To support the educational community, we would like to invite you to participate in and attend Linden Lab’s inaugural Education Support Faire! Over the years, Second Life has provided ways for the world of academia to put to use creativity lending to immersive education, distance learning, knowledge sharing, faculty networking–and many other ways to enhance the collective educational community’s efforts in the real world. The success of projects surrounding these efforts within Second Life can be attributed to the many innovative educators, academics, and students who have chosen to utilize Second Life for these purposes.
The main goal for the Education Support Faire is to bring together educators, academics, and students to explore the support mechanisms available to residents who use Second Life to enhance real world educational efforts.
With many networks of support provided by and for residents in Second Life, we would like especially to extend an invite to Second Life educational minds to take part in presenting at the Educational Support Faire.
While, as examples, Linden Lab will provide information regarding our Concierge and knowledge base support services, there are numerous resident developed programs in Second Life designed to orient new and experienced educators or help educators explore Second Life educational and academic opportunities. We want you!
The event will be held January 25th-30th, at Supporte /151/152/36. The venue will be built around a natural atmosphere with trees, rivers, and beaten paths, highlighting the theme of ‘Ecosystems of Support.’ The event will combine both displays and scheduled presentations in a central pavilion.
Organizations or individuals who specifically provide support services for educators, students, or academics in Second Life and would like to utilize space or give a speaking presentation should contact Pathfinder by email (pathfinder [at] lindenlab [dot] com). Please provide some information about the educational support service being highlighted for booths; if speaking, please specify a day/time they would like to reserve, along with the topic. There will be a finite amount of space, so booths and speaking time at the central pavilion will be first-come first-served.
A final list of scheduled events and participating/presenting Resident Support Organizations will be emailed to the SLED mailing list on January 21st.
If you have not yet joined the SLED mailing list, please check this link for details!
We are excited about the growth of the Second Life educational community over the years, and look forward to highlighting the support that will help educators in the years to come!
The world of Second Life is full of creative, innovative people from around the world, and the educators who teach and work inworld are no exception. Every semester hundreds of students participate in unique learning projects in Second Life. We’d like to highlight a few of 2008’s projects that we can all learn from and enjoy.
Second Life Education blog
Visit the Second Life Education blog (SLed blog) to read about many more great education projects from 2008.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University used Second Life for orientation for 400 freshman students.Over the course of three weeks, the inworld orientation program consisted of 7 individual learning activities: learning styles, multiple intelligences, active learning, academic honesty, classroom etiquette, citing references and hotel room design. They also held 3 competitions – parachuting, through the hoops and a fashion show, as well as 8 live sessions on learning challenges, plagiarism, library and open Q&A, finishing with a dance night and fashion show.
Virtual State Fair (Morrill) and Virtual County Extension (Morrill2)
The Virtual State Fair is home to the Cooperative Extension System, a collaboration of over 70 colleges and universities in the USA, providing educational outreach to communities and individuals via a network of county-based educators. Originally agricultural, the programs have expanded to include a broader range of topics such as personal finance, parenting, disaster preparedness, natural resources, and more. The Virtual State Fair offers a combination of entertaining activities and useful information for the general public.
College faculty, researchers, and educators are meeting regularly to collaborate on projects both in Second Life and real life. Second Life projects under development include family caregiving, turf grass, and integrated pest management. Classes on consumer education topics will be taught by extension educators’ inworld during 2009.
A short video of the Morrill islands can be seen on YouTube.
Creator: LuAnn Phillips aka Thynka Little
School: Cooperative Extension System
SLurl: Morrill/128/128/24
Republica Dominicana Virtual
The Republica Dominicana Virtual project brings virtual worlds to the Dominican Republic. Several universities participate in the project including: students and faculty from the Technological Institute of the Americas (ITLA); the philosophy department from the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo (USAD), oldest University in the new world; and the virtual headquarters for Funglode (Foundacion Global Democracia y Desarollo) hosting art gallerys, various historical landmarks, and a library.
