2018 EDU: WW: Libraries and museums will combine in virtual worlds

Libraries and museums will combine in virtual worlds

Libraries and museums are major sources of education, especially for adults.  Both are appearing in virtual worlds on the internet. Access is easy, quick,and free.  And virtual worlds can bring together these resources to focus on learning rather than buildings.  There could be a learning center there, too.

Imported display in Cybalounge 
Imported mesh

• Illustrative display above, imported from a mesh file.
• Build your model home in Cybalounge: use case
• Virtual museum exhibits can be brought in as easily.

Museums and libraries are made for each other

• You go to a library to learn more about about something.
• You go to a museum for the same reason.
• They can't put them together because museums have big, bulky stuff.
• But that was back before we could put museums on the web.
• Now we can put small museums in a browser and bigger ones in a viewer.

Web-Worlds

• CybaLOUNGE is a user-built 3D virtual world running in a browser
• You get a free world when you register at Cybalounge
• How to start building in Cybalounge, a roadmap for beginners 
• Cybalounge is ready for virtual worlders to use: Tutorials and suggestions
• 3DWebworldz is a professionally-built web-world.

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Go there

• CLICK: Cybalounge
• Don't register -- enter as guest. 
• Click the pointed pushpin on the bottom line. 
• Scroll down to Demo Island and click enter.
• Move your avatar with the arrow keys: up= forward, right=turn.
• The pushpin will also tell you if anyone else is inworld and where they are.

Museum in a browser

• Now you can go to a museum and a library in your browser.
• A virtual museum fits in a web site.  A virtual library fits there  too.  
• In fact, you could put them both on the same web site.
• A virtual library on the web does not need to hold books.
• It is in the biggest store of information we have ever had.  
• It needs to select, curate, and give links
• A virtual museum will organize its holdings by subject.  
• A virtual library will do that too. 

Bring libraries to the museums 

• Physical museums put out little cards with information about each display.
• A virtual museum could put out little cards too.  But just for starters.  
• When you are on the web, a wealth of information is just a click away.
• In  fact, virtual libraries are just a click away.  And they cover the same subject.
• You would not to send people to a library to look up that subject again.
• You can find the right link(s) and put them next to the display.  
• Thus bringing the library holdings into the museum.
• The combination becomes a complete store of knowledge.
• And it a available anywhere you can use a browser.  

A web page can be a small museum

• But not a big one.  Browsers limit the space for a web page.
• For the full museum content, you will want an installed virtual world.
• See:  HGProjects. Opensim, Hypergrid: Summary

Put them together and make a learning center

• You need a librarian or a docent to help.
• But the place is full of content worth learning.
• And it can have learning challenges.
• Great for home schoolers.  And for people with mobility limitations.
• And for people in remote areas.  And for online schooling.
• And for understaffed school districts lacking, say, science teachers.
• It might even provide enrichment for the school that has everything.  

Bringing exhibits into Cybalounge

• To prepare a COLLADA file for import into Cybalounge, 
• put it into a Zip file along with the relevant textures (JPEG images).
• Names must match this way: C0LLADA: filename.dae becomes filename.dae.zip
• And drag/drop it onto the Cybalounge screen in your world.
• You get a free world when you register at Cybalounge.
• How to start building in Cybalounge, a roadmap for beginners 
• Cybalounge is ready for virtual worlders to use: Tutorials and suggestions

Bringing exhibits into 3DWebworldz

• 3DWebworldz is a professionally-built web-world.
• So you just need to give the COLLADA files to the web master.
• The web master, developer is Evie Marie, also known as Singer Girl 
• Her web page is here.
• Go there and click the Contact Evie tab.
• She will be interested in suitable museum content.  
• A collection of things that might be found in a museum.
• If you have something like that in mesh and are interested in exhibiting 
• it on the web, that,Contact Evie.

If you are interested in web-worlds...

• Drop by my web office.
• My office times:  Weekdays: 12:-12:30 Central time  (US) 
• Mondays we focus on learning/library/museums.
• Fridays we may focus on grants, contracts, and business.
• Maybe weekends, too.  Other times by appointment. 
• My web office: Cybalounge.
• Don't register -- enter as guest.  
• If you see no one, click the pointed push-pin (bottom line) to find me.
• We can also visit 3DWebWorldz, a professionally-built world.  
• Thinkerer Melville in Second Life, Selby Evans in Kitely
• A web page you can walk into
• Try a browser-based virtual world
• Cybalounge is ready for virtual worlders to use: Tutorials and suggestions
• Web-worlds are small and run in a browser with nothing else installed.
• Full virtual worlds are a bigger experience, but need extra software installed.

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License

• Original text in this blog is CC By: unless specified public domain
• Use as you please with attribution: link to the original.
• All images without attribution in this blog are CC0: public domain.