It Began With A Japanese Lantern

Research discussions held: 1 (good); Metaphorical objects discovered: 1 (multilayered yet ambiguous, obviously)

Today used Sakura House as discussion venue for first time in long while. Is still original 2007 build, and causes nostalgia and happy memories of days gone past e.g. time when student holding Jack Daniels bottle stumbled into infolit discussion and fell unconscious at our feet. Felt Pioneer Teacher credibility status went up several notches as real student doing something recreational in SL is always a desirable outcome for SL teachers.

Topic of discussion today was research approaches. Pancha talked about constructivist grounded theory, Ridvan about case study with ethnographic texture, and I talked about autoethnographic study of SL that have still not done even after several years of printing out articles about autoethnography and filing them away in boxes/on hard drive. Suppose actually reading articles might speed process, but in this case managed to produce paragraph for notecard by copying out a few sentences** found in a textbook on Google Books. Will probably now have to buy book and put it on shelf, as author appears to be guru in field. Can Reading Book be far behind (answer: yes)

For uninitiated, autoethnography is ethnography about self. Actually realise must have blogged about this before (do search of own blog). Yes, July 2010 http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/wasted-evening-or-pleasant-evening.html. Think have progressed since then as am sure are more articles in the Autoethnography article box now.

After meeting meandered outside Sakura house and reminisced about time when had just got island and put down a japanese lantern as the first object. Have recreated scene in pic, right.
Pancha observed
"the lantern is a good metaphorical object"
which actually hadn't thought of before and is Useful Insight for a budding autoethnographer. Was this lurking in back of mind when selected it as First Prims? Think that it was just that liked japanesey things and lantern was copiable. However, perhaps was more too it than that and didn't even realise!

In fact for purposes of autoethnography should reproduce chunk of text JUST NOW, fictionalise it and then reflect on it

1. Chatlog
[2014/04/23 13:21] Sheila Yoshikawa: that japanese lantern was the first thing i placed on the island after we got it on 2007
[2014/04/23 13:22] Sheila Yoshikawa: so i am sentimentally attached to it
[2014/04/23 13:22] Sheila Yoshikawa: (the one on the little island)
[2014/04/23 13:22] Pancha Enzyme: ooh i see now
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: i felt soooooooooooooo excited when i got the island and had 15000 prims
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: and a whole island to terraform
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: getting into the autoethnographic swing
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: actually
[2014/04/23 13:23] Pancha Enzyme: :-D
[2014/04/23 13:23] Pancha Enzyme: excellent!
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: not to be modest
[2014/04/23 13:23] Ridvan-Researcher (ridvan.atolia): u going to start from here then :)
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: ****
[2014/04/23 13:24] Pancha Enzyme: the lantern is a good metaphorical object
[2014/04/23 13:24] Sheila Yoshikawa: lol
[2014/04/23 13:24] Sheila Yoshikawa: indeed
[2014/04/23 13:24] Sheila Yoshikawa: shining light on my whole SL experience
[2014/04/23 13:24] Pancha Enzyme: :-D
[2014/04/23 13:24] Sheila Yoshikawa: It Started With A Japanese Lantern
[2014/04/23 13:24] Pancha Enzyme: yes!
[2014/04/23 13:24] Sheila Yoshikawa: 9 prims
[2014/04/23 13:25] Sheila Yoshikawa: but at least that means you can see it from a distance
[2014/04/23 13:25] Sheila Yoshikawa: i have a problem with a lot of these very prim-light objects
[2014/04/23 13:25] Ridvan-Researcher (ridvan.atolia): I am looking forward to be 1st reader of your paper Sheila :)
[2014/04/23 13:25] Pancha Enzyme: I still have vivid memories of meeting you and Ishbel for the first time in here and eating japanese barbeque

**** [line censored as was indeed being immodest and comparing ability to write fiction favourably with someone v. famous in autoethnography world, who knows if said person might google own name and "autoethnography", too dreadful to contemplate]

