Pauline Randallvirtual-e Ltd, UK

Slides available on www.slideshare.net/virtuale

It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it...

What is a virtual world?

A synchronous,

persistent network of people,

represented by avatars,

facilitated by computers.

Bell, MW. “Toward a Definition of “Virtual Worlds” in The Journal Of Virtual Worlds Research (June 2008)

Choosing the right one

Technical considerations Content availability Development potential Existence of an economy Open to other users Scripting ability

Why Second Life

•Well developed environment

•Has its own currency

•Linden Scripting Language

•Substantial content is available

•You can create your own content

What is going on in Second Life?

Meetings and collaboration

Entrepreneurship

Role Play

Lectures

Law

Medicine

Art

Libraries

Visualisations

Exhibitions

Language and Culture

Recruitment

Reality check

•Find out more – go exploring

•Consider your objectives– what do you want to achieve?

•Is a virtual world the best place or are there better tools for what you want to do?

Other Considerations

•Skillsets• In house?• External developer• Induction and training

for staff as well as students

•Infrastucture• Hardware

(particularly graphics cards)

• Access via network (firewalls)

Web resources Business Communicators of Second Life - http://freshtakes.typepad.com/sl_communicators/ Companies in Second Life - http://slbusinesscommunicators.pbwiki.com/Companies+in+Second+Life Educause Review - http://connect.educause.edu/er?time=1222711572 Institutions & Organisations in SL -

http://simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL JISC gaming report -

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearninginnovation/gamingreport_v3.pdf Second Life – www.secondlife.com Second Life Security -

https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=5566 Second Life Stats - http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php SLED (Second Life Educators) List - https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators SLED Blog - http://www.sl-educationblog.org/ Times – McKinsey Interview - http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3803056.ece Virtual World Watch – Snapshots http://virtualworldwatch.net/snapshots/ Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_world

Other options Virtual Worlds Review - http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/info/categories.shtml

Second Life Locations Abyss Museum of Ocean Science - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gun/55/42/82 Autodesk Island – Engineering Design - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Autodesk/220/117/22 Bowling Green State University - http://slurl.com/secondlife/BGSU%20Creation/255/255/33 Camp Darfur - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Better%20World/175/247/21 Chinese School - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chinese%20School/130/196/22 Dresden Art Gallery - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dresden%20Gallery/168/128/26 Edinburgh University - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Edinburgh%20University/128/128/28 Eduserv Island - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduserv%20Island/104/40/29 Genome Island - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Genome/135/92/29 Honawan – Planetarium - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Honawan/96/122/421 Illinois State – Geography-Geology - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Geo%20Island/89/73/504 Ivory Tower Library of Primitives - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Natoma/213/164/28 Leeds College of Art & Design - http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Collective/44/69/34 Monash University - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Monash%20University/109/147/28 Via Montenapoleone http://slurl.com/secondlife/Montenapoleone/144/178/32 Port Spinoza - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Port%20Spinoza/120/129/23 Second Health - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Second%20Health%20London/126/154/27 Streets of Baghdad - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Better%20World/182/192/23 USC Marshall Business School - http://slurl.com/secondlife/USC%20Marshall/128/128/2 Western Australia Police - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hwanung/161/146/256

Contact Details Pauline Randall

Managing Directorvirtual-e Ltd

Liz Ferlinghetti in Second Life

Pauline.randall@virtual-e.co.uk

www.virtual-e.co.uk

Twitter: @virtualewit

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulinerandall

Slideshare: http://slideshare.net/virtuale

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ferlinghetti/