Cory Ondrejka joined the Annenberg School for Communication as a visiting professor in January to give students tools they need to be innovative with online communities.
Ondrejka, co-creator of the popular online virtual community Second Life, is a co-instructor of the yearlong Annenberg Program on Online Communities graduate course, which aims to prepare students to create and develop various types of online communities, said Larry Gross, director of the School of Communication. Ondrejka will also lead a faculty seminar on online communities.
"It's amazing to have someone of his stature working with this program," said Karen North, APOC's director and Ondrejka's co-instructor. "He's had seven years' experience with Second Life, which is the most famous online virtual community."
Ondrejka said he had no teaching experience before coming to USC, but Gross and North both said Ondrejka's extensive experience in the industry is a valuable resource for his students.
"The opportunity to interact with and learn from one of the key creators of a powerful new phenomenon enriches the learning experience for our students," Gross said.
Ondrejka said he had been interested in teaching at USC even before leaving his post as Chief Technology Officer at Linden Lab in December.
"I've been involved with the USC Center for Public Diplomacy and Virtual Worlds since 2005, when we started collaborating about using Second Life in the program," he said. "Later, when we were talking about which class I was going to teach this summer, APOC seemed like a good fit."
Ondrejka said he began working with computer programming as a student at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland. After serving in the Navy, Ondrejka worked at the Lockheed Martin Corporation until he moved to the California Bay Area in 1995.
"I worked with some start-ups, did a bunch of games and in 2000, I ended up at Linden [Lab]," he said. "From that point on I had a very exciting life - helped build the company, architect the software and write the code, and seven years later, Second Life has 12 million users."
Ondrejka said his experience with video games helped him build the Second Life environment.
"There is a vocabulary and literacy from games that is important for virtual worlds, like having a virtual representation of the user called an avatar and all that," he said. "But Second Life isn't a game. It just relies on the same technology and similar ideas."
Unlike a virtual world created for games or other entertainment purposes, Ondrejka said Second Life is a real community within the virtual framework. Users can start businesses, hire employees from across the world and buy and sell tangible goods.
According to Second Life's website, the Linden Dollar (L$), which is the basis of the Second Life economy, has a current exchange rate of L$265 for one American dollar.
"We didn't have the exact trajectory that Second Life would take, but we knew that if we put tools in the hands of our users and said 'This is your world; you're going to build it,' then something like this was going to happen," Ondrejka said.
Aside from entertainment and e-commerce, North said Second Life also has educational applications. The Annenberg School has an island in the Second Life virtual world where students can attend lectures and workshops, she said. Users can interact with other students and the instructor by making the avatar raise its hand in class so the lecturer can then respond.
"It's incredibly innovative because it is user-generated and it allows people to use applications based on common interests," North said. "One of my favorites is couch surfing - people across the world who are willing to let others crash on their couch during a visit have created a network based on mutual references. You get into the network if you know somebody and then you refer someone else."
North, who designed the curriculum for the APOC class, said it focuses on these different aspects of online communities as well as the entrepreneurial aspects.
"This program gives you some of the technical background you need and prepares you to step into a management position as a developer or start a community of your own," she said.
Ondrejka said he is open to returning next year to teach at USC.
"It's almost certain that I will stay on here at Annenberg and be involved with the CPD. I don't know if I'll teach another class; I'm certainly open to it," he said.
