Click on image to enlarge
Looks like Canadians consume more gas than Americans
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Gas Usage Per country population wise
Click on image to enlarge
Looks like Canadians consume more gas than Americans
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Web services and Second Life
By William Brogden
The concept of online virtual worlds where a user can interact with other people and fantastic landscapes has fascinated hackers and science fiction writers for years. When I first thought about doing an article on this topic I was going to call it speculative, but Internet reality has caught up already.
Previously, insufficient computational and communication capability have been the main limits, not the imagination of programmers. With Second Life by Linden Lab we seem to have crossed a critical boundary and reached a point where large numbers of users can share the same virtual world at the same time. Major corporations are experimenting with a presence in the virtual world as a means of reaching customers and individuals are creating businesses which exist only online.
Some Second Life background
Downloading the Windows XP or Mac client and creating an "avatar" identity with basic membership is free. "Owning" or "renting" virtual property so you can establish a more extended presence involves a monthly fee. Within the system you can buy and sell with "Linden Dollars" which have a variable exchange rate with real US dollars. A few people have discovered how to earn a real-life living entirely from virtual income.
Whether you call Second Life a game, social networking tool or a programming environment depends on how you use it. Many people just buy a fancy outfit for their avatar and socialize. Others are having a blast designing their own virtual property.
As of this writing, over 6 million people have created an online identity, but most become less active after doing some exploring. A typical number of people who go online at least once a week would be 400 to 500 thousand. The number of registered users has grown dramatically over the last few months. Second Life has been able to scale up rapidly because adding new virtual land just requires adding low cost servers.
What is a business doing in Second Life?
There are now so many businesses experimenting with a Second Life presence that I can't begin to list them all. If you read the trade press for practically any industry you have been seeing news articles. I just found out there is a "Second Life Corporate Business Council" with 30-40 big business members! In addition to the obvious display of advertising banners with links to corporate Web sites, creating environments for virtual conversations with customers has been found valuable by Dell and IBM, among other big business applications.
Many small businesses are experimenting with a Second Life presence or even a full-time switch to the virtual world. Authors, designers of clothing and furniture and many other small businesses have found Second Life to provide low cost exposure to potential customers.
The programming environment
The Second Life environment is built with objects and program scripts. Objects are built out of graphic primitives modified by imported graphic file "texture" images. Objects may have one or more attached programs in the Linden Scripting Language, which provide behavior.
With proper scripting, objects can interact with avatars and other objects. Objects can detect the presence of nearby avatars, "hear" chat that is "spoken" by users and respond to being "touched." Objects can also use the connectivity capabilities described below to exchange data with the outside world.
The Linden Scripting Language or LSL
LSL has a syntax and operator set that will be familiar to C or Java programmers, but is not object oriented. Mainly it has a large number of built-in functions and event handlers specific to the 3D virtual environment and the manipulation of user-created objects. In addition to the string and numeric variable types, there are variable types specific to location and movement in the 3D world which provide the basis for dramatic animation effects. Collections are limited to a list type which can hold any of the other variable types.
The connection options
At present, the scripting language provides three interfaces for communication with the Internet, e-mail, XML-RPC and HTTP requests. Due to the way XML-RPC is handled, channeling all requests through a single server, it does not appear to be scaling well as the system grows. Furthermore, given the verbose nature of XML-RPC, the limit on message size is a serious problem.
E-mail can be sent both inside Second Life and to Internet addresses. To reduce load on the servers and prevent use for spam, there are limitations on how frequently an object can send e-mail and enforced delays for each piece of mail sent.
The http request facility appears to be the most flexible since, in contrast to xml-rpc, each server handles requests directly. When a script calls to llHTTPRequest function, the language automatically associates a matching http_response event handling method which will get the resulting response.
Requests can use GET, POST, PUT and DELETE methods. At the present time there is a limit of 2048 characters in a request or response body, so a verbose format like XML is probably not a good idea. Also the language does not presently support any XML manipulation tools like XPath. I think that REST style Web services are going to be the best approach. Clever programming will be required to get the most out of the limited message size.
In contrast to the enforced delays with e-mail and XML-RPC, I found less than one second response to http requests. An important aspect of http requests is that the headers contain complete specification of the object originating the request, including its owner, location and velocity. Thus any service addressed by the request has a lot of information suitable for enforcing security restrictions.
Examples of current connectivity
There are many ingenious examples of connectivity using the HTTP request facilities. Just to give three examples, there are several implementations of chat translation services which send chat messages to a server which in turn uses the facilities of Babelfish and returns a translated chat message in a fraction of a second. IBM created a simulation of Wimbledon tennis matches which displayed actual ball paths on a simulated court. The use of RSS feeds to provide current information on other sites is common.
Limitations
The new Second Life user should not expect the 3D display to instantly appear fully formed like an online game. Since the environment is created dynamically by the users, each time you enter the current state of your surroundings has to be loaded. Moving to a new area will cause a whole new set of objects to be loaded.
In order to avoid having any single user taking too much capacity on a server, there are restrictions on the number of objects which can be created and on the execution of certain resource consuming functions. For example, calling the e-mail send function takes a 20 second delay.
Conclusion
In my opinion, Second Life is the first 3D virtual world with enough functionality to justify serious experimentation with commercial possibilities. Experience gained in Second Life will probably show up in private corporate virtual worlds.
The concept of online virtual worlds where a user can interact with other people and fantastic landscapes has fascinated hackers and science fiction writers for years. When I first thought about doing an article on this topic I was going to call it speculative, but Internet reality has caught up already.
Previously, insufficient computational and communication capability have been the main limits, not the imagination of programmers. With Second Life by Linden Lab we seem to have crossed a critical boundary and reached a point where large numbers of users can share the same virtual world at the same time. Major corporations are experimenting with a presence in the virtual world as a means of reaching customers and individuals are creating businesses which exist only online.
Some Second Life background
Downloading the Windows XP or Mac client and creating an "avatar" identity with basic membership is free. "Owning" or "renting" virtual property so you can establish a more extended presence involves a monthly fee. Within the system you can buy and sell with "Linden Dollars" which have a variable exchange rate with real US dollars. A few people have discovered how to earn a real-life living entirely from virtual income.
Whether you call Second Life a game, social networking tool or a programming environment depends on how you use it. Many people just buy a fancy outfit for their avatar and socialize. Others are having a blast designing their own virtual property.
As of this writing, over 6 million people have created an online identity, but most become less active after doing some exploring. A typical number of people who go online at least once a week would be 400 to 500 thousand. The number of registered users has grown dramatically over the last few months. Second Life has been able to scale up rapidly because adding new virtual land just requires adding low cost servers.
What is a business doing in Second Life?
There are now so many businesses experimenting with a Second Life presence that I can't begin to list them all. If you read the trade press for practically any industry you have been seeing news articles. I just found out there is a "Second Life Corporate Business Council" with 30-40 big business members! In addition to the obvious display of advertising banners with links to corporate Web sites, creating environments for virtual conversations with customers has been found valuable by Dell and IBM, among other big business applications.
Many small businesses are experimenting with a Second Life presence or even a full-time switch to the virtual world. Authors, designers of clothing and furniture and many other small businesses have found Second Life to provide low cost exposure to potential customers.
The programming environment
The Second Life environment is built with objects and program scripts. Objects are built out of graphic primitives modified by imported graphic file "texture" images. Objects may have one or more attached programs in the Linden Scripting Language, which provide behavior.
With proper scripting, objects can interact with avatars and other objects. Objects can detect the presence of nearby avatars, "hear" chat that is "spoken" by users and respond to being "touched." Objects can also use the connectivity capabilities described below to exchange data with the outside world.
The Linden Scripting Language or LSL
LSL has a syntax and operator set that will be familiar to C or Java programmers, but is not object oriented. Mainly it has a large number of built-in functions and event handlers specific to the 3D virtual environment and the manipulation of user-created objects. In addition to the string and numeric variable types, there are variable types specific to location and movement in the 3D world which provide the basis for dramatic animation effects. Collections are limited to a list type which can hold any of the other variable types.
The connection options
At present, the scripting language provides three interfaces for communication with the Internet, e-mail, XML-RPC and HTTP requests. Due to the way XML-RPC is handled, channeling all requests through a single server, it does not appear to be scaling well as the system grows. Furthermore, given the verbose nature of XML-RPC, the limit on message size is a serious problem.
E-mail can be sent both inside Second Life and to Internet addresses. To reduce load on the servers and prevent use for spam, there are limitations on how frequently an object can send e-mail and enforced delays for each piece of mail sent.
The http request facility appears to be the most flexible since, in contrast to xml-rpc, each server handles requests directly. When a script calls to llHTTPRequest function, the language automatically associates a matching http_response event handling method which will get the resulting response.
Requests can use GET, POST, PUT and DELETE methods. At the present time there is a limit of 2048 characters in a request or response body, so a verbose format like XML is probably not a good idea. Also the language does not presently support any XML manipulation tools like XPath. I think that REST style Web services are going to be the best approach. Clever programming will be required to get the most out of the limited message size.
In contrast to the enforced delays with e-mail and XML-RPC, I found less than one second response to http requests. An important aspect of http requests is that the headers contain complete specification of the object originating the request, including its owner, location and velocity. Thus any service addressed by the request has a lot of information suitable for enforcing security restrictions.
Examples of current connectivity
There are many ingenious examples of connectivity using the HTTP request facilities. Just to give three examples, there are several implementations of chat translation services which send chat messages to a server which in turn uses the facilities of Babelfish and returns a translated chat message in a fraction of a second. IBM created a simulation of Wimbledon tennis matches which displayed actual ball paths on a simulated court. The use of RSS feeds to provide current information on other sites is common.
Limitations
The new Second Life user should not expect the 3D display to instantly appear fully formed like an online game. Since the environment is created dynamically by the users, each time you enter the current state of your surroundings has to be loaded. Moving to a new area will cause a whole new set of objects to be loaded.
In order to avoid having any single user taking too much capacity on a server, there are restrictions on the number of objects which can be created and on the execution of certain resource consuming functions. For example, calling the e-mail send function takes a 20 second delay.
Conclusion
In my opinion, Second Life is the first 3D virtual world with enough functionality to justify serious experimentation with commercial possibilities. Experience gained in Second Life will probably show up in private corporate virtual worlds.
What every Second Life newbie should know - 10 secret tips
Source :http://npirl.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-every-second-life-newbie-should.html
Author : npirl
1) MONEY - Access to Second Life is free... so splurge a little and enter the metaverse with the idea that your experience will be vastly better if you are willing to spend $10 to $15 US dollars (less than the price of a movie ticket plus popcorn and a soda, if you think about it) to get yourself started off on the right foot.
It is fair to say that asking for money upon arrival in Second Life is shameful and akin to begging in Real Life. Realize, too, that your skills - especially in the first few days - make it nearly impossible for you to earn any real money. Later, yes, your chances are much better. Early on, no.
You get a much better exchange rate for your Real Life money at SL Exchange than you do in-world (sorry, Linden Lab and no, I'm not getting a kick-back from SL Exchange).
I'm still on the fence regarding the value of a premium account ($9.95 US dollars a month), though one benefit I really enjoy is the ability to see who is online even when you are offline. Only paying members can access this info on the Second Life website.
2) YOUR PERSONA - Choose your name wisely. Pick a name that is easy to type, easy to spell, and easy to remember. Nearly everyone experiments with who they are in the beginning. Consider the possibility that someday you may actually want to meet one or more people you've encountered in-world, face-to-face, in Real Life. You might fall in love, or develop genuine business relationships, and friendships in the metaverse can be as real and as deep as anything you've experienced before. On the opposite side of that spectrum, but equally important, I would advise you not to reveal much about your Real Life until you've had a chance to get to know the people you are interacting with.
