Moving Towards using Second Life as a tool

clipped from dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com Second Life and Real Life By Andrew C. Revkin More and more these days, I make video “visits” to colleges to talk about the environment and development, saving time and the environmental and financial costs of travel. But I hadn’t found my way into the completely synthetic universe of Second Life until Wednesday, when I made a real visit to the University of Delaware to talk about journalism, climate and sustainability. mpuses that can be explored by any of th The university is one of a growing list with Second Life cyber-cae million or so people who populate this parallel universe as avatars. While I stood in an actual auditorium on campus, live video of my talk was streamed on screens on a cube floating over an artificial amphitheater, bathed in late-afternoon sunshine, on the university’s Second Life “island.” But virtual experience is clearly a tool that will be a growing part of life from now on.