1st life, 2nd life, whatever it takes.

I've officially begun classes toward my MLIS as of yesterday. Well, not quite officially yet but almost. I've signed into the Blackboard section and looked over the schedule. I'm excited and a little nervous to get started as it's been forever since I've done anything academic and the whole online format is a little intimidating. That's another thing, online. People raise eyebrows a little and I have to admit I'm a little apprehensive. I've asked around though, and it's got a pretty good reputation within the community and it looks like they're using a lot of really cool technology to bring people together to offer them something they wouldn't be able to get otherwise. So, we'll see.

I have been taking a class aimed at familiarizing us with that technology and it's been pretty interesting. It's a lot of content delivery type things in addition to online teleconferencing and mail lists etc. They have an online social network kind of like Facebook but not quite as flashy. That was sort of easy since I just signed up for Facebook recently so I was kind of used to it. The newest thing I've done for this so far is 2nd life. I don't really know how to explain it except as an online community where you can run around video game style and interact with other people from all over the world in a virtual environment. So you build an avatar and can go visit islands and own property and build things to sell or buy. There is an entire economy there based on Linden dollars, which you can exchange real dollars for. SJSU has a virtual campus there complete with cheery t-shirts and class rooms. Companies have places there and have meetings with people from all over. It's the new frontier I guess, though all I've seen of it is orientation island (could be a fox show, there's so much subtext in the title alone) and SJSU island, where the campus is. I thought it was creepy. People in various states of undress wonder around while they "edit" their appearance. And the one action I can perform at this point is undress. Though there was a blurb written on etiquette when you enroll that says you need to keep that sort of activity to specific places set up for that and rated appropriately. The default rating is PG. I guess it's like a smoking section of sorts for people who want to see naked video game people. Anyway right now I prefer 1st life but who knows, maybe I'll get used to it and get sucked in like Tron.