Predictions, Ahem Wish List 2011 for Second Life

I can’t really make predictions on virtual worlds or Second Life for 2011, I am not expert.  Sure I spend some time in there, have tried selling stuff, done some education related activities and gone to some events and held a few.  Second Life seems to provide a perfect virtual environment for those sorts of things.
So while I am not going to make some predictions I am going to say that I hope a few things happen that will allow us, end users, to capitalize on the potential of Second Life.  One would be that I hope that Linden Labs recognizes the potential of the SL platform for Social Networking.  The opportunity here is huge.  Showing users how to build community, use groups, and improving on the text and voice chat will be huge improvements for Second Life.   The first time or two that you, as a resident of Second Life meets someone from Russia or China you maybe hooked..that is the power of networking in Second Life!
Second Life has a tremendous resource in their users who offer classes on all of the above and more.  I have suggested before and I will suggest again that if I could immediately build my network based upon my profile, that I complete before going in to Second Life, and immediately start networking after joining would greatly improve the user experience from the start.  So if, for example my profile indicates that I am an educator with an interest in writing and Steampunk I am immediately connected with those groups and communities would hold great potential for improvement.
In my opinion Second Life is events driven.  It is probably events that first draw users into Second Life.  If you are an educator it was probably a conference, a class, or exploring the potential of Second Life for education.  Right now it is, in my opinion very difficult to search events for something that relates to your interest, or as one person complains you go to an event and there is no one there.
On any given day you will find events such as discussions on various topics from religion, to politics, to relationships, science or education.  You will also find live music with performers in pop, country, folk, and new age.  Many of these performers are seasoned real life artists who are wanting off the real life road but still want to perform and with Second Life they can right from the comfort of their home.
Would it make sense for Second Life to enhance how they assist residents in promoting and putting on events, in my opinion it would.  The future of Second Life depends upon people in world activity doing things, not just showing up and hanging out..heck we can just as easily do that in front of our televisions and with a lot less lag.
Second Life provides a great platform for role play.  I mention that and have in the past as being a key benefit for Second Life in education, creative writing, and experience history.  I visited some role play sims one of which is described as: “Friendly medieval fantasy roleplay community open to all levels of roleplay experience. Focus on story development
Medieval Role play Medieval RPG Fantasy roleplay Medieval Market Medieval Fantasy Market Shops for Rent Cottage Rentals Cottages for rent.”  http://world.secondlife.com/place/fd941958-bad8-8bc8-8875-9c9f5808e8b0
One of the cool things I came across when I visited Dubhan is the Herb Hunt noted below (what a great way to learn about herbs..): \
Herb Hunt
------------
Throughout the lands of Dubhan grow wild herbs that can be used in a variety of different ways.   Be forewarned that you may have to venture in dangerous parts of Dubhan if you wish to find all of them.
The role play on Dubhan is as follows:

The realm of Dubhan dates back to before man knew of time and space.  The large island sits far off the coast of Ireland and has been protected by an ancient elven spell which hides it from sight.  Only those with knowledge of it's exact location are able to find it's shores. 

For years Dubhan remained untouched by outsiders and only it's native races (Elves, Fae, and Satyrs) could claim it as home, but war broke out among the races, causing the magic barrier to weaken and reveal the island to a group of human knights who were sailing in search of a place to hide away an ancient relic.  These knights hid their relic deep within the land, hoping that the natural magic would keep it hidden from those who would seek to use it for evil. 

After 20 years, The Elven Wars finally ended.  The Light Elves were able to defeat their darker cousins, with the help of the other native races, but the lands had been ravaged and all had surmounted great losses.  Most of the them receeded back into their woods and mountains, remaining in hiding.   ….There is more check out the Dubhan sim in Second Life to learn more.  A few pictures below:

The Alexandria Egyptian Empire Role Play Sim:


Neo Victoria
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/NeoVictoria/16/118/700
The Machinima tutorial area which I thought was great!



