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Second Life: Figuring out the best uses
Antony Scerri
Within Elsevier Labs, we’ve been assessing how to make use of virtual worlds to better meet our customer needs. Since virtual worlds started in the early days with Croquet and Second Life, the number of alternative worlds has grown at a very fast pace. So far, the worlds remain separate, although efforts to increase their interoperability are underway with some success.
Due to its popularity with users and its openness for creating your own environments, objects and services in-world, Second Life has remained at the front of virtual-world investigative work we’ve done.
What we’re doing in-world
In Second Life, we have conducted a large prototype project and built a small simulated environment to train nurses in how to use the communication protocol SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation). As it allows multiple, geographically dispersed colleagues to meet and collaborate online in real time, using text chat and voice communication, Second Life was a natural choice for this project.
Our clinical environment in SL features simulated patients which respond to visitors via simple chat bots and react following a basic model of human vital signs that can be tailored for different scenarios. Nurses can interact with the environment and use instruments to assess patients and then, following the SBAR protocol, talk to the assessor doctor in-world.
Other ways we can make the most of virtual worlds
Tony Scerri’s avatar pauses in Elsevier’s SBAR scenario in Second Life.
Elsevier is also investigating how to use SL and other virtual worlds to host conferences, either in place of or alongside real-world conferences. Or simply to create places where people can come after specific events and discuss them and see additional material, or meeting places for our users to discuss scientific topics, linked with other events or projects being developed in-world.
SL can be used for meetings where you may want to break out into smaller groups and engage in some additional activity like you would in real-world meetings but which isn't possible during teleconferences. For example, in Second Life I’ve conducted trainings for colleagues from around the globe on how to use SL technology and I’ve delivered presentations using slide and video material and even a live video feed.
In Second Life, we built a small simulated environment to train nurses in how to use the communication protocol SBAR.
Meeting in a virtual world brings added advantages for organizers and attendees. Reduced costs are gained by simplifying logistics and eliminating travel. And imagine attending, from the comfort of your desk, just the one session or sessions you were really interested in.
Our challenge in using virtual worlds
One problem with SL is displaying textual information. Currently the only way to do this is by using images. However work is under way to integrate Web-browser-like capabilities in-world. Another drawback with Second Life is that it is so wide-open, the possibilities are endless.
The challenge now for Elsevier is how
to use virtual world technology to better
support our users. 
a.scerri@elsevier.com
http://secondlife.com
