So I have my endless folder of landmarks and a few “must see spots”, and they run the range from “business in action” to “immersive environments”.
But here’s the scenario: I need to give a tour to someone and I thought it was time to refresh my SLURLs. The tour is meant to demonstrate that yes, Second Life is vibrant, and yes, serious people and organizations are using it - but that it is also a site of ’social media’ and community. The person who I’ll be giving the tour to isn’t a client or anything like that but someone in the media who wants to give some coverage to SL and where it’s at.
So - if you had an hour or so to give someone a sense of what SL is all about, where would YOU take them? What would you be demonstrating if you took them there? How do you demonstrate the power of SL when, maybe, you don’t have the time to attend a concert, or a Metanomics event :)?
(And let’s assume, for now, that you don’t need to do too much orientation - in this specific case, they’ve been in SL before and there might be a brief refresher course but we’ll take it as given that they can move around).
Give me your SLURLs!
We do our weekly BYTE-SIZED learning event in SL on Wednesdays at 9am (PT) and our goal is to show those in business and learning how to push the envelope of creativity to help people learn. Today we look at ways to stay marketable and relevant into days job market. Lots of interaction- not your momma’s PowerPoint presentation!
Forgot to share the SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/MSIT/219/149/37
This blog addresses this question, too: http://www.slthingstodo.com/
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Schwanson%20Schlegel/159/171/28
Before you leave, thank Cecilia Delacroix for paying the tier for more than two years by walking through her art and photography museums which surround Fallingwater.
Read about Fallingwater here before you go:
http://slbuilder.wordpress.com/fallingwater-in-second-life/
And more of the story is here: http://slbuilder.wordpress.com/fallingwater-in-second-life/fallingwater-how-it-came-to-be-virtual/
For anyone who is keenly interested in architectural replications in Second Life there are other FLW buildings like this one. Virtual tours are very instructive.
For rich environments that are easy to navigate I would recommend:
Chakryn Forest http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chakryn/128/128/2
Cocos Island http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cocos%20Island/128/134/1002
If an event was going on, like this weekend’s RfL, I’d take them there as it would tick so many boxes. Creativity, community, inworld business, nonprofits …. and not a flying penis in sight! I’d steer clear of something that was very resident orientated and laggy, like the Hair Fair - they would come to that in their own good time.
I’d then build something around their interests and their needs, with a couple of drop jaw places (such as The Galaxy, the Isle of Wyrms, the airships of New Babbage or Steam Sky City in Caledon (all powerful communities). Maybe a good example of real life/Second Life integration - such as the NHS/Imperial College sims, Orange Island, the Dresden Art Museum, IBM. Maybe a university - Edinburgh, Princeton - or a smaller college with some educators who are passionate about SL. Nonprofit Commons or Better World Island to show how Nonprofits are using SL.
And I’m sure my list could be taken by other people with the same criteria and completely different results.
But, to be honest, the places aren’t going to matter as much as the people. Line up the people who use these places and let them speak …
Here’s where I’d take someone: SS Galaxy, Victoria City in Caledon, the H. G. Wells Memorial Library in Caledon Wellsian, Talis Science Fiction Portal on Info Island, a ride on the Steeltopia Trolley, the Port Harbor Pier in Steelhead, Seacliff, Virtual Harlem, HealthInfo Island, someplace where people are dancing
I’d take them to Musimmersion - the next one is tomorrow Jul 16th at 6PM SL.
https://secure-web13.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=2918546&date=1247727600
http://musimmersion.weebly.com
“you don’t have the time to attend a concert”
Actually, one hour of Grace McDunnough’s Musimmersion is the first thing that came to mind.
-ls/cm
Adding to Saffia’s constructive posting, SL’s diversity simply cannot be summarized with a one hour in-world presentation. It would -at best- be a well picked slice of a pie of flavors, where I can only underline Saffia’s suggestion to let the people of those places speak from their focal point.
If you aim to impress your guest with a general impression as in “the best of its domain”, there are some good sources out there: first of all, you could read Amanda Lindens twitter and blog, called workinginworld, added with some great tips from this thread and have a critical look at http://www.b-places.com, the most neutral and wide spread voting system of sl (where you still have to filter out the manipulated voting sims).
In summary, I would advise to categorize your trip and pick your best examples of each category and its specific added value, mirrored to what might be of real interest to your invitee.
I would take them to the 7 Days Bakery as a great first impression, a walk through Caledon & New Paris. If they have a desire to build I would definitely include the Ivory Tower of Prims. For mainland I would start at the Bayjou in Bay City and fly them in a plane/blimp/rocket/etc over Route 66 (hopefully overtaking the Trolley), over the channel, past the AMORD building and Nova Albion to visit the Photo Studio of Grignano as an example of Mainland at its finest.
Every single person interested in content creation should be dragged (forcibly if necessary) to Drowsy to see exactly what they’re aspiring to. The place is simply stunning visually, creatively and technically.
I’d take ‘em to the Shelter—friendly place to hang out.
It’s also occurred to me that what this particular person is interested should be considered. Somebody who wants to design clothes, somebody who wants to build houses, a Star Trek buff, a nurse, a university professor — each would probably find different areas of sl interesting. These is such a wide variety of experiences available!
Great suggestions everyone! And absolutely - the NUMBER ONE thing is people. Thankfully, he is well connected to that idea - that it’s the people that make a technology what it is. In fact, if I were to recommend ONE thing to anyone as a way of understanding SL it would probably be a live music event - it shows you the richness of the platform and is an immediate way to connect with others, and to get a sense of how amazing the people in SL can be.
In this particular case, I suppose the broader point I want to make is “this is a world that supports a wide range of activities” (but please don’t forget that it’s the connections and serendipity that makes it what it is).
Any more suggestions keep ‘em coming.
I’ll add my own to the list and report back to everyone on what we ended up seeing, the response and will let you know who it is (I didn’t want to post a name without permission).
Thanks all!
Maybe visit the tsunami simulation on NOAA’s first sim, named Meteora. It’s in the southeast corner. Just click the sign on the beach until the water recedes, then click it again and watch as the giant wave washes in and destroys all the buildings.
From there, you can explore the SciLands (the continent where the NOAA sims are located).
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