This page will serve to post some of the key notices of the group.  Posting here will facilitate searching for both current and archived notices.  Check back here from time to time to keep informed of what is happening.

There are several items of interest that we would like to report that are too numerous for the limitations of the SL Notice System:

1.  Final presentation open to Groups:  On 12/15, from 8:00 A.M. SLT to 9:30 SLT, the 13 students in the live EGP 310 class will be making their final project presentation in SL.  This presentation will be open to all groups in SL.  The students in the class are 3rd / 4th year Game Programmers / Software Engineers.  Note:  this is a Game Architecture class.  It met for 14 weeks. The class is a face-to-face class that uses SL for project work.  The students never saw SL before the class.  They were not taught SL during the class, and as the case with most students of this age, most will not return once the class is over. The final project had a 4 week only duration to complete. The final project will be on display for several weeks, then removed.  It will remain up for additional viewings, and to give them time to gather items / photos/ videos for their professional "reels". The final project they decided upon is the building of a club.  Because of their liking of particle systems, the scripting and particles will be one heck of a show. In addition to this project, the students have been (or are) involved in the following additional projects:  First Responder Serious Game for a Hospital in the Boston area; a United Nations Project to assist in eliminating the violence against women in Africa, level designs for America's Army; and a Medical application to assist children with respiratory ailments in practicing breathing exercises.   Animations, items, and scripts will be available to those that show at no charge.  Negotiate with the student to obtain the items (or click on them to buy them for $0L).  Note;  in the field next to the class area (the main sandbox), the original animations are still up for voting.  Take as many as you want.  Each one taken counts as a vote.  Also take a look at the developing Learning Theory exhibit currently in progress.

Presentation Location:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Champlain%20College%20ITS/218/251/26

When you get here, click on the sign containing the class picture and get more detailed information on the project. You will all be invited through group IMs when setup is complete (Monday, December 15th, from 8:00 A.M. SLT to 9:30 SLT).  Note:  the club is just a project decided upon.  Except for the class activity, the students have no desire to "hang out" in SL.  In addition, the club was their idea, and has not been influenced by any of the SL clubs.  Most (if not all) of them have probably not been to a club in SL (or really too many places in SL)..

Description: Game Architecture (EGP 310) explores components and subsystems of electronic games and their associated architectures. Topics include game state representation, time management, the main game loop and game subsystems. Game design and planning from first concept to start of development are explored in detail. In addition to game architecture, we will also look into the issues of game design, team building, and management. The focus will be on those implementations that work well, and will include situations to avoid and how to fix errors.

2. Our OpenSim (http://www.opensimulator.org)  project is coming along quite well. We are currently building a server to connect to the OSGrid (http://osgrid.org/) and possibly the OpenLife Grid (http://openlifegrid.com/).  Group access will be provided to selected members.  OpenSim is the direction of the future being embraced by many organizations.  Even Linden Labs has embraced this technology, and is in the process of adjusting their business model for the future of virtual technologies (Click Here and See).  Many countries, corporations, and non-profit organizations have embraced OpenSim as the future of the technology.  China has already reverse engineered Second Life in their HiPiHi project.

If you are adventurous, want to meet and collaborate with some of the top innovators (an pioneers) in the world, and can handle working with alpha software, you should start considering OpenSim in your future.  Just think:  all the islands you want for free, with 45,000 prims each, advanced features beyond belief (like using prim sizes that are 256x256x256), and if your network has the bandwidth, better performance than can be imagined.  Having your students participate in the development of the OpenSim project provides them with a wealth of learning as well as some great resume building opportunities. Also, try the Hippo Viewer (http://opensim-viewer.sourceforge.net/).  In addition to having the same features as the SL viewer, many new features have been added.  Plus, with this viewer, you have access to the many thousands of OpenSim regions, SL, and of course your own regions.  Since it is Open Source, many of the regions have locations to get you started with:  skins, shapes, hair, clothing, scripts, animations, HUDs, and much much more. And yes, if you are an entrepreneur, it is a great place to get in on the "ground floor".

Second Inventory - smells like SpyBot.  But it is a good way to "backup"  your assets to your hard drive.  It could be useful for getting your assets across to OpenSim.  Click Here for more Information.

TerrainGen - I wonder if this can be used for SL terrain.  I have not tested it.  Let us know.  Click Here for more information.

OpenSim - The CC International Group is diverting some focus to OpenSim and associated development.  It is alpha stage, but we have already loaded a server.  As soon as we become familiar with it, and are able to make it secure within itself and within our network, we will allow group members to come take a look.  It is the future.  Should everyone jump to it now.  Of course not, but stay abreast of it.  As an example...educators....it is not appropriate to use Sl for K12 students, but with an OpenSime server and Sl features it can be made as safe as possible and get exact pedagogy.  We are not sure.  Again, we will do the research, keep you informed, and present what we find out.  Click Here for more information on OpenSim.  Bookmark the Group site to get additional information.