Creator: Jan Herder aka Pausanius Raymake
School: Funglode (Foundacion Global Democracia y Desarollo) of the Dominican Republic
SLURL: Ontos /82/114/23/
Counselor Education in a 3D Virtual Environment
Victoria L. Walker – PhD. Candidate at Regent University – built a counseling training facility in Second Life providing student counselors a location to practice and develop their counseling, interviewing, and diagnosis skills with avatars that display many of the physical and emotional features students may encounter once practicing in their communities. The inworld counselor training simulates the features of a community counseling facility or a school counselor’s office while providing instructors with access to observe without distracting the student counselor or the “client” avatar during sessions.
Creator: Victoria Walker aka Zeana Tammas
School: Regent University
Really Engaging Accounting
At the University of Central Florida, Steven Hornik aka Robins Hermano uses Second Life to teach a financial accounting course, and hopes to publish data he feels is among the first statistically significant empirical data showing a relationship between student engagement using SL and student performance. The course uses Second Life to help students learn the basic concepts of accounting through nontraditional methods.
The reason behind the project is simple, to engage the students in what is normally a very non-engaging course. Taught since the fall of 2007 when class size averaged 250, this fall class size was close to 900 students in one section, with 75-80% of them completing assignments inside of SL.
Creator: Steven Hornik aka Robins Hermano
School: University of Central Florida
SLURL: Teaching 4/68/158/22
The Hopkins Tibetan Treasures Multimedia Archive Project – The WylieWriter
Write Tibetan in Second Life. Tibetan presents a challenge for Second Life educators because of the complex way Tibetan words are written. This project allows Second Life educators to overcome the challenges of translating Tibetan words and write in Tibetan with the help of a proprietary system called the “Wall of WylieWriters”. This innovative teaching tool enables students and teachers to interact in Tibetan language classrooms in Second Life. Developed by Wamlabs of Shipley and the Eepaw Shop of Smoky. The project name refers to Wylie, the standard Tibetan transliteration method.
Creator: Bill Magee aka Wam7c Macchi
School: Dharma Drum Buddhist College, Taiwan, Funded by the Taiwan National Science Council.
SL Education Roundtable (SLER)
Hosted by Montclair State University, SLER’s mission is to provide a roundtable setting for interested parties to discuss various topics relevant to furthering the use of Second Life for education. Roundtables occur weekly and often have up to 50 participants. All are welcome to attend, whether presenting or just sitting in to learn about new possibilities Transcripts of past meetings are available in the Library Building just outside the CHSSSouth Amphitheater inworld.
[2:00 AM PST] Welcome Kiribati, New Zealand and Chatham Island to 2009!
[3:00 AM PST] Happy New Year to New Zealand, Tonga and the Phoenix Islands
[4:00 AM PST] Welcome to 2009 to Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, some outlying regions of Russia and Tuvalu
[5:00 am PST] G’day to residents who are hailing in the New Year in Australia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and France-New Caledonia.
[6:00 am PST] A happy new 2009 to you all in Papua New Guinea, US Mariana Islands and a little more of the outlying Russian regions!
[7:00 am PST] Happy New Year for the rest of Australia, South Korea, Timor-Leste, parts of Indonesia, Palau and Japan! 新年明けましておめでとう御座います!!!
[8:00] The new year has found China, Taiwan, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, more of Indonesia, Mongolia, Brunei and others.
[9:00 am PST] This hour welcomes the rest of Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, another part of Russia, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Mongolia!
[10:00 am PST] Happy New Year, Peace and goodwill to Myanmar, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan!
[11:00 am PST] Welcome to 2009; Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Maldives, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, France-Kerguelen!
[12:00 pm PST] Joining us in 2009 we have Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Seychelles, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Reunion (French), Mauritius, and Oman.
[1:00 pm PST] Happy New Year to Second Life residents in Bahrain, Iran, more of Russia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Comoros, Iraq, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Madagascar, Kuwait, Qatar, Tanzania and Uganda.