3) TAILORING YOUR AVATAR: Ladies, before you begin customizing your avatar's chest (there's a little slider that goes from flat to humongous... just like that), consider Neil Stephenson's description of the three almost-standard-issue breast sizes on female avatars in his landmark book Snow Crash: improbable, impossible, and ludicrous. Too much can be ridiculous.
If you choose to be a human, you have the option of purchasing ready-to-wear shapes, though keep in mind that you will not be able to alter them later (they are rarely modifiable), and they are often very, and I do mean very (read: unrealistically) tall.
Some of the best known non-human or barely-human avatar creators give away a few basic and cool avatars for free or at very low cost. Flea Bussy's Grendel's Children, and Tooter Claxton always have fun things. You can also pick up free avatars (and scads of off-the-wall and/or practical and interesting things) at Hobo Village (teleport from here), Yadni's Junkyard (teleport from here), and the Gnubie store (teleport from here).
One other thought... less practical, but certainly droll... A friend of mine and his in-world girl friend amuse each other by donning the avatars of attractive celebrities, and yes, it is entirely possible to indulge your inner A-List yearnings and look like Angelina Jolie or Johnny Depp.
There are dozens of good websites and blogs that are devoted to fashion in Second Life, but one of my favorites is a column by Iris Ophelia on New World Notes.
4) PRIVACY: There is no such thing as complete privacy in Second Life. Once you learn how to operate your camera well (see the next tip), you will realize that your camera can look inside a house on the next island over, traversing through walls... with ease.
That said, here are some helpful privacy tips:
Teleport directly from here to Mystical Cookie's shop and pick up a free version of her Mystitool. Mystical just lowered the price on the full version of the Mystitool, and believe me, this is the best purchase your $396 Lindens can buy you. One of its many features is that it gives you the ability to always know who is within 96 meters of you, and how far away they are, and if they are coming closer. Use this tool immediately (you wear it) and never take it off.
Chime Desoto - one of the members of our Not Possible in Real Life group - created a Private Changing Room, and you can pick up a free copy of it, as well as easy instructions for its use, at my treehouse by teleporting directly from here.
5) SEE THINGS BETTER - Learning how to use your camera will turbo-charge your experience. In fact, learn how to do this first. It takes a little practice in the beginning, but later you will maneuver your camera automatically. The best instructions are available via one of our favorite Lindens - Torley - and can be viewed here.
6) RECORD YOUR EXPERIENCES BETTER - One of the pleasures of Second Life is the ease with which you can capture moments and places through photography. In-world snapshots cost $10 Lindens a piece, which doesn't sound like much, but ultimately adds up. After a few months, you'll find that your inventory is beginning to clog up with photos, too. In-world snapshots are good to have if you plan to share them with others immediately, but most of the time it pays off to save them on your hard drive or send them directly to Flickr or Snapzilla. Both of these services are free, although Flickr does offer a very reasonably priced premium account and you can retrieve your photographs for blogging or editing or duplication purposes whenever you like.
It is easy to keep a log of in-world text conversations, which you can later refer to, though it is considered a violation of the Terms of Service to share these records with anyone who didn't participate in them. It is also considered good form to secure permission from the person with whom you are "speaking," and whose conversation you are recording.
7) LEARN THE BASICS FIRST - As soon as you are able, learn at least a little about building and scripting. Even if you don't become a dedicated content creator, some notions of what's involved/elementary knowledge will serve you very well, indeed. Two people whom I'm extremely proud to know, have given generously of their time and land to provide stellar tutorials: Lumiere Noire's Ivory Tower - Library of Prim (teleport directly from here ), is essential when it comes to learning about building, and Jopsy Pendragon's Particle Laboratory, is a first-rate place to learn basic script and particle creation (teleport directly from here).
8) ASK QUESTIONS WHENEVER YOU CAN; FIND A MENTOR OR TWO - Nothing beats first-hand advice. Nothing. Also, never forget that we were all newbies in the beginning.
9) KEEP YOUR INVENTORY ORGANIZED FROM DAY ONE. Oh, oh, oh how I wish I had done this. Don't be like me and start thinking - and acting - this way from the beginning. Here's another gem video by Torley Linden, which will help you tidy up that inventory and keep it lean.
10) PEOPLE AREN'T ALWAYS WHO YOU THINK THEY ARE - Until the advent of Voice in Second Life, a surprisingly high number of men opted to portray themselves as women. Many, many still do. Do not assume that this means that they are transexuals or gay or any such thing. In fact, throw all your assumptions out the window. It's been my experience that most of them are straight. My advice: go shopping with them. It's fun, though they tend to have racier tastes than I do. :P
Author : npirl
1) MONEY - Access to Second Life is free... so splurge a little and enter the metaverse with the idea that your experience will be vastly better if you are willing to spend $10 to $15 US dollars (less than the price of a movie ticket plus popcorn and a soda, if you think about it) to get yourself started off on the right foot.
It is fair to say that asking for money upon arrival in Second Life is shameful and akin to begging in Real Life. Realize, too, that your skills - especially in the first few days - make it nearly impossible for you to earn any real money. Later, yes, your chances are much better. Early on, no.
You get a much better exchange rate for your Real Life money at SL Exchange than you do in-world (sorry, Linden Lab and no, I'm not getting a kick-back from SL Exchange).
I'm still on the fence regarding the value of a premium account ($9.95 US dollars a month), though one benefit I really enjoy is the ability to see who is online even when you are offline. Only paying members can access this info on the Second Life website.
2) YOUR PERSONA - Choose your name wisely. Pick a name that is easy to type, easy to spell, and easy to remember. Nearly everyone experiments with who they are in the beginning. Consider the possibility that someday you may actually want to meet one or more people you've encountered in-world, face-to-face, in Real Life. You might fall in love, or develop genuine business relationships, and friendships in the metaverse can be as real and as deep as anything you've experienced before. On the opposite side of that spectrum, but equally important, I would advise you not to reveal much about your Real Life until you've had a chance to get to know the people you are interacting with.
3) TAILORING YOUR AVATAR: Ladies, before you begin customizing your avatar's chest (there's a little slider that goes from flat to humongous... just like that), consider Neil Stephenson's description of the three almost-standard-issue breast sizes on female avatars in his landmark book Snow Crash: improbable, impossible, and ludicrous. Too much can be ridiculous.
If you choose to be a human, you have the option of purchasing ready-to-wear shapes, though keep in mind that you will not be able to alter them later (they are rarely modifiable), and they are often very, and I do mean very (read: unrealistically) tall.
Some of the best known non-human or barely-human avatar creators give away a few basic and cool avatars for free or at very low cost. Flea Bussy's Grendel's Children, and Tooter Claxton always have fun things. You can also pick up free avatars (and scads of off-the-wall and/or practical and interesting things) at Hobo Village (teleport from here), Yadni's Junkyard (teleport from here), and the Gnubie store (teleport from here).
One other thought... less practical, but certainly droll... A friend of mine and his in-world girl friend amuse each other by donning the avatars of attractive celebrities, and yes, it is entirely possible to indulge your inner A-List yearnings and look like Angelina Jolie or Johnny Depp.
There are dozens of good websites and blogs that are devoted to fashion in Second Life, but one of my favorites is a column by Iris Ophelia on New World Notes.
4) PRIVACY: There is no such thing as complete privacy in Second Life. Once you learn how to operate your camera well (see the next tip), you will realize that your camera can look inside a house on the next island over, traversing through walls... with ease.
That said, here are some helpful privacy tips:
Teleport directly from here to Mystical Cookie's shop and pick up a free version of her Mystitool. Mystical just lowered the price on the full version of the Mystitool, and believe me, this is the best purchase your $396 Lindens can buy you. One of its many features is that it gives you the ability to always know who is within 96 meters of you, and how far away they are, and if they are coming closer. Use this tool immediately (you wear it) and never take it off.
Chime Desoto - one of the members of our Not Possible in Real Life group - created a Private Changing Room, and you can pick up a free copy of it, as well as easy instructions for its use, at my treehouse by teleporting directly from here.
5) SEE THINGS BETTER - Learning how to use your camera will turbo-charge your experience. In fact, learn how to do this first. It takes a little practice in the beginning, but later you will maneuver your camera automatically. The best instructions are available via one of our favorite Lindens - Torley - and can be viewed here.
6) RECORD YOUR EXPERIENCES BETTER - One of the pleasures of Second Life is the ease with which you can capture moments and places through photography. In-world snapshots cost $10 Lindens a piece, which doesn't sound like much, but ultimately adds up. After a few months, you'll find that your inventory is beginning to clog up with photos, too. In-world snapshots are good to have if you plan to share them with others immediately, but most of the time it pays off to save them on your hard drive or send them directly to Flickr or Snapzilla. Both of these services are free, although Flickr does offer a very reasonably priced premium account and you can retrieve your photographs for blogging or editing or duplication purposes whenever you like.
It is easy to keep a log of in-world text conversations, which you can later refer to, though it is considered a violation of the Terms of Service to share these records with anyone who didn't participate in them. It is also considered good form to secure permission from the person with whom you are "speaking," and whose conversation you are recording.
7) LEARN THE BASICS FIRST - As soon as you are able, learn at least a little about building and scripting. Even if you don't become a dedicated content creator, some notions of what's involved/elementary knowledge will serve you very well, indeed. Two people whom I'm extremely proud to know, have given generously of their time and land to provide stellar tutorials: Lumiere Noire's Ivory Tower - Library of Prim (teleport directly from here ), is essential when it comes to learning about building, and Jopsy Pendragon's Particle Laboratory, is a first-rate place to learn basic script and particle creation (teleport directly from here).
8) ASK QUESTIONS WHENEVER YOU CAN; FIND A MENTOR OR TWO - Nothing beats first-hand advice. Nothing. Also, never forget that we were all newbies in the beginning.
9) KEEP YOUR INVENTORY ORGANIZED FROM DAY ONE. Oh, oh, oh how I wish I had done this. Don't be like me and start thinking - and acting - this way from the beginning. Here's another gem video by Torley Linden, which will help you tidy up that inventory and keep it lean.
10) PEOPLE AREN'T ALWAYS WHO YOU THINK THEY ARE - Until the advent of Voice in Second Life, a surprisingly high number of men opted to portray themselves as women. Many, many still do. Do not assume that this means that they are transexuals or gay or any such thing. In fact, throw all your assumptions out the window. It's been my experience that most of them are straight. My advice: go shopping with them. It's fun, though they tend to have racier tastes than I do. :P
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Places to visit in SL
Long time back i found this comprehensive list of cool places to visit in SL.
If someone can tell me the source, I'll greatly appreciate it and acknowledge the creator of this list.
Gardens
Acropolis Gardens: Large multi-sim garden with mountains, waterfalls, lakes, a volcano, and beautiful hiking trails
Bliss Basin: One of the premier dating spots in SL, with 2 trails circling a large lake with beautiful views and waterfalls; lake is rumored to be visited by mermaids :P
Chakryn Forest: Explore a lush, romantic forest with a treehouse, grotto, and a bath? ;P
Eternal Reflections: Romantic garden sims with trees, flowers, waterfalls, black sand beaches, trails for romantic strolls, and even a jazz club; one of the Reflections sims
Fairytale Gardens of Sinano: A lush, beautifully landscaped garden with fairytale cottages...
Heavenly Rose: A rose garden and one of the top romantic spots in SL, with an amazing number of poseballs! Also has a cool underwater house and dance area :)
Kenroku-en Garden: A replica of the Real-Life garden in the Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan; an amazingly detailed Japanese garden, next to the replica of the historic Kanazawa Castle
Lauks Nest: Mayan-style ruins in a lush jungle and a waterfall
Lost Gardens of Apollo: Garden sim with semi-secluded sitting areas and beautiful sunsets, great for...um...chatting
Mars Japanese Gardens: A peaceful Japanese-themed garden by the sea
Midsomer Isle: A romantic themed garden with streams, greenery, and lots of secluded areas; perfect for a stroll or sitting together for a chat
Romantic Joy: A garden sim with beautiful trees, flowers, brids, and plenty of secluded spots for you and your friend to explore...
