14th Annual VWBPE Conference Starts 18th – 20th March 2021

VWBPE 2021

The 14th annual virtual worlds best practices in education (VWBPE 2021) conference officially opens on 18th March through until 20th March 2021. The theme is Reconnaissance for next year’s conference. VWBPE 2021 will be held in Second Life and the conference will be focused on the “use of immersive virtual environments for educational purposes including virtual and augmented reality”.

VWBPE will again be using Linden Lab’s Second Life environment as our primary conference venue for meetings, exhibits, roundtables, and discussions. Participants are free to submit proposals and immersive experience tours on any environment for education using technologies for virtual or augmented reality. We actively encourage showcasing multiple technology platforms. This includes practical application, researched papers, conceptual, and content creation supporting those technologies.

Important Dates

• Call For Proposals/Sponsors – Open early November 2020
• Call for Exhibits – Open early November 2020
• Call for Immersive Experiences – Open early November 2020
• Registration – Open 9th November 2020
• Exhibitors Region Access – Open on 12th February 2021
• Conference Schedule – Published on 24th February 2021
• VWBPE 2021 Conference – 18th to 20th March 2021

Stay updated about VWBPE 2021 here.

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Second Life Uplift Cloud Update

On Friday 6th November Oz Linden and Mazidox Linden talked with Strawberry Linden on Lab Gab about the latest developments on the Cloud Uplift work that is going on. 

Everyone can watch the whole episode above which runs for roughly a hour. 

Here are some of the highlights…

• The plan is still to have all of the transitional work completed before the end of 2020. 
• A specialist company will be clearing out the Lab cages at the co-op facility after the Uplift and they will be disposing the old hardware. All user data will be destroyed. 
• During the transitional period it has been significantly more expensive to operate Second Life. In the near future it’s believed operating costs will be reduced. 
• Running Second Life on AWS can run more scripts and script events 
• User-sensitive data is effectively hidden from Amazon (AWS). Linden Lab have put in strict contractual requirements. 
• Estate / Region owners can file a support ticket if they wish to move to AWS
• 50% of the grid will be on AWS from 10th November 2020
• There is potential for a range of new land products on AWS in the months and years ahead 

Its good to hear Linden Lab is still on track in moving Second Life into the cloud and that more regions are now running on AWS. Hopefully the performance and stability will be improved over time.

More updates soon.

The 10th Annual SL Christmas Expo Is Almost Here

The 10th annual Second Life Christmas Expo will be held on 4th through until 13th of December 2020. This year’s theme is Christmas Memories.

The 2020 Second Life Christmas Expo will be spread across 12 regions this year. There will be a whole range of exciting events including live music and live performances. There will be hunts, auctions and lots more. There will be more than 225 shops and merchants available this year. All proceeds go to the American Cancer Society and it’s childhood cancer programs.

Applications Still Open – Blogger applications are still available on the SL Christmas Expo website. This is a great opportunity to participate if you love blogging about big events in Second Life.

It’s expected that Linden Lab will reveal the next Linden Home theme on the demo regions. More details will be announced very soon.

Mark this on your calendar and please spread the word about the 2020 Second Life Christmas Expo which is going to be fantastic.

The Stilt Linden Homes Regions Have Arrived

The new Stilt regions are here

Within the past 24 hours or so Linden Lab have added the Stilt Linden Home regions on the grid. They are all located north of the log homes continent and are not open to the public as of writing this blog post today.

These new Stilt regions do have some pretty interesting region names. If you zoom into the regions you will be able to see the locations of all the new Stilt homes in various clusters. There are water regions in some areas and houseboats dotted around.

It won’t be long now until the Stilt regions become available. Yay.

Connection north and east side of the log homes

New regions heading in a north east direction

Closer view of the new Stilt homes

Full speed ahead now.

11 Linden Homes Themes Are Planned

On 3rd November Patch Linden posted that there are 11 Linden Home themes that are now planned after many discovered Patch new teaser image via Flickr.

The first five Linden Home themes listed below have already been released. The 6th theme is Stilt homes which are due to be released after the Uplift has been completed hopefully before 2021. The 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th new Linden home themes are still in the works. 

Patch Linden comment via the Second Life Forums…

I’m so proud of you all finally finding my teaser image!  😁

None of you have figured it out yet though.

For those of you counting the themes:

1. Traditional
2. Houseboats
3. Campers
4. Victorian
5. Log Homes
6. Stilt Homes
7. The next theme
8. The theme after the next theme
9. The theme after after that next theme
10. The theme that is after that
11. The theme that is after #10

The pattern to my teasers is pretty clear.  I don’t tease well in advance, and the timing of my teasers is consistent with when things are due to be released.

Have fun!  😉

The lab may say something about the 7th and 8th Linden home theme during the SL Christmas Expo taking place next month in Second Life. 

We will have to wait and see. 

Oz Linden & Mazidox Linden Appearing On Lab Gab This Friday Talking About Uplift

At 10am SLT on Friday 6th November Oz Linden (VP of Engineering) and Mazidox Linden (Lead QA Engineer) will be live on Lab Gab talking about the latest news on Uplift which is moving Second Life to the cloud (AWS).

Hopefully we will hear more about how things are going and what’s left to do. 2020 is almost over and time is running out. From what I’m hearing the lab is still making good progress in moving more regions into the cloud. 

The blog post reads this…

Lab Gab is a live-streamed variety show that showcases events, destinations, and different talents across Second Life. 

Join our host, Strawberry Linden, as she speaks with the VP of Engineering, Oz Linden, and Lead QA Engineer, Mazidox Linden. Oz and Mazidox are on the uplift team, which is moving Second Life to the cloud. They will be discussing all aspects of uplift and giving us an update on it.      

Do you have any questions for the uplift team that you’d like Strawberry to ask them on your behalf? Fill out the Google Form and submit your question today, and it may be selected!

Tune in on Friday, November 6th at 10am PT/SLT. Watch us live on YouTube, Facebook, or Periscope!

Please spread the word. 

Linden Lab Announces Private Regions Are Now Available

After months of waiting Linden Lab have today announced that private regions are now available in limited quantity. Over time more regions will become available which is good news to hear. 

The lab is making good progress running more and more regions on AWS simulators. More are being added every day. 

As Oz recently discussed in a post, we are hard at work on uplifting Second Life to the cloud. It’s an incredibly exciting time, and we’re already seeing some significant improvements to Second Life as a service from this process. 

Additionally, many regions on the grid are now running on AWS simulators, with more being added every day!

In light of more regions being moved to the cloud, we are pleased to announce that we are ready to begin offering new private region purchases in limited quantities. As we continue to uplift more of the grid, more regions will become available over time, eventually leading to the Land Store being reopened.

The second half of the blog post talks about how to purchase a private region along with the costs. 

If you wish to purchase a private region, please submit a support ticket through our Support Portal. The ticket can be submitted under the Land & Region > Order Private Region category. Please include the region name, which must conform to region naming guidelines. Following your ticket submission, we will either process the region purchase, or add your request to a wait list, which will be handled in the order the submission is received. In the event that your request is put on the waiting list, we will not charge your account until the point when the region is delivered.

Private regions are charged an initial setup fee upon delivery, which also covers the first 30 days. Each month afterwards, private regions bill at their recurring monthly fee. 

Type	Setup Fee	Maintenance Fee (monthly)
Full Region	$349	$229
Skill Gaming Region	$600	$345
Homestead Region	$149	$109

Please spread the word.