Second Life is a virtual world or Metaverse owned by Linden Lab. Joe Sanchez has been conducting research in Second Life since August 2006 on a private island through the University of Texas at Austin. Prelimary results of the research pilot show that despite technical and interface difficulties, users report feeling a sense of personal accomplishment after creating buildings in Second life. A second finding important to organizational implementation of Second Life is that users indicate a preference to social learning activites and find it enjoyable to interact with other avatars while learning in this space. The pictures below show an example of a social implementation of Second Life where users created an avatar based on their personal role-models. The users held discussions with each other in charactor about the role of leadership and compassion, leadership and creativity, and leadership and morality. Results of this section of the pilot study will be dissemenated in 2007.

Along with motivation and creativity, this research has implications for social and technical systems in regards to technology implementation. Sanchez Social Media is a leading researcher in the implementation of Second Life for team-based environments within university classrooms and corporate work teams.

Screen Shots of the pilot study:

This is a small group activity in Second Life from UT-Austin. Students are discussing the relationship between leadership and history. Each student created an avatar based on their personal hero. This is an environment created by Joe Sanchez for the role-play activity.	Another group of students are participating in the role-play activity. Mother Teresa, Shakesphere, and Teddy Roosevelt can be seen here. This student group is one of four interacting simultaneoulsy in other environments on the UT Second Life island.
This is group number three participating in the role model activity. The four environments were created for the activity in order to make the students feel as if they were in different places. This area became reffered to as "the office" although it is an ocean-side outdoor conference table. I wish my office looked like this!	Malcolm X, Ellen DeGeneress, and Mother Teresa sit indian style on pillow tops in the area that students named "The Rug".