Second Life Botanical Gardens: A garden with wonderful sounds and sights, with trails winding through waterfalls and secluded spots
Secret Reflections: A giant sim-sized cave with waterfalls, greenery, and lots of poseballs; also the adjacent lake at Midnight Reflections
Serenity Falls: Come see 2 sims worth of model homes and walk among the beautiful gardens
Straylight: A showcase sim of paths winding through lush forests, streams, and lakes; full of sculpties and a touch of light effects :)
Svarga: A beautiful lush tropical rainforest with an ancient ruin, feels like set of King Kong
The Rainforest: Aztec-themed sim with rainforest, pyramids, and secret areas to explore
Mermaid (just because ;P)
Abyss Museum of Ocean Science: Lots of exhibits about the underwater world, with an interactive display where you can visit the deep ocean; perfect place to take a mermaid ;P
Algarond: Fantasy role-playing in Middle Earth style, in a sim with an active community; with all the creatures from the fantasy series, even mermaids ;P
Anne Bonny Cove: An entire sim for mermaids (and pirates for us to play with ;P), with a wonderful underwater area, lots of poseballs, danceball, and the Sirens Mermaid Mall
Avilion Grove: Visit the enchanting medieval-themed sim for some formal ballroom dancing and walk around the gardens; practice some light medieval role-playing while there
Bliss Basin: One of the premier dating spots in SL, with 2 trails circling a large lake with beautiful views and waterfalls; lake is rumored to be visited by mermaids :P
Elf Circle: A slice of Middle Earth, where Elves, Dwarves, and other fantasy creatures roam; a set of 5 sims with a common Elven theme
Mermaid Guide: My guide to becoming a mermaid, with places to visit and get mermaid stuff :)
Heavenly Rose: A rose garden and one of the top romantic spots in SL, with an amazing number of poseballs! Also has a cool underwater house and dance area :)
Isle of Tranquility: A pretty island with a treasure hunt that leads your thru the sim, including all the cool underwater places; highly recommended for mermaids :)
Sirens Dance Club: A dance club for mermaids :) With a mermaid dance ball, mermaid mall, and a giant mermaid tank!
Real World
Africa: Sculptie trees, wild animals, and romantic spots fashioned after the wild plains of Africa
Barcelona: Shops, live music at The Café, the Columbus Monument, and guys from Barcelona :)
Bollywood: The movie capital of India in SL, come listen to music and watch movies from Bollywood, along with a disco and rides
Chichen-Itza: One of the New 7 Wonders of the World, a sim full of Mexican sights from the Chichen-Itza area, along with a garden, waterfalls, and a Mayan disco :)
Christ Redeemer, Colosseum, Taj Mahal: 3 of the New 7 Wonders of the World here in SL (or close enough :) )
Dresden Gallery: A reproduction of the Real Life Zwinger Palace in Dresden, Germany, including the Old Masters Picture Gallery (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister); complete with all 750 paintings in the permanent collection!
Dublin: A replica of Dublin in SL, complete with many of the popular tourist spots
Frankfurt: Several connected sims making up the city of Frankfurt, Germany in SL, with sights from RL Frankfurt, stores, offices, and of course clubs :)
Galveston Island, Texas: Reproduction of a RL tourist destination in Texas, complete with attractions, beaches, and a popular live music venue
Gion Project Modeled after the Gion District in Koyoto, Japan, dress up in traditional Japanese outfits and explore a facination sim with wonderful freebies and things to do
Gossip Girl (New York Upper East): Check out New York, Gossip Girl style; 4 sims of the NY Upper East side, with scenes from the show and events
Hawaii: The Big Island and Oahu, featuring a community, outdoor trails, beaches, activities, and waterfront beach huts you can live in for free!
Hollywood: A corner of Hollywood in SL, with some well-known landmarks
Kenroku-en Garden: A replica of the Real-Life garden in the Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan; an amazingly detailed Japanese garden, next to the replica of the historic Kanazawa Castle
Machu Picchu: I couldnt find this New 7 Wonders of the World in SL, so I went hunting for the Macho Peacock instead :P
Mag SL Toyko Japan: The sims of MagSL are where the real Japanese crowd live and hang out in SL, come get a taste of Japan :)
New Orleans: A memorial and charity effort to aid hurricane victims, makes you feel like you are almost there at the Big Easy
New Paris: Its Paris with an Eiffel Tower! Need I say more? Poseballs and champagne everywhere
Paris 1900: Paris with Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge, French cafe, shopping, and real French people
Parioli Rome: A corner of Rome, Italy in SL, featuring shopping, cafes, sights, a museum, and Italian men :)
Rockefeller Center: Built by NBC for their Christmas Tree Lighting Event, this is a corner of New York with ice skating and a restaurant in the sky
Scotland: Visit Nessie's Pub, shop for all things Scottish, watch a movie, look for the hidden cave, explore the replica of the Eilean Donan castle, and get married in Celtic style
Toscana: A sim to promote the beauty of Tuscany, Italy; with a wonderful countryside setting, a beach, even a skypad business/art area
Venice Beach: Surf, sand, shopping, and roller-skating; just like the real thing, but better, cause you dont get sand all over the place :)
Virtual Morocco: The Morocco of SL, where there is a marketplace, mosque, beautiful beach, soccer fields, and a cafe worthy of the movie Casablanca (with belly dancing poseballs :) )
West of Ireland: An Irish-themed residential sim, complete with an Irish pub, art galleries, and the best surfing (yes, surfing) this side or Ireland
Yankee Stadium: A wonderful reproduction of the Yankee Stadium in SL, with baseball freebies. Worth a visit, but unfortunately not too much to do...
Role-Playing
1001 (Arabian) Nights: A desert-themed role-playing sim based on the Arabian Nights tales; see the Sultan's palace, nomads, and even an evil temple...
Algarond: Fantasy role-playing in Middle Earth style, in a sim with an active community; with all the creatures from the fantasy series, even mermaids ;P
Avaria & Grendel's Children: An incredibly detailed fantasy sim, where you can explore, free-form role-play, or hatch your own baby dragon from an egg :)
Avilion Grove: Visit the enchanting medieval-themed sim for some formal ballroom dancing and walk around the gardens; practice some light medieval role-playing while there
Avilion Isle: Adjacent to the Avilion Grove and Avilion Mist sims, this is dedicated to Medieval fantasy role-playing with areas for above-ground and below-ground humans and creatures
Battlestar Pacifica/BSG47: Battlestar Galactica role-playing, where you live and work in one of the spaceships and even fight the bad guys (unless you are one of the bad guys ;P)
City of Lost Angel's: A dark role-playing sim full of vampires, demons, and other evil things; you can come and look, but watch your step :P
Crossroads: A dark role-playing sim set in the 1800's, with vampires, werewolves, gypsies, and even a few mermaids in a more...classic setting :)
Everwind: Medieval role-playing in 3 magical sims, with areas for different races and a quest that starts at the Dragon Weyr
Kowloon: A Japanese reproduction of Kowloon's Gate based on the Playstation game, this sim has amazingly detailed icky textures, tasks for you to perform, and lots of alleys to make you totally lost!
Midgar: A detailed Final Fantasy role-playing sim split into the Upper Plates and Slums; its usually busy and full of strange characters with big swords :P
Midian City: Beautifully detailed Goth sim in an urban city setting, always full of spookies of every kind
Missing Mile: One of the best slums in SL! Check out the bad part of town if you ever get tired of living the glamorous life ;P
ROMA (ancient Rome): A richly packed sim with all the famouse sights from ancient Rome crammed in; so much to see, it has its own visitor's guidebook
Starfleet Command Galaxy: Headquarters for Star Trek's Starfleet command in SL; come explore this sci-fi classic and check out the role-playing
Tarnburg: One of the largest and most popular Gorean sims in SL, with all the typical sights found in most SL Gorean cities (be sure to read the sim rules and follow them if you visit!)
Telos IV: Star Wars themed role-playing...a space station with every group of Star Wars character imagineable: Jedis, Siths, droids, stormtroopers, and everyone else...
Tombstone: A Western town in Arizona set in the 1860's, home of the OK Corral
Toxian City: One of the big Goth sims, with vampires, demons, and other nasty things roaming around
Transylvania: A spooky town of Gothic structures and vampires, with a castle, chapel, museum, shops, and community center (for vampires :P)
Wizard's Alley: A reproduction of Diagon Alley from Hermoine Granger (I mean Harry Potter :P) series of books
Chateau de Versailles: Role-play in part of the French royal court at the Versailles Palace, complete with beautiful gardens and a spectacular ballroom
Things to See
Abyss Museum of Ocean Science: Lots of exhibits about the underwater world, with an interactive display where you can visit the deep ocean; perfect place to take a mermaid ;P
Aiot's Toon Wonderland: A sim dedicated to all things video game, cartoon, and animation; with different goofy areas to explore
Altstadt: A shopping sim modeled after a German village, with lots of cool carnival rides, L$1 bowling, and free beer on the south end of the sim
Avaria & Grendel's Children: An incredibly detailed fantasy sim, where you can explore, free-form role-play, or hatch your own baby dragon from an egg :)
Babbage Square: The new Victorian Steampunk-themed sim, where creative residents build amazing structures and a new society
Bedrock: Come check out the home of the Flintstones at Bedrock, theres a disco, many games, and a 9-hole miniature gold course
Better World: Displays on water habitats, Peace Tiles, Camp Dafur, and Peaceful Tomorrows; learn how we can make the world a better place
Black Swan: Follow the path around this sim full of famous sculptures and beautiful scenery; from the Rezzable group
Caledon: The Independent State of Caledon, a Victorian-era group of 10+ sims where the tenants have built some amazing period buildings in a well-planned community
Caledon Moors: Explore the darker side of Caledon, home of the Caledon Castle, Cavorite Mineshaft, and a host of haunted places
Caledon SteamSkyCity: A Caledon Victorian Steampunk sim in the sky (steam-powered, of course), with the usual assortment of unusual shops and homes
Carnival of Doom: A carnival full of rides, exhibits, and ways to die ;P Another great sim from the Rezzables
Cathedrals of SL: Tour 3 cathedrals in SL - Darkwood, St. Guilhem, and St. Paul's Cathedral
Cave of Doom: A labyrinth full of creative ways to kill yourself; check it out if you ever get tired of your Second Life ;P
Chi: Beaches, mountain, and volcano; come to relax, meditate, or surf the great waves
Clock Island: An artistically designed Japanese sim about clocks and numbers; includes a mystery where you search for clues around the sim
Coca-Cola Virtual Thirst Pavilion: Coca-cola is sponsoring a contest in Second Life to design a vending machine that dispenses the Coke experience; they have a pavilion where you can see some sample machines
Damania: Amazing buildings, beautiful sculptures, and bumper cars in this furniture store sim
Devil's Labyrinth: A huge haunted house complete with puzzles, mazes, and different outcomes! Amazing details and 3 completely different sections!
Devils Moon: Cyberpunk sim featuring a cool reflection effect on the streets (buildings are reflected off the water on the ground); home of Abranimations and ALICE the talking computer
Dive World: Free diving equipment, information on RL diving, and explore beautiful underwater areas in a sim dedicated to underwater diving
Elf Circle: A slice of Middle Earth, where Elves, Dwarves, and other fantasy creatures roam; a set of 5 sims with a common Elven theme
Enel Park: Learn about green power from an Italian power company: see demo areas, race a hydrogen car, and enjoy an energy drink...
