Presentation for FIAMP 2008
The Tech Virtual Museum,
Second Life, Oct. 16, 2008
3-2-1: Killing 3 Birds in Second Life with One Stone
Museums in a Virtual World - Are You Serious?
Is this:• A scientific experiment?• A commercial venture?• A joke?• Chasing a fad?
Why The Tech Museum is in Second Life
1. Access and interaction. Reaching visitors that can’t come to San José - e.g. hosting IMD ‘08, grotto of prehistoric rock art.
2. Rapid prototyping. Using SL’s 3-D tools to test exhibit concept, gallery designs.
3. Open source design. Teams of strangers compete to design exhibits. We choose the best and build them for the real museum.
Access and Interaction1
Second Life Visitors
• 115 visitors per day to The Tech Virtual
• 65% are returning visitors
• 15 million Second Life accounts
• 50,000 logged in at any one time
• 60% of SL users have built something
• $1.3M per day user-to-user transactions
Rapid Prototyping2
1 23
4
Open Source Exhibit Design3
Exhibit Creation Process
sketch museum floor
Virtual
thetechvirtual.org
Second Life
What Second Life Costs
whole island or “sim” $700 US
monthly rent $147.50 US
building depends
community 20 hrs/wk?
Who Pays
• Currently funded by a grant from Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.
Economics of building one new interactive exhibit:
Traditional method 18 months $55,000 US
SL/Open Source 6 months $40,000 US
Links
• The Tech Virtual Website:– http://TheTechVirtual.org
• The Tech Virtual in Second Life: – The Tech and The Tech 2 Islands (slurl: http://tinyurl
.com/3x7bf7)– The Tech TG Island in Teen Second Life
• Contact Us: – Rob Stephenson, [email protected]– Bob Ketner, [email protected]