e-i-consulting and Second Life

Expat Training in Virtual Worlds

2009-12-01T17:55:00.007+01:00

The group Expat Training was established in Second Life with the purpose to provide cross-cultural training for individuals, expatriates and their families in and by using virtual worlds.

http://world.secondlife.com/group/8d5496cf-92cb-9395-21f3-aa6e4ad07608

If you are considering to move to a real foreign destination or major city, you can sign-up to virtual pre-arrival tours and expat meet-ups at these mentioned general locations. Upon demand, such tours are composed in a pre-disposed virtual area of your virtual counterpart.

From a home or office computer, you as expat and your families can download guides, meet at a personal guided tour, get an idea of the layout of the foreign city and the distances involved, and experience the courtesies and customs in the new location before you arrive.

You can also become acquainted with local networking groups and community meet-ups prior to your arrival.

Check our Virtual Help Desk for initial, enabling, and skill building processes as Newbie:

http://second-life-tool-ranking.ning.com/group/virtualhelpdesks

We are also working on a mixed reality service module, and this service also intends to put foot into other virtual domains. Check the Virtual World Navigation Outline for Educators:

http://second-life-tool-ranking.ning.com/notes/Navigation_Outline

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYyukE8qF5I

e-i-consulting
Jakob-Reiner-Str. 36
D-88250 Weingarten
Germany
Mobile: +49-176-54016058
Fax+Voice-To-Email: +49-1212-510437727
Skype: eurominuteman

50MB Email: james.oreilly@web.de
MSN: joreilly@hotmail.de

Google Mail: eurominuteman@googlemail.com
Google Wave: eurominuteman@googlewave.com

Google Wave Team DE > EN-US
http://www.proz.com/team/1426

Second Life: Eurominuteman Jameson

EU-VAT-IdNo.: DE146346525

http://e-i-consulting.blogspot.com/
http://tinyurl.com/virtual-homeoffice

EduNation II Happy Hour For Newbies

2009-09-29T09:55:00.032+02:00

Newbie Social Interaction / Getting Immersive

Our Goal: To provide for cultural activity for those latent (out-world) and lurking (in-world) Second Life Newbies who want to get the enabling, follow-up, and backup service level and support they actually require for a yielding and excellent-quality first Newbie experience.

Don't get marooned. Feel free to join us in-world every Sunday. Food and drinks are free at the EduNation II Clubhouse!

Experience collaborative and 3D virtual sharing and community! Get your free gift box with useful avatar utilities, and shorten your learning curve. It's your action plan for virtual productivity!

Newbie Problem / Incident Management
http://tinyurl.com/problem-incident-management
Second Life Support
http://secondlife.com/support/
Second Life Grid & Disaster Status
http://status.secondlifegrid.net/

Teleport via http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/154/103/21

Schedule
(every Sunday, the following links refer to worldwide times at various cities)
Americas Sundays 20:00 GMT
Europe Sundays 14:00 GMT
Pacific Rim Sundays 08:00 GMT

Click on the icon to add these schedules to your Google Calendar!

Java World Clock (actual time worldwide)

World Sunlight Map

Experienced Hosts From Each Region Are Invited To Join!

Tags & Stuff
Twitter name: newbiehelpdesk
Twitterfall hashtag: #newbiehelpdesk
Flickr photo tag: newbiehelpdesk
Out-World Newbie Help Desk (Facebook, free)
http://tinyurl.com/help-desk-facebook
In-World Newbie Help Desk
(L$100, get your first L$250 here in advance)
http://tinyurl.com/help-desk-second-life
e-Mail: newbie.helpdesk@googlemail.com

Organized by Your Virtual Help Desk in Second Life! We are multi-lingual!

Virtual Homeoffice Services

2009-04-20T07:59:00.022+02:00

Our Virtual Homeoffice Solution for You

Let us match our configuration, please check the Mindmap Overview (requires Adobe Flash)

1. Real 2D

2. Virtual 3D

IBM Virtual World Guidelines
http://work.secondlife.com/

Virtual Learning & How to Give Newbies a Good First Experience
Virtual Office in Second Life (without sound)
A Slideshow with Sound

A sustainable way to save time and travel costs,
and to behave anti-CO2 friendly!