2. Fictionalised version
After the meeting I felt impelled to walk to the door and look our over the glimmering, shimmering sea to where the lone, stone lantern threw its light. I murmured, emotion catching my throat, "that was the first object I placed on this island". Ridvan and Pancha joined me. Together we contemplated the view. I recalled the wild exhilaration of seeing a new, virgin land blossoming beneath me, ready to be terraformed to my will. I smiled "Such and exciting experience". Ridvan jested lightly "So, your autoethnoethnographic journey starts here!" I nodded "yes, my systematic sociological introspection, as Ellis says". This time, this place, were good places to recreate my journey, to delve within and without. Pancha exclaimed "the lantern is a good metaphorical object". I smiled at her insight, observing "Indeed, for it shines light on the whole of my SL experience." As dusk fell, we recalled more happy times on Infolit iSchool. I felt invigorated, inspired.

3. Reflective account
Well can reflect that SL scenery evokes emotional response as would RL scenery and that also am nostalgic person with attachment to pixelated objects. Also that if am with another Immersed person with Shared Experiences can launch into reminiscence session as dull for 3rd party as is RL equivalent.

Ho hum not sure that is really deep reflection, but actually need to stop blogging and get home as tomorrow outside SL have got v.v. large amount of things to do and then off to RL Sweden where will be attending friend's PhD viva, which over there is public performance.

So, one more step on the autoethnographic highway!

**WITH DUE CITATION AND QUOTE MARKS, just to make that clear

Multicoloured musings

Hunts toyed with: 2 (good); Papers on SL delivered in RL: 1 (excellent, Naturally); No. of people attending talk: 7 (4 more than one of the other speakers; so, good)

Seem to be writing blog posts here circa once a month. Have speculated before on sad fall-off in Adventuresofyoshikawa productivity. One factor is still 52 weeks of colour challenge which has reached week thirty-something, so might as well mention that have blogged clothes in mauve, electric blue (see 1st pic), celadon, lemon and patriarch since last post here.

Some of these are colours that didn't know existed before 52 Weeks challenge, so am engaging actively in lifelong learning. Other skills for 52 weeks challenge include shopping, buying more linden so can do more shopping, spending hours trying on different virtual clothes, playing with lighting so look more exquisite in photo shoots and fiddling with photoshop to add final touch to exquisiteness. However, most of these are skills had mastered already, esp. shopping.

Have also acquired numerous freebies from Hunts, including bed with cotton bunny draped nostalgically over rail (see 2nd pic), boat, and supercute house with shutters that make creaking sound when open and close (also in 2nd pic). Stash of not-free-but-cheap includes 2 starry night skydomes, zen massage platform with parrots and urban rooftop garden. Could now have whole islands themed with different types of building e.g. think have at least 3 different stables and 3 different spa/massage sets, so could already create either equine paradise or health/spa resort.

Meanwhile, am dazzling RL friends with news that am researching how to do research in SL. Actually for "dazzling" could substitute "inducing glazed eyes and sudden realisation that they have urgent appointment elsewhere".




Have got v. interested in research on documentary photography & its application to SL, and whole issue of documenting and presenting research about SL. This is what paper at RL conference was about, and am sure that after hearing topic of presentation, readers will be wondering why audience was not 20 deep and queuing down the corridor rather than being confined to 7 people, one of whom was chairing session.

However must be said were only about 40 people at conference and at that point were 4 parallel sessions, so did not feel too bad about it. Also had attended previous session where were just 2 of us plus chair, so felt relieved were as many as 7.
Presentation included numerous pics (e.g. "spot the difference" ones above) and 2 videos, one of which is on Youtube and is linked below. As predicted, acquiring fraps recording software has been ... come to think of it, yet another reason why am not blogging here.

