Second Life Research

Dear All,

not sure if this is the correct place to post so forgive me if not. I am a social researcher and and have become interested in the idea of doing some research into second life and its users as part of a larger project on social networks in general. I was told that there has been some work done in this area already though all I have found so far is a single ethnography.

If anyone is aware of any further reading on this subject or of any other reasearch done I'd be very grateful if you could post the details!

Thanks in advance,

Myles.

search for survey.

Be nice, Damien! We don't want to spam the poor OP with the tons of surveys that were supposedly done about SL. Nor the flames some of them have elicited.

I recall something like this, but I cannot give details as it's been a couple of years. I might suggest Google for seeing past articles from such sources as CNN, Wired, etc. I could have sworn I read it in one of them...

Hi guys,
I guess my question should have read "Is anyone aware of any interesting research already done in second life". my background is in the ongoing creation of identities throughout one's life. previous project was based on differences between a person's workplace persona and their social one... not totally confined to that area but just so you know it's not really a survey i'll be doing.
Thanks for the prompt replies,
Myles

I'd add, login, start exploring the world and talking to people. seems like the best way to research.

thats very true and i certainly intend to. still finding my feet in the world at the moment and getting to know some people. unfortunately i'll also need some literature (either to back up my findings or for me to disprove ).

There have been hundreds of surveys done through these forums, many of them trying to present themselves as reasonably serious academic research, others clearly high school assignments. Unfortunately, virtually none of them have ever provided results, but if you look through the dozens of threads about surveys I seem to recall a couple that did provide links to online results, although from memory those were little more than collated data with little or no analysis.

This is a really good read written by Tom Boellstorff (sl name Tom Bukowski): http://books.google.com/books/p/princeton?id=QmFQK7y6r_8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ViewAPI&hl=en#PPP1,M1


I'd also encourage you to conduct your research to the same standards in virtual worlds as you would in the real one such as IRB approvals, standards with regards to consent, recruitment, confidentiality etc etc.

In case you're thinking of posting a survey, I tried to collect some tips in this thread:

/327/33/310544/1.html

In a nutshell, you have to be careful doing research in Second Life since many many others have walked over our picnic in that way before.

I have to say to your credit that you're more polite than most of the people who want to examine us.

As I recall, most of the "work" done so far was for commercial interests (demographics; how likely are you to buy, etc.) or looking for contrasts between real-life gender and virtual gender.

Most of the surveyors seem to have no familiarity with Second Life when they create their surveys.

You might try going to the Forum Cartel Hangout (you can find it in Search). People do like to talk there and tend to be well informed and articulate.

But don't introduce yourself as a researcher. You have to ease into that.