Sensemaking in Second Life

This research investigates how sensemaking, which underpins all organizing, takes place in the virtual world of Second Life. Sensemaking is the process of how we socially construct reality. A virtual ethnography was undertaken within a community of educators in Second Life to ascertain how practitioners make sense – that is, ‘make’ that which they ‘sense’ – in the virtual world. Preliminary analysis of how people, objects, processes, and places in Second Life are socially constructed by practitioners suggests that sensemaking in virtual worlds is comprised of fragile, complex, and nuanced practices which illuminate what we take for granted in the actual world.