This years project

My project for the virtual world this year will be based around an assignment for my BTEC National students in Software Development. Each will select a build from the four shown here, which they will have to power from an array of solar voltaic cells. To each I shall then assign a combination of energy requirements such as lights and appliances. While the initial exercise for this has already been written in Java, I have found from previous years that the conversion to Linden Script (oops), given their exposure to structured C also, presents no great difficulty beyond the idea of working in a state driven environment.

I feel the advantage of being able to make use of a dynamic virtual world environment such as OpenSim, allow students to experience their applications running more as a simulation rather than static desktop application, for instance:

•Make use of sun angle in relation to power output
•For sun angles below the horizon then power output will drop to zero
•Factor in virtual world cloud cover
•The impact on the size of an array to a property, they may not all fit onto the roof
•Use excess day power for night storage

Once the project is complete, I shall be posting views and feedback, so you may like to stay in touch for that.

regards Vega

Time to start scripting

Using our OpenSim as a means of encouraging students to explore virtual worlds continues to be increasingly popular. Beyond the building that has been taking place, the next stage is to get them all familiar with scripting. I have been working with Second Life and using it as part of my main stream course delivery for the last couple years now, and that has certainly proved to also be popular. The question is, just how much scripting functionality does OpenSim have by comparison to SL. The way have I decided to approach this is to simply give my students access to the simpler SL scripts and see how they get on, not that I am suggesting for one minute that OpenSim should be a carbon copy of SL, but the approach seems a reasonable way to start. The script library that I am using is at

http://freescriptlibrarysl.co.uk/Main/index.php?title=Main_Page

Once each of the students have run through a series of scripts for testing, I will get them to post their findings to this blog.

Civil order in a virtual world

I am really pleased to see that student building efforts in our new OpenSim is continuing at some pace, and still with little direct help from us Second Lifers, all very encouraging I must say.

From the post title though, you can rightly guess that I am going to blog about something different, so here's a little anecdote, you may find amusing and possibly useful. Given the stage of development that OpenSim is currently at with regard to any restrictions you would otherwise find easy to apply with respect to building in other similar worlds, some students have soon come to realise the ease with which they can construct things anywhere, everywhere, anytime, much to the annoyance of other residents!

What to do? There is always the weapon of first choice of course, verbal warning then next time account suspended, but maybe not the best approach here, instead:-

In this Monday’s class, I knew the group would be more than keen to know the results of a test from the previous week, so the conversation went something like this.

Let me apologise to you all regarding the test results, which I had set time aside for marking on Saturday. The thing is, when I looked out of my window on Saturday morning, I discovered that someone had actually parked a large van on my drive. It took me all the rest of that morning attempting to discover the owner and eventually having to contact the Police to get the vehicle removed, after which I had other more pressing things to do, so you will all have to hang on for a few more days for those results.

With this the whole group began informing me, as to what I should have done to get the vehicle off my drive. Some suggestions I must say were very original, while others clearly illegal and some damn right impossible. Anyway I eventually told them this was just fiction, but given their clear and strong views with regard to the sovereign nature of private property, should we not be prepared to extend such considerations into the virtual world?

The approach-elicited firm nods all round, particularly from one somewhat embarrassed looking individual sitting at the back, typical.

If you are just on the verge of engaging with virtual worlds, please let me encourage you without hesitation, but do be prepared for virtual civil society, its waiting just around the next prim.

In fact I can actually recommend some good reading on the subject:

My Tiny Life by Julien Dibble (a really worthwhile read, you may be surprised by the dates)

Exodus to the Virtual World by Edward Castronova (explores policy and constitution in a virtual world)

I Avatar by Mark Stephen Meadows (takes a more cultural perspective)

Good luck to all, and please stay in touch as we continue out virtual journey here at Bromley, and please feel free to reply with your own experiences.

regards Vega