Second Life: A Virtual World Tool For Real-World Change

ON THE AGENDA

Will Too Much Debt Fuel A Double-Dip Recession?

Francie Grace
Nov 20, 2009

That was the question raised by President Obama during an interview in China (one of our biggest creditors), as cartoonists seized the opportunity to comment on America's looming national debt. "It is important," said Mr.

Comment Read More

Will a Delay on the Climate Treaty be Time Well-Spent?

Scott Bittle
Nov 16, 2009

World leaders flatly admitted this weekend what everyone pretty much knew: there won't be a major deal on climate change at the big conference in Copenhagen next month. Instead, leaders will try to keep the process going, in hopes of coming up with a deal next year.

Comment Read More

FACING UP TO THE
Nation's Finances

National Debt Clock

Second Life: A Virtual World Tool For Real-World Change

By Francie Grace

You're sitting around the table discussing serious business. A huge projection screen nearby displays the different choices at hand, and while you and others sit around the table, the surf rolls in, accompanied by a pleasant ocean breeze.

Not what you're used to? While it may not be your real life, it's real enough, on Second Life, the interactive web platform with which Public Agenda is now experimenting as another method of public engagement.

Second Life, a web site and virtual world (not sure what this is? click here to learn more), is somewhat like a cross between a video game, a chat room and a web site with a myriad of capabilities: messages, music, video, you name it. All users have avatars – images which represent themselves online, in a wide range of activities from exploring faraway lands and meeting new friends to learning new things and discussing problems.

Second Life, says Chris Haller, online engagement manager for Public Agenda, "enables real-time deliberation between people in different parts of the world while giving them a feeling of closeness that you don't get in forums or chat rooms."

There are also things you can do in Second Life that are unique. In urban planning, for example, participants could explore different design alternatives in 3D as part of a discussion which would eventually continue in a physical space.

On July 16, Public Agenda's Chris Haller led an online workshop on public engagement using Second Life, using climate change as the issue to discuss, on Thursday, July 16. "We had a terrific discussion around the table… and it in turn spurred some really amazing comments from everyone in the audience," says Beth Offenbacker of PublicDecisions.com, which organized and hosted the event in conjunction with Learning Times. "It was exciting to see how many people appreciated the purpose of deliberation as a result."

Like to give it a try? If you're already familiar with navigating the virtual world, or, if you'd like to hold a discussion in a more traditional, physical space, we've got a free resource to lend a hand: our Choicework Discussion Starter on Facing The Challenges Of Climate Change - A Guide For Citizen Thought And Action. And for more on new methods of public engagement, we suggest you check out our four working papers on the subject of digital engagement:

All four are available for download at our Center for the Advancement in Public Engagement (CAPE), free of charge, along with other resources on the art and science of public engagement.