1. Ms / Mr Second Life International 2010
2. Second Life Tribute To Aaliyah Rock The Boat Starring NiaSymone Batista
3. Second Life HD – COOL PLACES – 2 (slide show) – Madonna
Archives for 2010
A few non-PC jokes
April 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment
I’ve just come out of the chip shop with a meat and potato pie, large chips, mushy peas & a jumbo sausage. A poor homeless man sat there and said ‘I’ve not eaten for two days’ I told him ‘I wish I had your fucking will power’
A woman buys a wall mirror from B & Q, manager says ‘would you like a screw for that mirror’ No she said ‘but I’d suck your cock for a lawn mower’.
Top tip; if your camping in the summer and the attractive girl in the next tent tells you that because it’s so hot she will be sleeping with her flaps open, it’s not necessarily an invitation to casual sex…………Wish me luck I appear in court next Monday.
I got fired on my first day as a male masseuse today. Apparently the instruction ‘ finish off on her face ‘ didn’t mean ‘ What I thought it did ‘
A fat bird served me food in McDonalds at lunch time, she said ‘ sorry about the wait ‘ I said ‘ don’t worry fatty, you’ll lose it eventually ‘
Paddy is walking down the road eating a bag of doughnuts, Murphy meets & says ‘ if I can guess how many doughnuts you have in the bag, can I have one? Paddy said ‘ if you can guess how many are in there you can have both of them ‘…………….Murphy says ‘Four!’
Marriage counsellor to couple. ‘ Tell me something both of you have in common ‘ Husband after a long awkward silence ‘ Well neither of us sucks cock ‘
Snow eh! The weather girl just said she was expecting 8 inches tonight, I thought to myself ‘ she’ll be fucking lucky with a face like that!’
I have a new chat up line that works every time. it doesn’t matter how gorgeous and out of my league they are, it’s a winner & I always end up in bed with them…………… ‘ Excuse me love, could I ask your opinion? Does this damp cloth smell like chloroform to you?’
Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds
April 23, 2010 by Leave a Comment
1. We talk quite a bit about virtual goods and their popularity. MMO Behemoth World of Warcraft proved it in the past week, selling hundreds of thousands of an in-game mount called the Celestial Steed at US$25 a pop. No-one but Blizzard software know how many they sold but given queues exceeded 140,000 at one stage, we do know the number is big.
2. The SLENZ project has completed its run, but here’s a great write-up of how the work done still has legs.
3. The legal actions keep on coming for Linden Lab, as discussed by Tateru Nino here.
4. Version 2.0.1 of the Second Life viewer is now available, and there’s now a fleshed out FAQ document for Viewer 2.
5. A sad piece of news: Singapore-based virtual worlds dynamo Andrew Peters, passed away after a battle with cancer on the 13th April. I had the opportunity to correspond with Andrew many times including via phone and he was certainly a man committed to his work and its outcomes. The full announcement of his death is given below, and Andrew’s sense of humour would have appreciated the title of the press release:
Andrew Peters, Singapore’s resident social media marketing guru, moves on to Heaven 2.0
Singapore, 22 April 2010 – Andrew Peters, Singapore-based social media marketing guru, passed away at 4.45am (NZ time) on Tuesday 13 April in Christchurch in his native New Zealand at the age of 47, after losing a secret battle with cancer.
With 25 years’ experience in publishing, public relations, sales and marketing for leading industry brands, he worked in Sydney in the second half of the 1980’s with ICL and Wang Computers, then with Anixter, Australian Consolidated Press and Project Media in the 1990’s, before setting up a branch in Singapore in 1999 for public relations agency McCorkell & Associates, as Vice President, Asia Pacific.
He joined Pacific West Communications – started in 2001 by his Singapore best friend and business associate Imran Omar, in 2005. As Regional Director Asia Pacific for Pacific West, he was responsible for strategic development, overseeing client portfolios, business development and providing counsel to deliver value-added solutions that delivered sustainable results for clients.