Virtual Use Case: Translation Services & Interpreting in the IT Domain

2009-03-03T09:16:00.003+01:00

Check out how a Collaborative Translation project in the IT domain can be performed in a virtual environment:

http://tinyurl.com/virtual-use-case-translation

In-World 3D Mindmapping

2009-02-25T15:43:00.007+01:00

Why re-invent the wheel over and over, this paves the way to creating 3D project and course planning templates.

Get some more of the scoop at:

http://second-life-tool-ranking.ning.com/group/inworldcourseplanningvia3dmindmapping

Invitation to Add Your Second Life Tool Ranking

2009-02-19T02:33:00.006+01:00

Do you want to know what Second Life tools are the favorites of educators and trainers? Here you have the opportunity to add free Second Life tools to an on-going list and/or rank the existing ones listed. Then look at the results. A form for non-free ones is also provided.

As soon as the statistical sample size N of the entries make some sense, Part C will be implemented. Part A and B are still structuring in their beta form. Your initial data entry helps to improve this structure.

1. The free tool questionaire is split into 3 forms:
Part A - Adding A Free Tool http://tinyurl.com/second-life-tool-ranking-a
Part B - Ranking Your Top 10 Free Tools http://tinyurl.com/second-life-tool-ranking-b
Part C - Check the Results (assessment of sample size and time interval pending)

The data entry list of Part A (free) is updated every 5 minutes and can be viewed at here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pdD2fESMENo0NNjQ-dUHLLg

The data entry list of Part B (free) is updated every 5 minutes and can be viewed at here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pdD2fESMENo3ZD2DcCZSMTw

RSS Feed for Part A (free)
http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/pdD2fESMENo0NNjQ-dUHLLg/od6/public/basic

RSS Feed for Part B (free)
http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/pdD2fESMENo3ZD2DcCZSMTw/od6/public/basic

2. The non-free tool questionaire is also split into 3 forms:
Part A - Adding A Non-Free Tool http://tinyurl.com/second-life-tool-ranking-a1
Part B - Ranking Your Top 10 Non-Free Tools http://tinyurl.com/second-life-tool-ranking-b1
Part C - Check the Results (assessment of sample size and time interval pending)

The data entry list of Part A (non-free) is updated every 5 minutes and can be viewed at here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pdD2fESMENo1NWzK19AP3Rg

The data entry list of Part B (non-free) is updated every 5 minutes and can be viewed at here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pdD2fESMENo2fZu20JLdDGg

RSS Feed for Part A (non-free)
http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/pdD2fESMENo1NWzK19AP3Rg/od6/public/basic

RSS Feed for Part B (non-free)
http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/pdD2fESMENo2fZu20JLdDGg/od6/public/basic

3. Any suggestions or improvement tips can be added to this form:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cGREMmZFU01FTm8zWUI2YWxiZnIxWkE6MA..

Find more photos like this on Second Life Tool Ranking

How to Build Interactive Objects (Notecard Giver) as a Trainer in Second Life

2009-02-17T08:25:00.003+01:00

Interactive objects are usually built individually with varying functions, and are not actually purchased or picked up as a free object.

What do interactive objects do?
E.g. a simple one, a Notecard Giver: The 3D object gives something to an avatar, when an avatar touches the 3D object. But there are also more complex ones with more functions.

Where do you use them?
E.g. in order to create educational support tools for contingent settings, like classes etc..

What are the prerequisite ingredients or elements?
Element: (3D object build) + (note, text, color, texture, URL, sound, motion scheme)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcdtU485BqQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwSIYGhZbT4

How do these elements become interactive?
Script: (task type) + (triggering event)

What is the building process?
Build a dynamic object by combining 3D objects (cube) and elements (notecard) with script interactions (task type, triggering event)...

Notecard Giver
a. Create a 3D object, like a cube.
b. Create an element, like a notecard.
c. Create a script, for transferring the notecard, when an avatar touches the cube (with compilation process).
d. Then merge the mentioned entities together.

3GreenEggs: This scripting support site for Newbies will help you create interactive scripts for your Second Life objects. These scripts allow you to add interactive elements to your builds without knowing how to code. All of the scripts are released under a Creative Commons license, which means that you can use them freely!

http://www.3greeneggs.com/autoscript/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW619vHfYeg

Scratch and Puppeteer are similar scripting support tools.

