Universities Buying Land in Second Life - Wyoming SBDC Purchased Island

We are on our way to island ownership. Last night I did an online chat with a SL educational rep. They sent me to a SL site called Special Order in Second Life. The address is: http://specialorders.secondlife.com. This is where an educational orgnizations apply for an island at a discount.

What is needed:

- Name on account and you can have a different name for billing and delivery (island owner)
- Address (obviously)
- You choose a from four island shapes and they have a graphic to look at
- You MUST have your institutions federal tax ID number
- You will pay by invoice net 30 which includes the island purchase price and either 6 or 12 months of island maintenance fee.

Even with this expense, we will save a truck load of our budget if we start meeting internally in SL instead of phone conferencing. Savings will be in the thousands and the timing is impecable considering current budget reductions.

And, hey, this is a fun project with strong outreach potential.

Second Life SBDC Island Project Approved

State office approved the Wyoming SBDC Second Life project, so land purchase is now a go and underway. Challenge: figure out how to pay for it using the U of Wyoming purchasing guidelines. Always a learning experience for me, but nice people to work with.

We will purchase an entire island (estate). Part of the proposal is that we will consider leasing a parcel or two to other Wyoming entities that compliment the University of Wyoming entrepreneur services.

Also, I have sent an addendum of the proposal to the state office asking for funding to build the island with a professional Second Life builder. The result will be a faster better build and, the builder will allow me to watch and learn as she is takin' care of business.

More to come on that. But, I discovered the Second Life video tutorials on the official site. I have tried YouTube and other places, but there may be the best out there.

http://secondlife.com/showcase/tutorials

AECT CAVE Island Video

As mentioned I am a member of the AECT Virtual World Committee. We are encouraging divisions to choose a design for us to create in their room. Very interesting project.

Here is a brief video I made today of the island.

Resources to Get Started in Second Life & Computer Hardware Needed

Upon arriving at Second Life.com and starting a new account, which is free, one ends up on Orientation Island. There, you are given a basic, hands on tutorial about setting up your avatar, moving around, and interacting with objects. You can then go to Help Island and pick up some free clothing, and other objects like things to build with.

But there is more to learn and it does take some time and patience. The pinnacle I would think, is to have a person experience in SL right there with you while setting up. But there are many online resources that are great so I will list a few of them:

Second Life Wiki
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Help:Getting_started_in_Second_Life

Downloadable Quick Start Guide from SecondLife.com
http://static-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/downloads/Second_Life_Quickstart.pdf

Second Life FAQ
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Help:Second_Life_FAQ

Once you master the basics and are ready to start building, this non-online resource
that can be purchased at Amazon (or many other places) is quite useful. Building is a
whole new world in comparison to cruising around in SL. And, it is really fun and interesting.

This is a book called: Creating Your World: The Official Guide to Advanced Content Creation for Second Life

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470171146/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

System Requirements to Use Second Life

This page at http://www.secondlife.com/ has the requirements needed to run in Second Life.

http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.php

If you are buying a new computer and taking yours in for a graphics upgrade, I would recommend at least a 1 gig graphics (video) card which is more than the minimum. Refer your tech person to the link above though and this should provide adequate explanation. Or, refer them to me.

I welcome questions about SL from Wyoming small business owners @ matkins2@uwyo.edu.

I certainly don't know everything, but day by day I am picking this up. Check out Bronco's new hair and clothes as he is standing in front of a fountain in New Orleans Square of Mouse World. Whoa, ready for something formal...

Educational Pricing in Second Life

Universities receive significant discounts in Second Life. This page has the pricing as of August 2009. The title of this article is a link. Or, go to: http://www.secondlife.com/land/privatepricing.php .

Second Life land can be purchased on the Mainland or Private Island. The Mainland is kind of like living in a city where you have neighbors close at hand. A private island is just that and, it should be noted that with a private island purchase, you get a dedicated server, assuming you purchase a full region. Seclusion does have it price, but along with great advantages.

Second Life Proposal sent to Wyoming State SBDC Office

The proposal is off. We may have the first official SBDC island in Second Life. Cannot confirm but searching in SL makes it seem so...

In my investigation for the proposal I have come to believe that Second Life is without question as cost effective, and in some cases more so, than other communication media like telephone. The downside is that telephone conferences can be accomplished through cell phones although I noticed that SL has a program that allows someone to call into and island meeting with a cell phone. Another disadvantage to SL is that most communication is synchronous.

Yet all text communication can be saved and reviewed later.

Linden Labs has done an amazing job with this software and seem to be progressive in responding to their market.

First attempt at building in Second Life

Made my first attempt at building in Second Life today, after reading the building chapter in SL for Dummies. The book does not cover the subject extremely well but there are other places to learn.

Anyone who starts out new in SL is given a variety of textures, clothing, hair, and other objects like furniture.

In building, textures are very, very important and I can see I need many more. They can be found free by searching.

I have noticed that one may take objects from other places but I need to see if that is acceptable, and if the owner intends to share if they don't restrict others from taking their objects (like pine trees for example or furniture).

My first building is below. Not eloquent to be sure, but this is much trickier than it looks!

Second Life for Dummies & the Kool-Aid Man

Before purchasing this book on Amazon, I used YouTube, Wikipedia, Second Life.com, and a few general Google searches to learn of this multi-user virtual environment.

Second Life for Dummies brings it all together by two authors that seem highly fluent in Second Life.

Here are a few news unique things I learned from the book (among many, many others):

• Average user age is 28 (although probably rising)
• Where to get lots of free stuff
• What a SLURL is (and you should learn too)
• You can become the Kool-Aid man or, Goofy or, a Jedi in SL
• How to communicate effectively
• Societal conventions
• Sandboxes: places to practice building. I personally use EdTech and pretty much
  stay within the realms of higher education for this type of activity

Mainly bought the book to learn how to build, but the more learned the better. In a few chapters I start building...

Second Life SBDC proposal to be submitted this week. Wyoming SBDC avatar gets new hair and clothes.

I sound like a girl saying that, but he (Bronco) is looking better all the time. Check out the shiny black shoes.

Today I am working on the Second Life proposal for our SBDC state office. The proposal will cover the intended outcomes of the project, costs, tentative timeline, etc. Wow, sounds like a business plan.

Rough Sketch of Wyoming Entrepreneur Second Life Island

Not all ideas in this sketch will come to pass, yet it is better to have too many ideas than not enough.

But again, the cornerstones (core competencies) of our island will be:

The Cake

1. A place for Wyoming small business to receive counseling
2. A place for Wyoming small business to attend classes
3. A place for Wyoming small business to watch video, view slides, download templates, and more (kind of like our website but more fun using as avatar).

* Notice that when attending classes, visitors to our island will sit on an animal like a
buffalo, antelope, elk, rattlesnake, deer, moose (my favorite), bear and of course, the
jackelope

The Icing (dreaming section)

1. Fish the Green or Platte rivers
2. Climb Devil's Tower
3. Hike to a waterfall
4. Go skiing
   

Here is the sketch, which will undoubtedly evolve:

Wyoming in Second Life - My Recent Blog Post

Go HERE to see the article that gives a very brief overview of Second Life, and announces our plans to develop an island for Wyoming Small Business.