He was instrumental in founding the Internet Industry Association of Singapore (IIAS), and sat on the Executive Committee of Singapore-based ‘The Digital Movement’ – a non-profit set up to build a community of young leaders in web 2.0 and social media and connect them to overseas experts.
Example activities included Nexus 2007, the first major Web 2.0 conference in Southeast Asia, which brought together 700 of the best entrepreneurs, investors, engineers, bloggers and world class thinkers from companies like O’Reilly, Google, Microsoft, Lenovo, Salesforce, Second Life and Yahoo; and BlogOut – a gathering of the best technology bloggers. He also sat on the Advisory Board of the Association of Virtual Worlds.
Highly connected with online & offline web 2.0, virtual worlds and social media communities, he had roles with a number of entrepreneurial ventures, and a close interest in virtual worlds and gaming platforms.
His pioneering work in social media marketing paid off with the success of the first annual Tattoo Show in Singapore in 2008, which catered to a niche group of individuals who loved body art but who were too niche for mass media to cover on a daily basis, or with frequency before the event. Social media engagement was a way to generate pre-interest in the event, and allowed for near real-time coverage and the creation of related events.
Epitomising the theory of the ‘long tail’ made popular by Chris Anderson – a niche strategy of selling a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities; and using social media and traditional PR hand-in-hand, he drove 15,000 attendees to the event and in the process, created an online regional tattoo community of more than 4,000 members.
He worked on virtual worlds projects with Second Life, and helped bring Germany’s virtual worlds creator Metaversum Gmbh’s Twinity into Asia. He developed social media strategies for AUSTRADE Study in Australia Events, and was social media strategist for cable television talk show ‘Asia Uncut’, broadcast on the Star World Network across Asia. He put in place a social media strategy for Singapore-based online television reality show Supermodelme.tv – the first Web TV Reality show, as online publicist for global audience acquisition & interaction, and was also social media strategist for a number of Malaysia-based clients.
With social media marketing still in its infancy, Andrew Peters independently pursued a ground-up strategy of connected community building, actively integrating people from outside the professional world and inspiring talented new content creators who became friends, passionate online collaborators and agents; to make full use of the free resources of the Internet medium.
Exemplifying many of the concepts outlined in David Meerman Scott’s best-seller ‘The World Wide Rave’, in which his work for the Singapore Tattoo Show is highlighted, he got people around the world talking about his personal and client brands, events and messages, building audiences from scratch and inspiring online interest communities to link on the Web by creating online buzz that drove buyers to the virtual and physical doorstep. He created value that people wanted to share, and made it easy for them to do so.
Variously characterised as witty, wry and genuine, while loving the ‘seriousness and silliness’ of social media and the ‘digital revolution’, his fierce belief in community give-back and his desire to help and coach others, exemplified a passion for creativity and diversity, and a desire to listen, learn and add value without hesitation. In his final year he was looking with collaborators, into book publishing offers and ideas for new reality TV shows.
He was laid to rest on 16th April in Christchurch, and his life and work is to be commemorated at a gathering of friends and collaborators in Singapore on 24th April.
He leaves behind, best friend and business associate Imran, adoptive parent Stan and sisters Holly and Kyro, birth mother Marlene and siblings Sandra, Karen, Barbara and David, and a host of online followers, collaborators and friends in Singapore and across the Asia Pacific region, and further afield. He has a virtual afterlife on Facebook and other social media sites (although he is no longer active on Twitter and Foursquare).
ENDS
http://www.facebook.com/APLINK?ref=ts#!/group.php?gid=117745381570582&ref=ts
“In Loving memory of Andrew Petersâ€
Health professional training in Second Life: growth plus
April 21, 2010 by Leave a Comment
(This post originally appeared over at Metaverse Health)
One of the advantages of being a regular (daily) observer of virtual worlds news, is you get a fair idea of trends. One growth trend over recent months has been the interest in the health applications of virtual environments.
