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Making a Case For Support of Your Second Life Project

"So if I go to my dean and say ‘Hey, Joe, Second Life is the coolest thing ever, and I want to use it to do stuff,’ Joe is going to come back with: ‘Rob, I already have my goals, and investing in virtual worlds isn’t on the list." (R. Bloomfield, "Why Johnny Can't Rez")

Typically most educators start exploring SL independently, often on their own time.

If you want to teach in SL, eXtension can help you with a small demo of your idea, but a full scale project requires support and funding. 

Money is needed for:
buying or building virtual items
staff time dedicated to developing and managing a project
possibly for hardware and software.

Robert Bloomfield of Metanomics in SL, and Cornell University says:

There are 3 questions that we need to answer when we ask someone for support of an SL project:
1. How does this project help me accomplish my goals and the goals of our institution? 2. Why are virtual worlds the best way to accomplish those goals?  3. What are the costs and risks of your project, and how are you going to manage them?

So, How do we prepare for these questions?
1. RELATE TO INSTITUTIONAL GOALS
Look at your job description, the association's strategic plan, departmental goals and objectives,
mission statements, and frame your project to address these guidelines. Support will follow if you are helping your boss solve his problems. Look at the funding priorities of the foundation or grant program, and design a project that matches them.

2. KNOW THE STRENGTHS OF VIRTUAL WORLDS
 Novelty of virtual worlds is not enough. 

Signature advantages, according to Bloomfield, include:

Presence in Place
green and global
nonverbal communication
"deep touch" (face to face vs web banner)
shared experience
meaning in places
creating history in places

Constructive Cacophony
Public text chat. Private instant messages. Notices. Audio recordings. Video recordings. Public voice chat. Private voice chat. Gestures. Sound effects. Animation. Titles over our avatars heads. (slide)

Creative Collaboration
The ability to immerse a group of people together with the ability to create their own content produces the third signature feature of virtual worlds: creative collaboration. Virtual Space is catalytic, facilitating the collaborative process to produce art, narrative, games, identities, and learning experiences within the virtual world.

3. UNDERSTAND AND ADDRESS COSTS AND RISKS
Costs
Potential savings on travel and technology costs for meetings
Up-front vs incremental costs: building a venue can be very expensive, and orienting people takes a lot of time. Make content that is reusable, and multiple or ongoing experiences for users.
Risks/solutions
Unreliability/instability of platform-- build in redundancy and safety nets. Use estate controls and security tools to prevent griefers. Restrict access if appropriate. And be honest about unreliability. (Linden Lab has improved reliability quite a lot in the past year)

Avoiding inappropriate behavior-- it is an open world, and there is a wider range of behaviors and activities than in reality. If you need a closed, invitation-only environment, it is possible to do that. Set clear rules and expectations for participation in your projects. Differentiate your venue and create the environment that supports the activities you want, discourage the ones you don't. And PG diversity (fairies, furries and so forth) can add to the suspension of RL perspectives and enhance creative potential.

Risk to reputation--a "cartoon" environment not viewed as serious. Let your decision-makers experience the environment, either through machinima or by looking over your shoulder at some successful events and venues.
Also--don't mention Second Life unless you need to. A "synchronous online learning environment" might suffice. Start with a small bite--one small project and demonstrate success with it before asking for a big commitment. Collect success stories and research reports (more coming soon).


LuAnn Phillips, eXtension Roundtable 11-13-08
Adapted from "Why Johnny Can't Rez"
Robert Bloomfield Professor, Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management
Keynote Speech Presented September 7, 2008 9 AM Eastern Standard Time Second Life Education Community Conference (SLEDcc) Tampa, Florida

video archive of Bloomfield's address here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/694581
Rob Bloomfield's slides here: http://www.slideshare.net/Metanomics/sle-dcc08-keynote-robert-bloomfield-presentation/v1?src=embed