CAMPUS

Lehigh University to Purchase Island in SecondLife

When most people think of the Internet, they think of “traditional” websites such as Google, Yahoo, and Wikipedia. Amongst the gaming community, the Internet is the primary facilitator of Massively Multi-player Online Games (MMOs), which allow hundreds of thousands of players across the world to play the same game, in the same world, either in tandem or in opposition with each other. Yet another cross-section of the Internet community views the Internet as a great way to meet other people and communicate with them through the use of Social Networking Sites (Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, etc.).

In the past few years, the complexity of MMOs has increased, as has that of Social Networking Sites. In 2003, Linden Research, Inc. released a hybrid of the two technologies, dubbed SecondLife, which enables users to create avatars and interact with other people (through their respective avatars) in a virtual world. Rather than having goals similar to those of other MMOs, in SecondLife the goal is essentially the same as that of one’s “first” life. SecondLife allows for the leasing of land, enumerated in a currency that Linden Research invented (Linden Dollars), and also allows for the creation, buying, and selling of goods. Essentially, Linden Research attempted to create an entirely virtual world that is an almost perfect clone of the real world.

Recently, Library and Technology Services (LTS), has begun making plans to purchase an “island” (a plot of land) in SecondLife. According to Greg Reihman, Faculty and Development Director for LTS, several professors are already using SecondLife and more have expressed interest in doing so.

Reihman cited the applications of a technology such as SecondLife to communications and collaboration, claiming that “the 3D environment allows for forms of communication and presentation that are very different from what occurs using other communication tools,” with email and video-conferencing as examples of technologies currently used to achieve these goals. He also suggested the possibility of SecondLife’s application to distance education, enabling students to interact with professors and (virtual) classmates from anywhere in the world. In addition, technologies such as SecondLife might open up possibilities for students to create structures, buildings, and art in design classes or similar situations.

Aside from the use of SecondLife as a technology to simply augment what goes on in the classroom, Reihman cited examples of using SecondLife as the subject of studies in several different fields. He has already used SecondLife as an example in a philosophy class dealing with ontology (“what is real and how we decide what is real”). Professor Robert Rosewein, in the Sociology Department, is studying SecondLife because of its social and cultural implications. Professor Roger Nagel, who teaches a course on cyberethics in the Computer Science and Engineering Department, is also studying social networking sites, including SecondLife. Said Reihman, “[SecondLife is] where many people develop new identities and new forms of interaction and these new phenomena are intrinsically interesting to scholars working in those areas.”

Above all, the primary reason that the University is investigating SecondLife is that “it seems very likely that some form of virtual environment will have an impact on how we communicate and interact in the future, so many educators want to ensure that students are ready to participate in such environments – perhaps even to contribute to the development of such environments.”

Lehigh University would not be the first campus to set foot in SecondLife, as many campuses have already begun building virtual campuses and classrooms, communicating, collaborating, holding classes, and even hosting visits for prospective students. Universities already using SecondLife include Harvard, Ball State, Central Missouri State, Pepperdine, Bradley, and the University of Tennessee.

Reihman suspects that, though SecondLife might better be able to support some of the facilities that current technologies attempt to provide (video-conferencing, for example), this new technology will most likely not fully replace any major technologies, but simply serve as an enhancement.

The University’s official plans are somewhat vague. At present, the total cost of the project is unknown, but will become clearer as the project progresses. LTS is preparing for a small pilot in the spring and will make the necessary budgetary decisions based on what they decide to do and the response across campus to a SecondLife island.

According to SecondLife’s website, an island costs $1,675 US, plus approximately $300 per month for maintenance. Reihman suspects that this will be the initial investment. Although other campuses have gone with higher-cost ventures including hiring third-party designers to replicate real campuses in virtual worlds, Lehigh plans to start small and build further based on interest and how the project is received.

Brian Parks was a Senior Staff Writer for The Lehigh Patriot, a Collegiate Network publication. This article was originally featured in the December 2007 issue of The Patriot.