For anyone that missed the Above the Book interview today featuring Patch Linden and Phelan Corrimal then here is the full video above. The interview runs for 53 minutes and 15 seconds. Patch talks about the passing of Ebbe Altberg, Philip Rosedale role as advisory, the use of the AWS infrastructure, new event regions, Mobile is still in the works, general improvements and more.
Patch mentioned a lot about improvements made to Second Life recently from the Marketplace changes, the new search look, the introduction of Multi-Factor Authentication and performance improvements. Over the next few years the lab hopes to improve the new user experience on-boarding processes like the avatar system. Patch hopes to double the number of active online residents in-world within the next few years.
The part I found interesting was when Patch talked about the new event regions capable of running up to 150 avatars and there is a target of 200 which would be a challenge to meet later in the year. Apparently there have been some testing going on at some shopping events and soon it may be possible at RFL events.
For all those waiting to hear about Mobile well it’s in active development with a possible streaming option being considered. IOS is the still the main focus and costs may be included in the near future. I’m sure more will be shared in the weekly web user group meetings soon.
There was not really a mention of Premium Plus (big announcement coming up maybe ? ) or any Linden Home announcements. This interview is more like a general catch up on the past year on what’s going on. I would imagine we will have to wait now until SL19B to hear more announcements on upcoming Linden Home themes.
VWBPE 2022 Regions (builds are in the sky with teleports)
The 15th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE 2022) conference opens today at 8am SLT where the Gateway for the Kick Off Event will start. Phelan Corrimal will officially declare the beginning of VWBPE 2022 along with the conference planning committees who will be sharing upcoming conference highlights. From 9am SLT there will be a keynote speech by Oksana Levytska at the VWBPE Auditorium who will be talking about the use of virtual technologies and practices in support of ongoing education during world events.
Patch Linden will be live from 11am SLT to 11.50am roughly at the Above the Book interview talking about what’s new at Linden Lab and the impact that education (non-profit organizations) has in Second Life. This event will take place at the VWBPE Auditorium so please arrive early to get a seat.
There will be swag bags around where it has a teleport HUD, conference information and the schedule. Here is the VWBPE 2022 full program schedule and let’s spread the word about this to your friends and on blogs across the metaverse.
Check out the program schedule for more events. I have picked out some recommended cool events below that you may be interested in.
VWBPE Closing Ceremonywith closing remarks with Phelan Corrimal followed by other VWBPE Committee Chairs from 6pm SLT to 7pm SLT. This event will be held at the VWBPE Auditorium
All sessions of the upcoming VWBPE 2022 conference have been published on the VWBPE Program page. This year marks the 15th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices In Education conference which opens officially on Thursday 31st March 2022 through until Saturday 2nd April 2022 in Second Life. The theme for 2022 is Phoenix Rising and the conference is free for everyone to attend. All times are SLT!
The Kick Off Event of VWBPE 2022 starts at 8am to 8.50am SLT where Phelan Corrimal (Executive Director) will officially declare the beginning of VWBPE 2022. It’s best to arrive early to make sure you get a seat and to be able to access the VWBPE regions before they become full. On the VWBPE Program page you can add events to your personal calendars by clicking on the selected session. There is a Subscribe button at the bottom of the page to stay updated.
Join Phelan and Patch at this Above the Book interview as they explore what’s new at Linden Lab and the impact on educators and non-profit organizations in Second Life.
VWBPE Auditorium
Looking at a glance overview there are many interesting sessions and keynotes planned from The Beauty of STEAM education in virtual worlds, Out of this World Parade, Phoenix Egg Exhibit Hunt, Spirit Light Dance Company performances and much more. Virtual Worlds after COVID is a must for those that want to know what’s coming next.
There is a special Above the Book Interview with Maria Korolov (Hypergrid Business editor and publisher) live at 3pm-3.50pm SLT on Friday 1st April 2022 talking about the state of virtual environments.
