Slovenian public broadcaster enters Second Life
Artesia helps Slovenian’s public broadcaster enter Second Life, build a community
LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA, EU (March 25, 2008)
MMC, new media department of Slovenian public broadcaster (RTV Slovenija – http://www.rtvslo.si/) is entering Second Life on March 29th. The island, called MMC, is an extension of its Multimedia Center. The purpose of their Second Life presence is to extend its web community into Second Life by allowing users to schedule and hold events. They have partnered with community consultants Artesia (http://www.artesia.si/english) and the experienced virtual world architects Beta Technologies (http://betatechnologies.info/) in the execution of an ambitious Second Life project.
MMC has always been on the forefront of technology – it was among the first to webcast its programs and to enable web access to its digital archives. The extension of their activities into virtual worlds was a natural next step for the Multimedia centre of RTV Slovenia.
“We understand the differences between the web and virtual worlds and know the importance of relationships and community in Second Life. That is why we decided to extend our existing web (“MojSplet”) community into Second Life.” said Zvezdan Martic, Head of Multimedia center at RTV Slovenia.
Artesia, a start-up community development company from Slovenia with offices on Silicon Island, helped extend MMC’s role of providing information into Second Life in the form of events – scheduled by and held by the users themselves. The events are administered by four Editorial boards (covering News, Culture, Music and Fun), staffed by the Second Life users and include an editorial building and an event space each. The events can be anything – from classes on building or scripting to live music or DJ events. The event organizers are free to collect tips, and the editors are allowed to maintain residential skyboxes and customize the editorial and event spaces. Main focus of the MMC Island is on the local users, but all Second Life users are welcome to visit or become a part of the community.
“Our main goal was to provide value to the Second Life community by enabling them to hold events in an ad-free and camp-free setting. The best part of Second Life is the creative expression it allows its users; we believe that they will be able to do a far better job with the events than we could.” said Jan Isakovic, CEO of Artesia (SL IYan Writer).
To help new users with Second Life, the main building on the MMC island houses tutorials, instructional videos and freebies. Content creators, interested in promoting their work and shops, are invited to donate a freebie or two – they will be distribued with info notecards and landmarks. There is also an option of a free HUD, which comes in two languages – English and Slovenian. The HUD keeps the users updated with the latest news and upcoming events, and allows the conversion between Linden dollars and Euros and Central European time zone and Second Life time, and the Slovenian version has an added feature of pairing users with the MojSplet web community account.
MMC has teamed up with one of the most experienced virtual world architect companies, Beta Technologies. They were responsible for all Second Life elements of the project – from designing the island and the HUD to building and implementing it.
“We are very glad to have worked with Beta Technologies on the project. They have built us a beautiful island and their professional attitude helped the project run smooth and fast.” said Jan Isakovic, CEO of Artesia.
“This was a challenging project, and we are happy that, with the excellent coordination of the Artesia team, we managed to create a place of beauty and a successful Second Life environment for the MMC users,” commented Moon Adamant, Chief Creative Director for Beta Technologies.
The grand opening of the MMC island is scheduled for Saturday, 29th of March from 18:00 to 0:00 CET (10AM to 4PM SLT). The opening event will include music performances by DJ Rush Roff and several Trauma DJs, a presentation of SL art by Hatris Panacek and several presentations of the MMC community project in Slovenian and English.
MMC island is located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/MMC/91/127/26/?img=http%3A//artesia.si/english/wp-content/MMC_PR/MMC_sm.jpg&title=MMC&msg=MMC%20in%20Second%20Life
For more information, contact Jan Isakovic (SL: IYan Writer, jan@artesia.si, CEO of Artesia) or Alja Sulcic (SL: iAlja Writer, alja@artesia.si, Community architect at Artesia). The island is closed to public until March 25th – if you wish to visit sooner, please send an IM to IYan or iAlja.
About RTV Slovenia
According to the Law (lex specialis) passed on 12 November 2005, Radio-television Slovenia is “a public institution of special cultural and national importance performing public service in the field of radio and television activities … with the intention of fulfilling democratic, social and cultural needs of the citizens of the Republic of Slovenia, Slovenians abroad, Slovenian national minorities in Italy, Austria and Hungary, Italian and Hungarian national communities in the Republic of Slovenia …
(Article 1)
The public service of RTV Slovenia has been established by the Republic of Slovenia.
It is the duty of the founder to assure institutional autonomy and editorial independence of RTV Slovenia and provide adequate funding for the fulfilment of public service.
(Article 2)
According to the Law, public service of RTV Slovenia includes creation, preparation, archiving and broadcasting of:
- two national TV channels
- three national radio channels
- radio and TV programmes in the regional centres in Koper and Maribor
- one radio and TV channel for the Italian and Hungarian national community respectively
- radio and TV programmes for the Romany community
- radio and TV programmes for Slovenian national minorities in the neighbouring countries and Slovenian emigrants and workers abroad
- radio and TV programmes for foreign audiences
- teletext and an Internet and mobile portal
- according to the Law, public service of RTV Slovenia includes a special national TV programme for direct broadcasting of the sessions of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia and its working bodies, and the sessions of the National Council.
http://www.rtvslo.si/modload.php?&c_mod=static&c_menu=1048034034
About Artesia
Artesia is a start-up company, focusing on user communities. We are located in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia (European Union).
We firmly believe that in the inter-connected business world of today and tomorrow, the successful companies will be the ones that will create added-value communities of their customers, employees and business partners, using the best tools to accomplish that – from classic forum systems via wiki to virtual worlds.
We use our own methodology to build and enhance user communities and define added value for community members and the company. MMC is Artesia’s first large Second Life project, but they are also involved with Metanomics, Second Life’s premier TV show, where they help prof. Robert Bloomfield (SL Beyers Sellers), the host, with the management of Metanomics’ thriving community.
Link: http://www.artesia.si/english
About Beta Technologies
Beta Technologies is a joint-venture of two companies, Beta Technologies, Lda., headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal (EU) and Full House Productions Inc. in New York (USA).
The joint-venture explores the development of institutional virtual presences in three-dimensional environments like Second Life and has customers all around the world.
As a full service provider, Beta Technologies’ workforce is multinational, spreading across several continents, and has a team of skilled specialist professionals including consultants, project managers, architects, urban planners, graphical designers, interior designers, Web designers, 3D modelers, animators, programmers, system administrators, sound and video engineers, movie directors, and multimedia producers.
Beta Technologies specializes in complex virtual environments that are challenging either from an architectonical, technological, or cultural point of view — adapting the existing virtual world technology to better fit a corporate image, appealing to the overall users of virtual worlds, as well as closely reflecting a company’s branding and mission.
