[MCN-L] Are there any real-life museums on Second Life?

2006-07-06 Thread Beth Kanter
Hi Folks,

I've been researching the possibilities for nonprofits on Second Life
(http://www.secondlife.com), the virtual world.  I'm participating in some
in-world projects that TechSoup is organizing around nonprofits in SL.
There will be an event later this month and we're starting to compile a
directory of nonprofits using it.  You can see the directory here
(http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=aptcrhmkxkv_bcjvrhrc2vgbq)

So far, I've seen some museums in second life - created by residents, but
not any real life museums there - there may be, but haven't run across it.
The San Jose Art Museum is building a virtual Island for display of virtual
art works being sought from SL
http://www.ludica.org.uk/NewWest/
The event will coincide with ZeroOne Festival
http://isea2006.sjsu.edu/Grabbed from comments in blog post here:

I'm wondering if any of you are investigating the possibilities or doing any
projects.  There a huge community of educators (320) from universities, some
teen education projects, a library project, and embryonic nonprofit
presence.  I've written up what I learn on my blog here:
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/npsl/index.html

Beth 









[MCN-L] Are there any real-life museums on Second Life?

2006-07-06 Thread Swiader, Larry
Hi Beth,

We've been doing some thinking here at the Holocaust Museum on what a
presence on Second Life might be like (and mean).  My colleague, David
Klevan (dklevan at ushmm.org), our Education Manager for Technology and
Distance Learning, is at the forefront of that thinking.

It'd be nice to put our heads together.

Regards,

Larry


Lawrence Swiader
Deputy Chief Information Officer
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

-Original Message-
From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of
Beth Kanter
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 11:48 AM
To: 'Museum Computer Network Listserv'
Subject: [MCN-L] Are there any real-life museums on Second Life?

Hi Folks,

I've been researching the possibilities for nonprofits on Second Life
(http://www.secondlife.com), the virtual world.  I'm participating in
some
in-world projects that TechSoup is organizing around nonprofits in SL.
There will be an event later this month and we're starting to compile a
directory of nonprofits using it.  You can see the directory here
(http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=aptcrhmkxkv_bcjvrhrc2vgbq)

So far, I've seen some museums in second life - created by residents,
but
not any real life museums there - there may be, but haven't run across
it.
The San Jose Art Museum is building a virtual Island for display of
virtual
art works being sought from SL
http://www.ludica.org.uk/NewWest/
The event will coincide with ZeroOne Festival
http://isea2006.sjsu.edu/Grabbed from comments in blog post here:

I'm wondering if any of you are investigating the possibilities or doing
any
projects.  There a huge community of educators (320) from universities,
some
teen education projects, a library project, and embryonic nonprofit
presence.  I've written up what I learn on my blog here:
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/npsl/index.html

Beth 






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[MCN-L] Are there any real-life museums on Second Life?

2006-07-06 Thread Richard Urban
Hi all,

In the spirit of putting heads together I created the Museums in Second
Life group this spring. I haven't had a chance to do much with it yet, but
you can find it by searching the SL groups category.  I'm eyeing what Beth 
the TechSoup group are doing for examples of how we can do more to interact
with each other.  

I'll also take this opportunity to plug the 2006 MCN conference where I'll
be moderating a panel called Modding the Museum: Accessing Collections
through Games that will feature several panelists who are building
game-based museum interactives.  Hope to see you in the audience in
Pasadena! 

Richard Urban
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
rjurban at uiuc.edu
http://www.inherentvice.net 

-Original Message-
From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of
Swiader, Larry
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 3:31 PM
To: Museum Computer Network Listserv
Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Are there any real-life museums on Second Life?

Hi Beth,

We've been doing some thinking here at the Holocaust Museum on what a
presence on Second Life might be like (and mean).  My colleague, David
Klevan (dklevan at ushmm.org), our Education Manager for Technology and
Distance Learning, is at the forefront of that thinking.

It'd be nice to put our heads together.

Regards,

Larry


Lawrence Swiader
Deputy Chief Information Officer
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

-Original Message-
From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Beth
Kanter
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 11:48 AM
To: 'Museum Computer Network Listserv'
Subject: [MCN-L] Are there any real-life museums on Second Life?