More of the same

Screenr captures taken: 1 (good); Screenr captures failing: 1 (bad); Registrations with Mendeley: 1 (good, I think)
Today had 2 meetings, namely the first Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Meeting, in which committed self to various things that will doubtless regret later, and meeting with Pancha to discuss article about SL journal club. Invited her over to the new skating rink and were able to skate, drink and talk about qualitative research all at the same time. During this discovered:
1) That hot chocolate dispenser only dispenses hot chocolate to me, somewhat pointless. Rectified anomoly by putting in Gluwein keg and tray of functioning hot choclate from What Next.
2) That is service called Mendeley that does academic stuff. At any rate have registered for it, and it appears it will aid our research work mightily, if I can work out what it's for.
3) That sometimes Screenr doesn't work. Recorded 5 mins of Pancha and me going round and round rink, and when last looked it was processing the vid merrily, but certainly doesn't work now and also can't download anything. Will give it til tomorrow in case Screenr Fairy was merely sleeping.
As substitute have created v. short Animoto video with some still pics that took of me and Pancha. Here it is. (NB 1st pic, above, shows me talking to a reindeer with a coal tit on its nose, in Noyo. The picture of the VWBPE meeting was just really too dull to post.)

A wasted evening or a pleasant evening?

Hours spent in SL last night: [mumbles shiftily] (bad? or good?)
Spent rather a lot of time in SL last night. Have been ruminating on whether this is Good Thing or Bad Thing. Peer pressure pushes one to latter view, but had reasonable amount of fun, so surely must be Good ...
Have been toying with idea of doing autoethnographic study and was thinking (whilst walking to work this morning in RL in pouring rain) about how might put together chatlog and pics and other people's pics to make a rich narrative of what went on. Was thinking could present this in SL, in fact ideal might be if you could be sent on the SAME JOURNEY (which implies some kind of HUD). However, believe that starting point (Relay For Life sims) are gone already. Therefore installations somewhere else in SL with giant posters and perhaps sound might do it, or COULD use one of the tour vehicles with one's commentary going on in text chat as you were flown round.
You may be thinking "surely autoethnography is some sort of cheat research" (unless you yourself are an authoethnographer, obviously). However, you can get published or even a PhD by doing it. This simple fact can be proved by googling "autoethnography aims" (as did but a short while ago).

The basics of autoethnography involve writing about yourself, but have to be illuminating some kind of reserarch problem, obviously, and also have to convince people that you are a sufficiently interesting case that you will give insights to others. Was thinking that perhaps if started by analysing a bit of data then might start refining questons. However, also realise that have just had annual Staff Review session with Head of Dept without word autoethnography passing lips, so perhaps thsi is one of those projects that will talk about for years and then lose interest in.
Anyway last night:
1) Visited Relay for Life sims, flying round the builds in a rather touristic fashion, pausing to try out any particularly cool animation e.g. shovelling coal or playing the church organ. There is big road, with donation points all along it.
2) Followed up on some items, found, notably, a v. pretty blue tree (which was Relay For Life charity item) and some goats. Bought tree but not goats. Sim with goats mostly sells wearable horses and hought horse demo which the tried out on Noyo after planting new tree.
3) Stalked visitor on my land who was outside one of my oriental houses, wearing sort of ronin outfit, in order to take pics.
4) This is point when might have gone home, but Brielle IMed me to ask if liked Scottish piping and next thing was doing a sword dance whilst the live pipes skirled away impressively. Stopped for a dram, then did some more dancing.
5) Looked at iheartsl fashion feed and saw an embedded video of this week's Fabulous Fashion which featured interview with creator of Swansong and Atomic Bambi. Watched it.
6) Remembered had Swansong dress in inventory that had never actually worn. Changed into it and saw it was good. Decided to base a look around it.
7) Tried on shoes, tights, wraps, necklaces, hair etc etc for some considerable time. Decided needed different shoes, went to G. Field where bought shoes AND tights. Also bought hair butterflies from Atomic Bambi.
8) Photographed self in rose garden in G. Field
9) Photoshopped and uploaded to Flickr, and then blogged outfit here.
10) Visited a sim. What? Why? Who knows, it was v. late by then, but think was in pursuit of some cute item. Anyway, ended up in Evans Cafe and at that point crashed out.

