[Air-L] online conferences in Second Life

[Janet Salmons, Ph.D.]

Hello AIR folks,

Jim Parker asked about conferences in Second Life.... yes, I've
participated and presented at in-world meetings and conferences. I even had
a "vendor" booth where I could chat about my books with passers by... and
I've been found laughing out loud at my computer at the dancing avatars at
a Second Life conference happy hour, complete with DJ and disco ball.

Some conferences do a blended approach-- with events in Second Life
complemented by other Adobe Connect/WebEx types of talks or forums for
discussion.

In one example, for a conference on "fit"-- about how people, jobs and
organizations fit-- I did a lively presentation in-world. I wanted to
compare ways organizations recruited people in the "real" world for jobs in
Second Life with ways organizations recruited people in Second Life for
jobs  in the "real" world. I did a little tour, so we could look at some
examples. It was pretty interesting and just a little challenging
teleporting the participants from site to site. (I didn't lose
anyone...) All to say, there are experiential opportunities in world unlike
what can be done in other kinds of online conferences.

I think it would be particularly interesting for the Communication
Association to be able to reflect on the visual nature of communication in
world, and the significance of "non-verbal" communications with avatars.

Here is a link to a recording of a recent presentation: “Studying the
(Virtual) World of (Virtual) Work” http://bit.ly/GG7Rqk, fyi.

The real issue is: are your association members open to this kind of event?
Do they have avatars and are they willing to go into a virtual world? Would
they be willing to participate in a pre-conference orientation? Also, do
you have a space where you can convene a conference in world?

I'd be happy to communicate with you off list if you want to chat...

Best,
Janet aka Soleil Lemondrop

>
> *Janet Salmons Ph.D.*
*Capella University School of Business and Technology and Vision2Lead, Inc.
*Site- http://www.vision2lead.com
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