Although Google’s entry into Second Life’s market gave many of us .edu-dev-type people the sense that maybe there WAS something to this virtual worlds thing, it looks like that was a short-lived experiment.  From a Reuters article cited in the above:

It’s hard to say what, if anything, Linden Lab can do to make Second Life appeal to a general audience. The very things that most appeal to Second Life’s hardcore enthusiasts are either boring or creepy for most people: Spending hundreds of hours of effort to make insignificant amounts of money selling virtual clothes, experimenting with changing your gender or species, getting into random conversations with strangers from around the world, or having pseudo-nonymous sex (and let’s not kid ourselves, sex is a huge draw into Second Life). As part of walking my “beat,” I’d get invited by sources to virtual nightclubs, where I’d right-click the dancefloor to send my avatar gyrating as I sat at home at my computer. It was about as fun as watching paint dry.

Although I’ve expressed my skepticism about virtual worlds in higher ed before, I do feel sorry for those colleges out there that can’t afford to redesign their viewbooks this year because their budget is tied up in the maintenance of a Second Life island.

The following IM conversation with David McKelvey of Lewis & Clark began as a discussion of their recently approved Web design final release candidate.  L&C uses the phrase “Uncommon Journeys” as a motto of sorts, and although many higher ed slogans are kind of lame, we all really like this one.  A discussion of its use in the home page design led to a discussion of one of my most beloved bands, Journey (beware: loud rockin’ flash intro!), and their new lead singer (who was found on YouTube).  Reviewing this information, David also noticed that Journey’s now got an island in Second Life.

David is an early adopter and a technology enthusiast (and is eminently Googleable, though not to be confused with his many imitators).  I, on the other hand, am more old school, and my love of technology is ambiguous and complicated.  I am, therefore, deeply skeptical about Second Life.  Once David mentioned it, I couldn’t resist engaging him in a conversation that wound up expressing my professional opinion about SL (or is it 2L?) pretty well.

The full chatlog follows.