Larry Moneta stands dressed in a white Duke T-shirt with jeans and a large belt buckle, rare meeting attire for the Vice President for Student Affairs. The room is blinding white with color posters hanging from the walls-and strangers falling from the sky.
This is not Moneta's normal stomping ground of 102 Flowers. This is Second Life, an interactive software program developed by San Francisco-based Linden Lab in 2003. Second Life allows members to control colorful characters, also known as avatars, in a fully user-constructed world.
Moneta's conference room, picked by senior Alex Kaufman, a Second Life volunteer consultant for Student Affairs, was a sandbox-a creative public space where users can build 3-D objects freely and have their experiments cleaned up every few hours.
"Sort of like Student Affairs... clean up every six hours," Moneta said in an interview via his avatar.
The usually clean-cut, dark-haired Moneta appeared as a short, balding man complete with an orange goatee and matching comb-over. If the Office of Student Affairs' plans are successful this may be the Larry Moneta that most students get to know.
Moneta said Student Affairs will purchase a Second Life island and open it for student groups to meet online and share ideas in a digital Duke community.
Second Life, comprised of a landmass over 250 square kilometers, offers 16-acre private islands for $1,250, $980 for educational institutions and non-profit groups.
The Duke island may contain a scale replica of the East Campus residences, giving prospective freshmen a chance to actually see their room before coming to Durham.
For months, companies and political groups have been using the program as a way to connect the 5,458,071 Second Life residents. Barack Obama and John Edwards, 2008 Democratic presidential contenders, both have campaign headquarters located in Second Life.
In addition to screening Four Eyed Monsters in Second Life, the Sundance Film Festival hosted author Dean Koontz for a book reading in an online cafe.
Recently IBM broke previous Second Life records by purchasing 24 islands to become the largest corporate presence. The computer technology company plans on holding meetings, training and recruitment in Second Life in addition to developing a revenue stream from Second Life's virtual economy.
"Real life companies want more than just a page on the 2-D internet. They are paying consultants and video game designers for a Second Life presence on the 3-D internet," Kaufman said.
By purchasing land, Duke is joining over 50 other educational institutions already tapped into the Second Life community such as Virginia Tech, Vassar College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society held the course "CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion" jointly in Cambridge and Second Life.
"Given that students are so busy, there are a lot of functions of Duke life that require more commuting than they are worth. It takes more time traveling from Central Campus for a short homework review session, than the meeting itself," Kaufman said.
Kaufman, who started using Second Life after researching a memo topic for an internet policy course taught by Kenneth Rogerson, professor of public policy and research director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, said that teachers could utilize poster-based presentations to teach a lecture online.
"You could sit in a class and privately chat between other people in the room and have a side conversation that no one else can hear, but will be useful for you," Kaufman added.
However, a Second Life Duke is not for everyone.
"It is very sad, because there are no personal interactions," said sophomore Jessica Ferreyra. "Talking to someone online is not the same as talking to them in person. You lose a lot without context clues and body language."
Rogerson, who is also a casual Second Life user, said that the integration of the software into extracurricular activities and administrative functions would show technological forward thinking.
"This can be another outlet for students, but I am not enthusiastically, overwhelmingly optimistic that it is going to change a lot of things," said Rogerson. "There is so much out there. Most Duke students are Facebook people."
Moneta said that future use of Second Life has not been fully decided and will ultimately depend on student demand.
"I think its applicability is as yet undetermined and it will be the creative minds of students that will generate uses that I could not even imagine," Moneta said.
Although the task for undergraduates of formulating the function of a Second Life Duke will be difficult, the bigger challenge will be getting students to participate.
"It is hard to say if students would use it. Maybe if it becomes something trendy like Facebook," Ferreyra said.
Even the program's largest proponent, Moneta, sees that there are some downsides in trying to move students toward online interaction.
"I am not sure the world needs another reason to stay in front of a screen."
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