The 2016 Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) Conference launches at 11:00am SLT on Wednesday, March 9th and will be taking place in both Second Life and AvaCon Grid.
The theme for this year’s event is Horizons, and will include a presentations by keynote and featured speakers, panel discussions, workshops, social events and more, running through until the conference closes on Saturday, March 12th.
Full details on conference events can be found on the VWBPE conference calendar. However, for ease-of-reference, here’s a quick run-down of some of the key events and activities. As always, all times are SLT.
The VWBPE main plaza in SL
Wednesday, March 9th
11:00 – 13:00: Ribbon Cutting and Grand Opening Ceremony for the Exhibits, with music from Ari (Arisia Vita) as he streams soft and soothing piano music during the event. Tour the exhibits, learn what educators are doing and accomplishing in virtual environments, network with colleagues and friends
15:00 – 15:00: Pirate Parade – put on your finest pirate clothes and join the procession to the concert marina
17:00 – 17:50: Keynote address – Signalling a New Reality with Bronwyn Stuckey – at some of the signals in the past year of a blurring of what is virtual and what is physical, and how it is increasingly making any differentiation between the two redundant, challenging many of the assumptions we hold about the place of our work in virtual worlds.
18:00 – 19:00: Grid Watch with Ebbe Altberg – Linden Lab’s CEO will discuss issues of importance to the Second Life communities with a focus on listening to SL residence and responding to questions.
14:00 15:50: OpenSimulator Featured Panel – Cynthia Calongne, Selby Evans, Stephen Gasior and Maria Korolev engage in a discussion on the different perspectives of people who use OpenSimulator as an alternative, or in addition to, Second Life
Location: hop://grid.avacon.org:8002/Rockcliffe Library/25/26/78 (copy and paste link in-world on AvaCon grid)
16:00 – 17:00: VWBPE Machinima Showcase – view this year’s VWBPE Outstanding Machinima films and earn about the art of machinima from a panel of experts
Location (subject to fnal confirmation via the VWBPE calendar): hop://grid.avacon.org:8002/Rockcliffe Library/25/26/78 (copy and paste link in-world on AvaCon grid)
17:00 – 17:50: Keynote address – Virtual Worlds on the Go with Stephen Downes – an examination of the intersection of learning, performance support, and mobile virtual worlds and simulations and the real world applications for this technology
Location: hop://grid.avacon.org:8002/Rockcliffe Library/25/26/78 (copy and paste link in-world on AvaCon grid).
Friday, March 11th
08:00 – 09:50: Nonprofit Commons: Creating Impact Through a Community of Practice – a panel discussion on the role and focus of Nonprofit Commons (NPC), which was designed to create a community of practice for non-profit professionals, librarians, and social good focused technologists to explore and learn about virtual worlds such as Second Life.
14:00 – 15:00: Caledon Oxbridge University panel – members from Caledon Oxbridge University will discuss some of their major projects and contributions in virtual worlds, in particular how they feel their accomplishments have taken us toward a new horizon in immersive experiences
16:00 – 17:00: VWBPE Machinima Showcase – view this year’s VWBPE Outstanding Machinima films and earn about the art of machinima from a panel of experts
19:00 – 20:00: ART presentsNorth of Boston – the Avatar Repertory Theatre presents a dramatisation of Robert Frost’s 1915 modernist masterpiece live in voice.
08:00 – 09:50: Virtual Pioneers panel – members from the Virtual Pioneers will discuss some of their major projects and contributions in virtual worlds, in particular how they feel their accomplishments have taken us toward a new horizon in immersive experiences
15:00 – 16:50: Virginia Society for Technology in Education panel – members from VSTE will discuss some of their major projects and contributions in virtual worlds, in particular how they feel their accomplishments have taken us toward a new horizon in immersive experiences
18:00 – 19:00: Closing Ceremony and Thinkerer Award Winner Announcement: closing remarks from Phelan Corrimal and other VWBPE Committee Chairs, the opportunity to learn about VWBPE 2017 and hear the 2016 Thinkerer Award recipient announced
The VWBPE conference is free to attend, although there are donation options available for those wishing to support the conference. Those wishing to attend all of the conference activities across the four days of the conference will need accounts for both Second Life and AvaCon grid – please refer to Accessing the Conference for further details.
