RL work in SL

Would anyone care to discuss how Second Life may be an extension of your real professional life? This may not interest some people, but SL is being used for RL work and I would like to discuss issues surrounding that endeavor.

In another thread the issue of funding SL accounts (for students) was raised. Does anyone have experience they can relate about this, or about getting approval for a project in SL? I come from a traditional organization, but I've been asked to pursue a project in Second Life. My director has never entered SL. I've warned her about the mature content, but I'm starting to worry that it will be a problem down the road. Any thoughts?


If anyone would care to suggest a more appropriate Forum for this thread, please do.

Or if there is an SL group devoted to this topic, or to the topic of higher education, please let me know. Thanks!

If you are over 18, then why would mature content be a problem? You also have the choice to be in mature areas and to participate in mature activities or not. Are you being required to report on all kinds of business activities; thus, mature content comes into play? Personally, I do not bring my work life into my SL life, nor do I supplement my RL income with SL income. Perhaps Linden Labs would be willing to reduce student costs for research purposes, but I imagine specific criteria would need to be met to avoid abuse. I suppose an SL group could form whose mission would be to defray student research costs. Again, there would have to be notification from LL that these accounts are valid student accounts. Just not sure anyone would be inclined to do so. Either way, good luck with your endeavors.

angel

True, Angel, but I think I understand what katherine's getting at. In my place of employment, I'm free to write and develop scripts (I work with PL/SQL and C++ every day) but this company is VERY sensitive to issues of appropriateness. It wouldn't matter if I was seeing or using the mature stuff or not. Just the risk of something coming up on my screen -- even a scantily clad Avi -- would be enough to put my job in jeopardy.

SL isn't an extension of my RL at all, but I'm hoping that what I can learn about 3D graphics, animations, and script could be of some professional benefit for me in the future. They don't have to know if I designed 3D sex toys or flew fighter aircraft to learn my trade

Cindy

Katherine,

You may want to contact Robin Harper (Robin Linden is her avatar name) at Linden Lab - there are programs in place for working with schools and other special interest groups that want to use SL for learning and other purposes.

Thank you Christiano, now I have a name. I've emailed Billing, Support and [email]Education@secondlife.com[/email] and have gotten no reply except the canned "we'll get back to you" response. I know LL have been very busy in the past month with technical issues, so I'm being patient.

thanks again

In fact, I have used SL in my professional endeavors. More than once to do a hasty mockup of a design or some scripted interactivity somebody wants in 3d.

I have, twice, proposed SL as a medium for collaboration, once as a venue for employee benefits "walkthrough", once as a training medium.

Both time, the companies I proposed the project to rejected SL as a viable medium based on the stability of the project (that is, "it appears to be beta quality". Both times I was led to implement in Flash (and it worked, scripting in Flash is very, very similar to scripting in SL).

So, overall, aside from an advanced chatroom, I have not been able to "sell" the product.

This thread is so 2004.

I'm a therapist in RL and have often thought there might be some possibilities for using the SL environment to work on certain issues that come up in therapy...however the liability and confidentiality concerns have held me back from ever offering anthing.

Having a private island would take care of privacy.

I was shot down on two points. "We cannot require students to purchase a pornographic video game account." That reads as one point but it's actually two based on the centralized nature of SL. All of our students are not eighteen or older. We have hundreds of dually enrolled high school students taking our online courses and getting credit for both college hours and advanced diploma requirments. The ready availability of mature content in SL directly prevents us from using the medium for online instruction for that reason alone.

The other point is the use of the term "video game." It's not entirely fair; however the event list and the pervasive shopping and b(tr)ingo type activites quickly convinced admins and instructors alike that the classification was valid.

For clarification, nobody here is arguing that SL shouldn't be the fun, delightful, free-for-all video game that it is. We just wish for the possiblity to build and manage our own little grid so we can address our concerns. We'll license the software and support for a fair amount of money and we'll provide our own server hardware and bandwidth. But we're resolved to waiting for a company other than LL to offer such an arrangement.

Best of luck Katherine. Please let me know if there really is such a thing as extended trial accounts for students.

I'm on a team that's building a training simulation in SL. It's a university project funded by a grant. I can't answer your questions about the administrative aspects of the project; however, maybe I can point you in the right direction. I'll drop you an IM inworld, Katherine. BTW, if you do find a group like the one you mentioned, I'd like to join!

It seems the way to really get ahold of Lindens is to find them in the world. I don't know which ones cover this issue, other than Robin, but try to find which ones are online and strike up a conversation with them.