The closing ceremony will be on Saturday 2nd April from 6pm to 7pm SLT including closing remarks and highlights of the conference held at the VWBPE Auditorium. The 2022 Thinkerer Award Recipient will be named during this ceremony. The dance away night party will be held from 7pm to 8pm SLT. There will be live music and dancing. It’s going to be great fun.
The VWBPE organisers are calling for sponsors for next year’s 15th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference (VWBPE). The conference starts on 31st March through until 2nd April 2022 and the theme will be Phoenix Rising. This conference is unique, completely online and will be free for anyone to attend.
Since 2009 the Rockcliffe University Consortium has managed the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference (VWBPE) with the support of well over 70 volunteers from the US, Canada, and Europe. Hundred’s of residents have attended over the years for the annual VWBPE and some of the former CEOs of Linden Lab.
VWBPE 2022 Important Dates
10th January 2022 – Presentations CFP Closes
14th February 2022 – Exhibits, Immersive Experiences CFP Closes
14th February 2022 – Sponsorships Close
31st March – 2nd April 2022 – 2022 VWBPE Conference
It’s worth mentioning that there will be many unique opportunities including promotion of your products and services. Be a event supporter, volunteer at the event, host a presentation, provide trails or samples showcasing your products.
Your participation will help to: * build community through extension of learning best practices to practical application of those ideas and techniques; * provide networking opportunities for educators and the communities that help support education; and * provide access to current innovations, trends, ideas, case studies, and other best practices for educators and the communities that help support education.
Play > Explore > Engage > Immerse > Learn
To make this conference a success, we rely on the support of sponsors who, like you, understand that education is faced with inordinate pressure to make the best use of new immersive technologies in a way that is sustainable and accessible even within limited budgets, available to both instructors and students.
You will have unique opportunities to contribute to the conference including promotion of your products and services, participation in micro-burst Q&A sessions, and ongoing brand identification through our proceedings and video archives.
Please spread the word about VWBPE 2022 happening in Second Life next year.
Ebbe Altberg was announced as the new CEO of Linden Lab back on 5th February 2014 where he mentioned that he was absolutely committed to supporting Second Life customers and helping them become even more successful. He mentioned back then that there were significant opportunities ahead and he looked forward to leading the community into the next phase of growth. Ebbe started tweeting about Second Life and answering questions via his Twitter account shortly afterwards.
There was a small invitation only for a selection of Second Life press and I was lucky to attend this meet & greet meeting. It was hosted at PR island in a nice meeting spot just north of the region with Pete Linden and Ebbe Altberg.
Meet and Greet 2014
Ebbe was featured on show 5 of The Drax Files hosted by Draxtor Despres. This was a nice welcoming show with many guests on the show talking about Second Life. Listen here. On 10th February 2014 Ebbe Linden created his Second Life account.
Ebbe attended his first VWBPE event in April 2014 where he talked about the educational uses of Second Life, improving communications and plans for the future of Second Life. Over 200 avatars attended with over 150+ viewers watching via Livestream. Ebbe talked about Second Life terms of service, the metaverse, future technologies, branding and much more.
Ebbe Altberg, Philip Rosedale and Draxtor Despres attended the Silicon Valley VR expo (creating the VR Metaverse) in May 2014. They talked about many topics from avatar portability, intellectual property, identity and privacy along with much more.
Ebbe attended one of the third party viewer meetings back on 20th June 2014 where he announced that Linden Lab was working on a next generation virtual world. The aim was to create an incredible experience and enable high quality creativity.
In mid March 2015 Ebbe talked more about the next generation platform at VWBPE 2015 mentioning that it is progressing well and there was 30+ engineers working on it. At this point the lab had only worked on this new platform for about 8-9 months. Ebbe wanted to make land cheaper, he was a fan of strong communities and he wanted to support mobile from the beginning.
