You know, I used to be a big detractor of "Second Life", but the other day I found out that it's now a big part of distance education at some big universities.

You know, I used to be a big detractor of "Second Life", but the other day I found out that it's now a big part of distance education at some big universities. That seems like a great way to get some of the same benefits: you can literally run into people in the halls, and know what they're interested in. Edit: Did some research; it mostly seems to have failed. Some examples: http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/slum/ http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/slum/ http://udsled.ning.com/ http://udsled.ning.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFuNFRie8wA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFuNFRie8wA