For today’s meeting, we visited VWERGrid, the new home of the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable community.

On November 11th, 2010, the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable announced the opening of their second virtual home on their own Opensim grid called VWERGrid.  Today we traveled to VWERGrid and had a chance to speak with AJ Kelton, the founder of the VWER.

Read on for a full transcript and many photos of our adventure.

The Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable (VWER) has maintained a very active presence in Second Life since March of 2008.  The group hosts public meetings every week with a very strong collaborative community of educators and researchers.   The meetings feature guest speakers and roundtable discussions about the future of virtual worlds in education, and full transcripts are available in the archives on their website.

For more information about the Hypergrid Adventurers Club and how you can join us, please see our homepage.  You can also follow our club’s tweets at #HGAC.

Meeting #26
12/22/2010 : 2pm GMT
9 Hypernauts in attendance:

Midlander Admiral
Mike_37uk There
Ange Menges
Oronoque Westland
Orchid Jameson
Mel Blauvelt
Graham Mills
Jokay Wollongong
Pathfinder Lester

We begin on the region Pathlandia on jokaydiaGRID.

Pathfinder Lester: howdy folks 🙂
Orchid Jameson: howdy
Mike_37uk There: Hi Pathfinder
Pathfinder Lester: great you could make it, Mike
Mike_37uk There: Had to give myself time to get here with no direct route 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: Mike, what intermediate place did you hop to first before coming to jokaydiagrid?
Mike_37uk There: I started off with Anduze in the Franco Grid
Mike_37uk There: Then Reaction Grid
Mike_37uk There: Then got into Scooter from there
Pathfinder Lester: Mike, oh cool
Pathfinder Lester: salut Ange
Ange Menges: bonjour tout le monde
Mike_37uk There: Bonsoir Ange
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll wait a bit longer before we officially start.
Pathfinder Lester: we’ll probably have a smaller group today because of the holidays, i suspect.
Ange Menges: During this time can I explain you something, Path ?
Pathfinder Lester: Ange, please do!
Ange Menges: I’ve already talked about the french group explor3d who wants to organize hypergrid trips.
Ange Menges: This is a group that meets in real life to discuss all internet and new technologies uses . Virtual worlds are only a part of their interests.
Pathfinder Lester: nice!
Ange Menges: The name of the responsible for the virtual worlds part is Enora Gregan on second life and opensim . She is Cattleg on twitter.
Ange Menges: They have a website (in french) here : http://wiki.explorateursduweb.com/Accueil
Pathfinder Lester: Ange, that’s wonderful to hear.
Ange Menges: For now they were only interested in second life. I now hosts them on one of the regions of my server in francogrid.
Ange Menges: Their first meeting on opensim will take place this evening at 20GMT.
Ange Menges: Most of them are not accustomed to the use of viewers so that it will be primarily a training meeting.
Ange Menges: I will try to arrange a meeting first with Pathfinder to see if it is possible to consider travel together or develop other projects . I will also try to get Enora to one of the meetings of HGAC. She is very interested but was not able to make during our meeting hours for now.
Pathfinder Lester: wow
Pathfinder Lester: thank you so much Ange!
Pathfinder Lester: that is wonderful news
Pathfinder Lester: i can’t wait to meet them. i am not sure if i can come to the meeting today, but i will try.
Mike_37uk There: Hi Mel. Nice outfit. Very Seasonal 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: i put out a copy of that snowman avatar next to the fireplace
Oronoque Westland: Mel would melt on my sim lol
Pathfinder Lester: grab a copy before it melts!
Ange Menges: The name of their francogrid region is Explor3D, Path
Pathfinder Lester: thanks Ange
Pathfinder Lester: i will also read their website
Ange Menges: Mel love frosty and will never leave it no, lol
Mel Blauvelt: haha

