The Inferno is Back

Back in July ,2007, I posted an entry about an educational sim that had brought Dante's Inferno into Second Life. Not long after, it disappeared and I thought: "ho hum, well that's that then." However, while off exploring today I noticed it is back. Now, it may have been back for ages, but as this is a welcome return, I thought it worth blogging about. Rather than forming part of the large NMC cluster of sims, it is now proudly on it own as the Dante's Inferno sim.

It is very much like the earlier incarnation - but rather than describe it myself, I will be lazy and quote one of the many, many notecards at you, instead:

This exhibit is meant to engage all of your senses... On each level, there are activities where guests are asked to contribute content...

Please explore all the circles of Hell. You will find notecards, activities, displays and as the course develops student generated content too. If you reach the centre you will also find details about the "Build Lucifer" contest we are running, with a L$10,000 prize. You are welcome to just walk down each level, the fall here will not hurt, but you may also catch the flying gondola ride down a level at a time if you wish.

On each level you will find rocks which offer you a chance to chat to Virgil and Dante. The conversations that result may seem to ramble, but the points they raise ask you about features of the circle that you are on, and give you hints about further learning you may wish to explore. Alternatively, they can be used just for fun!

Gloria Naylor used the concept of the Inferno to frame her modern African-American novel, Linden Hills.

The novel, and the Inferno, celebrate the results of life choices. Linden Hills focuses on the choices of modern blacks in their quest to reach "equality" and urges that "equality" is in the heart and not the pocketbook. Likewise, Dante's tour illustrates that life is a series of choices about virtue.

Unlike Dante and Virgil, once you reach the centre of Hell, you can step through the wall to enter student displays about Linden Hills. This will help you understand the book, and help you and the students understand the links between the structure of the two novels.

Dante's Inferno and The Linden Hills Classroom are property of Literature Alive! in Second Life Credits: Eloise Pastuer, Design and Content Creation, Desideria Stockton, Academic Content Designer, Daliah Carter, Assistant.

When I last saw it, students had already been contributing their own ideas as to the denizens of the various levels. However, at the moment this amusing and potentially thought-provoking aspect of the sim is missing. I didn't see any Lindsay Lohans or Adolf Hitlers! The notecard quoted above is right though. There is a lot to learn here, and many activities that should keep the Infernally Minded busy for a while. Here's a small selection of images to give you a taste:




PS: I left the reference to The Gluttonous as a warning to self!

Liverpool Hope's Virtual Open Day

My daughter, Young Ms K, is currently going through the process of looking at universities, to get a better idea where she might want to go. The various universities hold open days, when prospective students can come along for an in-depth look and ask suitably penetrating questions (like: "How much is beer in the students' union?" and "Where's the nearest curry house?"). This is all fine and dandy, but it does mean potentially travelling the length and breadth of the country to get around all the uni's of interest. Wouldn't it be more convenient if the university came to you?

Well according to this article on the BBC News website, that seems to be what's on offer from Liverpool Hope University, who are setting up a virtual open day on Second Life. This Thursday, visitors will be able to meet with students (and faculty?) on the virtual campus. To quote from the article:

Dr Charlie Blake, head of media, film and communications at the university said: "The Open Day will be an innovative and exciting interactive experience for our visitors. Student Ambassadors have already created their own virtual characters that will be on hand throughout the day to talk to prospective students and offer them advice about studying at Liverpool Hope University."

OK it's not a replacement for actually going there, in the flesh, and seeing what's what. But it is a nice idea in any case. From the sound of it, the site has been built by students. This is quite common for university builds, and is often the work of Digital Media students.

A number of UK universities have sites in Second Life, including: Edinburgh; Coventry; Leeds Metropolitan; University of Warwick; Brunel and many more.