Introducing Scratch for Second Life (S4SL), a new easier way to create behaviors for your creations. Just snap together blocks- no Linden Script needed. Download it (free) here: http://web.mit.edu/~eric_r/Public/S4SL/

S4SL is based on Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/).

More about Puppeteer
http://www.quintura.com/?request=puppeteer%20script%20second%20life&searchvia=1&page=1&savelink

List of Favorite Interactive Objects for Educators and Trainers

Notecard Giver
URL Giver
Teleporter

Write a blog about your stuff and get it in the list...

a. Blog Template
- Interactive object name
- Version
- Goal
- Summary
- Actors
- Preconditions
- Triggers
- Basic course of events
- Alternative paths
- Post-conditions
- Contingent rules
- Notes
- Graphics
- Videos
- Blog link
- Author and date

b. Second Life Tool List
http://tinyurl.com/second-life-tool-ranking-a

Please Rank Your Top 10 Free Tools! http://tinyurl.com/second-life-tool-ranking-b

From Google Sketchup Pro 8 To Second Life

2008-10-03T01:19:00.052+02:00

Update 2010-08-20
Immersive World Engineer & Information Consulting on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=152449234772193
Rosedale promises meshes; Teen Grid to close – Hypergrid Business
http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2010/08/rosedale-promises-meshes-teen-grid-to-close/
Mesh support would allow architects to import 3D models of houses from their professional architectural design programs, would allow manufacturers to import parts from their CAD-CAM systems, allow companies to hire professional designers to produce realistic environments, and let end users import 3D objects from outside sources — such as Google’s 3D Warehouse.

Worldwide Engineering Network

http://www.wen.eu.com/

(wenCAD LITE 2010 browser-based for only € 298.00, AutoCAD 2010 compatible)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CAx_companies#Open_source_CAD_software_projects

What is Jibe? Virtual World Kit for 3D

http://3d-immersive-learning-quality.grouply.com/message/78

Update 2009-12-12:
Henshin V - From Autocad to Second Life (now to Opensim too)
http://immersive-worlds-tool-ranking.grouply.com/message/309
Exporting Objects from SL and Importing These Objects to OpenSim using Meerkat Viewer
http://immersive-worlds-tool-ranking.grouply.com/message/310

1. Google Sketchup Pro 8 (updated 2010-09-06) (Pro 6 for Euro331.00, Pro 7 for Euro381.00, Pro 8 for Euro495.00) has new AutoCAD capability: Import and export of DXF, DWG formats.

http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/product/gsup.html
http://sketchup.google.com/product/

2. Thus, it is possible to transcribe DXF data into Second Life via Henshin IV (for Linden$1249.00).

http://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=572294

From this point, you need to know how Henshin transcribes the DXF file table into SL. Henshin is not a conversion program, it only transcribes the AutoCAD "DXF Table" into the Second Life "Prim Table" from within Second Life. Thus, manual mousework is reduced for design tasks within SL.

The Henshin people have actually performed this. They come from the architecture community. Here is how it looks like:

Henshin II - From Autocad to SL

Henshin III - Autocad to SL reloaded (english)

Henshin IV Demo

Here are more tutorials:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=impalah
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=henshin+second+life&search_type=&aq=f

The SL Prim Table yet sets limitations to the AutoCAD DXF Table during the design phase, retrospectively. I haven't sorted this out yet. Anyway, this makes Machinima and Building within Second Life a bit easier now.

Do you know some more tips and tweeks in the area of Sketchup and AutoCAD?

- Preliminary AutoCAD PDF/DWG Preparation for the Language Translation of AutoCAD DWF Files

- Print 3D objects from Google SketchUp

MeGlobe.com - Free Browser-based IM for Instant Translation in 15 Languages & IMTranslator's Virtual Keyboard for 31 Languages

2008-07-01T08:09:00.038+02:00

What can you use other than Skype.com?

1. An interesting discovery for those wanting to flexibly and instantly communicate in a browser-based IM chat in various languages outside (out-world) and within (in-world) SecondLife.com (or otherwise).

