Second Life (Linden Lab) doubles its price for Universities and Non-Profit

What the heck is wrong here? Linden Lab is doubling our price next time we renew, which is fall of 2011, that's what. Has someone lost their mind? Is there an accountant or CFO that has lost sense of reality? At a time when higher education is carrying and legitimizing Second Life they pull a stunt like this?

Okay, so life has its lumps, and this is a major one. But Higher education has given much to Second Life, and, at a time when big business is abandoning it. We are filling our academic journals with research reports about Second Life, offering classes and many other activities that support this company. Some things just simply cannot be understood. Another rip off is that Linden is not standardized with other virtual worlds and if we cannot afford the island anymore, all of our digital assets go away too. Insult to injury.

On the brighter side, the market will respond with alternatives and there have already been other options. After criticizing OpenSim in another posting, I take it back and recommend we all take a close look at OpenSim:

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page

I will be seriously investigating OpenSim and other options like ReactionGrid and others. And, I present at an academic conference in 3 weeks so I will be sure to inform about the price hike. Kindly and professionally of course. : >

Use your Real Name in Second Life with Display Names

Hardly new news to the faithful of Second Life. But, the whole anonymity of Second Life thing has bothered me since I created an avatar over 2 years ago. I just want to be me, just like on Facebook and other places. I do not want to hide. Nor do I worry about security since anyone can find me, and anyone else, just by using Google. Pretending to be someone else in Second Life is not a solution to anything. In fact, it causes problems for those of us in the professional world since we never really know who we are interacting with. And in reality, this anynimity is just a license for people to do and say things without revealing themselves. You know, just like on Halloween.

Basically, any avatar whether new or not, will be able to choose pretty much any name they want and change it once a week. Their current name becomes a username, like mine which is Bronco Skytower, and the display name will show inworld with or without the username, it's our own choice. When a person adds a display name (which is totally optional), it then displays on all their property. When searching for someone, the list of results will show their display name and username.

This new feature is supposed to launch sometime near the end of October, but my realistic attitude tells me more like Thanksgiving or a little later. Whatever the release date, this is a fantastic release and one that I greatly anticipate.

Torley Linden has made another entertaining video that explains how to use this feature which again, is not currently available but will be by years end:

New Video, Incubator & Professional Presentations

I created a new video of the island and it shows the project in its latest and most mature condition. This fall I am presenting our project at two professional conferences. The first conference is ASBDC which is the Association of Small Business Development Centers. The other is AECT which is the Association for Educational Communications and Technology.

The latter presentation will present an idea I am currently designing and that is a virtual world business incubator. The program will be based upon a dual-track curriculum I will instructionally design in 2011. The curriculum tracks will be teaching how to launch and eCommerce website and, how to create a presence in Second Life, to post the same products you have on your website, on a specific parcel of land at Wyoming Entrepreneur Island (vCommerce).

Should be an interesting project. I am proposing to my doctoral committee that the instructional design be my general exam. We'll see what they say...

Real Life Storefronts coming to Facebook, when are they coming to Second Life?

This week Practical E-Commerce posted a review about a company that has developed a storefront eCommerce software to Facebook. Over the next few weeks there will be more reviews of other such companies.

So when will real life storefronts be brought into Second Life (SL)? Yeah I know, there are plenty of storefronts in SL for virtual goods, but they practically all violate eCommerce conventions which state that online shopping should be easy and convenient. Using Lindens to buy is neither. Also, SL has yet to really enter the domain of buying real life products inworld.

It's time for Linden Lab to open up this market so people can starting buying and selling real life goods in Second Life which will only serve to bring more residents and, revenue streams for this company who seems to be at yet another crossroads. PayPal is already integrated with SL, sort of, but could really become a strategic business partner if people could buy real life products right in SL and with ease.

What do you think?

Review: Version 2 of Second Life Viewer

Looking not unlike the smoke monster in Lost, my monster is white as shown through the eyes of the new Second Life Viewer v.2xxxx. (It went away after I closed the viewer and opened it again).

As you can see from the photo, the new viewer is quite different and attempts to provide broader/quicker access to assets and functions using the black navigation bar on the right, which can be collapsed. Each of the small icons on the left side of the nav bar take you to a different sets of commands and options.

So far I think Second Life residents are unsure about the new software, just like they were about Office 2007 when it was released. But the new viewer is a smash hit with me. I can now quickly find options and commands that were once obscure, I sometimes had to use Google to find them since the Second Life website and wiki and not extremely useful.

One of my favorite new features is, well...the Favorites bar. I hated searching through all of my landmarks before for just the top 4-5 I use frequently. The Favorites bar allows you to set a few landmarks to this list. Very cool.

In the Inventory, items now have more prominent icons that tell you what the item is. Very useful.

