Kzero and the growth of Virtual Worlds

Kzero, resident experts in virtual worlds is a website on virtual world info. It has a chart of virtual worlds by types such as chatting/socializing, sports, education or for content creation. Another chart is of registrations by age categories. It age category chart lists the number of registrations for each vw over the world's existence up to 5 years. It shows both games/worlds that are live or in open beta as well as games/worlds that are in development or private beta. It is amazing to see the numbers that are in Beta status. Looks like we are on the verge of a huge leap in the numbers available. Habbo, Neopet and IMVU are among those with the most registrants. Hello Kitty fans will be pleased to see that it is in beta testing.

SLymposium

Last weekend, November 8th, 2008, the ALA Virtual Communities and Libraries group hosted a SLymposium in Second Life. The speakers talked about the different types of libraries and library associations that are in virtual worlds and what they are doing and they also covered how students and graduate library students are using Second Life and Teen Second Life. The keynote speaker was Tom Peters (Maxito Ricardo in SL), author of the just released ALA Tech Source publication, Libraries and Virtual Worlds. The first photo is of the avatar of Sue Bergren who is a graduate student at the University of Illinois who has been researching libraries in virtual worlds. As part of her work she has visited the Central Florida Memory exhibit in SL and has interviewed an OCLS staff member about it. Two of the other photos are of the avatars (Nick and Echo) of OCLS staff who attended the virtual conference. The crowd snapshot is provided to give you an impression of the numbers in attendance. Nick and Echo, attending their first virtual conference, gained some first hand (or is it second hand?, lol) experience about the sound challenges as well as lag and crashing that occur when large groups gather in virtual spaces. You can read a report on the event on ALA's Virtual Presence blog. You may also read more about it on Steven Harris' Collection 2.0 blog or on the SLA in SL blog.
--Laurel

Helping History Come Alive

One of the practical uses for 3D spaces is that it allows for the creation of experience. It is one thing to read about history, for example, but another to immerse yourself through the senses. Ok, granted taste has not worked yet in early versions of virtual worlds. :) Besides the Central Florida Memory Exhibit in SL, which does help bring history alive through the cracker cottage with cornbread steaming in the oven, clothes moving in the breeze on the line in the humid sunny afternoon, and chickens walking and clucking through the yard, there are a number of virtual history projects. For example you can visit Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and you can tour the Palace of Versailles. There have been several recent exciting announcements about two new 3D history projects.

The first is in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of Darwin's On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection (On a side note, that is basically my gardening style, "survival of the fittest.") The University of Cincinnati has recreated in sl the Galapagos Islands where Darwin conducted some of his famous research. Currently the site is available for students, however, shortly after the start of 2009 the space will be open to anyone in sl. Through your avatar you will be able to trace the steps of Darwin's journey on the Beagle with the help of a tour guide.

The other recent announcement is that the University of Virginia will create virtual tours of 5 sites from 1776 Colonial Williamsburg. The three dimensional models are being touted as a way of expanding museum audiences and enriching the onsite experiences with online experiences. The work is being funded by a nearly 1 million dollar grant from the Institute of Museums and Library Services.

--Laurel

All the Virtual World is a Stage...

Here is a great quick tour of 50 virtual worlds in 7 minutes, called the 2008 Metaverse Tour-The Social Virtual World's A Stage. It includes everything from Webkinz (Characters now available in the FOL bookstore), Spore, There and Second Life. It is estimated that 300 million people participate in social virtual spaces.

--Laurel

The Central Florida Memory SL Exhibit is Now OPEN!

Central Florida Memory Comes to Second Life
The Orange County Library System (OCLS) is bringing the Central Florida Memory project (http://www.cfmemory.org/) to the virtual world of Second Life. Central Florida Memory is an ongoing collaborative digitization project whose partners include the Orange County Library System, the University of Central Florida Libraries, the Orange County Regional History Center, Rollins College, and the Museum of Seminole County History. Staff members from OCLS have recreated a turn of the century Florida homestead, complete with cracker house, barn, school house, and more! Visitors to the virtual exhibit will be treated to an interactive and immersive experience that will allow them to “touch” virtual objects for more information about Central Florida Memory. Virtual “computers” will provide links to more information, as well as presentations on building a virtual exhibit, how to start a digitization project, the types of documents included in Central Florida Memory, and more.

A free Second Life standard account is required in order to view and participate in the exhibit (http://secondlife.com/). Once the account is obtained, the location of the exhibit can be found starting July 7th, 2008 at the following SLurl http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%204/188/56/24/ . Please note access to Second Life is not available on work computers.

“In World” questions can be sent to Laurel Zenovka or Penny Theas. The exhibit is available on an ongoing basis.

Here are a few pictures from the exhibit:

Artificial Intelligence Experiments in SL

Researchers are using SL to experiment with artificial intelligence. Research staff at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Laboratory made a digital robot, named Edd Hifeng in sl, with limited capacity for speaking and reasoning. You can read the full article by clicking here.