So, ever do analysis of the v. interesting night of 21st July, will be in good position to do so..

Procastinating whilst summoning energy to write posts about ESRC, VWBPE and Inf6011

PhDs examined in RL: 1 (good); PhD students taking successful viva this week: 1 (v. good); PhD topics consulted about: 1 (good); Articles written: 0 (bad)
Last week was Phd-y sort of one in RL in that first part of week was spent in whirlwind trip to Thessaloniki to examine PhD, then one of my own PhD students also came through viva successfully, and someone else chatted to me in SL about possible PhD topic. Somehow is all reminder that ought to be doing more research myself, and is not that lack material for same, nor indeed is there lack of pressure since my Department is already having Awaydays to prepare for the next research assessment exercise, so that we can retain current status in field ("Number One for 24 Years" as it says on our website).

So, probably ought to be doing less of this kind of writing and more introduction-methods-results-discussion-conclusions kind of stuff. Realised recently that one unfortunate fact is that, whilst rather enjoy rereading own blog entries, find that after having gone through n drafts of an academic article, and then reworked it to fit in with nitwit comments from referees, can scarcely bear to revisit it once published. This contrasts with some colleagues who get buzz from seeing own names at top of scholarly article. Wonder whether there is some kind of attraction therapy so will suddenly get amazing thrill from seeing own name on journal title page.

In meantime (to get back to serious matters) bought new Eva skin from Tuli. Tuli’s Elizabeth has been my main skin for ages now, being only one with the right level of paleness and (lack of) makeup. Will persist with Eva for a while, since makeup is OK, and skin detail is satisfying, but the Eva Tone 1 (which am wearing in 1st pic) is really a little bit TOO pale, whilst next colour up is a bit too rosy. Since hair is blue, have to keep to neutral skin tone, otherwise am v. restricted as to clothing colours. Anyway, Tuli’s remodelled sim is cute (as shown) with floating islands in sky and volcano on ground. Sim is called Journey. Think that this has no connection with T. Blair’s autobiography of same name, but is doubtless dollop of fantasy in both.

Pigs fly

Research launches attended: 1 (invigorating); Flying pigs rezzed: 1 (joyful); No. of flying pigs set with Poop On: 1 (amusing)
In RL attended today launch of Digital World initiative in which researchers in all reaches of university are exhorted to work in purposeful harmony to bag huge wodges of dosh for research that is, in some way, however tangential, about The Digital World. As far as can see are not v. lucrative new opportunities for dosh, but idea is that by working together can grab more of what is already on offer from research councils, EU etc.
Anyway, most memorable part was when assembled company was exhorted not to submit crap research bids, since said crapness would soil fair name of uni and make it likely that any future bids from other parts of uni would be lightly tossed aside simply from have originated from same institution. Obviously everyone v. sobered by this awful prospect, though must say that was seized by sudden urge to go home and write crap bid just to be awkward. Burning question remains though: exactly what IS a crap research bid? e.g. is it worse if the proposed research is crap, or if the proposal itself is?
On further thought, realised that could propose whole research programme stimulated by this theme, e.g.
1. Phenomenographic investigation into variations of conceptions of “crap research” at a Russell group University **
2. An action research project with starting problem “I want my research proposals to be less crap”, with at least two iterations of the action research cycle and employment of a panel of embittered old dons as critical friends
3. An auto-ethnographic investigation conducted by someone who has a well-documented trail of evidence showing that s/e always submits crap research proposals; leading to playfully transgressive accounts of lived experience of not getting research grants.
4. A case study of an academic department which is reknowned for its crap research bids, using Eisenhardt’s process of theory building to develop a model of crap research bid production;
5. A Delphi study to gain an expert consensus on the future character and prospects of crap research;
6. An investigation into factors determining crapness in research proposals, using a grounded theory approach;
6. A poll on Facebook of which researcher you would most like to throw crap at.

