Educators leaving Second Life?

Will Educators be leaving Second Life?  

Linden Labs: Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing:

"All education and non-profit private regions of any type, purchased after Dec. 31, 2010, will be invoiced at standard (i.e. non-discounted) pricing. All currently discounted renewals which occur after Dec. 31, 2010, will be adjusted to the new price at that time. To continue to provide entry-level, private spaces to educators just launching their programs, we will be providing Homestead and Open Space regions to qualifying organizations without their meeting the retail full-region criterion. Customer Support will be available to answer any questions that you may have about these changes."
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Executive Summary 
(As required under the Law of Unintended Consequences)
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1. Some large businesses in the outworld conclude that Linden Lab management is too unpredictable to be factored into their long term plans for using virtual worlds.
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2. Some educators move their classes and activities to OpenSim and other VR sites, producing a noticeable reduction in the nunber of new residents and the number of concurrent users.
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3. Small business and real estate operators in Second Life see a drop in traffic and rentals.     

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Commentary

Dusan Writer:  Linden Lab Raises Prices for Non-Profits and Schools: 
"Regardless of which of these reasons it might be (or is there some reason I’m not able to guess at?) the move by Linden Lab represents nothing short of a blow to their credibility and judgement, and while I’ve long been a supporter of the community and possibilities of the virtual world, it’s clearly time to start dusting off the blog posts looking at the alternatives."
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The options left for the non-profits are: 

• Double the maintenance payments. 
• Cut the space requirements in half.
• Move elsewhere

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Double the maintenance payments 

Next year's budget is probably already set.  An unexpected increase of 100% will be hard to fit into the budget.  And for long term planning, the effect is chilling.  What will the charge be in future years?  And how far in advance will you know it?

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Cut the space requirements in half

This option is probably feasible for many organizations.   Want buildings?  Put them in a rezzer or a holodeck.  Rez them when you need them.  When you don't need them, clear the space and use it for something else.  I already have a demo holodeck system that has builds that could fill several sims-- all packed in  a few prims.  See the demo here (click on any of the pillar-signs):
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Thinkerer%20Quests/172/218/26 

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Move elsewhere

Advice to educators – Hypergrid Business:

"Today, Linden Lab announced that the price of land for educators and non-profits will double in January.  As a result, the price differential between Second Life land and OpenSim becomes even more significant."

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This article goes on to review OpenSim options.  I would add InWorldz, a virtual world I reviewed recently: 
InWorldz. The first real threat to Second Life?  

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NY, Utah educators get $1 mil NSF grant for OpenSim – Hypergrid Business: 

"“This award supports us to practice research-based pedagogies in the K-12 classrooms, enhance New York City teachers’ science and technology literacy, and cultivate students’ 21st-century skills,” said Dr. Wang. “It is a great interdisciplinary collaboration between the education and science departments at NYIT, and with the science education department at Utah State University. We will work closely to develop learning activities that integrate scientific inquiry-based learning and new literacy skills through cognitive tools approach. Teachers will learn the technology that our digital natives are already familiar with, and integrate these technologies to motivate students’ learning in science classrooms.”"