SPii Bliki

This page provides information about Phase 2 of the Schome Park Project.

• Phase 1 (Oct 2006-May 2007). More information in the Phase 1 bliki
• Phase 2 (16 May 07 - 16 Dec 07). Information on this page.
• Phase 3 ( - 31 May 08). More information in the Schome Park Project phase 3 bliki
• Current research and development phase. More information in The Schome Park bliki
• See also the Schome Park timeline

16th December 2007 - closure

Schome Park 2 (SPii) closed today for the christmas break due to lower staffing levels and the addition of the extra island. Schome Park will reopen around the 7th January, as SPiii/SP3.

December

Did we mention we were up for an Edublog award? We came second in our category, with 29% of the vote (although, it has to be said, the voting system was flawed). Congratualations to Suffern Middle School in SL, which won with 43% of the vote. Yankee has checked out all the nominated sites, and his opinion (quoted from his Second Life blog) is: "Suffern Middle Schools... gets my vote, hands down … due to Peggy’s unmistakable contribution as an early adopter, the variety and depth of projects she has going on in her school right now, her tireless support of Second Life as a conference presenter, and her general awesomeness. Go, Peggy!"

9th December 2007

Atoms

the current atom

before cutting it down

After making a helium atom yesterday down to quark level I decided to try and make it more accurate, adding different orbital possibilities. After several false starts I finally managed to get a working fuzzy orbital, although at first the lack of a die script meant that the possibilities constantly accumulated, causing "rez failure: grey goo fence: rapid or recursive rez". As you may predict, I was both rather happy with this and rather worried, and so it was much cut down. The white bodies are protons, the grey neutrons, and the small black electrons. Red spheres are up quarks and blue down quarks. With declining likelihood the electrons become more translucent. To be honest, you have to see the atoms in real to get the best effect.

-Explo, 9th December

Do I feel a machinima coming on? PeterT 06:52, 10 December 2007 (GMT)

Wizard of Oz?

Ten Schomers went for a race around the new racetrack - one fell off. The wicked witch of the West flew through the sky, screaming...

Dorothy!!!!

8th December 2007

Today was the big party - staff were kicked out, and the students took over. The whole idea was to get the new members of the community to feel welcomed, and to be able to get to know their fellow students. A whole host of old Schomers and new were online, and we did lots of activities, such as racing around the track, falling onto the beach, cuddling each other (Faz and Vibia!!!!) and watching the sunset go down over the Hawaiian Shirt.

We all had loads of fun!!!

Thanks for bliking about this - any pics? PeterT 06:52, 10 December 2007 (GMT)

6th December 2007

Woop has been testing the new Windlight Second Life client. Results are, well, lovely! For info the snapshots (click on thumbnails for bigger versions) were taken with all the graphics settings on 'max'. Resolution was 1600x1200 (which the current release SL client won't do), but the full breadth of settings are yet to be played with.

Woop getting feet wet. everything looks very smooth	More lovely water fx in the garden	Late afternoon on the beach	A bit of fiddling results in some surreal views
Still digging that water!	Note the reflections in the water now, nice.	Now that's a SPii sunset	Woop stares across the wintery landscape

3rd December 2007

Rowan was very excited by Dudefish's pictures here and in the forum about the appearance of the new island. Had to take a look.

21st November 2007

The popgun game took place, pictures can be seen on Yankee's flikr. Also, the History and Heritage meeting took place, but it was more of a talk between Fox and Mars [and Kali, later on], as it was just the two of us! We talked about how we are making our own history in SPii, how history changes so quickly in SL, and how our history should be passed on to the new comers. We were also talking about how Scholympia influences people when they decide on builds in that area etc.

We also spoke about how to welcome the new comers better, and how (briefly) we can improve SPii.

19th November 2007

Teachers' TV spent the evening filming everything on Peter/Ranger's screen. There was a schedule of events, and lots of people signed up (for a few minutes on TV ;-)) and we were all online. A few crashes and two huge parachute dives later, and the interviews started.

The schedule was flexible - lucky really, as several planned bits were missed of.

Pictures of the event:

Talking about the first parachute jump	Preparing for the lift to the second jump!	Trix is back!
Chatting in the pagoda	On the way to the 4000m drop!!!

In other news:

• Trixxiee is back! This comes after she has been using Ajaxlife for AGES! Trix is properly in now, using the SL software. Welcome back ;-)

18th November again - Mr Cute

I don't remember a planning application for a large teddy bear?

18th November 2007

The Schome calendar is available online. Thanks, Mars.

Brilliant - now I know what to give my mum for Christmas - but seriously - really great idea - PeterT 07:17, 22 November 2007 (GMT)

17th November 2007 - Murderer in SPii?

I know this is a day early, but heck, someone will forget to post otherwise.

We're all getting into character for a court case in SPii - a muder! The event was organised by Topper, and Vibia is accused of murder! We all look forward to finding out what the jury have to say...

