"Yeah, But Do You Have To Be a Wolf?"

That's a question I get asked with Metamucil-inspired regularity as more and more of our government peers take the plunge into the unknowns of virtual worlds.  For those unaccustomed to the freedoms and idiosyncrasies of virtual worlds, the initial adventure can be quite a sensory overload.  Although most virtual worlds have major characteristics that are rooted in the real world (i.e economics, social interaction, timespace continuum), these worlds do often reject the notion that one needs to be restricted by such trivial things as physics, physical appearance and other such nonsense.

For instance, in the virtual world of SecondLife, where MuniGov has established its Virtual World Domination HQ, your virtual self is free from the shackles of gravity and the restrictions of conventional humanity.  Sure, there are humans every where you look, but they are not alone.  Here humans intermingle freely with dozens of various and intricate subcultures of furries, nekos, dragons, vampires, tinies and many more.  Sounds like a video game, not work, right?  Well, in a sense, you are correct.  Virtual worlds, particularly SL, look and act like a video game in many ways.  You interact with the online world through an avatar that is completely customizable.  You can get a job and get paid with currency that can then be spent on new customizations, new clothes, furniture, etc.  This is much like "leveling-up" after completing a particularly hairy quest in a video game.  But is probably the point at which SL and video games diverge.

In SL there are no defined quests.  There is no beginning point and there are no end credits to strive for.  SecondLife in and of itself is what you make of it.  If you are there to socialize, you will find people who are content to do nothing but hang out, perhaps dance a bit and talk about whatever strikes their fancy.  If you are here to explore and discover new cultures, you will be very happy in SL.  You will find authentic representations of the modern day world, cultures out of history, literature, popular culture and the sheer imaginations of SL's inhabitants.  And if you are here to learn, you are also very much in luck.  Dozens of universities, hospitals, scientific entities and libraries are deeply invested in SL as a tool for education, knowledge transfer, recruitment and research and development. They have invested time and expertise and they are seeing the payoffs.

Our federal government has an extensive presence in SecondLife. In your SL travels you can find all branches of the military using Second Life for recruitment, modeling and simulation and the like. In fact, the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies recently created a new area in Second Life, known as Coming Home, designed to assist returning veterans and "ease their return to civilian life".  NASA, the CDC, NOAA and many other govt agencies have committed to exploring and investing in new methods of delivering services and information.  The state of Missouri uses SecondLife as a recruiting tool for its Information Technology Department.  Ontario,British Columbia uses it to simulate the skills needed to be a firefighter, medical technician, civil engineer, economist, and traffic analyst.  I recently attended a detailed, comprehensive paramedic training simulator developed by St. George's University of London.

The beauty of SecondLife is that is a participant-driven solution.  When LindenLabs constructed Second Life, they made their "grid" as wide open as possible.  Essentially, they constructed a giant sandbox, brought in a megaload of sand, and invited us all to come over and play. They provided the tools and the medium but the constructs were the products of their users.  In many ways, the possibilities are limited solely by the imagination.  From the smallest details - the texture of the floorboards or the shine of your bling - to the expansive training simulations developed by the military, the functionality offered by an easy-to-use scripting language makes nearly all things possible. In SL, you can create complex training scenarios, attractive and appealing recruiting stations or even functional and practical meeting spaces.  And because doing all this is simply pushing around ones and zeros in this pixilated universe, your cost of entry is literally zero and with a small time and financial investment you can build a substantial, practical and user-friendly presence to meet the business goals of your organization. Think complete customization!

And I am here before you today and proudly admit that it is this customization that drove me to lycanthropy. I confess that when I first got into SL, I was human for a time.  I spent much of my first few visits exploring several different cultures.  I even managed to pick up a few lines of Elvish when I spent time with them in their forest home.  Trivial?  Perhaps.  But it quickly taught me that a different appearance, while it may appear superficial at first glance, was actually more indicative of the existence of extensive, complex hierarchies.  SL has its own sets of rules, connections, communications and these form a conglomeration of factors ripe for the harvesting of new avenues of two-way communication, immersive information sharing, training simulators, teleconferencing opportunities and much, much more. 

So after a few months in world, I made a conscious decision that I was no longer going to be human.  I decided that it was very important to make a strong first impression on the new govt types that came in world to see what things are all about.  I wanted to convey that you can get both things in world.  That is to say, when new govt users speak to me, they hopefully hear and feel the conviction in my voice and see the practical potential of SL.  I want them to see that someone who is extremely serious and committed to exploring the real world potential of virtual worlds can appear as a wolf; call it going for the "shock value" I suppose. If they see that if I can be a wolf, I could just as easily wear turn out gear and learn how to fight a fire, design a 3D tourable mock-up of a new library or sport my scrubs and learn how to perform an appendectomy. So yes, I my friends, am an admitted canis lupus.  Mind you I am not frequently prone to scratching for fleas or howling at the moon, but there is definitely a distinctive furriness to my face.

No doubt my appearance will turn away some of the less visionary members of my government peer group.  But I am okay with that.  In my mind you have to start with a certain amount of open-mindedness to consider virtual worlds or any 2.0 tools in general for that matter. So, if you are perhaps interested, I would encourage you to try it out.  Come to one of our weekly virtual govt meet-ups in SecondLife. (Wednesdays at 7PM EST on the Public Works Island). Mingle with your govt peers from across the globe and see what  an open mind and a blank (and free) canvas could do for your organization.  And although I find mine to be a great conversation piece, the tail is completely optional!