One of the better pieces of media coverage is one by the Wall Street Journal. It’s well worth the read for anyone after a useful overview of where things are up to. The article is also pretty well balanced, citing the limitations of the approach:
The online world isn’t perfect, though, as Carol Kilmon discovered. An associate professor of nursing at the University of Texas at Tyler, Dr. Kilmon wanted to train students to respond to emergencies such as a man in cardiac arrest or a boy having trouble breathing.
But in early testing, she has run into some hitches. Many students have older computers that can’t support the Second Life system, or live in rural areas with iffy Internet connections. And it takes them a long time simply to master moving around in the virtual world. “They’re not necessarily gamers,” Dr. Kilmon says. Still, she’s pressing ahead.
That sums up the challenges very nicely, but the last sentence is the crucial one. There are hundreds of health professionals who see the potential of immersive virtual worlds for health professional training. It’s those same people who will eventually help the technology become a key aspect of a comprehensive curriculum.
The Watch – virtual worlds in the news
April 18, 2010 by 1 Comment
1. ABC News (USA) – DreamWorks Rolls out “Kung Fu Panda” Virtual World. “After 2-1/2 years of work and an investment of about $10 million, DreamWorks Animation has started rolling out its first online virtual world — a browser-based Web theme park tied to its “Kung Fu Panda” movie franchise. The marketing push for “Kung Fu Panda World,” which comes at a subscription cost of $5.95 per month, but can also be sampled after watching an online ad, kicks off Monday after a soft launch at the end of March.”
2. Wired (USA) – Virtual Worlds, Real Money: Can Social Games Solve Music’s Woes? “Music fans of tomorrow are kids of today, and the way they pay for digital content is through virtual worlds like Farmville and Penguin Town, which turn the acquisition of virtual goods — and digital music is nothing if not a virtual good — into a game. Conduit Labs’ Music Pets app for Facebook may look cute, but it could have tangible ramifications for how music is discovered and sold in the future. The goal of Music Pets is to entertain a virtual pet by training it to like the music you like, then using points to send the pet out to find more music to add to your collection. It sounds silly, but this cartoon-ish virtual world includes every element of the real-world music experience: getting recommendations, deciding whether you like songs, collecting music, and going over to your friends’ “houses†to play songs from your collection, which, as with just about everything else, requires that you expend points.”
3. BBC News (UK) – South Korean children face gaming curfew. “The South Korean government is introducing policies aimed at curbing the amount of time children spend playing online games. The first involves barring online gaming access to young people of school age between 12am (midnight) and 8am. The other policy suggests slowing down people’s internet connections after they have been logged on to certain games for a long period of time. The Culture Ministry is calling on games providers to implement the plans.”
4. National Defense Magazine (USA) – Airmen to Live Out Their Careers In Cyberspace. “Air Force officials anticipate a world in which every recruit receives an avatar upon joining the service. These avatars would follow airmen through their entire careers, earning promotions and educational credits and even moving with them to new offices and bases. This would take place in simulated worlds that mirror the service’s actual facilities. “Everyone who comes into the Air Force will be given an avatar, and that avatar travels with them, grows with them, changes appearance with them,†said Larry Clemons, of the Air Education and Training Command. “It will provide them a history of where they’ve been and a notion of where they’re going.â€
5. CNET (USA) – Haptic hug vest makes emoticons so last century. “Sure, it’s great when that hot avatar gives you a hug in Second Life, but wouldn’t it be even better if you could actually feel the embrace? Researchers from Japan are demonstrating a motorized haptic device that lets you experience real-time virtual hugs by physically reproducing the pressure felt on the chest and back when someone gives you a squeeze. Getting a hug that moves beyond the basic emoticon requires donning a kind of harness adorned with soft fabric hands that envelop the wearer in a warm faux embrace. But the HaptiHug is only one of the affective garments included in the I_FeelIM (“I feel therefore I am”) system, which uses software to extract emotional meaning from written text and pass it on to one of a number of haptic devices that react accordingly.”
6. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Avatar Reality Taking Blue Mars To The Clouds. “In 2007 when Avatar Reality first began showing off its virtual world, Blue Mars, much of the talk was high fidelity environments built on CryEngine 2. The early screen shots were certainly something to see compared to most virtual worlds. But that beauty came with high system requirements. Now, however, Avatar Reality has announced that it will be using the AMD Fusion Cloud Server developed by AMD, Super Micro, and OTOY to stream Blue Mars from the cloud to virtually any computer’s Web browser. Specifically, Avatar Reality mentions handhelds, Macs, and legacy hardware–not the gaming PCs that usually run CryEngine 2.”
7. Wall Street Journal (USA) – Avatar II: The Hospital. “The nurses have been told there’s a crisis. But they’re hardly prepared for the chaos that awaits. Hospitals, medical schools and health foundations are staking out space in the online community Second Life, in order to train medical and nursing students in clinical skills and to improve hospital efficency and response to emergencies. Dozens of patients, stricken with a debilitating flu, crowd the emergency room. Some slump mutely in chairs. Others wander, moaning or calling out for blankets. Just as the nurses begin triage, part of the hospital goes dark: a blackout. This chaotic scene isn’t real—it’s part of an online simulation designed to help nurses make quick, sure decisions in emergencies. Dozens of hospitals, medical schools and health foundations have staked out space in the online community Second Life, where participants can build their own virtual clinics and stage just about any training drill they can imagine. Interest is so high, both Stanford University and the University of Michigan last month held workshops on medical training and education in the virtual world.”
8. Reason Magazine (USA) – I Am, I Am, I Am Superman/And I Know What’s Happening. “Peter Ludlow has a pair of guest posts at Henry Jenkins’ site about some battles that broke out in Second Life, a well-known virtual world. The short version: Pranksters and vandals, known in gaming circles as griefers, make trouble for other players; a vigilante group forms to battle the griefers; paranoia sets in, and the vigilantes start to see griefers everywhere. Eventually the conflict spills out into the outside world.”
9. Kotaku (USA) – Blizzard Is Selling World Of Warcraft Mounts Because Players Demanded Them. “While naysayers may think corporate greed is the answer, Blizzard tells Kotaku the real reason World of Warcraft mounts have shown up for sale in the company’s online store is because that’s exactly what the players wanted. The overwhelming response to yesterday’s addition of the Celestial Steed in-game mount for World of Warcraft to the Blizzard store backs up comments we received today from Blizzard PR man Ryan Arbogast. Purchase queues began forming soon after the virtual item went on sale, with players in the forums reporting upwards of 12,000 folks waiting at the virtual cash register at one time for a chance to purchase the translucent flying mount. Wow.com reported yesterday that at one point the number topped 140,000.”
10. GamesRadar (USA) – Hands on with The Old Republic. “Strange to say it, but when you first start playing The Old Republic you forget it’s going to be built like an MMO. Missions, such as the one we played recently, are doled out in such dramatic and wordy ways that you’re temporarily blinded to the fact that the bomb-pursuit you’re on is essentially a World of Warcraft quest in space boots. Secure a ZR-57 bomb that’s deep within a Separatist fortress on the planet of Ord Mantell, having taken down a force field at another point somewhere within said fortress? Well, that’s a little bit of a “fight your way into a zombie castle and bring back some fairy dust†retrieval quest isn’t it?”
Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds
April 16, 2010 by Leave a Comment
1. Virtual RP is a French OpenSim grid that launched yesterday after four months development.
2. Want to test out a potential tattoo design on an avatar before making a lifetime commitment? Obsessive Ink may be worth a look.
