CIL2008: Second Life Cyber Tour

I did a Cyber Tour this afternoon on Second Life. The conference is maxing out the hotel's Internet connection, do I dared not too do much in-world. I did briefly tell them this history of Second Life and give them a few statistics. The five things I left them with, at the end of the 15-minute presentation, were:

1. There are more than 50 virtual worlds, with virtual worlds for children, teenagers, and adults. There are virtual worlds being used specific for business and education. Virtual worlds are not going away.
2. Second Life (SL) has attracted people because it is free and it is an environment that allows people to be creative.
3. It is worth repeating -- Second Life is free! Unless you want to own land, there is no reason to have a premium account. Premium accounts cost $9.95/mo.
4. It does matter what hardware you use. Generally speaking, you want to use a fairly new PC with good processor. The video card will matter, too. Check the SecondLife.com web site for the computer requirement. You will also want to use a broadband Internet connection, not dial-up.
5. There isn't a goal to Second Life. It's not a game. People do it for networking, professional development, and for fun.

And then I threw in one more....Users of SL do want library services, but not books. They want programs, exhibits, reference and the other services that libraries provide.

I also did a Cyber Tour of SL at Internet Librarian in the fall (notes).

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