Escapade Zoo & Safari Park: A complete zoo and wild animal park (along with a garden for Tinies), perfect for some monkey business
Governor Linden's Mansion: The oldest home in SL is now a historical site; check out the basement for a bit of SL history
Great Second Life Railway: Ride the train through a number of sims in the northern part of the mainland in SL; catch the tug boat to continue your journey
Great Wall of Second Life: An SL historic landmark wall that stretches across 14 sims!
Greenies Home: A giant (sim-sized) house taken over by tiny green aliens; see what it's like to be the size of a mouse while exploring the house
Gypsy Moon: Explore a hidden gypsy-themed moon with unusual colors, beautiful details, and secret romantic spots
Info Island: An entire sim of information, from a general interest library to medical and many other academic resources.
Inspire Space Park: A popular hangout with a space theme, with lots of poseballs, a club, spaceships, and even floating poseballs ;)
International Spaceflight Museum: Lots and lots of rockets, and even has a rocket ride that takes you to the space station and beyond! Definitely an SL must-see!
Isle of Tranquility: A pretty island with a treasure hunt that leads your thru the sim, including all the cool underwater places; highly recommended for mermaids :)
Isle of Wyrms: Like it says in the Search description, "Here be dragons"; this is where you can meet and talk to dragons, and maybe become one yourself
Ivory Tower Library of Primitives: Explore the great mysteries of the prims and all the shapes they can take on, displays on all the ways you can torture a prim to get the shapes you need
Kasteel Verloren (Verloren Castle): A grand sim-sized castle nestled in the Bavarian (German) sim of Verloren, with a beautifully decorated and detailed interior
Kowloon: A Japanese reproduction of Kowloon's Gate based on the Playstation game, this sim has amazingly detailed icky textures, tasks for you to perform, and lots of alleys to make you totally lost!
Linden Village: Come see where the masters of Second Life live - the home of the Lindens; grab a notecard, check the calendar, and meet a Linden inworld during their office hours to hear the latest gossips
Literature Factory: A fully automated factory with robots creating words, which are assembled into literature. Job positions available for robots :P
Luskwood: The furry community sim, featuring a rich community, event areas, and furry AV's for sale
Mag SL Toyko Japan: The sims of MagSL are where the real Japanese crowd live and hang out in SL, come get a taste of Japan :)
Metabirds: A group of Japanese residential/commercial sims, with a detailed train system, cool stores, and beautiful common areas
Mill Pond: A residential sim with pretty lake, a nice tavern, and coffee shop; perfect for meeting someone for a friendly chat
Mystery Isle: A replica of New York in the 1930's with music and hosting interactive murder mystery
Nagaya: A modern Japanese-themed town, its full of...well...Japanese things
Nakama: Dedicated to Japanese anime, with 4 different areas each representing a different form of anime, along with shops and anime fans
Neufreistadt: Modeled after a walled Bavarian city, Neufreistadt is the seat of the Confederation of Democratic Sims, one of the only active government systems in SL; and also know for its sites and fog
Nexus Prime: A cyberpunk city based on the world from Blade Runner; one of the oldest sims in SL, with a rich history of development
NOAA: U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's sim, with several great interactive exhibits! Prepare to get wet :P
October Country: Its always Halloween here; come to The Haunting Hour and listen to scary radio shows from the 1940s and 50s with fellow residents, or explore the creepy sim...
Olympia's Land of Weirdness: Come see the weirdness in this old SL neighborhood in the Green sim, along with some interesting stuff on nearby plots
Particle Laboratory: Displays and information on particles effects in SL, and all the ways you can bling, poof, explode, or fog things up
Pomponio Volcano: A large volcano spanning the border of 4 sims; with planned eruptions coming soon
The Pond: A piece of Australia in SL, built by Australian telecom company BigPond for its customers, its a great place to mingle with Australians and race motorcycles; bring your Australian translator :)
Pot Healer's Adventure: Play a free adventure game built right into SL in a gorgeously built sim; with game objects and ability to save your game!
Privateer Space: Explore a huge outer-space themed sim, complete with your free space suit and space ship; lots of things to see and even a puzzle to solve
Riverwalk: A well-built outdoor art museum, garden, amusement area, and community center; take a swan boat tour with a friend, watch the fireworks, or just wander through the gardens
Saijo City: A damaged-enabled futuristic cyberpunk city, with some cool music thrown in
September 11th Memorial: A memorial lovingly built to remember the 2996 people lost on that day in 2001
Shinagawa: Detailed reproduction of a Japanese Heian era palace
Silent Hill: A town based on the movie of the same name; very spooky place, with sounds that will make you jump out of your chair
Silverscreen: A sim for promoting movies, with free give-aways, art and shots from the movies, and background info; started with the movie "300"
Spaceport Bravo: A new addition to the International Spaceflight Museum, with new models and party area :)
Sploland: A sim full of science-related exhibits and curiosities; where the science guys seem to hang out and party (beware the Cult of Pi! :P)
SS Galaxy: A cruise ship 3-sims in size, featuring 2 residential sims and 1 commerical sim with many cruise-ship type activities
Steelhead: A Western-themed residential community, with weekly events and monthly balls; great place to socialize and join in a community
Stockton Springs: A quiet little small town in SL, with beautiful texture work, a town center, wedding cathedral, drive-in, and even a trailer park
Stratos Legend: A pre-historic sim full of dinosaur bones in amazing detail!
Suffugium: A cyberpunk sim where Big Brother is watching from everywhere
The Future: Home to the Crooked 4-Dimensional House, a cool transportation system, and interesting prim structures.
Thursday's Fictions: Extension of an interactive fantasy/dance movie, with cool effects, erry sounds, and really makes you think about life
Toxic Garden: A garden sim full of ways to die...just try and stay in the sim to explore this interesting place :P
Treasure Island: Pirate ships and adventure! A sim with large buccaneer ships and pirates' hideaway
Verloren Castle (Kasteel Verloren): A grand sim-sized castle nestled in the Bavarian (German) sim of Verloren, with a beautifully decorated and detailed interior
Victorianna Castle: Self-proclaimed as the "Most Beautiful Castle in SL", its like a gigantic beautiful torus sculpture; see the amazing things that can be done with prims!
Wastelands: Post-apocalyptic (like after a few nukes) residential sim, where a bunch of creative residents build their survival homes in the wasteland
Wastelands-The Great Fissure: Part of the Wasteland group of Post-apocalyptic themed sims; its a big hole in the desert with alots of interesting resident-built stuff around it
Winterland: Bedford Falls from "Its a Wonderful Life" re-created in SL, complete with main street, the bridge, and you can even fall thru the ice ;P Open during the winter holiday season :)
Wizard's Alley: A reproduction of Diagon Alley from Hermoine Granger (I mean Harry Potter :P) series of books
If someone can tell me the source, I'll greatly appreciate it and acknowledge the creator of this list.
Gardens
Acropolis Gardens: Large multi-sim garden with mountains, waterfalls, lakes, a volcano, and beautiful hiking trails
Bliss Basin: One of the premier dating spots in SL, with 2 trails circling a large lake with beautiful views and waterfalls; lake is rumored to be visited by mermaids :P
Chakryn Forest: Explore a lush, romantic forest with a treehouse, grotto, and a bath? ;P
Eternal Reflections: Romantic garden sims with trees, flowers, waterfalls, black sand beaches, trails for romantic strolls, and even a jazz club; one of the Reflections sims
Fairytale Gardens of Sinano: A lush, beautifully landscaped garden with fairytale cottages...
Heavenly Rose: A rose garden and one of the top romantic spots in SL, with an amazing number of poseballs! Also has a cool underwater house and dance area :)
Kenroku-en Garden: A replica of the Real-Life garden in the Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan; an amazingly detailed Japanese garden, next to the replica of the historic Kanazawa Castle
Lauks Nest: Mayan-style ruins in a lush jungle and a waterfall
Lost Gardens of Apollo: Garden sim with semi-secluded sitting areas and beautiful sunsets, great for...um...chatting
Mars Japanese Gardens: A peaceful Japanese-themed garden by the sea
Midsomer Isle: A romantic themed garden with streams, greenery, and lots of secluded areas; perfect for a stroll or sitting together for a chat
Romantic Joy: A garden sim with beautiful trees, flowers, brids, and plenty of secluded spots for you and your friend to explore...
Second Life Botanical Gardens: A garden with wonderful sounds and sights, with trails winding through waterfalls and secluded spots
Secret Reflections: A giant sim-sized cave with waterfalls, greenery, and lots of poseballs; also the adjacent lake at Midnight Reflections
Serenity Falls: Come see 2 sims worth of model homes and walk among the beautiful gardens
Straylight: A showcase sim of paths winding through lush forests, streams, and lakes; full of sculpties and a touch of light effects :)
Svarga: A beautiful lush tropical rainforest with an ancient ruin, feels like set of King Kong
The Rainforest: Aztec-themed sim with rainforest, pyramids, and secret areas to explore
Mermaid (just because ;P)
Abyss Museum of Ocean Science: Lots of exhibits about the underwater world, with an interactive display where you can visit the deep ocean; perfect place to take a mermaid ;P
Algarond: Fantasy role-playing in Middle Earth style, in a sim with an active community; with all the creatures from the fantasy series, even mermaids ;P
Anne Bonny Cove: An entire sim for mermaids (and pirates for us to play with ;P), with a wonderful underwater area, lots of poseballs, danceball, and the Sirens Mermaid Mall
Avilion Grove: Visit the enchanting medieval-themed sim for some formal ballroom dancing and walk around the gardens; practice some light medieval role-playing while there
Bliss Basin: One of the premier dating spots in SL, with 2 trails circling a large lake with beautiful views and waterfalls; lake is rumored to be visited by mermaids :P
Elf Circle: A slice of Middle Earth, where Elves, Dwarves, and other fantasy creatures roam; a set of 5 sims with a common Elven theme
Mermaid Guide: My guide to becoming a mermaid, with places to visit and get mermaid stuff :)
Heavenly Rose: A rose garden and one of the top romantic spots in SL, with an amazing number of poseballs! Also has a cool underwater house and dance area :)
Isle of Tranquility: A pretty island with a treasure hunt that leads your thru the sim, including all the cool underwater places; highly recommended for mermaids :)
Sirens Dance Club: A dance club for mermaids :) With a mermaid dance ball, mermaid mall, and a giant mermaid tank!
Real World
Africa: Sculptie trees, wild animals, and romantic spots fashioned after the wild plains of Africa
Barcelona: Shops, live music at The Café, the Columbus Monument, and guys from Barcelona :)
Bollywood: The movie capital of India in SL, come listen to music and watch movies from Bollywood, along with a disco and rides
Chichen-Itza: One of the New 7 Wonders of the World, a sim full of Mexican sights from the Chichen-Itza area, along with a garden, waterfalls, and a Mayan disco :)
Christ Redeemer, Colosseum, Taj Mahal: 3 of the New 7 Wonders of the World here in SL (or close enough :) )
Dresden Gallery: A reproduction of the Real Life Zwinger Palace in Dresden, Germany, including the Old Masters Picture Gallery (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister); complete with all 750 paintings in the permanent collection!
Dublin: A replica of Dublin in SL, complete with many of the popular tourist spots
Frankfurt: Several connected sims making up the city of Frankfurt, Germany in SL, with sights from RL Frankfurt, stores, offices, and of course clubs :)
Galveston Island, Texas: Reproduction of a RL tourist destination in Texas, complete with attractions, beaches, and a popular live music venue
Gion Project Modeled after the Gion District in Koyoto, Japan, dress up in traditional Japanese outfits and explore a facination sim with wonderful freebies and things to do
Gossip Girl (New York Upper East): Check out New York, Gossip Girl style; 4 sims of the NY Upper East side, with scenes from the show and events
Hawaii: The Big Island and Oahu, featuring a community, outdoor trails, beaches, activities, and waterfront beach huts you can live in for free!
