Social media and lists
Bloggers
Some of the UK academics who write about their virtual world activities.
Adventures of Yoshikawa: Sheila Webber, Sheffield University.
Arts Place: Art Fossett (Andy Powell) in Second Life.
Bromley College: OpenSim uses at Bromley College.
eFoundations (SL): Second Life category of the Eduserv Foundation blog.
eFoundations (VW): Virtual Worlds category of the Eduserv Foundation blog.
Emma Duke-Williams: Emma Duke-Williams at the University of Portsmouth.
Flexible Learning: Nicole Cargill-Kiper, Heriot Watt University.
Ian Truelove: Ian Truelove in Second Life.
Julia Gaimster: Julia Gaimster, London College of Fashion.
Learning from Social Worlds: Teaching In Second Life, a research project at the London Knowledge Lab.
Learning Games: Daniel Livingstone, University of the West of Scotland.
Milton Broome: Simon Bignell, University of Derby.
MUVEnation: A project based at the University of Reading.
PREVIEW project: A tri-university project consortium.
Research Observatory: Research Observatory, University of the West of England.
Shimmer Island: Barry Spencer, Bromley College.
TidalBlog: Peter Miller, Liverpool University.
Virtual World Innovations: David Taylor, Imperial College London.
Mailing lists
The first one is a *must join* if you are a UK academic involved in virtual worlds; the other two are more optional.
The JISCMail Virtual Worlds mailing list has a low level of traffic, and is pitched at the UK academic virtual world community.
The SLED (Second Life Educators) mailing list is global in reach. Though focused on Second Life, discussion of other virtual worlds occurs regularly. A high level of traffic.
The OpenSim Educators mailing list is global in reach, and also new as of autumn 2011.
It’s been noticeable at UK virtual world events that a high proportion of the speakers and audience are actively tweeting (at one such event in April 2009, this included 23 out of the 25 speakers).
Check out the profiles of some of these organisations and individuals and you may find a few more worth following.
@bluemarsonline: Updates from the Blue Mars 3D virtual world.
@kate_linden: Information from the Second Life Knowledge Base.
@malburns: Metaverse news aggregator and broadcaster.
@metaverse: Development and social news from several virtual worlds.
@openwonderland: News from this open source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds.
@pathfinder: Director of Community Development, ReactionGrid (3D simulations and virtual worlds for education) Inc.
@reactiongrid: Official twitter account of the ReactionGrid virtual world kit builders.
@secondlife: Official Second Life twitter news stream.
@slgridstatus: Second Life grid status.
@sloodle_news: SLOODLE is an open source project integrating 3D virtual worlds and the Moodle LMS.
@slurl: Links to events in Second Life.
@twinity: News of and from the 3D virtual world of Twinity.
@unity3d: Official twitter account of the Unity game engine.