Hi Folks,

I've been researching the possibilities for nonprofits on Second Life
(http://www.secondlife.com), the virtual world.  I'm participating in some
in-world projects that TechSoup is organizing around nonprofits in SL.
There will be an event later this month and we're starting to compile a
directory of nonprofits using it.  You can see the directory here
(http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=aptcrhmkxkv_bcjvrhrc2vgbq)

So far, I've seen some museums in second life - created by residents, but
not any real life museums there - there may be, but haven't run across it.
The San Jose Art Museum is building a virtual Island for display of virtual
art works being sought from SL http://www.ludica.org.uk/NewWest/ The event
will coincide with ZeroOne Festival http://isea2006.sjsu.edu/Grabbed from
comments in blog post here:

I'm wondering if any of you are investigating the possibilities or doing any
projects.  There a huge community of educators (320) from universities, some
teen education projects, a library project, and embryonic nonprofit
presence.  I've written up what I learn on my blog here:
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/npsl/index.html

Beth 






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Network (http://www.mcn.edu)

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Network (http://www.mcn.edu)

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[MCN-L] Are there any real-life museums on Second Life?

2006-07-06 Thread Beth Kanter
Judah:

We're compiling a list of nonprofits in Second Life - right now about 25
identified, I suspect there are more.  Many not on the list are those in the
talking about stages ... (list is here:
http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=aptcrhmkxkv_bcjvrhrc2vgbq)

TechSoup's approach has been done on shoestring budget and lots of volunteer
time.  This is to get the effort started.  TechSoup has a group of
volunteers who did the build of the office and various items like kiosks.
The Community Manager of TechSoup has been spending some time in the overall
planning and managing the event.   There is an active community of practice
of nonprofit professionals (I'm part of this group) are who working on this
as a way to learn and see what the possibilities are. Plus, it is loads of
fun!

For an in-world museum, aside from the Island fees, I would assume there is
the start up cost which is building out the space -- whatever buildings,
classrooms, exhibits, information kiosks, etc.You need a combination of
technical skills scripting language is based on C++), plus SMEs, plus
design.  I've visited the nonprofit spaces and it seems like the approach is
to start small and build out.  

The ongoing costs or staff time would be for any events whether these
lectures, trainings, gatherings, calls for art work, exhibitions openings,
meetings, etc.  It also depends on how elaborate the events are -- whether
you are doing something like connecting with a real world live event or
doing something just in-world. The former requires more technical expertise
in terms of streaming video and audio, etc.

There are a number of art galleries and museums with resident-created art
-- it is a combination of professional digital artists or hobbyists -- I'm
not even clear on the asethetics of in-world art.  I also just came across
the New Globe Theatre model that is being built - that sounds fascinating:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pathfinderlinden/sets/72157594150210551/


The education community is huge and there is a lot of training and
simulation going on - it seems a ripe area for museum educators who want to
reach young people.  SL also has a teen grid and there are some interesting
youth projects, most noteable Global Kids (http://www.holymeatballs.org

The American Cancer Society has been doing Relay for Life events in world -
all volunteer run and they have fundraising kiosks or donation kiosks all
over the place.  They've raised some money and awareness, although not huge
amounts of cash.

There is also the Better World Island project which includes the Darfur
Camps and a few other nonprofits.  They host regular gatherings there and
I've met a lot of interesting artists and educators there - who are very
knowledgeable.

B.


-Original Message-
From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of
psully at magnes.org
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 5:03 PM
To: Museum Computer Network Listserv
Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Are there any real-life museums on Second Life?

Wow! what an interesting discussion! I've some friends who are part of 
the dev team for this project, but I hadn't been keeping a close enough 
eye on it to realize that it's now live.

Looking at the website, I found this blurb rather interesting:/ Pricing/

/Small islands are priced at US$1,250 for 65,536 square meters (about 16 
acres), monthly land fees for maintenance are US$195./

/Large islands are priced at US$5,000 for 262,144 square meters (about 
64 acres), monthly land fees for maintenance are US$780./

/We offer a 25% discount to verified real world educators and academic 
institutions (e.g., universities/schools) or 501(c)3 non-profit 
organizations that will be using the regions to support their 
organization's official work.

Please contact education at lists.lindenlab.com 
mailto:education at lists.lindenlab.com for verification and more details./

***
I wonder how many other nonprofits have been using this medium to 
support their work. And I wonder what the upkeep and demands on staff 
time would be if one were to, say, create a Metropolitan Museum of Art 
or Getty, which would require a lot of maintenance. There wouldn't be 
the overhead of maintaining artwork or facilities, right? but the staff 
time would be an extra cost.

Perian Sully
Collection Database and Records Administrator
Judah L. Magnes Museum
Berkeley, CA

Richard Urban wrote:
 Hi all,

 In the spirit of putting heads together I created the Museums in Second
 Life group this spring. I haven't had a chance to do much with it yet,
but
 you can find it by searching the SL groups category.  I'm eyeing what Beth

 the TechSoup group are doing for examples of how we can do more to
interact
 with each other.  

 I'll also take this opportunity to plug the 2006 MCN conference where I'll
 be moderating a panel called Modding the Museum: Accessing Collections
 through Games that will feature several panelists who are building
 game-based museum interactives.  Hope