Milton Broome

It’s an unbelievable decision by Linden Lab. Innovators and educationalists everywhere will reflect on this decision in years to come as (another) one of the key errors in the company’s lifespan. It’s tough times all over but this surely will have a wide knock-on effect for the legitimacy of Second Life as an educational platform. We’ll find an alternative solution of course, and many developers will benefit from the transition. Second Life still offers the best 3D virtual world experience for teaching and learning. For now and over the next 12 months or so the challenge will be to use our Second Life presence wisely. Educationalist will have to pool together on the main grid and share resources. Some developments simply cannot be migrated to another platform because of the permissions issue. I envisage not a mass exodus from Second Life to OpenSim or another virtual world but a pruning of Second Life educational development. I’m not yet convinced that there is a workable alternative platform that can offer sufficient functional quality. We’ll need to reuse materials and space, share and collaborate more. We’ll have to help each other and adapt to the inevitable restructuring and changes this will bring. It was never going to be an easy journey. We’ll have to work smarter! Milton Broome – Avatar and Virtual Worlds Educator