Pathfinder Lester: ok, i’ll do the regular introduction to the meeting now
Pathfinder Lester: Welcome to the Hypergrid Adventurers Club! Thank you all for joining us today.
Pathfinder Lester: The first 30 min of each meeting is spent on introductions and an open discussion.
Pathfinder Lester: And for the second 30 min of each meeting, we will make some Hypergrid jumps to visit and explore an interesting location on the Hypergrid.
Pathfinder Lester: To start, if you wish, feel free to jump in and say a few words about yourself and your projects/interests in open chat. This is always a good opportunity for networking. 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: I post a full report and transcript of each meeting’s open chat on my blog, so this is also a chance for you to share information with everyone who reads the blog.
Pathfinder Lester: And if you say anything in open chat that you would NOT like to be posted on my blog, please just say so in chat and I will redact your comments.
Pathfinder Lester: I’m Pathfinder Lester, John Lester in real life. I used to work at Linden Lab from 2005-2010. Now I work at ReactionGrid Inc. as Director of Community Development. I started the Hypergrid Adventurers Club back in October of 2010. My blog is at http://becunningandfulloftricks.com
Pathfinder Lester: Mike, this is your first time here. Welcome!
Mike_37uk There: thank you
Orchid Jameson: Welcome Mike!
Oronoque Westland: I’m Roberta Kilkenny in the physical world. I teach at Hunter College in New York. Interested in immersive environments for learning.
Pathfinder Lester: Mike, so you originally used There.com?
Pathfinder Lester: I remember you told me you now have a presence on NewWorldGrid and also jokaydiagrid.
Mike_37uk There: Yes Path, there is quite a large community around the virtual worlds who are from there.com
Mel Blauvelt: philosopher, interested in interdisciplinary research, computer graphics and aesthetics
Mike_37uk There: yes also a sim in the OS Grid
Pathfinder Lester: nice!
Pathfinder Lester: i remember when There closed. very sad. but it’s good to hear folks from that community are still around and exploring new worlds.
Pathfinder Lester: hi Graham
Oronoque Westland: @Mike, what is there.com please?
Graham Mills: Festive greetings, all
Jokay Wollongong: hihi all 😉
Orchid Jameson: Hi! In rl I am an emerging technologies medical librarian at the University at Buffalo
Mel Blauvelt: heya Graham
Oronoque Westland: Festive greetings to you too
Mike_37uk There: It is. And we all manage to keep in touch through facebooks and community groups. It is a closed world now Oronoque
Oronoque Westland: hi Jokay
Mike_37uk There: It was unique in its use of game physics
Pathfinder Lester: i remember the dune buggies and hoverboards. they worked really well, physics-wise.
Oronoque Westland: hoverboards as in Back to the Future
Mike_37uk There: yes Pathfinder they certainly did. There is a group of designers trying to get things working the same way in SL but its not easy
Mike_37uk There: ty Orchid
Pathfinder Lester: I was working at LL when There.com closed. i remember many of the folks coming to SL and trying to settle.
Pathfinder Lester: Blue Linden worked with many of those folks when they arrived. built a special area to welcome them.
Mike_37uk There: Yes it was frantic. We all reported back to each other and most are indeed in SL now. Over 3000 of us
Pathfinder Lester: that’s great to hear, Mike
Mike_37uk There: Yes he did. I spoke with him many times during set up
Pathfinder Lester: Mike, what’s your region’s name here on jokaydiagrid again?
Mike_37uk There: Cosmo Island
Pathfinder Lester: cool
Jokay Wollongong: We just added a landmark to the location board at scooter today.. its looking very speccy over there 😉
Pathfinder Lester: well, it’s great to have you as a neighbor here in jokaydiagrid. welcome. 🙂
Mike_37uk There: Thanks. Glad to be here
Pathfinder Lester: jokay, oh great
Pathfinder Lester: i love that location board
Pathfinder Lester: and the boards with links to all the different blogs of folks here
Jokay Wollongong: hehe..yes Az does a great job with the blog pavillion
Graham Mills: hmm, when I touch the Pathlandia one, it always takes me to VWERgrid
Oronoque Westland: makes note to self to make blog presentable
Graham Mills: Which is why I’m here — so I don’t have to apologise on arrival
Jokay Wollongong: Ack.. sorry Graham.. we’ve been having some hypergrid fun of late – particularly between pathlandia and scooter.. working on it
Pathfinder Lester: Graham, yeah, i’ve noticed that happening too. working out some kinks.
Pathfinder Lester: speaking of VWERGrid, that’s where we’ll go visit today
Pathfinder Lester: it’s a new grid, just came online a few weeks ago
Mike_37uk There: Sounds good. I don’t think I have been there before
Pathfinder Lester: VWER stands for Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable
Pathfinder Lester: it’s a group that started in SL 2 years ago. they meet every week to discuss education work in virtual worlds. they also have guest speakers and presentation.
Oronoque Westland: its a community of educators that formed a few years ago…we have weekly meetings …that’s where I first met Path in fact
Pathfinder Lester: http://vwer.org
Pathfinder Lester: Oro, that’s right! 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: it’s a great community
Pathfinder Lester: they have also given away plots on one of the regions on their new grid to help some educators start exploring opensim
Graham Mills: I’m interested to see what they have planned
Pathfinder Lester: Graham, me too. i sometimes write for their blog now, too.
Oronoque Westland: some of the members are (until April anyway) co-residents in SL, and now moving onto the new grid
Pathfinder Lester: exciting times
Mike_37uk There: Unversity of Leicester Oronoque?
Mike_37uk There: Thats close to home for me 🙂
Oronoque Westland: they have gotten many educators to take the virtual world plunge
Oronoque Westland: no, Mike, I am in New York
Pathfinder Lester: i’m going to pass out today’s notecard now while you chat

