Abandoned Virtual College Campuses In Second Life

Description: In the middle of a virtual beach is docked a cartoonishly
rendered pirate ship, complete with a large skull and crossbones flag.

Close to a decade ago, everyone from web forums to the Wall Street Journal were going gaga over the apparent possibilities available in the virtual MMO sandbox environment Second Life. Amongst the clamor from people interested in joining a virtual gold rush, living out vampire roleplay idea, cybering with a robot or griefing newbies, a number of colleges snapped up ownership of virtual land to set up virtual campuses. Writing for Fusion, Patrick Hogan decided to see if any of these virtual campuses were still standing... and if so, what sort of things he'd find in these abandoned virtual campuses? The findings were equal parts mundane and bizarre (like the pirate ship pictured at left that held a rather plain looking conference lounge). As Hogan writes:

I actually like how most of these islands represent an attempt by education institutions to embrace the weirdness of the web. The current crop of education startups seem bland and antiseptic in comparison to these virtual worlds. I can’t take a Coursera class on a pirate ship, or attend office hours in front of an edX campfire. And honestly, that’s probably a good thing. But it makes the web slightly less interesting.

Interestingly enough, the impending release of the Occulus Rift to the commercial market might breathe some new life into Second Life.

Second Life Is Being Used... For SCIENCE!

According to the latest issue of Science News, many research institutions are leveraging the simple simulation tools of the 3-D sandbox Second Life to create immersible science learning experiences. From Science News:

“Early on, when SL really got going, it looked like it was going to be a huge playground,” says Amme. “I thought... who needs a second life unless you don’t have a first one?”

Although SL retains a large recreational component, with fantasy, racy nightclubs and sex, the science islands have distinguished themselves as places to connect with the “outside” world.

Scientist-avatars guide students through formal university educational programs — such as the University of Denver’s master’s degree in environmental engineering — or create exhibits designed to demonstrate scientific principles.

Navigational tools let users zoom in and around objects, making SL a convenient place to investigate phenomena that would otherwise be hard to visualize or understand. Avatars can, for example, initiate chemical reactions with a touch of their hand, watch a tsunami form or stroll through the internal structures of a cell.

Hat tip to Boing Boing for the screencap of the virtual frog.

Hands Free 3D, or: How to Control Second Life In Your First Life

Second Life investor Mitch Kapor has a new project in his lab: creating hands-free, 3D navigation for Second Life using a 3D camera that tracks your body geometry, allowing you to fly around in-world in much the same way you'd ride a Segway: by leaning back and forth. Why? From his site:

For the moment, our objective is to explore the possibilities for these new types of devices. We believe that these cameras will eventually make interacting with Virtual Worlds as comfortable as using a webcam. This will ultimately broaden the appeal of Virtual Worlds by allowing new ways of online expression. It may also attract people who find the current gaming interface too hard to handle.

You can see a short video of the concept in action here:

Second Life on an Apple II (sorta)

This video shows one enterprising programmer managing to squeeze a session of Second Life, an experience that can tax the most demanding of today's PC rigs depending on where you visit through a system with a 1 mHz processor with 128 k of system RAM.