Celebrating in Second Life
[2:00 pm PT] We wish those in Egypt, Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Lebanon, Belarus, Estonia, Israel, Jordan, Finland, Botswana, Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia, Burundi, Syria, Namibia, Libya, Moldova, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda and more… a very Happy New Year 2009!!
[3:00 PM PST] New Year has swept through Europe and Africa, embracing Belgium, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Austria, Sweden, Netherlands, Algeria, Nigeria, Denmark, Serbia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Norway, Congo, Gibraltar, Montenegro, Slovenia, Slovakia, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Vatican City State, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Andorra, Monaco, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia/FYROM, Luxembourg, Albania, Cameroon, Malta, Tunisia, Benin, Niger, Chad, Angola, Gabon, Congo Democratic Republic and others. Happy New Year!
[4:00 PM PST] Welcome to 2009; England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Morocco, Portugal, Iceland, Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Western Sahara, Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Gambia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Liberia, Togo and others, Happy New Year!!
[6:00 PM PST] A very Happy New Year to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay!
[7:00 PM PST] This hour, we watch as Chile, Paraguay, French Guiana, Suriname, Denmark-Greenland, Falkland Islands and more of Brazil ring in 2009!
[8:00 PM PST] 2009 warmly welcomes the eastern edge of Canada, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Guyana, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitte and Nevis, Grenada, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Bermuda, more of Brazil, Netherlands Antilles, Montserrat, Martinique, Guadeloupe and others.
[9:00 PM PST] Venezuela, eastern USA, eastern Canada, Ecuador, Panama, Welcome to 2009! Happy New Year!
[10:00 PM PST] Jumping on the 2009 bandwagon at this time is Mexico, Guatemala, central USA, central Canada, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Belize, Costa Rica and others. Happy New Year!
[11:00 PM PST] Welcome to 2009 to west central USA and west central Canada!
[12:00 PM PST] HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009, residents of Second Life! Best wishes as well to people on the west coast of the US, Canada’s west coast, and the Pitcairn Islands!
As you may have read on the blog last week, we’ve been testing a redesigned home page for new visitors, those who have never logged in to Second Life. The goal of the new homepage is to show off the breadth and richness of the Second Life experience. Test results show the new page performed well, so we’re going live this week. For Second Life Residents, the current homepage will remain the same for now.
Over the past week we’ve been comparing the core metrics (traffic, registrations, logins, economic and inworld activity) of the new page with our existing new user home page. The data is encouraging: the new design performed better in almost all aspects, so we are moving full steam ahead with launching the redesigned page.
Redesigned Homepage for Non-Registered, New Visitors
We’ve been paying attention to the conversations on this topic in the forums, and we’d like to address some of the great questions Residents have posed:
Ongoing improvements and considerations include:
Flash – a very small number of people who come through the new user home page either have flash disabled or not installed, so we have provided an alternate, non-Flash experience for them.
Accessibility – the header and footer are CSS/HTML, so the global navigation will quickly get folks with screen readers to the content they need.
Business friendliness – this iteration of the new user home page has two pods dedicated to education and virtual meetings, but our next task will be to make sure that people who are focused on the business uses of Second Life can find the information they need rapidly.
In the next two weeks, we will keep a close eye on the metrics to make sure that the page is performing as we expect. As we noted in the last post, this is just the first of several changes that we will be rolling out to improve the new user experience and to increase registrations.
Thank you to all the Residents who have contributed great feedback and ideas. When the page is live, let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Over the course of next week, we will be testing a new design for the secondlife.com home page. The page really showcases the richness and breadth of the wonderful creativity and possibility of Second Life and is a small first step towards a larger redesign of the Second Life experience.
Testing New SL Homepage by Big Spaceship Dec 16, 2008
This homepage project is an example of the kinds of projects (small in scope, new user friendly, utilizing outside design resources from Big Spaceship) which we will be doing more of in the future to bring more Residents into Second Life.
The design is optimized for the new user coming to secondlife.com for the first time and not logged in. The logged in homepage (which is what most Residents, as opposed to potential Residents see) will not be changing.
