I was inspired to create a post about this topic following a recent discussion on the SLED list concerning quoted traffic numbers. This post is not meant in any way to shame anyone, but it is intended to indicate exactly what “traffic”, in the context of a SecondLife land parcel, actually means.

All land in SecondLife has what is known as a “traffic” figure which can be found be going to Land Properties as you can see in the diagram below. I shot this early in the SecondLife day and already is says 309. But that’s not 309 avatars having visited, oh no!

The land figure is actually a Linden Labs method of determining the popularity of a parcel, albeit a very crude method. The idea is that the calculation is equated to the amount of visitors on that land combined with the amount of time they spend on that land in relation to the time they spend actually online in that day.

“Traffic is a number for each parcel which is based on the amount of Residents who visited, and the time spent on that parcel out of their total time in world that day. It’s calculated using a complex algorithm.” See here.

So if you log-in, immediately teleport to my land, and stay there for the duration of your SecondLife time for that day, my traffic figure will be much higher than had you frequented many places during that same time period.

This then is a warning shot, when traffic figures are mentioned in the context of land parcels, as they have little relativity to unique people landing on a parcel. This is in fact exactly why some land owners have such things as camping chairs in order to have avatars do nothing but “camp” on the land in order to inflate the figures (this has benefits for the search system rankings).

In order to appropriately determine unique visitors (which are the only real concern when discussing obtaining SecondLife exposure) you would employ a script which actually head counts unique visitors.

Various scripts do exist for such counting, I personally use one made by the avatar SpankMe Pinkerton (have to love the names).

The script features are listed as:

* Two data lists (individual visits & unique visitors)
* Collects date, length of stay, and average stay data
* IM guests (separate message for first time visitors)
* Owner IM notification (online only & timing options)
* Ten detection sound options or set your own via uuid
* Adjustable range and scan intervals
* Owner land filtering (neighbor friendly)
* Automatic owner filtering

Fairly comprehensive method of tracking I would say!

So do be careful on your travels in SecondLife if you are seeking new customers and clients for your educational activities and are basing your advertising on traffic figures.

So next time someone says “how’s your traffic”, look at them in a puzzled manner first and then ensure they understand the question themselves, most do not!

OK so someone has asked me for the script in order to click and object which spawns a web page, so here it is. Just create an object with the texture(s) of your choice and create a new script in that object and paste this in.

default
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
llLoadURL(llDetectedKey(0), "Check our Group Activity!", "http://audiocourses.pbwiki.com");
}
}

I wanted to blog a list of the Institutions and Organisations in SL as mapped out on Simteach.com and invite any of you that appear on this list to create a user account here on SLEDucating and request to be an author, just email me (chambly AT gamil.com).

We have a great opportunity here to share and provide a strong node for pointing people to. It is also perfectly acceptable to create a mini-post outlining, and pointing to, a bigger research paper on your own blog or uni server, think of this as a “news” site if you will, sharing the word.

Aarhus Business College: Aarhus, Denmark

Anglia Ruskin University at Cambridge and Chelmsford, UK

Arcada University of Technology: Helsingfors, Finland

The Art Institute of California-San Diego San Diego, CA

The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA

Audiocourses Music Production School: London, United Kingdom

Australian Film TV and Radio School: Sydney, Australia

Ball State University: Muncie, IN

The Bay School of San Francisco: San Francisco, CA

Beach College: Santa Barbara, CA

Bentley College - Department of Natural and Applied Sciences: Waltham, MA

Bradley University, Peoria, IL– Multimedia Program via NMC and Library on Info Island

Bromley College of Further and Higher Education: Greater London, United Kingdom

Buena Vista University Storm Lake, IA

California State University - Pomona: Pomona, CA

Central Missouri State University: Warrensburg, Missouri

Central Piedmont Community College - Futures Institute: Charlotte, North Carolina

Colorado Mountain College: Glendwood Springs, CO

Columbia University: New York, NY

Dyersburg State Community College: Dyersburg, TN

Elon University: Elon, NC

Finger Lakes Community College: Canandaigua, NY

Fullerton College: Fullerton, CA

Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture University of Houston: Houston, TX

Harvard University: Cambridge, Mass.

Idaho State University: Pocatello, Idaho.

