Second Life Workgroup - year end report

As chair of the Second Life Workgroup, I've just finished my year-end report to Stephen Abram, Association President.   A copy of the report is below.  (The formating is not quite the same as the MS Word document.)  If you have questions, concerns, etc., please leave a comment of email me at hurst at hurstassociates.com  Thank you!

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TO:                 Stephen Abram

 

FROM:           Jill Hurst-Wahl

 

DATE:            December 17, 2008

 

SUBJECT:     Second Life Workgroup

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS: As chair of the Second Life Workgroup, I recommend the following:

 

1.      That SLA creates a Virtual Worlds (VW) Advisory Council, which reports to the SLA Board of Directors.  This Advisory Council would be charged with setting the short and long-term direction that SLA takes with virtual worlds in general and Second Life specifically.  Members are people who spend time (work) in virtual worlds and see themselves as VW advocates that interact with SLA members, leadership and staff.   Council members should be seen as advisors, leaders and doers – with all three being equally important.  However, the Association should not rely on Council members solely for all VW activity. 

 

2.      That SLA provides a budget that can be used to create, maintain and promote the Association’s virtual world activities.   Like others SLA units (i.e., chapters and divisions), the money must be readily available to the Advisory Council for their use. 

 

3.      That the following people be invited to join this Advisory Council upon its creation:

•  Heather O’Daniel (Rio Grande Chapter)
• Patricia Alderman (Virginia Chapter)
• Nancy Kellett (Florida and Caribbean Ch.)
• Marcella Dulka (Illinois Chapter)
• Diane Mogren (Cleveland Chapter)
• Christy Confetti Higgins (Rocky Mtn. Chapter)
• Scott Brown (Rocky Mountain Chapter)
• Amilie Anatine (avatar, Rio Grande Chapter)
• Lynda Larsen (Georgia Chapter)

 

Each of these SLA members has shown dedication and interest in learning, exploring and being a part of Second Life.  Some have an amazing dedication to and knowledge about Second Life that will be extremely valuable to the Association.

 

In addition, the Association Office contact for the Council should be from the Professional Development and the Council should have a Board liaison (hopefully someone with an interest in virtual worlds).

 

4.      That SLA maintains a presence in Second Life for the foreseeable future.  Rent on the current land will come due in February ($188/year).  This space could continue to house the Association’s efforts including a virtual world classroom for ClickU.   John Lowery has reported that, “Professional Development and Click U are very interested in growing our presence in SL. Two of the CEO's objectives for 2009 are to establish a Click U presence in SL and to conduct at least one (and hopefully multiple) seminar via a combined in-world and out of world model.” 

 

5.      That the SLA Centennial Commission works with interested members and the Virtual Worlds Advisory Council SLA to create Centennial activities in Second Life during 2009.  This would be a great opportunity to expose more of to Second Life as well as offer a unique way to celebrate the Association’s 100^th anniversary.

 

BACKGROUND: In January 2008, you launched the Second Life Workgroup at the Leadership Summit.  The workgroup has had the following vision and mission:

 

Vision:  As part of the initiatives launched by SLA President, Stephen Abram, this initiative will complement the existing learning opportunities available to SLA members.  In addition, it will assist in jump-starting and showcasing the innovative and forward-thinking aspects of librarianship and the information profession.

 

Mission:  To facilitate SLA members learning about and exploring Second Life (SL), as part of SLA’s overall initiative to have members more involved in social networking tools including virtual worlds.

Through the efforts of individuals in the workgroup, we have:

• Created a welcoming and functional space in Second Life that includes a sandbox, areas for presentations, and space for informal gatherings.  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City%20II/59/100/22  SLA will begin paying rent on this one acre (4096 sq meters) piece of land in February 2009 ($188/year).   Heather O’Daniel and Amilie Anatine spearheaded our development in-world.
• Developed a wiki for disseminating information. While many members have contributed to the wiki, Mimi Calter took the initiative to set it up. (http://wiki.sla.org/display/SLASECONDLIFE/)
• Created a Google Calendar for events.  This calendar can be “fed” to other sites and in-world, so that publishing information on upcoming events can be accomplished more easily.  (http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=slasecondlifecalendar%40gmail.com)
• Created a blog for the group.  While Christy Confetti Higgins set up the blog, Pat Alderman has been a tireless contributor to the blog and had posted information about Second Life that the team (and others) should know. (http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/sla_in_second_life/)
• Held Click U sessions on Second Life, followed by in-world training (Christy Confetti Higgins and Scott Brown). [Eight sessions total.]
• Held training in-world to teach people more advance skills, including building (Heather O’Daniel and Amilie Anatine).
• Hosted events in Second Life for SLA members and other interested avatars, including:
• •  What SLA is doing with/in Second Life?
  • Real Worlds, Virtual Libraries
  • Engaging with LIS Students in Second Life (in conjunction with SAAAC)
  •  Talking, looking, flying, searching: A research report on information seeking behavior in SL
  • Economic Education and Second Life (arranged by Kan Kin)
  • Economic Education/Research and Virtual Worlds (arranged by Kan Kin)
  • Developing an Global Innovation Culture in SL

• Published an article in Information Outlook that was coordinated by Richard Hulser, with input from many team members.
• Created a video piece for the annual conference with input from staff at LexisNexis (Michele Vivona and Denise Koenig) and help from SLA HQ, AVMG, Mimi Calter and others at Stanford University, and many members of the workgroup.  This was truly a collaborative effort.  (We don’t know what happened to the final video, but we had hoped to be able to post it online.  If there is still a possibility of doing so, please let us know.)

 

Besides those team members mentioned above, there are other team members that I want to mention in this report, whose tireless contributions have been important to our efforts – Nancy Kellett, Marcy Dulka, and Diane Mogren.

 

Anecdotal evidence tells us that we have indeed drawn SLA members into Second Life.   Not only some who had not explored it before, but also some who had limited exposure to SL.  Our events gave people a reason to be there and to become accustomed to the environment.  Anecdotally, we also know that we have made a difference in SL.  More people are now aware of  SLA, which is a positive.  And we have had non-SLA members attend some of our events.   Paraphrasing Pat Alderman, while we have not achieved a sense of community in Second Life, SLA has achieved at least some recognition in-world.

 

While we have done much, in reality we have done very little.  As we review the year, committee members have asked these questions:

• We have met our basic goals, but have we made SLA truly a part of Second Life?   
• Has SLA become a destination for people in Second Life? 
• Are we having an impact on Second Life? 

 

The answer to each question is “no” and this is disconcerting to some people. While these were not part of our goals, some feel that these are what we should measure our success on.  However, I believe that the creation of a new Advisory Committee and the other recommendations, at the beginning of this document, would begin to change the no’s into yes’s.  I hope that you will put forth these recommendations for adoption at the January SLA Board of Directors meeting.

 

Finally, Stephen, thank you for asking me to lead this group in 2008.  Doing so pushed me to learn more about SL (and there is always something to learn).  I also met more SLA members; some of whom I would not have met otherwise.  You’ll notice that I have not listed myself to be part of the VW Advisory Council.  In 2009, I will be re-balancing my work life and volunteer activities, due my new position.  I also truly believe that the people listed as possible Council members have the passion and skill that will be needed.  In addition, I know that there are already people among them that could aptly lead their efforts.

Comments

[Jill Hurst-Wahl]

Of course, I send the report (earlier than expected) and then Cindy Hill emails a good comment:

"My one suggestion is to encourage the open atmosphere of having lots of individuals being kept aware of what's happening with the VW group so that when/if they have the expertise, knowledge and/or time to contribute they can more easily step in to a contributing role.

"Oh, just thought of a second suggestion. That there be a strong, continuous communication process - not only within SLA (leadership discussion list, units discussion lists, CEO and Prez messages) but that the group communicate to other info-related VW groups. You never know where our members are and by extending the communication thread we just might entice them to work more closely with SLA."

[Stephen Abram]

Awesome Second Life Crew:
Yep, you guys are awesome! The work you've done has proven that SLA can innovate and think all over and outside the box, even when there's no box.
I'm looking forward to my speech tonight in SLA SL.
Thank you.
Stephen

[Lisa Zilinski]

I would love to be involved in this initiative.

Lisa Zilinski (Anuschka Ninetails)

[CarynW]

I've been talking up the "how to" programs to co-workers and others, but the calendar doesn't show any that are still in the future. Have any more been planned?