Hacking Second Life
MIT Media Lab - IAP 2007

Wiki: http://wiki.media.mit.edu/bin/view/Secondlife

Description: Second Life is a 3-D virtual world platform in which all content is entirely built and owned by its residents. In this environment you can create 3-D objects, breathe life into them with scripts, and collaborate with people in a persistent and shared virtual space. Like the Web, Second Life is a platform for a wide range of activities such as entertainment, socializing, business, education, and creative expression.

This workshop will be an introduction to Second Life, giving participants a temporary space in the middle of the virtual world where they can experiment with building and scripting projects. We'll also explore some of the many interesting places and applications of Second Life, meeting and interacting with Residents from around the world.

Our workshop space in Second Life will be hosted here. There is also a very active community of students and educators already using Second Life, which you can learn more about here. To learn more about the Second Life scripting language, check out the LSL Wiki. For examples of interesting Educational Locations in Second Life, please see this wiki page.

This workshop will introduce participants to the Second Life virtual world and its various technical capabilities, such as building and scripting. A representative from Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, will lead the workshop with the assistance of several experienced Second Life residents local to MIT. The workshop takes place over three weekly sessions. The sessions are cumulative and participants are expected to attend all three.

  • Session 1 (Tuesday, 16 January 2007): Introduction to Second Life, what's being done there, and how to do (build/script/etc.) things there.
  • Session 2 (Tuesday, 23 January 2007): Develop project ideas individually or in groups. Second Life accounts and land will be provided.
  • Session 3 (Tuesday, 30 January 2007): Present project results and discuss future initiatives.

Schedule: Three sessions 2:00pm-5:00pm Tuesdays of 16, 23, 30 January 2007.

Location: MIT Media Lab room 235 (E15-235).

Facilitators: Pathfinder Linden (Linden Lab Community and Education Manager), Pattie Maes (MIT Media Lab Professor), Josh Lifton, Jeff Orkin, and Lis Sylvan (MIT Media Lab graduate students).

Interested?: To ask a question or reserve a spot in the workshop, send e-mail to sl-iap-org [at] media [dot] mit [dot] edu. See also the official IAP listing. In preparation for the workshop, we recommend participants should sign up for a free Second Life account, login to Second Life at least once, and e-mail your avatars name (first and last) to pathfinder [at] lindenlab [dot] com. You will need a Second Life account to participate in this workshop.

Background Reading: