Byline: Andrea Damewood The Register-Guard
Without leaving the confines of a room in the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts, Terra Sieberman spoke with leaders in her field from Chicago, South Carolina and Texas.
She also went surfing. And showed off her St. Bernard puppy. Oh yeah, and flew.
She is among 8.5 million members of an Internet community called Second Life, in which members create alter egos, known as avatars, to interact with other members using voice and written text.
Think of it as a town square where you might run into folks from China, Italy and South Africa.
In RL (real life) Sieberman is an administrative assistant at the Eugene-based nonprofit group International Society for Technology in Education.
In SL (second life) she has taken on the name Louise Borgnine, and adopted a look that involves long blonde hair and high heels.
They both wear matching T-shirts featuring her organization's logo.
Looking to harness the power of Second Life, Sieberman and her co-workers created "ISTE Island," where nearly 1,400 of the nonprofit's members attend Internet lectures and also swap tips on the best ways to integrate technology into learning.
"It's really an amazing networking and collaborative venue to gather people from all over the world," Sieberman said, giving a demonstration as part of DIVA's Eugene Celebration "The Future is Now" film festival Sunday.
The Island plays home to Thursday night social hours, where 30 to 40 people drop by to chat and brainstorm.
There is also an auditorium, where participants can download a power point lecture and then listen to a guest speaker through their computer speakers. Using simple keystrokes, they can even raise their hands and then ask questions.
Sieberman said she recently chatted with a man from China who wants to use the site to teach Chinese to students all over the world.
"It's a great venue for distance learning - the speaker can be up at the podium, while students can be at home in their pajamas, drinking a cup of coffee," she said.
Other social hour topics have included ways to use voice in Internet learning and Second Life basics for new members.
Joining Second Life is free, but that's where it ends.
While members technically don't need to buy anything, Second Life is a mass consumer market fueled by Linden dollars, named for Linden Labs, the San Francisco company that created the game.
The dollars - which have a U.S. dollar value - are bought online and can be used to purchase just about anything that's for sale in real life: clothes, land, buildings, pets and hair styles.
The International Society for Technology in Education was "leasing land" in Second Life, where they hosted their discussions and social hours, but the small site grew too cramped to accommodate their cyber guests.
So a few months ago, they paid $1,700 (real dollars) to Linden Labs to buy their virtual island and build venues.
"People had such an interest in it, we had to buy our own island," Sieberman said.
Eugene Celebration film festival coordinator Katina Andoniadis said she was "amazed" when Sieberman gave her a tour of the Second Life world.
"My response was both awe and fear - it's so real it's almost frightening," she said. "But I can definitely see the potential. We talk about how computers separate us, but you can see how it can pull back around and create community."
SECOND LIFE
Growing Internet community with more than 8.5 million subscribers
Visit: www.secondlife.com
International Society for Technology in Education: www.iste.org
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