Voicing Concerns in Second Life

When you want to talk to another avatar in SL, you are probably going to do it either through chat, or instant messaging. If you choose chat, any avatar within range will see it, and can respond. If you choose IM, you can pick any avatar and send a message directly to them, whether they are standing next to you, or in a different area. If they are not online the message will be stored and forwarded to their email.

Before my entrance into SL, I almost never used either one of these real-time tools. Although I picked it up quickly, it seemed very flat and I wished I could just talk to people. I envisioned trying to conduct a classroom through the medium of chat, and could think of lots of drawbacks, with few advantages. There are ways of using voice in SL, but not built into the SL client, and not particularly easy to set up. I investigated, and quickly decided that between the trouble and the expense, I was not going to be trying this soon.

But then at the last Library Grads in SL group meeting, Uskala Hidayat offered to demonstrate the voice streaming he has set up. He spoke and played his bamboo flute to demonstrate it. The sound quality was good. The basic components of his system were a high quality microphone, free soft-ware (Win-amp), and use of a relay server which is not free (about $20.00 a month). His institution (UNC) is covering the cost of this so that professors can use it to give presentations in SL. He commented that they would have many fewer professors willing to do this if they had to do it through chat. The sound quality was great, but it is a one-way communication. We used chat to respond to Uskala, but our inability to talk back left us feeling hampered and muted.

Just a few days later, I had a chance to use a different tool that does create two-way conversations; Second Talk. This is a free virtual headset that lets up to ten avatars talk to each other through the VOIP program Skype. I was able to sign up for a free Skype account, and get a free headset in SL. I buddied up with friend Aleister Kronos to try it out. The steps are few and they are simple. Unfortunately they didn't work. But talk we did, through Skype, bypassing the headsets. In retrospect, I think the site we choose to try this in may have blocked the scripts of our headsets (script blocking is a security measure). We will try again with more people, and eventually get it to work. But we may not need Skype to do it, as Linden Lab has recently announced they are working on this. Once it becomes part of the SL client we can hope technical difficulties will melt (hah!).

Why wasn't this built in from the start? Sound devours bandwidth. One-way voice streaming is not as hungry, but VOIP gobbles it up.

Meanwhile over the months I have become used to chat and IM. And strangely once I had the potential to talk directly to avatars in SL, I found I was not completely sure I wanted to. Typed messaging has several advantages and special qualities.

Chat advantages

• You don't have to worry if the other person has problems, technical or otherwise, with hearing you.
• Chat has a distancing effect that makes it feel safer to approach and talk to strange avatars.
  
• Chat is stored in history and logs. You can review the last several exchanges on your screen, as well has view it in your external chat log later. This is great for meeting transcripts, finding that name or website someone gave you, or just to review the conversation.
• All members of the conversation are identified by name.
• There are many tricks you can use, such as emoticons or animations to add shading and emotion to what you say.
• You can write text in advance, and then cut and paste text into chat windows. There are even presenter tools to help you do this.
• The conversation is paced by typing. You have time to consider before you type.
• People who don't speak English well don't have to cope with pronunciation, yours or theirs.
• Helpful visual cues help you know when an avatar is typing a response to you.
  

Chat disadvantages

• You have to type everything you say.
• Anyone within range can "hear" you, and you can hear them. Only distance lends privacy to conversations.
  
• If many avatars are chatting at once, messages scroll by very quickly. If a person does not know about the chat history window, they will lose the conversation thread.
• Chat without use of emoticons or other conventions can be misinterpreted.
• Without any kind of etiquette to signal who should talk when conversations can become chaotic and unsynchronized.
  

The disadvantages related to privacy can be solved by using IM instead of chat. If you want to speak to someone without being overheard, you can IM them. If you wanted to conduct a private class or meeting, you can add everyone to a group, and IM the group. All group members can hear and respond. IM's are logged.

Streaming Voice Advantages

• Sound can be heard by anyone in the area, as long as they have enabled media streaming, and have their speakers turned on.
• It does not soak up too much band width.
• It frees the speaker from typing. They can just talk or play.
• It offers a high degree of control. The professor can talk without being interrupted.

Streaming Voice Disadvantages

• It requires technical skill, and money to set up.
• It is not logged automatically, so unless you have a scribe or a recorder, you will not have a transcript.
• It is one way.
• It is ephemeral.
• The avatar just stands there. Unless other animation is used, it tends to disconnect you from the sense you are interacting with each other.

VOIP Advantages (Second Talk)

• It frees you from typing.
  