Here are the goals for the design:
Express the richness and breadth of Second Life
Allow us to address a wide range of potential Residents
Set context for what a potential Resident might do in Second Life
The team produced a gorgeous design that uses Flash. In order to test the new design, we’ll be pushing this new page live for a few hours next week, so we can evaluate the impact to traffic. Since Residents that log in get cookied (and directed to the “logged in” home page), the impact to Residents as we run our test should be limited.
You might see it as we run our tests. But we don’t want to skew the results of the test, and we won’t be pushing it out to a broader audience until we have data.
Pods and Verbs
The core of the design is a nine-pod layout and a carousel of pods that can be “flicked” from left to right to reveal additional pods. This allows a potential Resident to see a wide range of experiences available to them.
Each pod has a beautiful visual from inworld or text that serves as a small billboard. It’s exciting to be able to show the amazing creativity and beautiful avatars Residents have created.
Some of the pods include “verbs” – the things you can do in Second Life – like shop, build, play, flirt, learn. Verb pods expand to play a short animated Flash clip that shows the Second Life experience in motion.
Flash is great for these kinds of interactive and animated experiences and will help us to provide great windows into the world of Second Life. But we recognize there is a tradeoff between accessibility and the richness of the experience, so we will have an alternate page with static graphics.
What’s coming?
The rest of secondlife.com has not been refreshed, so we expect elements of this look to make its way into the rest of the registration flow and elsewhere on the site.
In addition to the homepage, we’ve been working to improve the registration experience for the new user. In the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing localized registration for all new users, including the option for new sign-ups to select a first landing location in their language- thanks to the Community Gateway Program.
We plan to continue improvements to increase the numbers of new Residents, so stay tuned.
Let us know your feedback!
We would love to hear your feedback, get suggestions for pods and verbs, and hear your suggestions. Let us know in the forum. We won’t be able to get to it until tomorrow morning (Dec. 16th, pacific time) so please be patient. We look forward to reading and responding to your comments then.
Hi, Katt Linden here to introduce the next installment of Linden Lab’s new podcast series, “Stories from Second Life.” These are stories about individuals working in Second Life and their projects.
Today’s podcast is a conversation between Glenn Linden, Director of Business Programs and long-time Resident Joni West.
Joni West is the Founder of This Second Marketing, a marketing agency that specializes in leveraging the Second Life platform to empower brands to engage audiences in a compelling and engaging way. Some of Joni’s past and current clients include: Colgate, Nestle, 1-800-Flowers, Overstock.com and Sun Microsystems.
Joni West of This Second Marketing
In October of this year, Fast Company said of West and her company, “In just two years, West has rewritten the rules of corporate marketing on Second Life.” Enjoy the podcast!
If you have story ideas for the “Stories from Second Life” series, please email them to presscontact@secondlife.com with “Stories from Second Life” in the subject line. Special thanks to Torley Linden.
As the Northern Hemisphere slowly tilts toward short days and cold, snowy landscapes, our minds inevitably turn to thoughts of togetherness. Once again, it is time for Second Life’s annual celebration of all that is Winter.
Winterfaire is our chance to gather for long nights, blinky lights, hot drinks and gifts in mysterious boxes. We will revel in our usual traditions like the Snowman Building Contest, the wildly popular Lindens v.s. Residents Snowball Fight, and maybe most important, tour your fabulous Winter-themed builds, all around the grid.
Winterfaire will be centered around the ancient Linden mainland regions of Wengen, Voss, Zermatt and Moritz.
This year we will also be using the Showcase in the Second Life viewer and web site to direct people to privately owned lands hosting must-see winter wonderlands.
The Quiet, by AM Radio, one winter experience in Second Life
What are the wintertime traditions in your part of the world? If you are planning a winter extravaganza in your region that demonstrates your traditions, we’d like to connect you to the Winterfaire network of locations.