Warwick University Maths

A short post tonight, with a few snaps, of Warwick University Maths island. The island is located in the huge, sprawling cluster of largely educational sims to be found in the North-East part of the grid. I am very slowly, and highly intermittently, making my way through the cluster and as this island belongs to one of the relatively few UK universities involved in Second Life, I thought I'd take a look. It's also interesting that this island belongs to the Mathematics Department, rather than, say, Art & Design.

The University of Warwick (to give its proper name) is a campus university, establishlished in 1965, in the West Midlands (UK). It has around 16,000 students, a third of whom are postgrads. According to wikipedia: "A recent survey by The Times resulted in the campus being voted the best in the UK by a national poll of university students." The Warwick Maths Insitute website was playing up when I wrote this, but I did find out that the Second Life island is the brainchild of Dr Dave Wood, Director of Undergraduate Studies and Teacher of Hard Sums - and known as Ee Maculate in SL. As far as I can tell, Dr Wood is doing the build himself.

The island is still under construction, and is in a very 'skeletal' state. The main elements of the island are in place: a number of large, hollow polyhedra, connected by pathways. However, these have little (or no) content at the moment, while there are a number of buildings that are still only half-complete. There is a 3D map of the island, so you can check out what is planned.
Oh, and there's a bar / coffee bar (along with a campfire area) that is complete - and presumably provides Dr Wood's students and/or colleagues with somewhere to meet.

Here's a few photos for you to peruse:


And a less formal meeting area:

Princeton OIT

Lots of other folks have already been in to gawp and wonder at the new Scope Cleaver building on the new Princeton OIT sim, so I thought I'd better get in for a look too. The OIT of the title is the Office of Information Technology, incidentally.

The building is something of a departure for Scope... or perhaps that is better phrased as an evolution of his style. I've not had a chance to chat with him about the influences, or the client brief, so I don't know the context of the build. In scale, it is easier to get to grips with than some of Scope's recent, almost sim-wide constructions. It is actually possible to see and appreciate the whole thing - and very nice it is too. It has a certain steampunk look about, which is definitely a departure from previous constructions.

Although the building is the centrepiece for the island, sitting as it does on the only reasonably level section of land, I would draw your attention to the other, smaller gems dotted among the hills and valleys. There is, for example, a small homage to the great British sculptor, Anthony Gormley. Go for a ramble in the hills, and see what you can find. Here's my pictures, including some of my finds:

Princeton - On The Beach

I appear to make a habit of saying "this will be a short post" - and then banging on for ages. But not this time. Brevity is my watchword tonight! So here goes...

Earlier in the Summer I brought you a peek inside Princeton's new site in Second Life. I can now tell you the main site is officially open... though there are bits and pieces still to be finished. It now spans 7 sims, including this one: Alexander Beach.




The Alexander Beach island features a strange, complex, faintly fishy-shaped building, the latest bespoke creation of Scope Cleaver. It is intended for use by students, who can try their hand at building in the sandboxes supplied. There are also a couple of art installations, one whose name escapes me, and the one shown below: Liquid Light.



I confess I missed the launch party itself - I am notorious for this, I'm afraid. So my apologies to Persis, who kindly supplied me with an invitation.

Al Goes North of the Border

While cruising around the ever-growing number of university islands clusted around the New Media Consortium, I spotted two new UK universities: Sunderland and Edinburgh. The former seemed, from the map, to be very new, with little or no work done on it as yet. However, the University of Edinbugh not only looked to be more advanced, but also consisted of not 1 but 6 sims - a hefty investment. What is more, it was open to casual visitors, so I popped in for a look.

The build is very much in its infancy, as you can see from the pictures below. The most advanced building I found was the Informatics hall, but the School of Management is well on its way, too. There is also preliminary work on some famous Edinburgh landmarks such as the Scott Monument and the Nelson Monument.



