Terrence Linden

The 4th Annual Best Practices in Education (VWBPE 2011) conference is just around the corner! It will take place in Second Life on March 17-19, 2011. Attendance and presentations grows each year and the VWBPE has become widely regarded as one of the most important inworld education events of the year and a great opportunity for you, as an educator, to share knowledge and experiences with your colleagues from around the globe. Last year, more than 2,000 people from 69 countries and territories attended 170 presentations over an action-packed 48 hours. This year’s event will again include the popular international stream and, for the first time, a machinima stream--giving all budding metaverse directors an opportunity to showcase their work. We also welcome our recently transferred Teen Second Life educators to this year’s event and look forward to learning more about the great work that they do. The conference won’t be all work though. Continuing in the spirit of past years, fun social activities will have people buzzing over the entire 53 hour event. In the words of the event coordinator, "Dust off your best frock, or tux, and get ready for the gala awards ceremony. We’re told it’s the place to be seen!" Details about the entire range of events and presentations will be available when the organizing committee releases the program in the next couple of weeks. Until then, if you’ve got a question about streams, or anything else relating to the event, then you can contact the organizers at info@vwbpe.org or check the official website at www.vwbpe.org. The gateway sim, VWBPE Gateway, will open to the public on March 16, so feel free to drop by to say ‘hello’ to the organizers. And, if you’re interested in volunteering, then the event organizers would love to hear from you at volunteers@vwbpe.org. VWBPE 2011 is being organized and run by the education community for the education community – it is YOUR conference. It is a FREE conference that is made possible by the generous contributions of time, money, and facilities by volunteers and conference partners: Linden Lab, Thinkerer Studios, Rockcliffe, SpotOn3D, and Designing Digitally. While acknowledging the generous sponsorship already in place, the conference organizers advise that extra funds for activities such as providing transcribers and recording the sessions for viewing after the event are always welcome! If you or someone you know is interested in sponsoring, then please direct them here. VWBPE 2011 will be your chance to join the educator community, share best practices and celebrate all that is great about this vibrant and important community. We look forward to another great conference and seeing you there!

Following up on our previous announcement, today we are transferring accounts and land held by 16- and 17-year-olds in Teen Second Life to Second Life's Main Grid. 13-15 year old users not affiliated with an organization will not be transferring, but we are excited to see you inworld when the time comes! We are beginning now and it will take a few hours to complete. Once it is done, Teen Second Life will be officially closed. If you have any questions, then check out the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Second Life wiki which provides additional details about the transition. I would like to give a warm welcome to our new Main Grid Residents! You are a creative and resourceful group, and I've been amazed by what I've learned from you over the past few months. I have seen what you've accomplished on the Teen Grid and I'm excited to see what the future holds for you now that you have joined the larger Second Life community. Welcome, and I'll see you inworld!

Hi Boaz, apologies for missing this earlier. For the purpose that you state, age-verification and identity-verification serve the same purpose. If you check that box, then you will be saying that only accounts that have registered as 18 or older, and have passed through the web identity verification system will be allowed.

Hi Calade, per the blog post, all land on the teen grid will be transferred.

Hi Cherry, privacy and safety/security is important to the teen residents as well as adults. We did not ignore what you have raised; we decided to weigh on the side of giving equal privacy rights to both our teen and adult users.

Hi Arwyn, I'm sorry, but I just accidentally deleted your first post! I meant to hit reply but hit the wrong button. I'm going to try and get it restored. But you're right, it has been a few weeks since I've spoken to the teens, and I will be sure to again soon!