I'm thinking it's only a matter of time that the Lindens create Edu-Grid or whatever. You can't use teen grid for this purpose, because it raises the issues of adults coming into the teen grid. You can't have the unfiltered regular grid or you will indeed have all kinds of diversions and distractions.

I guess I'm not quite following why the college administrators are so wary of this. In some states, their students are old enough to walk off campus, go in bars, and see all manner of adult entertainment in RL if they wish. They all play video games of all types. What, a scantily-clad avatar in a video game in a class is going to harm them? Huh? If anything, it might be the means in which they can finally learn something and maybe even absorb some of that Western civ that is so lacking in their education hitherto.

SL has support for limiting an account to a particular estate. This was mentioned in release notes last year (& sparked correct speculation that the teen grid was on its way.) I don't see a reason why a company or educational institution couldn't approach Linden Lab and say, "I want to buy a private island and create 30 accounts that can only log in and exist there."

The problem isn't that so much as the fact that many colleges are funded by their respective states. Many others by private donations (who also have a say in political/moral content). So this isn't a decision they may feel free to make without looking over their shoulder.


Excellent point. I wonder if the schools in question knew this? Or if they would still be held back by the open-ended nature of the SL world?

Cindy

My RL company is already using SL for training, and we've been thrilled with the results... so much so that we may be taking it to the next level. Shoot me an IM in world and I'll show ya what we're up to.

-Flip

I think SL might be an interesting venue to treat people with phobias.

For example, fear of heights and spiders. By having them look down from large buildings or rezing real looking spiders it would give people an opportunity to confront their fears in a completely non threatening simulation.

There is a group that uses virtual reality, not specifically SL, to treat phobias. I have the article somewhere at home if you're interested in it.


Pietro

Check out Virtually Better (www.virtuallybetter.com). They do something like this.

From their website: Virtual reality treatment consists of custom virtual environments that have been carefully designed to support exposure therapy of anxiety disorders. The treatment involves exposing the patient to a virtual environment containing the feared situation rather than taking the patient into the actual environment or having the patient imagine the stimulus. The virtual environment is controlled by the therapist through a computer keyboard ensuring full control of the exposure to the programmed situations. Virtual reality exposure treatment allows the therapist to manipulate situations to best suit the individual patient during a standard therapy hour (usually 45-50 minutes) and within the confines of the therapist's office.

Pietro

Katherine:

We're just beginning to get into this, but there is no reason your institution can't purchase a sim & do what they want with it. Mine chose not to because of the monly land tier expense, but as more people get into it, that may change - or possibly Robin can help with info. or give you suggestions. Regarding accounts - we just purchased them for the university's use, with the caveat that everyone who uses them must comply with SL's standards. That has not been a problem - it IS only $9.95, and students have the option of purchasing their own account if they want to (though that is not required).

Hope that helps!

Echi

Hey, we're having our first "RL Work in SL" group presentation!!! This group is for/about people who use Second Life for some part of their real-life work.

Gwyneth Llewelyn and Moon Adamant will be making a short presentation about their group's use of Second Life for their real-life work. After describing their work, we'll have a question and answer session. It also will be a good time to meet other people who do rl work in sl.

If you use sl for your work or are interested in how others are using sl for their work, you will want to attend.

Date: Friday, June 17, 2005
Time: 9:00AM - 10:00AM (60 minutes)
Location: Yora (77,152)

Sorry for the cross posting, but this group was born out of several different threads.

Did anything ever come out of this?

I'd be interested in how Virtual Presence can foster watercooler style conversations, so important to knowledge workers. These sorts of conversations don't happen much amongst virtual (geographically distributed) teams.

However, the mature content is obviously inappropriate for most modern workplaces.

I wonder if LL would ever sell the software for private (corporate) sims.

I didn't attend the meeting, however I am and some friends are hard at work on this one.

We should probably set up another event, I'd like to discuss this some more. Please IM me if you are interested.

Unfortunately it didn't work for me Iron. I still run a mile if I see a spider in SL. If it works for others that is great.

Alexa

I'm sorry to hear that Alexa.. Crippling mental problems such as phobias are no laughing matter.

I find it interesting that whomever you're referring to with this quote considered SL to be a 'pornographic video game'. It is actually more like four points when you get at the underlying assumptions at work in this person's statement:

1) SL is more 'have fun' than 'work' (boy, they don't know this place at all, do they?)
2) SL is a video game.
3) SL is only about sex or sexual pursuits.
4) SL is pornographic.

I wonder where they get their information.