VWBPE 2014
On Friday 26th June 2015 Ebbe Linden was interviewed by Jo Yardley and Saffia Widdershins at the SL12B Auditorium. This part of the last Meet The Lindens talks at the birthday celebrations. Ebbe talked about Project Sansar, third party viewers and more.
In early August 2015 Ebbe Altberg and Nick Ochoa met up and discussed Project Sansar. This was a very interesting interview where Ebbe mentioned closed alpha and the alpha phase. Ebbe mentioned that Second Life was south of 1 million active monthly users. People cashed out 60 million dollars in 2014.
In early December 2015 Ebbe Altberg talked about the future of virtual reality on Bloomberg West with Altspacevr founder and CEO Eric Romo. Ebbe mentioned that there is a mass market for VR, it’s going to take a while (next few years) for people to get VR hardware in their hands and Second Life cashed out 60 million dollars from creating virtual experiences in 2014.
2016
Ebbe revealed some new screenshots of Project Sansar back in early February 2016 showing examples of what environments (Mars & the Moon) can look like inside the new platform. The community had very mixed feedback on these screenshots. Ebbe mentioned that it takes a few hours to create a multi user VR experience with Project Sansar.
In early March 2016 Ebbe Linden talked about Second Life at VWBPE 2016. Ebbe mentioned that Second Life performance was continuing improving, quality and stability was improving. The lab was working on new avatars and new web on prim. The lab was focused on creators for the rest of 2016 and that general amiability would come at the end of 2016 for Project Sansar.
In late October 2016 Ebbe showed off the first demo of Sansar on stage during Wall Street Journal’s Live conference in Laguna Beach, California. This was the first video demo of Sansar (1min/51secs) showing new footage of the next generation platform which was due to open to the public in January 2017.
In the first video demo of Sansar Ebbe Linden is showing the audience how easy it is to grab things and move virtual furniture using with the Oculus Touch controller. Ebbe Linden talked about how users will be able to create, buy and sell virtual goods within Sansar. Ebbe said that food is a tricky thing in VR and that there will be a currency/marketplace. Ebbe Linden finishes by saying that Sansar is was in the creator preview phrase and that hundreds of creators have been invited so far and the roll out will continue right into Q1 2017.
In late March 2017 Ebbe Altberg had a hour long conversation with Kevin Feenan at the 10th annual VWBPE conference about education in Second Life and the education possibilities that could happen in Sansar. Ebbe mentioned during this conversation that Second Life is the most successful virtual world ever made to this day and that Second Life is a successful product/profitable product. In terms of Sansar he mentioned that Sansar will be another platform to explore and that Sansar would enable you to do things you cant do in Second Life.
2018
Ebbe Altberg at VWBPE 2018 in mid March 2018. He talked about VR, Second Life, Sansar, education, land prices and much more. There was no major announcements this year to mention but rather small updates. The attendance was pretty good for both inworld and online numbers. A few Lindens made a special appearance at the Main Auditorium.
In mid June 2018 Ebbe Altberg and Philip Rosedale was featured on the Second Life 15th birthday video. Ebbe in this video was speaking from Amsterdam and he mentioned that 68 million US dollars was paid to creators in 2017. 5 million virtual goods listed in the marketplace and that Linden Lab are moving massive amounts of infrastructure into the cloud. There was a special surprise appearance from the founder of Second Life Philip Rosedale where he mentioned that Second Life 15 years later is still going strong and that Second Life is the most successful virtual world out there today.
Ebbe Altberg town hall meeting on Thursday 13th September 2018 talking about Second Life.
2019
Wagner James Au interviewed Ebbe Altberg for 45 minutes at Linden Lab HQ in San Francisco in March 2019. They chatted about efforts to grow new user growth, land discounts, the upcoming mobile companion app, cloud deployment, improving performance and much more relating to Second Life. With Sansar they chatted about the low usage numbers since the beta launch, Sansar’s long download times and efforts to optimize Sansar.