Unlike many university builds in Second Life, which have been the work of a single department or faculty, the scale and breadth of this build encompasses many departments. The purpose of the build is difficult to ascertain due to its incomplete state and the variety of departments it is planned to feature. Certainly one aspect will be promotional, to provide information about the university and the city. However, given the size of the site, I would assume they are also planning to host educational events, perhaps even hosting regular seminars and lecture here.

I was talking recently to a friend who is struggling to hack through the politics and apathy at his own university. Having built an interesting site, with plenty of scope for informal meetings and networking, and sandboxes for those who'd like to try their hand at building, he's having real difficulties getting both staff and students to take an interest. I would therefore like to understand what has happened in Edinburgh's case. A 6-sim site is rather over-the-top for a "Field of Dreams": "build it and they will come."

So have staff and students bought into it? And if so, how was this achieved? If you know, then it would be great to hear from you.

UPDATE 24-9-07: Please check out the comments - two detailed replies from Edinburgh. Thanks for the enlightenment!

DePaul CTI

Today, following a tip from a friend, I pootled along to DePaul CTI, the sim belonging to the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (no wonder they abbreviated it) of DePaul University. Named after Saint Vincent De Paul, the university's main campus was founded in Chicago in 1898 by the Vincentians, but now offers courses around the world. The CTI offers a wide range of courses, including options for online and distance learning.

For reasons best known to the build team, the island is loosely themed on Venice. A number of canals serve to carve up the island, but transportation is not a problem as you can take gondola rides between the various parts of the sim. Thinks: "I wonder if this idea came from the New Media Consortium build?" In any case, gondolas won't get you everywhere (like to the top of a hill, for example) - so there are various "stools of destination", teleports that will whisk you to your destination. The overall build quality is high. There are many excellent, detailed textures, the buildings are well thought-out and there are some nice ideas at play - such as using animated critters from Second Wildlife.

I am told there are all manner of caves and other hidden gems to discover - but to be blunt, I couldn't be bothered looking. Nice looking place, though:

I'm not too sure who this site is aimed at. I found only limited information about the university, while there are many (many!) meeting places of varying sizes. This suggests to me that the site has a couple of functions, both aimed at their own student body, rather than a channel for attracting potential students and sponsors. First, it provides a great example of what can be built in Second Life by experienced builders, and should serve to encourage some students to give it a go. Second, it provides an environment for students and faculty to meet informally - particularly useful for those who are on distance learning courses. I may have this hopelessly wrong - but that's what it looks like to me.

Al's Inferno

Picking up on a couple of other posts, I thought I ought to have a look at the model of Dante's Inferno that has been constructed on the NMC 5 sim, part of the New Media Consortium. Besides, it's a while since I've been there so I wanted to see how the old place was getting on - the NMC, that is, not the Inferno.

As you would expect for a sim here, the purpose of the build is education. In fact there are large numbers of notecards to be picked up, providing a great deal of information about the Circles of Hell, but I won't bombard you with anything more than a few salient facts. Thinks: "there's probably a circle of Hell for bloggers who don't tell all the facts."

Here, then, is the most pertinent information concerning the build, gleaned from the first notecard I picked up. Students at DeSales University are reading Gloria Naylor's novel Linden Hills. The novel is based off the premise of Dante's Inferno, and, in the past, it has been difficult to teach the parallel structure because students are not familiar with the Inferno. Second Life offers the opportunity to build the inferno AND Linden Hills, and, as a result, helps students see the structure.


The build has been carried out by Eloise Pasteur (Eloise Pasteur Educational Designs). It takes you down through the various circles, each dedicated to a different kind of sinner. Teacher's notes are available as you go along. Students are encouraged to make their own suggestions, so dotted around each circle you will see some familiar faces. Each one will give you a notecard telling you who elected to place them there, and why. This has led to some amusing juxtapositions. For example, Jessica Simpson is in the same circle of Hell as Kim Jong-Il. At the deepest most evil level, the final destination for the treacherous, you will find Lindsay Lohan rubbing shoulders with Hitler and Stalin.