Illinois State University: Normal, IL

Indiana University: Bloomington, IN

Insead

Institut Ingemedia: Toulon, France

Johnson & Wales University: Providence, RI & 5 Western States

Kalamazoo Valley Community College: Kalamazoo, MI

Leeds College of Art and Design: West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Leeds Metropolitan University: West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Lehigh Carbon Community College: Schnecksville, PA

Loyalist College: Belleville, ON, Canada

Mayville State University: Mayville, ND

Minneapolis College of Art and Design: Minneapolis, MN

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities:

Monroe College: Bronx, New York

Montana State University: Bozeman, Montana

Murray State University: In RL | In SL

Nanyang Polytechnic: Singapore

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology: Nelson, New Zealand

New York University - McGhee Division: New York, NY

Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Northern Illinois University: DeKalb, IL

Ohio University: Athens, OH

Ohio University Second Life Campus Video

Ohio State University: Columbus, OH

Oklahoma City University: Oklahoma City, OK

The Open University: Milton Keynes, UK

Oregon State University: Corvallis, OR

Otis College of Art and Design Los Angeles, CA

Pellissippi State Technical Community College: Knoxville, TN

Pennsylvania State University: (Various towns), PA

Pepperdine Universtiy: Malibu, CA

Platt (Media Arts) College San Diego: San Diego, CA

LEARN [3D Animation • Digital Video Production • Graphic Design • Web Design] San Diego State University: San Diego, Calif.

San Francisco State University: San Francisco, CA

Savannah College of Art & Design: Savannah, GA; Atlanta, GA; Lacoste, France

Seton Hall University: South Orange, NJ

Sheffield Hallam University: Sheffield, UK

Sogang University: Seoul, Korea

Stanford University: Palo Alto, CA

St. Thomas University: Miami Gardens, FL

SUNY Empire State College: Saratoga Springs, NY

Temple University: Philadelphia, PA

Texas State University: San Marcos, Texas

The Bay School of San Francisco: San Francisco, CA

Thomas Jefferson University: Philadelphia, PA

Trinity University: San Antonio, Texas

University of Alaska Fairbanks Center for Distance Education Fairbanks, Alaska

University of Bedfordshire Luton & Bedford, UK

University of California Berkeley

University of Cincinnati: Cincinnati, OH

University of Colorado at Denver Medical Center: Denver, CO

University of Connecticut: Hartford, CT

University of Derby: Derby, UK

University of Edinburgh: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

University of Florida: Gainesville, FL

University of Massachusetts: North Dartmouth, MA

University of Minnesota, School of Physics and Astronomy: Minneapolis, MN

University of Missouri - Kansas City: Kansas City, Missouri

University of Nevada, Reno: Reno, NV

University of New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana http://www.uno.edu

University of Paisley: Paisley, Scotland, UK

University of Portsmouth: Portsmouth, UK

University of Southern California: Los Angeles, CA

University of Southern Queensland: Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

University of Southern Denmark (Syddansk Universitet): Odense, Kolding, Esbjerg, Sønderborg, Slagelse, København, DK

University of Surrey: Guildford, UK

University of Sydney: Sydney, Australia

University of Tennessee, College of Medicine: Knoxville, Tenn.

University of Texas at Dallas: Richardson, Texas

University of Texas Medical Branch: Galveston, Texas

University of Wales, Newport: Newport, Wales, UK

University of Washington: Seattle, WA

University School (k-12): Hunting Valley, OH

Vassar College: Poughkeepsie, NY

Virginia Tech: Blacksburg, Virginia

Lots of people have been asking for a blogging solution, a way of being able to blog from “in-world” either a text or notecard directly to their personal blog.

The following two scripts when placed in a prim will do exactly that.

You can change the subject title, the blog address, the email, and choose between blogging the text chat, or a notecard.

You call this script “blogger”.

The basic premise is that the script sends an e-mail, so you need your blog software set up to process an email, which is fairly simple on most blog apps.

}


You call this script “mailer”


string blog_email;
// This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
// the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.
//
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
// GNU General Public License for more details.

}


Hi everyone,

If you get the chance, stop by the ISTE SkyPark tonight at 6pm SLT for the Educator’s Show & Tell.  

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland/32/214/549

I’ve been asked to talk about the research project I’ve just gotten started with as well as issues involving teen grid access … and we’ve got some other cool stuff planned, including an update on some exciting GaLiSL developments.

Hope to see you there,

Kevin Jarrett (KJ Hax)

Walden University

See this quiz-building tutorial using Unreal Tournament put together by Physics dept. instructional developers at Drexel University.

EDU-MUVE quote of the day: “…a chemistry student should be able to play with a biology student, each sharing the same space but being quizzed on different content. In this version of UT they would not be able to shoot each other but they could have a race.”

