A Collector's Safari

       There's no end to the great builds in opensim, and this week our troupe visited two more great destinations, that cannot be too highly recommended. If you like collecting things, whether it be freebies, or knowledge about the world around you, these are both unmissable. As usual the addresses are at the end of the post, so don't delay, go visit them today.

      The exhortation 'Don't delay' is particularly valid for our first stop, on Kroatan Grid. Last year the Halloween Hunt was a spooky hospital, this time it's an equally spooky small town,  steeped in atmosphere and good ghoulish humor, called Abbandonato. The build closes on November 5, so get your skates on! 

        The theme of the build is the Mystery of the Missing persons. Grab the HUD at the landing point, and you'll see information about the Missing - their names, and where they were last seen.   

Then, click on the static people all around the apparently quiet, peaceful town - a nun, a bank manager, a boy on a skateboard, and so on and so forth, to get clues (also occasionally gifts) and 12 Notecards which are vital for getting to the final, secret area where you'll solve the mystery. 

Paristella, Kiki and Bink, the three authors of this amazing build

          So, who thought of this lovely and complex build?
Bink Draconia: we 3 together. It is 2nd huge hunt project of Kiki Baily from KiWo and myself. This year we got also assistance by Paristella Marisol from Chilumba who has built the wonderful scary cemetery for the game's end.  We had a "brainstorming" - and this is the result of each idea. We have to thank Marina Bear from ThePublicWorld who made an awesome video
Leighton Marjoram: nice video
Bink Draconia: Our hunts are always multi-grid-projects. I am really happy for having good friends from different grids in OpenSim who did help to let this hunt project come true.
Bink Draconia: Kiki and i know each other since end of 2009, in Second Life. Pari is our new friend - we met her first time last year.

Kiki Baily: We are a good team and I think that was not the last project we did
Paristella Marisol: I think too Kiki

The team set off in search of clues

Bink Draconia: unluckily i have the posters over there just in german, so not everybody is able to understand the joke, but we tried to built in something to laugh in our hunt.... we love laughing - even at Halloween ^^  The hunt itself is in german and english. By clicking the mesh-people you will get a dialog to select language
Sunshine Szavanna: that must have taken long to translate things
Han Held: very impressive
Bink Draconia: yes... in most spoken language in opensim: bad english ^^
Sunshine Szavanna: the English is perfect

Mal explores the Horologist shop

          It's hard to choose a favorite part of this build, the Circus, or the bookshop with its flying books, the Coffin shop or the Tarot card reader's establishment, there is something for everyone here. The mesh is magnificent, a mix of original creations by Paristella, Kiki and Bink, some things they found around opensim, and also things from mesh websites like 3D Warehouse
Bink Draconia: wow- seems Phred did arrive at the final location.... i thought hunt will take 2 or 3 hours for everyone ^^

Phred Resident cracks the code!

           Definitely a place to see, before it's gone on November 5...scary!

Nova Saunders on VIBE grid

          Up next, a trip to a wonderful part of VIBE grid, as guests of Nova Saunders. 
        Nova's regions on the grid are dedicated to archaeology.  VIBE stands for Virtual Islands for Better Education, and in her day job, Nova is Marion Smeltzer, MA, a Practicing Public Archaeologist ad the president of Indiana County Archaeological Society. Her work in Vibe is creative on many levels, since it's not only bringing students into contact with  dozens of different historical sites, but also helping Government Agencies see the benefit of virtual worlds for teaching.
            Fellow VIBE members RoJoStar DarkStone, Clowey Greenwood, Maximinus Thrax, and Stephen Xootfly were all there to meet us, very kindly taking time out of their day, especially in light of the havoc of clock changing. Their enthusiasm for virtual worlds and education is contagious, and they welcome the idea of other academics joining their group. 

Clowey Greenwood

Clowey Greenwood: WE have several regions running right now. VIBE which is really just a basic hub, Nova, Biome, Biome4Kids and Genome. VIBE is run out of Northern Michigan University, we are fortunate to have our own server there.
Thirza Ember: the disadvantage of having your own grid is you can't blame anyone when it all goes wrong
Clowey Greenwood: so true, although we do blame blizzards up there sometimes

Thirza Ember: is there a difference between SL and opensim, in terms of getting gov agency permission to do stuff?
Nova Saunders: the reputation of SL is mainly a virtual platform for cyber sex and misconduct, so it's hard to be taken seriously when I mention it to others. As for the contents of the regions...I have to make sure everything is cite able

Stephen Xootfly. aka Stephen Gasior, Vibe's Founder and Consoler in Chief

Thirza Ember: what's the biggest differences you experience between opensim and SL? the ups and downs

Real world projects - the inspiration for  region

Stephen Xootfly: VIBE's goal of setting up good edu environments went well, thanks to good people from SL with good content. We had help from a whiz kid programmer. But, creating a self-sustaining/funded group was hard. Opensim also requires a lot of little hands on things that take a lot of time... updates to server version are a real pain.           

In the Lecture Hall

          It took us more than a while to get a quorum on Nova's region, and many tried 5 or 6 times with no luck, but still about seven of us made it in the end, and Nova asked about our general interest in history - turns out, we all love it. 

An Introduction to the region... Aime Socrates as the partly present Pirte

            Nova's region is a magnificent collection of builds that represent the work of a vast number of archaeologists, studying everything from ancient Roman sites, to underwater archaeology, to 19th century American places. 

The Roman Trading Post. Every build has information about the Academics who organized the project in the real world, and many like this one have photographs, linking real and virtual. 

         By working together with her academic partners, Nova comes up with a representative design of the archaeological place, or theme, that both informs and inspires students. They can come inworld and see a multiplicity of lines of research. The task can be challenging, since 3D resources in opensim can be tricky to find, and, this being a government funded project, it's very important that the provenance of any 3D creations, pictures and so forth be entirely above reproach - no SL-botted stuff here!

Tina Bey explores  Underwater Archaeology 

 Nova Saunders: this area was in collaboration with Dr. Ben Ford. This is based on his doctorate, his note card can be found in the barrel.

Going up to Laurel Hill

 Nova Saunders: OK next Laurel Hill. the Indiana County Archaeology Society took on this project to protect it from vandals, originally there were over 40 graves, but only 2 headstones remain. 

Thirza Ember: must be nice to get involved with such a variety of types of research
Nova Saunders: I love it
Xirana Oximoxi: nice projects :)
Thirza Ember: since you began working on VIBE, how many builds have you made, Nova?
Nova Saunders: I have lost count - I have 5 regions FULL and still adding!

Just a glimpse of the diversity on Nova's Archaeological regions, VIBE grid

        This lively collection of educational gems is a true Opensim wonder, it's worth visiting again and again, so much to learn, so many connections to different times and places around the world. On this trip to VIBE, we didn't see nearly as much as we would all have liked, but it was just the first, no doubt, of many visits to this valuable part of our hypergriddable community.

HG Addresses
Kroatan Halloween Hunt                      kroatan.de:8002:abbandonato
Nova Saunders' Archaeology builds       nova.bio-se.info:9000