See what a group of UC Berkeley graduate students have come up with as an interactive way to view moral teachings.

read more | digg story

I still feel the adrenaline running through my fingers from today’s events and that feeling of bridging two worlds (maybe three since the world of journalists is sometimes said to inhabit a different space or “estate” as it were). I had the distinct pleasure and privilege of watching my fellow journalists and editor unfurl into a virtual world they had in many ways underestimated or scoffed at as “just a video game” and nothing more. Very few understood it as a community or a place where anything “real” really happened. But today, David Peck (aka Britney Mason) informed me that we maxed out the SIM at 50 people/avatars which “doesn’t happen very often,” he said (they had to raise the permissions on the SIM to allow for that number). It was a ripple among so many ripples from a small pebble thrown into a large body of water. But by the end of today’s panel many of us, like Tony Soprano yelling out to the expanse of unknown desert terrain in front of him, were yelling out “I get it!” (Yes you are permitted to roll your eyes at this last line because you’ve all gotten this “it” there is to get and have quietly gone about your business.)

For those of you who are interested in knowing what happens to the tents and the stories in them, Beth has kindly volunteered to house them on her land. We will ask reporters thoughts on this offer and let people know where they can find these stories. Meanwhile stayed tuned to the final products which are going up this week at www.newsinitiative.org/ucb.

Meanwhile, here’s some pictures from the panel’s afterparty:

Second Life was a great success, if slightly disorienting; “It’s a strange thing being in the room but not really being present,” said panelist Lisa Fullam, a Second Life Newbie. That it is, but it turned out to be great fun, too. Here are some photos of the RL (that’s REAL LIFE) portion of the event;

Second Life has been an adventure, in some ways scary, in other ways fascinating.

It’s good to see this group of people who’ve assembled to listen to our panel discussion about religion in SL…they have some pretty tame and friendly looking avatars. That’s not always the case here. There’s something reassuring about the big tent, the people assembled…it has a religious quality of its own. Also comforting is hearing real voices and being able to link them with their avatars…Something I’ve never liked in Second Life is not knowing who is behind the “mask”. But maybe that’s a metaphor for life anyway.

Our speaker now is talking about the different way faiths can use Second Life. He says, “People hear virtual and they think imaginary, because I could be a dragon, and we all know that dragons are imaginary, so yes the virtual world can incorporate the imaginary. But I can also talk to people, hold conversations, make friends with them, and those things are all real. It’s a danger to characterize the virtual world as only one thing.”

This is the question at hand. Where do we live our lives? We dream, don’t we? We live in that world for a short time each night. Some things we remember, some things are forgettable…and other things we just forget. There are many forgettable things in Second Life, to my mind… Or some I’d like to forget…last week I accidently fell into a porno club…yes, avatars can have sex. (I didn’t hang out to find out exactly how).

The tactile world holds a plethora of memories, but I must say I’m impressed with our discussion here today among panelists who are very thoughtful and devout. Who knew there was such a rich religious life here in the virtual world? Now I do.

Here’s a sample from our discussion: Beth Odets says people approach her several times a week wanting to give classes or sermons in Second Life. She says she consistently has to tell them to hang out, learn, and meet people. Even if someone is Jewish, Beth wonders how she will know what the person’s teachings would be based on, and whether it would mesh with what she feels would be appropriate. She says it’s a good idea to go outside of Second Life to verify some things. “Where religion is concerned, “we cannot be too cautious.”
There is a kind of quick intimacy that one must be careful about here in Second Life.

Bit scary, that quick intimacy thing, and the quest for quick intimacy is much in evidence in SL. All the more reason to create something soul-filled. Not that sex isn’t soul-filled, (see some of our videos on the Moral Compass for proof of that), but the world of SL suggests we review the hard questions.

