Andrew LaVallee

As recent graduates, several of Hung Truong’s classmates will be headed for typical next steps in their technology careers: working as programmers or pursuing master’s degrees in computer science.

But the 23-year-old, who received his undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico, instead plans to study the growth of social-networking sites like Facebook and why unpaid volunteers spend time fixing incorrect Wikipedia entries. He enrolls this fall in a new graduate program in social computing at the University of Michigan.

Michigan’s program clinched his decision to attend that school. Social computing “has more of a focus on real-life applications, whereas [computer science] is very broad and more ambiguous,” he said. “I do think there’s a growing interest from students, myself included, and the universities seem to be responding to that.”

After years of worrying about how much time freshmen spend on Facebook, schools are incorporating the study of social networking, online communities and user-contributed content into new curricula on social computing. The moves, like other academic expansions into fields like videogame design, are part of an effort to keep technology studies relevant to students’ lives - and to tap subjects with entrepreneurial momentum. Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are among the tech companies that have invested in schools’ social computing programs.

The programs tend to draw as much from the sociology, psychology and communications departments as they do from more traditional computer science classes.

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Second Life Designers Make Real Money Creating Clothes for Simulation Game’s Players

In the real world, fashionistas are recovering from the spring collections in New York and London and gearing up for shows in Milan and Paris.

But in the fast-growing virtual world of Second Life, many players are too enmeshed in the game’s online fashion community to dissect what Vera Wang or Baby Phat sent down the catwalk in New York. Some players are buying up high fashion for their online graphic incarnations, known as avatars. Others, armed with Adobe Photoshop instead of a needle and thread, are creating their own clothing lines, pitching their designs to style editors, selling their creations, and — in some cases — even earning a living.

Second Life is a simulated world with more than 700,000 “residents,” or players, who sometimes refer to their offline existence as their “first life.” As in earlier computer simulation games like the Sims series, the point isn’t to fulfill a quest, and there are no dragons or wizards to slay. Instead, San Francisco-based Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, has provided a platform for players — median age 32 and 57% male, with 40% living outside the U.S. — to do whatever they want, whether it is building a business, tending bar or launching a space shuttle. Residents chat, shop, build homes, travel and hold down jobs, and they are encouraged to create items in Second Life that they can sell to others or use themselves.

When players buy items or services, real money is involved. That’s because Second Life’s in-game currency, Linden dollars, is based on real U.S. money ($1 U.S. buys about 280 Linden dollars). It’s possible for users to play Second Life free of charge, but closely held Linden takes a cut of many in-world transactions (such as uploading a design to the game), and it charges players for “premium” accounts, which offer more flexibility in owning land and displaying merchandise.

Many virtual items are bought and sold in Second Life, but clothing has emerged as one of the hottest categories. Real clothing makers, including American Apparel Inc. and Adidas, sell items in Second Life that mimic apparel they sell in the real world. Thus, players can dress their avatars in some of the same clothes they wear themselves.

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A look at some clothing designed by Second Life players.

(Also appeared in the Northwest Florida Daily News and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)