Wulin, a Chinese Martial Arts Role Play sim:



Renaissance Island Role Play Sim:


Linden Labs cut many employees in 2010, but what about adding employees who can help build up the potential of Second Life in social networking, developing events, role play, and education? The potential is there I believe and if I were to do my 2011 predictions for Second Life it would be more a wish list and it would look like that!

Education Sites in Second Life

I wanted to search for sites in Second Life in a different way then I have been in my research, sotoday I decided to do my search according to discipline. After about six hours of searching and looking around you can see what I have compiled so far, and these are just examples, my search was by no means exhaustive..but I am exhausted! What has excited me about this project is to look beyond the traditional University/College builds that I have been looking at and seeing some concrete examples of how Second Life can be educational content, an interactive learning environment, and a showcase for creativity.


I wanted to provide the educator who is interested in Second Life as a means of providing opportunities to teach students in an immersive environment to see what is going on in Second Life in their specific discipline area, there is a great deal of going on in a variety of areas. I only looked at mathematics, psychology and a smattering of religious, cultural sites. Given time I hope to look at more areas in the future so watch this blog for more! My first search was for Mathematics, this search pulled up four sites which included:

1) David Wheeler Institute for Research which is a closed site.

2) Life Art Gallery which has a companion website: imaginary2008.de The SLURL for this site is; http://slurl.com/secondlife/eduversa/183/68/21 Check this one out soon as it seems to be going away at the end of December.

According to the websitethis is: An interactive travelling exhibition by the Mathematischen Forschungsinstituts Oberwolfach for the Year of Mathematics 2008 in Germany. Its intention is to display visualizations, interactive installations, virtual realities, 3D objects and their theoretical background in algebraic geometry and in singularity theory in an attracting and understandable manner. It’s a unique science experience!


This site is also a part of a larger region in Second Life known as Eduversa..the Eduversa Website gives more details (in German but the website can be translated using Google Tranlator).

Another math site is the University of Warwick: SLURL here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Warwick%20University%20Maths/99/109/36

Möbius Band Statue by RHAS Raymaker/RHASCORP 2007

From a notecard at the University Warwick Site in SL: Möbius Band

The Möbius strip or Möbius band is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. It has the mathematical property of being non-orientable. It is also a ruled surface. It was discovered independently by the German mathematicians August Ferdinand Möbius and Johann Benedict Listing in 1858.

A model can easily be created by taking a paper strip and giving it a half-twist, and then merging the ends of the strip together to form a single strip. In Euclidean space there are in fact two types of Möbius strips depending on the direction of the half-twist: clockwise and counterclockwise. The Möbius strip is therefore chiral, which is to say that it is "handed".

Other images from University of Warwick:

Finally I came to Kira Cafe in Second Life:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/BaikUn/222/91/251

KIRA website = http://www.kira.org


From a notecard I got from their Second Life site:

The Kira Institute is an interdisciplinary virtual institute based in Second Life. Its mission is to investigate distinct views of reality, beginning with the question: “Starting with science, what else is true?” We are a real life non-profit organization and we celebrated its 12th anniversary on 24 February 2009.

Psychology:

Derby University Project website inPreview Psych

Second Life site: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Derby%20University/164/123/22

Information from the Second Life site;

Problem-based Learning in Virtual Interactive Educational Worlds for Psychology (PREVIEW-Psych)

We are transferring problem-based learning techniques and technologies from Coventry University's PREVIEW project for the Psychology subject group. The project is developing Psychology scenarios and ‘intelligent avatar’ technology within Second Life.

Sarlumn: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Juwangsan/152/66/508


Sarlumn Blog:

This work draws upon a few primary themes and ideas. Broadly, it is a response to the corpus of existential philosophy, psychology, and literature, especially the writings of Sartre, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Hesse, Rank, Becker, as well as Joyce and Bertrand Russell and others far more obscure, such as the American poet Robinson Jeffers.

