How big is the Alliance Virtual Library in Second Life?
V-e-e-e-e-r-y big and very cool!
Alliance Virtual Library: 50 Islands – virtual equivalent of 1.26 square miles (within the 380 square miles of Second Life, almost 3 times the size of Singapore).
The Second Life Library opened in April 2006 on a 4,000 square meter patch of leased land. By May 2006 they received an anonymous donation of an island (65,536 square meters). The Second Life Library is a collaborative project led by the Alliance Library System (ALS), based in Peoria, Illinois, USA and is led by Executive Director Kitty Pope with Innovation Librarian, Lori Bell. ALS coordinates the activities for the Alliance Virtual Library and the efforts of many library volunteers from around the world. The daily operations in SL are overseen by Rhonda Trueman (Abbey Zenith in SL). In 2007, the Second Life Library was the winner of the ALA Information Today’s Library of the Future and one of six Sirsi-Dynix Building Better Community awards. The Alliance Virtual Library recently had to move its land mass to a new area in the grid to allow room for growth.
The momentum continues. Alliance Virtual Library (core library islands and partner islands) has grown to a land mass of 50 islands. So the Alliance Virtual Library community now has a footprint of 1.26 square miles! (810 acres or 1.26 square miles or 3.28 square km). One of the Cybrary Islands alone is home to over 40 independent libraries /organizations from around the world. Further numbers include the 1500 Friends of the Library in the “in world” group, 755+ declared Librarians on the google group:
http://groups.google.com/group/alliancesecondlife and 800+ in the many “in world” groups in Second Life.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
How big is the Alliance Virtual Library in Second Life® ?
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Take a class in Second Life & set your camera and imagination free
Jousting practice on location at Renaissance Island in the very beautiful Second Life.
Haha, watch out for that horse! Capture video and great snapshots using your camera controls and third-party video capture software in Second Life. Expand your sets and possibilities, learn to build and script objects in Second Life.. and lastly, learn about machinima workflow for creating your own videos.
Join Pipsqueak Fiddlesticks (Denise) and HVX Silverstar (Bernadette) for the October Virtual Worlds CE Series
- Continuing education (CE)non-credit courses presented by the Illinois Alliance Library System and GSLIS, University of Illinois Urbana Champagne.
The sessions are offered every Tuesday evening from 6:00-8:00 PM PDT with office hours for follow-up help offered later each week.
I cover the camera controls and machinima workflow and Denise covers the intro to building and scripting.
System requirements for using Second Life: http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.php
Technical skills for the Virtual World of Second Life: Introduction to
Camera Controls, Building, Scripting and Machinima Workflow.
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/VW/tech.html
Week One: Camera controls - Hands-on session using the camera controls and shortcuts. Activities include taking snapshots, exploring the snapshot menus and taking high resolution images, and capturing colors, depth and object mattes. The camera controls are used for building and viewing objects close-up or off in the distance, for taking more creative snapshots and also for basic camera movement for filming machinima.
Snapshot Activity: Take a series of snapshots using camera controls, shortcuts and options in the snapshot window. Post snapshots to the class Flickr group (optional).
So, if you are ready for the RAW unedited capture of my avatar practicing camera controls at Camera Controls islet on Machinima Institute Island... take a look: http://blip.tv/file/1148372
Week Two: Basics of Building session - Students will learn about SL primitives (building "blocks"), the build-edit window, manipulating & positioning prims, texturing, linking and setting permissions on their objects. Students will create an object that they will make interactive in the week 4 scripting session. A selection of "DYI kits" will be available to students to choose from for this activity.
Week Three: Basics of Scripting session - Students will learn the basic elements of the LSL scripting language (no coding experience required!) and will focus on using freely available scripting tools, customizing/modifying open source scripts, using the LSL code editor and adding scripts to objects. Troubleshooting script issues will be covered. In-world and web resources will be provided, as well as a open source script package for beginners as a take-away.
Week Four: Machinima Workflow - What do you need to film in SL? A look at workflow for creating machinima (filming, additional third-party software); displaying machinima on the web (YouTube, Blip.tv or other host sites); streaming video or machinima into SL). No software required for this portion of the class.
Machinima Activity: (optional) using camera controls and shortcuts when capturing machinima in SL. (Third-party software required for macs and windows vista; Second Life built-in movie capture can be used on some computers running Windows XP).
Slideshow Activity: Alternatively, students can use camera controls to capture a variety of artistic snapshots for creating photo slideshows online or on their computers.
Instructors: Bernadette Swanson (HVX Silverstar) and Denise Cote (Pipsqueak Fiddlesticks)
Audience: Open to anyone interested in improving their SL technical skills. Students should feel comfortable navigating in Second life or have taken Second Life 101. Dates and times: Tuesdays, October 7, 14, 21, 28 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM SL (US Pacific) time
Location: Second Life
Cost: $150
REGISTER NOW
Course Technology
The two-hour synchronous sessions will meet online in Second Life.
Participants will need a reliable Internet connection via DSL or cable in addition to the following hardware and software SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS. IMPORTANT: Please ensure you can meet these requirements before registering for a course. Check your system against the requirements carefully especially your graphics/video card.
If you have questions, contact Marianne Steadley,
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/VW/tech.html
Sunday, August 31, 2008
ThinC Press and ThinC Book need your vote on the Jira! I was trying to create a ThinC Book for Virtual Worlds, Real Libraries.
HVX Silverstar: Hi there,
This came up today for me as I was trying to make a ThinC book for Abbey and Lori and found that my antiquated ThinC press for making multiple copies would no longer work. It seems that none of the versions are working properly now due to this bug.