• Assuming they have Skype accounts and headsets, up to 10 avatars can converse.
• It is free (beyond purchasing a headset for use on your computer).
• You can hear each other's voices.
• You can control who is included, and therefor who can hear the conversation.

VOIP Disadvantages

• The technology does not appear to work consistently yet.
• There are no identifiers other then the sound of the voice. If more then two people are talking it could be difficult to identify who is talking.
• There is no logging, it is ephemeral.
• It soaks up band-width. It could really degrade the rest of the experience.
• It may be a more inhibiting medium. People may hesitate to voice things they would type. (This could be a plus or a minus).

What this all means to me, is that what we use will depend on the situation and people involved. Speech in groups, public places and sociable situations are likely to be dominated by chat. To talk privately to a person or group up close or at a distance, or to leave a message for someone who is not online, we'll use IM. Streaming audio will work in performances or presentations where sound is important, and the interaction is mostly one-way. And two-way sound will be best when talking to friends in settings with a limited number of people involved. I expect to use all three.

But Auntie What Does One DO in Second Life?

I keep in sporadic touch with my nephew, a freshman at Stanford, in Facebook. A few weeks ago I dropped a note that referenced my activities in Second Life and he asked “what does one do?” Good question, because once you get past Orientation and Help Islands, there’s no obvious path to follow. No one presents you with a quest to gain experience points or weapons of power. Once I had figured out my hair, I at least had a goal, to find out about libraries and education in SL. But many people come in just to check it out.

Besides other newbies, you are likely to meet first SL exotic dancers, escorts (hookers) or casino shills who haunt new user areas looking for customers or workers. Once outside of the new user areas, your first visits are likely to be to the Second Life casinos that attract customers by promising ‘free money’. Or, you may find yourself in a sandbox where new users are learning SL skills, or more likely, testing their new weapons on you.

So you will naturally conclude that SL is for sex, gambling, and assaulting other residents. If that’s what you want you may continue to return, but many never do. “How do you play this game? I don’t understand…” Is a question I’ve heard many times. It looks like a game, I have an avatar, a gun and great abs, so where are the damned rules?

It’s not a game, it’s a platform

That is, it’s there for you to use. Unlike most other online virtual worlds, like World of Warcraft, the content is created by the residents. It’s the creation of thousands of minds, and is therefore more varied, interesting and unpredictable then anything a single organization could create. And if it exists in real life (RL) someone has or is creating it in SL. Or if it’s something someone can dream of, but never do in RL, they’ll do it here.

“The ability to simulate our world on computers means that we can make it different in ways that empower us, allowing us to do things that in the physical world we can imagine but are incapable of.” (Phillip Linden. The Mission of Linden Lab) http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/11/06/the-mission-of-linden-lab/#more-488

This doesn’t mean you can’t find things to do if you are not interested in building a virtual geodesic dome or creating and selling virtual sex toys. So following is a list of what one could do.

One has conversations

As you take your first baby steps, you meet others. After you drive off the 3 newbies who want to have virtual sex (never mind that they haven’t even gotten a free virtual winky yet) you’ll meet someone who can converse. This is done with keyboard chat. Mostly through happenstance, I have made many friends; artists from Chicago and Australia, librarians and graduate students from Michigan, California, N. Carolina, Massachusetts, Iowa, and Spain, IT professionals from England, scientists from Scotland. I would never have met most of these people any other way. We all share a common interest in this tool called Second Life, but our differing skills and knowledge result in stimulating and sometimes surprising conversations and connections.

One fusses endlessly with ones appearance

Where else can a 51 year old broad acquire a knockout figure with no effort? Where else can you don different hair, gender, race or species everyday? The conformity of avatars is a bit depressing; there are a lot of Barbie dolls and GI Joe types. But there are many fantastical and creative avatars. I currently look human, wear purple hair and a very loud tie-dye tee-shirt with my jeans, but hope to become stranger as my skills in creating here improve.

One acquires objects, notes and landmarks

A newbie avatar is offered a variety of “freebies”, clothing, skin, hair, and other items. For instance, most avatars quickly acquire wings, a cigar and a beverage. Figuring out how to wear the objects is usually task number 3, after learning to walk and talk.

Notes are freely distributed to bother you with explanations and help. Most newbies are too disoriented to actually read them however. But eventually you’ll find your inventory full of 200 old notes. Landmarks help you teleport (TP) from one site to another. (One telltale sign of a newbie is that they fly or walk everywhere). You can make them, or receive them, or give them to someone else.

