaving out all of our preconceived notions of “libraries” and building something unique. I hope to get the chance to demonstrate this, but time is limited these days—maybe next summer?

Oh and if you plan to visit Woodbury U, you’d better come strapped; the place is infected with zombies!

Comments

[Eric Frierson]

hey brian -

i'll have to check out woodbury u. i'd also like to share with you something one of our faculty members is doing here: holding his italian language class in second life. because there are italian islands where italians gather (see island "perioli" or "parioli" -- i forget the spelling) and its been built as fairly truthful representation of a typical italian city (with italian architecture, fashion, etc), he is able to immerse his class in authentic italian interactions.

this is a value-added scenario that i haven't seen in any library island just yet -- it's somehting *you could not do* any other way. with librariana, it seems like everything so far in second life is possible through a simple web browser or chat system. For these things, second life's interface is just another clunky layer between the patron and services.

definitely some educational possibilities with second life -- and especially with language courses that could benefit from 'field trips'!

[Hypatia]

While library 2.0 is supposed to be a user directed experience, isn't it important to think about all of the users? Yes, the library staff does eject some patrons and occassionally ban them (they look the same but with an ejection the person can come back later). But isn't that a fair response to a disruptive patron who will not stop? Isn't protecting the experience of the larger group also an important part of a civil society?
On Info Island and Second Life in general there is a fair bit of 'over the top' behavior. When it starts to interfere with others it's called griefing, and most islands have staff members whose job it is to remove disruptive individuals.

[Carol Goodson]

Thanks, Brian, for these insightful comments, and for the Woodbury tip. I am currently taking an online class in SL sponsored by the University of IL Library School, and so far, I am feeling like SL is more hype than substance. My next assignment is to spend 2 hrs. at the RefDesk on InfoIsland... hope I'll have a better attitude after that. Is SL just a fad among trendy librarians? It seems as though there are way more "old folks" like me in SL than student-age people, but I hope I'm wrong. Anecdotally, I've been asking our students as I run across them if they are in it, and so far haven't found even one!

[Prokofy Neva]

I think you need to do a little bit further reading on Woodbury University.

http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/07/attack-educatio.html
http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/07/woodbury-univer.html
http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/04/griefer_u.html

[Prokofy Neva]

I think you need to do a little bit further reading on Woodbury University.

http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/07/attack-educatio.html
http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/07/woodbury-univer.html
http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/04/griefer_u.html

[Brian]

Thanks for reading…

I’ve hung out with the Woodbury crew for a month and have not seen anything out of the ordinary. I read those posts before in my prep, however I think the /b/ guys are misunderstood. If you want REAL griefers on Second Life go check out Baku—that’s a crew of straight thugs.

When I spoke with the Woodbury U build admin (Tizzers Foxchase) she said originally it was designed for students and that anyone enrolled or employed at WU could have virtual space on the island. That’s the point I was trying to make about academic libraries— I think we should offer space for our patrons to experiment and have them build things together rather than erect massive castle-like library buildings. It’s ego-centric vs. user centric, in my mind. We say our mission is to foster intellectual growth, but that involves more than books & journals.

I was sad to read that the Linden Lab crew overreacted by destroying Woodbury. The message they are sending is that it’s ok to have bestiality and prostitution—but a bunch of college kids having fun is criminal. Philip Rosedale's rhetoric about building a community is a joke and I've lost a lot of respect for SL.

[Prokofy Neva]

Brian, you need to be less credulous. Tizzers Foxchase is hardly innocent here. She comes along on the griefing posses; my articles show pictures of her standing around at the center of the maelstrom illustrate this, as her partner rides around griefing people on a giant flexidong and as her "fellow students" release particle blasts of the Jellowned texture and carry on crazily disrupting business on 2 sims. You're merely listening to her rhetoric; I'm inworld watching what she actually *does*.

Is it an accident that the sim crashed shortly after one of them rented a space on it?

I totally agree that universities should not build these massive, dead edifices that seem particularly preposterous online. The students should do the building and there should be some process of collaboration to create a common building that reflects the needs of the current age and life online, not the celebration of donors who need palaces of commemoration.

I agree that Linden Lab sends mixed messages, but I hardly think that what these people did wasn't criminal. It is criminal; it's like a denial-of-service attack. Their griefing contains Nazi symbols, racist avatars and cliches against blacks, anti-gay rhetoric, and gross obscenity. It's no different in kind than the bestiality and prostitution concerning you. Just look at the pictures.

[IntLibber Brautigan]

I wanted to let you know that Woodbury University is back in SL, and still delivering high quality, user-centric experience and virtual classes to students of all kinds. WU entered into a contract with my company, BNT Holdings, to reenter SL, revamp its image (damaged badly by the hate-mongering slander of Prokofy Neva). You can see their campus now in Woodbury Sea region, as well as their neighboring region of Longcat, and soon a third sim, named Woodbury University.

BNT has been providing assistance to WU for over 6 months now without any problems with the student body. They are creative, well behaved individuals.