Activeworlds not Second Life? The Choice is in the Budget.

I was asked why with all the interest in Second Life did we (Warner Memorial Library, Eastern University) still maintain a presence in AWEDU (activeworlds.com) .

While competing products, such as Second Life (http://secondlife.com/), have gained notoriety over the last two years, we feel that AWEDU best meets our needs.

Why?

1. We have had over seven years of experience using and building our VBI project with the AWEDU platform.

2. We have an expertise in the possibilities of the technology. Since the AWEDU browser is a modified version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, it more easily interacts with our Web based database research services, such as EBSCOost, PubMed and OVID, and class management systems, such as Blackboard. Its a good environment for virtual bibliographic instruction.

3. Cost plays the major roll in our decision. In Second Life there are small islands specially priced for education and non-profits. They are $980 for 65,536 square meters (about 16 acres), and the monthly land fees for maintenance are US $150. This would cost the University $2780 annually. WOW!

Our current VBI world with over 200 acres of virtual property costs $620 annually. While there are limitations on simultaneous user, the remedy for this would not exceed the annual fees in Second Life.

Second Life's technology is, in many ways, superior to AW’s. The other day I saw a demonstration of a Nursing Education Simulator (NESIM). (It was awesome. I will describe in a later message.) It is something I dreamed about for our Department of Nursing. I do not think it can be done in AW. I envy that ability.

However, it all comes back to justifying the costs.

We are a small academic library trying to do things that larger libraries are doing. AW meets the budget for now.

Adventures In Second Life Coming Soon

I finally have my new password. There has been some problems on my side getting to the blog.

Soon I will be writing about my adventures in Second Life.

While I have been away from the blog, I have been working on authenticating our patrons to use the on-line databases available through the Library.

We are migrating our proxy service to Athens. Athens is produced by the UK non-profit EduServ. Athens has been used for many years as the choice for UK institutions to authenticate their users. We and our patrons have fallen "in love" with the service.

Recently, I did a poster presentation at the PALINET 07 Conference in Baltimore concerning Athens.

It is quickly becoming the choice for our patrons in accessing e-resources from th ehome and office. The MyAthens personal accounts allows them to create a favorites list of the resources they most use.

We were the seventh institution in the USA to implement Athens. We are happy.

Now if only all our vendors would become Athens compliant.

Fo more information on Athens, see the website http://www.athensams.net/ .

Take Care,
Mark