The People function tells you who is nearby and allows you to see them and access their profile very quickly without the radial selection function from before, which has now turned into a rectangle box on its side. I like it.

Communicating with Voice Chat has one of the major improvements, and that is a toggle switch to use instead of the older keyed microphone function, similar to using a walkie -talkie. This is nice when making an extended comment and your pointer does not slip off the talk button or you accidentally click on the lock button and delay a professional meeting for 3-5 minutes, especially if newbies are present and talking.

Speed? Can't tell if Second Life viewer 2 is more laggy than the previous, but it may impede performance a little. But, my machine runs well on the Ultra graphics setting so a machine/graphics not this good may indeed see a bit of lag from this viewer. But, the time saved operating inworld may be worth it if true.

Two thumbs up for the Second Life viewer 2.

Native American Art Exhibit set to start April 2nd

...although, the exhibit is in place and can be viewed now.

I am going to experiment with Second Life inworld marketing and see how traffic increases or not. Having a little trouble finding a decent counter that makes it easy for people to join our group.


Here is a photo of the exhibit, which takes place in the middle of the great plains of our island, right next to Old Faithful Geyser.

VISIT the exhibit:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wyoming%20Entrepreneur/137/60/24

New Second Life Train and what a sweet ride...

The manufacturer of our island's train contacted me and asked to install new scripting that makes the ride much more realistic. The train now slows for corners, and for stops at stations. It glides across the tracks instead of the choppy ride before. And, the grand tour of the island now only takes 2.3 minutes instead of the 8 before.

Come visit by clicking the link:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wyoming%20Entrepreneur/174/37/23

Native American Art show Coming to Wyoming Entrerpreneur Island April 2010

Just finished a meeting in Second Life with a representative from the Wind River Indian Reservation, located near Lander, Wyoming.

We collaborated on a Native American Art Show project that will feature 17 Native American artists on Wyoming Entrepreneur Island, April 2010. The exhibits will likely stay for a few weeks starting at the first of the month. One example has been placed in the Old Faithful area and can be found by following this URL:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wyoming%20Entrepreneur/141/42/24

This will be our island roll out event, and, something awesome!!!

Rideable Horses and Driveable Stagecoaches

Now that most of the basic build of the island is complete (not all), it is time for fun things to do. I have added horse rezzers that allow any visitor to choose from among 11 horses, then cruise around the island on it. Visitors may also drive a stagecoach or an old farm wagon. The stagecoach carries multiple avatars including the driver. The horses allow double riding.

I have noticed a significant increase in the amount of people who visit the island, and an increase in the amount of time they spend here.

Second Life islands must have something to do, along with something to see.

Next steps for the island are adding events technology so classes and cultural events requiring audio, may be offered.

Interviewed by Second Times Reporter

Second Life has many things that real life has, including a weekly newspaper that can be obtained at kiosks throughout the virtual world.

The interview included questions about Wyoming Entrepreneur Island, who our target market is, what services we offer, etc.

One point that many do not understand about the project is that we aim to educate Wyoming entrepreneurs with businesses in the real world, not in any virtual world. Similar to taking a class online (although much more advanced), we will use the island as a platform to teach.

I currently have no interest in teaching others how to develop a business in Second Life. Second Life businesses are hobbyist at best. They do not support households or families. That part of Second Life, is indeed a game to me.

However, in time I believe real world businesses will use Second Life as "part" of their eCommerce strategy. Even Second Life itself still uses a website for advertising and selling products.

Myself being interviewed by a Second Life newspaper

Rodeo Comes to Wyoming in Second Life

One may now ride a bull in Wyoming and try to beat my score.

This is a low level interactive object but a small start to a much more interactive island. It is interaction with objects that will become the hallmark of this learning sim, along with quality learning activities.

The rodeo is located at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wyoming%20Entrepreneur/35/220/25

Today I tried the language exchange site for the first time, called Instituto Español. I spoke with someone from Arizona and another person from New York. Very nice to practice my Spanish a little. We used audio of course, although using text would also have been a positive experience.

Language exchange is one of the most successful educational efforts to date in Second Life.


Also, the train is fully operational although I can't say the same for Old Faithful Geyser. The latter is proving to be a real challenge.

Finally, wild-life has come to Wyoming!

Wyoming Entrepreneur Island on Cybergrrl Oh Show in Second Life

After watching many interviews in Second Life, someone interviews me (Bronco Skytower). Big thanks to Aliza Sherman for the interview and helping to promote our island.

Watch the video below:

Watch live streaming video from metaworld2 at livestream.com

Video: Old Faithful erupts against a Devil's Tower backdrop

Devil's Tower is finished, the train is proving challenging (but worth it) and Old Faithful is erupting every 4 minutes.

Made presentation to our Advisory Board yesterday, which seemed to be well received. These are important people in Wyoming.

