The role of place in virtual environments.

Places such as coffee shops and pubs have certain characteristics that stimulate public discourse in part because they establish expectations for appropriate communication. Do these preferences for place and the expectations for appropriate communication that attend them change as we meet others in virtual environments like Second Life? Second Life is a three-dimensional (3D) multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) in which users create avatars (called “residents”) to explore, interact with other residents, learn, recreate, and shop with the local currency (i.e., Linden Dollars; http://secondlife.com/whatis/). The characteristics of the virtual environment allow for many different options for meeting; the sky and sea are no limit. This paper will explore student groups’ choices for place as they collaborated in Second Life; demonstrating that our offline preferences and expectations for appropriate rhetorical places are reflected in our online choices.