Linden Hills is not a book I know - or am ever likely to read, I suspect. But it does have a chunk of sim dedicated to it, which seems to comprise a small number of modern American houses. The main feature of note for me though is the dive-in dumpster. To quote its notecard: An innovative idea for a freebie giver or a camping tool. Go dumpster diving and invite your friends! Realistic trash diving animation included.

It is an interesting idea for a sim, with a great deal of information and a fair degree of interaction. But if you find the whole idea of going into Second Life a bit of a chore, you can always get information from the related website.

+++

UPDATE 3rd May, 2008: My anonymous recent commenter points out that the build has been re-done, and you can read more about it here.

A Peek into Princeton

This post first appeared at 3pointD... but here you get full set of pictures.

The number of universities entering the virtual world of Second Life never ceases to amaze me. One that I have been keeping an eye on for some time is Princeton. It has been closed to casual strollers while construction proceeds, but following a bit of string-pulling, I was able to get an advance preview earlier this week. I have only one small problem: the amount of information I now have is so huge it is going to take all of my ingenuity -- and there’s precious little of that -- to prune it down to the bare essentials. The sim will not formally open to the public until the next academic year, but much of the work is now complete.

Incidentally, aware that I over-use the term "iconic" I have opted in this post to go with "signature" instead. Time will tell whether this is a sensible move.

My tour guide was the charming and ridiculously well-informed (not to mention often downright hilarious) Persis Trilling, who, apart from heading up the Princeton in-house IT education support services, is something of an expert on the History of Architecture and is overseeing the build in Second Life.

There is a strong architectural spine running at 45 degrees across the island, along which several of Princeton’s signature buildings are situated. On arrival you find yourself facing a simulation of Nassau Hall. The original was, at the time of its completion in 1756, the largest stone building in the colonies. However, a couple of fires in the 19th century put paid to that, and the building now standing -- and reflected in this Second Life build -- dates from the 1850’s, though the college continued to tinker with it for many years. Clearly some compromises have to be made when looking to reproduce buildings in Second Life, and in the case of Nassau Hall there is a great simplification of the interior -- with 2 large rooms set up for seminar groups of around a dozen participants, and what appears to be a debating chamber. The texturing of the building, indeed, of all the buildings in this sim, is excellent.

Behind you as you arrive is a simulation of Chancellor Green Student Center, which was originally the college library building and dates from the 1870s. It reeks of Victorian Gothic. Inside is a library (surprise!), which the college plans to build into a Second Life-based online resource, together with a couple of informal meeting rooms that would house around 6 people.

The third major building along the spine is Alexander Hall. Following some hiccups with construction of the simulation, this has been taken on by CJ Carnot of New Media Consortium and is currently being reworked, but even the version I saw was most impressive. Again, as with the other buildings, the texturing brings out a great sense of physical presence. The actual building, built in 1892, was designed (and still serves) as a convocation hall for commencement exercises and other large gatherings. It therefore made sense to preserve this function in Second Life. This is where concerts and many meetings will be held. [Given the current state of reconstuction, I don't have any good pictures of this building]

Off to one side of this trio of signature Princeton buildings lies another jewel -- but this time there is no Real World counterpart. The Art Gallery is the work of Canadian master-builder Scope Cleaver, and anyone who knows his work will spot the style immediately. Persis was full of praise for the way in which Mr. Cleaver has gone about fulfilling his brief: "If Chancellor Green is about Ruskin's seven lamps, Scope’s building has them in spades too. He is just using a different architectural vocabulary.The sense of craft; of expression of essential human qualities and the emotive use of light and space is a lot like the more modest drama of Chancellor Green." She went on: "It's a very nice build, and I think reflects well on the existing major buildings -- each one perfectly modern in its day, in fact, forward-looking. I showed him a lot of spaces that I admired. He did not copy anyone but respected an element of each design. I told him what I liked about each -- so a little Carlo Scarpa; a little Gehry; a little James Stirling."