3. Linden Lab have provided some more examples of what Viewer 2 is doing for enhancing in-world content.
4. The UK elections are turning out to be a dud as far as virtual world presences go.
5. There’s been quite a buzz about Blue Mars offering a cloud-based service. Here’s one of the better stories on it.
PMS
April 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment
What do you get when you mix PMS with GPS?
A crazy bitch who will find you.
UWA Art: March winners and a three-year continuation
April 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment
The University of Western Australia continues its 3D Art and Design Challenge, announcing the March winners. All those details are replicated in full below thanks to the indefatigable Jayjay Zifanwe and the UWA in SL blog.
What’s even more impressive is the announcement that the UWA have agreed to fund the monthly competition for a further three years, to the tune of a million Linden dollars per year for art and half a million for machinima. That equates to around US$6000 per year on top of maintaining the UWA presence, which is certainly a demonstration of confidence by the University. It also extends the life of the competition to August 2013, ensuring exposure of a lot of artists over that time.
Onto the March winners:
Fuschia & Flivelwitz snatch IMAGINE, Breen machine chugs on: March Winners of UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
For the very first time, a collaborative work has taken the top IMAGINE Arts prize for the March round of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. The enchanting and enveloping HEATH, created by Fuschia Nightfire & Flivelwitz Alsop held off a very strong field of 55 works from artists all across SL in taking the $L5,000 first prize. Meanwhile in the FLAGSHIP building design challenge, no one seems capable of supooing Nyx Breen who has now won 4 of the 7 to FLASHIP prizes as this yearlong competition has crossed into month 8!
First time entrant, Flivelwitz and veteran Fuschia were thrilled and stunned to have taken the top gong. “Well i suspected we had won something! but not this”, said Fuschia, while Flivelwitz when asked to comment said “It is exciting to be the first to win in a collaboration at the UWA”.
The top 3 in fact were very close, and for the first time ever, a joint 2nd prize was awarded to Julez Odigaunt & Kolor Fall for their incredible works, JULIA’S WILTING HEART SHRINE & OCEANS OF LIGHT.
“Its such an honor that UWA appreciated Julia’s Wilting Heart Shrine. It is a very personal piece and I am glad it was well received. I would like to thank Ulrich Lionheart, the author of the poem. His words are so powerful and full of emotion – purely expressing what I was feeling at the time – it inspired me to create a shrine that allowed me to expose the mindset I was in at the time. It was quite healing” said Julez.
With Nyx’s back to back to back win in March to go with his October win taking his tally to 4, seems it will take some doing to dislodge Nyx who has declared that he will have one FLAGSHIP build submitted each month for the rest of the competition. It is going to take some doing to stop Nyx from having more than half of the entries that will come under consideration for the Grand Prize!
Following the announcements yesterday at the traditional winners announcement party at the UWA SIM, Nyx said, ” I would like to state that outside of developing some wonderful friendships in Second Life, that nothing has been as enjoyable as participating in an event that has truly global and groundbreaking results as the UWA Flagship Challenge. UWA has taken a small art show and made it a must see destination in the Cyber world and an event that if missed in Second Life, then one doesn’t understand the true potential of what was envisioned as the purpose of Second Life… creativity shared across a medium that brings us all closer.Great Job UWA, JJ & Quad and all that help make this possible.”
The best non-scripted entry was BLOOM GLOW by Gumby Roffo, another vetran of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, while Sharni Azalee’s FOREST OF DREAMS was voted top for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD!
The Artist Book Prize, being awarded for the final time, went to Miranda Mhia work, STANDING ROOM ONLY. UWA would like to thank Juanita Deharo, Victor Vezina and Juko Temple for making this award possible.
Other winners include Sundog Branner, Ichiko Miles, Gleman Jun, Betty Tureand and Nish Mip. Full list below.
