Curatorial Work and Learning in Virtual Environments

A Virtual World Project to Support the NDIIPP Community

A research project conducted by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Virginia Tech with support from NSF.

Project Presentation

We are conducting exploratory research to demonstrate how Second Life (SL) can be leveraged in the digital curation community for purposes of improving work practices and training. The general aim is to understand collaboration, related to digital curation and preservation, which builds upon innovative and serious use of virtual environments. Specific aims focus on developing and assessing SL services that support collaboration and training related to curating and preserving digital objects and collections. These services will be developed and studied in the context of, and with the assistance of, the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) community.

The Digital Preserve

Our island on Second Life is called the Digital Preserve, this island is focused on the exploration of new forms of digital preservation within Inmersive Environments, and the collaborative education of related topics.

Visit the Digital Preserve in-world! at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Digital%20Preserve/140/126/29

Publications

• Lee, S. J., Fox, E. A., Marchionini, G., Velasco, J., Antunes, G., Borbinha, J., "Virtual DL poster sessions in Second Life", (2009). conference paper, Published Bibliography: Proceedings of the 9th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on digital libraries (JCDL) '09, June

• Fox, E. A., Lee, S. J., Velasco, J., Marchionini, G., Yang, S., Murthy, U., "Curatorial Work and Learning in Virtual Environments: A Virtual World Project to Support the NDIIPP Community", (2009). workshop paper, Published Bibliography: Proceedings of First International Workshop on Innovation in Digital Preservation (InDP 2009), June

• Uma Murthy, Edward Fox, Spencer Lee, Seungwon Yang, Gary Marchionini, Javier Velasco-Martin and Ricardo Torres, "Pedagogical Enhancements to a Course on Information Retrieval", (2010). Book, Accepted Editor(s): Efthimis N. Efthimiadis, Juan Manuel Fernndez Luna, Juan Huete, Andrew MacFarlane Collection: Collection: Teaching and Learning in IR Bibliography: Springer Verlag

• Lee, S., Fox, E. A., Willis B., Bourne, J., "Entertainment History Museums in Virtual worlds: Video Game and Music Preservation in Second Life", (2010). conference paper, Submitted Bibliography: Proceedings of the 10th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on digital libraries (JCDL) '10, June, demo

• Carpenter, B. S., Fox, E. A., Lee, S. J., Peter Brusilovsky, Richard Furuta, Frank Shipman, Allison Huie, Daniel Pogue, Lillian Cassel and Lois Delacambre, "Multiple Sources with Multiple Portals: A Demonstration of The Ensemble Computing Portal in Second Life", (2010). conference paper, Published Bibliography: Proceedings of the 10th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on digital libraries (JCDL) '10, June, demo

What we've done so far

• We have created an island in SL, Digital Preserve, which
  includes the following:
  • A welcome area to receive guests into the island,
  • JCDL 2009 poster island to hold the JCDL 2009 virtual poster session,
  • A poster garden to display other posters relating to digital libraries and preservation,
  • A café/bar to socialize and interact with fellow digital library (DL) and preservation scholars and researchers,
  • Open area to be allocated in the future for the DL curriculum
    project, for a theatre and demo annex, for a sandbox for
    experimentation, and for external projects.
• We are organizing the JCDL 2009 virtual poster session.

What we'll do next

• Collect feedback and ideas from DL researchers and scholars on Digital Preserve island.
• Provide the Digital Preserve island to other preservation projects to enhance their dissemination and collaboration, and to broaden their impact.
• Develop the island further, including adding features to play streaming tutorial videos (such as from a spring 2009 course on iRODS) for the benefit of the NDIPP community.
• Explore ways to preserve all virtual interaction.
• Explore other issues arising from preservation of objects, processes, and policies that have varying representations in SL and Real Life.

SLEC Team:

• At UNC
  • PI: Prof. Gary Marchionini / SL: Gary Octagon
  • PhD Student: Javier Velasco-Martin / SL: mantruc Martian
• At VT:
  • PI: Prof. Edward Fox / SL: EdFox Reiko
  • PhD Students:
    • Uma Murthy / SL : Uma Aldrin
    • Seungwon Yang / SL: Krad Proto
    • Spencer Lee / SL: Zamfir Paule

NSF Support

The SLEC project is made possible by NSF support via grants IIS-0910183 to VT and IIS-0910465 to UNC-CH

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Updated: April 13^th, 2010