__Laurel

OCLS Second Life Group & History Conference

OCLS now has it's very own Second Life Group, called "Orange County (FL) Library Group". The intention of the group is to gather those of us participating in Second Life. Second Life groups allow us to send notices about events related to OCLS, or that might be of interest to OCLS employees. At this time, this group is only available to employees.

If interested in joining, please IM Penny Theas in-world for an add to the group!

Additionally, an announcement was just made that the Alliance Library System (in cooperation with LearningTimes) will be holding a conference on June 10th, 2008 entitled "Stepping Into History: Exploring the Past through Virtual Worlds". For more information on this exciting opportunity for virtual immersion in a historical context, click on the link here.

ALA's Marginalia talks about all the different social networking tools used within ALA membership; everything from Nings, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and Wikis. Second Life is also covered with details of the National Library Week events in sl which received 2800 visits. To visit the ALA site in sl go to http://slurl.com/secondlife/ALA%20Island/128/107/29/.
--Laurel

ALA Remodels SL Island

ALA has remodeled the ALA Island in SL. The original space was designed in a very traditional way including a multi-story office building. The new design is very open air with lots of different areas for events of different sizes and types. For National Library Week ALA is hosting a variety of events. You can read about the new design and about the National Library Week events in this press annnouncement.



---Laurel

My Journey in Teen Second Life - The Beginning

I've always had more than a passing interest in the Model UN program, and thought it would be a brilliant idea to combine that interest with my interest in virtual worlds by creating a Model UN in Second Life, and specifically in Teen Second Life, to target the 13-17 year olds. I found out that it's a lot easier to come up with an idea than to actually implement it in the strange world of Teen Second Life
.
The first hurdle is the background check. You need to set up an avatar to use only on the teen grid, because once it goes there, it can never return to the adult grid. Then, you apply for the background check online. Of course I passed with flying colors, but you have to pay the Lindens $40 and wait for the company they use to qualify you. That can take weeks.
Then, you need to volunteer for or propose a project to one of the adult owners of islands attached to the teen grid and get accepted. I didn't know this at first, but there are a lot of them, maybe hundreds, with more signing up every day, mostly schools and youth organizations. I chose the Eye4You Alliance island, run by Kelly Czarnecki, a teen librarian at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County and supported by the Alliance Library in Illinois. Kelly is the indomitable force behind the island, a true innovator.
My teen grid avatar's name is Freda Fraina, don't ask me why. I was told that it was next to impossible to buy anything like clothes or hair so I should bring as much inventory as I could over when they moved the avatar over to the teen grid. Unfortunately, none of my inventory transferred over so I was stuck being the 'girl next door' avatar. Not an auspicious start at all!



Next: My introduction to the teens

Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education and Museums Conference, March 8

Whether you have never been to Second Life, or you’ve created an avatar and quickly decided that you didn’t NEED a Second Life, or you are a seasoned vet, you will find something of interest at the upcoming Virtual Worlds Conference at the NMC (New Media Consortium) Conference Center in Second Life. You can get full info including registration information at this website:
http://www.alliancelibraries.info/virtualworlds/vwlemschedule.htm

The purpose of this conference is to provide a gathering place for librarians, information professionals, educators, museologists, and others to learn about and discuss the educational, informational, and cultural opportunities of virtual worlds.

One session that you might find interesting is: "The State of Librarianship in Second Life" Presented by Lauren Pressley. This session examines the idea of librarianship in Second Life, specifically focusing on reference practices and the development of a library's presence in a virtual world. The session will conclude with a discussion of possible virtual world library services that have not yet been designed and implemented.

My avatar name is Eirene Janus and I will be attending some of the sessions and working the booth for a group that I am involved with called Public Libraries in Second Life. This group not only meets in Second Life, but you can also join the Google Group if you don’t want to commit and just want to lurk. Please be sure to stop by the booth and say hi if you do attend!

--Eirene

Finding your way around the Big Slearning Curve

Are you ready to give SL a try? Or just getting started and do not have a clue how to do anything? Here are some great learning resources both for beginners and more experienced avatars to learn how to get around, and get along and have fun in Second Life. These resources are courtesy of one of my SL instructors, JJ Drinkwater.
----Laurel



SL History Wiki

Second Life Knowledge Base Orientation Island Walk Through


Video Tutorials, for how to do many things in Second Life
SUCH AS
# How to use gestures
# How to manage your inventory
# How to use HUDs
# How to change your appearance
# How to open and sell boxes
# How to use the building grid
# How to fill in your profile
# How to create and send a notecard
# How to use Undo

Second Life Guides-- An excellent and well-organized resource for basic knowledge

Other useful tutorial on private websites:


Moving and flying at Orientation Island

How to leave Orientation Island

SL Tools: Getting the Most out of Groups

Getting started:

The Unofficial Complete Fool's Guide to Second Life

Guide created by Berkman center

Natalia's Getting Started in Second Life Guide

Watermelons, Avatars and Torley

One of the most interesting characters in and outside of Second Life is Torley Linden (sl name.) Check out his creativity and thoughts about the grid in a variety of places.
His website, Torley Lives.
Torley's Twitter.