Hollywood: A corner of Hollywood in SL, with some well-known landmarks
Kenroku-en Garden: A replica of the Real-Life garden in the Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan; an amazingly detailed Japanese garden, next to the replica of the historic Kanazawa Castle
Machu Picchu: I couldnt find this New 7 Wonders of the World in SL, so I went hunting for the Macho Peacock instead :P
Mag SL Toyko Japan: The sims of MagSL are where the real Japanese crowd live and hang out in SL, come get a taste of Japan :)
New Orleans: A memorial and charity effort to aid hurricane victims, makes you feel like you are almost there at the Big Easy
New Paris: Its Paris with an Eiffel Tower! Need I say more? Poseballs and champagne everywhere
Paris 1900: Paris with Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge, French cafe, shopping, and real French people
Parioli Rome: A corner of Rome, Italy in SL, featuring shopping, cafes, sights, a museum, and Italian men :)
Rockefeller Center: Built by NBC for their Christmas Tree Lighting Event, this is a corner of New York with ice skating and a restaurant in the sky
Scotland: Visit Nessie's Pub, shop for all things Scottish, watch a movie, look for the hidden cave, explore the replica of the Eilean Donan castle, and get married in Celtic style
Toscana: A sim to promote the beauty of Tuscany, Italy; with a wonderful countryside setting, a beach, even a skypad business/art area
Venice Beach: Surf, sand, shopping, and roller-skating; just like the real thing, but better, cause you dont get sand all over the place :)
Virtual Morocco: The Morocco of SL, where there is a marketplace, mosque, beautiful beach, soccer fields, and a cafe worthy of the movie Casablanca (with belly dancing poseballs :) )
West of Ireland: An Irish-themed residential sim, complete with an Irish pub, art galleries, and the best surfing (yes, surfing) this side or Ireland
Yankee Stadium: A wonderful reproduction of the Yankee Stadium in SL, with baseball freebies. Worth a visit, but unfortunately not too much to do...
Role-Playing
1001 (Arabian) Nights: A desert-themed role-playing sim based on the Arabian Nights tales; see the Sultan's palace, nomads, and even an evil temple...
Algarond: Fantasy role-playing in Middle Earth style, in a sim with an active community; with all the creatures from the fantasy series, even mermaids ;P
Avaria & Grendel's Children: An incredibly detailed fantasy sim, where you can explore, free-form role-play, or hatch your own baby dragon from an egg :)
Avilion Grove: Visit the enchanting medieval-themed sim for some formal ballroom dancing and walk around the gardens; practice some light medieval role-playing while there
Avilion Isle: Adjacent to the Avilion Grove and Avilion Mist sims, this is dedicated to Medieval fantasy role-playing with areas for above-ground and below-ground humans and creatures
Battlestar Pacifica/BSG47: Battlestar Galactica role-playing, where you live and work in one of the spaceships and even fight the bad guys (unless you are one of the bad guys ;P)
City of Lost Angel's: A dark role-playing sim full of vampires, demons, and other evil things; you can come and look, but watch your step :P
Crossroads: A dark role-playing sim set in the 1800's, with vampires, werewolves, gypsies, and even a few mermaids in a more...classic setting :)
Everwind: Medieval role-playing in 3 magical sims, with areas for different races and a quest that starts at the Dragon Weyr
Kowloon: A Japanese reproduction of Kowloon's Gate based on the Playstation game, this sim has amazingly detailed icky textures, tasks for you to perform, and lots of alleys to make you totally lost!
Midgar: A detailed Final Fantasy role-playing sim split into the Upper Plates and Slums; its usually busy and full of strange characters with big swords :P
Midian City: Beautifully detailed Goth sim in an urban city setting, always full of spookies of every kind
Missing Mile: One of the best slums in SL! Check out the bad part of town if you ever get tired of living the glamorous life ;P
ROMA (ancient Rome): A richly packed sim with all the famouse sights from ancient Rome crammed in; so much to see, it has its own visitor's guidebook
Starfleet Command Galaxy: Headquarters for Star Trek's Starfleet command in SL; come explore this sci-fi classic and check out the role-playing
Tarnburg: One of the largest and most popular Gorean sims in SL, with all the typical sights found in most SL Gorean cities (be sure to read the sim rules and follow them if you visit!)
Telos IV: Star Wars themed role-playing...a space station with every group of Star Wars character imagineable: Jedis, Siths, droids, stormtroopers, and everyone else...
Tombstone: A Western town in Arizona set in the 1860's, home of the OK Corral
Toxian City: One of the big Goth sims, with vampires, demons, and other nasty things roaming around
Transylvania: A spooky town of Gothic structures and vampires, with a castle, chapel, museum, shops, and community center (for vampires :P)
Wizard's Alley: A reproduction of Diagon Alley from Hermoine Granger (I mean Harry Potter :P) series of books
Chateau de Versailles: Role-play in part of the French royal court at the Versailles Palace, complete with beautiful gardens and a spectacular ballroom
Things to See
Abyss Museum of Ocean Science: Lots of exhibits about the underwater world, with an interactive display where you can visit the deep ocean; perfect place to take a mermaid ;P
Aiot's Toon Wonderland: A sim dedicated to all things video game, cartoon, and animation; with different goofy areas to explore
Altstadt: A shopping sim modeled after a German village, with lots of cool carnival rides, L$1 bowling, and free beer on the south end of the sim
Avaria & Grendel's Children: An incredibly detailed fantasy sim, where you can explore, free-form role-play, or hatch your own baby dragon from an egg :)
Babbage Square: The new Victorian Steampunk-themed sim, where creative residents build amazing structures and a new society
Bedrock: Come check out the home of the Flintstones at Bedrock, theres a disco, many games, and a 9-hole miniature gold course
Better World: Displays on water habitats, Peace Tiles, Camp Dafur, and Peaceful Tomorrows; learn how we can make the world a better place
Black Swan: Follow the path around this sim full of famous sculptures and beautiful scenery; from the Rezzable group
Caledon: The Independent State of Caledon, a Victorian-era group of 10+ sims where the tenants have built some amazing period buildings in a well-planned community
Caledon Moors: Explore the darker side of Caledon, home of the Caledon Castle, Cavorite Mineshaft, and a host of haunted places
Caledon SteamSkyCity: A Caledon Victorian Steampunk sim in the sky (steam-powered, of course), with the usual assortment of unusual shops and homes
Carnival of Doom: A carnival full of rides, exhibits, and ways to die ;P Another great sim from the Rezzables
Cathedrals of SL: Tour 3 cathedrals in SL - Darkwood, St. Guilhem, and St. Paul's Cathedral
Cave of Doom: A labyrinth full of creative ways to kill yourself; check it out if you ever get tired of your Second Life ;P
Chi: Beaches, mountain, and volcano; come to relax, meditate, or surf the great waves
Clock Island: An artistically designed Japanese sim about clocks and numbers; includes a mystery where you search for clues around the sim
Coca-Cola Virtual Thirst Pavilion: Coca-cola is sponsoring a contest in Second Life to design a vending machine that dispenses the Coke experience; they have a pavilion where you can see some sample machines
Damania: Amazing buildings, beautiful sculptures, and bumper cars in this furniture store sim
Devil's Labyrinth: A huge haunted house complete with puzzles, mazes, and different outcomes! Amazing details and 3 completely different sections!
Devils Moon: Cyberpunk sim featuring a cool reflection effect on the streets (buildings are reflected off the water on the ground); home of Abranimations and ALICE the talking computer
Dive World: Free diving equipment, information on RL diving, and explore beautiful underwater areas in a sim dedicated to underwater diving
Elf Circle: A slice of Middle Earth, where Elves, Dwarves, and other fantasy creatures roam; a set of 5 sims with a common Elven theme
Enel Park: Learn about green power from an Italian power company: see demo areas, race a hydrogen car, and enjoy an energy drink...
Escapade Zoo & Safari Park: A complete zoo and wild animal park (along with a garden for Tinies), perfect for some monkey business
Governor Linden's Mansion: The oldest home in SL is now a historical site; check out the basement for a bit of SL history
Great Second Life Railway: Ride the train through a number of sims in the northern part of the mainland in SL; catch the tug boat to continue your journey
Great Wall of Second Life: An SL historic landmark wall that stretches across 14 sims!
Greenies Home: A giant (sim-sized) house taken over by tiny green aliens; see what it's like to be the size of a mouse while exploring the house
Gypsy Moon: Explore a hidden gypsy-themed moon with unusual colors, beautiful details, and secret romantic spots
Info Island: An entire sim of information, from a general interest library to medical and many other academic resources.
Inspire Space Park: A popular hangout with a space theme, with lots of poseballs, a club, spaceships, and even floating poseballs ;)
International Spaceflight Museum: Lots and lots of rockets, and even has a rocket ride that takes you to the space station and beyond! Definitely an SL must-see!
Isle of Tranquility: A pretty island with a treasure hunt that leads your thru the sim, including all the cool underwater places; highly recommended for mermaids :)
Isle of Wyrms: Like it says in the Search description, "Here be dragons"; this is where you can meet and talk to dragons, and maybe become one yourself
Ivory Tower Library of Primitives: Explore the great mysteries of the prims and all the shapes they can take on, displays on all the ways you can torture a prim to get the shapes you need
Kasteel Verloren (Verloren Castle): A grand sim-sized castle nestled in the Bavarian (German) sim of Verloren, with a beautifully decorated and detailed interior
Kowloon: A Japanese reproduction of Kowloon's Gate based on the Playstation game, this sim has amazingly detailed icky textures, tasks for you to perform, and lots of alleys to make you totally lost!
Linden Village: Come see where the masters of Second Life live - the home of the Lindens; grab a notecard, check the calendar, and meet a Linden inworld during their office hours to hear the latest gossips
Literature Factory: A fully automated factory with robots creating words, which are assembled into literature. Job positions available for robots :P
Luskwood: The furry community sim, featuring a rich community, event areas, and furry AV's for sale
Mag SL Toyko Japan: The sims of MagSL are where the real Japanese crowd live and hang out in SL, come get a taste of Japan :)
Metabirds: A group of Japanese residential/commercial sims, with a detailed train system, cool stores, and beautiful common areas
Mill Pond: A residential sim with pretty lake, a nice tavern, and coffee shop; perfect for meeting someone for a friendly chat
Mystery Isle: A replica of New York in the 1930's with music and hosting interactive murder mystery
Nagaya: A modern Japanese-themed town, its full of...well...Japanese things
Nakama: Dedicated to Japanese anime, with 4 different areas each representing a different form of anime, along with shops and anime fans
Neufreistadt: Modeled after a walled Bavarian city, Neufreistadt is the seat of the Confederation of Democratic Sims, one of the only active government systems in SL; and also know for its sites and fog
Nexus Prime: A cyberpunk city based on the world from Blade Runner; one of the oldest sims in SL, with a rich history of development
NOAA: U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's sim, with several great interactive exhibits! Prepare to get wet :P
October Country: Its always Halloween here; come to The Haunting Hour and listen to scary radio shows from the 1940s and 50s with fellow residents, or explore the creepy sim...
Olympia's Land of Weirdness: Come see the weirdness in this old SL neighborhood in the Green sim, along with some interesting stuff on nearby plots
Particle Laboratory: Displays and information on particles effects in SL, and all the ways you can bling, poof, explode, or fog things up
Pomponio Volcano: A large volcano spanning the border of 4 sims; with planned eruptions coming soon
The Pond: A piece of Australia in SL, built by Australian telecom company BigPond for its customers, its a great place to mingle with Australians and race motorcycles; bring your Australian translator :)
Pot Healer's Adventure: Play a free adventure game built right into SL in a gorgeously built sim; with game objects and ability to save your game!
