The technologies, they are a changin’
As I have stated in a previous post, I believe that some of the current social media tools we are using are really just the first successful incarnations of some future technologies. Changes in technology, along with the competitive marketplace, force the software tools we use to evolve and change. Just as Friendster gave way to MySpace, which is giving way to Facebook, so the latest darlings such as Second Life and Twitter will most likely give way to something being created right now. › Continue reading
From Second Life to Real Life
Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, I am busy preparing for my spring semester classes, which includes my new Internet Ministry course. However, I ran across this article today and thought I would share it. The article relates how people in Second Life are getting married inside of Second Life and then meeting in the “real world” and forming a relationship there as well (many times getting married). This goes back to a couple of previous postings I had about how we need to learn to integrate online relationships that are avatar-based (whether it is in Second Life, World of Warcraft, or Facebook) with relationships in the real world. How can we take what we do online and translate it into real-world relationships to better understand others and share our message with them?
Researcher at UC Irvine to study WoW
I wasn’t going to post again until after the new year, but saw an article in yesterday’s paper (yes, I still read the newspaper, get over it) that questioned the validity of NSF funding going towards researching online gaming. Below is a link to a story from a few months ago about the actual research project which sheds some light on what they are doing. While I don’t want to argue the merits of NSF funding going towards this, I do truly believe that we can learn a lot about Internet ministry by studying how people interact online through games such as World of Warcraft and the “not really a game” Second Life. See my write-ups here and here about this and read the news story below.
UCI tackles ‘World of Warcraft’ mystery
And Happy New Year!
Talk to the hand
Last week, I posted on how the study of online gaming, specifically interactive multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft, could lead to new insights into how to best minister on the Internet. As part of that research, I have just finished reading I, Avatar, a fascinating book about just what happens when someone spends more and more time in a virtual world and focuses specifically on the concept of the avatar.
The author, Mark Stephen Meadows, defines an avatar as “an interactive, social representation of a user”. And here is where it gets interesting: while we may think of an avatar as something that only exists in a virtual world such as WoW or Second Life, he also points out that anytime we create an interactive, social representation of ourselves we are, in effect, creating an avatar. So that Facebook account you keep where you present the most interesting side of yourself to your “friends”: avatar. That blog you write where you put all of those highly intelligent posts: avatar. Even that car you drive that tells everyone something about you: avatar. The way I see it, all of us have multiple avatars, whether we use them in interactive online games or not.
Second Life as practice for real life?
Interesting article in the OC Register today. The article discusses how a researcher at UCI is using Second Life as a virtual “testing ground” for software that controls a rapid transit system. She is able to use Second Life to simulate something that will eventually be used in real life. I previously mentioned in this blog that Christians should be in Second Life as both a way to reach others who are there as well as for the experience of using virtual worlds for spreading the gospel. This story made wonder if it would also work the other way: can we use Second Life as a way to “test out” different methods of our work (marketing projects, youth activities, acts of charity, etc.) that can then translate back into the real world? I’m not sure, but there may be certain circumstances where this may be profitable.
Should churches be in Second Life?
I have visited the topic of the virtual world Second Life before, and I am still planning on incorporating into my research on the use of Internet by the Church. One use of Second Life that I have been following particularly is that of the Anglican Church. According to the Church Advertising Network:
“The Anglican Cathedral on Epiphany Island was built to support the Anglican Group in Second Life, which was founded in November 2006 by Bill Sowers, who is a member of St David’s Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Kansas.“
The services are led by Mark Brown, who is licensed as Deacons Assistant by the Bishop of Wellington in New Zealand. You can see a video of their first service here. Mark also has written a good article on ministry using web 2.0 tools that complements much of what has been written in this blog.
The title “Should churches be in Second Life?” was prompted by the latest entry in Mark Brown’s blog. It seems that the web site Anglicans Online has taken issue with doing church in Second Life, comparing it to the phenomenon of televangelists in the US. They raise issues with how “real” Second Life experiences can be (also raised by me in response to LifeChurch’s SL presence). The overall tone of the article is that Second Life is at the very least not important and at the very most to be avoided altogether.
I disagree. As a church, we need to go where the people are – and there are people in Second Life. I demonstrated SL to my MIS class last week and someone asked me what I thought it would look like in several years. I said that I didn’t know whether SL would even be around in a few years, comparing it to the experience of old BBS services that were the precursor to today’s social networks. But something will be around in a few years, and the more we understand about how to be effective in Second Life now, the better we can minister in that new environment. Mark Brown, as you might expect, also disagrees; read his well thought response here.
Other Christian ministries have also begun using Second Life. Besides previously blogged about LifeChurch, the Church Advertising Network has created an online town modeled after “Bible Times”, where you can explore and find answers to questions about the Christian faith. Now that’s creative.
China and web 2.0
A new report on how the Chinese are embracing web 2.0 gives me ideas on new strategies for reaching this mission field (hat tip to Sampsung @ HiLaws). According to the report, Chinese Internet users are much more likely to use user-generated content to make purchasing decisions than Americans (58% to 19%). They are also much more likely to post comments to blogs and are younger than those in the US. To me, this points to a trust issue: the Internet users their trust each other more than those here. It could also possibly point to a distrust of corporate web sites as well. If we want to reach these users, we should understand this. Tools such as Facebook, MySpace, SecondLife, and others should not be foreign to those trying to reach the next generation of Chinese…or Americans, for that matter. Missionaries should not create new web sites but, instead, learn how to get involved in the spaces where the people already are.
But are any missions organizations giving this a focus? I honestly don’t know…but I’ll find out!
Saving souls in Second Life
If someone is saved in Second Life, are they saved in First Life too?
Many of you know of the phenomenon of Second Life, but for those who don’t, the easiest way to explain it is that it is an online world where you can live out your life as someone else. It is kind of like being in a cartoon with a real person behind every character you meet. And you can fly. For more details, see the description on the Second Life website. There are now over five million (yes, million) participants in Second Life.
There seems to be a growing movement by different ministries to begin doing evangelism in Second Life, seeing it as a way to interact with people who may have no interest in going to church in this world. One particular ministry I have been following is LifeChurch.tv, who have been early adopters and innovators in many different areas of technology. They held an Easter service in Second Life this past Sunday, but I have yet to hear of any feedback on how it went. The picture is a representation of their building within Second Life.
So, back to the question, if someone is saved in Second Life, are they saved in this life? I don’t think so. After all, the persona used in the virtual world has no soul. However, by by exposing a participant in Second Life to the gospel, it may spur the person behind the avatar to search for answers back in real world. And in the case of LifeChurch.tv, they have the perfect real world answer: an online campus of their church! Of course, that leads to more questions, but that will be covered in another post.
Search
Welcome to Lessons From Babel
This blog is where I share the latest thoughts on my research in the world of Internet ministry. Feel free to join the conversation by leaving a comment. For more information on what I am doing in 2010, see my first post of the year. To find out more about me, my company, and this web site, or to see what resources are available on this site, click on the images right below this.
- Dave Bourgeois