The 9th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference will take place between Wednesday, March 9th, 2016 and Saturday, March 12th, 2016 inclusive. A global grass-roots community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments which attracts 2200-3500 educational professionals from around the world each year.
The conference will be primarily hosted on Second Life with additional and special events also being hosted by AvaCon Grid, and the conference programme is now available. Highlights of the latter include:
Wednesday, March 9th
17:00 – Signalling a New Reality with Bronwyn Stuckey: “a look at some of the signals in the past year of a blurring of what is virtual. I have always been the person to call out people who use the real and virtual dichotomy, much preferring to use real and physical. That last year has produced many signals that show even these poles might become redundant. I hope the example we look at in the keynote will trigger your imaginations and help challenge many of the assumptions we hold about the place of our work in virtual worlds. These are the things that could readily be on our horizons so much sooner than we think. For us as educators it is less about keeping abreast of the technological advances but having audacious goals and imaginings. Intrigued? Come along and let’s share our visions!”
Bronwyn Stuckey
Bronwyn Stuckey has been engaged in educational community and games in learning development for the past 15 years. She has worked to explore virtual worlds, games in learning and how we can cultivate identity, agency, citizenship, leadership, and community for students and teachers.
Since leaving lecturing and learning design in the higher education sector her research, consultation and design have been in gamification and game-inspired designs for classroom contexts and professional learning and communities of practice. She is a current post-doctoral research fellow of the Arizona State University Centre for Games & Impact and independently consults to global groups like Intel and Microsoft programs and education communities.
18:00 – Grid Watch with Ebbe: Ebbe Altberg, Linden Lab CEO, will discuss issues of importance to the Second Life communities. His primary aim for the session, however, is to listen to Second Life residents and respond to questions.
Thursday, March 10th
14:00 – OpenSimulator Featured Panel: Cynthia Calongne, Selby Evans, Stephen Gasior and Maria Korolev engage in a discussion on the different perspectives of people who use OpenSimulator as an alternative, or in addition to, Second Life. This will be a thoughtful discussion on dedication, awareness, perception, and opportunity of the various communities of OpenSimulator.
17:00 – Virtual Worlds on the Go with Stephen Downes: In this presentation Stephen Downes examines the intersection of learning, performance support, and mobile virtual worlds and simulations and discusses the real world applications for this technology, describing a variety of learning scenarios, and background and infrastructure needed to support such a system. Additionally, he examines the role of educators and content publishers, identifying the need for institutions to provide learning support and scaffolding to draw out the benefits of what might be called virtual worlds on the go.
Stephen Downes is a specialist in on-line learning technology and new media. He speaks from practical experience both as a college and university teacher and the author of learning management and content syndication software. He has developed and deployed a series of progressively more innovative technologies, beginning with multi-user domains (MUDs) in the 1990s, open on-line communities in the 2000s, and personal learning environments in the 2010s. As a teacher and designer, he is also known as the originator of the Massive Open On-line Course (MOOC). As a theorist, he is known as a leading proponent of connectivism, a theory describing how people know and learn using network processes. He has published hundreds of articles on-line and in print and has presented around the world to academic conferences in dozens of countries on five continents.
Friday, March 11th
13:00 – Reaching the Engagement Horizon in Virtual Worlds: Crafting Engagement Through Games and Gamification with Karl Kapp: The use of games for learning seems like a good match, but we can’t blindly take it for granted. Instead, we need to explore questions to make sure the intuitive link between games, gamification and virtual worlds reaches its full potential. In this keynote, we’ll answer questions like: How does one mix virtual world and game-based learning experiences? How should games be integrated into a curriculum? Can attitudes and behaviour change result from playing a game in a virtual world? What elements of games can learning designers borrow from game designers? Can flying around as a superhero in a virtual world make you a nicer person? Discover evidence-based techniques for increasing on-line engagement, interactivity and, most importantly, learning.
