Sep 24
Wander around the literature base for Second Life for even a short while, and you’ll notice that SL URLs are written in a variety of formats.
Pete Johnston from the Eduserv Foundation suggests the following:
Personally, I prefer the http URI form, e.g.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduserv%20Island/97/41/30
…not secondlife/Eduserv%20Island/97/41/30 as
- It makes them URIs.
- It makes them “clickable” in tools that render http URIs as hyperlinks.
- If you do click on them you get a useful representation (a Web page) even if you don’t have SL client installed.
Though longer, and the shortness of SLURLS has been debated elsewhere, that seems more sensible from a usability point of view. It’s also the predominant URI scheme format.
So, unless there’s a counter-argument we’ve missed, we’ll stick with that for written references.
Tagged with: Eduserv
Sep 23
Andy Powell from the Eduserv Foundation, funders of Virtual World Watch, has created and obtained a set of MOO cards for the project:
These cards are for giving out at “Real World” (how that phrase grates after a while) events, the next one of which is the JISC Services Skills event in Oxford on Thursday 25th September. Andy will be talking about how virtual worlds such as Second Life can be used to support events.
He plans to do the whole talk in-world, to give the RL audience a better feel for what is possible. It starts at 15.30 (UK time – UTC+1) and runs for about an hour. In Second Life, he’ll be in the Virtual Congress Centre on Eduserv Island – drop in and ask questions during the talk.
Tagged with: JISC • Workshop
Sep 21
It’s evident from responses in so far to the latest snapshot survey that a fair proportion of UK academics who are “into” Second Life are also having a good rummage around other virtual worlds.
One of these is Professor Austin Tate, who researches out of Edinburgh University. To the question of what virtual worlds he is using, Austin responded:
Second Life (mostly), Opensim, Twinity, Lively by Google and a range of others for testing. My own interests are for collaboration, task support, emergency response research, training.
He’s intrigued by other virtual worlds:
Opensim already in use, and could be used for behind the firewall systems, and where we need much more real estate for training and simulation related exercises.
Austin maintains a jump page of links to various resources and places in virtual worlds that, if you’re an educator exploring these worlds, is worth having a look through.
Austin can also be found on Twitter.
Tagged with: Google • Lively • OpenSim • Research • Second Life • Twinity
Sep 17
You can “follow” Virtual World Watch on Twitter at:
http://twitter.com/V_World_Watch
Sep 15
This hasn’t happened with previous snapshots. A clutch of independent Second Life developers have asked if they can submit their comments to the latest snapshot. I guess so – as long it’s relevant to UK Higher and Further Education, and isn’t just a promotion for their services!
It is an additional topic of interest. How much of these Second Life developments in HE/FE are being done by academics – and how much by external companies? Why are some academics outsourcing this kind of work (I’m guessing that the amount of time required to both learn and develop is a major factor)? And are these independent developers making lots more money than the academics? 
Tagged with: Second Life
Sep 12
The latest snapshot survey, on the use of virtual worlds in UK Higher and Further Education, is underway.
Are you in a UK university or college and developing, teaching or learning in a virtual world such as Second Life? VWW would love to hear about it. This is also a way of publicising to the world - and especially to academics, developers and teachers using virtual worlds – about what you are doing.
The snapshot-survey questionnaire can be downloaded. Please return it to john (@) virtualworldwatch.net before October 3rd. Many thanks for your time.
Tagged with: college • Learning • Second Life • Teaching • university
Sep 07
The 12 month Virtual World Watch project, funded by the Eduserv Foundation, officially starts on 15th October 2008. There’ll be some ongoing work and content appearing on this website before then.
Tagged with: Eduserv