Just keep these guidelines in mind when you plan and execute your winter builds: We will be looking for builds that are beautiful, well made, available throughout the event, and that present your regional sights, sounds and traditions of winter. We will bypass builds that are commercial in nature, so if you’re basically decorating your store for the season, that’s great, but it’s unlikely to be in the Winterfaire tour. Think of your build as a gift, freely given, to your fellow Residents, not as an opportunity to sell something.
As submissions come in, we will send out Lindens with snowshoes to check them out and bring back their recommendations for the Showcase.
While space in Showcase is limited, we will try to fit in as many submissions as we can, rotating them in and out during the event, giving many builds a chance to be seen.
An application for getting your build into the celebration will be forthcoming next week– til then, I’d encourage you to talk it over in the forum thread, what would be most fun? What are you planning? Are you thinking about creating a special build? hosting a holiday concert, a skating party, or something else? — Go Make It Snow!
The Quiet, by AM Radio
Winterfaire plans? Talk it over in the forum thread. Dusty Linden will be there with more info and to answer questions next week.
We are pleased to announce our new German office hours for outworld support. If your preferred language is German then we have the support for you! Monday through Friday from 08:30 to 19:30 our German support agents will be available to help you with your non-technical questions. Premium and Concierge customers have access to live chat and phone support. Please contact us with your questions.
Toll-free (US/Canada)
800-294-1067
or
Long-distance (not free)
703-286-6277.
They are available 08:30am to 19:30pm CET, Monday thru Friday.
Eric Moreno – 2008/Jun/26 05:58 PM – edited Hi Everybody, We are pleased to announce our new German office hours for outworld support. If your preferred language is German then we have the support for you! Monday through Friday from 08:30 to 19:30 our German support agents will be available to help you with your non-technical questions. Premium and Concierge customers have access to live chat and phone support. Please contact us with your questions. Toll-free (US/Canada) 800-294-1067 or Long-distance (not free) 703-286-6277. They are available 08:30am to 19:30pm CET, Monday thru Friday.
Hallo!
Wir freuen uns sehr, die Eröffnung unseres Deutschen Outworld Teams bekanntzugeben.
Sollte Ihre bevorzugte Sprache Deutsch sein, dann haben wir das richtige Support Portal für Sie! Dieses können Sie von Montag bis Freitag, von 8:30 Uhr bis 19:30 Uhr erreichen. Unsere Mitarbeiter stehen Ihnen gerne telefonisch zur Verfügung, sollten Sie nicht-technische Fragen haben. Premium- und Conciergekunden haben auch Zugang zu LiveChat und telefonischem Kundendienst. Bitte kontaktieren Sie uns mit Ihren Fragen unter den folgenden Nummern.
Kostenfrei für USA / Kanada
+1800 – 294 1067
oder
Ferngespräch für Europa und andere L änder
+1703 – 286 6277
Unsere Rechnungsabteilung ist erreichbar von Montag bis Freitag, von 8:30 Uhr bis 19:30 Uhr CET.
Hello, this is Katt Linden. I’m here to welcome you to a Linden Lab podcast series, “Stories from Second Life.” These are stories about individuals working in Second Life and the projects they are working on.
Today we’re talking with Jon Brouchoud (known inworld as Keystone Bouchard) of Studio Wikitecture, to learn about his Second Life story and his work on what some call “Radical Collaboration.”
In fact, Joshua-Michele Ross of the O’Reilly Radar said, about this project:
“Wikitecture is first sophisticated tool I have seen in 3D where programmed logic provides a clear structure to facilitate collaboration.”
Brouchoud’s Second Life story is an inspiring one. Working inside the collaborative, three dimensional world that is Second Life, he has taken the ideals of collaboration, crowdsourcing and shared intellectual property, and ultimately shaped a project that won Architecture for Humanity’s Founders Award, over some 500 other entries.
Press Play to Listen:
Looking at the Wiki Tree
What’s inside:
Learn how Brouchoud used Second Life to model a home being built for a client who lived outside the country,
How a team with many non-architect members, spread around the globe, was able to collaborate on a design for a clinic in Nepal, and end up winning a prestigious award for their work,
How the Wiki Tree works, and how it can be used for collaborative work “anywhere two or more people are working together on something in 3D…whether it’s engineers or product design….it has very powerful use cases… across the board in a lot of different industries….” including Brouchoud ’s plans to distribute the Wiki Tree as a tool throughout Second Life.