Karl Kapp, Ed.D., is a full-professor of Instructional Technology at Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, PA. He teaches subjects related to games, gamification and learning technologies, and is also the director of Bloomsburg’s Institute for Interactive Technologies, working with organisations to create interactive instruction including games and simulations, co-founder of educational game company 2Klearning.com and founder of The Wisdom Learning Group. He has authored or co-authored six books, and served as a Co-Principle Investigator on two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants related to games and simulations and serves as an external evaluator on a third game-related NSF grant.
Saturday, March 12th
18:00 – Closing Ceremony and Thinkerer Award Winner Annoucement: closing remarks from Phelan Corrimal and other VWBPE Committee Chairs, the opportunity to learn about VWBPE 2017 and hear the 2016 Thinkerer Award recipient announced.
Registration and Passport to the Metaverse
Those wishing to attend VWBPE 2016 are strongly encouraged by the organisers to register (free of charge or donations towards costs accepted).
Passport to the Metaverse offers the opportunity to explore nine interactive and engaging locations on the Horizons of teaching and learning. Opening of Sunday, February 28th, and running through to Sunday, March 20th inclusive (but exclusive of the conference dates), details on these experiences can be found on the VWBPE website and in the conference programme.
The 9th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference is scheduled to take place from Wednesday, March 9th, 2016 through Saturday, March 12th, 2016 inclusive – but deadlines are fast approaching for those still wishing to to submit a proposal for a presentation.
VWBPE is a global grass-roots community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments which attracts 2200-3500 educational professionals from around the world each year. Events take place in both Second Life and OpenSimulator.
The call for proposals invites educators and those involved in the education sector or offering support to that sector are asked to reflect on work and their accomplishments within the context of the conference, and consider submitting a proposal and sharing their work with the wider education community:
Educators and communities of practice who use virtual worlds are trend setters–pioneers in a virtual landscape of possibilities. To you, the next horizon is the next opportunity for change, for innovation, and for exploration. It is the next opportunity to offer a paradigm shift, and to chart unexplored lands for the newcomers, the intrepid following in your footsteps, and the curious seeking to find new opportunities and new ways of thinking.
This year there will only be one call, and only one call, for proposals, so get them in by no later than January 17, 2016. This is a hard, no-extensions, deadline. Don’t get left out!
The full Call for Proposals guidelines can be found on the VWBPE website. However note that the deadlines are extremely close:
The call for creative categories – exhibits and machinima ends Sunday, January 31st, 2016. Take advantage of the extended machinima deadline to submit your artistic vision and inspire participants!
Thinkerer Award Nominations
via VWBPE.org
The Thinkerer is presented on the basis of lifetime achievement, rather than for a single contribution, to an individual whose deeds and actions have shown consistent selfless service towards the promotion of learning, community, and educational practices, and who exemplifies the spirit of cooperative development within immersive environments.
Those wishing to nominate someone they believe deserves to be recognised for their contribution to the field of education and immersive environments should review and complete the nomination criteria and submission form.
All nominations should be received by Sunday, February 7th, 2016. The final selection of the award recipient will be conducted by the VWBPE Organizational Committee by Sunday February 21st, 2016 and will be announced publicly during the conference closing ceremonies on Saturday, March 12th, 2016.
Scheduled to take place between Wednesday, March 9th, 2016 and Saturday, March 12th, 2016 inclusive, VWBPE is a global grass-roots community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments which attracts 2200-3500 educational professionals from around the world each year.
In the context of the conference, a “virtual world” is an on-line community through which users can interact with one another and use and create ideas irrespective of time and space. As such, typical examples include Second Life, OpenSimulator, Unity, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, and so on, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest or any virtual environments characterised by an open social presence and in which the direction of the platform’s evolution is manifest in the community.
The call for proposals invites educators and those involved in the education sector or offering support to that sector are asked to reflect on work and their accomplishments within the context of the conference, and consider submitting a proposal and sharing their work with the wider education community:
Educators and communities of practice who use virtual worlds are trend setters–pioneers in a virtual landscape of possibilities. To you, the next horizon is the next opportunity for change, for innovation, and for exploration. It is the next opportunity to offer a paradigm shift, and to chart unexplored lands for the newcomers, the intrepid following in your footsteps, and the curious seeking to find new opportunities and new ways of thinking.
This year there will only be one call, and only one call, for proposals, so get them in by no later than January 17, 2016. This is a hard, no-extensions, deadline. Don’t get left out!
