Second life networking gets real

A while back, I started talking about how we Second Lifers need to move from the Second Life communication systems to the straight internet systems that really work. 

• Outworld tools for promoting for inworld events
• Out of the Box for Collaboration Networks in SL

And more recently, I described how Google Wave is changing the way I do things in Second Life blogging.

• Informational Networking
• Google Wave and the Ecosystem of Second Life

The outworld network

A notecard sent out by the University of Western Australia tells the story of how second life pros are now turning to outworld promotion channels.  These are the links in that notecard.

BLOG: http://uwainsl.blogspot.com
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/UWAinSL
KOINUP: http://www.koinup.com/UWAinSL/
Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43475259@N03/
NING: http://uwaslcampus.ning.com/
UWA Cultural Precinct: http://www.culturalprecinct.uwa.edu.au/competitions
SLURL to 3D Art & Design Platform: http://slurl.com/secondlife/UWA/45/133/249

Only the last item is a link to a Second Life place.  All the others are holes poked through the Second Life garden wall.  The future will probably bring some settling out.  I favor—you guessed it--blogs.   I got my entertainment manager, Jwheels Carver, to set up a blog a couple of months ago:  Jwheels Recommends Second Life Entertainment.  It carries notices about selected entertainment events in Second Life.  I have just begun a schedule blog of my own.  Virtual Outworlding.  It will carry daily (more or less) notices about events I consider of cultural interest.  The notices will be posted the day before the event, so subscribers can get notices from, for example, Google Reader.

Virtual goods hit $1 bil in U.S.

The report cites new distribution channels as the explanation: 

• Social networks.
• Virtual worlds
• Multiplayer games

Interesting story.  But another part of the story is how I got this news.  Google Reader. 

Google is becoming home in the cloud for collaborative networking. 

Subtly.  Quietly.  Hardly to be noticed.  Here is what I noticed.

Google Mail, the foot in the door.    It just kept all of the entries in an e-mail conversation together in one place.  Not a big deal.  Except for people who are working together and have extended conversations on the collaboration. 

Google groups --you can form a group and Google will host an e-mail conversation among the group members.  Also hosts shared files that are part of the collaboration.  This is what Avatar Repertory Theater has found so useful in its planning and managing of scripts. 

Google Docs supports tighter collaboration.  I have used that service for inworld collaboration with several of my Second Life friends.  We all have access to the same file.  We can insert comments or proposed revisions, just as if we were in the same building.  Works from first draft to final copy.

Blogger has recently taken a tip from Twitter.   You can subscribe to its blogs in the usual way, with an RSS feed.  Or you can follow the blog.  Yes, like you follow somebody in Twitter.  Sorta.  You get listed on the blog as a follower.  With your picture, no less, if you have a Google profile.  You also get notices when a new item is posted.  There are various ways to handle this.   My preference is to use Google Reader, which also brings in my old RSS feeds.

Wave – I am just now finding out what we can do with it.  Imagine how a lecturer in Second Life could use it to guide discussions about the lecture.  Start with a separate wave account for the lecture or subject.  Set up waves for the major topics you want people to discuss.  Add some discussion questions to each wave.  Bring the audience into the account well before the presentation.  Collaborative learning.   More specifically, computer-supported collaborative learning.   I look forward to trying this out in some lectures in Second Life.

Rockckiffe Mentor Center opening

In conjunction with its Community Gateway, Rockcliffe is opening a Mentor Center.  The center is located in the conversation plaza and will offer materials for newcomers, mentors, and other newcomer helpers.

All materials in the Mentor Center are offered under Creative Commons License, attribution only.  That means you can use the contents in whole or in part for any purpose, as long as you give credit to Thinkerer Melville, Hobo Junction, or the Rockcliffe Mentor Center.    That permission includes objects in the Mentor Center area.  (Most objects are or should be free-to-copy.)

Objects presently available

Hobo Kit:  The Hobo Kit is the most extensive collection of helper notecards we have found.   

Frequent Freebies.  A collection of objects that newcomers often ask us for.

Video Selector and links to Torly’s Turotials. A notecard with embedded objects.   The selector lets anyone set the media stream in a parcel by entering a url in chat.  The notecard carries links to selected videos by Torley,
If there is need, we may set up workshops for mentors and others who want to help newcomers. As soon as I can find enough people using Google Wave, I will probably set up an experimental form of wave-based workshop.

Language aids.  Our collection of landmarks, poster-givers, and signs in Portuguese, French, German, Itallian, Russian, Hebrew,  and Arabic (so far) to help newcomers who do not speak English.