Rutgers Sim Emergency Resolution

I'm now on a mission to find ways to back up and archive virtual assets for the future. The current Rutgers University build does have the group and owner permissions set so that we can back up our assets and move them to OpenSim as needed. If there was a service available through Linden Lab that allowed us to pay for sim backup and restoration I would sign up in a minute. This would eliminate the current dilemma, of having a sim created without the correct group, and ownership permissions.

It's really unfortunate that a single budgetary decision or practical decision can wipe out untold hours of work and effort by many people. I did reach out to the stake holders, and spent valuable time giving people the opportunity for feedback. I've examined the sim with multiple people across Second Life. We've looked at it technically to determine if backing up to Open Sim would be an option. It is not. Even if a technical solution was available permissions and copyright issues cannot be obtained to make it possible.

We're taking the option to return the objects to owner and reuse the sim in the future version of Livingston Campus. I will be making effort to find places across our current sim to integrate the ideas of the OIRT sim into our full Rutgers University Virtual World. I'm looking forward to working with those stake holders to bring the entire Rutgers Second Life environment to a new level of quality, and commitment to virtual world best practices. The items will be returned to owner at 2pm EST, April 29th, 2010.

--Rick Anderson (Rk Jinn)

Sim Land Emergency Follow UP

I've been meeting with people through out the Rutgers University community about the OIRT and instructor sims. I've been getting some great feedback. The proposed plan is being revised based on it. So far it's clear the scale needs to increase to take advantage of the space relationships in Second Life. This has to be balanced by the land available. Also, it makes more sense to really show case the newest and most interesting elements of the Future of Livingston in Second Life. This means taking some liberties with the physical geography. An 8 sim build can't really fit into a 2 sim build.

The feedback from the OIRT group about the OIRT sim is that they are OK with returning the objects to the owners and allowing for the sim to be reused. However, it was one of the first two efforts to represent Rutgers University in Second LIfe. I'm reaching out the University Libraries to find out if they have an archival interest in the sim, and if they are able to archive it in RUCore. Additionally, I'm also reaching out the Duraspace project to see what they think of archiving 3D objects and builds. This should really be an interesting conversation I'm hope blog about the results soon.

So plans are still be considered, input is highly appreciated, and I will get back to you all here about what's happening.

--Rick Anderson (Rk Jinn)

Sim land management emergency

A bit dramatic, but accurate. The Future Livingston Campus Creation project needs more space in order to be done at the correct scale. Also, we have an incredibly short build time everything has to be done by the beginning of the week of April 24th If there was a cost effective way to get more land this wouldn't be necessary. Additionally, homesteads cannot be used because the prim count of the buildings we're creating.

Our only option is to use the land of RUCE 5 and the OIRT sims in order to complete the build out properly, to retain consistent scale, and qualitiy. For RUCE 5 we're going to make available Open Sim. We have at least 16 sims in that environment we can use. So for short term projects that need sim space for building, terraforming we'll will help facilitate the use of Rutgers Open Sim for that. We will be able to get another instructor/student RUCE 5 sim, but not immediately. Ron Fest, (Ron Ghostaltar) will be facilitate account creation for that environment.

The OIRT sim has a problem. Group owner ship settings are not set to the land owner or a land group. The best I can do is take photos and video of the sim, and the return the objects to the original owners. This is very unfortunate because of the number of good ideas embodied in the space. I do want to support that effort, but we'll have to work on integrating it into the entire set of sims. If you are an owner of any of the objects in that space let me know ASAP.

I'm sending this note out as wide and far as I can. If anyone has any feedback on this issue. Get it to me by the end of the day Thursday, March 18th, 2010
.

Rutgers Day 2010, Virtual Future Livingston Campus

Big news. Rutgers Day is going to be large in the virtual world and the real world. Dr. Ray Caprio has asked us to build out the future Livingston Campus. This is approximately a 10 sim build. The first two sims are going to debut in our Second Life environment. The entire 1:1 scale build will be built in Open Sim, unless their is a cost effective way to bring it into Second Life directly.

So hold the date April 24, for Rutgers Day 2010.