Thanks to Sheila Webber for organising and supporting this.

Some other presentations from Virtual World Watch are also on Slideshare.

So kudos to Andy, Pete and Ed for their Heineken ethos (i.e. refreshing the projects other funding bodies cannot reach).

So, what next for Virtual World Watch? Well, it’s carrying on through 2010 and 2011, at least. VWW is a part-time service run by one person, so it doesn’t cost megabucks to run. There’s sufficient momentum in the use of virtual worlds within UK academia, and enough interesting things happening (not just technically and academically, but socio-economically) to make it worthwhile. And it fits in with my business plan for the next few years.

Anyway, having previously worked on one too many digital info projects which are gathering dust online, it’s nice to see how long such a project or service can be kept active, useful and relevant for.

Funding and advisory group

To maintain perspective (as opposed to one person going off on his own tangent) and replace the support and steerage Eduserv have given over the years, an advisory group of academics is being formed. These people will, well, advise VWW on what it does and what directions it takes, as well as advise on the political situations that regularly face VWW. Academia. Politics. *sigh*

Funding. The initial temptation was to change the name to the “Bank of Virtual World Watch” and approach HM government for a multi-billion pound bailout. This seems to work for others. Instead, VWW is keen to try different models of funding for this service, so the rest of 2010 and 2011 gives plenty of opportunities for this.

Current snapshot (number #8) and other reports

VWW is currently working on three reports/snapshots in parallel. This is not good

• Report: “What is virtual world research? What is it not? Hmmm?” The troublesome hangover from the end of last year, which has turned into a reflective piece about the nature of virtual world research. This is (finally) coming out very soon. Thanks especially to contributers who wondered what the heck happened to their submissions.
• Report: “Swimming to Jerusalem: four years of virtual world trend-spotting.” Partially a “final report” for Eduserv, and partially a reflective piece on the last few years of watching trends and developments. Out at the end of March/start of April.
• Snapshot #8 of virtual world use in UK higher and further education. Also out at the end of March/start of April, the final snapshot under Eduserv funding.

On that last report. As ever, many people have submitted for snapshot #8, and it’s nice that there are a few new people who have submitted for the first time. Though you’ll have missed the draw for people who got theirs in by the end of February, VWW can still take submissions for this snapshot. The final deadline is the end of Sunday March 14th.

Seoul

Future snapshots: 2010 and 2011

After snapshot #8, VWW is settling into a bi-annual approach to snapshots; one at the end of the academic year (June-ish), and one at the end of the calendar year (December-ish). This has the advantage of putting about 6 months between each; one of the main problems with the current compressed cycle is contributers passing as they haven’t had enough time to do significant ’stuff’ since the last snapshot. And they’re probably quietly fed up of being asked every few months.

So, the snapshot schedule for the rest of 2010 and 2011 is:

• Snapshot #9: June/July 2010
• Snapshot #10: December 2010
• Snapshot #11: June/July 2011
• Snapshot #12: December 2011

Presentations

VWW is out and about doing presentations in the near future:

• Birmingham, UK 18th March: Virtual Worlds in Education Forum
• University of Sheffield, UK 18th April: Department of Information Studies
• Coventry University, UK Spring (date tbd)
• University of Michigan, USA Summer (date tbd)

Want VWW to come and speak to your posse? Here’s some details.

Book

Steady progress is being made on a book about the use of virtual worlds in teaching and learning, based on the last few years experiences in the UK and other research, teaching and use elsewhere. The proofreader and a few reviewers are lined up, and we seem to be pencilled in for a December 2010 release to the masses, just in time for the Christmas book market. Now you know what to get for that aunt who sends you a hand-knitted Rupert Bear jumper every single ******* year, even though you are 41.

Other stuff

There’s some other stuff that may be produced by VWW, that the advisory group are and will be chewing over; it will be good to reflect on the past few years work first though. Everything, including the book, will go up on, or via, this website.

That’s enough for now. A big thank you to the many UK academics, and other people, who have contributed to the snapshots, Flickr group, and other materials over the last four year. To infinity, and beyond…

This is now open for pre-event activities, such as reading and guided tours. The conference proper runs from November 24th to 27th. Being online you can, of course, access it from anywhere; no travel, train or plane costs, required.

The conference website is at:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2009/11/elpconference09.aspx

Note that you have to register, and there’s a small fee.

There’s two sessions on Second Life. One is by Kathryn Trinder from Glasgow Caledonian University:

The other is by Virtual World Watch:

In addition to this, there’s a number of scheduled events and guided tours in Second Life, facilitated by the JISC Regional Support Centres. So not bad – a conference that runs for several days, costs only £50 for attendance, travel and accommodation, and has hardly any climate impact. To quote James Clay …

The programme featured speakers from other universities with considerable practical experience in this area. They demonstrated the work they are doing and how it improves the real-life learning experience of their students.

Two of the presentations concerned Second Life in education. These have been archived and can be streamed online.

Her personal website contains information about her art projects in Second Life. She’s on twitter as Angrybeth.

One terrific presentation to have a look through is Annabeth’s slides on creating content in Second Life:

For historical context, Virtual World Watch was a work colleague of Andy’s from the mid-1990’s at UKOLN (VWW: back row 3rd; Andy: back row 6th).

Andy is now the Head of Development of the Eduserv Research Programme, formerly the Eduserv Foundation. The Foundation funded a number of Second Life and Virtual World research and development projects, as well as Virtual World Watch, an island and several events.

Research Programme / Foundation activities with virtual worlds are described and archived on their website.

Two of Andy’s presentations of note are a recent one, presented at the JISC RSC Eastern event in April hosted by Shri:

… and his well-known “Second Life in 3600 seconds” presentation, the slideshare version of which has received over 17,000 views in the last three years:

In Second Life, and also blogging, Andy is Art Fossett where he has an occasional sideline in making footwear. On twitter, Andy is andypowe11.

If you want to see her in the flesh and hear her speak, then Kate is doing the 3pm keynote presentation at the Virtual Worlds event in Sunderland on the 21st April. Her slides can be viewed online:

Kate can also be followed on Twitter.

The podcast interview with Kate can be found on the ‘Start the Week’ podcast page.