An Idea for Building Community and Culture

Most of what happens in SL is synchronous communication. Real-time. People get together...meeting and chatting and sharing ideas with other people who happen to be logged on at the same time.

But what about "asynchronous communication?" How do people in SL share ideas and communicate when they are *not* logged in at the same time?

Inworld, we have a few methods. Exchanging notecards is one kludgy way (sharing chat transcripts or written stories). Inworld publications like "Players" magazine and others is another way.

Outside of SL, people use forums such as this one. People also use *blogs* a great deal. Web-based places where SL residents share their thoughts and solicit feedback asynchronously. But it all happens "outside" of SL.

Here's my main point. A major way of building community and culture is to have a rich way of sharing asynchronous communication. To share ideas and thoughts with other people who are not meeting at the same time in the same place. To keep a record of all this communication that can be searched and discovered by other people. To allow people to comment on things asynchronously, and to have those comments integrated into a growing and *persistent* body of ideas and thoughts. And to have this all accessible within the SL world.

Currently, the tools inworld to do this are pretty inadequate. And it seems that the bulk of asynchronous communication regarding SL is currently done outside the SL world via web-based blogs and forums. Systems that require you to "pull out" of SL to both read and (a key fact) to *contribute* to them.

Now...imagine this.

Imagine that you are sitting on a beach somewhere in SL. Watching the sunset. The muse strikes. You are suddenly inspired to write an idea about how to create a totally new kind of sailboat. But instead of thinking "I'll post this on my blog later when I'm using the web" or "I'll bring this up with my friends next time I see them inworld".....well, you pull up a new interface option within SL. Right-click and select "post to my blog." You then see an inworld interface pop up that allows you to write your thoughts, including the ability to add snapshot images taken within SL. You complete the entry, adding some pics of a sailboat prototype you have built on the beach, and *poof*....your blog entry is now saved. You go back to watching the sunset.

The next day, someone else is logged into SL. They think "hmm...I wish I could find other people interested in building sailboats." They right-click and pull up a new interface option called "search the SL blogosphere." They enter the term "sailboat." Immediately they see a list of blog posts by other residents within SL about sailboats. They find an interesting entry, with a wonderfully detailed idea including images. After reading it, they post a comment on the blog entry adding their *own* thoughts and ideas. They look at the "SL user status" button next to the entry, and see that the person who wrote this blog entry is *not* currently online. But that's fine. Since they know that next time the user logs on, they will be notified that someone has commented on their blog post.

Now...imagine if *everyone* in SL had this. Automatically. When a user registers, they are immediately given a blog account. And if a user already has a blog site, there are tools to allow them to *link* to their blog...to allow them to post to it while they are in SL.

And...imagine if all these blogs sites could be accessible to the *general public* on the Internet. So that someone wandering over to the SL website can click on a "SL Blogosphere" link and have access (including search capabilities) to every SL user's blog site.

Finally...imagine the rich tapestry of ideas and visions that would grow over time. And how it could help people both within SL and outside of SL learn what people are doing and ultimately find other people with similar interests.

Just...imagine it all. Imagine how it would allow the growth of a persistent culture of ideas. Allowing people to find each other and collaborate.

This is one of my dreams. Anyone want to help me build it?

Might work....I think public executions would be better but we can try your way first

All that spontaneous me stuff leads to bad writing. It can be helpful to compose your thoughts and write a complete sentence answering the five Ws on a "kludgy" notecard rather than spontaneously writing essentially off-the-cuff graffiti on the sky to fill up the servers with more junk that people then have to sift through to find their "soul mates" putting up their spontaneous-me thoughts. There's a reason why there are limits on human communication. It's actually not so interesting, and actually quite destructive, to get the unfiltered Jack-Kerouac stream of consciousness coming out of the average Internet-user's head. I'd like some filter please. Make mine a double. No a triple, with fries. I don't need that much interface.

Point taken. But think for a moment beyond the somewhat subjective definition of "bad writing." Imagine if you could give people the ability, *within* SL, to share ideas and thoughts asynchronously. In a way that is searchable. And, accessible to people outside of SL, thereby bringing new people into the SL community.

People with similar ideas would find each other. People with similar goals could build, over time, a body of writing and images that would be persistent. The tapestry of different cultures in SL would have a new way to grow and evolve.

People finding other people with similar interests. Isn't that what SL is all about?

It is pointless to try and figure out what the "singular culture" of SL is. It's a tapestry of cultures. Giving these different cultures the ability to share their ideas in an asynchronous way built-in to SL would be, IMHO, a big step in allowing these cultures to develop and evolve on their own.

Prokofy puts the "I" in "infrastructure"

Here's another refinement of my idea. Imagine if all the Lindens started using their blogs to post their thoughts on a regular basis. Imagine if you could have, built-in to the SL client, a way to keep track of what the Lindens are posting on their blogs. And a way to reply to and *search* these blogs inworld.

I imagine selecting a menu option in SL called "Linden Blogs." Reading the latest thoughts and news directly from the blogs of all the Lindens. And being able to be notified *inworld* when a Linden has posted to their blog site....with the ability for me to post a comment.

Imagine what that could do for increasing communication between the Lindens and the residents of SL. And since it is asynchronous, it would ALL be part of a permanent record...searchable and accessible to everyone within the SL world.

Remember...Only 10% of the users of SL access these forums. Which means MOST people in SL never see the forum-posted transcripts of "town meetings." To 90% of the SL population, what is posted here in the forums, both by residents and by the Lindens, is...invisible.

I like this idea

what would it take to do this??

i like the linden blogs idea. could be a good first step toward a final goal of a multi faceted interactive searchable data base.

