Patterns of

blended

information

behaviour in

Second Life

Sheila Webber

I3, June 2013

Second Life (SL), a Virtual World (VW)

• VW = persistent, multiuser, avatars, networked • 3-D VW world, owned by (& trademark of) Linden Lab • Avatars- 3D representation of yourself – free to signup • Most things created by SL residents: SL fashion

designers, architects, bakers, animal makers …. real economy in SL

• Need to download SL browser & have good broadband connection & computer graphics card

• Communication through text chat, voice and Instant Messaging

• C. 70,000 people online simultaneously, international, wide age range

Sheila Webber, 2013

SL?

• Diversity of activity in SL

• Longevity (10th birthday celebrations)

• Social and economic development within SL

• Substantial use of VWs by young people (see http://www.kzero.co.uk/)

• My contention “Whilst not everyone wants to live a SL, IB in SL can provide insights into how citizens can navigate the blended information world of the future” (Webber, 2013)

Sheila Webber, 2013

Sources of information hidden to the neophyte: regressing to “newbie” stage reminds one how much

information we process and negotiate in everyday physical lives

Sheila Webber, 2013

Sheila Webber, 2013

Shopping

Sheila Webber, 2013

Search within SL

Sheila Webber, 2013

Research Questions

1. What is the information behaviour (IB) of people

when seeking information about a SL activity (i.e.

something they do in SL e.g. teaching, attending a

concert, making a home, shopping)?

2. Are models of IB which emerged in other contexts

applicable to IB in a virtual world?

Sheila Webber, 2013

Data collection • 91 one-to-one interviews undertaken by my 1st year

students in Second Life

• 49 educators, 21 librarians, 21 other (mostly professionals plus some students)

• 49 British, 32 North American, 10 from other countries

• All but 4 at an advanced stage of participation in VWs (Childs, 2010)

Academic year

• 2007/8

• 2008/9

• 2009/10

• 2011/12

No. interviewees

21

23

25

22

Sheila Webber, 2013

• Interviews

– I produced the interview guide

• starting point: “think about a time when you needed information

for an activity in SL”

– Students trained in interviewing in SL

– Normal ethics approval procedures; informed consent

– Text chat, so automatic transcript

• Analysis:

– Using existing IB models: Ellis (1993), Erdelez (1999),

Mansourian (2008)

– Inductive, to identify patterns and categories

Sheila Webber, 2013

Findings

Selected points cf. Ellis & Erdelez

• Chaining was frequent and jumped between search

in or outside SL, SL locations, people in and outside

SL, objects, websites etc.

• Browsing similarly included browsing SL land,

objects, people; one’s own content (e.g. inventory);

search engines and websites etc.

• Verifying of people included considering their

occupation, network of connections, relationship with

participant, amount of time in SL

Sheila Webber, 2013

• 45% of incidents involved information encountering; in a further 23% of incidents the participant started talking about other experiences of encountering

• “I was in the Hyde Park area of SL. While I was there, chatting with some people, I noticed one of them was part of a SL group “London Gossip” I realized this could be a group that could help me interact with some people to gather information” (I10-20).

• Encountering might, commonly, provide a successful end to a search or stimulate new possibilities during a search

• Importance of people sources encountering (or serendipity also emerged in Ostrander (2008) and Eisenberg et al.‘s (2010) studies of IB in SL: see also Huvila et al. (2010)

Sheila Webber, 2013

Inductive analysis: Categories of Need

• Second Life. need is to acquire general instructions and

information on how to use SL.

• Location. need is to identify or to access a location in SL

• Land. The need is to transform the (SL) land or to acquire

or get rid of the land

• Item. need to acquire the SL item or to transform the item

• Avatar. need is to customise the SL avatar or to identify

avatar(s)

• Existing practice. need is to locate (work out the nature

of) existing practice

• Existing information about a specific subject. need is to

acquire information for some SL purpose. Sheila Webber, 2013

Categories of desired outcome

1. Practice. The subcategories are:

a) Enable my specific practice

b) Develop my practice

c) Impact others’ practice

2. Knowledge base. The aim of acquiring the information is to add to personal knowledge and/or the collective knowledge base

3. Second Life. The subcategories are:

a) Forming a SL

b) To live one’s SL

4. Life. The outcome is achieving a long term goal Sheila Webber, 2013

Example 1

I10-2: Tool to make sculpted prims [custom designed 3D

shapes] to represent microorganisms (to teach biology in SL)

Need: Acquiring item [which will transform

other items]

Outcome: Enable my specific practice

Process: applying expertise (own and others’) and trying things

out to refine specification of what is needed to enable desired

outcome

Sheila Webber, 2013

“had noted a few things in passing previously” as had been thinking about it

for a while

Sent an instant message in SL

to an expert in SL building,

known to I10-2 Better advice than a search

engine

Expert has her own network

Expertise

Product A

Product B

Product C

Trial of (free) product A – rejection – not sufficient

I10-2 searched own blog

Trial of (free) product B – rejection – not flexible

Some problem

redefinition – willing to

pay – tool should

function within SL –

flexibility of output

Searched SL marketplace

(web shop for SL products) Official SL wiki

Product C’s

wiki

Read

reviews How to

use tool

No other

products

Purchase of product C

Search function in SL to find

inworld shop

Blogs about Product C and how

to use it Sheila

Webber,

2013

I8-1: “I was searching for this scarf I’m wearing” (which a friend

had recommended)

