Who's Saying What about Second Life

As the cat makes one of her daily rounds of sprinting back and forth behind my chair and meowing piteously...

There's been some chatter again this week about Second Life. I did some exploration with it in January, but couldn't really find anything interesting to do at the hours I was usually conscious and available to do it (3 a.m. CST). It seemed to be getting a huge amount of attention in the press and in the biblioblogosphere at the time and looks to really be launching into something huge.

Now, it's March and the momentum seem to have slowed. I haven't heard of any other countries jumping on board with massive office openings in cyberspace. Most of the people I know don't seem to be aware of what it is--and once I explain it, a number have said instantly that they doubt their systems could handle it. I don't think my desktop computer could--even though my laptop does. My best friend was frankly skeptical when he viewed the homepage and the "number of US dollars spent in the past 24 hours." (I have to agree--how are they spending $1.5 million every 24 hours? Does your avatar really need THAT many clothes?)

But it's good to stay current on what's available:

Walt has a 'cautious post'--which has turned into an interesting discussion mostly with Jenny Levine-- about whether or not librarians need to push to meet our users in Second Life.

Rich Hoeg at eContent has a well-timed post with some tutorial and informational links in case (like me) you're still trying to figure out what you're supposed to do with this avatar you've created.

and the fabulously recuperating LiB (welcome back Sarah) put up a link to a tutorial on trying to explain it to your staff--if you are desirous of incorporating SecondLife into your library.