Researching in any environment creates unique obstacles for a researcher, researching in Second Life is no different. For me, the greatest obstacle has been logging on at a meaningful and valuable time. While Second Life provides for a real time interactive experience with thousands of other users world wide, as a researcher from Europe (Republic of Ireland, GMT) I cannot help feel out of place. Almost all of the highly interesting and fascinating activities, groups and phenomena which I personally wish to explore tend to center around PDT time (Second Life time). With the majority or meet ups, interviews, events taking part well into the early hours of the morning. Any university students in a similar geographical location may do well to note this. especially if investigating groups/events etc where the majority of participants are from the USA. It may ultimately mean that your research will take place well after university opening hours (depending on your university of course) and deeper into unsociable working hours. Of course, I am not suggesting that ALL meaningful and valuable experiences in SL (however one wishes to define these) take place later in the day/early GMT time, just that I have encountered this quite often in my study.

Alas, I cannot end a post on Second Life and users from Ireland such as myself without of course paying tribute to the Blarney Stone bar in Second Life. The one constant in my time spent in Second Life where I know I can find a friendly face or two.