Having recently exposed my newbie-ness regarding 2nd Life (see "Questions from a Second Life Newbie") , I am pleased to give you an update. After participating in the Second Life Education Community Conference hosted on ISTE Island, I have to say I'm finally internalizing the value and the implications of 2nd life as a venue for professional networking...

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has done a great job creating ISTE Island and hosting events. When I heard that the education strand of the Second Life Community Convention 2008 (5-7 Sept, in Tampa, Florida) was going to be "simulcast" inside Second Life, I thought, "Great! I can tap into the content without having to travel!" What I didn't anticipate was how useful and how much fun it was to meet "people". OK, some of them had wings, but you get past that fairly quickly.

My epiphany, so to speak, was that "being there" as an avatar was surprisingly similar to participating in person. I was also pleasantly surprised how the experience was far better in many respects than participating in a phone-based webinar where visuals are shared by a presenter, but the other participants are invisible. Let me explain further:

Just like in a F2F meeting, the friendliness of the people you meet makes all the difference. A party of strangers without someone welcoming you is a dud in both worlds. ISTE had volunteer docents posted at all the venues, so there was always someone to welcome you or answer questions you may have.

And speaking of talking, because Second Life supports voice (if you have a headset), it is very natural to "talk". The sound even changes with proximity and direction, making the immersion more realistic. The closer you get to a group of people, the more you become part of the conversation.

There's also the chat (text only) window, where you can either post a message everyone can see or where you can IM someone individually. I find this to be a great, unobtrusive back-channel during presentations. It's sort of like passing notes, but without irritating anyone.

So overall, face-to-face and avatar-to-avatar meetings seem to have a lot in common. Of course attending a Second Life meeting requires less travel, plus you can relax in a comfortable chair even though your avatar is standing (or flying). I really can't say that I missed being dead-tired from standing all day, like I would have been at the F2F event.

The real "aha" came when I started comparing my experience in Second Life to what I do at work, which is dominated by meetings on the phone. To help support these discussions, we use NetMeeting or the HP Virtual Room to share visuals. But it's hard to feel like you're "there". In fact, more often than not, participants are only "half there", as the temptation to multi-task on email is hard to fight.

At a Second Life meeting, there's a much stronger sense of "being there" with other people. As a result, spontaneous interactions become possible. For example, I dropped by AFTER the event, and I found people milling around the ISTE Headquarters. I walked up, introduced myself, and soon I found myself part of an informal circle of educators talking about what they do. One of the hospitable ISTE volunteers even took us on a "magic carpet ride" tour of the Island (and gave us each a magic carpet to add to our personal inventory of Second Life goodies).

It was fun, and I talked to people I would NOT have talked to in a classic webinar, where people depart after Q&A and they barely interact with one another.

So I have to admit, I'm finally convinced that the Second Life learning curve is worth climbing. Besides, it's kind of fun being an avatar. Now all I need to do is figure out how to grow a virtual mustache.

I'd be VERY interested to hear from those of you who have had Second Life experiences! Please post a comment and let me know what you think...