A Look Back at the VWPBE 2014

VWBPE Brings Out the Whos-Who in Virtual Education and Linden Lab

By Celene Highwater

The 2014 Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference, better known as VWBPE, kicked off on April 9 to a packed house. The four-day conference is in its seventh year and is an annual gathering of virtual educators.

On opening day, which fell on April 9 2014, people started pouring into the VWBPE Central Auditorium two hours early to ensure they had a seat in time to hear this year’s opening keynote speaker who was none other than Philip Rosedale, the founder of Second Life.

Philip Rosedale, also known as Philip Linden stands behind the podium wearing his Second Life T-Shirt.

 "As a kid, I played with electronics. I tinkered, programmed computers, used power tools. I tried to build things from things I found around the house. I cut into my ceiling because I wanted my door to go into the ceiling like Star Trek. It was hard work.  Much harder to do than to imagine," He said when describing his childhood during his speech.

As the internet emerged, Rosedale explained that he had a desire to build a space "where we could all build what we dreamed."

 In 1995, he created Freevue, an innovative Internet video conferencing tool which was quickly sold to a company called RealNetworks. For a short time, he served as Vice President and CTO of the company. Then, in 1999, Rosedale left RealNetworks to launch his own company: Linden Lab. And as they say, the rest is history. Rosedale built a virtual civilization called Second Life, thus fulfilling his lifelong dream of creating an open-ended, online virtual world.

 "I was super motivated to build virtual worlds, not because they would be better games or social spaces. . .  I just wanted to build crazy stuff,” He explained.

In 2010, Rosedale left Second Life and worked on several projects including Coffee and Power, and Worklist.net before co-founding High Fidelity Inc. in 2013, to explore the future of a next-generation virtual reality system. In his speech he discussed the amount of time and devotion it takes to learn Second Life and the amount of mouse useage that is required. With the new virtual world he is building, Rosedale wants to eliminate the need for the mouse, opting for a more realistic-looking world where he says users will be able to more naturally interact with one another through facial and body movement.

This exhibit shows off posters from the Freedom Project, an art exhibition featuring work by disabled artists in Second Life.

Science Circle Discussion Panel.

Other events at the VWBPE included sim demonstrations,panel discussions, networking events, lectures, and a host of speakers including Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg, David Gibson who is an Associate Professor at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and Dr. Larysa Nadolny, Assistant Professor at Iowa State University.

Celene Highwater

Editor's Note: This article intended for publishing at the Metaverse Tribune. But the publication ceased updating before it could go up. Now working for the Newser, Celene sent this over as a look back at this major event (Bixyl Shuftan's VWPBE pictures, Ebbe Linden's VWBPE Speech).

Scenes From The VWBPE Education Conference

From April 9 to April 12, the annual VWPBE (Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education) conference took place in Second Life. Over four days across six sims, presenters and pannels gave various talks and discussions, and there were also a few exhibits.

 At 1PM SL time on Wednesday April 9, the conference began at the auditorium at the corners of VWBPE Central 1, 2, 3, and 4.

The opening keynote was given by none other than Philip Rosedale, the former Philip Linden.

Gentle Heron doing the chat transcription for Philip.

To see what Philip Rosedale had to say, one can check out reviews made by Daniel Voyager and Inara Pey, or check out the following video made by Mal Burns:



(Click Here if the video fails to load)

On Friday at 1PM, there would be another important speaker: Ebbe Linden.

Ebbe, wearing one of the starter avatars for new residents planned for release in the near future, addressed a packed crowd. He spoke about the Terms of Service issue, and numerous other topics.

 Among those there was Pathfinder Lester, the former Pathfinder Linden

 Jo Yardley and Daniel Voyager was also there (Daniel's owl avatar had a hard time appearing in my viewer that day)

Pete and Xiola Linden were also there.

There's a summary of Ebbe's speech from Daniel Voyager, a review by Jo Yardley, and a full transcript from Inara Pey. There's also video by Mal Burns:



(Click here if the video fails to load)

Following Ebbe's speech, and the crowd leaving, I met up briefly with Draxtor Despress.

I also met  up with Nigma Sterling whom help organize things for the conference.

The following day, Saturday April 12 from about 9AM to 11 AM SL time, there was the "Connecting the Past, Present, and Future" discussion, with Botgirl Questi, Will Burns/Aeonix Aeon, Jerry Beaubois/Tab Scott, and Kevin Freenan/ Phelan Corrimal made up the panel on stage.

 With a little time on my hands, finally, I went about exploring the location.

I 

I came across a few exhibits, such as this one.

This volcano exhibit was certainly "what's cooking."

 I came across a discussion mixed with a tour of some exhibits, "The Programer and the Nurse."

 There were several simulated paitents set up, for visitors to practice on.

Finally came the Closing Ceremony at 6PM SL time.

Among those speaking were Pooky Amsterdam, and Dirk McKenan. Pooky delivered the closing line, "Goodnight Mr Rosedale, whereever you are."

 Following the last speaking event was the Closing Party, with Selene Jashan playing the music.

At one point however, about half us were flying up in the air and away, one girl screaming, "Hellllpppp!!! I am being attacked psychedelicness!"

 But we made our way back and the party resumed. This time with Greenlantern Excelsior around.

It was a fun end for the Virtual World Best Practices in Education conference after all.

Some pictures from Gemma Cleanslate

Bixyl Shuftan