Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education 2013 opens

VWBPE 2013 opened just after 6am SLT this morning with many avatars visiting the VWBPE Gateway region for about an hour. At 7am SLT many teleported over to the VWBPE Central regions to listen to the LIVE  keynotes opening speech presented by Gentle Heron who is the Co-founder of Virtual Ability, Inc. in Second Life. Over 100 attendees gathered to listen to her history in education which was really interesting and amazing throughout. If you are interested in education in Second Life then I strongly recommend you visiting this conference this week.

VWBPE 2013 runs from 24th to 27th July 2013 full of live presentations. See the schedule line-up here and locations to visit with SLURLS.

Gentle Heron talking on voice at the center stage point at VWBPE 2013

Large crowd listening to the opening keynotes speech

Snapshot from above showing the fantastic stage and seating areas

VWBPE Gateway region with new visitors arriving 

VWBPE central regions during opening this morning – very busy it was! 

Linden Lab updates Pricing for Educational and Nonprofit Institutions

Today Linden Lab announced updated pricing for educational and Nonprofit Institutions in Second Life which comes into effect immediately. This is really good news and it’s a good step in the right direction I think to get educational organizations to come back to SL again. This applies to full regions, homesteads and open spaces apparently.

What’s changed ? 

We’re pleased to announce an update to Second Life pricing for educational and nonprofit institutions. Effective immediately, any accredited educational institution or any organization with a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit tax status (or equivalent) is eligible for a 50% discount on private region set-up costs and a 50% discount on private region maintenance costs.

As long-time Second Life users will note, the discount on maintenance costs is similar to a discount previously offered to these organizations. More recently, after reviewing our pricing, we have been offering this discount directly to individual organizations, but today we are happy to formalize this pricing, extend the discount to also include set-up costs, and open applications for all that are eligible.

For more details on the offer, including how to apply, please see the wiki page here. 

Organizations eligible for this discounted pricing are also eligible for invoicing of the private region costs. Invoices must include a minimum of six months of maintenance. Additional details can be found here.

Woooot!!!

VWBPE 2013 starts today from 7am SLT

VWBPE 2013 starts today from 7am SLT with a opening keynote speech by Gentle Heron at the VWBPE Central Auditorium regions with many more educational presentations after. The conference will be covered live in Second Life, Cloud Party and JokaydiaGRID for the first time. The theme for this year is Beyond the Stage and its set to be a great conference. There is a free HUD this year and there many posters around the VWBPE sims to click on for more information.

VWBPE 2013 Schedule 

• VWBPE 2013 Full Schedule
• Location Guide 
• FAQ

VWBPE Preview

VWBPE 2013 Regions Map

VWBPE 2013 Links

• Official VWBPE Website 2013
• VWBPE on Twitter
• VWBPE on Facebook
• VWBPE on Flickr
• History of VWBPE

Will you be attending VWBPE 2013 ?