A 'Second' Princeton

Students can now wander Nassau Hall, gaze across Richardson Auditorium and relax in Chancellor Green — all without leaving their dorm rooms.

Now that several locations on campus have been replicated in Second Life, an online program that lets users live, work and own property in a 3D virtual world, those buildings can be explored through the internet. The University purchased and built on several "islands," or plots of land, in the program.

The University hired an architect to design several buildings specifically for the virtual world — such as a museum to display students' artwork. A 3D design firm was hired to replicate the real buildings that appear in the online campus.

"Princeton has one of the most expensive islands in Second Life, but we can't recreate the physical density of the [actual] campus," said Janet Temos GS '01, director of the University's educational technologies center.

The University paid Linden Labs, the Second Life developer, $1,675 to purchase four servers and set up the islands. It costs $195 each month to renew the service.

Despite the funding the University has invested in its Second Life virtual locations, few seem to be exploring Old Nassau's virtual counterpart. When Temos recently logged on to her Second Life account, she noted that though the game allows users to socialize and converse with each other, there was no one else on the virtual Princeton campus to visit.

Temos is organizing social events within Second Life next week to publicize Princeton's Second Life campus.

Second Life's popularity has skyrocketed in recent months, with a current roster of almost 10 million users worldwide — up from seven million three months ago.

Support nonprofit student journalism. Donate to the ‘Prince’. Donate now »

In the program, users create "avatars," or virtual characters to represent themselves in the game. The avatars can get a job, go shopping and even visit prominent University buildings.

Players use the program for a variety of purposes, such as a social community and a venue for virtual classes offered by their universities.

"Second Life is hard to define because it is such a new product, but the script is like life itself," Temos said.

The main "island" the University purchased is a collection of some University buildings including Nassau Hall, Chancellor Green and Alexander Hall. But the buildings are in very different locations from those on the actual campus due to allotted memory constraints.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

There are also some special virtual additions to campus, including a moat around Chancellor Green and a river that flows through the heart of campus.

The incorporation of several Princeton buildings into Second Life means that users can visit the campus without traveling.

"Princeton alumni are very interested in Second Life because they can visit the campus without having to physically come back," Temos said.

Few prospective students will be able to "visit" the campus through Second Life, however, because users must be 18 to access most of the virtual world.

Eventually, the technology could be used for room draw, with students able to explore campus rooms virtually — which has already drawn interest from several students, Temos said. But such a program is not yet feasible.

"It is a fantastic idea, but we would have to buy a billion islands because of all the prims [visual objects] that would be needed," she said.

Another potential University use of Second Life would be to showcase architectural designs and solicit feedback from users. By perusing 3D renderings of future University buildings — for example, designs for the new Butler quad — students and alumni could give their opinions before construction started.

Temos said she is currently in talks with the architecture school faculty to determine how they can use the technology.

Virtual Classes

Computer science professor Ed Felten, who directs the Center of Information Technology Policy and has examined the potential applications of Second Life, said the program has practical uses as well as entertainment purposes.

"Some colleges have experimented with using it for teaching classes inside a virtual world, which is called distance learning," he said.

Though the University has no plans to use Second Life for hosting lectures because it is sometimes unreliable, Temos said the program eventually could be used as an alternative to precepts held in physical classrooms.

Felten noted, however, that "some argue that you get a different effect by learning virtually rather than in a classroom."

Second Life user Josh Shulman '11 said the University should use the technology to make its academic offerings accessible to a wider audience, as well as to bring international speakers to campus via the Web.

"Princeton should be thinking about holding courses and special seminars from all over, where students can sit in their dorms and watch," he said.

Shulman is deeply involved in Second Life, which he uses to showcase the offerings of the real-world interior design and marketing company where he works.

"I think the advantages of using Second Life for teaching overcome the disadvantage of it not always being reliable," he said.

Second Life is not the only technology pushing the boundaries of virtual networking. Google Inc., headed by CEO Eric Schmidt '76, is beginning to add 3D views into some cities with its popular application Google Earth.

"Google has done street level views in a few cities, but not here," Felten said. "You could imagine they could bring it to a college campus, and I think if they got that idea, Princeton would be one of the first they would look at."