One listens to music and goes dancing

Beyond conversing, you can attend SL concerts, dance parties, or just sightsee. There are a growing number of musicians streaming live performances into SL, some of them even good. These performances are often held in some of the best SL places. In December I attended an electronic music performance at the Alpha Space Station. This celestial auditorium is suspended above a virtual Earth. Combining music, video, and special effects it was a concert you could only attend in the Metaverse.

Yes avatars can dance, with the help of dance animations. Whether at a club or a private island, avatars can groove independently, in couples (yes, you can tango), or all together. It is oddly fun. And the music is often quite good. If it is not live, then an SL DJ or radio station is providing the music, so you can become a DJ too.

One builds and appreciates other’s builds

A “build” refers to the environments and objects created by others. I’ve done a few of my own, including a cottage and a cloister. Some of my favorites created by others are a sky geodesic dome, a French cathedral, and an island devoted to sound sculptures. Last night I spent an hour with several friends playing with a huge virtual instrument (Cantata Park I). And we got to meet and chat with the artist.

One is educated and informed

There are many SL organizations conducting classes in how to build and script in the SL platform. There are many educational institutions that have their own private areas where classes meet, such as CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion, a class being offered at Harvard Law School. Last week I attended a presentation sponsored by the Michigan Library Consortium. Over forty people attended from all over the country. InfoIsland II, part of the same island complex, has the Science Center with 3D exhibits that model everything from a fullerene to a paramecium. Nearby is Health Info Island which offers consumer health information and resources for research activities. University of California at Davis has created a virtual simulation environment called “Virtual Hallucinations” to demonstrate the kinds of hallucinations schizophrenics experience. I’ve started a group for library and information science graduate students. We meet regularly to talk and learn about libraries in Second Life.

One gossips

I’m hardly alone in blogging about SL. Many blogs and publications now grind out daily articles about almost every angle you can imagine; business, art, fashion, features about places and people. This includes several tabloid publications that focus obsessively on a small number of famous SL avatars, and endlessly critique and speculate about Linden Lab, its practices, plans, and future. So one can read about Second Life, and one can write about it too, and you may even find a readership (I have at least three, four if you are reading this).

One commits sex, gambling and violence

Oh, and you can buy virtual genitals and engage in cartoon porn. Every practice you don’t want to imagine happens here. But its great popularity makes me think it could actually benefit the planet; birth rates and STD’s might plummet if a large portion of the population finds their partner of choice in another avatar. So of course, there is also a lot of emotional drama, romance, and betrayal.

Casinos are a big draw in SL; not only do they let you waste your patrimony; they usually feature pole dancers and escorts. And you can get weapons and use them. There are a number of SL places for gamers to go where use of weapons is allowed and expected; residents have built gaming environments. However, many SL residents find it more entertaining to commit mayhem in the peaceful population, and are known as “griefers”. The most common assault is to try to cage another avatar and send them flying into the stratosphere, or push them into another sim. But they can also blow apart an area with a nuke, sick annoying objects onto another (the horrid “banana phone”), or try to make a few bucks by armed robbery.

One satirizes Second Life

People who prefer to see things from the cynical side abound in Second Life, as it is such fertile ground for satire. Because, face it, except for you and a select group of friends, most other people are pretty lame and SL lets them demonstrate it to the world. There is a whole subculture outing SL’s ridiculous or seamy side in blogs and YouTube, such as Machinima video “Second Life: The Virtual Utopia of the Future”, or Shiplog of the U.S.S. Prokofy Neva (Prokofy is an annoying SL personality famous for “blogorrhea”).

One builds skills and knowledge

3D virtual worlds are no longer just an entertainment tool. We will be using them. In just a few years, they will probably be as ubiquitous as wikis and blogs. Corporations will use them for distance meetings. Instructors will use them to conduct classes. Businesses will use them to help customers shop. Families and friends will use them to get together over long distances. So I am getting ready.

Worship a Librarian Today! Librarian Avengers

As a librarian wanna-bee, I found this empowering bit of manifesto this morning at the blog Librarian Avengers.

Why you should fall to your knees and worship a librarian

"Ok, sure. We’ve all got our little preconceived notions about who librarians are and what they do. Many people think of librarians as diminutive civil servants, scuttling about "Sssh-ing" people and stamping things. Well, think again buster."... (the rest)

Librarian Avenger's author, Erica Olsen works at Cornell University, describes herself as a "geekbrarian".