Hmm, that last one is a bit nasty, but if Facebook then would only be virtual crap. Anyway, might well ask what connection this have SL. One answer is that any of the above might become Virtual World Research candidates were the words “in SL” inserted somewhere within them. Other is that, although have been doing digital stuff for aeons, SL has made RL alt more likely to troll along to events such as these.

Day was not without SL activity, in that after zipping from said research meeting to some teaching, zipped back to help Bluewave who was introducing SL to a roomful of people in Texas. Bluewave has been v.v. successful in getting money to purchase dozens of regions, and is also v. helpful person generally. Have pics of this but on my other computer, so may add one later.

Afterwards spared a few minutes to fiddle around with latest animal purchase, namely flying pig.
Was in v. cute shop on Wednesday (see first pic) when Pancha IMed re. the posters that we are putting together for Alejandro’s Spanish-language discussion in Infolit week. As well as flying pigs, are also flying moles, moles that pop out of ground, lamb and pig merry-go-rounds (they wiggle their legs! they are so cute!) and much more. Tped Pancha to admire same and also have more serious discussion, and could not resist buying pig before leaving for Infolit.
Pigs are copy, and can set height, range o flight, and set chirp and poop (splats descend from sky) on and off. They take off v. gracefully, and are good size for those occasions when some animal interest is in order but you don’t want people being knocked over all the time. Also could be useful if you have to implement decision of Facebook poll, though might need to rez whole flock to get sufficient splat coverage.

Unfortunately haven't yet taken close-up pig pic., but looks like pig in 1st pic, but with wings. Is speck above me and Pancha in 2nd pic., happily chirping and pooping. 3rd pic shows Pancha and me contemplating her information literacy poster with multiple embedded notecards. Alfabatizacion Informacional para toda la vida. Indeed.

** [note to Australians: this is like “sandstone”; note to Americans: this is not quite as good as Ivy League]

Focus group

No. of focus groups held in SL: 1 (good); No. of RL eyes suffering from blurring: 1 (bad); No. of times crashed during focus group: 6 (bad); Mistakes in logging text chat: 1 (bad)
[Seem to have written this but not posted it. Perhaps I thought it was too dull.** See whether you agree!] On 30 April Pancha held her focus group investigating library and information people using SL for Continuing Professional development & networking. This is part of a research project by Pancha Enzyme & Zeno Silvercloud for EAHIL Workshop 2009. Was a small group, which actually worked v. well. I had offered to be Observer, sorting out latecomers, setting up recorder for Informed Consent (logging names via the blue thing in the middle of the circle of chairs) and noting anything interesting that I Observed. This is a recommended role to include when you are doing focus groups.

Was interesting to see what stimulated most comment - for example people tended to talk about teaching and supporting learners, rather than collaboration and networking, til steered gently back to the main question. Also there was a lively response when one person said that SL didn't seem to have that much advantage over a chat room - shows that having conflicting opinions teases out complexity.
Pancha (seen - she is on left - with focus group member) did great job, but own input was compromised in number of ways:
a) Had woken up in RL that morning with itching & blurred eye. Worried, had gone to optician who referred me to eye hospital. Turned out to be nothing serious (front of eye had dried out... well it wasn't v. pleasant, to be frank) and was sent away with some ointment. However this meant that did not really want to stay late at work, so used SL from home, which meant that...
b) had v. dodgy connection via 3G mobile stick. Was Ok for first half of focus group, but after that was crashing in and out in yoyo-like fashion. Last pic shows how S-L-O-W everything was to rez (see last pic). Final depression caused when found that ...
c) although had remembered to change the path for my text chat log to a drive on this home computer, had NOT noticed that the "log chat" box in preferences was not actually ticked .... thus found afterwards that had logged all the IMs from people and none of the chat.
Oh well, lots of Lessons Learnt.
** This blog, not focus group, obviously.

