Second Life

I’ve been involved in online communities for a very long time. Back in 1983 I started messing around with local bulletin board systems (BBS) when my Osborne computer had a 300 baud modem. I graduated to involvement on GEnie, then in Palace, having my own website and so on. Recently I became involved in Second Life.

Okay, so it’s not like I don’t have enough going on in life that I have tons of time to spend chatting. I’ve long believed that technology, like Second Life and podcasting, as well as the production of e-books, is going to transform publishing as we know it. Sure, we all love hunks of dead wood. We have shelves full of them. But ask yourself: are all those books keepers? Some of them you may want to keep, because they were special editions, or they were signed or a gift; but others are there because you think, someday, you might want to reread them. But if the text is what is important, and a reading device is convenient to use, isn’t there something else you can do with the shelf space?

That is a discussion for another time. What I like about podcasting and Second Life is that both of them provide a means by which an author can interact directly with readers without being at a convention or signing or teaching a class. Moreover, the quality of the interaction is higher, especially in a teaching situation, since the technology allows lectures to be listened to again and again, or a chat environment allows for questions and answers.

This Sunday, 6 January, at 5 PM Eastern Standard Time, I’ll be doing an interview and reading as noted above.

Sunday 13 January at 5 PM Eastern Standard Time, I’ll be offering the first of a number of classes at Wordsmith Hall, the castle at the ThirdLife Bookstore and Grounds in Second Life. We’ll have a lot more events there, too, including interviews, readings and workshops, all designed around providing access to talented individuals who are interested in writing and becoming as good as they can be at it.

Second Life, for those who have never chatted online, is a graphical chat interface. It does not cost money to register or use. It operates on a “micro-economy” model, which is to say that you can uses it for free, but you can do a lot more if you just pay a little more here and there. I sell books in Second Life to cover the costs of promoting my work and having the space to hold seminars. Lots of other wildly creative people turn out really cool products to feed their habits, too.

If you hit the link above, download the software and head into Second Life, you can find me by searching for “Noble Charron.” That’s the name of my alter-ego in the world of SL. You can find the bookstore by searching on books, or ThirdLife, or clicking on this convenient link, which will take you directly there. When you arrive, please click on the sign at the front of the store, so you can be added to the ThirdLife group, so I can get you announcements about things we will be doing.

I’ll post more about classes and workshops as they come around.

I’m very excited about all that can be done online, and I’m hoping you’ll join me taking this step forward into a wondrous future.