Happy New Year! I hope that one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to finish and submit your Linden Prize applications, because time is running out to be one of the top ten finalists we’ll announce, able to show the world what hard work, inspiration and creativity can achieve in Second Life. Finalists will see their projects appreciated and utilized by Residents, written about by bloggers and press, and be eligible for the Grand Prize of $10 thousand US dollars.
Yes, the deadline of January 15 is almost here, so whether you’ve been procrastinating, gathering your documentation, or finishing up those final touches, it is time to get cracking. And if you think a friend with a wonderful project may not have applied, suggest they do so! All the application information is still here at the Linden Prize, and the forum is open here.
We’ve added two features for our Residents who are more comfortable in other languages than English.
Need help translating your application into English? Right now you have help in German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Polish, French and Italian. Thanks to your fellow Resident Translator volunteers and Lexie Linden, you can check the Linden Prize Translation Project to submit your application.
Now, a personal message: Some of you might be thinking, “Nah. Linden Lab would never consider my little project.” For example, I happened to talk the leader of an inspired project that supports servicemen and women in a way that’s uniquely Second Life. But that leader hadn’t considered applying for the Linden Prize.
“Wow!’, I thought, ‘That’s exactly the kind of project that the world needs to hear about!”
So, if that scenario describes you—or your modest friends– take the next week to apply for the Linden Prize. When you see your project announced with the rest of the Finalists, not only will you able to see the project you care about receive well-earned recognition from a much larger audience, but you will be teaching us all about what hard work, inspiration and creativity can achieve in Second Life.
What a way to start 2009!
Applications due January 15th 2009
Applications must be complete and submitted no later than January 15, 2009.
Announcement Dates
The Winner and Finalists will be announced no later than April 30, 2009.
Linden Prize Criteria
We have several core principles that will influence the choice of the 10 finalists and the winner.
Work in Second Life that also achieves tangible, compelling results outside of Second Life.
Distinctive, original work using Second Life that clearly demonstrates high quality, execution, function, aesthetics and technical sophistication.
Work that has the capacity for inspiring and influencing future development, knowledge, creativity, and collaboration both inside and outside of Second Life.
In 1999, an innovative man made the long trek from San Francisco to the sun-baked playa of an enormous, flat, dry lakebed in the Nevada high desert. He went to attend the renowned Burning Man festival where, for one week each year, tens of thousands of people from around the world build art, camps and communities, and celebrate life. This man came back with new ideas for the virtual world he was planning; ideas about the nature of reality, creativity, identity and community.
He worked some of these ideas into the very fabric of “Linden World” which eventually became what you and I know as Second Life. That man was Philip Linden.
To celebrate the inspiration that enriched Second Life, over the past six years, Residents in Second Life have gotten together to build one of the largest, most unusual and most creative events found in the Metaverse— the annual Art, Fire and Community festival known as Burning Life.
Capping off SL5B, Linden Lab board member Mitch Kapor will deliver a keynote address about Second Life as a disruptive technology platform. In addition to SL as a creative, social space, he will discuss the emergence of SL for broader uses such as education, philanthropy, art, fashion, medical research, architecture and design, science, and entertainment. The speech will be held at the Main Stage
We know there is a lot of speculation about Mitch’s announcement…some of it is good tongue-in-cheek, some of it raising expectations.
To put to rest to some of that speculation—Mitch’s announcement will not be about strategic nor business issues regarding Linden Lab.
Mitch’s announcement will be about a new program that recognizes the achievements of Residents in making Second Life a disruptive technology platform.
We will have video and audio feeds that we will post prior to the event, and like the opening event, we will provide transcripts, audio and video archives for download.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the birthday events. All are listed on the SL5B wiki
July 7, 2008 SL5B regions will be closed between 7:00 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. PDT for maintenance prior to the Closing Keynote today.
Something for everyone today! M will make his appearance on the Teen Grid at 11am. Author Tom Boellstorff will be discussing his new book on SL5B Linked at 12pm SLT and there will be a Community Enlightenment roundtable at 3pm SLT, also on SL5B Linked.
M will be addressing teens in TSL, recognizing the great work they’ve been doing as well as organizations like Global Kids. Moderated by Blue Linden, he’ll also be answering some of their questions and concerns about TSL. The session will be done in chat, and transcripts will be made available as soon as possible
‘Coming of Age in Second Life’ shows how virtual worlds can change ideas about identity and society. Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, Tom Boellstorff’s book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself.
Second Life is full of features and services ready to be explored. Our panel, which is a mixture of Lindens and Residents, will introduce information about Groups, Content Creation, as well as Educational Resources and how they relate. Join our casual gathering of Q&A and enhance your in-world experience.
Thanks to moderator Rissa Maidstone, the recording of the Roundtable: Urbanism, Architecture & Planning: How Second Life can Help Build the Urban Landscape of the Physical World and Vice-Versa is now available.
The first panel, Picking up on Second Life - Educational Projects in Germany will begin at 9am SLT. The second panel, The Future of Healthcare in Virtual Worlds will begin at 11am SLT. The third panel, Visualizing Real Data in a Virtual World, will start at 12:30pm SLT and the final panel, Have Fun learning in the German adult education centre, will begin at 1:30pm SLT.
The first panel will be about the rapid expansion of German educational activities in SL. Jean Linden from Linden Lab will open with a keynote on international projects in SL and offer first hand insights. Bernd Schmitz (Bernd Celt) of the University of Applied Science Cologne has been the first German educator to start a 3D presence and orientation activities in SL. Michael Lange of Metaversa (Ziggy Moonflower) is one of the few Germans with projects on the teen grid. Matthias Rückel (Dia Diqui) of time4you focuses on SL as a an e-learning platform and a learning space for companies. Torsten Reiners (Tyke McMillan) manages the SL activities of University of Hamburg, first in Germany to start their own sim. Hanno Tietgens of Buero X Media Lab will give an update on the collaborative Campus Hamburg initiative and long distance learning projects with TUEV NORD. The presentations and discussion will be held in English.
The third panel will discuss the next obvious step, visualization of data, in the evolution of virtual worlds. They feel it is using them as the front-end display for data applications, making them alive with information, streaming in data and representing it visually. This session features several innovative data visualization applications from enterprise and academia. The virtual worlds data visualization community is organized though a wiki and the Data Visualization group in Second Life which collaborates and displays tools at the open source data viz island located in the SciLands
The final panel will be in both German and English. From the moderator
“Unterricht, der Spass macht und die 3D-Moeglichkeiten von SL voll ausschoepft. Das ist unsere Spezialitaet, wofuer wir auch den europaeischen e-learning Award eurelea (www.eurelea.org) in 2008 bekommen haben. Heute demonstrieren wir unseren Unterrichtsstil (in SLVoice). Hoeren reicht. Mikro ist nicht erforderlich
Classes that bring fun in your SL Life and where all 3D- possibilities that SL offers, are used to create an interesting learning unit.This is our speciality. We won the European e-learning Award eurelea 2008 (www.eurelea.org) with our SL-concept and would like to show you why. Please activate your SLVoice. No micro necessary. Being able to listen is enough.”
Tonight will bring together science outreach specialists to showcase how they are bringing real science into the community of Second Life.
In the form of an open discussion with audience Q&A, they hope to engage the everyday residents in science and inspire new ideas for science in Second Life for the future.
There will be presentation materials in the form of a video and slides as well as an open discussion format with a Q/A from the audience.
At the Second Sight blog are details on the scientists and their background. Location is here
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