There are a few simple yet effective steps towards this... one of them is RSS and XML syndication, which already exists -- I have a number of SL blogs on my BLOGLINES.COM account (I highly recommend!). Keeps me up to speed on the news.

Speaking of, I don't have Linden blogs syndicated yet... should add them to the roll right about now (the funk soul brotha).

!

This is a wonderful idea! It would likely help bring the community together, and would be extremely helpful in any case. Now, -there's- an idea of what to put on the bottom bar where the Leader Boards are..

I like this.. I don't visit the forums much because it takes time off of SL play and other forums that need to come first. Yet, there is such a wealth of information here.

My computer crashes when I try to do SL and refer back to the internet. Accessing info from outside SL while inside SL would be so much more doable. Also, instead of depending on the names of groups to find someone of similar interests, or the limited entries that come up when you use the "Find" tab, it would open up the doors so much wider. I think many people would benefit from this.. when you first enter SL, things are pretty frantic. No place to put your feet down.

I benefitted from being brought in under Project Brigadoon. There was a ready made place to springboard from. I am trying to do the same thing using ShockProof as a springboard for people with stroke histories.

With this type of thing available, not so many people would be lost when joining SL and probably stick around longer. There would be a ready pool of people to help you find your way around. The Welcome Centers did not help me as much as something on this order would.


Soj

of course, we'll also eventually be able to pull up web pages within SL, at which point this idea could be easily incorporated.

i already have an "asynchronous communication tool".. otherwise known as a group on MySpace. it's called SecondSpace (see my sig) and will probably be bridged in-world once we have www interface abilities within SL.

but still, i like the idea of a central "SL blogosphere" where anyone can post anything at anytime where anyone can read any of it. i think this would be a strong reagent to add to the intangible glue that holds SL together as a community.

in other words, i endorse this idea/feature!

Heh...excellent idea. That button is taking up prime screen real estate....and I suspect it isn't used very frequently.

John, I actually like that Idea, whether its currently feaseable in SL not sure but I like it and would open arm it for a future release..

Shadow

I don't want to sound negative, but I don't see this in the long run, being useful. About the first post about people being to blog from SL to database where everyone can search, I just don't think it will work. You will have a few people that will have blogs that are fun and useful, then you have the majority of which that will just mess it up. If you read these forums, or explored SL outside of your regular group, you'll know what I'm talking about. I feel that actually having to work to make a blog site filters out alot of the oeople that want to make "no-no" blogs. I think it would be a great idea, but you gotta to think about the SL people as a whole, and not just the mature.

As for the Linden post thing, I'm not sure how useful it would be. I don't see many Linden post or thoughts as it is, so I can't imagine this idea having much content. If they did actually use it, it would be a great feature.

So everyone gets a blog in world? I think it would be like the forums... everybody talking and nobody listening.

HA! Just kidding
(sorta)
(i mean, the blogosphere in RL is a lotta noise of course and i would guess that a very small % of blogs get the vast majority of the readership traffic... that said... notecards ARE kloodgy)

I know I would use such a feature.

A web-based map of SL, where each sim is not only a geographic representation but also a neighborhood blog for the people who own land in there, would be a great means of asynchronous community. Build it on the intarweb for now, and then later find ways of accessing it inworld.

hehe for once i agree with Prokofy. it must be the apocalypse.

why not just run sl in a window so you can pop up your real browser over it and enter stuff in your real blog but still see sl behind it? then other people can run sl in a window and when they want to they can open their browswer over it and search the real "blogosphere" (that sounds dirty) for sl stuff. problem solved with no LL involvement. yay we did it for ourselves!

Two reasons, really. First of all, in my experience I've heard that most people don't run SL in a window. The SL client is too much of a resource hog to allow most people to have multiple programs running and switching between them. Second, opening up a browser window is "breaking the metaphor" of SL. It's pulling you out of the whole immersive virtual world experience. Once you open a browser, you're apt to then check your email....or wander over to CNN...and before you know it, you're not really "in" SL anymore.

SL isn't something like AIM...a chat program that you keep running in the background while you are working on various other things. SL is a uniquely immersive "medium." It's a world you want to lose yourself in (in a good way ). I'd simply love to see more interpersonal communication tools (specifically asynchronous) that allow you to stay immersed in this virtual world yet have more opportunities to share ideas.

not wanting to start waving geek flags but my computer isn't all that much of a "hoss" and i still can run sl in a window plus photoshop plus poser plus a couple browsers and switch between them. i guess everyone is different but i'm not top of the line or anything.

about the other thing...... i dunno. i don't see sl as a big immersive fantasy world where i need to suspend belief and things can break that. if it was a fictional world or i was roleplaying an elf and fighting dragons or something maybe but i'm just me doing fun stuff with a program. it's like i don't feel like the immersion broke when i switch from email to photoshop. anyways IMNSHO the whole "immersion" thing is like trying to define morality. everybody has their definition they'd fight to the death over and it's different from everybody else's definition. which makes me think there isn't a real true definition so people shouldn't even start arguing about whether running in a window breaks immersion or having a search window pop up over everything breaks immersion or being able to fly or not breaks immersion etc.

bottomline....... probably the same number of people would use a built in sl blog system as do blogs outside sl. so not many compared to the whole population. and we can already do all this stuff even without it being built in so why use LL time for it? i'm sure someone will be happy to step up and tell me.

I have trouble running SL and -Notepad-. Thank God Calculator is a pretty small program, though..

Speaking of, WHERE'S THE IN-WORLD CALCULATOR, YO?