I haven't heard of Second Life before this. I just took a quick look at it, and it is really cool sounding. When I have more time, I definitely plan on checking it out more.

It is at the top of my "list"

~Michael

It's really big in the online community buff world right now. There have been several events held there including one hosted by the Creative Commons group and one featuring Howard Rheingold.

I look forward to seeing you and other TS members there!

I'm also investigating the idea of doing something there, the Omidyar community have an island for their events too and Joi Ito is also planning something similar. On SL I'm Gillux Geer, see you there :)

That sounds like a spiffy idea! Now I *really* have to carve out some time to develop my avatar… see you online soon, Glitteractica Cookie! BLOCKED SCRIPTemoticon();
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It sounds interesting, and thought to take a look but baulked when registering and the site asked for a Credit Card number for "identification purposes"... Reading the promo's it seems more like a gamers zone - am I at the right place? (http://secondlife.com/)

Don

You can use your cell phone number, if you don't want to use your credit card number to register for free. They just don't want people continuing to register for free under different user names b/c when you register for free they start you out with some free linden dollars (the currency used in 2nd Life). There would be no reason to join the premium paid account, if you never ran out of money. I guess as an Aussie, you may not be able to use your cell phone number, but it is worth a shot. No, it is not the realm of gamers, it is more a group of academics and virtual community buffs.

For example, the Creative Commons group had a salon there, and Lawrence Lessig was the guest speaker. Recently, Howard Rheingold spoke there. Other orgs of note, aside from us, that are planning events within Second Life are the New Media Consortium http://www.nmc.org/ and the Omidyar Network.

It's really worth putting cynicism aside with this one!

UPDATE:

We have set up a TechSoup Group in Second Life now.

For more information on this log onto SecondLife.com and search for the TechSoup.org group.

Let us know if you do and who your avatar is and we can work together to help build community within this virtual world.

Thanks,

Susan

Whoops! I went to check it out and typed in secondlife.ORG by mistake. Don't make the same mistake!

I have made that mistake too...gulp, and it was at WORK! Repeat: Visit Secondlife.COM!

BTW, I just saw that Gillo, aka Gillux Geer has joined the group! I look forward to seeing this group grow and so we can have TS affiliates in other communities.

I balked at the privacy policy, which looks more like a lack of privacy policy.

Any chance of finding a community that has respect for particpants beyond their commercial value?

Helen

Helen,

I don't think the privacy policy is bad at all. What did you take issue with?

Here's the relevant info on SL's terms of service below. Basically they don't share any private info without your express consent, except for legal cases.

http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php

*8.1 Personal Information.* The personal information you provide us during registration is used for Linden's internal purposes only. Linden uses the information it collects to learn what you like and to improve the Service. Linden will not give any of your personal information to any third party without your express approval except: as reasonably necessary to fulfill your service request, to third- party fulfillment houses, customer support, billing and credit verification services, and the like; to comply with tax and other applicable law; as otherwise expressly permitted by this Agreement or as otherwise authorized by you; to law enforcement or other appropriate third parties in connection with criminal investigations and other investigations of fraud; or as otherwise necessary to protect Linden, its agents and other Participants. Linden does not guarantee the security of any of your private transmissions against unauthorized or unlawful interception or access by third parties. Linden can (and you authorize Linden to) disclose any information about you to private entities, law enforcement agencies or government officials, as Linden, in its sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to investigate or resolve possible problems or inquiries, or as otherwise required by law. If you request any technical support, you consent to Linden's remote accessing and review of the computer onto which you load Linden Software for purposes of support and debugging. You agree that Linden may communicate with you via email and any similar technology for any purpose relating to the Service, the Linden Software and any services or software which may in the future be provided by Linden or on Linden's behalf. You agree to be bound by the obligations of the additional Privacy Policy information posted on our website at http://www.secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php.

*8.2 Linden Observation.* You acknowledge and agree that Linden, in its sole discretion, may track, record, observe or follow any and all of your interactions within the Service. Linden may share general, demographic, or aggregated information with third parties about our user base and Service usage, but that information will not include or be linked to any personal information without your consent.

>> You can use your cell phone number (sn)

Unfortunately no go... maybe it's the +61 required for Au but couldn't get it to accept the number. I'm just not about to enter my credit card details for authentication on something as dubious and nebulous as an unsecured web, especially when a Whois on the web returns a CA company called "Linden Lab" who are seemingly not listed anywhere else.

Maybe if some of the benefits of this forum could be explained in more detail it might help reduce concerns over privacy and authentication mechanisms etc ??

Cheers, Don

Hi,
While at the SDForum event in SL on thursday I saw the "techsoup" group title on some avatars. I was excited to see you guys there and joined the SL group yet let shyness get in the way of my IMing the group for information.
My SL name is Seraphima Salsman and I am involved in the SL Library (see my intro for more info).
Please feel free to contact me in game! I am more than happy to assist others who are new to the SL environment, share what we are doing at the library and learn more about what Techsoup is doing there:)

RE: Don and others' concerns

QUT's Faculty of Law recently co-hosted a great World IP Day event in SL, CreativeCommons.org has held events (headliners: Mia Garlick, Lawrence Lessig), the SDForum event I mentioned took place at the same time at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, UC Davis has an interactive exhibit there and many other Universities are popping up. I tell you all this in hopes to assuage some of your concerns:) I too was hesitant to sign on until I spoke to my brother-in-law who is an educator and became aware of active environments there like the SL Campus: http://secondlife.com/education

Hope to see you there!