Nesson on Second Life: "elaborately constructed but humanly forbidding"

You may remember my write-up of the Harvard Extension School/Harvard Law School experiment in Second Life. Now that several months have elapsed, there is some time to reflect on the potential of Second Life. Prof. Charles Nesson (the course instructor) has done just that in a blog post:

whenever i’ve left berkman island to go forth and look around i’ve found the environment elaborately constructed but humanly forbidding. yet i am excited at the prospect of holding court in this virtual immersive domain. second life is a crappy way to do some things, maybe a fine way to do others.

Amen. I have noted some major problems with the SL interface and various requirements (ranging from having a credit card to tech specs) and also described a poorly planned and executed meeting carried out by Sun Microsystems in SL.

But the situation will likely change in the next five years as Linden streamlines the interface, drops certain requirements, and gets some honest competition. The increasing size and virtual savvy of the video game generation will also make for more worthwhile interaction in virtual worlds. Finally, companies and organizations will learn -- after much trial and error -- how to best use this environment for meetings, training, and other types of activities.