Second Life and OpenSim virtual worlds are the best known and most used by Universities and other academic institutions in the UK, according to a comprehensive study by Virtual World Watch.
They asked what use virtual worlds and why they chose them.

Second Life was chosen for his 6 years of constant development, it is not necessary to purchase a server, because of the great community that exists and the amount of resources that are available cheaply or free.

OpenSim is attractive because, compared to Second Life, ‘land’ does not carry the same expense, there are fewer security issues, there is no dependence on a single commercial vendor, and it is easier to configure how private your environment is; content can also be ported from Second Life.

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Microsoft is currently installed on Reaction Grid, a service provider that uses Open Sim as a server platform.

Furthermore, from October 31, Microsoft is abandoning its Sims on Second Life. On that very day they are celebrating an open welcome event on Reaction Grid.

On the one hand we see that Microsoft regards Open Sim as a mature enough platform. Arguably more reliable than Second Life. In fact one of the reasons why they have decided to migrate is because during an event in April 2008 that a mistake occurred and was restarted islands that teleportation system broke down.

We must also take into account that “OpenSim itself is a C # application (a part of Microsoft .Net Frame). As a result, Microsoft is very interested in providing the open platform with its own Windows Server 2008. Last week Microsoft released a case study in touting the success of its virtual servers running OpenSim.

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This is Dot’s Christmasts Card for all our friends. Those who populate the “picture” are left to right Mikel Meoki, Javier Selva, Diego Demonte, Eduardo Valencia, Yolanda Amatriain, Mikel Belasko and Enrique Bauluz. We also have many others friends that didn’t arrive on time for the picture, such as Juankar, German, Paloma, Rodolfo Andres, Pablo and, last but not least, Volker. 

What we expect and hope for next year is that virtual worlds aimed at training and corporate productivity will grow apace. The obvious advantages of these platforms are going to make the projects multiply. Dot will grow along with them. 

Let me, first, bet for V-learning as the fastest growing use of virtual worlds in 2009. 

Here you are my second bet: along with Second Life, Open Sim is going to be the platform on which more virtual worlds are going to be developed. 

What we expect and hope for next year is that virtual worlds aimed at training and corporate productivity will grow apace. The obvious advantages of these platforms are going to make the projects multiply. Dot will grow along with them. 

Let me, first, bet for V-learning as the fastest growing use of virtual worlds in 2009. 

Here you are my second bet: along with Second Life, Open Sim is going to be the platform on which more virtual worlds are going to be developed.

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Technorati claim code: UEDV838NH3WP

OpenSim is an open platform for creating virtual worlds. When compared to Second Life Open Sim has some clear advantages for businesses.

Before coming down to these advantages, it is important to know that, apart from Second Life, there are a few dozen virtual worlds. In a YouTube video (2008 METAV TOUR - THE SOCIAL VIRTUAL WORLD’SA STAGE) Gari Hayes makes a nice animated catalog of some of them. As the video shows, most of them are geared to gaming or socialization.

The video, however, does not mention two open source platforms that arguably will be the most influential platforms por training and virtual Meetings: Wonderland and OpenSim.

Wonderland is an open source project promoted by Sun that it will become, with all certainty, a reference for project management in a virtual space.

Open Sim is like Second Life

OpenSim is an open source simulator (BSD license) that uses the same standard of communication that Second Life. You can use the browser to OpenSim from Second Life (the client software that is downloaded from secondlife.com). The code was liberated by Linden Labs

IBM is supporting  the community that develops OpenSim. An interesting article in Ciberpaís described the force with which IBM is supporting OpenSim.

Both Second Life and Open Sim are so close from each other that IBM and Linden Labs have teleported avatars from Second Life to an OpenSim server:

OpenSim: open source

It is a project with a dynamic community of developers and highly supported by IBM.

-Open source allows us to develop new features that are tailored to the needs of each organization

OpenSim: our own server

-Open Sim is installed on our own server or servers running in cluster mode (Linux or Windows), which allows us to scale the capacity to our needs. We could have hundreds of simultaneous avatars in a virtual single event.

–Avoid the problems of confidentiality associated with operating on a server controlled by Linden Labs

-The reliability of our service depends on us. Stop relying on the Linden Labs “rolling restarts”, “disruptions” and the like.

OpenSim: Featured Projects

-Various projects led by IBM

-Intel is working on OpenSim to develop “ScienceSim”.

In DOT we have spent several months working on the platform. We’ll talk about our projects soon.

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Most people who learn English around the world have very few opportunities to practice with native speakers. 

Most times, learning English is about language immersion: a longer or shorter stay in London, San Francisco or Dublin. 

It is very significant that in order to save time and money, a number of English students in Spain travel to the “British Towns” of Aldeaduero (Salamanca), Valdelavilla (Soria), etc. (see http://www.morethanenglish.com/puebloingles/index.asp). The formula is to bring together Spanish and English speaking people for 8 days. A department of the company managing those British Towns on Spanish soil, is responsible for identifying speakers abroad who have the motivation to come to Spain to participate in this kind of language immersion programs. 