Christmas break should lend some time to keep the work moving along and hopefully, I can take some building classes during this time, in Second Life of course, and become a decent builder. Takes times and effort though.

Enjoy the Video:

Train being installed Today

The train is being installed today, or at least the installation is starting today, on Wyoming Entrepreneur island. Quite a site with train tracks all over the sky and ground. Once operational, will carry up to 10 people and will travel around the island, stopping three times for loading/unloading.

Very cool.

Old Faithful Geyser finds its way into Second Life

A rough draft of a live Old Faithful Geyser is now active in our Second Life island. This is just one of many Wyoming world-famous landmarks that will soon debut at Wyoming Entrepreneur island.

The final version will be visually richer, and erupt more often.

Here is a link to the island:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wyoming%20Entrepreneur/128/128/26

University of Texas to Roll Out Statewide Second Life Offerings

Using grant funding, the entire University of Texas system is about to become involved in Second Life. Basically, the state's higher education system is going to have multiple Second Life islands to outreach the school's offerings in the world's best and most popular virtual world environment for adults. This involves 16 major universities each of which, is required by the state of Texas to have a Second Life representative.

At a presentation in Second Life today, the project lead did not give highly specific details of what "being involved" translates to. But, one may assume research, and teaching and learning will be at the core of all activities.

Read the BLOG article HERE.

This is huge and bolsters both a higher ed presence in Second Life and, solidifies the Linden Lab lead in the virtual world arena.

Spread the news...

Breast Cancer "Pink" event a Hit in Second Life

The Pink event, held October 16 at the Disney fan park in Second Life called Mouse World, was a hit and demonstrated the burgeoning power of virtual worlds. Money was raised for breast cancer research and awareness.

I recently read an article from the Journal of Information Systems Education (refereed) titled Extending the classroom through Second Life. The authors report a figure from 2007 that states "80 percent of active Internet users will have a virtual presence in the form of an 'avatar' in at least one virtual world by the end of 2011." If true, online 3-D virtual worlds will indeed become the second great Internet revolution, possibly as great in magnitude as the world wide web itself.

So what does this all mean and why is virtual world technology becoming such a sociocultural phenomena? Since the Romans introduced the concept of a world wide web by building their extensive road system, human beings have reached out with manifest destiny-like ventures to extend life to and beyond all possible borders.

Once we learned to use email we extended societal borders greatly but lost some human touch in the process. Now, we are claiming it back and virtual worlds is one way we are doing that. Nonverbal communication cues are part of Second Life and similar environments, unlike practically any other medium on the web right now.

This morning in Second Life I attended a live Folk concert broadcast from the U.K., then attended a class on basic building in Second Life, both broadcast in real time. These are great technologies that will eventually be present on Wyoming Entrepreneur island.

Stay tuned.

ReactionGrid and OpenSim, Far from Prime Time

While I believe strongly in competition, I also have some understanding of consumer behavior.

When I first logged onto Second Life I downloaded a file for a minute or so, then launched and was in-world within one minute.

Today I went to check out ReactionGrid and OpenSim considering there is some buzz in higher ed about them.

I had to download 2 files for ReactionGrid, neither of which were described well, and the list of instructions was outrageously long. Then, the system rejected my password after all that. So, okay, what a pain but I reset the password and the system then rejected its own password.

At OpenSim, I clicked on the download file, after confusing to non-existent instructions, and the file would not download.

With all its problems, Second Life is supreme and there is no close second, nor is there any evidence that a viable competitor is on the horizon.

Back to consumer behavior; consumers don't want or need a hassle or a bunch of geeky instructions. They want a product delivered, with the consumer in mind.

Anyone disagree or agree? Leave a professional, informed comment.

Terraforming in Place

The land is taking shape and tomorrow, some structures will arise from the dust. Very cool.

One may now see the major areas of our island.

Today I have been shopping a little for horses and trains. Our steam engine train will carry people around the island, past all of the attractions and locations. Horses are a little trickier. A good horse for a Second Life island, can be quite expensive. I would like our horses to be rideable without someone attaching them to the avatar, and, I would like them to return to their parcel once someone gets off, and start grazing. Plenty of horses, but a good one is so far is about L$10k which is too much.

Island Build Markers in Place

Met with our builder today for 90 minutes going over the artist's concept (ha ha, mine), resources for images of Wyoming, and some of the legal stuff.

She (our builder) has placed markers around the island in preparation for the build. When setting a timeline, and assuming we do not broaden the scope of the project, the initial build will be finished December 1, 2009. This will be Wyoming Entrepreneur Island 1.0.

Wyoming Entrepreneur Island 2.0 build will take place in 10 months from now and include much more interactive objects on the island that teach entrepreneurs business basic through fun activities and games.