Erin FitzGerald

*In Real Life you join us on July 29 from 11 am-3:30 pm (there will be food!) at:

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

LOWER NEWSROOM

Graduate School of Journalism
121 North Gate Hall #5860
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA. 94720-5860

For directions go here. ****

Looking forward to seeing everyone.

This morning I woke up with the usual “gotta give the notecards” (said to the tone of “gotta make the doughnuts”) about Sunday’s panel making sure to put out some fires, celebrating some small victories like Rita J. King’s blogging about us, or touching base with the team (our editor Bob Calo is sporting some surfer clothes today and we even got him shoes!). But today was the day I was going to interview Tom Boellstorf and, if all went well, even Beth Odets, her mother (was it really her mom or just an avatar named “Jewish mother”) and her father who all have avatars in SL and practice their faith at the synagogue. (Yes, I am featuring them in my story, but who reads?).

As in anything in Real life, SL has the beauty of arbitrariness, but compressed into a smaller window and time frame. Upon instant messaging Beth (instant message is like email for SLers) I realized I was just going to have to play it by ear to say the least, between weddings, avatars protesting casinos, wrong rugs laid down on tent floors, and Tom’s balloon ride. Right.

Then there was the issue of doing something for that empty tent we had on the island for the panelists. How to proceed? They asked for it, we created it. But nothing. Was I skeptical of this participatory model working in SL? Was it more like cynical. What baby, what bathwater?

Am I completely crazy to even think of doing multimedia in Second Life? I mean it’s a story that needs to be told right? So I revert back to the video camera, record my conversation, type, anything, I do it. I want the reader/viewer/the audience to get the feeling and being completely immersed in it the way I am right now. So today, I typed notes, chatted, video taped and recorded audio just to find a way to tell this story with any tool available to me. Part of was the getting creative factor, part of it was sheer madness. Yesterday I was a social networker, today I’m a journalist again.

But the masses have not come yet and my brain tries to grasp all the many variables and think now, kara, think. It’s been more of trickle. If I were an avatar wanting to learn about religions in the RL where would I go, why would I come to Nowhereville? I meant Time just dissed SL for being one of the worst sites. Was it just too dimensional even though I thought I was thinking outside the box? (In SL can make a triangle out of that box.) Why did I not consider that when we were dropping prayer balls into the Plural Living tent we had to know which way avatars had to pray? Towards the sun? But people force the sun in SL, its deceptive. Towards the server? But it’s the wrong direction for some folks. In Australia some of our panelists will rise at 5 am on Sunday or Monday is it? Everything is so fluid, your avatar and personhood is like gel out here. And then just my avatar sits at the edge of our bucket island, Beth Odets comes along with her avatar Jewish mom, Liz (yes, it’s her RL mom) and they are in the synagogue putting out the candles and we’re all doing the Manischewitz dance and suddenly it’s just like Real Life random, disappointing and daunting at the same time. At the end of the day it is like my brain has imploded and I pick up the rubble. Next in line please…

So at 1 am (eh, who needs sleep?) I saw on my google alerts for SL that we got written about!

Check it out on The Chronicle of Higher Education:

July 19, 2007

Student Journalists Share Their Work in Second Life

Journalism students at the University of California at Berkeley will show off their reporting, filming, and writing on religion in the virtual world, Second Life, beginning on Monday. In five revival-style tents on Nowhereville Island, people can view multimedia presentations on polygamy, Ave Maria College, the so-called lost boys of the Mormon faith, and other topics, says Kara Andrade, a Berkeley journalism student.

Students, represented by digital alter egos, will be available to answer questions about the work. The project, which explores religion in America, is financed by the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.

In conjunction with the presentation, Ms. Andrade will help moderate a discussion on Sunday about spirituality in a virtual environment, featuring spiritual leaders from real and digital environments. The discussion takes place in Second Life and will be shown on the Second Life Cable Network at 1 p.m. Pacific time.

Ms. Andrade says there is a vibrant religious community in Second Life, with new forms of spirituality taking root there. –Andrea L. Foster