Ignatius Onomatopoeia

Bucky is correct. Doggie is barking up the wrong tree. With the ability to export entire builds and port them into any OS grid, it's a no-brainer why we educators are going to migrate. And increasingly, we have the knowledge base on our campuses to host our own grids. Just as we do Apache servers. It's called back to the future. Right now, it's 1993. I'm sure AOL users thought they were cutting edge, too. @Rockerduck, there ain't no paradise. That's an ancient myth in a bunch of holy books or a modern one in Conde Nast Traveler. But there is a captive audience (students) who like to use simulations for education. Frankly, in my experience, they enjoy it more than writing another paper. And if they don't use the sim after a class ends, so what? Education has too long been focused on retaing users for LL to pump for money. Goodbye to all that.

Yanni wrote: "1) an educational institution as stated above that is implementing a tuition increase cannot sustain the effect of an increase to their sims as that would probably be less than .01 percent of the money from that increase. 2) I dont understand why in this economic climate, the employees, professors, etc. of that institution feel they are automatically due a raise every year. " I'm not sure where you get these data...source please? At my school, even in good times, those with badly subpar annual evals for teaching and research--and we are a teaching-intensive school where it counts--got no raises. I can only speak for my school re: tuition increases. We have a huge and lavish physical plant to maintain (and that students and parents demand in the free market of higher ed for schools like ours). We have mandatory and generous health benefits for all full-time employees. We offer need-blind financial aid to great students, up to 100% of need. Salaries are not the biggest part of our budget pool. Most of my peers at other schools are facing budget cuts, furloughs, and even layoffs (if non-tenured). Our faculty got no raises last year, and we are a relatively well funded school that did not suffer much in the downturn: other schools lost 50% or more of their endowments. We lost about 20%. My school at least is trying not to cut student services. Elsewhere, it's a nightmare for faculty, staff, and students. Ask anyone in the Cal State system about what is happening. My nephew, a tenured full professor at VA Commonwealth, saw his microbiology classes for med-school-bound seniors bloat from 40 students (who did papers and projects) to 200 per section. He could only manage multiple-choice tests because he lost all graduate help. They have had no raises since 2008 and stopped hiring new faculty for a full year. That is modern higher ed in America. It's being dismantled by State Houses with an agenda, and even private schools are cutting back. So check the current state of education before you slam us; my colleagues put in 60+ hour weeks for less pay than they'd make in the private sector. Our budgets have been trimmed 5% in each of the last two years, as costs increase. Thus, no money for a "frill" like SL. We'll go fund out of pocket or get OpenSim funding now, if we can. I'm glad, in a sense, that LL cut the discount. It forces us to invent and prove our worth to assessment folks. I'm confident we can.

Bluesky, Lorraine, I just found out the answer to this Q: "I haven't told anyone there about this yet but I know what their answer will be. I've been quizzed about the costs of SL already this year and told that with all the cut backs there is no extra money to spend on SL." Our island will close in January for this exact reason. Well, there goes LL's $150 per month from us. Upshot: I've got a whole region on a Reaction Grid-hosted private grid that I'll use for less than $20 per month. I'll pay out of pocket and rebuild our simulation there for future classes. And I can back up all my data locally and put it on other OpenSim grids if needed. Educators remember who shafts us. We won't be back.

Vick asked, very reasonably, "I always wondered, if I promise not to make a profit, could I apply for LL funding to buy me a sim?" No, Vick. You now have it all backwards! But if you become a land-baron, you will still get a nice discount: http://regentestatessl.com/wordpress/?p=61 Tateru Nino reveals what is likely to happen: http://dwellonit.taterunino.net/2010/10/06/bikini-season/ Plan B time, folks who are NOT educators or non-profits. What will YOU do if LL sells out to someone who wants to gut the product and could care less for your little pixelized life? Many of us in the non-profit sector saw this coming and have been exploring our options. Now the exodus is here. God bless you all. You'll need that as we leave you to the tender mercies of Linden Lab. If you own one or two sims and suddenly find your tier jacked up (by Jumpin' Jack Linden) in the near future.

@Treasure, I'd bet a bunch of Lindens are meeting regularly to come up with a sanctioned reply to this firestorm. Nelson only posted the company line. Now we await the palliatives.

Marielle asked, "Phil Linden repeatedly stated he's "interim" CEO. Now i was looking at LL's job offerings at http://lindenlab.hrmdirect.com/employment/openings.php?sort=da& . Is Phil planning to stay devoted to us :-) ? ...and if not, did LL miss to post the CEO position or has it already been decided behind the scenes ?" No. He's a businessman. His devotion is to the bottom line and perhaps the company he made. That's not evil; it's just the way the system works. Rosedale buttered educators up at SLCC and let this increase move forward. I have lost faith in a man whose vision I respected. As "Interim" CEO, he's come back to either save the company or, it seems more and more likely, to arrange to sell it to someone else. In the end, I've reached the conclusion that either: --Linden Lab does not want the good will and marketing power of having so many educational institutions and nonprofits associated with its product. This seems far-fetched, but that would make eliminating the discount actually a reasonable decision. OR --Linden Lab is so desperate for an income stream that they'll boost prices in hopes that educators have long-term investments in SL and will need to stay for a bit longer. OR --As others have said in this stream and elsewhere, Linden Lab has decided it needs to jettison colleges and universities as soon as their contracts end. That way, they'll avoid breach-of-contract cases by a host of well-funded and talented legal teams in US higher ed. My own school's amiable lawyers are a scary bunch when they go into action. If it's #2 or #3, look out other users. Don't think for a second that LL won't sell you out the second they can get a buyer. And most of you won't be able to muster a legal challenge to what they do. I don't know why another company would want the database or our user base, given the stigma of the adult content--a fact, not a value judgement by me because I don't care what you do with your avatars. Will another company need us, except to exploit our information for marketing purposes? They might want some of the core technologies and staff from Linden Lab. As for the fate of your virtual goods and invented "lives" in SL? Just read the TOS: it is not exactly "all your IP belong to us" but you've no recourse if they dump the database after a buy-out offer. And there will be real suicides among those who call SL "home" and have complicated social relationships here. That saddens me.

"Seriously, you're going to just sit here and gloat about the loss of education in SL because you got personally peeved at one provider. You clearly have no understanding of karma." Thank you, ninjafoo. We educators may seem like whiners since we got a deal others did not. But I've no confidence that social users won't next see a doubling of their tiers. LL can do whatever it wants when a contract renews. Just you wait. And I feel bad that some edu-prude interfered with doggie's roleplay, whatever the heck he was up to. Yeah, my Dean would understand that one: Dean: "I hear that prices went up in that Second World game you use." Iggy: "Um, that's Second Life." Dean (shuffles windows on his computer until invoice pops up): "So now we have to pay $300 monthly for a fake island?" Iggy: "Well, it's renting server space." Dean: "You pay $700 annually for that online scheduling system you use for over 2000 students each year, right?" Iggy: "Yes, and we get instant phone support and technical trouble-shooting for the data on their servers." Dean: "What does this Linden Labs company provide for our $3600?" Iggy: "Not so much." Dean: "So buy a server and talk to I.T. about support. On your three-year replacement cycle that's a lot cheaper. Get one of our in-house grants to attend a training class on running this OpenSim thing." Iggy: "I like that idea." Dean: "Say....you mean someone can be a dog in this Second World...Life thing?" Iggy: "True." Dean: "And what would a dog do in Second Life?" Iggy: "What dogs do in real life, but talk and fly too." Dean: "Get in touch with purchasing about that server." It is best that we leave SL. Seriously. If we are going to seem serious to the world beyond we need to bid a fond goodbye to social users. We don't let y'all use our intranets or a lot of our Web 2.0 content. It's for the paying customers called "students" and our colleagues on the faculty and staff. Goodbye and thanks for all the prims, LL.

They have to make money to remain in business. Granted. The sad fact of this remains that they'll force many nonprofits and educational institutions to cut their holdings, resulting in little or no revenue growth. Those on grants are royally screwed, in the middle of a fiscal year. Faced with far lower prices on OpenSim grids, educators should just leave. We have talented creators in our midst and we can rough it while we build the content we'll need to run our simulations and meeting spaces. I hope that social users join us in the protest too, because they'll be after you with fee increases next. Inworldz is looking pretty good now for social users, isn't it? Just as Reactiongrid and its kin are going to get a windfall from an edu-exodus. Nelson, I am sorry you pulled the short straw and had to share this news. But hey, they'll sack you with the next layoff anyhow. Nothing personal, I'll sure they'll say as they show you the door.

Linden Lab has the management abilities of The Three Stooges. And so much for Philip's promise at SLCC to be dedicated to education. Dedicated to shutting us down. My next simulation built with colleagues will be in OpenSim.