Well, today’s social could have gotten off to a better start. It seems Second Life picked today, at precisely the time we had planned to start the social, to have database problems. The problems were so bad that Second Life disabled logins, meaning anyone who wasn’t already “in-world” could not log in.

Eventually, a few of us met near the waterfalls on ASTD island for a nice chat. Dr. Jeong was able to visit, and speak with one of the incoming Doctoral students. Afterwards, a couple of people came back to my beach house for drinks!

Overall it was a positive experience. The issues we had point out the need to really design and think about technology – and backups for the technology. Those technical glitches always seem to happen at the worst possible moment. Being able to be in an interactive environment was a very nice way to meet new people before classes start.

We also have to thank ASTD for allowing us to use their island. I am a member, and getting their journal (Training and Development Magazine) has been worth the cost of membership to me.

When should we do this again? If you are a student, especially a distance student, would you be interested in holding meet-ups on a regular basis in Second Life? Post your thoughts in the comments!

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures I took of the event. Till next time!