Education in the Virtual World Executive Summary 10/10/10
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Second Life is no longer willing to put money behind the idea that educators will bring in large numbers of active residents.
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Educators will experience temporary inconvenience as a result of an unexpected rise in charges by Linden Lab (moderated a little by an offer of up to two years extension on low-cost contracts). They will cope with the rise by consolidating and moving to Open Sim grids.
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Educators will probably want to maintain a small presence in Second Life because of the opportunity to make contacts.
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Notes
Second Life is no longer willing to put money behind the idea that educators will bring in large numbers of active residents.
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Early in the week, Linden Lab shocked the non-profit community in Second Life with the announcement that the 50% discount previously give to non-profits would stop at the end of 2010, so that all renewals after that time will be at the full price.
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The announcement drew a barrage of comment from SL residents and from the Virtual World blogosphere.
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Linden Lab subsequently modified its announcement with this statement:
"An educational or not-for-profit institution that is currently under contract with us will be able to renew early (or purchase additional regions) and continue to receive the current 50% discount on land maintenance provided that the renewal takes place prior to the December 31, 2010. You will be able to select contract renewal options of 6, 12, 18 or 24 months under these terms. If your organization renews and enters into a contract no later than December 31, 2010, it can lock in the current discounted rate for up to 24 additional months."
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Educators will experience temporary inconvenience as a result of an unexpected rise in charges by Linden Lab (moderated a little by an offer of up to two years extension on low-cost contracts). They will cope with the rise by consolidating and moving to Open Sim grids.
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"Clients three times as likely to complete virtual treatment program as face-to-face program
• Outcomes ‘as good or better’ as at physical treatment centers
• Private OpenSim grid operated by ReactionGrid, more stable than Second Life"
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"Then, in the middle of a fiscal year for US colleges and universities, and without enough warning to be meaningful, given how we set up our budgets, Linden Lab screwed us. Royally, in fact. We lost our discounts on set-up fees and tier payments.
Talk of Exodus began. Even in the worst economic times, the education sector can muster billions of dollars, collectively. Unlike any one software company, we are not going away, and now we’ll take our business elsewhere"
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"I strongly lean towards discounting the theory that the Lab is losing money. But I also strongly lean towards the theory that they are worth less than they were a year ago, 4 years ago, whenever. Concurrency is flat, sales growth is negligible, and the new revenue streams from the Marketplace (the Lab, for example, will be taking a cut of purchases made using dollars rather than Lindens) and mesh imports haven’t kicked in yet.
So for the Lab to be selling now, it would be selling low. And as noted above, that’s not what investors typically try to do"
"We should have never trusted this company. Now it's time to vote with our pocketbooks and move operations to other grids that actually value education instead of giving lip-service while planning to soak us. What's worse, this happens not only in a time of financial constraint for many schools but in the middle of a fiscal year when grant funding has been allocated and operating budgets set."
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"Somewhere between 2007 and today Linden Lab has lost perspective. Up to about the fall of 2007, Linden Lab was fostering a community based approach to content development. They put programs in place to help education, government, and healthcare. There were mentoring communities which supported the introduction of new people into the Second Life environment. Linden Lab appeared to be focused on two major initiatives: platform tools to support the user community and information telecommunication communication convergences."
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"Linden Lab recently served notice that they were going to double the tier fees for non-profits and educational sims, sending universities, non-profits and graduate students with limited budgets into a flurry of thoughts about how to cut 50% of their costs. Some are talking about reducing sims, some are talking about sharing sims, and others are talking about leaving SL entirely. Very few have the ability to simply double what they pay to Linden Lab. Average residents reel as awareness grows that the heart will be carved out of the SL community with the loss of so many of the educational and non-profit organizations and individuals who have contributed so much.
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"The first question they usually ask themselves is, “Which grid should we join?”
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But the more important question should be: “Should we join a grid? Or start our own?”
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It may seem daunting to think about starting up your grid. But, in fact, it’s actually as easy — if not easier — than getting regions on an existing grid. Your OpenSim hosting provider will take care of all the setup and administration, usually at a lower price. Some, including ReactionGrid, will even set up a grid behind your firewall and manage it for you."
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Coincidence? Or something else. You be the judge
FireSabre has launched a program to help K-12 institutions migrate to open-source virtual world software as an alternative to Teen Second Life…
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InWorldz. The first real threat to Second Life?
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Maybe this is why Linden Lab has less interest in education
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Following is a statement I have been making to meetings of non-profits in Second Life.
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I have 2 sims and could easily accommodate a lot more traffic. With holodeck builds, the space could accommodate the normal contents of several sims for part time use. The space is available at no charge (though 2011). I would like to talk to some non-profits about how I can help.
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