MeGlobe.com accommodates 15 languages (English, French, Spanish, Italien, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Russian, Dutch, Greek, Korean, Arabic, Swedish, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified).

Thus actually more languages than all of the free in-world tools featured within Second Life (the Hank Ramos Universal Translator HUD accommodates 24 languages and must be purchased for Linden$375), and the application is also easier to handle as compared to the in-world HUD tools of Second Life. Even if Second Life crashes, which still frequently happens, you continue to remain in touch.

Indeed, this enables multi-lingual communication and training support in conjunction with Second Life. A group function will soon be rolled out, which will then significantly enable and support multi-lingual and virtual training workshops in Second Life, and in any other 3D virtual world (even for WizIQ.com, and Moodle.org).

There is no software to download and install. Just perform the registration process, verify the process via your e-mail, then login and operate it web-based from a browser.

Of course, both chat participants need to do this first, and put their mutual addresses or names on the chat list.

MyGlobe.com chat name: eurominuteman

http://meglobe.com/about

2. IMTranslator.com only offers 7 languages for the support of browser-based IM chat translation (English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish), but a variety of further services may be helpful, such as the translation, back translation, voice, spellchecker, dictionary, and decoder services. This service does not connect to a chat partner, it only delivers "backoffice" support.

Yet, the most useful service in the context of Second Life and IM chat in virtual worlds would be the browser-based keyboard service, which accommodates multilingual text input in 31 languages (Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Farsi, Finish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Urdu):

http://imtranslator.com/

In summary, the advantages of both applications directly overlap for 7 languages as marked in italic. The total language sum of both applications amounts to 37 languages.

3. Follow-up chapter: Using Google Talk

http://www.googletutor.com/2008/07/11/using-gtalk-to-chat-in-different-languages/

Google Talk name: eurominuteman

4. Follow-up chapter: Using Oovoo.com

This one is a killer application for audio/video talk sessions in groups.

Introduction

2008-06-29T16:10:00.014+02:00

This is e-i-consulting's blog that handles issues and themes surrounding Convergence into Second Life. Please visit The vConsulting Tower in Second Life, and also check the blog archive and links to the right:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg9xxrf5_639dzxdvjd8

Your Global Project Planning Venue

What Is Second Life Good For?

Video: How Companies use Second Life to Improve Both Internal and External Communications
http://youtube.com/watch?v=synxFmQJ_0A

Video: Brand name building in Second Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCHoXnUOqsU&NR=1

IBM Forecast for the Virtual Workplace
http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/25/ibm-virtual-worlds-1q-2008-roundup/

Furthermore, take a look at the SecondLifeGrid.net in Internet

Games have roles, rules, and outcomes.
In Second Life, you create the roles, rules, and outcomes.
SL is a 3D (3 dimensional) chat with massive social networking.

What is Second Life good for?
http://secondlifegrid.net/about

How organizations use the platform
http://secondlifegrid.net/about/how

How is e-i-consulting accommodating the issue?

I have installed several multi-lingual "PickYouUpGuy LastName" avatars at various entrance points of Second Life in order to assist and guide you through the learning curve with ease. Feel free to arrange an appointment, this is a free service for collaborating "First Life" contractors...

Check out the possibilities at Orientation Island, which offers you 4 basic tutorials for avatars:

1. How to move and fly as avatar

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tciK_z-CxC4
For flying, click on View > Movement Controls

2. How to communicate with other avatars

http://youtube.com/watch?v=U7HGZkcEoHQ

3. How to search within Second Life

4. How to change your appearance as avatar

Upon completing this, just teleport to Help Island 2, where avatar PickYouUpGuy Footman is waiting for you in order to guide you through 5 further themes:

1. Help Island Freebie Store for acquiring free stuff

2. Tutorial areas for learning modules

3. Demo Area for viewing various demonstrations

4. Gallery for visiting new exhibitions

5. Help Island Sandbox for seeing how others build objects

This learning phase will enhance and deepen your knowledge, skills, and experiences within Second Life so that you can launch your virtual life within the In-world Main Domain, where you then will teleport to. A further in-world avatar will then pick you up. In "Real Life", I am behind the avatar guides mentioned.