The full Call for Proposals guidelines can be found on the VWBPE website, and as noted above, the deadline for submissions is Sunday, January 17th, 2016.
In addition, on Saturday, November 7th the VWBPE organisers announced the opening of nominations for the 2016 Thinkerer Award.
The award is for lifetime achievement rather than for a single contribution, and is presented to an individual whose deeds and actions have shown consistent selfless service towards the promotion of learning, community, and educational practices, and who exemplifies the spirit of cooperative development within immersive environments.
Those wishing to nominate someone they believe deserves to be recognised for their contribution to the field of education and immersive environments should review and complete the nomination criteria and submission form.
All nominations should be received by Sunday, February 7th, 2016. The final selection of the award recipient will be conducted by the VWBPE Organizational Committee by Sunday February 21st, 2016 and will be announced publicly during the conference closing ceremonies on Saturday, March 12th, 2016.
On Wednesday, March 18th, Ebbe Altberg gave the keynote presentation at the 8th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education conference, which runs through until Saturday, March 21st inclusive, in both Second Life and OpenSimulator.
Ebbe Altberg: opening keynote at the 2015 Virtual worlds Best Practice in Education conference, March 18th
His key address lasted a little over an hour, in which he outlined the Lab’s approach to education and non-profits, provided some insight into what Lab’s future plans, and discussed further information on the Next Generation platform. Following this, he entered into a Q&A session, which ran beyond the main session time, switching from voice to text chat in the process.
The following is a transcript of his initial comments and review of the Lab’s relationship with the education sector, his overview of Second Life as it is today, a look to the future, and his concluding comments. I have produced a separate transcript dealing with his comments on the next generation platform.
As well as including the official video, embedded below, I’ve included audio playback of each part of Ebbe’s talk for those who prefer to listen while reading. Timestamps to both the audio segments and the video are provided.
[00:00 / 02:55] First off, I’m really, really happy to be back at the VWBPE. Last year, I was pretty much brand new at Linden Lab, and we’ve had a year since then, and a lot of good and interesting things have happened that we’ll talk about. Like you heard in the introduction, we’re going to leave plenty of time at the end for Q&A so that we can talk about all [the] things that are on your minds.
Changes at the Lab
[00:38 / 03:34] So, since last year there have been a lot of changes at the Lab, We have simplified the portfolio of products that we are working on. Since I was here last year, we’ve discontinued work on six products [actually five (that were known about): Creatorverse, dio, and versu, and Patterns and Desura].
The little “Dorito man” headed off into the sunset in October, as Patterns followed Creatorverse, dio and Versu in being axed from the Lab’s nascent product portfolio. It was followed in November by news that Desura had been sold.
[01:02 / 04:00] So we have a much more focused company now, and we’re focused on things that are all relevant to user generated content, either through Second Life, or blocksworld, or through this next generation platform you have yet to see but we’re working on very, very hard to bring to you all.
[01:21 / 04:30] So focus has greatly improved. The other thing I wanted to talk about is some of the improvements made in Second Life. Performance and quality has greatly improved over the course of the last year, with the CDN work and the HTTP pipelining work some of you may have heard of, which should make access to worlds snappier than it used to be. i still feel we still have a lot to do to make it even more performant, but we’ve made great strides in that area.
[02:04 / 05:01] We also brought you the ability to experience Second life with the Oculus, so you can get sort-of an introduction to virtual reality if you have a chance to get your hands on an Oculus device.
The Lab’s Relationship with Users
[02:19 / 05:18] And we’ve also, I think, made a lot of improvements in how we market ourselves, how we’re connecting with you and many other customers and different audiences. I would say that when I showed up here a year ago, the relationship between the Lab and customers and partner was not great; and I think that’s improved greatly. We’ve spent quite a bit of effort, particularly Pete and myself, but also many other Lindens, socialising with you all, talking to you about what we can do better, how we can do things differently, better understand what you’re trying to accomplish. and so I think today, the relationships between us and you are much improved.
