ITK/Second Life

Rationale

Given the growth and internationalization of the ITK development team we are experimenting with other mechanisms of communication and coordination.

We are therefore experimenting with new technologies hopping to find a new method of communication that can effectively include developers from different geographical zones.

The Virtual World of Second Life

     http://www.secondlife.com/

provides a very rich environment of communication

ITK TCON

In a first experiment, we will hold the ITK Tcon of

             Friday August 22nd, 2008
                1:00pm  - 2:00pm
               EST (New York Time)

In the virtual World of

                 "Second Life"
            http://secondlife.com/

Location

The location for the meeting will be the

       "Linden Open Source Project HQ"

You can *teleport* to this location by clicking on the following link:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hippotropolis/238/14/24/?img=http%3A//public.kitware.com/Insight/Doxygen/html/itkLogo.jpg&title=ITK%20Tcon&msg=Insight%20Toolkit%20%28ITK%29%20Tcon

What is Second Life

Second Life is a virtual environment that is currently used by many academic institutions including:

  * MIT
  * Princeton
  * Harvard
  * Stanford
  * Duke University
  * UNC-Chapel Hill
  * University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

For a full list, please see following link: http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL#UNIVERSITIES.2C_COLLEGES_.26_SCHOOLS

How to Prepare

In order to visit Second Life, you must install a the Second Life Client in your computer. The Client is Open Source software, distributed under a GPL License, [ and it is configured with CMake :-) ]

You can download binaries for Windows, Linux and Mac from:

         http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php

Then, you must create an account (it is free of charge), at:

      https://secure-web23.secondlife.com/join/index.php

If you already have a Second Life account for you personal purposes, you may want to consider creating a second account, so you can customize it better for participating in a professional setting.

      a) Skip the step of joining a community
      b) Select an Avatar
      c) Select a First Name
         (these names are fictitious, please feel free to express
          yourself, but be sensitive to what other cultures may
          consider offensive).
      d) Your Second Life Last name will be selected from a limited
         list. Again, it is up to your preferences.

Once you have a First Name, Last Name and Password, you will be able to launch the client and to log in. After logging in, you can click on the SLURL (Second Life URL) listed above, to teleport to the "Linden Open Source Project HQ".

You will need speakers (or headphones) and a microphone, to be able to participate in the discussions of the Tcon. There is also a text messaging capability that we can use for coordination, but we mostly anticipate to be using voice communication.