Global Kids' Online Leadership Program

The proposal from Kim?s team, now calling itself The Magicians, was excellent. They took our rough ideas, which bore no relationship to life in SL, and took it to places I could not have imagined. The work that lay ahead was thrilling, not only in its conception but in its tight two week timeframe.

However, there was more to be done than I realized. Many organizations have build islands within Second Life, but only in the adult grid, or for their own use. Global Kids would become the first organization to build an island for teens in Second Life; without being able to visit the space, the challenges presented to the Magicians were considerable.

We gathered on the undeveloped island to meet with Blue and Brent Linden to ask questions few had ever had need to ask. These would eventually be answered. The problems, however, lay with the ones no one knew to ask.

I had expected the Magicians to simply re-shape, or terraform, the island to meet their designs, and then stick all sorts of objects on it. All I would need to do is stop in now and then to take a peek. It wouldn?t be that simple. Due to the way land and objects are owned in SL, I was required to do some of the work. Not much, but it was fun to have a role. My avatar, Globalkids Bixby, would still own the estate, but the Magicians would be part of a group allowed to build and own objects on the land. (This mistake, which none could have foreseen, would lose us two precious weeks once moved to the teen grid. )In this photo, I am learning how to alter the estate settings so the Magicians could do their work. Gus, the main terraformer, used his version of a PowerPoint to take me through the steps.

I have produced many projects before, but never one in a 3D environment. I hadn?t realized this meant the sketches of ideas would be actual objects I could manipulate and move around.

Here is the centerpiece of the island, the volcano. The problem, of course, is that I had never seen a project in Second Life move from conception to completion. Would the island be as simplistic as this model? I had expected something with a greater level of detail. And why were there three globes?

Unfortunately, since this is a still image, you can?t see that the lava actually flowed down the side. As confused as I might have been, one thing was clear: I loved it!