Friend of the show, Guardian Gamesblog blogger, academic and most of all person-that-got-me-addicted-to-Sing_Star - Aleks Krotoski - needs help.
Well, in a sense we all need help, but that’s not the point right now. Aleks is doing a survey of Second Lifers, so if you have a Second Life account, stop reading this, click this link, and go fill out the survey.
For everyone else and those returning for the survey page (wb btw, and thx) here is the lowdown on the background to the research:
Who controls information in Second Life? Is it the Lindens or the Land Barons? The Feted Inner Core or the Furries?
How do fads and trends spread around the Grid?
And how important are chance encounters at Tringo parlours or dance clubs?
I’m currently working on PhD research at the University of Surrey to answer these questions by describing the social networks of Second Life. The goals of the research are to understand who talks with whom, to follow information as it spreads around the virtual world, and to uncover which groups and cliques are most integral to the social life of Second Life.
For this, I need your help! I need to poll as many Residents as possible in order to have a good representation of the social communication patterns in Second Life. Who are your friends and acquaintances? Anyone with an account in Second Life can participate!
You can take part by filling in the online survey which is available by visiting the Social Simulation Research Lab in-world (non-Second Life users should click here).
Filling in the survey should take only 30 minutes of your time. As you’ll be typing in names of friends and acquaintances, please ensure that you have access to the names on your Calling Card list while completing it.
All responses will be kept confidential, and Resident anonymity will be preserved at all times. If you would like to find out more about this research, visit the research website or the Social Simulation Research Lab. You can also come along to a meeting at the Social Simulation Research Lab on Thursday 6th April 2006 at 2pm Linden Time (8pm GMT) to discuss the research, ask questions and collect a survey.
This research has the support of Second Life developers Linden Lab, and is conducted in accordance with the Second Life Research Agreement.
Aleks summarizes one of the thrusts of her research as follows:
It is possible to map the social interactions of a virtual world like Second Life because of its persistent properties like Friends lists, groups and other “official” social formations. This allows designers and researchers to follow the flow of innovation through a virtual population and pinpoint those individuals and social groups which control it. Interactive networks are the ideal population to follow an innovation, because the presence of so many weak ties – yet the intensity of friendships – leads to sharing (and, importantly believing) information as it’s passed around the Grid.
Thoughts?
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