3600 Seconds in Second Life

On July 3rd, Creative Media Lab students took their first step into the world of Second Life…

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Each of the students created an account and their own unique user name. The class received instructions for their avatar editing experiment as well as a list of physical appearance attributes they could modify on their avatar. The goal of the experiment was for each student to edit their avatars to look resemble themselves as closely as possible. After a brief discussion and a few questions, the experiment began.
 
The class was given exactly 3600 seconds (1 hour) to edit the appearance of their avatars. The approaches to avatar editing were widespread. Some began with small facial details like eye size, nose shape, and brow size, while others began with more noticeable features like skin tone, height, and hair. Overall, the students were astonished by the endless possibilities for their avatar appearances, but that did not discourage them at all from the process of creating a virtual twin.
 
As the 3600 second time period came to a close, each student stared at their screen, analyzing their new creation and determining exactly how much their virtual look-a-like actually looked like them. Some were able to create an undeniable replica, while others realized that constraints on Second Life’s software were too great to actually mimic real life. The Creative Media Lab consists of a wide variety of SMASH students, and it was quite a challenge to fully represent each of them in Second Life.
 

Click here to see all of the avatars, and read the students’ reactions to the experiment.

 

A Second Playing Field

Philip Rosedale, Founder & CEO of Linden Lab, speaks on his relationship with Mitch Kapor and the parallels between Second Life and Level Playing Field Institute.

Philip discusses Linden Lab’s early years, and how Mitch Kapor backed the company and helped open doors for Second Life. Now, having developed a highly successful company, Philip explains how Second Life removes barriers to success in the same way that Level Playing Field Institute removes barriers to full participation.