Vale: ABC Island in Second Life

As I wrote a few weeks back, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s presence in Second Life is about to come to a close. The 22nd September sees the curtain fall, but not without some festivities prior. Particularly this Saturday 22nd September when the final party occurs. (Here’s the SLURL to teleport to ABC Island)

I’ve been an admin on the island (in name only – I’ve had no active involvement really) since 2008 and I’ve seen it evolve and grow over that time. As you’ll see below, it’s made an impact on a lot of people.

I wanted to take some time to posts some memories from a number of people who’ve called ABC Island another home at different times since 2007.

Tiffy Vella:

So sad…I was born there, and owe many old friendships to SL’s ABC Island.

Laura Seabrook sent through these great pics and descriptions:

Australia Day picnic for that year. Elsie (my AV is sitting middle back in sun dress. At right is Wolfie Rankin

Special “Rockit” quiz show held on that day as well

Part of the anniversary fun was the building of a chute you could ride down by sitting inside a giant marble. Lots of fun in MOUSE view. This was the view at the end

Lecture held at the Island. Can’t remember the topic but I think it had something to do with law

Chatting with Wolfie while making an “Elphaba” outfit, in the entrance to the sandbox tower

Exploring Laneways in 2008, before it was demolished

Katisha Honi:
ABC Island for myself is, and from conversations with a lot of visitors I’m not alone, a place where we grew up as an avatar. ABC Island was and still is a friendly relaxing laidback environment, someone said it was just how the Australian-run sims that made them this way. Personally I had visited ABC within my first week of being in Second Life, and it was the friendships I made that kept me coming back. Once I had found my feet and was looking for “something to do” I wanted to give ‘admin-ing’ a go, I had always wanted to work in television, and well ABC would be the closest I could get.
Over the last 5 years or so, I’ve gone from doing sandbox duties to event runner and recently we got the keys to the sim and redesigned it. Finally, not only for me but for a lot of admins, ABC island was kind of like a big sandbox that we could play in. I think whether you ‘discovered’ ABC island 5 years ago or 5 months ago, the common theme has been “but where will I go now?”
Saying goodbye to ABC, is like saying: Goodbye….old friend
Juko Tempel:
One of my favourite things was the Sandbox, and in particular I remember a day when we built a pond on one level.. it was just a spontaneous group activity that started with one idea and grew and grew as we all found things in our inventory or built new things..http://www.flickr.com/photos/jukotempel/2420554975/in/photostream/. I had a similar experience when Diag Anzac and Gary Hazlitt and I got together one day to build the beach area on ABC Island http://www.flickr.com/photos/jukotempel/1678133214/.
 
One of the great things about SL, and the Island provided by the ABC, is the opportunity to meet people and do things together, to create fun ‘places’, with a real sense of the presence of those other people and a location rather than just a text box for interaction.
I wanted to give the final word to…
Wolfie Rankin:
Notice though, how many of us Second Life users still keep our SL names for our other Social Networks?I gained “Rankin” from there.Not long ago I seriously considered changing my name to Wolfie Rankin.

I didn’t go through with it because I realised what the advantages of having two names was to me.

SL gave me a lot of confidence in talking to others, which I didn’t have before that, and was a real boon when I was still recovering from illness.

Thanks ABC, and Thankyou to the other Admins.

 Now it’s over to you: post your memories, links to pics or related stuff in comments!

ABC Island to Close in Second Life

It’s not surprising but sad all the same: the wonderful community-driven project that is ABC Island in Second Life, is to close on the 22nd of September.

The island has been a staple of the Australian Second Life scene since March 2007, and it’s undergone a number of iterations since then (check out a lot of them here).

Given the relatively small number of Australian visitors the sim gets compared to its heyday, it’s not a shock that the ABC are redirecting the funds. That doesn’t make it any easier for the small and dedicated bunch of volunteer admins of the sim.

We’ll have more details on farewell arrangements / spontaneous wakes etc as we find out ourselves.

The ABC in Second Life four years on: the official view

It’s hard to believe it’s been more than four years since the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched its island in Second Life.

To coincide with that I interviewed the ABC’s Abigail Thomas (SL: Abi Goldflake) to get the ABC’s take on the last four years. The next step will be to catch up with the dynamos that are the ABC Admin team and community on ABC Island. In the meantime, have a read of the interview with Abi over at ABC Tech.

Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds

1. The ABC’s Island in Second Life continues to have a bunch of activities going, with regular building tutorials back on the agenda and plans underway for Easter events.

2. The University of Western Australia has released a book: 100 Treasures of UWA and one of those treasures is the UWA’s Second Life presence.

3. Some great brain food on virtual goods and intellectual property rights can be eaten right here.

4. As of now, the number of registered virtual worlds accounts is just under 1.2 billion. Even when you factor in people like me with fifty accounts, there’s still a lot of people to meet in-world.

5. In case you didn’t realise, Linden Lab is like an ultra-fit blind-man positioned under a falling piano. Head piano-tuner and CEO Rod Humble has thanked everyone for their input on what they’d like to be doing in two years in Second Life.

Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds

abc-island-july2009 1. ABC Island‘s friends are seeking feedback on the new Pool Studio. It features a green screen area for Machinima production and a cinema section where we hope to stream video shortly.

2. Interested in helping entrepreneurs in developing countries? Our Metaverse Aid team is growing slowly and more than a dozen ventures have been funded to date. Why not join us?

3. There’s lots of buzz around the US Government’s Deputy CTO, Beth Noveck, who’s a long-tim Second Life resident who is still dropping in regularly.

4. Second Nights is a new website / social network for those who enjoy Second Life’s entertainment on offer. A ‘finder’ feature for artists, clubs, DJs and more is available.

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5. The 2009 Relay for Life in Second Life has completed, with more than US 260 thousand dollars raised. Here’s one Australian blog devoted to raising awareness of the event.

6. Tateru Nino has Ten Great Tips for New Second Life Users that are well worth reading.

Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds

1. The US-based Spina Bifida Association is holding a fundraiser in Second Life this coming weekend:

Spina Bifida Awareness is pleased to announce the 2009 Second Life Charity Auction on Sunday, April 12, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. Second Life Time at the Justice League Explorer’s Club in Port Harbor, Steelhead.

Bid on the creations of Second Life’s finest crafters and enjoy a night of entertainment. Proceeds go to the Spina Bifida Association’s research and support programs. Lives are changed by the programs and services SBA has created to respond to the needs of new parents of babies who are born with Spina Bifida, families who are dealing with the challenges of Spina Bifida, teens who are transitioning toward newfound independence, and adults who are leading productive and fulfilling lives.

For more information, please contact Xandera Voom or Samantha Lowell.

2. Back in May 2007, ABC Island hit a snag that received widespread (and inaccurate) media coverage, with claims it was a griefing attack. Recent podcast interviewee, Draxtor Depres, has pointed me to a piece he did back at the time, so for sentimentality’s sake:

3. CyberTech News have an interesting sum-up of the licensing issues around open source virtual worlds and business uses.

ABC Island 2nd Anniversary event in pictures

A handful of pics from the successful event last evening. Some good trivia by Wolfie Rankin, goodmusic by Komuso Tokugawa and an overall great night thanks to the ABC Admin team.

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ABC Island in Second Life: two years

On Friday March 16th 2007, members of the ABC Friends group in Second Life got to see the completed ABC Island, with the public launch on the 19th March to coincide with the Four Corners episode ‘You Only Live Twice’.

Since that time there’s been a regular and dedicated community on ABC Island that have ensured its ongoing evolution, in conjunction with the ABC Staff responsible for its administration.

To celebrate the two-year anniversary, there’s an event on this evening, starting at 7.30pm AEDT. First up is Rockit, the music trivia event with a difference – anyone who turns up can potentially compete and it’s a lot of fun. After Rockit wraps up at 9.30pm, the plan is for a live music performance by Komuso.

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Australian Second Life resident Simon Kline organised a chook hunt Friday evening as part of ABC Island’s 2nd anniversary celebrations. Photo credit: Wolfie Rankin

We’ve mentioned it numerous times: the most successful virtual world locations are ones with a critical mass of people who consider it their community, and work to make it a fun place to be. ABC Island’s community has had its fair share of ups and downs, personality conflicts and technical challenges, but after two years it’s still standing strong. It’s fair to say that the ABC aren’t placing its Second Life presence that high up its priorities but credit due to the advocates at the ABC who have managed to keep this small community innovation a lively part of the Australian virtual worlds community.

Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds

1. Intranet consultants Step Two designs have announced entries are open for the 2009 Intranet Innovation Awards, and they’re looking for entries that demonstrate the use of virtual worlds within the enterprise. Alex Manchester is a Senior Consultant at Step Two:

“We’ve yet to see virtual worlds really break into the internal corporate environment, but there’s undoubtedly a lot happening in this space. It would be great to see some entries this year from organisations leading the way with business uses of virtual worlds, be that for communication, training, collaboration or something entirely different.”

More entry info here.

2. The Virtual Worlds – Best Practices in Education conference is held in Second Life and this year’s is coming up 27th-29th March. You can register here.

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3. ABC Island in Second Life hits the two-year mark since it opened to the public. We’ll write more on the milestone later in the week and there’s likely to be some celebrations in-world over the weekend.

Pool: the ideal Second Life tie-in opportunity for the ABC

I received a press release from the ABC’s Radio National, who have launched collaborative content creation site called Pool.

It’s a joint initiative between RMIT University, University of Technology Sydney and the University of Wollongong and runs on the open source content management system Drupal. The call is on for people to contribute their words, pictures, sounds or video with the ability (via a Creative Commons license) for every participant to download the work of others to build or collaborate on. It’s another plunge into participatory media for the ABC – something that’s been explored in the ABC’s presence in Second Life.

I contacted the ABC to ask about any potential tie-in of the Pool initiative with Second Life and at this stage nothing’s planned in that regard. There seems to be some obvious collaborative opportunities for Pool that involve Second Life, or indeed any virtual world, so here’s hoping for further exploration of that.

One way to drive that exploration would be to join Pool and start contributing material from your virtual world life…

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