— Notecard of Itinerary and Details —-
Before doing any Hypergrid jumps, be sure you have set your Home location and have relogged since you set it.  If you don’t, Hypergrid jumps will not work.  This appears to be a bug.

Many people find the Imprudence viewer to be very good for using with both SL and other grids.  You can find it here: http://imprudenceviewer.org/

*** How to make Manual Hypergrid Jumps in 4 easy steps ***
1) Open your World Map.
2) In the text box next to the Search button, enter the Hypergrid Address.
3) Click the Search button and wait for the map to move to the jump region.
4) Click the Teleport button.

*** Our Starting Location ***
Hypergrid Address: 66.240.233.81:9001:pathlandia
Region Name: “Pathlandia”
Grid Location: jokaydiaGRID (Lower)
Grid Website: http://jokaydiagrid.com
************************

Hypergrid Jump #1
Hypergrid Address: vwer.metaverseworlds.com:9000:VWERMain
Region Name: “VWERMain”
Grid Location: VWERGrid (Middle)
Grid Website: http://www.vwer.org/

We’ll be making this jump using one of the instant Hypergates on Pathlandia.  It’s the stone archway next to the statue of the woman holding the bow.  Be wary of the kraken nearby on the coast.   Just walk up to the archway and walk through it.  You will automatically make a Hypergrid jump to “VWERMain” on VWERGrid.

For more information on how these instant Hypergates work, see:
https://becunningandfulloftricks.com/2010/10/29/the-metaphor-of-portals/

The Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable (VWER) has maintained a very active presence in Second Life since March of 2008.  The group hosts public meetings every week with a very strong collaborative community of educators and researchers.   The meetings feature guest speakers and roundtable discussions about the future of virtual worlds in education, and full transcripts are available in the archives on their website.

On November 11th, 2010, the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable announced the opening of their second virtual home on their own grid called the VWERGrid.  For more information, see http://vwer.org.

***
jokaydiaGRID has a Newbie Dome for folks to pick up freebies that can help them get started.  If you find any good freebies in your Hypergrid travels that you’d like to share, you can put them in the Newbie Dome.   There’s currently a lack of many good outfits and items for male avatars, so it would be great if we could find more items like that to share.
— End of Notecard —

