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A virtual café it may be, but it’s expected to foster some very real interaction.
On Wednesday afternoon, Café Fireball will be officially launched on Second Life, a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents.
This world – since it was opened to the public in 2003 – has grown exponentially. According to its Web site, Second Life is currently “inhabited” by more than 3.7 million people, many of whom purchase virtual land, on which they may build their virtual paradise.
Fireball Café– created by the faculty of engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. will be “located” on the scenic shores of Second Life's Info Island II. But while the café’s creators guarantee it will be a lot fun, Fireball won’t be your typical student hangout.
The Moroccan-style structure will serve as hub for Second Life "residents" looking to chat about topics such as – hold your breath – nanotechnology or bio-medical engineering. Lucy Sheung, manager of outreach and enrolment at the university’s faculty of engineering, hopes café clients will also inquire about McMaster's engineering program.
Sheung explains why Second Life’s virtual world is the ideal location for such a venture. It’s where a lot of high-school age students interested in gaming and technology hang out, so it makes sense to have a presence there, she said.
Sheung said an earlier McMaster library project at Second Life attracted a great number of participants, as did a program awareness podcast the engineering faculty launched in 2005.
"We hope the café will keep applicants interested and informed about McMaster during the lag time between applications and going to class."
Developed by Linden Lab of San Francisco in 2003, Second Life’s virtual community actually resides on the company's vast array of servers.
A downloadable program enables users, called residents, to create avatars – animated three dimensional digital representations of themselves.
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