Learning Through the Web (or - "I Got Your Use Case Right Here").

Here's what happened:

I was in SecondLife, at the NBC simulator. I go into the shop near the ice skate rink. I see some symbols which look very familiar, but I can't place the. I take a few snapshots.

I post them to Flickr.

Someone on Flickr sees my photostream. They answer some of them; in the case of the one to the right I am told that it is the Maya Vision Serpent, Yaxchilan, Mexico, ~ 755CE by Janet Powell, who studied anthropology. She gives links for references, and leaves a note on the photo to explain some symbology.

To summarize: Hanging out in a virtual world on a corporate sim you see something you don't know about but you know is of another culture, so you take a picture and stick it up on a website where people look at each other's pictures. Someone sees it, knows what it is, and tells you.

The Use Case:

• Document what you don't know and put it out there.
• Wait.
• Learn from answer.
• Repeat above steps ad infinitum

No doggie biscuits required.