Intercultural Communications and Second Life

I'm currently enrolled in an Intercultural Communications course at Alliant International University in San Diego. As part of the class requirements, I have chosen to interview members of Second Life to understand the culural values observed and experienced in Second Life.

I hope that this discussion can be productive and positive while allowing the SL community to examine its values. It will be important to separate the culture of Second Life from the more general discussion of the culture of online gaming so that we examine specifically the way in which the SL community communicates its own values.

Later today I will post a sseries of specific questions to help direct some of the discussion. For now I would like anyone to share their thoughts or ask their own questions. If you have any links, SL projects (past, present, or future) that you feel are relevent, or any other information you may want to share in order to either broaden or focus this discussion, please post it here, IM or PM me.

In order to help everyone understand where I am headed with this project, please refer to Hamlet Linde's Blog or the USC Center for Public Diplomacy website (currently showing a mysql error )

I would like like to use this interview/discussion as a way of examing the values of the SL community (both dominant culture and co-cultures) and then, in a follow-up presentation, present the USC contest to the class as a way to promote discussion about how MMOG's can be used to enhance communication across and within cultures in the real world.

Thanks for taking the time to read this thread. I look forward to the discussion ahead. I hope to compile the results on Wednesday Nov. 9

Thanks Again,
Champie

Excellent!

Best wishes CJ!!

a great way to use a widely used "game" and incorporate it with your college course. i'll be looking 4ward to it

THAT'S a word I've been looking for—"intercultural"! Needless to say, Champie, I'm fascinated by this and hope to hear more.

Especially with more international grid expansions coming and a greater influx of Resis from all around the world, this is good timing.

I'm all for Second Life culture! w00t!

Thanks for the encouragement!

As a way to begin, I would like to direct you to Phillip Lindens blog post Space Exploration regarding the nature of the SL universe from Phillip Linden's perspective.

How do you view the nature of the SL world in which we live our Second Lives?

Champie

Hey Champie,

Great topic! If I hadn't jumped on to the SL bandwagon late, I'd probably be doing something similar these days. I'm a communication minor up here at Humboldt State, and wound up doing a project on blogging as a means of intercultural communication last semester.

I'd recommend, if you haven't already, checking out Stella Ting-Toomey and Leeva Chung's book "Understanding Intercultural Communication" -- they have an excellent discussion and classification of value patterns within a culture, which would probably be helpful for your research. Just remember to think of values as a continuum and not polar opposites.

One thing you may also think about is the variety of cocultures that exist within SL -- There's so much variety that it's hard to typify a "SL Resident."

Also, I'd recommend Hamlet's series of articles on The Jesse Conflict if you're looking for some good RL-to-SL values crossover (link).

Anyway, best of luck!

--CB