Ebbe unveiled his brand new special Ebbe Linden bear during the 2019 SL Christmas Expo in early December 2019. This was a one off L$250 donation which went to the American Cancer Society.
2020
Ebbe and Grumpity went through the 2020 roadmap for Second Life on Lab Gab back in late February 2020. Ebbe announced that Linden Lab was no longer supporting Sansar and that the focus will go on Second Life along with Tilia.
In mid March 2020 Ebbe Altberg posted a message on the Second Life official blog about the situation with Coronavirus and Second Life operations. Ebbe mentioned that Linden Lab saw an increase in new registrations and returning residents. The blog post mentioned that Second Life will continue to be available without interruption as we get though this tough time together.
At the end of March 2020 Ebbe then appeared on Lab Gab episode 19 with Brett Linden to talk about the health crisis and more.
Ebbe attended SL17B in June 2020 and had a great live conversation with Saffia Widdershins. Ebbe mentioned about the cloud uplift to transition all of the Second Life services from the co-location data centre used by Linden Lab to Amazon AWS cloud services. Ebbe mentioned education, the second life economy, the roadmap, the sale of Sansar and more.
In early July 2020 Linden Research, Inc announced it signed an agreement to be acquired by an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager. This will become a new chapter, an new opportunity and another expansion for Second Life along with Tilia. See the official press release here.
“We’re excited for this new chapter to begin. We see this as an opportunity to continue growth and expansion for Second Life and our money services business Tilia,” says Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg. “We’re grateful for the ongoing support from our community, business partners and investors. Now more than ever, there is increased recognition of the value and utility of virtual worlds to bring people together for safe, shared, and social online experiences.”
By mid July 2020 Ebbe Altberg and Brett Linden responded to the company’s acquisition. There was a huge amount of mixed responses on the news on Twitter and on the Second Life forums. Most Second Life residents were worried and concerned about the future of Second Life.
2021
Ebbe Altberg last made an appearance inworld I believe at Oz Linden retirement event earlier in 2021 around February. Ebbe appearance has been very low during the first five months of 2021.
Ebbe Altberg Twitter account was rather quiet then usual after November 2020. There was some activity in mid April 2021 though. Ebbe did not do a speech at VWBPE 2021 back in March 2021 which I thought was rather strange.
VWBPE 2021 has now come to an end for another year in Second Life. Phelan Corrimal has just finished the closing remarks along with the VWBPE committee. The event was hosted by Pooky Amsterdam. Watch the closing ceremony video to find out who the 2021 Thinkerer Award Recipient was.
If you have missed any of the VWBPE 2021 sessions you can view them all here. There were three sessions with Linden Lab this year which can be watched again below. Patch Linden, Grumpity Linden, Madori Linden and Brett Linden were featured this week at the conference.
Interesting takeaways from VWBPE 2021
There is new energy within Linden Lab that is being driven by the new board
Linden Lab plan to double the resident population over the next 3-5 years
No planned changes to land costs in the short term. Possible mega regions in the near future if AWS allows the lab to do that
Linden Lab are working on a new on-boarding experience. Not ready for development at the moment.
There will be a new campaign to strengthen Second Life coming later this year
New products possible as AWS moves forward in the years ahead
Sessions from Linden Lab
Above the Book: What’s up at the Lab? – 18th March
Reconnaissance with the Lab Roundtable Discussion – 19th March
Quadrivium 3 :: Reconnaissance with Linden Lab – 20th March
Well done to all those that organised VWBPE 2021 and made it happen. Can’t wait for VWBPE 2022.
