— I'm Timothy Greig. I live in Wellington, New Zealand, and work
for AIM Proximity. I'm interested in game design, information architecture, librarianship, and transmedia storytelling. Updates? — Try the RSS.

Although I actually finished my INFO580 research project some time ago – in October of last year – I’ve been slow in making it available here on the blog. A combination of work, Christmas, and taking an interesting paper on Web and Intranet Content Management over trimester three has really meant that I’ve barely thought about my research, and Second Life in general, since finishing the project. (more…)

I have begun seeking participants to help out in my research into Second Life Library. Basically, I’m looking for a whole range of different people – including casual Second Life Library visitors, librarians who work in Second Life, and those who are librarians in RL – anyone would like to share their thoughts, opinions, experiences, and expectations concerning the various libraries that are being developed on Info Island. (more…)

I (finally) submitted my proposal for my 580 Research project a couple of weeks ago. Part of the most daunting bit of my study towards the Masters of Library and Information Studies programme at Victoria University, my project is titled “Virtual World Libraries: Challenges and Strategies”. In brief, the research explores three questions:

1. What challenges faced by traditional online library services/interfaces are able to be overcome by Virtual World Library environments?
2. What new challenges (or old ones) face the development of Libraries in Virtual Worlds?
3. How might these challenges be overcome? Can the design strategies used in Massively Multiplayer Online Games be a useful guide?

When talking about “Virtual World Libraries”, I am referring to initiatives such as the Info Island Libraries now being run in Second Life, spearheaded by the Alliance Library System. I’m planning that my research will involve interviews with a few the users of these libraries, to learn about their experiences of the online library environment. Here’s an excerpt (more…)