About this product: You’ve heard all about Second Life. Maybe you’ve already jumped with both feet—and gotten stuck. Or maybe you’re a Second Life veteran who wants to build something or run a business. Fear not! Second Life For Dummies is hear to hold your hand, pat your back, and cheer you on through this new and enchanting reality.
Written by a pair of Second Life old timers, this easy-to-use, flip-and-find guide is packed with expert advice, seasoned insight, and handy tips and tricks to get you moving fast. You’ll find out how to set up your account, create an avatar, meet people and socialize, and find your comfort zone and stay in it. But it’s a big world out there, so you’ll also learn how to make stuff, buy stuff, do stuff, and keep track of all the stuff you’re accumulating. Discover how to
Install Second Life get started
Create and customize your avatar
Meet and get to know fascinating people
Stay safe and comfortable as you learn and explore
Make, wear, and sell your own fashions
Script your Second Life
Buy land and build a house
Become a land baron or a money maker
Make real money in Second Life
Get a real-life education—even a degree
Complete with fantastic lists of cool places, answers to big questions, and supplemental software, Second Life For Dummies is your ticket to a great virtual adventure.
About this product: Enrich your virtual existence by mastering the techniques and tactics the experts use to create jaw-dropping SL content—everything from buildings and vehicles to clothing, landscapes, and animations. This official, exclusive guide from a team of Second Life content-creation experts was written with the full support of Linden Lab and features in-depth instructions for creating beautiful content and putting it to work in-world. It’s both a practical, step-by-step guide and a creative session with some of the most artistic and talented minds in the Second Life community. CD included.
Filled with hundreds of hands-on tutorials, tips, and techniques, this is the thorough, in-depth reference that every Second Life resident needs. Learn how to create a unique avatar and then explore, build, socialize--and even earn real money. Inside, you'll find exclusive coverage of all the menus, features, and utilities. Whether you're a newbie or an old hand, this book will help you get the most out of Second Life.
Understand all the user interface features
Build hidden rooms, custom teleporters, secret sliding panels, and more
Shop for cool stuff and find the best values
Master the Maps, Inventory, Appearance, and Search dialogs
Start scripting with help from step-by-step tutorials
Control lag and find lost items using Preferences and the hidden Client menu
Visit exotic lands, travel in time, and enjoy roleplay
Create beautiful objects using expert texturing techniques
Earn money in ways that best suit your talents
Find land bargains, a bit of privacy, a great house, and lasting friendships
Millions of people around the world today spend portions of their lives in online virtual worlds. Second Life is one of the largest of these virtual worlds. The residents of Second Life create communities, buy property and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, find friendship, fall in love--the possibilities are endless, and all encountered through a computer screen. Coming of Age in Second Life is the first book of anthropology to examine this thriving alternate universe.
Tom Boellstorff conducted more than two years of fieldwork in Second Life, living among and observing its residents in exactly the same way anthropologists traditionally have done to learn about cultures and social groups in the so-called real world. He conducted his research as the avatar "Tom Bukowski," and applied the rigorous methods of anthropology to study many facets of this new frontier of human life, including issues of gender, race, sex, money, conflict and antisocial behavior, the construction of place and time, and the interplay of self and group.
Coming of Age in Second Life shows how virtual worlds can change ideas about identity and society. Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, this book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself.
About this product: Find complete information about Second Life scripting and gain access to more than 50 previously unpublished ready-to-use scripts in Scripting Your World: The Official Guide to Second Life Scripting. Learn how to script Second Life behaviors, grouped into categories like avatar movement, communications, prim and object control, automation, land control, combat, special effects, environment control and physics, and interacting with the world outside of Second Life. After you read this engaging book, you will possess a solid understanding Linden Scripting Language conventions.
One of the hottest trends in pop culture, Second Life®, is a virtual, 3-D “world” that exists on the Internet. Populated by adults and teens alike—in numbers going into the tens of millions—those who use Second Life® barter and buy much the way they do in real life. They’re also just as open to ads, products, and marketing—and businesses are just now discovering the enormous potential.
A comprehensive, in-depth guide to the opportunities in this new marketplace, The Unofficial Guide to Building Your Business in the Second Life® Virtual World gives readers practical tips and strategies for creating an income stream, and marketing or extending a brand on the site. The book provides relevant examples—from IBM creating a collaborative virtual workspace, to start-up companies with virtual goods, to Princeton University offeing Second Life® classrooms—and provides proven techniques for successfully generating buzz through Second Life®-centered promotions and advertisements. This is one book that reveals the best ways to make money using the hottest thing online.
About this product: Virtual worlds are increasingly incorporated into modern universities and teaching pedagogy. Over 190 higher education institutions world-wide have done teaching in the virtual world of Second Life (SL). This book is based on the first Scandinavian project to experiment with the design and testing of teaching platforms for life long learning in SL. In 2007 it created a virtual island or 'sim' in SL called 'Kamimo Education Island'. The project generated a number of courses taught in Second Life, and instructed educators in the use of SL. This book disseminates the experiences and lessons learned in that project and from other educational projects in SL. The book identifies the gaps in traditional forms of education. It provides a roadmap on issues of: instructional design, learner modelling, building simulations, exploring alternatives to design and integrating tools in education with other learning systems.
About this product: Cultural anthropologist and award-winning author Angeles Arrien presents The Second Half of Life--a collection of teachings, reflections, and stories from around the world to open us to the challenges and deeper mysteries of "the great crossing" at midlife. Working with the images, poetry, metaphors, and other forms of symbolic language from diverse cultures, Arrien introduces us to the "Eight Gates of Initiation." By mastering their lessons and gifts, we harvest the meaning and purpose of our life, and come into our spiritual maturity. This popular seller is now available in paperback, with a foreword by John O'Donohue.
About this product: Corporations, non-profits, and educational institutions will welcome this official guide that shows how to establish and maintain a successful virtual presence in Second Life. Written with the full support of Linden Lab, this is the perfect resource for organizations entering Second Life. Topics discussed include the technical and social issues of participating in Second Life, including integrating corporate culture into Second Life, in-world marketing techniques, selecting a solution provider, and how to conduct real-world business in Second Life. Plus, you’ll get hands-on solutions, smart tactics, and practical techniques, such as setting up useful meeting spaces and planning and moderating events. The book is filled with actual case studies of how top organizations have leveraged Second Life and offers analysis of their SL presence.
About this product: What does it really mean to be a grown up in today’s world? We assume that once we "get it together" with the right job, marry the right person, have children, and buy a home, all is settled and well. But adulthood presents varying levels of growth, and is rarely the respite of stability we expected. Turbulent emotional shifts can take place anywhere between the age of thirty-five and seventy when we question the choices we’ve made, realize our limitations, and feel stuck— commonly known as the "midlife crisis." Jungian psycho-analyst James Hollis believes it is only in the second half of life that we can truly come to know who we are and thus create a life that has meaning. In Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life, Hollis explores the ways we can grow and evolve to fully become ourselves when the traditional roles of adulthood aren’t quite working for us, revealing a new way of uncovering and embracing our authentic selves. Offering wisdom to anyone facing a career that no longer seems fulfilling, a long-term relationship that has shifted, or family transitions that raise issues of aging and mortality, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life provides a reassuring message and a crucial bridge across this critical passage of adult development.