Mike_37uk There: Cool. I was just reading about the Leicester Uni on that web link
Graham Mills: Liverpool here, a tad closer
Mike_37uk There: Certainly is Graham. I am from Birmingham
Pathfinder Lester: oh, one thing i wanted to mention
Oronoque Westland: yes?
Pathfinder Lester: i’ve updated all my blamgates here on Pathlandia so they all now give out a notecard explaining how they work when you touch the gates.
Pathfinder Lester: i know some folks have been taking copies of the blamgates and have been trying to set them up on their own regions
Pathfinder Lester: so i included some instructions in the notecard
Pathfinder Lester: hopefully that will help folks
Orchid Jameson: thanks Path
Pathfinder Lester: have you been trying to set them up?
Oronoque Westland: I copied yours and have had no issues
Pathfinder Lester: oh good
Pathfinder Lester: you were lucky 🙂
Oronoque Westland: at least none Jokay has mentioned lol
Pathfinder Lester: good
Pathfinder Lester: i’ve set up a new blamgate to take us to vwergrid. so we can make our trip today the easy way. just one direct hop to VWERGrid from here
Oronoque Westland: you are referring to the stone portals, correct?
Pathfinder Lester: Oro, yes
Jokay Wollongong: we need to continue to do some testing so do keep an eye on them oro… although kidd’s stargates seem to have been the main prob we are still seeing odd tp results from pathlandia
Orchid Jameson: so our backup is address on notecard..?
Pathfinder Lester: Orchid, yes
Pathfinder Lester: i always include the hypergrid address in the notecard even if we’re using a blamgate. as a backup in case you want to make a manual jump.
Orchid Jameson: I have an open IRC window too..
Oronoque Westland: oddities on Pathlandia…no….never
Pathfinder Lester: Oro, lol
Pathfinder Lester: ok, we can head over to the VWERGrid blamgate now and try jumping!
Graham Mills: Given that I’ve had problems *not* going to VWERgrid, it would be funny to start now
Jokay Wollongong: lolz graham.. lets hope not.. or i might scream and wake up the neighbours.. lolz
Pathfinder Lester: i’m standing next to the gate now. it’s across the water up the mountain a bit.
Ange Menges: women first oro
Pathfinder Lester: watch out for the tentacles behind the gate

Our group walks through an Instant Hypergate (aka Blamgate) on the region Pathlandia on jokaydiaGRID.

And we arrive on the region VWERMain on VWERGrid.

Pathfinder Lester: oho!
Pathfinder Lester: we arrive!
Oronoque Westland: folks just fall to earth here lol
AJ Kelton: welcome!
AJ Kelton: things are clearly still under development
Pathfinder Lester: AJ!
Pathfinder Lester: thank you for welcoming us!
AJ Kelton: Hey path!
AJ Kelton: my pleasure
AJ Kelton: the real development here is going on on VWERELI
Pathfinder Lester: i love the big roundtable in the middle
AJ Kelton: 🙂
AJ Kelton: I want my mystitable. 😀
Graham Mills: Positively Arthurian
AJ Kelton: Graham, I’d never thought of it quite that way 🙂

Pathfinder Lester: AJ, how many different folks have you set up with parcels here already?
AJ Kelton: WEll – on our one island, VWERELI, we have 40 parcels, and all are reserved
AJ Kelton: so – 40 lol
Pathfinder Lester: wow
Graham Mills: fast work!
AJ Kelton: this island is where we will be doing meetings and events
Oronoque Westland: wonderful
AJ Kelton: we’re very excited
AJ Kelton: many of htese folks have never been in a VW other than SL before
Pathfinder Lester: it’s great you’re helping them dip their toes in here for the first time.
Graham Mills: and great that they’re here to support one another too
AJ Kelton: thats the goal of the ELI project
Pathfinder Lester: Graham, absolutely
Graham Mills: crtical mass
AJ Kelton: that was the goal of the CHSSSouth Land Initiative, which we just continued here
AJ Kelton: springboard
Graham Mills: chain reaction
AJ Kelton: let them get started here – and then move on
AJ Kelton: when they are ready for more space
Oronoque Westland: AJ gave me my start
AJ Kelton: their own grid, island, whatever
AJ Kelton: 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: i love it
Pathfinder Lester: this is how frontiers grow. exactly like this.
AJ Kelton: I love have Oronoque on our island – she’s a gem
AJ Kelton: hey – I had to move the bison, temporarily
Pathfinder Lester: oh, that’s fine
AJ Kelton: he’ll find an appropriate home
Oronoque Westland: I am kept in check by the grim reaper (my neighbor on the parcel AJ gave ne)
AJ Kelton: lol
Pathfinder Lester: they need room to graze, those bisons
AJ Kelton: no doubt
Orchid Jameson: Bison?
Mike_37uk There: They eat so much grass too
AJ Kelton: i’ll get him – one sec
Pathfinder Lester: bison to the north
Orchid Jameson: ooh
Pathfinder Lester: he’s gentle. just don’t make sudden moves.
Oronoque Westland: water buffalo is more my style…the milk is fantastic
Pathfinder Lester: i left him here when i first visited VWERGrid