Some other exciting things were also mentioned during the awards ceremony. First of all, UWA played host both in SL & RL to the Big Kahuna himself M Linden, who for the very first time in any universe was displaying his wonderful artworks. These can still be seen at a permanent exhibition within at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery which is on one of the 5 UWA SIMS.
This space has been listed as an SL destination for the Arts, which is the 2nd location within the UWA SIMS designated as an SL destination for the Arts, the other one being UWA’s Art & Design Challenge platform.
You can hear M Linden’s speech and watch some of the wonderful machinima created for the event on the UWA in Second Life Blog.
The next wonderful thing, is because of all the good news and publicity surrounding the machinima, the art & design competition and M’s show, UWA have been given funding for the Arts & Machinima for a further 3 years following then end of this current cycle in August 2010. The funding have received will allow UWA to provide L$1,000,000 per year for Art Challenges and L$500,000 for Machinima.
Also mentioned was the work of Lili Field, an Australian RL architect who has recreated UWA’s School of Business Building. A replica created based on the original buidling plans of an incredible award winning build at UWA .
IMAGINE CHALLENGE – 3D ART
Imagine Challenge 1st Prize: ($L5,000 + Custom T-Shirt)
HEATH by Flivelwitz Alsop & Fuschia Nightfire
Imagine Challenge 2nd Prize: ($L1,250) JOINT
OCEANS OF LIGHT by Kolor Fall/Patrick Faith
JULIA’S WILTING HEART SHRINE by Julez Odigaunt
Best Non-Scripted Entry: ($L1,250 + Custom T-Shirt)
BLOOM GLOW by Sledge RoffoCasey WA Cultural Prize 1st Prize (L$4,000)
TBA
FLAGSHIP CHALLENGE – BUILDING DESIGN
Flagship Challenge 1st Prize : ($L5,000)
AxS GALLERY by Nyx Breen (4th time winner)Honourable Mention Prize for ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES (L$500)
PRIMATAR’S LOVE: THE EVOLUTION by Gleman JunTHE ANTON MESMER Honourable Mention Prize (L$500)
KINETIC-ART ELLIPTIC THREADS by Sundog BrannerHonourable Mention Prize for ARTISTRY (L$500):
HERA’S LYRE by Ichiko MilesHonourable Mention Prize for TEXTURE & ATMOSPHERE (L$500):
BUTTERFLY HOUSE by Nish Mip – submitted for the FLAGSHIP ChallengeARTIST BOOK PRIZE – 1st Prize (L$2,000):
STANDING ROOM ONLY – Miranda MhiaARTIST BOOK PRIZE – Honourable Mention (L$500):
WOMEN ARE AFRICAS HOPE – Betty Tureand
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD (L$500):
FOREST OF DREAMS by Sharni Azalee
Educators and Second Life: local research
April 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Between August 2009 and February this year, Holmesglen’s Kenneth Rankin (SL: Ken001 Silverfall) undertook some research in Second Life as part of his Master of Education studies at the University of Southern Queensland.
It’s a fascinating snapshot on the state of play in regards to educators and Second Life, and includes some substantive recommendations for the future that may generate some debate. More on that later, but first the data:
Research context
After reading some of the results, I took the opportunity of contacting Kenneth, to ask him for some background and clarification of specific results:
TMJ: When was the research undertaken, with whom was it conducted, what was the sample size and the overarching research methodology?
KR:
· Data was collected during Nov 2009 via a web based questionnaire on SurveyMonkey.
· 79 persons responded, but 14 did not fully complete the survey. Analysis was conducted on data collected from 65 persons.
· The survey was undertaken only by educators who had at least one avatar in Second Life.
· Background: The technology adoption cycle, described by Rogers, shows the adoption of technology in various phases of adopters. First are the Innovators, then the Early Adopters, the Early Majority, the Late majority and finally the Laggards. Most technologies will enter mainstream use only if they can cross ‘the chasm’ between the Early Adopters and the Early Majority. Second life has been predicted to remain in the Early Adopters phase until 2013 when it is expected transition into the Early Majority phase.
