I hate to admit it, but I am this century's equivalent of the the cranky old person who doesn't want to learn how to program the VCR. This social networking stuff is clearly very powerful - but one more thing that I have to learn. And, quite frankly, I have enough other networking stuff to keep me busy - my email inbox overflow-eth. It's tough to convince me that Twitter isn't a nuisance and that FaceBook is a place I ought to spend some time.

So I admit that the idea of Second Life sounded pretty, well, ridiculous to me. I have enough trouble keeping my real self out of trouble and on task. A virtual me could only lead to trouble (and an even bigger email overflow problem!). Nonetheless - I vowed in 2007 to be more open minded. To try things BEFORE I wrote them off. So now that things have been a teensy bit more manageable here at NTEN, I tool the leap this weekend and created my virtual self - Hollyhock Rossini.

Hollyhock RossiniHere's Hollyhock (I feel like I'm talking about my evil twin!) at the NTEN Pavillion, which the kind folks at Trellon built us a for the NTC. As you can see, she's wearing a nifty NTEN t-shirt. I've mastered the whole "moving" thing - am articularly fond of flying. She's also visited a number of other places, but I've yet to find a single other "person" to talk to.

(Weird, but I guess I can't decide if I should be talking about my SL self in the first- or third-person.)

At any rate, I'll be doing a little more research - and hopefully joining some events - in the next bit of time. For those of you who might consider taking the leap with me, here are some great resources from the community:

> Posts from Beth's Blog about Second Life

> Nonprofits in Second Life

> Second Life's Nonprofit FAQ

In the meantime, if you already are an SL devotee, then join the NTEN group (just search for NTEN in the Groups tab), and join me for our first social - on May 29 at 11am Pacific. We'll meet in the NTEN Paviliion. Talk to you then!