Thanks for posting back! I think what makes virtual worlds slightly different from other forms of online communications is the feeling of ‘being there’ and the shared community experience that avatars and surroundings give. Sure, there’s a lot of traditional media in these things - presentations, chats, poster presentations, etc., but it makes for a totally different experience.

We recently had Jeremy Harmer presenting in SL and you can read about is experiences here:

http://www.jeremy-harmer.com/features/news-and-comment/dirk-beatty-presents-second-life-seminar

Also might be worth checking out this article that looks at why some people are now preferring SL to video conferencing:

http://searchcio.techtarget.com.au/articles/23587-Suncorp-GM-Second-Life-trumps-videoconferencing

Anyway, you’re right - like mushrooms, it’s not for everybody. For a more traditional free teacher training event I’m involved in right now, see:

http://exeteronline.britishcouncil.org

Enjoy China!

Gavin

As for your first point, I completely and absolutely agree, and I think that came out of my post as well - as a student, even of a developed country, I am not able to go to TED or SXSW or all kinds of interesting conferences around the world with great speakers, and it’s incredibly enrichening that I am able to view or participate online! The question is how to best facilitate this.

The thing I was wondering about was the medium - replicating a normal conference space in SL. I stated in the beginning that I am feeling “old” and “not getting it” about SL, clearly millions of people are getting it, so see this more as curiosity than a frontal attack. I wonder how this experience is better than a simply web based forum with chat channels, discussion boards and so on. Perhaps it is qualitatively very different. In either case, as I concluded my post, I am very appreciative of all kinds of experimentation that happens around ways of facilitating online learning and communication, and I hope you evaluate it and document it to help others join in developing “best practices” for online conferences.

I will be in China when this conference is happening (flying there to go to a meat space conference :), and I don’t know if the internet cafes there have Second Life, so that might make it more difficult for me to participate - but I will certainly try to drop by.

Best of luck
Stian

From: The Diary of a Second Life Socialite Paper Couture Show a Success! Quote from the site - Ahh! So exciting! I just did my first runway show for the amazingly talented Lu sisters, and I thought I’d share some snaps of the outfits I modeled fo…

we have a lot in common

Great post

Here are few other tools you might want to explore (I suppose you have tried all).

http://zaidlearn.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-learning-tool-for-every-learning.html

Interestingly, I left Second Life out of the list. Strangely it never crossed my mind, but I suppose I know why now

Warm Regards,

Zaid

P.S. Though I will add it now (Simply forgot! Never found it attractive to learn! Suppose I am old, too!

You make some valid points, but you forget that more people in the world *can’t* get to conferences than *can* get to them. Online conferences help bridge that gap, especially in countries where earnings are low, but access to connections is high! As for why we ‘imitate meatspace online’, well, there are certain comfort levels in it, but frankly, you miss the point. People go to conferences to listen to people who have something to say about something, and to socilaise and network - so we build spaces which are familiar to them, and comfortable and supportive and conducive to that. Sure, we could all fly and dress up as lobsters, but there’s no point- most people attending online conference want content and commnication, not glitter and snake oil.