· The main question to be answered by this research was “what can be learned from the experiences of the Second Life Early Adopters to facilitate the move into the Early Majority phase?â€
· The topic was: “The collection and analysis of avatar experiences in order to provide conduct and appearance guidelines for educators adopting Second Lifeâ€.
· The research was a cross-sectional, qualitative, non-experimental design. The survey consisted of 29 questions with a mix of open and closed questions.
TMJ: Were there any results that surprised you?
KR:
· 38% of educators have no real-world code of conduct.
· 74% of educators have no real-world appearance code.
· The main reason to lose the ‘newbie’ look was originally thought to be as a deterrent to ‘griefers’. It was found that people lose the ‘newbie’ look in order to increase credibility and to display experience.
· Female avatars appear to be the target of more griefing incidents than males and are specifically targeted for sexual griefing. 17 males reported 6 non-sexual incidents and zero sexual incidents (35%), while 48 females reported 23 non-sexual incidents and 9 sexual incidents (66%). This was a surprise in an environment that was expected to be female friendly and gender neutral.
The full results
· The respondents were 74% female, average age just over 47, mainly from Nth America (54%) then Asia/Pacific (31%) and Europe (15%)
· Highly experienced group with more than half having over 3 years of Second life experience.
70% of educators use multiple avatars (accounts).
Recommendation: Educators should aim to have a single purpose for each of their avatars. The most common singularity of purpose is to provide for a private avatar and a professional avatar.
62% of employers provide a real-world code of conduct (CoC) Â for employees
23% of employers have extended their RW CoC into SL
6% of employers have an SL CoC
43% of employees believe that a CoC is required in SL and 43% believe that it is not required.
26% of employers provide a real-world appearance code for employees
6% of employers have extended that RW AC into SL
5% of employers have an SL AC
8% of employees believe that an SL AC is required and 89% believe that it is not required.
Recommendation: The Early Majority will look for greater structure and guidance in SL than that required by the Early Adopters. A CoC and an AC should be considered as facilitation factors to assist more educators to adopt SL.
Recommendation: Educators should not be dissuaded from the adoption of alternative forms and appearances for their avatar. Appearance, however, does need to be appropriate for the educational context, especially when representing an organisation.
Recommendation: Each avatar should have in their inventory, a collection of appearances or outfits that are appropriate to their range of educational contexts and functions.
89% of respondents chose human form in Second Life
6% represent themselves in the opposite gender.
44% have some form of name relationship with their avatar
79% have some form of appearance relationship with their avatar
Recommendation: Care should be exercised when selecting the name of the avatar at the account creation stage, as this is one of the few aspects of the avatar that cannot be changed later
66% of avatars have lost the newbie look within 1 month.
The main reason to lose the newbie look is to increase credibility and to display experience.
12% of avatar profiles provide enough information to identify the RW person
40% of avatar profiles provide enough information to identify the RW place of work
53% of avatar profiles provide enough information to identify the person’s RW position or role
Recommendation: Educators should exercise discretion with the information provided through the avatar’s profile. This information should be checked against the purpose of the avatar, the code of conduct and the privacy guidelines of the employer.
Of the critical incidents reported, 58% were of a positive nature and 38% were of a negative nature.
Recommendation: Educators need to be made aware of the ‘big 6’ SL community standards, the range of positive and negative incidents that can occur in SL and how to manage these incidents. Educators also need to be aware that griefing of a sexual nature does exist and appears to be specifically targeted at female avatars.
==========
This research provides a great deal of insight into the educator demographic in Second Life. A lot of the results aren’t surprising, but as a whole they do provide some fascinating launch points for further discussion. So over to you: whether you’re an educator or not, what stands out for you in the results? Do you agree or disagree with the recommendations put forward?
A big thanks for Lindy McKeown for the heads-up.
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