Joe Essid directs the Writing Center at the University of Richmond, where he teaches courses in writing and literature. He is a Richmond native who attended the University of Virginia and earned a Master's and PhD at Indiana University. His research interests include technology in the classroom and Southern literary humor. His academic writing has appeared in Computers and Humanities, The Writing Lab Newsletter, and anthologies about technology and writing. He is a contributor to Style Weekly and has appeared in Eighty One and RVA. Ignatius Onomatopoeia is the "avatar" who represents Joe in the game-world Second Life. Ignatius will be wandering the virtual terrain of Second Life while his creator writes here about what may be either "the next big thing" for the Internet or the latest darling of the cyber-hip... the reader can decide.
E-mail contact: jessid@mac.com | Web address: writing2.richmond.edu/jessid

Location: Bliss Garden Center

I decided that were I to tour Bliss Gardens properly, I should do some good for a real-life cause.

At a vendor in Luna Bliss’ Garden Center I discovered the Bikes 4 Africa initiative.  I’m an avid real-life cyclist, and it or my feet are my usual ways of getting around town.  This virtual cycling program is not about losing weight or reducing pollutants, however; sales of the virtual bikes fund the purchase of real-life bikes for Africans, who use them as vehicles for commerce as well as personal transportation.

The efforts have been going on for some time.  See Alanagh Recreant’s blog for more about the initiative.

Here’s an appropriate bit that sums up how the project works:

“It takes the sale of 108 or 167 virtual bicycles to buy one real world DUNLOP or RALEIGH bike,” says co-executive director Erna Sittig who is Enakai Ultsch in Second Life. “We hope residents will help us meet the greater needs by purchasing a real world bike in addition to - or instead of - a virtual one”. It seems that the favourite bicycle at the moment is the BLUE LADY, selling at L$250 (approximately $1 USD), buw we predict that the upgraded version selling at L$750 will exceed the sales within a month of two. Then again, we are optimists!

I purchased a L$750 bike and began my travels.  I found the pedaling easy enough—in fact, effortless when I climbed the steep wooden pathways of Bliss Gardens.  Getting up a hill without breaking a sweat is something I wish I could do in real life!

This past semester my students either fell in love with the 3D artwork that makes up the best scenery in-world or, sadly in my book, said “it’s not as good as real life.”  That’s a shallow view of the metaverse.  I’m not about to trade in my real bike for this one, or neglect my exercise in favor of pressing laptop keys.

Traveling this virtual terrain offers something different from a real-life bike ride; I revel in the same feeling I get in an art museum.  It’s a delight to pedal through Luna Bliss’ superb gardens, all the while knowing that my purchase helps villagers’ commercial ventures.  Not First-World guilt here: just a notion that I can do some good while having some fun in a virtual world.

Direct teleport links in SL: Garden Center Bike Vendor

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