From this YouTube Machinima, the latest entry in the MUVE arena appears to be more about “singing songs, going to bars and watching movies” than education. But our comely host “Christina” starts in an orientation space nearly identical to the Linden Lab spot, including a walk downhill with rustic wooden signs.

See the HipiHi website (via machine-translation) and the dismissive Second Life Insider post from Feb 2.

Salacious tidbit - HipiHi’s senior managers hale from Wuhan - home city to Anshe Chung studios. Chung’s Guni Graef told me in November that AC Studios was hiring heavily from local multimedia design schools and had upped its staff to over 30! He sold a 10% stake to a German publisher two weeks ago.

Pure Gossip - Where could that capital be headed? It may not be coincidental that the HipiHi video is narrated in the first person by a young female character….

I have posted our latest Machinima on YouTube from our fledgling campus.
Several innovations you might steal:

• Create a giant logo up at about 250m and film backwards as you jump off.
• Create a duplicate of a campus building and then use camera controls to match a RL video shot of the building.
• Create a 2D chart graphic and then cut it into prims - turn them physical and drop them from the chart - on your avatar’s head! Hardest part of this is getting a single texture to align on every prim to the millimeter.

Created with a MacBook Pro, SnapzPro, iMovie and Garage Band.

TP to the campus and browse the website.

Here is the wonderful code by Ordinal Malaprop which will enable you to Twitter from SecondLife as well as recieve Twitter updates in SecondLife.

You simply create a prim and put this script into that prim after editing the script with your own email and password for your Twitter account.

This code also features an animation (you can drop your own animation in named “Twitter”) and a prim “Twitterball” which rezzes and creates particles in the shape of musical notation. The Twitterbox starts the animation and also makes the sound when in “private” mode.


// Twitterbox v0.2
// Post to Twitter and receive updates from within SL

http_response(key id, integer status, list metadata, string body)
{
if (llGetSubString(body, 0, 1) == “OK”) {
// A success
list lines = llParseString2List(body, [”\n”], []);
string firstLine = llList2String(lines, 0);
if (llGetListLength(lines) == 1) {
// A successful update, or an ID check
list bits = llParseString2List(firstLine, [”,”], []);
gCode = llList2Integer(bits, 1);
gScreenName = llList2String(bits, 2);
if (llList2String(bits, 3) == “posted”) {
llOwnerSay(”Successfully Twittered!”);
if (gNotify == 1) {
llPlaySound(”c923f3d9-83a6-99dc-9b7d-bbcdb3c30789″, 1.0);
} else if (gNotify == 2) {
twitterball();
}
}
}
else {
integer f = 1;
integer maxTime = gTime;
do {
string user = llList2String(lines, f);
integer time = llList2Integer(lines, f + 2);
if (user != gScreenName && time > gTime) {
if (maxTime == gTime) {
// First new tweet, play sound
if (gNotify != 0) {
llPlaySound(”c923f3d9-83a6-99dc-9b7d-bbcdb3c30789″, 1.0);
}
}
llOwnerSay(llList2String(lines, f) + “: ” + llList2String(lines, f + 1));
maxTime = time;
}
f += 3;
} while (f < llGetListLength(lines));
if (maxTime == gTime) {
if (gManual) {
llOwnerSay("No new entries");
gManual = FALSE;
}
} else {
gTime = maxTime;
}
}
} else {
if (body == "") {
// SL sends back a blank entry if it can't get in touch
body = "Could not contact intermediary server " + TWITTERPING;
}
else llOwnerSay("Error " + (string)status + " - " + body);
}
}
}


I have recently been using the social networking tool Twitter which is one of the hot hot topics that everyone visiting SXSW seems to be using.

The tool is based on the concept of “what are you doing now?”. A user can type this information into a web form, Googletalk IM, text message in a cell phone and more recently through several scripts available in SL which not only send your current twittering through a private channel, but also enable you to recieve and parse out your twittering friends information “in-world” through chat.

Pretty impressive!

You can “follow” friends on Twitter in order to be notified of what they are doing (or wish you to know) and similarly people can “add” you in order to follow your musings. This really is proving to be a powerful networking tool and even politicians are now dipping their toes into twittering to keep their electorate in touch and up to date, again powerful stuff!

The most recent script I have been using is made by the SL avatar Ordinal Malaprop, which even twitters SLURLS into your Twitter time-line. One other script I have used is made “in-world” by Koz Farina, which is a HUD.

If anyone else is using/making a Secondlife Twitter script do post a comment about it here, or if you are Twitter user tell us how you use your Twitter in conjunction with SL.