[Callers] Second Life

(Bizarre aside: anyone remember Second Life? Wouldn't it be cool if you could program avatars to do dance moves and have a virtual contra dance, or test dance sequences? Actually, forget that! It's totally against what I value about real dancing! )

From: Clark Baker <cmbaker(a)tiac.net> Date: April 1, 2010 12:37:41 AM EDT To: sd-callers(a)all8.com Subject: Square Dancing in Second Life With the box office success of Avatar, you may be interested in my experiences taking square dancing to Second Life. In this virtual world, users (residents) can interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world. Second Life has an internal currency, the Linden dollar (L$). L$ can be used to buy, sell, rent or trade land or goods and services with other users. L$ can be purchased using US Dollars and other currencies on the LindeX exchange provided by Linden Lab, independent brokers or other resident users. I put two and two together and created a square dance hall and offer square dance lessons. People pay in L$ but I have made enough to make more teaching dancing in Second Life than at some dances in the real world! I know that some of you are going to say that teaching square dancing in virtual reality doesn't count, and that the computer users should meet and interact with real people. However, I believe that they are square dancing, and any kind of square dancing is better than nothing. Let us know what you think.