The Disruptive Power
of Second Life
There are many forms of disruptive technology. New technologies in are development all over
the world by various companies.
Eventually these new technologies will be released and cause older forms
of technology to become obsolete.
Disruptive technologies are created for the same purposes and functions
as existing technologies, but are created more efficiently causing the older
forms of technology to become obsolete.
The older form of technology has been on the market forever then a
newer, more advanced form of technology comes onto the market and changes
everything we know about the technology making it obsolete. Second Life is an online virtual world that
was created so viewers can create avatars and interact with each other in a
virtual world. “Second Life is the best
way to create technology in virtual worlds.
Virtual worlds allow us to reinvent ourselves and contain everything and
anything we need to create our new ideas” (Rosedale, 2008). Second Life is a disruptive technology for
several reasons. It provides viewers
with a brand new form of technology that has the same functionality of existing
technologies in social media, gaming, technology creation, and space
exploration that functions more efficiently that other forms of technology on
the market. This would cause
technologies such as War Craft, Twitter, Facebook, other social networking
sites as well as technology production to become obsolete. Second Life provides a virtual world where
all of these functions can take place through the interaction of avatars. If this type of virtual world technology
keeps being developed it could eventually cause the internet to become
obsolete. I think that this new
technology displaced the whole concept of virtual worlds and online gaming. Everything that revolves around video gaming
and virtual world gaming such as Warcraft will eventually become obsolete. This type of technology could cause lectures
and face to face teaching to eventually become obsolete. As the Second Life technology is developed it
could eventually cause social media sites and technology to become obsolete as
well. “Second Life provides viewers with
the opportunities to explore virtual worlds, meet residents, socialize,
participate in social and group activities, create and trade virtual property,
and 3-D services that can be used to create new ideas. It also provides viewers with opportunities
to create and develop animations, objects, clothing, shapes, and gestures within
the virtual world” (Rosedale, 2008). I
think that Second Life has several years left before it will eventually be
replaced by an emerging technology.
Second Life is still emerging as a technology. It has not been fully emerged as it is still
making improvements and adjustments to the virtual world. Ten to twenty years down the road someone
will develop a better and more advanced form of technology that will eventually
replace Second Life. Second Life is still
relatively new and developing so it will take longer for it to become obsolete. Second
Life provides a virtual world where viewers can socialize and interact with
each other through the use of avatars.
They can communicate, form groups and exchange ideas freely. Virtual worlds are not commonly used in the
educational world. It would be really
difficult to find a school board or administration that would adopt this form
of technology for use in the school.
Eventually virtual world technology could be used to replace online
learning and face to face working in the classroom.
References
Rosedale, P.
(2008). Philip Rosedale on Second
Life [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html
Brian,
ReplyDeleteGreat post, and very informative. I found Second Life interesting to say the least. If a virtual world could be created solely for the purpose of student interaction then it would have the power to revolutionize collaboration for students of all ages. I explored Second Life extensively, even creating an account, and I was a little disturbed at some of the content that I found. Although there are studies that show how beneficial virtual worlds can be to education, I cannot think of an administration that would allow their students to participate. However, as I previously mentioned, if a world could be created with safe guards and proper security, students would greatly benefit from the applications.
Brian,
ReplyDeleteThis may sound crazy, and I am surprised he did not use it in his response, but John referred to Second Life as "Facebook on Crack" the other night as we were exploring its properties. We were amazed in good ways and surprised in at some of the behaviors going on with this technology. Second Life is a great example of a disruptive technology, and I think it is because there are so many facets of life that Second Life could make obsolete. Thank you for the post, it was a great read.