SunOS man pages: A womanwriter's Perspective

Sometimes even avatars get bored.

My Second Life avatar is suffering from "island fever," Second Life Sun Islands Fever to be exact. As you've probably surmised, my avatar spends most of her Second Life on the Sun islands. I've graduated from staring at the Second Life ocean, to socializing and drinking coconut drinks in Sun's Club Tinki Winki, playing on the beach, and attending lectures or events. Still, I'm finding life on the Sun Islands a bit confining.

It's nothing personal against the Sun islands, which really are quite nice. I'd imagine that I'd feel similarly in real life if I lived in Hawaii.

The few times that I've ventured outside of the Sun Islands, I've not ended up in what I'd consider to be interesting or comfortable places. Second Life shopping malls and encounters with weird avatars don't do it for me. I'm looking for something different.

Back in real life it's that time of year again. American colleges and universities are in the process of sending out their acceptance letters for the fall. The national college reply date is May 1st. I'm long past my college days, but I'm especially conscious of the whole college admissions process as the children of some friends and relatives are part of it this year. I'm also an alumni interviewer for my undergraduate institution, Vassar College, so I've had the opportunity to meet with some local high school seniors over the past few months. Last night I called several folks that I'd interviewed to congratulate them on their acceptance to Vassar.

In my real life subconscious, I must have been thinking about colleges, because this morning, I woke up with a college-related Second Life idea: I'd go visit some educational institutions in Second Life! It was such an intriguing thought that I logged in to Second Life before I even finished my morning espresso. I entered "Vassar College" into the Second Life search window and requested a teleport to Vassar's virtual campus.

Fortunate for me and for readers of my blog that Vassar was among the earliest colleges to explore the educational potential of Second Life. They have an amazingly well-developed Second Life campus. Like the real life Vassar campus, the architecture is diverse and engaging. There are lots of trees and it is beautifully landscaped. I don't think that my comfort level and impression with Vassar's virtual campus is related to my alumni status.

The campus is open to anyone, and I'd encourage folks to go and visit. As avatar Oothoon Ogg posted on a Vassar Second Life bulletin board, "I love what you have done. It is the next best thing to being there." I have to say that I agree with him (or her). With a name like "Oothoon," you just don't know.

After walking around the virtual campus for a bit, I decided to take the ubiquitous college tour. I sat down in a what looked to be a chariot and flew around for my own private tour of the two Vassar islands. As the chariot flew around, words streamed across my computer screen introducing me to various landmarks on the virtual campus. It was an amazing tour, though I have to say I was impressed with the fact that only 212 avatars had taken advantage of it since May 5, 2007.

From what I see in the press, I'd guess that it's a minority of Second Life avatars who'd choose to fly around on chariots checking out virtual college campuses. It's certainly not the first time that I've felt that I'm just not like other avatars!

After the chariot ride, I decided to go to the Sistine Chapel. No, I wasn't off on a quick trip to The Vatican. Rather, I was off to Vassar's virtual re-creation of the Sistine Chapel in Second Life. I'd seen and heard about this on the tour and wanted to visit it up close.

As I approached the chapel, I encountered something that I'd never seen in Second Life. A sign explained that to enter the Sistine Chapel I had to agree to a "Code of Conduct." The Code of Conduct required me to agree that my avatar would behave in the same way as she would in real life, "with respect for the environment as well as for those visiting the environment." And, better yet, "Any misconduct will result in banishment from Vassar Island as well as in a report to Linden Labs." I was pleased to agree to this Code of Conduct, and also to see that Vassar incorporated high standards of avatar behavior for its virtual Sistine Chapel.

The Vassar re-creation was developed by Steve Taylor, Department of Computing and Information Services at Vassar. Taylor developed it, in part, to illustrate (so to speak!) the educational potential and opportunities afforded by Second Life and "how virtual reality might be used to learn about art and architecture." The images used to re-create the chapel are from photographs, all used with permissions from various distributors. It is built of more than 500 prisms and more than 200 different textures.

The actual re-creation left me nothing short of speechless, which my real life friends will attest that I don't get very often. The rendering is remarkably realistic, with the opportunity to study the chapel up close and personal without real life crowds. It's incredible. Listed in Wikipedia as one of the Top 20 Educational Locations in Second Life, Vassar and Taylor certainly have created something very special.

After exploring the Sistine Chapel, I decided that it was time to return to real life. Reflecting on the experience, I discovered a few important things this morning:

• My avatar is turning out to be better behaved than I was willing to give her credit for.
• There are some striking educational opportunities in virtual realities, though I haven't entirely framed my thinking around them as yet.
• Even in Second Life, you need to get outside of your comfort zone (which, in my case, was the Sun Islands), to gain a broader perspective.

Just like in real life, there are many places to go and things to see. You just have to figure out what you want to do. Sometimes that is the hardest part.