Sounds like something worthwhile to me the whole virtual worlds in education initiative is wide open 
and we shuld investigate all possibilities.

Rob.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "jeremy hunsinger" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: [VIRTUALWORLDS] OpenSim hosting for academics


>>>
>>>
>> And being jumped by a half naked av with wings, bling shoes and a
>> floating penis is a is a part of class as well?
>> http://www.wintermute.nl/gg2/grmisc01/09.jpg
>
> yes, actually, you cannot get quality griefing anymore can you.... all  you get is random events 
> like you'd get walking down the street in NYC  or anywhere else, very saddening.  However, several 
> professors and I  have come up with the solution that if you would like your class  properly 
> griefed, as it used to be done....  we'll do it for you, just  give us a time and a date. 
> (really, i'm not kidding)
>
>
>>
>>
>> In any case, my point is, there's always many easy reasons not to. 18
>> years ago many people were thinking 'the internet' was a hype and it
>> would go away. I think OpenSimulator offers many, many possibilities
>> that Second Life doesn't and doesn't have many, many disadvantages
>> Second Life does. Do we need to replace the one with the other? No, we
>> don't. Do we, as educational institutions UK wide sit back to see if  and
>> when somebody (like IBM) will develop and subsequently sell us  something
>> we can use?
>> Running an Open Simulator server is like running your own Apache
>> Webserver from the basement, providing autonomy, independence,  control,
>> saving money since you don't have to pay an ISP for it. And using it  is
>> one thing, teaching people how to do this another.
>
> Don't get me wrong, I'm installing opensim for a project right now.   It is not a teaching project 
> that involves simulation or virtual  worlds.  It is a proposed archival project.  It has it's 
> place and its  use.  I think we just have to be very wary of the technological choice  and the 
> reasons behind it.   for teaching in a protected area, i'd  definitely go for a different system 
> than SL, but it wouldn't be  Opensim, I'm probably use a version of croquet.
>>
>>
>> I think it's a brilliant initiative to have a serious look into this.
>> Count me in.
>> ~gg/~ff
>>> On Aug 29, 2008, at 6:13 AM, J Ross Nicoll wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> The main counter arguments I'm aware of are that you lose the giant
>>>> library of pre-existing content in Second Life. On the other hand,
>>>> I'm not sure about other universities but most of our core content
>>>> is developed locally, and one of our core goals is that everything
>>>> be copiable, so you'll have a small but entirely free library of
>>>> textures, scripts etc. to use. Depending on timescales, it may even
>>>> be that the Open Grid Protocol is far enough along by the time we go
>>>> live, that you can pick up your own items in SL, teleport to our
>>>> grid, and drop it (the teleport works right now, from the SL beta
>>>> grid anyway, but inventory doesn't).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Jeremy Hunsinger
>>> Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
>>> Virginia Tech
>>> Information Ethics Fellow
>>> Center for Information Policy Research
>>>
>>>
>>> Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
>>> --Pablo Picasso
>>>
>>> Access the list, archives and filestore via the web on http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/VIRTUALWORLDS
>>>
>>> Email has been scanned for viruses by Altman Technologies' email  management service - 
>>> www.altman.co.uk/emailsystems
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> \o/        Don't fight back. Fight forward        \o/
>> \o/ What I'm thinking outside of isn't even a box \o/
>>
>> Ferdinand Francino aka Gwynn Gunawan
>> Project Manager CU There
>> GCU Second Life (Web 3.D) Presence
>> http://www.caledonian.ac.uk/cuthere
>>
>>
>> Glasgow Caledonian University is a registered Scottish charity,  number SC021474
>>
>> Access the list, archives and filestore via the web on http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/VIRTUALWORLDS
>
> Jeremy Hunsinger
> Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
> Political Science
> Virginia Tech
> Information Ethics Fellow
> Center for Information Policy Research
>
>
>
> Everything you can imagine is real.
> --Pablo Picasso
>
> Access the list, archives and filestore via the web on http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/VIRTUALWORLDS
> 

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