Weekend Whimsy

First up this week is a piece from Monash University Student, Lily Tan:

1. Testing

2. Precious – Surfing Second Life

3. Second Life Dominoe Rally

Monash Uni: closed island?

In an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald this week, I was a little surprised at a quote attributed to Monash University’s Dr Melissa de Zwart: “our area won’t be open to the public; you will need to be on an authorised list to get in”.

I try to avoid real-world comparisons but it’s difficult in this case: this is the equivalent of putting a barbed-wire fence across the entrance of the local university. Doesn’t a total closed-door policy from a taxpayer-funded entity go against its purpose as a community facility? RMIT Island has blocked off most of its island from general access but it at least has a public welcome area. As Gary Hayes says in the same article, it’s not hard to prevent damage to a Second Life presence. So why the lockdown?

Perhaps someone attending this event can ask.

Monash University (doesn’t) join the SL contingent

We’ve been contacted by SL resident Curiosa Paravane requesting we remove the image we’d featured in this story. Curiosa has made the following statement: “The branding of the building on esperance was a mistake which has been corrected”. We’ve removed the image as it appears Monash University aren’t in fact officially in SL at this stage.

We asked Curiosa whether a real Monash presence was imminent – her response was “I can’t comment on behalf of Monash, I’m afraid. You’ll have to wait and see like everyone else :)”

At SLOz we ran the story because the Places search functionality was returning Monash University – this is no longer the case.

The original story (minus image):

“Monash University has joined USQ, RMIT, Murdoch Uni and the AFTRS in Second Life with a modest presence on Esperance Island.

We’re hoping to catch up with someone from Monash in coming days to find out more.

Check it out in-world

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