I am running a survey on the significant aspects of the by now closed Google Lively service at http://survey-3.istohuvila.fi/index.php?sid=11279&lang=en. The preliminary findings indicate that the most highly appreciated aspects of the service were its friendly atmosphere and ease of meeting people from around the world, ease of use and the possibility to build a room without having to purchase anything in the first place.

EduFinland, the Finnish Education Island in Second Life, was featured in Helsingin Sanomat, the national daily newspaper in Finland. EduFinland is an effort to bring Finnish educators to one archipelago in Second Life and to foster cooperation and coordination of use, learning and development of Second Life as a tool and environment for education.

Please participate in a short scholarly survey on Google Lively http://survey-3.istohuvila.fi/index.php?sid=11279&lang=en

There is a significant body of information science literature on both tasks and 'work' and how they relate to human information behaviour. It is rather typical that in task based research, work is something broader , but it is seldom described in a very precise way. In work based research, on the other hand, the investigation seldom penetrates to the level of individual tasks and if it does, the references are typically far from being very rigorous. 

I am participating (S)econd year a row in the Learning and Research in Second Life this time organised in Copenhagen just before the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Internet Research 9.0 conference.

From the abstract of an article "Learning together apart: Distance education in a virtual world" (citation) by myself and my colleague Kim Holmberg published in First Monday: 

There was a circular on the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Students-list that the European Students Chapter (ESC) has been chosen as one of the two chapters of the year. I'm (yes, I know a little bit senior) secretary of this chapter and it feels naturally quite amazing.

Eilisen Pedagogisia verkkoja kokemassa -juhlaseminaarin esitys, jonka pidin yhdessä kollegani Kim Holmbergin kanssa, löytyy Qik-palvelusta. 

 One of the many conclusions of a workshop arranged at Roskilde University, Denmark with professor Brenda Dervin about four years ago was that "social life is a mess". Indeed it is when you look at it close enough and try to make sense of it.

In comparison to library contexts, user perspective and user studies have received noticeably little practical attention in archives and in the context of management of archival materials and archival information. I am addressing some of theissues of communication and user participation in archival contexts in an article published yesterday in Archival Science.