Need: Acquiring item

Outcome: Live one’s SL

Process: trying different sources –

searching, browsing – until you find

the item that matches

Sheila Webber, 2013

Example 2

Tried various words in SL search –

nothing quite right

Visited and browsed a couple of SL

clothes shops that had found in search

– nothing quite right

Searched Google

Followed SLURL to SL

shop

Backup plan was asking friend who

mentioned scarf in first place

Purchase of scarf

Top hit was a link to post about

the scarves on the blog of the

SL fashion designer, with

picture

Example of designer blog Sheila

Webber,

2013

How can we support people in becoming

information literate so they recognise their

information needs, in context, in the 21st

century, information-rich environment?

Webber, S. (2011) Perspectives on the information literate university. Presentation at the

Open University. http://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/perspectives-on-the-information-

literate-university

An underlying, ongoing question …

Sheila

Webber,

2013

Information: preteens

Other young

people

Adults

Instant Message

Email

Telephone

Television

Radio

Books

Magazines

Websites

Search engines

Organisations

Meyers, E. Fisher, K. and

Marcoux, E. (2009) “Making

sense of an information

worlds: the everyday life

information behaviour of preteens.” Library Quarterly, 79 (3), 301–341

“a tween might

consult a peer, who

recommends a

Web site, which is

vetted by a parent,

and ultimately they

together consult a

store professional.”

(p317)

“in nineteen of twenty-

five [searches] …

tweens used another

person as the primary

or secondary source of

information” (p317)

school , bus, shopping mall, sports fields, parks, home, churches , libraries , restaurants, shops

Sheila

Webber,

2013

Information Literacy … and computer games

- Gumulak, S. (2009) Video games:

the way to attract teenagers into the

library. MA thesis. Sheffield: UoS.

- Gumulak, S. and Webber, S. (2011)

"Playing video games: learning and

information literacy" Aslib proceedings,

63 (2/3), 241-255.

“I learned all about

camping, how to

light a fire. “

(Interviewee IIb12)

“ye I go back and

start the level again

to see if I missed

anything then I

read it is it says

anything for help. “

(Interviewee

XIIg12)

• Text boxes

• Game

environment

• Non player

characters

• Game booklet

& box

• Friends and

family

• Walkthru sites

(last resort)

•Review sites

•Search engines

•Forums

•Websites

20% wrote reviews

“if it is a good game

I write ‘try it it’s a

good game’ if it is

rubbish I write it’

(Interviewee Ib12)

Browsing, searching,

evaluating, applying

Sheila

Webber,

2013

Concluding thoughts

• These were professionals, often talking about searches related to professional practice

– Are the “everyday” behaviours to do with the SL context or the wider range of questions? (probably both)

– Why is there more research into IB of academics in research than IB for teaching?

• Evidence of IL relating to different contexts (IL in SL, IL in web search context)

• Hope to do more to explore the encountering dimensions – why there was so much of it

Sheila Webber, 2013

Sheila Webber Information School

University of Sheffield

s.webber@shef.ac.uk

SL & Twitter Sheila Yoshikawa

http://information-literacy.blogspot.com

http://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber

http://yoshikawafashion.wordpress.com/

Graphics: Sheila Webber

References • Childs C. (2010) Learners’ experience of presence in virtual worlds. PhD.

Coventry: University of Warwick, Institute of Education.

• Eisenberg M, Head A, Lin P, Marino J, and Karlova N. (2010) Research

on Credibility and Immersive Virtual Environments Grant #92258-0:

Annual Report for MacArthur Foundation. Seattle, WA: Information

School University of Washington, 2010.

http://vibe.ischool.washington.edu/PapersPosters/Eisenberg-

VIBE%20Project- Annual%20Narrative%20Report.pdf

• Ellis D, Cox D and Hall K.(1993) A comparison of the information

seeking researchers in the physical and social sciences. Journal of

Documentation, 49, 356 - 369.

• Erdelez S. (1999) Information encountering: it's more than just bumping

into information, Bulletin of the American Association for Information

Science 25 (3). http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Feb-99/erdelez.html

• Huvila I, Holmberg K, Ek S and Widen-Wulff G.(2010) Social capital in

Second Life. Online information review, 34, 295-316 Sheila Webber, 2013

• Julien HE and Michels D. (2004) Intra-individual information behaviour in

daily life. Information Processing & Management, 40, 47–562.

• Mansourian Y, Ford N, Webber S and Madden A. (2008) An integrative

model of 'information visibility' and 'information seeking' on the web.

Program, 42, 402-417.

• Ostrander M. (2008) Talking, looking, flying, searching: information

seeking behaviour in Second Life. Library Hi Tech 2008; 26: 512–524.

• Webber, S. (2013) "Blended information behaviour in Second Life."

Journal of information science, 39(1), 85–100

• Webber S. (2010) Investigating modes of student inquiry in Second Life

as part of a blended approach. International Journal of Virtual and

Personal Learning Environments, 1, 55-70.

Sheila Webber, 2013