6th November 2007 - Machima boom

Yes, machimas back and this time with double th progecs, CSI - Schome Park and Titanic. The sets are all well on there way with the CSI sets getting rez on demand pp but Titanic sets curiosly havent had a application filed. The machima sessions will be starting soon and the hindenberg one already having its trailer out, we are in for a lot of cinima in world (anyone though of a movie night, thought so!) If people can't work out who wrote this entry they havent been look at my fluent gobaldygook and lack of wiki formatting skills :P

1st November 2007 - Americans bring voice chat?

Interesting stuff - we have been tinkering with voice chat in SPii for a while - really hadn't taken off and wasn't something we were pushing, though lots of folk had dabbled with it. Last night things were very different. We have a new cohort of students (about 12 of them) from the US and they have come in (new) to Second Life and are using voice chat big time. Changes the dynamic - will be interesting to see how it pans out - communication is easier (if you can get it to work), but you loose some of your anonymity and can't look back through the chat history to see what people said. Wondering how many folk will be disenfranchised by this - and will we revert to text chat much of the time in order to be inclusive? Or will voice chat become the dominant medium with text chat used as a back channel for private conversations or meta conversations about the voice channel?

Watch this space ...

Can i just say that we do need to remember that not all peeps have voice chat. Some one was only using voice chat so only a few people could hear, also most of the sessions will be in text so it would be good for such peeps to get practice typing and know shortcuts etc, that might also provhelpful in other parts of SL.

Topper Schomer

12th October 2007 - regatta - just don't go there ...

OK so I am not the world's greatest sailor - but heck I couldn't even work out when I was meant to start yet alone where I was meant to go ... not assisted by the fact that the SL client crashed 4 times in 45 minutes (which I dare say was not helped by the fact that my PC was doing a scheduled disc backup at the time) .. ho hum - if anyone is offering powerboat lessons then I guess I better sign up ... Lessons were being offed to everyone before the races and it was just a fun race hope to see loads there at our second day tommorow!!!!! Topper Schomer I loved the way Peter hadn't realised I had "boxed" him in, both with a boat and a prim :P Only when he said my boat is busted up and I said what a cunning genious I am did he return it :D --Marsbar9 Schomer 20:05, 12 October 2007 (BST) (AKA: Sore loser - I mean *winner*)

Looks good on the starting line - if only I had known I was meant to start! The opening race winner was faz as he was one of the few to complete the course (i love time trials...so much simpler). a fun night was had by all! tommorow is the start of the powerbaot time trials and we have an open race I beleive...see you tommorow! achilles

7th October 2007 - The new sandbox zone

In what may be the most controversial decision so far the staff pushed through the redevelopment of the sandbox zone on SPii - running roughshod over the normal planning application process.

The new sandbox zone, which is marked out in red in the images below, will provide a planning permission free zone within SPii where people can experiment. The sandbox zone has been set to automatically remove all builds (prims) once a week ... So if you do build here make sure you link your prims together and give them sensible names!

The new sandbox zone

Another perspective

And another ...

6th October 2007 - Sandbox redevelopment

We have been worried about the excess red tape for new folk who want to experiment with building. So we have decided to move the sandbox and make it much bigger - one corner of SPii is going to be totally redeveloped (re-terraformed) to become the new sandbox zone. This should give new comers the chance to experiment and refine their building skills without having to come to grips with planning permission! We are reserving several thousand prims for use in the sandbox zone - but remember that it will be swept once per week - so you are advised to take your creations back into your inventory when you are not working on them.

5th October 2007 - Siobhan

We gathered today to remember Siobhan and celebrate her life. We will miss you Siobhan. I have removed mention of a certain machinima - cos though it is fantastic there are rights issues associated with it PeterT 08:15, 7 October 2007 (BST) You can see some more pictures here and here.

29th September 2007 - The day we broke the news

Today we told the SParkers about Siobhan's death. A group of us gathered to talk about it, but to be honest I think we were all too much in shock to have anything much to say ...

5th August 2007

		I've not been in for a bit - so thought I'd take some snapshots of the island. The SParkers have been busy!

July 2007 - Real-life meeting

PeterT let us out of the dark room by his tower to have a staff meeting in the cafe.You probably won't recognise us in real life: that's PeterT/Ranger on the left, then Fox, then Woop, then Faji and then Euphloozie on the right of the picture.

15 June 2007 - OPENING

The floodgate finally opening today for the first time in a month, after meeting on a small island, the opening ceremony took place in scholympia in which spii was offically opened and here are a few pics... achilles

Everyone assembled at Scholympia for the opening

Liony about to open SPii

Scholympia from above

Party hat!

The Woop window. Thanks to Woop for his fabulous work on SPii.

14 June 2007 - The debating chamber

SPii awaits the SParkers

And so we reach the final preview day. Woop is looking rather lonely and forlorn sitting in the debating chamber at the heart of Scholympia all by himself. Ah well, not long now until the doors open and SParkers flood back in, and the staff are looking forward to it as much as you.

