Academia Electronica is a meaningful educational venue for me because I set it up in 2007 as a project related to my philosophical views on electronic reality in terms of human space based on modern technology, and long-lasting direct contacts with friends there. I educate students in Second Life and AltspaceVR, participate in academic life and organise joint academic events, alongside I meet close friends there, many of whom I have never encountered in the physical world though we led sincere conversations. Some of them have still an important impact on the Academia Electronica’s activities. Specifically, I would like to mention Neutrinka Lisle and Dex Euromat. However, many more people deserve special thanks, because this project could not have survived without the commitment of Polish users of the Second Life which has become an open and joint academic venue in 3D graphic environment. As an official HEI’s enterprise it is accepted and supported by the Department of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University.
Academia Electronica was a place of study where regular academic courses were led (since 2008), and a place where invited scholars from Poland and overseas university centres gave their lectures. It is also a venue where doctoral (20120, MA (2012) and BA (2015) online defences with open access from the Web took place. A specially designed bots for these purposes test students’ knowledge, and students arrange art shows and lead nightlife listening to music in virtual concert halls.
Academia Electronica is widely known as a lab for humanities due to its ongoing experiments on new phenomena emerging from human activities mediated by electronic reality. It is my strong belief that such concepts as: reality, electronic being, electronic matter (immatter), immersion, telepresence, telematicity need academic scrutiny and insight which could be seen as a few examples of using the Web as a new area for man. Obviously, academic research and education are among the most important ones.