Second Life is one of the more
popular social networking sites that have begun to populate the internet.
It is an online virtual world - a place where people meet, socialize
and create their own identity. Every hotel and hot tub, meeting
space, garden - everything - is created by Second Life users with
software provided by the program's creators - San Francisco-based
Linden Research Inc. Second Life has its own currency, Linden
dollars, that residents use to buy and sell goods and services.
And buy and sell they do - according to Business Week, in February,
2007 alone, $5 million US changed hands on Second Life. In its
inception in 2003, the virtual world had 160,000 users - at the beginning
of 2007 this number had jumped to 2.5 million. Major America
retailers such as Gap and American Apparel have set up shop there, Universities
have begun opening Second Life campuses and Sweden has even opened an
embassy in the virtual world. Second Life is booming.
A few museums have already
ventured into Second Life: the Louvre, San Francisco's Exploratorium,
the San Jose Museum of Art and the International Spaceflight Museum
are among those that have the most visible presence. There are
also museums that exist only in Second Life: the Bayside Beach Galleria
Museum of Contemporary Art and Paris 1900 are among these. The
Bayside Beach Galleria is a series of rooms in a busy section of Second
Life with rotating contemporary art exhibits - a typical gallery transplanted
into Second Life. Paris 1900 capitalizes on the boundless nature
of Second Life. It is a complete replication of Paris in 1900
from cafes and nightclubs such as the Moulin Rouge (complete with elephant!),
to shops selling clothes from wedding gowns to lingerie (that you can
purchase for your avatar to wear). The user is fully immersed
in the experience of Paris at the turn of the Century.
Compared to the eagerness in
which business has embraced Second Life, museums have been slow to make
their mark in the virtual world. Obviously money and resources
have to be considered, but there are some compelling reasons why museums
should be participating in this metaverse. In Second Life, a museum
immediately has the potential to reach 2.5 million visitors that don't
have to worry about the high price of gas or operating hours.
Better yet, these are young visitors, those that you might never get
through the door of your brick and mortar museum otherwise. As
well, a Second Life presence allows a museum to extend the user experience
- even beyond what's possible under the laws of physics!
The Exploratorium, for example,
has created an environment where a user can catch a ride around the
sun on Halley's comet to understand its trajectory. A
performance not easily replicated in our world. You can reimagine
your museum any way you want - forget the walls, forget the floor
- you can change colors easily and change shapes just as easily.
You can even change the shape of all your curators. In a world
where the sun always shines, there is no reason not to display artifacts
in the open air or even floating in mid-air. Second Life users are able
to fly and museums can take new approaches in displaying artifacts.
The only limitation in Second Life is one's imagination.
If you are not ready to fully immerse yourself in the world of Second
Life at least dip your toes in the water. It is free to join and
once there you can begin to imagine some of the possibilities.
Just watch out for falling comets.
Getting Started in Second Life
When you first enter Second Life you will be visiting Orientation Island - a good place to explore and get your sea legs before venturing further in Second Life.
David Alexander (david@zeroonedesign.com) is one of the geeks at Zero One Design and his Second Life goal is to rough up his boy-next-door avatar a little. He blogs at blog.zeroonedesign.com.