The Media, SL and VR
[03:19 / 06:18] We’ve spent quite a bit [of time] talking to the press; Pete and I have spoken to many. I would say a year ago, that was a difficult thing to do; Second Life was seen as old and not particularly relevant. Since the, we’ve had a tremendous boom and boost in all things virtual reality. It sort-of kicked-off with the big acquisition Facebook did when they acquired Oculus for two billion, and when the world started to realise that virtual reality was something that could be achievable much sooner than people [who] had been working in this area had previously thought. So there has been a massive acceleration in people’s mind of what virtual reality can and will do.
[04:16 / 07:15] So now it’s pretty easy to find people who want to talk to us, whether partners or press, about what we’re doing, and people are realising that our experience running Second Life is actually extremely valuable now that virtual reality and virtual worlds are all a sort-of hot topic again. So it’s very exciting for all of us to have the rest of the world sort-of get re-introduced and re-energised by what’s possible in virtual reality.
The Lab and the Education Community
[04:50 / 07:50] We’ve also spent quite a bit of time focusing and understanding education specifically in the context of Second Life, and also understanding it so that we can do a better job with our next generation platform to meet your needs in even better ways. And it’s absolutely clear that the capabilities of 3D and virtual experiences such as visualisation and simulation, and the ability to interact within those environments is an extremely strong component of how we can improve learning and teaching.
[05:33 / 08:32] We see evidence over and over again of how it’s proven that people can more quickly understand subject matter, content and experiences much better and much faster with much better retention of information, if they can experience something in a virtual context where they can do things, not just read or watch.
300+ Organisations and Success Stories
[06:00 / 08:58] We have well over 300 organisations that are taking advantage of our discount programme for educators and non-profits. I think there used to be more than that in the past, and we’re looking forward to making that grow back as we do a better job of meeting your needs.
[06:26 / 09:24] And we continue to hear over and over again just great stories from the community of educators about what they’re doing in Second Life, the success they’re having in Second Life to teach and learn all kinds of subjects from languages to chemistry to economics to health. The stories just keep going and going, and that’s really motivating for us to hear these success stories.
[06:56 / 09:54] And we started a thread on our forum, and I know there’s quite a few stories elsewhere out there, especially on [the] VWBPE.org site. so please continue to share these stories and successes with us; it helps motivate people, it energises us, and also helps us learn what we can do to help you be even more successful.
Collaborating with the Community and Prioritising Needs
[07:25 / 10:24] Like I said, we’ve spent quite a bit of time collaborating and communicating with various groups in the educational community in Second Life, and that’s absolutely great. It’s a great group of people to interact with, and often times I’ve asked these groups to work together to come up with the things that they find [as] the most important things for us to work on.
[07:54 / 10:53] Sometimes it can be difficult for us to filter all of the ideas and wishes and needs from a community as large as yours, and when you take the time to collaborate among yourselves to further refine priorities and needs for us, it helps a lot. We have to do less guesswork to understand what really matters to you all.
[08:19 / 11:17] I’d particularly like to thank Serenek Timeless, Aldo Stern, JJ Drinkwater Lorelei Juno who, at the end of last year took that request to heart and talked to … more than 60 educators to come up with a sort-of prioritised list of issues and concerns and opportunities for us to think about and focus on to help you all. so I’ll speak to some of these, and what I don’t speak to, obviously feel free to ask questions about afterwards in the Q&A session.
Platform Pricing and Discounts
[08:57 / 11:56] One thing that comes up quite frequently, and probably because we’ve made mistakes in the past, is the question about pricing. I just want to make it very clear that we have absolutely no intention of repeating the mistake we did in the past of removing the discount or increasing the pricing.
[09:17 / 12:15] So we have absolutely nointention whatsoever to make it more costly for you.
[09:22 / 12:21] We spend no time thinking how to make it more costly for you. We spend actually quite a bit of time thinking about how we can make it less costly for you; and it might be difficult to do in the context of Second Life, but we will try. But as we think about the next generation platform, this is something that’s thought about from the beginning, about how we can make it more economically feasible for more people to participate.
Content Creation and Creators
[09:51 / 12:49] Another thing that comes up is the ability to easily create content. you know, simplified building and scripting capabilities so that all users can create something.
