beyond second life_acrl_final version
DESCRIPTION
Presentation for ACRL given on Second Life December 18, 2011 about virtual worlds in use beyond Second Life.TRANSCRIPT
Association of College Research Libraries
December 18, 2011
Joe Floyd & Ilene FrankUniversity of South Florida Library
Beyond Second Life: New Immersive Worlds for
Educators and Librarians
Virtual Worlds – Number of Users – Quarter 2 2011 – 1.400 billion by age range
Second Life: A popular option for educators and librarians
Info Island - Libraries
Virtual world developed by Linden Lab. Has its own currency, the Linden dollar.
$1 usd=$251 linden dollars.No membership fees. Full region $295 a month. ($1000 setup) Homestead region $125 a month. ($375 setup)Users may also rent, share or use public
spaces at lower or no cost.32,035 regions (November 2011)26.1 million registered users (May 2011)
Second Life: Some Basic Information
Costs of “land” went up with educational discounts ending
Linden Lab downgraded the attention given educators
Some were simply interested in trying out different options where they felt more in control
Some liked the idea of the “walled garden” where they had more control over where students went and whom they might meet
So what about other options?
Why have some educators and librarians left Second Life?
OpenSim
Microsoft Conference Center, ReactionGrid
Allows users to run a virtual world on their own PC/Server.
Can be run as a stand-alone or as a collaborative world like Second Life
Better security…can be run behind a school’s firewall
Portability-can run world on a USB stickFaster-no limitation based on speed of your
internet connection since the world can be run locally.
Advantages of OpenSim
Jokadia : OpenSim Grid
The Islands of jokaydia is a virtual worlds community of practice facilitated by Jokay Wollongong.
Jokaydia residents explore the use of virtual worlds and games for education, arts and social change.
$25 with a $50 setup fee on the education-focused JokaydiaGrid. Underlying infrastructure is handled by ReactionGrid. No currency.
91 regions 1832 registered users (November 2011).
Jokaydia
InWorldz
Largest growing OpenSim. Two types of land available: private isles and mainland regions. You may also rent parcels from InWorldz land owners.
Mainland region: $60 a month with $60 setup fee for a 30K prim region.
Private isle region: $75 a month with $75 setup fee for a 45K prim region
846 regions with 47,232 total users. (November 2011).
InWorldz
ReactionGrid
A virtual world for education, collaboration, and learning. ReactionGrid has a formal partnership with Microsoft.
Educational discount built in. $75 per month with $220 setup fee, for 4
regions 76 regions 9921 total users.“Best for: hanging out with teachers”
ReactionGrid
Franco Grid
Bibliotheque A library /exhibit on the history of information
French free community grid 390 regions3722 users
“Best Hypergrid for hanging out with French people”
Free to users, landowners pay membership fees
Franco Grid
Dreamland Metaverse: regions start at $30 a month for 12K prim region, no setup fee, either on OS Grid or as a separate world. Reputation for reliability. Customers include Fortune 500 companies. Includes voice, groups, search, offline messages and hypergrid access.
SimHost: regions start at $150 per month for a mini-grid. $99 setup fee. Reputation for high-end custom development work.
Even More Hosting Providers
Kitley
The easiest user interface of any hosting provider, Kitely allows any Facebook user to create, load, and enter an OpenSim world in less than 2 minutes. Once you've set up your virtual world, log in via Facebook and choose which Facebook friends can visit. Supports up to 100 concurrent visitors per region.
Virtual world stored is stored in your account . Costs 10 cents a month for 100K prims
Costs for users visiting one of your virtual worlds .20 cents per hour.
No setup fees
1327 regions 1,832 registered users (November 2011).
Kitley
Virtual World in a Browser: Jibe & Unity 3D
Jibe is the name of a virtual world running on the Unity 3D web browser, developed by ReactionGrid. Unity 3D is a professional game development platform used for creating 3D environments. Jibe allows anyone to deploy multi-user worlds built with Unity 3D.
HyperGate: Linking Virtual Worlds
How to Link Virtual Worlds? Use HyperGate to travel between virtual worlds
Even MORE Virtual Worlds
Croquet
Active Worlds
Open WONDERLAND
Immersive Education
If you create /purchase content on one virtual world, can you bring it with you to new worlds?
What about your avatar and your avatar’s name? Can you register for the same name in each virtual world? Will you need to have a number of avatars?
Multiple Virtual Worlds: Issues Librarians & Educators Should Consider
How will educators and librarians know what is happening on various virtual worlds?
Will educators and librarians still be able to collaborate as well if everyone’s using different virtual worlds?
More Questions to Consider
One avatar / many worlds: Becoming possible with importing/exporting capabilities
Create once/ experience everywhere: Exporting and importing content not yet automatic or easy, but becoming a possibility.
OAR (OpenSimulator Archive): Archive of resources shared by creators of works on OpenSim worlds
Some possible answers:
Hypergrid Business http://www.hypergridbusiness.com
OpenSim Education List http://list.opensim-edu.org/listinfo.cgi/education-
opensim-edu.org
Finding more information
SLED
https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators
Virtual Worlds Educause discussion list [email protected]
VWE Virtual Worlds Association (Facebook) 3D Immersive Learning Quality (Facebook)
Finding even more information
More worlds listed at the Association of Virtual Worlds: http://www.associationofvirtualworlds.com/
There are many virtual worlds
Joe [email protected] Cupola in Second Life
Ilene [email protected] Pratt in Second Life
For Additional Information