Privateer Space: Explore a huge outer-space themed sim, complete with your free space suit and space ship; lots of things to see and even a puzzle to solve
Riverwalk: A well-built outdoor art museum, garden, amusement area, and community center; take a swan boat tour with a friend, watch the fireworks, or just wander through the gardens
Saijo City: A damaged-enabled futuristic cyberpunk city, with some cool music thrown in
September 11th Memorial: A memorial lovingly built to remember the 2996 people lost on that day in 2001
Shinagawa: Detailed reproduction of a Japanese Heian era palace
Silent Hill: A town based on the movie of the same name; very spooky place, with sounds that will make you jump out of your chair
Silverscreen: A sim for promoting movies, with free give-aways, art and shots from the movies, and background info; started with the movie "300"
Spaceport Bravo: A new addition to the International Spaceflight Museum, with new models and party area :)
Sploland: A sim full of science-related exhibits and curiosities; where the science guys seem to hang out and party (beware the Cult of Pi! :P)
SS Galaxy: A cruise ship 3-sims in size, featuring 2 residential sims and 1 commerical sim with many cruise-ship type activities
Steelhead: A Western-themed residential community, with weekly events and monthly balls; great place to socialize and join in a community
Stockton Springs: A quiet little small town in SL, with beautiful texture work, a town center, wedding cathedral, drive-in, and even a trailer park
Stratos Legend: A pre-historic sim full of dinosaur bones in amazing detail!
Suffugium: A cyberpunk sim where Big Brother is watching from everywhere
The Future: Home to the Crooked 4-Dimensional House, a cool transportation system, and interesting prim structures.
Thursday's Fictions: Extension of an interactive fantasy/dance movie, with cool effects, erry sounds, and really makes you think about life
Toxic Garden: A garden sim full of ways to die...just try and stay in the sim to explore this interesting place :P
Treasure Island: Pirate ships and adventure! A sim with large buccaneer ships and pirates' hideaway
Verloren Castle (Kasteel Verloren): A grand sim-sized castle nestled in the Bavarian (German) sim of Verloren, with a beautifully decorated and detailed interior
Victorianna Castle: Self-proclaimed as the "Most Beautiful Castle in SL", its like a gigantic beautiful torus sculpture; see the amazing things that can be done with prims!
Wastelands: Post-apocalyptic (like after a few nukes) residential sim, where a bunch of creative residents build their survival homes in the wasteland
Wastelands-The Great Fissure: Part of the Wasteland group of Post-apocalyptic themed sims; its a big hole in the desert with alots of interesting resident-built stuff around it
Winterland: Bedford Falls from "Its a Wonderful Life" re-created in SL, complete with main street, the bridge, and you can even fall thru the ice ;P Open during the winter holiday season :)
Wizard's Alley: A reproduction of Diagon Alley from Hermoine Granger (I mean Harry Potter :P) series of books
SL Land Mass Data
by Milosun Czervik
1. Avatars walk about about 6 mph (9.65 km/h). Assuming no lag, an avatar can walk from one side of a sim to the other side in about 1 minute, 35 seconds.
2. Each sim measures 256m x 256m (65,536 sqm). From north to south, a sim is about .159 miles.
3. The slmaps.com site states that there are currently 3,952 sims on the main grid
4. If we stacked all those sims in a tight square (approx 63 sims on each side), the distance north to south would be 16,128m, or 16 km, or about 10 miles.
5. That means it'd take almost 1.5 hours of continually pressing down the "up" arrow on your keyboard for your avatar to get all the way across the fictitious packed-square grid.
6. The SL main grid map available at Wikipedia is not perfect (it's the one on display at the ICT Library), BUT it shows that the 3,952 sims are not a neat little square. Instead, they are spread out over a vast "ocean."
7. How big is that ocean? How many sims *could* it hold? According to my measurements, if every piece of SL ocean were covered by a sim, there'd be close to 190,280 sims in SL(see note). IF this ever existed, it would instead take the average avatar (walking) almost 10 hours to go from north to south, and 14 hours to go east to west.
SL MAP towards end of 2007
1. Avatars walk about about 6 mph (9.65 km/h). Assuming no lag, an avatar can walk from one side of a sim to the other side in about 1 minute, 35 seconds.
2. Each sim measures 256m x 256m (65,536 sqm). From north to south, a sim is about .159 miles.
3. The slmaps.com site states that there are currently 3,952 sims on the main grid
4. If we stacked all those sims in a tight square (approx 63 sims on each side), the distance north to south would be 16,128m, or 16 km, or about 10 miles.
5. That means it'd take almost 1.5 hours of continually pressing down the "up" arrow on your keyboard for your avatar to get all the way across the fictitious packed-square grid.
6. The SL main grid map available at Wikipedia is not perfect (it's the one on display at the ICT Library), BUT it shows that the 3,952 sims are not a neat little square. Instead, they are spread out over a vast "ocean."
7. How big is that ocean? How many sims *could* it hold? According to my measurements, if every piece of SL ocean were covered by a sim, there'd be close to 190,280 sims in SL(see note). IF this ever existed, it would instead take the average avatar (walking) almost 10 hours to go from north to south, and 14 hours to go east to west.
SL MAP towards end of 2007
Live Band in SL
LIVE BAND
Some few words about the UKD Project.
UKD Project grew as an Rl band but wanted new live music experiences and got in SL.
They are playing original songs composed by Anto and Rola.
The originals are variate with famous covers.
The genre of their music is a mix of pop, soul and rock.
UKD Project was founded in 2006, UDK stands for United Kingdom of delight.
and the bandmembers are:
Rola Hykova
She is the leadsinger of the band and the entertainer. Rola was influenced by singers like
Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Cher etc. Her purpous is to make people smile with the music.
Anto Cale
He is the keyboardplayer and pianist, he started playing music in 1976. Anto loves to compose electronic music with the computer and multimedia.
Franko Philbin
He is the drummer and plays live since many years.
Please visit the website for more info
www.ukdproject.com
Some few words about the UKD Project.
UKD Project grew as an Rl band but wanted new live music experiences and got in SL.
They are playing original songs composed by Anto and Rola.
The originals are variate with famous covers.
The genre of their music is a mix of pop, soul and rock.
UKD Project was founded in 2006, UDK stands for United Kingdom of delight.
and the bandmembers are:
Rola Hykova
She is the leadsinger of the band and the entertainer. Rola was influenced by singers like
Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Cher etc. Her purpous is to make people smile with the music.
Anto Cale
He is the keyboardplayer and pianist, he started playing music in 1976. Anto loves to compose electronic music with the computer and multimedia.
Franko Philbin
He is the drummer and plays live since many years.
Please visit the website for more info
www.ukdproject.com
Social Media Marketing: think agile software
The credit for this article goes to "The electric Sheep Company"
Author name : Giff Constable
http://blogs.electricsheepcompany.com/giff/?p=600
"
During my lunch blog-browse, I ran across two posts that hit on different sides of the same issue: are social media marketing projects falling short because they take a build-and-ship approach? Today projects need to focus on near-term ROI, which ostensibly is a good thing, but this is leading to risk averse behavior from CMOs. One point of consensus at the Advertising 2.0 conference was that the short average tenure for CMO’s is leading to short term thinking, not unlike public companies hamstrung by the pressures of quarterly numbers.
Over at Hyperempowered, Marc Schiller asks whether brand “build and ship it” thinking can ever compete with startup “alway in beta” thinking, where services and experiences are constantly updated and improved in an iterative fashion.
At Experience Matters, David Armano writes, “one of the biggest challenges agencies face is that marketing initiatives are often focused on short term gain vs. fostering long term relationships. This results in a churn and burn which can become difficult for us to sustain.” This points to the reality that a relationship and “conversation” is not built overnight, but also highlights the need for longer-term, iterative thinking.
The software industry learned the hard way that “build it, ship it” was a pretty awful approach, and thus agile development was born. A key step was the ability to move away from shipping physical media. The Web makes it easy to update software whether desktop apps or, even easier, purely online applications.
When one is creating a TV spot or a radio ad, one faces the same issue: one must create and ship because once it is out there, it is out there and cannot be changed — you have to start again with a new campaign piece. Now that agencies and their clients are moving online, they need to learn the same lesson that the software industry learned: iterative is the way to be.
Don’t spend all your budget guessing user behavior, but rather put your best foot forward with a first release, monitor closely, and save some budget for constant improvement.
"
50 Tips and Tricks to Create a Learning Space in Second Life
By Heather Johnson
The popular virtual world of Second Life attracts online gamers, former Sim City addicts, entrepreneurs-in-training, and tech-savvy teachers. The educational possibilities through Second Life allow teachers and employers to reach out to students beyond their traditional classrooms and school districts, expose young children to global issues and new friends around the world, design their own avatars and environments for highly customized training sessions and interactive discussions, practice real-world skills and manage real-life situations in a safe environment, and most of all keep students engaged in a technologically-driven society. For tips, tricks and resources that will help you make the most of the virtual world, check out the list below.
Training Purposes
Employers and educators who want to train new hires or test their students can use Second Life in the following ways.
Use Second Life for employee training: The Second Life Grid is a space where businesses and schools can set up their own virtual board rooms. Use the Grid to organize an employee training session that’s more interactive than a pamphlet.
SL Messenger: SL Messenger brings together all of your online communities with Second Life. You can share twitts, photos and more through AIM, Gtalk, MSN and Second Life, so it’s easy to add instructions, training tools and more to your space wherever you are.
Literature Alive! in Second Life: This site collects resources for educational training programs designed in Second Life, especially for reading, writing and literature courses.
K-Foundry: This site is great for educators who want to host a training session or lecture but aren’t concerned with managing land. The system awards a space for free as long as you aren’t using the space for commercial use.
Set up your own island: Set up your own teaching or instructional island in Second Life to organize training materials and tests for your employees.
Blogs and Websites
Turn to these blogs for tips, services and tools when setting up a learning space in Second Life.
SLED Blog: This blog has lots of "bright ideas" and more for teachers using Second Life.
Second Life Education Wiki: This site is "Linden Lab’s official resource for educators in Second Life." Access information about special education pricing for private islands, academic research, presentations, competitions and more.
Sub Dimension Studios: If you don’t have time to create your own textures or animation in Second Life, consider using the services of this company.
Resident Resources: The Second Life community features a Resident Resources page, full of links and tips for managing land, designing animation, working audio and music, and more.
Educators Coop: This blog is dedicated to exploring new ways and tools that help teachers maximize Second Life and virtual worlds to reach out to their students.
Examples of Second Life in Education
Follow these real-life Second Life projects from Stanford, Harvard Law School and even a New York middle school to start your own studies or get students of all ages involved in Second Life.
Virtual Human Interaction Lab: Stanford University’s study explores how human behavior in a virtual setting affects their behavior in real-life society. Consider using this study as an introduction to your own sociological study.
Suffern Middle School in Second Life: This school project undertaken by students at Suffern Middle School uses the Teen Grid in Second Life to address math skills, social studies and community planning, building and more.
Digital Collaboration for Architects: This interdisciplinary class taught by Terry Beaubois at Montana State University - Bozeman explores how technology and virtual reality encourage "multidisciplinary, collaborative, planning and design of sustainable communities."
CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion: Visit this website for information on the class Law in the Court of Public Opinion that was offered by Harvard Law School and the Harvard Extension School. In the class, students consider "many different media technologies to understand how their inherent characteristics and modes of distribution affect the arguments that are made using them." One of the technologies studied is Second Life.
Money and Design: This Design Economics class uses Second Life as a virtual platform for future entrepreneurs and business designers to practice their skills.
More Tips and Ideas
From Campus: Second Life to designing your own planetarium to creating games for history class, this list features even more tips and fun ideas.
Campus: Second Life: This program gives college students in certain fields one free acre of land in Second Life so that they can practice the skills and theories they learn in class in a virtual setting.
Use SL for distance learning: Open up your class to the world when you use Second Life for virtual lectures, collaboration and assignments.