[10:07 /13:06] We do think of creators in sort-of three categories of users that we believe we have to meet the needs of. You have the sort-of artisan or professional people that can create some really high-end experiences. We have the hobbyist, which I would say is where there’s a lot of them in Second life, who don’t necessarily have a formal background in 3D or animation or CGI, but are able to use Second life to create incredible things.
[10:43 / 13:41] And then we have the vast majority of people, who we call “customisers”; they don’t necessarily create original content, but they take bits and pieces by shopping or finding or being given items that they can then place, whether it’s to get dressed or to make their space laid-out just as they like it. So they don’t necessarily make the chair, but they put the chair where they want it. It’s sort-of like real life; most of us don’t build the clothes and cars and homes that we live in and use every day. We’re customisers, most of us; we get dressed in clothes that others make, and that’s probably how it’s going to be in the virtual space as well.
[11:30 / 14:28] We do want to make it as easy as possible for people to create content and contribute content. and I don’t expect there to be huge changes in Second life in this area, although we are working to improve the ability to import content from the outside world.
[11:50 / 14:48] As we think about the next generation platform, which I will talk about more later on, we’ll make a number of difference I’ll speak about then. But the scripting language will change, support for third-party will be very important to us; but I’ll talk about that in a bit.
New User Experience (1)
[12:08 / 15:06] Another thing [is] an improved and customisable new user experience, including entry points. This is something I’ve spoken about before. We feel it’s important to make it very easy for the creators of an experience to be able to attract an audience to come directly to that experience without the need of having to go through some generic front door to get going.
The Lab wishes to move away from the idea of a centralised, generic new user experience within the next gen platform, to something over which experience creators have more control – this might filter into Second Life
[12:39 / 15:37] And so we will continue to think about that in the context of Second Life, of how can we bring back notions we’ve had in the past of community portals or some such, and also how SL URLs, or SLurls, can be optimised to be [a] more efficient way of bringing users directly into a particular place. I would say the SLurl today is kind-of a crooked path to come on-board from from the outside world.
[13:10 / 16:09] So we want to improve all these things, so it is easier for all of you to bring users into the experiences you want them to come into.
On Wednesday, March 18th, Ebbe Altberg gave the keynote presentation at the 8th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference, which runs from March 18th through 21st inclusive, in both Second Life and OpenSimulator.
Ebbe Altberg: opening keynote at the 2015 Virtual worlds Best Practice in Education conference, March 18th
His key address lasted a little over an hour, in which he outlined the Lab’s approach to education and non-profits, provided some insight into what Lab’s future plans, and discussed further information on the Next Generation platform. Following this, he entered into a Q&A session, which ran beyond the main session time, switching from voice to text chat in the process.
The following is a transcript of his core comments on the Lab’s next generation platform. These commence at the 31:20 mark into the official video of the event, although obviously, mention is made of both in reference to education earlier on in his presentation, as Ebbe discusses education, issues of accessibility, etc. I’ve included audio excerpts here as well, for further ease of listening to his comments whilst reading. Time stamps to both the audio tracks and the video are supplied.
Ebbe Linden as he appeared in-world at the VWBPE 2015 conference
On the Name
[00:00 / 31:20] So, the future platform for virtual experiences. We’ve said that the next generation platform, we still don’t have a name for this thing; we have a code name internally, but we don’t want to leak that out or use that, because that could just be confusing and distracting, and it’s probably going to change soon anyway. So we just refer to it as “the next generation platform”.
[00:21 / 31:42] We do notrefer to it as “SL 2.0”, because that might imply a little too much linearity, and we don’t want to necessarily constrain ourselves by the past; but we also want to obviously take advantage of, and leverage, our learnings from the past.
Progress to Date
[00:39 / 31:38] But the progress is going every well. I would say we’re about 8-9 months in on working on this; I would say the last six months have been absolute, full-on with a big crew. We’re talking close to 40 people or more; probably 30+ just engineers, and then obviously a bunch of product managers and designers working on this product.
New User Discovery and Experience
[01:12 / 33:33] And there’s a number of areas where we think about it quite differently from Second Life, and we did spend quite a lot of time thinking about why did Second Life hit the ceiling, if you will. You know, many years ago it peaked at 1.1 million monthly users and these days it’s around 900,000, so it’s not a huge difference from the highs and where we are today,
[01:38 / 32:59] But why didn’t it go to five million, ten million, 100 million? And what can we do to solve some of the things we thought caused it to sort-of max out there?