Patch Linden VP of Product Operations talked with Phelan Corrimal (VWBPE Director; Rockcliffe University Consortium) at VWBPE 2021 this afternoon for almost a hour about what’s new at Linden Lab along with education and non-profit organizations in Second Life. This is the first of three reconnaissance sessions with Linden Lab at VWBPE 2021. Yay! 🙂
I thought it was a interesting and informative interview on things like mega regions, the impact of the pandemic to whats next for the new owners taking Second Life forward. There was no Q&A session at the end or any mention of Ebbe Linden (CEO of Linden Lab). There was no mention of Linden Homes, Premium Plus or the latest on Second Life mobile development.
The attendance for this session was reasonable (average levels) I think. I’m sure its been higher in previous years.
Here is a brief below from what Patch Linden talked about during the session via the live transcript…
The New Owners
The team is comprised of Randy Waterfield, Brad Oberwager, and Raj Date which forms the board at the lab
The transition from the former owners to the new owners actually went very smoothly
Patch Linden primarily works with Brad as he’s the owner.
Brad has one mission: to be the best and biggest virual world there can be
Brad wants to grow and invest in Second Life and he genuinely loves the product
Randy owns an investment firm
Brad sits in the middle and balances both / they see Tilia as a business
Tilia is what allows Second Life to continue to exist
Second Life is the primary focus & there is a separate team that focus on Tilia
Immediate Priorities Over Next 12 Months Or So
The lab want to increase the Second Life population as that’s Brad’s goal
The team wants to finish up with the AWS work
There are some product enhancements that will come out of that
User experience is key especially the onboarding experience
That’s the 12 month high level road map
Gateways
The lab are refactoring the new onboarding process and there is a lot of work going on
There are viewer changes that will smooth out the bumps we’ve identified over the years
The lab have been doing A/B testing to figure out what path needs to look like
New UIs and refreshed looks will benefit everyone
New User Experience Accessibility
Grumpity Linden keeps her eyes on improving accessibility along with improving the UI
The lab don’t plan on adding text-to-speech immediately
Goals Upcoming
The goal for growth is double the resident population over the next 3-5 years
The goals are realistic as the lab has seen this over the past year
Both educators and businesses have switched from in-person to hybrid solutions
Team Grid Reintroduction / K-12 Educational Groups
The lab have educational groups operating in that space particularly through educational partners
AWS work will help open more doors
Probably at the end of the year the lab there could be geographically aided opportunities. That will open the doors to private grids.
The Pandemic Experience During The Past Year
The new user experience needing significant work between people coming back but not for personal reasons
It’s more important to smooth the experience in the post-pandemic world and give it some love
People’s usage habits have changed over time and they’re different for business and education
Private Labeling / White Labeling
The lab have had clients say they’d like the lab to remove half the features of the viewer and some want more
Open Chat Range – that came from taking a request from events in general – to increase the density of avatars at one time
Teen Grid had its own search which was the same as the main grid and it was all separate
Next 12 months – Educators / Non-Profits
Geographic location stuff
The user experience improvements will make things easier
To leverage AWS
Mega Regions & Cost
The lab are not looking to increase cost / should remain the status quo
If AWS lets the lab get into new region models then maybe mega regions, maybe light regions not within the next 12 months
Middle cost alternative maybe / the option to have more avatar density within regions / the lab are looking into it
On demand situations where people can upgrade from homestead to full to allow them to host a big event
The Competition
Patch mentioned that he likes competition as it helps foster innovation and it drives you to stay motivated. Patch always keeps an eye out on the competitors and what they’re doing
There are alot of features that the lab has where others are catching up to and they have new features that can be interesting to adapt like the economy. Patch is not seeing a direct competitor to Second Life as far as flexibility. Things like max attachments, prims in region etc. The lab already has a direct building tool in-world.
