The Story of My “Second Life”

Just came across a Reuters news article explaining that CBS is investing in the market-leading Second Life design consultancy Electric Sheep. (Linden Labs is no longer apparently looking for funding partners so this is probably the next best thing.) Electric Sheep Chief Executive Sibley Verbeck is quoted to have said: “We see virtual worlds at [...]

[Read more →]

I found this amazing video over on YouTube that provides a great, five-minute overview of the New Media Consortium’s SL campus. (I’ve been trying to get YouTube to post it here but so far have had no luck.) This video is one of the single best overviews of SL I’ve found so far, particularly for [...]

[Read more →]

Managed to read (skim) this book while sitting at a local Board of Education meeting last night …found it to be generally okay, and easy read, with a good bit of helpful information, though nothing earth-shattering. For $23 or so, I think it’s a good starting point for people to review before their first experience [...]

[Read more →]

One of the challenges of conducting research in SL, I’ve found, is that things come at you FAST. You can start a session with a particular task in mind and in a matter of minutes end up in another corner of the metaverse involved in a discussion with some far-out avatar or experiencing some amazing [...]

[Read more →]

Within minutes, it seems, of posting my introduction to the Second Life in Education (SLED) mailing list, I got an email from Anya Ixchel (Dr. Angela Thomas in real life), asking about my research and offering a get-together. Once I verified she was in fact an educator I willingly obliged. I’m glad I did. Anya [...]

[Read more →]

Here we are getting underway at this week’s ISTE social (Thursdays at 6pm SL/PST at the ISTE Sky Park in EduIsland). Yep, that’s me rockin’ the party hat. Also pictured: Clare Lane, one of my Walden students, and Tek Zeno, a fellow Walden professor who is currently working on her PhD. This meeting was important [...]

[Read more →]

Ok, so I knew it had to happen eventually. Second Life is so big and so important and getting the attention of so many really, really smart people that it was just a matter of time until I saw some crazy mad awesome stuff that isn’t specifically educationally-related. Check out the Metaverse Roadmap. Quoting from [...]

[Read more →]

Interesting article here on Technology Review about a new product from Comverse that allows people to communicate directly with people in Second Life via text messaging. I’ve not seen the software personally, and though it sounds a bit primitive, it’s a great illustration of the future potential convergence of two burgeoning trends – digital handsets [...]

[Read more →]

Had the chance yesterday to get a tour of EduIsland by Kittygloom Cassady. EduIsland is a shared space of sort “anchored” by several major tenants, ISTE being one. She took us around to several sites, showing me things I’ve never seen before. I really liked the auditorium, ready to use for class, free of charge, [...]

[Read more →]

Spent about an hour last night at the ISTE HQ in Second Life, as an official ISTE Docent (greeter). It was actually pretty busy, four people came by in the hour I was there, including Thania Slade, an ISTE SL member, but a newbie (much like me) to SL. It was fun getting to know [...]

[Read more →]