Whilst there remains huge amounts of room for future developments, you may well find one or two things on SPii that we've not previewed in the Bliki, or even discussed in the forum. I guess that's our fiendish side coming out, but I'm sure you'll enjoy being back in world and exploring the new space.

See you all tomorrow!

Woop! If you've used all our prims making that, I will not be happy! -Happy Hapno

Not really appropriate what was up there before Hapno - it isn't a private site remember

What if snail mail havent got the consent forms to you by then if we have singend Topper Schomer

13 June 2007 - Scholympia and the woods

Don't Build There Woop

It's double your money day on the SPii Bliki, two preview screens for the price of one. First of all there's a glimpse of a portion of the Scholympia area. The community have been in heated discussion over green spaces vs buildings, and one idea with Scholympia was to centralise 'main' builds in order to keep large portions of the island in a more natural, organic and less developed state. As such whilst the staff have been busy putting in some important features they also saw substantial areas of Scholympia marked 'reserved for Sparkers'. So for the builds that have been discussed there's plenty of space around this area up for grabs.

Trees Trees Trees!

And the flip side to the built up side is of course the natural side. So what better to complete this double header than a picture of Woop enjoying a stroll through the woods. We've not found any bears or wolves or anything else nasty in there yet so it appears to be safe.

this can be arranged.... Mirage

And lest you forget the naming competition is going to close to suggestions later today. Please get ideas in (if you haven't already) so that we can move forward to the voting phase.

Since SPii is opening on Friday, tomorrow (Thursday) will be the last preview screenshot.

12 June 2007 - The Jananese Garden

A glimpse of the Japanese Garden

The week is racing by and here comes another preview screenshot of SPii. Initially the Japanese Garden was up for the chop on SPii, with the thinking that if we're starting afresh we might as well go completely back to the drawing board. The SParkers were having none of it though! "Bring back the garden!" And here is just a glimpse of it.

True to new beginnings however the Japanese Garden is not as was. It's not in the same location nor does it have the same features, but alongside some new creations you'll find many familiar touches. Woop has poured a lot of hours into getting the feel of the new garden just right, and secretly he's rather proud of it.

Don't forget the naming competition is still open until around midday Wednesday 13th June. You can suggest a name for the meeting place in the Scholympia locale as well as the beach hut.

11 June 2007 - The beach

Sunset on the beach

The opening screenshot preview met with much approval over on the forum so here we go again. Day 2 of preview week brings us a beautiful sunset on SPii beach. Set on the very west of the island it really is the only place to watch the sun go down.

Peaceful and sandy, surrounded by palm trees and beach grass, and far far away from major builds the beach is set to be one of the tranquil highlights and hotspots of SPii. And I'm sure there'll be more than one beach party for Mark to strut his Hawaiian stuff at.

And remember the naming competition is still up and running so get your suggestions in!

10 June 2007 - Scholymia's riverside cafe

Meeting place or chillout cafe?

With less than a week to go until SPii opens the metaphorical doors we're releasing a 'preview' screenshot each day. True enough there's more than a few early glimpses already on the bliki, but this will give you a glimpse of the most recent changes, updates and improvements. And you can certainly expect us not to show everything, we'd like to leave a few surprises for when you get back onto Schome Park ;-)

To start the previews take a look at this snapshot of Scholympia's riverside cafe/meeting place. A huge comfy corner sofa occupies a nice slice of the ground floor, but the top floor is empty and waiting for SParkers to make it their own! But it doesn't have a name, and we feel it should, so make sure you visit the SPii opening competition thread on the forum.

17 May 2007 - SPii

SPii is still closed - but that wikied Woop is in there building all the same - Did he get planning permission? I hear you ask - Will the SParkers tolerate this violation of the community governance structures? Whatever you think about the rights and wrongs of the approach being taken you have to admit that the builds are impressive ...

You wanted a sandbox and is that a hint of a Japanese garden to come ...	You wanted a beach - but did you expect a beach cafe?
Scholympus from the southish	You wanted trees ... Somehow envisaged more than two :-) Fox
What do you recon that funny round thing is for?	Ah ha - a harbour
A birds eye view - hmm I must learn to use PaintShop Pro a bit better ...	Funny volcano if you ask me
A natural harbour, just waiting for some development!	Atmosphere a plenty on SPii

Maybe the round thing is a boat race commentators posistion? - Aston Schomer Could be Aston... Baggs working on the natural harbour. I cant see the harbour naer schomelimpus though... Topper Schomer

15 May 2007 - Schome Park II

See Scholympus and the SPii index page for more information. Schome Park II is starting to emerge from the mist ... Yes, we decided that the time had come to totally overhaul Schome Park so that we could build upon all the things we had learnt about what worked and what did not work, and of course so that the SParkers could think about what they wanted their island to be like.

Schome Park II from the North East	Schome Park II from the North West
Schome Park II from the South East	Schome Park II from the South West
Schome Park II from above	Scholympus - government and civic centre at the heart of the community

Secluded crescent beach taking shape