When we announced that we would be closing Teen Second Life and bringing our under-18 Residents to the Main Grid, we also made clear our intention not to compromise the experience that teens have access to. Today, I’m happy share our plan to create rich and enjoyable Second Life experiences for teens, while keeping in mind their security and safety when joining the Main Grid. A Rich and Secure Experience for Teens Our goal is to provide a safe, secure, and rewarding experience to all Second Life Residents, no matter their age. Accordingly, we are putting safeguards in place on the Main Grid specific to the following teen age groups: For 13- to 15-year-olds: 13- to 15-year-old Residents will be restricted to the estates of a sponsoring institution. These Residents will not have access to inworld search, nor will they be able to purchase from our Web-based Marketplace. For 16- and 17-year-olds: 16- and 17-year-old Residents will have access to all SL regions rated General (i.e., containing content appropriate for all ages), on the Mainland and private islands. These Residents will not be able to enter Moderate- nor Adult-rated regions, even if they have payment information on file and/or have used our Web-based identity verification system. These Residents will be able to communicate fully with and befriend all other users on the Main Grid. This includes local chat and IM. With nearly 5,000 General-rated regions in Second Life, the area that will be accessible to our 16- and 17-year-old Residents will dwarf the 100 regions currently available on Teen Second Life, giving them far more space to create, explore, and experience their online environment and what they can do there. Our 16- and 17-year-old account holders will also be able to communicate fully with all other users on the Main Grid (unless they have been muted or otherwise restricted). This was an important decision for us, and one we think will make Second Life richer for all Residents. Welcoming Teens in the New Year Bringing teens to the Main Grid is now less than two months away. We plan to shut down the Teen Grid and transfer accounts to the Main Grid in early January, once the holidays have passed. Here’s what to expect: When the teen grid closes, 13- to 15-year-olds will no longer be able to register for Second Life unless they are brought in through an affiliated organization. On the Main Grid, these younger Residents will not be able to travel outside the estates of their sponsoring organizations. 16- and 17-year-olds registering for Second Life will be directed to the Main Grid rather than to Teen Second Life. We will transfer all 16-17s remaining on Teen SL to the main SL grid, as well as those 13-15s that are affiliated with TSL Resident institutions. This includes all the inventory of those accounts. (The accounts of our other 13- to 15-year-old Residents will become inactive, but will be automatically restored when they turn 16.) All of the land on Teen Second Life will be transferred to the Main Grid. This includes teen mainland, teen private islands, and teen organizations’ estates. At that point, Teen Second Life will be officially closed -- but the experience of teens in Second Life is only just beginning. We strongly believe that teens have as much to contribute to the Second Life community as their adult counterparts, and we do not want to restrict the flow of ideas and information between the two groups. We all have much to learn from each other. As we continue to focus on making the Second Life experience faster, easier, and more fun for all Residents, we’ve also made a number of improvements to search to provide teens with additional security and control. We look forward to seeing the new kinds of creativity and community our teen Residents will bring to the Main Grid. Welcome, teens!

Hi Ayesha, We are taking issues related to safety and security (for both the 16 and 17 year olds, as well as the adults) around this move very seriously. As I stated in a couple previous posts, many of the issues raised by Residents have been/are being taken into account by us and I will be letting everyone know specifics on this matter. I appreciated everyone's patience until we release more detail - specific timing of this release is still TBD.

It has been several weeks since we announced that Teen Second Life, our Second Life grid for 13- to 17-year-olds, will be closing at the end of this year, and that we would be admitting 16- and 17-year-olds to the main grid. Today, we are excited to tell you that we will be able to continue serving all of the educational and not-for-profit communities of the Teen Grid, including those that serve 13- to 15-year-olds, without an interruption in service. Since our announcement, we’ve been speaking with many people from the educational and not-for-profit communities in Teen Second Life to better understand their needs and determine what measures would be necessary to create a safe, secure, and collaborative environment for their students and faculty. I’m happy to say that we are able to meet these needs, and allow 13- to 15-year-olds access to limited locations on the main grid, with appropriate controls for administrators. We will implement these controls and transfer these rich and exciting projects from Teen Second Life before the end of this year. The 13- to 15-year-old students affiliated with these organizations will be unable to visit any regions except those of their hosting organization, and those accounts will not have the ability to search the Grid or to purchase items from the Marketplace. Unlike on Teen Second Life, adults that work with these students will now be a part of the broader Second Life experience, allowing them to bring rich educational content to their students. The ability to invite organization-approved guest speakers and other approved members of the community to safely interact these students will further enhance their learning experience. For more details, see the Teen Second Life transition wiki page. We are happy to provide this support for the educational community in Second Life, and we look forward to the community continuing to create innovative and exciting projects!