Set up an exhibit: Read about how The International Spaceflight Museum shares exhibits through Second Life, including a planetarium, model space shuttle and a training game.
Introduce a history project: The Gold Rush game in SL immerses players and students into the time and atmosphere of the California Gold Rush. History teachers can create similar games so that students can interact with each other based on the period’s social structures, economic landscape and more.
Share information: You don’t have to be a teacher to set up your own Second Life exhibit and start a discussion. Remember Me features an exhibit and photos about Alzheimer’s Disease in SL and directs visitors to a documentary and resources about Alzheimer’s.
Ecology Project: Use this ecology project as an example to teach students about the environment. You can even set up specific weather patterns and watch as plants, insects and birds coexist.
English composition class: Ball State University’s English 104 in Second Life uses the virtual world to teach research skills and critical thinking.
Teach kids to think globally: The Kids Connect program encourages collaboration between students in New York and Amsterdam to teach them new skills in theatre and the arts, as well as exposing them to a global partnership.
Give web developers and designers a place to play: SL is a great platform to let let digital media and web development students a chance to experiment with their skills. Ask them to create new scripts and applications for SL as class assignments.
Learn about new cultures and languages: Read about the PacificRim Exchange, which hosts a private island in the Teen Grid that serves as a platform for students from schools in the Pacific Rim to connect and learn about new customs and countries.
Resources
These tutorials and guides are designed especially for educators who want to create an effective learning space in Second Life.
Second Life Teacher Training Videos: Teachers get their own instructional videos for Second Life here.
Video Tutorials: Educators needing a little extra direction when using Second Life can watch over 150 different video tutorials for help with voice chat, land, and more.
Educational Uses of Second Life: This wikispaces page features all kinds of examples of projects used for educational purposes.
RezEd: RezEd, or "the hub for learning and virtual worlds," features discussions, podcasts, articles and a community designed to help educators make the most of virtual learning technologies, including Second Life.
Second Life Mixed Reality: Green Screen in RL and SL: This article shares tips on integrating real life video footage into your Second Life world, giving you more opportunities for introducing new characters and lessons.
Second Life: Educators Working With Teens: Learn about closed and open estates, get ideas for Teen Second Life projects and more to help you set up a learning space for teens in SL.
Second Life: Educational Possibilities of a Massively Multiplayer Virtual World: This report has tips for teaching in Second Life and explores how traditional teaching theories have evolved to collaborate with technology and virtual media.
13 Tips for Virtual World Teaching: Keep these tips in mind when building up your SL classroom.
Resources for Educators: The University of Cincinnati has put together this list for teachers who want to use Second Life in their classrooms. The list includes tips for getting started in SL, connecting with other SL educators, and finding examples of successful SL policies and projects.
onrez: Shop for animation tools, accessories and designs here.
Second Life Tools for Teaching
Learn how to create your own prims, make use of virtual camera tools and discover SL features to make the most of your virtual classroom.
Media on a Parcel: Media on a Parcel lets you share movies, music and other medium with your residents. Teachers can use this tool instead of putting books or DVDs on reserve in the library, and students can access the material whenever they want.
Virtual camera tools: Make use of the camera tools in SL to "engage students in digital storytelling, and recording and reflecting their work in Second Life," as recommended on the SL wikispaces site.
MyNotes Profile Tab: This post from the SLED Blog recommends using this tool for class management on SL.
Sculpted Prims: Learn how to make your own sculpted prims so that your learning space is completely customized to your training session or lesson plan.
SL Exchange: Use SL Exchange to teach students about budgeting, e-commerce and general business principles.
SL Pulse: Advertise your project or collaboration by sending a press release to SL Pulse. It’s free and open to any stories or news related to Second Life.
Merlin Rocket Server: This "media management system" lets you share, publish and broadcast all kinds of multimedia to your SL space, giving you the chance to use more resources when you teach.
Toolbar for Second Life: Get all your SL buttons and links in your toolbar with this download.
Gridocity: Real-life businesses have set up accounts in Second Life to advertise their services and products, which means that you can search for educational tools you need without having to leave SL.
The Wall SL: History teachers may want to direct their students to The Wall SL, which is a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Fabjectory: If you want to bring your Second Life project into real-life, order a physical replica of your avatar from this company.
Communication Tools
These teaching tools help distance learning educators, college professors and other teachers communicate with their students through Second Life more easily and effectively.
KitCom: KitCom streamlines your chats through Second Life.
ION Communication: This communication system notifies your students and residents when you’re online so they know whether or not they can reach you for questions about an assignment.
SL Profiles: Set up a profile for your avatar and your real-life self so that students and other SL players can learn more about you, your class and your credentials.
Babbler and De-Babbler: Use these language translation tools to communicate with students all over the world.
The popular virtual world of Second Life attracts online gamers, former Sim City addicts, entrepreneurs-in-training, and tech-savvy teachers. The educational possibilities through Second Life allow teachers and employers to reach out to students beyond their traditional classrooms and school districts, expose young children to global issues and new friends around the world, design their own avatars and environments for highly customized training sessions and interactive discussions, practice real-world skills and manage real-life situations in a safe environment, and most of all keep students engaged in a technologically-driven society. For tips, tricks and resources that will help you make the most of the virtual world, check out the list below.
Training Purposes
Employers and educators who want to train new hires or test their students can use Second Life in the following ways.
Use Second Life for employee training: The Second Life Grid is a space where businesses and schools can set up their own virtual board rooms. Use the Grid to organize an employee training session that’s more interactive than a pamphlet.
SL Messenger: SL Messenger brings together all of your online communities with Second Life. You can share twitts, photos and more through AIM, Gtalk, MSN and Second Life, so it’s easy to add instructions, training tools and more to your space wherever you are.
Literature Alive! in Second Life: This site collects resources for educational training programs designed in Second Life, especially for reading, writing and literature courses.
K-Foundry: This site is great for educators who want to host a training session or lecture but aren’t concerned with managing land. The system awards a space for free as long as you aren’t using the space for commercial use.
Set up your own island: Set up your own teaching or instructional island in Second Life to organize training materials and tests for your employees.
Blogs and Websites
Turn to these blogs for tips, services and tools when setting up a learning space in Second Life.
SLED Blog: This blog has lots of "bright ideas" and more for teachers using Second Life.
Second Life Education Wiki: This site is "Linden Lab’s official resource for educators in Second Life." Access information about special education pricing for private islands, academic research, presentations, competitions and more.
Sub Dimension Studios: If you don’t have time to create your own textures or animation in Second Life, consider using the services of this company.
Resident Resources: The Second Life community features a Resident Resources page, full of links and tips for managing land, designing animation, working audio and music, and more.
Educators Coop: This blog is dedicated to exploring new ways and tools that help teachers maximize Second Life and virtual worlds to reach out to their students.
Examples of Second Life in Education
Follow these real-life Second Life projects from Stanford, Harvard Law School and even a New York middle school to start your own studies or get students of all ages involved in Second Life.
Virtual Human Interaction Lab: Stanford University’s study explores how human behavior in a virtual setting affects their behavior in real-life society. Consider using this study as an introduction to your own sociological study.
Suffern Middle School in Second Life: This school project undertaken by students at Suffern Middle School uses the Teen Grid in Second Life to address math skills, social studies and community planning, building and more.
Digital Collaboration for Architects: This interdisciplinary class taught by Terry Beaubois at Montana State University - Bozeman explores how technology and virtual reality encourage "multidisciplinary, collaborative, planning and design of sustainable communities."
CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion: Visit this website for information on the class Law in the Court of Public Opinion that was offered by Harvard Law School and the Harvard Extension School. In the class, students consider "many different media technologies to understand how their inherent characteristics and modes of distribution affect the arguments that are made using them." One of the technologies studied is Second Life.
Money and Design: This Design Economics class uses Second Life as a virtual platform for future entrepreneurs and business designers to practice their skills.
More Tips and Ideas
From Campus: Second Life to designing your own planetarium to creating games for history class, this list features even more tips and fun ideas.
Campus: Second Life: This program gives college students in certain fields one free acre of land in Second Life so that they can practice the skills and theories they learn in class in a virtual setting.
Use SL for distance learning: Open up your class to the world when you use Second Life for virtual lectures, collaboration and assignments.
Set up an exhibit: Read about how The International Spaceflight Museum shares exhibits through Second Life, including a planetarium, model space shuttle and a training game.
Introduce a history project: The Gold Rush game in SL immerses players and students into the time and atmosphere of the California Gold Rush. History teachers can create similar games so that students can interact with each other based on the period’s social structures, economic landscape and more.
Share information: You don’t have to be a teacher to set up your own Second Life exhibit and start a discussion. Remember Me features an exhibit and photos about Alzheimer’s Disease in SL and directs visitors to a documentary and resources about Alzheimer’s.
Ecology Project: Use this ecology project as an example to teach students about the environment. You can even set up specific weather patterns and watch as plants, insects and birds coexist.
English composition class: Ball State University’s English 104 in Second Life uses the virtual world to teach research skills and critical thinking.
Teach kids to think globally: The Kids Connect program encourages collaboration between students in New York and Amsterdam to teach them new skills in theatre and the arts, as well as exposing them to a global partnership.
Give web developers and designers a place to play: SL is a great platform to let let digital media and web development students a chance to experiment with their skills. Ask them to create new scripts and applications for SL as class assignments.
Learn about new cultures and languages: Read about the PacificRim Exchange, which hosts a private island in the Teen Grid that serves as a platform for students from schools in the Pacific Rim to connect and learn about new customs and countries.
Resources
These tutorials and guides are designed especially for educators who want to create an effective learning space in Second Life.
Second Life Teacher Training Videos: Teachers get their own instructional videos for Second Life here.
Video Tutorials: Educators needing a little extra direction when using Second Life can watch over 150 different video tutorials for help with voice chat, land, and more.
Educational Uses of Second Life: This wikispaces page features all kinds of examples of projects used for educational purposes.
RezEd: RezEd, or "the hub for learning and virtual worlds," features discussions, podcasts, articles and a community designed to help educators make the most of virtual learning technologies, including Second Life.
Second Life Mixed Reality: Green Screen in RL and SL: This article shares tips on integrating real life video footage into your Second Life world, giving you more opportunities for introducing new characters and lessons.
Second Life: Educators Working With Teens: Learn about closed and open estates, get ideas for Teen Second Life projects and more to help you set up a learning space for teens in SL.
Second Life: Educational Possibilities of a Massively Multiplayer Virtual World: This report has tips for teaching in Second Life and explores how traditional teaching theories have evolved to collaborate with technology and virtual media.
13 Tips for Virtual World Teaching: Keep these tips in mind when building up your SL classroom.
Resources for Educators: The University of Cincinnati has put together this list for teachers who want to use Second Life in their classrooms. The list includes tips for getting started in SL, connecting with other SL educators, and finding examples of successful SL policies and projects.
onrez: Shop for animation tools, accessories and designs here.
Second Life Tools for Teaching
Learn how to create your own prims, make use of virtual camera tools and discover SL features to make the most of your virtual classroom.
Media on a Parcel: Media on a Parcel lets you share movies, music and other medium with your residents. Teachers can use this tool instead of putting books or DVDs on reserve in the library, and students can access the material whenever they want.
Virtual camera tools: Make use of the camera tools in SL to "engage students in digital storytelling, and recording and reflecting their work in Second Life," as recommended on the SL wikispaces site.
MyNotes Profile Tab: This post from the SLED Blog recommends using this tool for class management on SL.
Sculpted Prims: Learn how to make your own sculpted prims so that your learning space is completely customized to your training session or lesson plan.
SL Exchange: Use SL Exchange to teach students about budgeting, e-commerce and general business principles.
SL Pulse: Advertise your project or collaboration by sending a press release to SL Pulse. It’s free and open to any stories or news related to Second Life.
