Linden Lab summer project
Brett Atwood managing editor
Brett Atwood spent his summer in San Francisco working as a managing editor for Linden Research, Inc. (a.k.a. Linden Lab), maker of the leading 3D online digital world Second Life. In this capacity, he coordinated a complete design and content revamp of the popular Secondlife.com Web site. The effort, which debuted Aug. 28, aims to maximize downloads of the Second Life application. The site was also adjusted to better evangelize the technology to its various publics, including mainstream consumers, business partners, nonprofits, academic institutions, international media and investors. As part of this initiative, Brett conducted an audit of the site's previous traffic and click-through patterns using Google Analytics and CrazyEgg metrics measurement tools.
Second Life has generated a lot of publicity lately. The 3D service was the subject of a cover story in the July 30 issue of Newsweek (see: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19876812/site/newsweek/page/0/) and has been featured prominently on several national newscasts (ABC, NBC, CNN) over the summer. Further, an upcoming episode of "CSI" will feature the site as a key plot point and will have a companion in-world site (http://valleywag.com/tech/virtual-worlds/csi-second-life-promises-to-be-a-crime-scene-itself-290001.php).
The 3D service has also gained traction in the academic community as a new outlet for distance learning. Washington State University (http://www.dnews.com/archived-story/Local/74729/) and the University of Idaho (http://www.uiargonaut.com/content/view/4180/1/) opened "virtual campuses" over the summer. Among the other campuses participating are Harvard, Oxford and Princeton. A complete list of participating universities can be found at: http://simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL
Brett will be conducting a Visual Reasoning seminar about Second Life for the Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology in the coming weeks. An updated schedule can be found at: http://ctlt.wsu.edu/ctlt/visual