Enjoy the podcast! We expect to post a transcript later this week. And thanks to Melissa Linden for producing this piece, and Torley Linden for recording and editing.
Hi there, Tom Hale aka T Linden here, the new(ish) Chief Product Officer.
That’s a mighty lofty title, especially considering that my avie is a rather short, very cute green frog. It’s a bit like the Michelin Man and Keroppi had a love child. Chalk it up to “Frog” being my childhood nickname.
From a software genetics point of view, I come from the graphics and multimedia space and spent most of my career at Macromedia, and later at Adobe.
I started in image editing, did a stint in 3D (remember Extreme3D? No? You are not alone), worked on web tools like Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash, helped to make Flash a platform for applications, voice and video, then built a collaboration and training application, called Breeze, on that platform. Along the way I learned a lot about how to involve communities in the development of the software they use.
I joined Macromedia when it was roughly the same size as Linden Lab, and being here feels a bit like coming home to a new house that feels strangely familiar.
It’s been an eventful 40 days since I got here – Openspaces, a global economic meltdown, strong Q3 growth numbers for Linden Lab and a fun and fascinating deep dive into Second Life.
M said my goal here is to bring a product focus to Linden Lab and to Second Life. What does “bring a product focus” really mean? IMHO:
Listening to the market. Cluetrain says all markets are conversations, and this is probably more true for Second Life. Understanding the needs of our current Residents and the people we’d like to be future Residents is necessary to tailor the product to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse audiences. Second Life is enormously rich, so we need more than a one size fits all experience. Today, we have many channels of feedback from Residents in the pJiras, forums, SL Views, and inworld, and as we make our way forward, we’ll be looking for new ways for us to interact.
Striving for delight. Driving for a level of simplicity, consistency, and quality that will result in a great user experience. Software ergonomics, fit and finish, design and interaction models in the viewer and the web experience will make a tangible difference to the way Residents interact with Second Life. Think Mac OS X versus Windows 3.1.
Developing our foresight. Predicting the future is a dicey proposition, and Second Life is as complex and unpredictable as, well, Real Life (if not more so). I can’t predict the future, but one way to predict the future is to invent it. In order to do that, we need to develop our ability to plan and invest over a longer time horizon to make revolutionary as well as evolutionary leaps.
Thinking holistically. When we think about the quote unquote product experience we will start to segment the wonderful complexity of Second Life into component parts. We’ll have to think about these components as part of a cohesive whole, one that extends well beyond the screen into every place that noobies, teachers, land barons, currency traders, fashion designers, socializers, office workers, Residents of the world (virtual and otherwise) touch Second Life and Linden Lab.
Balancing priorities. Tradeoffs are hard, that’s why they are called tradeoffs. The business has needs. Residents have needs. There are laws of physics that come into play in terms of resources and schedules. Wonderful people and wonderful products can lead to great businesses (as measured by two consequences of user delight, growth and profit), but it takes lots of heavy lifting to make sure that both Second Life businesses (ours and yours) are successful enough to enable investment for the future.
Of course, I am not alone in this. Designing and building and delivering and supporting and participating in the “product(s)” and businesses of Second Life is what all Lindens do.
And of course, it’s an undertaking that we will do in concert with you, gentle reader and passionate Resident. In future blog posts, we’ll share our ideas and directions, and look to you for feedback and answers to help us choose what path to take.
So let’s start with this. One of our products, the premium subscription, is ripe for improvement. It’s been neglected and there have been many conversations, forum threads, pJiras, surveys and plans to improve it, leading to some great ideas. It’s even been the topic of a Massively post by Tateru Nino who speculated about what we might do if we were going to improve the product or make smart business decisions. But what could make a premium subscription truly premium? What would make the experience a delight for you? Let us know in the forums.
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