So what is the aim of the Princeton island? Is it just an architectural display? The current aim is to offer classroom sessions and writing seminars for the Schools of Architecture and Visual Arts. There is also a human behaviour experiment being designed for the island. They will also be offering performances, "cocktail parties" and conferences, recognizing that in Second Life an island needs people if it is to be of any value. As for information, the plan is to offer a rich set of resources, including RSS feeds, podcasts and vodcasts. There is already a shop offering free Princeton shirts (the closest I'm ever likely to having one!) and a number of training notecards for would-be builders.

There is more on this island that I have not covered -- for example, the Prospect Garden,
and the debating society buildings -- but hopefully this gives you a feel for what to expect in September, when we may all get a chance to visit. Thanks to Persis for giving me far more information than I could ever hope to include in this posting, and for being such a gracious host.

Masters of Digital Media Move House

One of the first academic sites I visited in Second Life, back in the days before I started this blog, was Great Northern Way Campus . GNWC is a collaboration between 4 Canadian colleges: The University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. The Finning Tractor Corporation donated a chunk oif their site just east of downtown Vancouver, on Great Northern Way, and this is where the Real Life campus has taken shape.

GNWC came to Second Life in the second half of 2006. Using the services of Canadian master-builder Scope Cleaver, they erected a large, ultra-modern facility on one of the mainland sims (Erie , if memory serves). The build was tied in with their Masters of Digital Media programme.

Today, while pottering around my local neighbourhood in SL, I happened upon the island "University Project." I put 2 and 2 together, and made a calculated judgement that this was something to do with "projects" and "universities" (though perhaps, in the singular) and therefore could be interesting. An added bonus was the fact that I could actually get in.

It turns out that GNWC have de-camped from the mainland and now have a whole sim to play with. Scope's building has come over intact, but now new buildings are emerging. This is still early days, as you can see from the bottom-most photo, where the objects are still textured in "plywood", but it will be interesting to see how this develops. It must be a relief to get off the mainland!


If you've never seen around a Scope Cleaver building then can I recommend you pop along to see this one? I think it's just brilliant.


Finally, you might find this PDF interesting and entertaining.

Texas State Technical College West Texas

Enough of such tomfoolery. I've been trying (off and on) for some time to get in to the 3-sim island of Texas State Technical College (TSTC). If you take a look at it on a map, perhaps you'll understand why. One of the sims has been modelled to resemble the college logo, while another looks to be remarkably detailed and complete. Yet on previous attempts I have not been able to get in. Today, while at something of a loose end, I gave it another go - and lo & behold, I got in.

I was immediately presented with a notecard explaining that the site is still under development, but despite this management of expections I was heartily impressed with the quality - and quantity - of the build to date. The build team comprises members of the college Digital Imaging and Design department, I suspect augmented by some experienced SL builders. For example, in addition to the staples of sim design, like a dancefloor, the site includes a games area and a photo studio. The textures are well-worked and lifelike (even if they don't come out that way in the pictures below). I've also included a picture of the TP map, to give you an idea of the layout and facilities.





The college has provided a website dedicated to its "vCampus". As they explain it: "One of the main draws for educators in using Second Life is for the improvement of interaction and expression among learners. This 'three-dimensional', virtual reality experience is a great advantage over the traditional online learning systems that education currently embraces. Faculty and staff have worked diligently together to allow TSTC West Texas to debut our first course offerings in Second Life during the summer 2007 semester."

One nagging question in my mind is: Who is this aimed at?
The sim makes for an impressive campus, but there is limited meeting space (so far) and little indication of how it could be used for education. Rather, it looks more like a showcase - a demonstration of what can be achieved. As usual, if you know better, then please post a comment, as I would like to know what objective(s) the sim is designed to meet.

UPDATE: See the comments for a response on the questions posed above. Thanks Nicka.