More about Tuesday

Crawl through pipes bought: 1 (good); Novelty trees bought: pack of 5 (good); Novelty gravestone poses bought: 1 (v. good); Research seminars attended: 1 (good); Hours sleep lost: 2 or 3 or ... (bad)

Was flicking through pics and realised that did lots of other stuff on Tuesday that hadn't blogged. Notable was the regular Tuesday SL researchers seminar - planning researcher Olf Ort was talking about the elements in planning drawings etc. that might link to SL (elements of fantasy or imagination - I think) and how use of 3D renderings of potential planning sites leads logically to SL as the more immersive way of finding out people's reactions to planned environments.

Hmmmm, probably didn't capture any of the essentials there. Word "Affordances" was certainly used (as in "affordances of SL"), a v. useful word that I bandy about a lot now that I know what it means. Anyway, this session has has made a connection with the talk I heard from an artist who was saying how using social networking sites etc was actually enabling artists to extend practices that were very old (use of artists' notebooks with found ideas and new sketches etc.) through use of technology.

Similarly one can see how SL might be more useful (immediately) when it can build on and improve/extend existing practice, but (my not v. original thought) the immediately obvious application might not be the one one(s) that eventually proved to be most valuable. Think it could be that way with libraries/ librarianship.

On another note, stumbled across artist/designer's shop where purchased a number of items: namely a pipe with associated animation that makes you crawl through it (pictured), some unusual non-natural trees, a mat that you kneel on and when you stand up a flowerpot drops on your head, and a 2-person gravestone animation. Latter is v. cute and will feature it when find someone to be the other person in the animation.

Was pretty exhaused in RL and SL by the end of Tuesday what with education meeting, research seminar and all that having flowerpots landing on my head. Dropped into bed, lit the incense and didn't even have strength to turn out the light.

Testy; Time zones; in the Black Library; LILAC

Researchers taken for balloon ride: 1 (good); Discussions facilitated in the Black Library: 1 (good); Conference houses complete with appropriate foliage created: 1 (good); Conference t-shirts created: 2 (v. good); Conference bags created: 1 (good)

Had mentioned already (I think) that had encountered researcher about to do investigation into use of information in SL, namely Testy. Arranged to meet Testy on day after Virtual Worlds conference. Was almost disaster, since Linden Labs once more showed that SL is really in the USA since I arrived inworld to find I was an hour late. Apparently SL had jumped forward an hour because that was what happened in the USA. Had this been announced on the SL blog? No.

Anyway, once we met up had interesting talk about information in SL, information behaviour, avatar identity, Voice vs Chat and so forth. Asked Testy to lead discussion later on in year and she said yes, hurrah. Mostly had conversation relaxing in bean bag chairs, but then took balloon tour.

Next day I had volunteered to facilitate the "Lessons in SL" educators discussion. This takes place in the Black Library in Hyperborea every Monday, and the usual host (Buridan Simon) was at a conference, and I had volunteered to cover. You can see me in pic with witty sign over head. Wished to keep up his tradition of having no pre-set topic, which is even scarier than facilitating the normal discussions, but seemed to go OK with about usual numbers. A few familiar faces e.g. Ladyjane, came along, which was nice. Topics covered included learning spaces, HTML on a prim and environmental exhibits. People flicked in and out, but that tends to happen, also found self drawing things to close just before an hour was up as a sort of reflex action, whereas in fact these sessions normally last 90 mins. However was OK again and in fact discussing this sparked some more conversation.

