Ran into my first instance of a griefer on the Catamount Island in Second Life.
I logged onto the island, first time in a few days to check the progress of one of the projects.
I realized something was wrong right away.. there was a giant flashing box right in front of the courthouse. I went to go check it out and all of a sudden thousands of Mario Brother characters started bouncing around…
Great… just what i needed.
I went into the land controls and found that this guy had placed over 3000 objects all over the island. We had it opened up for a workshop with students and forgot to lock it back down. That was a mistake.
So, I returned all his content, banned him from the island and locked everything back down.
Things are back to normal, but it is sad to think there are people who only want to cause problems. Second Life isn’t any better than First Life in that respect, and probably worse.

I have been spending the last 2 months working on Catamount Island, the virtual campus for Western Carolina University. In that time, we have added multiple spaces for faculty to teach in this virtual world.

I have also been working with the faculty in the Criminal Justice program on a Courthouse and Justice Center.

I will be updating this blog with the progress of Catamount Island.

Enuf said.

How often do you get to chat with people from around the world while exploring new and exciting places? How often do those people appear to you as medieval warrior, or possible a small furry animal? If this does happen to you, then chances are, you have a Second Life.

Second Life is a little hard to describe. It isn’t really a game, but you can have adventures, it isn’t just a chat room, although alot of that occurs. It is a virtual world, where you can do pretty much anything your time and talents will allow. It is the perfect example of Intercreativity. People create buildings, casinos, cars, clothes and even customized skin for their avatar. SL even has its own currency, the Linden, which currently exchanges with the US Dollar at about $1=L$230.

Many universities are looking into creating a presence in SL, and there are already many Universities participating in the Eduisland commons.

The House of Representatives is also going to be getting involved there later this week.

But, just like in this life, there are some odd goings on in Second Life. The most popular places are the Casinos, Dance Clubs and “Adult” spaces.

So, if you get a chance, take a look at Second Life, but, be careful it doesn’t take too much time away from your Real Life.