Merlin Rocket Server: This "media management system" lets you share, publish and broadcast all kinds of multimedia to your SL space, giving you the chance to use more resources when you teach.
Toolbar for Second Life: Get all your SL buttons and links in your toolbar with this download.
Gridocity: Real-life businesses have set up accounts in Second Life to advertise their services and products, which means that you can search for educational tools you need without having to leave SL.
The Wall SL: History teachers may want to direct their students to The Wall SL, which is a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Fabjectory: If you want to bring your Second Life project into real-life, order a physical replica of your avatar from this company.
Communication Tools
These teaching tools help distance learning educators, college professors and other teachers communicate with their students through Second Life more easily and effectively.
KitCom: KitCom streamlines your chats through Second Life.
ION Communication: This communication system notifies your students and residents when you’re online so they know whether or not they can reach you for questions about an assignment.
SL Profiles: Set up a profile for your avatar and your real-life self so that students and other SL players can learn more about you, your class and your credentials.
Babbler and De-Babbler: Use these language translation tools to communicate with students all over the world.
Second Life Blogs
3pointD.com
Ali Maltz
AmaZingg (nl)
Ambling in Second Life
Angry's Tripping the Metaverse
Around the Grid with Harper
Baedeker
Bay Shiras
Bells & Spurs
Beth's Second life
BlazeBlog
Browsing the metaverse
Brussels Airlines in Second Life
Caleb Booker
casa del shai
Christian Renaud's Weblog
Coal Nelson's Notes
Dani2.0 Eternal
Dedric Mauriac
Digado
Dolmere Talamasca
DrainWaves
Eightbar
Eloise's thoughts and fancies
Eureka Dejavu's Dispatches from a Virtual World
Evans Avenue Exit
Five March in Second Life
Fizzy's Second Life
Happy Creations
Hyperstring.net
iVinnie
Jacek Lives
Kzero
Lee’s Second Life - “Finding the key”
Lethe's Waters
Living in the Metaverse
Lordfly Digeridoo's GridBlog
Machinimoo
Massively
MechanizedLife
MeraTalk
Messages from a second universe
Meta.Live.Nu
Metaplaces (NL)
MetaRand
Metaversatility :: Blog
Metaversatility Blog
Metaverse Territories
Metaversed
More Secondlife
Moriash Moreau: My Second Life
My Digital Double
NeuralBlog
New World Notes
Not Possible IRL
Official Linden Blog
Omega Point
Ordinal Malaprop
Patience Xie
Phasing Grace
Quantus Rust
Quine-tessential
Rez Nation
Rigz in Secondlife
Second Effects
Second Life Blogo (nl)
Second Life Crew (BE)
Second Life Games
Second Life Law
Second Life Traveler
Second Tense
Second Thoughts
SecondLife NL (nl)
Six Kennedy
SL Conceptual Creations
SL Fashion Victim
SLANDREAMEDIA
SLOG
Sunverse.net
Tao’s Thoughts on Second Life
Tateru Nino's Dwell On It
The Click Heard Round the World
The Daily Graze
The Lapointe Square
The Shockwave Writer
The Traveling Avatar's Quick and Dirty Tips for a Better Second Life
Torley Linden
Triste Bertrand
UgoTrade
UpTheVortex (NL)
VintFalken.com
Virtual Worlds News
Virtual Worlds Review
Virtually Blind - Virtual Law
virtualworlds
We the Sheeple
Women of Second Life
wonderwebby
Woolly Wildcat Writings
Your2ndPlace
News & Magazines
Reuters
SLCN(TV)
SLNN
Avastar
Metaverse Messenger
Second Life Herald
Second Life Insider
SL Business Magazine
Ali Maltz
AmaZingg (nl)
Ambling in Second Life
Angry's Tripping the Metaverse
Around the Grid with Harper
Baedeker
Bay Shiras
Bells & Spurs
Beth's Second life
BlazeBlog
Browsing the metaverse
Brussels Airlines in Second Life
Caleb Booker
casa del shai
Christian Renaud's Weblog
Coal Nelson's Notes
Dani2.0 Eternal
Dedric Mauriac
Digado
Dolmere Talamasca
DrainWaves
Eightbar
Eloise's thoughts and fancies
Eureka Dejavu's Dispatches from a Virtual World
Evans Avenue Exit
Five March in Second Life
Fizzy's Second Life
Happy Creations
Hyperstring.net
iVinnie
Jacek Lives
Kzero
Lee’s Second Life - “Finding the key”
Lethe's Waters
Living in the Metaverse
Lordfly Digeridoo's GridBlog
Machinimoo
Massively
MechanizedLife
MeraTalk
Messages from a second universe
Meta.Live.Nu
Metaplaces (NL)
MetaRand
Metaversatility :: Blog
Metaversatility Blog
Metaverse Territories
Metaversed
More Secondlife
Moriash Moreau: My Second Life
My Digital Double
NeuralBlog
New World Notes
Not Possible IRL
Official Linden Blog
Omega Point
Ordinal Malaprop
Patience Xie
Phasing Grace
Quantus Rust
Quine-tessential
Rez Nation
Rigz in Secondlife
Second Effects
Second Life Blogo (nl)
Second Life Crew (BE)
Second Life Games
Second Life Law
Second Life Traveler
Second Tense
Second Thoughts
SecondLife NL (nl)
Six Kennedy
SL Conceptual Creations
SL Fashion Victim
SLANDREAMEDIA
SLOG
Sunverse.net
Tao’s Thoughts on Second Life
Tateru Nino's Dwell On It
The Click Heard Round the World
The Daily Graze
The Lapointe Square
The Shockwave Writer
The Traveling Avatar's Quick and Dirty Tips for a Better Second Life
Torley Linden
Triste Bertrand
UgoTrade
UpTheVortex (NL)
VintFalken.com
Virtual Worlds News
Virtual Worlds Review
Virtually Blind - Virtual Law
virtualworlds
We the Sheeple
Women of Second Life
wonderwebby
Woolly Wildcat Writings
Your2ndPlace
News & Magazines
Reuters
SLCN(TV)
SLNN
Avastar
Metaverse Messenger
Second Life Herald
Second Life Insider
SL Business Magazine
Second Life Builders
Aimee Weber
Beta Technologies
Damanicorp (NL)
Electric Sheep Company
Lost in the Magic Forest (NL)
Metaversatility
Millions of Us
Nemesis Content
Rivers Run Red
SLionhead (NL)
Wishfarmers
Beta Technologies
Damanicorp (NL)
Electric Sheep Company
Lost in the Magic Forest (NL)
Metaversatility
Millions of Us
Nemesis Content
Rivers Run Red
SLionhead (NL)
Wishfarmers
Michelin and Enterprise Architecture
by Aleister Kronos
Below are the comments of the author on the new report from Forrester Research entitled "Case Study: Michelin Uses Second Life For Enterprise Architecture Training."
Michelin’s EA group has launched a private two-island Second Life region designed for training IT pros on architecture concepts. Michelin doesn’t intend to replace — rather, to augment — its traditional classroom training on EA concepts.Starting in April 2008, the EA group at Michelin began training IT professionals in Second Life. As of this writing, about 30 IT pros had completed the training, with 170 more expected to finish during the next couple of months.
Michelin hired French virtual world development company Community Chest to build the Second Life region. It took about two months to build and cost €50,000 to €60,000.Although only recently launched, the early feedback has been very positive. Reading (and badly translating) the builders' blog, it would seem that attendees enjoyed the "gameplay" style of the training - and the use of such an unusual training environment made the sessions held in Second Life particularly memorable.
Below are the comments of the author on the new report from Forrester Research entitled "Case Study: Michelin Uses Second Life For Enterprise Architecture Training."
Michelin’s EA group has launched a private two-island Second Life region designed for training IT pros on architecture concepts. Michelin doesn’t intend to replace — rather, to augment — its traditional classroom training on EA concepts.Starting in April 2008, the EA group at Michelin began training IT professionals in Second Life. As of this writing, about 30 IT pros had completed the training, with 170 more expected to finish during the next couple of months.
Michelin hired French virtual world development company Community Chest to build the Second Life region. It took about two months to build and cost €50,000 to €60,000.Although only recently launched, the early feedback has been very positive. Reading (and badly translating) the builders' blog, it would seem that attendees enjoyed the "gameplay" style of the training - and the use of such an unusual training environment made the sessions held in Second Life particularly memorable.
Mitsubishi Corporation
by Aleister Kronos
Mitsubishi Corporation is part of large conglomerate of sims built by Japanese builders, MeltingDots.As their website informs us: "Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) is Japan's largest general trading company (sogo shosha) with over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide. Together with its over 500 group companies, MC employs a multinational workforce of approximately 54,000 people. " Its origins are in shipping, when the first Mitsubishi company was founded in 1873. It added coal-mining some 8 years later, using the coal to power its ships. From there it further diversified into logistics, shipbuilding, finance, and vehicle manufacture. In fact, it seemed to have interests in just about every commercial marketplace. Continued diversification led to the founding of the Mitsubishi Corporation in 1950.As a large and successful corporation, it is good to see it taking "corporate citizenship" seriously. One of its main contributions is support for the Global Coral Reef Conservation Project, with research bases in Seychelles, Okinawa and Midway. It is this Project that forms the foundation for a 6-sim presence in Second Life. Most of these are 'low prim' ocean sims, but a couple of them provide the substance of the build - a couple of tropical islands and a coral reef.Newcomers should start on the MitsubishiCorporation sim, which has a nicely executed orientation zone, constructed as a series of interconnected huts, built on stilts out over the sea bed. After completing this you are led, via a park area, to a faintly Polynesian beach house, where you can discover some facts about coral. Emerging from the beach house you then arrive at the beach itself. Here you can help yourself to free scuba diving gear before heading out into the sea. Just offshore will reach the coral reef, replete with clown fish and other piscine inhabitants.Beyond the reef you come to the second island, which also features a beach house, where you will find links and a gallery of information about the Conservation Project. While the 2 islands seem to be largely complete, the remainder of the site is still somewhat bare. It also shows off another possible meme in Second Life - the use of the virtual world to promote your 'corporate citizenship' credentials.
Mitsubishi Corporation is part of large conglomerate of sims built by Japanese builders, MeltingDots.As their website informs us: "Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) is Japan's largest general trading company (sogo shosha) with over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide. Together with its over 500 group companies, MC employs a multinational workforce of approximately 54,000 people. " Its origins are in shipping, when the first Mitsubishi company was founded in 1873. It added coal-mining some 8 years later, using the coal to power its ships. From there it further diversified into logistics, shipbuilding, finance, and vehicle manufacture. In fact, it seemed to have interests in just about every commercial marketplace. Continued diversification led to the founding of the Mitsubishi Corporation in 1950.As a large and successful corporation, it is good to see it taking "corporate citizenship" seriously. One of its main contributions is support for the Global Coral Reef Conservation Project, with research bases in Seychelles, Okinawa and Midway. It is this Project that forms the foundation for a 6-sim presence in Second Life. Most of these are 'low prim' ocean sims, but a couple of them provide the substance of the build - a couple of tropical islands and a coral reef.Newcomers should start on the MitsubishiCorporation sim, which has a nicely executed orientation zone, constructed as a series of interconnected huts, built on stilts out over the sea bed. After completing this you are led, via a park area, to a faintly Polynesian beach house, where you can discover some facts about coral. Emerging from the beach house you then arrive at the beach itself. Here you can help yourself to free scuba diving gear before heading out into the sea. Just offshore will reach the coral reef, replete with clown fish and other piscine inhabitants.Beyond the reef you come to the second island, which also features a beach house, where you will find links and a gallery of information about the Conservation Project. While the 2 islands seem to be largely complete, the remainder of the site is still somewhat bare. It also shows off another possible meme in Second Life - the use of the virtual world to promote your 'corporate citizenship' credentials.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