Please vote on the bug that is currently causing havoc with Toneless Tomba's very cool (librarians love it) ThinC Press.
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-2938?ticket=ST-2289-cNk4hs9jYBCfWPLpCcnDhNmURfIvlzvzYpe-20
[20:49] HVX Silverstar: You will need to log into the Jira server using your SL name and password. The log in link is at the top right of the page.
You will find the "Votes" link at the left of the page in the margin. There are currently 95 votes and 22 people watching the progress.. well, we hope progress.
Don't forget to order the book for your library: http://infotoday.stores.yahoo.net/viworeli.html
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Virtual Ability Ribbon Cutting by Gentle Heron
Today was the opening of Virtual Ability Island in the very beautiful Second Life. I use "very beautiful" rather loosely in many of my posts... but today was beautiful, inspiring and extremely moving. The auditorium. The ribbon was cut by Gentle Heron (also of Heron Sanctuary on Eduisland 4) in honor of The Sojourner who passed away just recently. Take a moment to meet the people of the Virtual Ability community: Dusty, Kat and Namrav: http://www.virtualability.org/page9.html
The project was begun with a grant to the Alliance Library System (now Alliance Virtual Library in SL) from the National Library of Medicine. The project has been able to continue on by the generosity of individual contributors to Virtual Ability, Inc. , a non-profit W(3)c organization.
Paste the SLurl into your browser's address bar:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/128/128/23
For further information about this wondrous project, contact Carolina Keats or Eme Capalini in SL.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Avatar PowerPoints....
Hi Bill, we love PowerPoint... well, in Second Life we do! It's a great tool for creating images that can be shown on screens, placed against the dark skies of midnight.... and super for signage.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/sets/72157606685932797/
This set includes Class #1: Camera Controls, and Class #2: Machinima Workflow & much more.
Held on Camera Controls 1 Islet, Machinma Institute Island in the very beautiful Second Life.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Pan, Orbit, Alt-zoom and feeling the breeze in your hair...
Am I that transparent? Extreme concentration while navigating Daruma Picnic's extraordinary interactive/immersive art experiences on the Camera Controls I islet, Machinima Institute... as always... "in the very beautiful Second Life"
Monday, August 4, 2008
SLURL for Machinima Institute Camera Controls One islet
Pipsqueak Fiddlesticks and I (HVX Silverstar) will be covering the following topics in the University of Illinois continuing education class being offered in Second Life through the Graduate School of Library & Information Science and the Alliance Virtual Library in the very beautiful Second Life.
www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/VW/tech.html
Class: Technical Skills for the Virtual World of Second Life
Dates/times: (Tuesdays, August 5, 12, 19, and 26) to be held from 6-8 pm Second life time.
The first two classes, Aug 5 and Aug 12 to be held on Machinima Institute Island. Teleport directly OR IM me for a teleport: slurl.com/secondlife/Machinima%20Institute/218/114/23
You will land on the Camera Controls One island where we will be working.
Location: Weeks 1 & 2: Machinima Institute Island
Weeks 3 & 4: Eduisland 3 (next to Machinima Institute). IM us for a teleport or use the SLURLs.
Let's begin on Camera Controls One
IM me for a teleport if you need it.
On Machinima Institute Island, I have 3 of the 12 islets populated with prims of all sorts to be used for introductory machinima classes. Take a look around: Krull Aeono's wonderful virtual reality environment is at one edge of the island; the Machinima Factory and Cafe is at the other end (complete with lots of junk scattered around on both floors). Try out the machiniAlliance Virtual Library, building, camera controls, Education and Machinima, GSLIS, HVX Silverstar, libraries,ma sets by Pendullum on the lower level and second story of the factory.
Class slides: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/sets/72157606554895495/
Find out more about the class offered by UIUC GLSIS Continuing Education series with Alliance Library System: http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/VW/tech.html
Look forward to more classes from UIUC/AVL in the autumn!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
8 hours on the teen grid: Saturday in Second Life
Watch a higher quality version of the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX1ALOO_X1w
On the YouTube site, click on the link below the number of views... lower right side of the video.
Now, that's better.... 480x360 instead of 320x240. Other new features on Youtube include the 'annotations' and linking to other Youtube videos from the annotations. Well, now I'm waiting for text messages overlaying video...
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Moving to a new island...
My first inclination would be to grab a towel and my ipod and head for the beach, but on second thought... I'll purchase a watercraft so I can scout out the routes. As for workflow... should I start at the end or the beginning?
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
So what does an island look like?
Shown here are two islands in the Information Archipelago, managed by Alliance Library System / Alliance Virtual Library. Eduisland 3 is seen on the left with the Machinima Institute located on the SW corner (4096 plot) on Eduisland 3 (60, 30, 22).
On the right is the newly delivered island awaiting a new terrain.
I have been checking out the terrains created by Avatrian:http://www.avatrian.com
The Terrain Factory offers a variety of environmental themes influenced by real life g eography and virtual environments: Some of my favorites were Iceland,Lake Victoria, Natural Fortress and the 12 island raw file, Overook, that promises to turn the mountain isle into a divided instructional location. I will be subdividing the island to take advantage of separate media settings for the smaller isles.
The Terrain Factory:
http://www.avatrian.com/terrainfactory.php
New island for Machinima Institute
The Machinima Institute & Cafe is currently located on the SW corner of Eduisland 3 on a 4096 sq. meter plot that is leased from Alliance Virtual Library. Look for us on the new island south of Eduisland 3, to be called Machinima Institute. This snapshot shows HVX Silverstar flying over current location...