Over next past of days have been preoccupied with preparation for sessions at RL conference on information literacy, LILAC, next week. Ishbel, Maggie and I had been preparing to do a session together, and I decided to have a special conference house with lilac round it (new line at Mau and Mej) on the island. In fact the sequence of events was actually that I saw that House of Effulgence had a really lovely new house (only 300 Linden including a package of furniture!) and was hunting round for excuse to buy it. Then I thought of the excuse.

Have been preparing a conference bag, and also a library landmarks box. Last pic shows me at Amsterdam Public Library on free bicycle you can get there, in front of cool display of downloadable music.

Research in SL

Meetings held in SL: 1 (good)

Latest meeting organised in SL (today) was on Samples and sampling in Second Life research. The transcript of the session is at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=214. Oshun Akina had suggested the topic at the last meeting on research that we had, and she led the discussion. It is a pic of her at the start of this post. I produced the notecard and did practical things like trying to teleport in people who wanted to come along (and, generally, failed in this task, I blame Linden Labs).

I thought the discussion was interesting with useful points made, though as usual as many questions as answers. People were able to contribute some experience, including someone who's been carrying out commercial research. There is always a lot of discussion about the extent to which RL and SL are/have to be linked: identity and so forth.

After the discussion some people stayed on and we chatted on about avatar identity etc etc. Poot also showed us a range of her avatars which was entertaining. Makes me feel rather unambitious in that stick with one shape/skin. In fact need to find out how to save shape as is my own customisation and have horrible feeling would have to start from scratch if by mistake I Wore another one.

Realise that haven't yet put up info on the LAST 2 discussions (held just before Christmas). Oh horror. Will catch up when come back from being Immersed.

Librarians in SL

Discussions held in Centre: 1 (good); Successful discussions held in Centre: 1 (v. good); People attending: 10 plus lurkers in RL (good)

On Tuesday 4th September Maggie Kohime (Lyn from Sheffield University Library in RL) led a discussion in the Centre for Information Literacy Research, Eduserv Island. The full title was How should Librarians present themselves in Second Life, or Facebook, My Space or other social networking tools, with a professional or a personal face?
The transcript is online split into two parts at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=124 and http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=125

10 people were there (including us) and the debate was lively (i.e. a good deal of parallel conversations going on). However they were interesting parallel conversations, and Maggie did a good job of leading and summarising. And certainly better than 10 avatars sitting in a ring with AWAY over their heads, as is nightmare of discussion organisers (well, actual nightmare is, say 3 people turning up and all 3 disappearing in puff of smoke after 5 minutes - or 50 avatars turning up and you can't get them all on the island. But silent fidgety avatars is pretty bad).

Anyway there was none of that at this session and a range of issues got discussed. In our group some had alternative avatars for different occasions though more did not. (Some) people were buying clothes, but not so much playing with appearance.

The discussion raised questions about the librarians' role - why they are there - and also the "conservative nature of some students and staff inc. expectations that you should look "normal". Towards the end there was mention of intellectual property, liability issues etc. and I have flagged that up as a future topic.

Is there an equivalent of the RL stereotype of bun and glasses, or of "smart casual". It seemed like there did seem to be norms emerging, though not exactly the same as in RL.

Maggie provided some questions for discussion:
1. How do you decide on how you want your avatar to appear?
2. How many of us recreate ourselves as closely as possible in Second Life, make ourselves look how we would wish to look in RL or even have a different looking avatar for different days of the week? (Amdahl, 2006)
3. Do we need to label who we are? (e.g. "Librarian" - opinion was divided - or, rather, it seemed to depend on the context)4. If our students become our ‘friends’ within the social networking environments how do we keep our professional and our social lives separate?
5. How do we ensure privacy and confidentiality as we start to develop an academic virtual world?

Things which seemed to work: 1) Having a notecard prepared for people (again); 2) Having 2 people involved, so one can concentrate on facilitating and the other on helping people; 3) Planning for what to do if too many people turn up (we were going to go to the Eduserv conference centre, had the teleport link all ready).
And after the meeting I tidied up and played with the rabbits.