Two Red Heads in Second Life

The flaming locks of Nedra aka Sheva Weeks is seen in Second Life interviewing John Anderton, who is responsible for bringing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) into Second Life. Sheva met John's avatar, Hygeia Philo. Read the post here

How widespread within the CDC is knowledge and interest in internet-based applications like Second Life and other social media? Asks Sheva

CDC is always looking into better ways to understand its audiences and the public, and to communicate its messages in timely, credible, and relevant ways. An internal blog was started recently, and podcasts began last month for outside audiences. The internal newswebsite is in its second year of daily publication, and it featured a story about CDC in Second Life a few weeks ago, so I think the knowledge of what we are doing internally is growing. I have presented on it a dozen times to various internal constituencies to build inertia around expanding our presence in world. I started looking into Second Life (SL) last March, when only 175,000 persons were in-world, as a way to advance the CDC mission using this new medium, for this specialized audience. We acquired our avatar formally in July, and introduced the space in August. The SL presence has been continuously evolving since that time.

How cool is that.

Also metaverse messenger caught my eye, Sheva says [a Second Life-focused newspaper downloaded by almost 50,000 people each month]

Phew.

So more on CDC

Are there specific health issues that you tend to focus on that are more prevalent among Second Life residents because of their demographics and behavioral risk factors?

I would like to gradually introduce the topic of sexual health into the space, as a way to promote discussion about the links between what one says and does in Second Life, and then one's actions in real life. Liaisons in real life, foreshadowed and even pre-enacted though virtual spaces have led to documented disease transmission, and discussion about this seems generally absent from SL. On the demographic side, there are all kinds of opportunities to introduce topics relevant to persons in their 30s about screenings, health and emergency preparedness, childhood milestones, and other topics. On the behavioral side, there is also plenty of room for talk about good eating, active lifestyles, eye strain, and other health topics relevant to persons who spend significant amounts of time sedentary in front of a monitor. The possibilities are hard to count, there are so many.

Also it might be worth reading something we posted on Henry Jenkins who argues how game play can be a force for social good and equally benefit education. and here and Children benefit from exposure to digital culture

Nedra's post supports such a hypothosis

Comments

[Donald]

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http://www.khichdee.com/category-catid-11-paraid-0.htm