However, it is not necessary to go to London or some of the charming mountain villages to enjoy a language immersion.

 Language Lab offers an immersive learning environment through Second Life. They have created a “VIRTUAL VILLAGE” inhabited by native English residents, who are also specialists in language teaching. 

Language Lab offers “conventional” English classes within Second Life and events within the “virtual village”:  four sims (islands) that make up  an entire city where students meet English speaking residents. 

The Language Lab system has significant advantages: 

     * The prices are very reasonable: from 29.90 U.S. dollars per month (3 hours classroom and 20 hours of events), $ 44.95 (6 classes, 30 hours of events) to $ 77.95 (8 classes, 40 h . events). 

     * One can make a sizeable time of English practice every day in a safe and pleasant environment. 

     * You can talk with native speakers who represent the actual varieties of English. 

     * It is easy to build a social network of English-speaking friends: teachers and students.

El sistema de Language Lab tiene ventajas significativas:

• Los precios son muy razonables: de 29.90 dólares por mes (3 horas de clase y 20 h. de eventos), 44,95 $ (6 clases, 30 h. de eventos) a 77,95 $ (8 clases, 40 h. de eventos).
• Es posible realizar la cantidad de práctica que uno pueda dedicar al aprendizaje del inglés, todos los días en un lugar seguro y un ambiente agradable.
• Es posible hablar con nativos reales que representan a los diferentes variedades del inglés.
• Es fácil construir una red social de amigos de habla inglesa: profesores y alumnos.

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Learning English is one of the favourite Spanish resolutions that we leave unfulfilled. Who can afford a couple of months to go to Ireland, United Kingdom or United States? Who has the money to afford such an investment? Now, we can make an immersive way … without leaving home!

Second Life (with sites like Avatar English) will allow us to make language courses from our computer. There are obviously ways to learn English at a distance, but not with the advantages that gives us a virtual world such as Second Life.

We wouldn’t hold that travelling abroad to learn a language is an outdated and obsolete experience. Far from it. We only open the door to language training to many people who couldn’t afford such an immersive experience in real world

There are also people who have had a negative experience: one course in London which was a total failure that cost dearly: a whole month there attending endless boring classes.

Second Life will allow us to:

-Experience a feeling of immersion and real presence. Our avatar can practice with native teachers of English being anywhere in the world. We will have the feeling of being personally with them. Just like a real class.

-Voice. We can talk in real time with the attendees. We can talk, discuss, and transmit information.

-We may use whiteboards, videos, Power Point documents … all attendess work on them in real time.

Flexibility and tailored teaching.

If you want to travel and soak in a different culture, do it, but it’s nice to know that to learn a language in an immersive way it is no longer necessary to travel.

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The first time is important. As in other spheres of life, an initial negative experience in Second Life is likely to scare the new user for good. Therefore, for the first time, we must prepare everything with special attention.

If we fail here, it’s easy that the user will end up thinking that SL is immature or that the technological barrier is too high…

Experience is a degree and our team is accumulating experiences that allow us to sketch a brief guide to ensure the success of the first time in Second Life:

1. Create the avatar of the client before the first meeting. This is a valuable time-saver, because we may begin directly our meeting.

2. We will ensure that the rooky meets the requirements: USB-headset, ,inimum requirements of the computer.
3. Check the computer of the new user personally, if possible.
4. Trying to to be successful in a training course on SL inside SL for a group of beginners is a lottery. It will work if we do it with one person.
5. Cut and clear lessons: use the cameraa – sit down and chat-speak
6. Once in Second Life go immediately to our virtual premises, sit down and begin to talk. Don’t allow them to fly around with no control.
7. When we session ends, invite them to revisit the sim and to keep practicing.

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According to the International Congress and Convention, companies in the world spend spend 107 billions of dollars a year just in sending employees to conventions and conferences. 1,243,600 events of this kind are held in the world last year. These data reflect only a small part of the overall costs of business travel.

Second Life will allow us to save much of our travel costs without sacrificing the frequency and quality of our meetings.

Thanks to the 3D technology of Second Life we can hold public or private spaces for communication, collaboration and learning. This allows us to briefly hold meetings at a distance and therefore helps us save time and money on travel, accommodation and the like.

The experience of meeting in Second Life is an acceptable substitute for the meeting in the real world. It is equivalent in many ways to video-conferencing, which is is much more expensive and complex.

• 1243600 conventions and conferences annually

• 107 billion dollars spent annually

Within a virtual classroom or a virtual meeting room, we meet other people who come to the reunion. Or rather, we meet with avatars (our alter egos in Second Life). We listen and talk, we sit and get up, gesturing a little, we see a video or use a whiteboard or PowerPoint documents.

Once you have a suitable space for meetings (that’s our job), participants need only an Internet connection and headphones with microphone (from approx 12 euros). Renting a space in Second Life ranges from 50 € to 200 €.

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