Opportunities To Experiment
There is no particular group of folks as the lab all go out to try new platforms and learn about them
Those that observe platforms come back and bring feedback
As a business you have to see whether something new is worth to keep if its not at the best usability/performance. The lab need to study the performance and bandwidth
Sometimes it tilts towards no and we have to withdraw it because it would impact negatively on user experience
Oz Linden Retired
Patch said that Oz retired and he was a great colleague. He left a chasm and the lab are glad for him
When the lab recruits its posted on the website / internal recruiters
New Ownership Structure
Patch knows the ownership is on everyone’s mind and they have a great energy / super enthusiastic / they want to grow Second Life and the educational communities as well
Brad always asks Patch how will it benefit the residents and how will it benefit Second Life ?
Stay updated on the latest happenings at VWBPE 2021 here.
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
For anyone that missed that yesterday’s VWBPE 2020 Above the Book: What’s up at the Lab session here is the full video. Mal Burns interviews Ebbe Linden and Patch Linden. The session runs for one hour and 15 minutes.
Everyone should give it a watch and spread the word about this special session at VWBPE 2020.
Summary
Linden Lab have now introduced a limited time offer for education and non-profit organisations to get full regions. Reducing full region tier to US $99.00 per month
Linden Lab focus is transitioning the Second Life infrastructure to the cloud
Second Life is seeing a rise in concurrency and engagement
Last Changes is just a few weeks away from launching
IOS Mobile Companion is very close to Alpha status. Work has started for the Android version
Ebbe Altberg is 100% devoted to Second Life and Tilia
The 13th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) conference officially starts next Thursday 26th through until Saturday 28th March 2020 in Second Life. The theme for VWBPE 2020 is Stellar and the regions will reflect this year’s theme.
The keynote speakers for this year’s conference. The keynote speeches will be presented at the newly re-built VWBPE Auditorium.
Dr. L. Robert Furman
Title TBA
Thursday, March 26
Opening the conference is Dr. Rob Furman. Dr. Rob is a well known educator, administrator, author and speaker from Pennsylvania. His engagement and enthusiasm for everyday education inspire audiences everywhere. We are excited to welcome Dr. Rob to Second Life and VWBPE.
Virtual Worlds and Social Justice: An Impact and Civic Engagement Agenda
Friday, March 27
Dr. Thomas has worked extensively with VWBPE partner vLanguages, working as PI of the CAMELOT project (EU KA3 ICT) about project-based learning with video (2013-2015); a partner in the (EU KA2) VITAL project on learning analytics (2015-2017); and PI on the GUINEVERE project (EU KA2) which examined gamification in virtual environments (2017-2019). He is a prolific author and researcher.
Dr. Thomas helps us launch Day 2 speaking on Virtual Worlds and Social Justice: An Impact and Civic Engagement Agenda.
Lessons Learned from the 2020 Educators in VR Conference
Saturday, March 28
The final Keynote address of the conference brings us the co-founders of Educators in VR: Daniel Dyboski-Bryant and Lorelle VanFossen. This dynamic duo will be reflecting on the lessons learned at their recent and highly successful Educators in VR International Summit — 24 hours a day for 6 days in VR environments.
Daniel Dyboski-Bryant
Daniel is a lifelong educator from a family of educators and speaks 5 languages. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant of VR in Education with clients including schools, colleges, universities, design teams, training companies, councils and private individuals.
In his daytime job Daniel is the Project Lead for Exploring VR in Further Education, Remote Learning and Language, ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Lecturer, and Trainer at Coleg Llandrillo, Grwp Llandrillo-Menaia in North Wales UK.
Lorelle VanFossen is a keynote, trainer, writer, and consultant on web writing, digital storytelling, content curation, social media, and blogging, especially working with WordPress and virtual reality. Called a digital evangelist, on Lorelle on WordPress she writes and teaches more than you may want to know about how all this social publishing business stuff works.
The VWBPE Conference is a completely virtual conference that is conducted using simulated environments. Participants experience the conference through a virtual reality type setting including conference rooms, theatres, exposition halls, meeting spaces, and other types of venues similar to a brick and mortar type conference.
The conference is free to attend. The cost of the conference is covered by sponsorship and donations.
Daniel Voyager 