AJ Kelton: `i love the prim hair
AJ Kelton: lol
AJ Kelton: err – fur
Ange Menges: lol, really nice one !
Pathfinder Lester: BIG bison
Graham Mills: heh
Oronoque Westland: his tail wiggles
Pathfinder Lester: he’s german, by the way
Mike_37uk There: well made
Pathfinder Lester: found him on Metropolis grid
Mike_37uk There: German technology for you 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: i have some of them on Pathlandia
AJ Kelton: a German Bison, how appropriate given the germanic influence on the english language
Mike_37uk There: true AJ
Oronoque Westland: mmmmoooooooooooo
AJ Kelton: i hope you’ll take some time to visit VWERELI
AJ Kelton: the next island over
AJ Kelton: some folks have already put up some great stuff
Pathfinder Lester: AJ, it’s odd. i don’t see that island
AJ Kelton: make sure to visit the space station
Pathfinder Lester: i see it on the world map, but not locally
AJ Kelton: hmm – I can see it
AJ Kelton: can you TP there
Pathfinder Lester: i had tried last nite
Pathfinder Lester: but got logged out every time i tried
AJ Kelton: thats odd
Pathfinder Lester: i think it’s something to do with how hypergrid is enabled on the region, maybe?
AJ Kelton: I can try restarting it
AJ Kelton: can anyone else see it?
Mike_37uk There: I can’t see it either
Graham Mills: Isee it on the map
Orchid Jameson: I can see it on the Map
Pathfinder Lester: yes, i see it on the world map too
AJ Kelton: can you clikc on the map and TP there
Orchid Jameson: I believe I have account set with them too…
Pathfinder Lester: but not if i look to the west inworld
Pathfinder Lester: before you click
Pathfinder Lester: i wanted to point out the VWER Give and Take area AJ set up
Pathfinder Lester: so if you have any freebies you’d like to share with folks here
Pathfinder Lester: you can leave them in that area
Pathfinder Lester: can’t miss it. giant sign and cherry tree to the SW of us
Pathfinder Lester: i already left a bunch of things there 🙂

Mike_37uk There: I have some boxes of male clothes I can leave in Jokaydia
AJ Kelton: i’ve restarted it – lest see
Pathfinder Lester: AJ, i was just telling folks about the give and take area
Pathfinder Lester: told them they could leave things for folks here if they wished.
AJ Kelton: oh yes!!!!
Graham Mills: aha, yes, I sees it 🙂
AJ Kelton: and take if they need
AJ Kelton: JOKAY!!!!!
Jokay Wollongong: Hey AJ 😉
Ange Menges: I was disconnected when arrived
Pathfinder Lester: Also, i’ve installed a permanent blamgate on Pathlandia that takes you right here.
Pathfinder Lester: it’s the blamgate we used to get here today.
AJ Kelton: Well – good afternoon to you!
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll leave it up, to help folks easilly find this place again 🙂
Orchid Jameson: ty Path
AJ Kelton: thats wonderful – thanks so much
Pathfinder Lester: Ange, that’s what happened to me too
Mike_37uk There: Thanks Path
Jokay Wollongong: hehe… and good early morning to you.. lolz
AJ Kelton: folks are alweays welcome – and my hope is to develop this island to accomodate visitors from all over
AJ Kelton: does anyone mind my using a picure of us on our vwer.org web site?
Pathfinder Lester: be my guest!
Orchid Jameson: no problem!
Jokay Wollongong: of course not aj 😉
Mel Blauvelt: as long as you blur my pink underwear I don’t mind AJ
Orchid Jameson: we need a group pose set

Pathfinder Lester: i must head out
Pathfinder Lester: have a good christmas everyone
Midlander Admiral: ok Path thanks for the tour
Oronoque Westland: AJ, see you again soon
Pathfinder Lester: and thanks again AJ for the warm welcome 🙂
Midlander Admiral: Yes thank you AJ
AJ Kelton: Later, Oro! Always a pleasure
Orchid Jameson: bye for now..
Pathfinder Lester: take care, all. bye!

Note: At the time of this blog post, there are still some glitches with hypergrid visitors traveling directly from jokaydiaGRID to VWERGrid being unable to see or access the region VWERELI.  The glitches are being worked out and should be resolved soon.

And so ends another meeting of the Hypergrid Adventurers Club.  Until next time!

-John “Pathfinder” Lester