The Lab is hoping their next generation platform will bridge the gap between niche and mass adoption. This may prove easier said than done
[01:52 / 33:11] One area where we want to think quite differently is discovery; how do I discover an experience? Today you pretty much have to be inside Second Life to discover an experience, and we want to make it a lot easier for people to be able to discover an experience from the outside. So that you can create an experience, and [people can] much more easily find your experience and enter your experience without having to necessarily at that point being aware of the notion of this platform or what other types of things are available to them. They can discover those as they go along. Make it easier for you to bring your audience directly into your experiences.
Platform Accessibility
[02:36 / 33:55] Accessibility. Today, when you leave your PC, you pretty much leave Second Life behind, [so] what can we do to make sure it’s available on more platforms? It’s obviously getting more complicated now with all these VR platforms, so what used to be PC, windows and Mac, which we support today; and then mobile, which you can get access to today if you use a third-party service like SL Go or some other clients that support mobile.
[03:10 / 34:29] But we want to think about mobile as something we can support form the beginning; but again, the number of platforms across mobile, PCs and VR … [there’s] more and more of them. so it’s tough to keep up. So we are building a next generation platform from the ground up to make possible for us to take advantage of all these different platforms.
Scalability and Creativity
[03:37 / 34:57] Scalability. This is a really important one; an event like this highlights it. There’s a tremendous amount of effort that goes into putting on a meeting like this with just a couple of hundred people in-world. We have to put together four corners and you have to do a lot of work, and it’s still creaking at the seams as we speak, to put something like this on.
[04:06 / 35:25] We want [with the] next generation platform to make the size of an event like this to be a trivial exercise, and then figure out how, with various techniques, to make it possible to do events like this for tens of thousands of people.
[04:26 / 35:46] That’s one way to think of scalability: how do you get more people in a region, how do you get more people to be able to participate in an event at the same time. but [there’s] also the scalability for creators. How do you make it possible for creators to not only be able to reach a larger audience, but also make more money, too.
[04:44 / 36:14] Take the classroom that Texas A&M put together for teaching kids chemistry. The developers of that experience of teaching chemistry, they probably did as a one-off, for some fee, job for Texas A&M to create that classroom. When the classroom is used by students at Texas A&M, you know, 20 students, whatever, then that experience is fully in use.
[05:22 / 36:41] What if that developer could have an unlimited number of copies of that experience to rent out or sell, and every institution could use that virtual classroom all at the same time? That makes for a much more appealing prospect for a creator of an experience, and gives them a greater opportunity to monetise their experience. And then we’ll get more high-quality content creators introduced into the economy, and then everything sort-of heads upwards. So that’s something we think about a lot.
Quality and Ease of Use: Physics, Avatar Design, Shopping
[05:56 / 37:16] We also think about quality. Quality is a range of things: ease of use, quality of physics, lighting, basic performance of how smooth are things, how easy is it to do things, how natural an avatar can we make.
[06:21 / 37:41] The skeleton system in the new avatars we’re working on are way, way, way, more complex than what we have in Second Life.
[06:29 / 37:48] How can we make it easier for people to shop and get dressed and do these types of activities with much higher visual fidelity at the same time. So we think a lot about that.
Revenue Generation for the Lab
[06:46 / 38:05] And then monetisation – the way we [Linden Lab] monetise. I’d say our business model is a little be strange in Second Life today. We charge you a lot for land, and then we charge you almost nothing for all of the transactions that happen in-world. So, I’ve said this before, but generally we think about how do we lower our property taxes by a lot and at the same time, we’ll have to raise sales taxes to make some of the difference.
[07:15 / 38:35] And then also how can we build a platform that [is] technically less demanding, so that it costs us less to operate all of this content that we’re running all of the time, so that we can have a lower barrier to entry, and make it possible for people to come it and create some really interesting things at very low cost. And so that’s a big focus for us. How can we make less money per user, almost, but have a lot more users, is kind-of the core of the puzzle we’re trying to solve for.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 