Thothica Art and Psychology:



Information on the Thothica community can be found here at this community website.


Second Life: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Clemson%20University%20Dev/131/139/28

Art:

From a notecard retrieved at the site:

The Walkway Gallery at Thothica was established in January 2008 to provide a platform to showcase aspects of the Thothica communities creative output, both individually and collectively , in a gallery setting.

Each exhibition will :
1. exhibit the work of an individual
2. exhibit the response of the thothica community to a particular theme, idea or issue
3. exhibit the works of collaborative teams

the works might be created in RL, SL or both

Religion:


Virtual Haj

http://slurl.com/secondlife/IslamOnline%20dot%20Net/83/12/27



Islamonline.net Second Life Site


From their Facebook page;

Description:

In 2007, IslamOnline.net (IOL), along with a handful of
volunteers, launched its first project inside the virtual
world of Second Life.

From here on in, it has been an ongoing story of growth and success!

IOL already has several projects range from entertainment to museums to virtual creations of real life spots.

With an ever growing, international staff from several different cultures, IOL’s community inside the virtual world is growing rapidly.

Latter Day Saints:


http://slurl.com/secondlife/Zarahemla/16/44/26


This site provides many links back to various websites with information on the LDS so if you visit keep in mind how interactive this site is given the level of information available on the web.


Retrieved from an article on the Second Life site of LDS:

Skyler Goode is the creator of an online Mormon community in a virtual reality role-playing game on the Internet called Second Life, or SL for short. In real life (RL for short), he is Keith Thompson, a high priest in the Stayton, Oregon, ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What began as a hobby to fill time has become a personal mission to create a real sanctuary where people can feel spiritual while role-playing in a virtual world.

Another link to an articleon the LDS presence in Second Life.

I visited Opera Joven's Second Life project website and site in Second Life:
the private island of Opera Joven is dedicated to show the most important elements of the culture heritage of the State of Jaliso: The Cathedral of Guadalajara, the Hospicio Cabanas, Los Arcos, La Minerva, The Tequila Landscape and the Tequila.

The Second Life site of the Institute for the Study of Virtual Worlds is here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Educators%20Coop%202/246/156/21

And finally I found this general site The Institute for the Study of Religions in Virtual Worlds information from their group is as follows:

SRVW is the SL group associated with the Institute for the Study of Religion in Virtual Worlds, located in the Educators Coop at the University of Texas at Austin. The Institute was founded for the purpose of providing a forum for scholars and interested others to exchange ideas about the function, use, and meaning of religion and ritual in virtual realities such as SL.

live music in second life

MrMultiwriter continues to be a favorite..yes he is wonderful. Plays favorite Beatles, James Taylor, and others but his originals whether vocals or instrumental are inspiring! I really like his original work ! Amazing and when he does his own stuff his vocals are at the top! Amazing.

Niles Compton is an awesome country talent..you will see great things from this awesome singer..why haven't we heard more about him? Ala Chris LaDue he has it all! Wow if you aren't hearing more about this guy in the months and years ahead then I am not sure about this world! I am not a huge country fan.. but he is one of those I could listen to all day. And yes folks you should join second life, if nothing else just to listen to talent like Niles..and he has a link right on his website....http://www.ballyhoosl.com/Niles/

Another artist who should be known worldwide and has the talent and drive to be successful is AMFORTE. Check out her website here: amforte.com ..she is doing a great job in SL which isn't alway easy. It really great for me to be able to blog about an awesome female talent..haven't seen that enough. Check her out, she's a little punk, a little rock but all talent! Just amazing with her originals and covers...

Finally my favorite new artist is Casey Burke/Brumer he is just amazing! Look for his shows, he's on his way with originals and covers. Gals he will steal your heart! For more on Casey:

CD available that you can check out on itunes (Casey Burke 3 Birds) and at http://cdbaby.com/cd/caseybu

myspace (will be updating page soon): http://www.myspace.com/caseyjamesburke