3pointD.com

Another one that dropped while I was away, but which Giff has just reminded me of: The New Media Consortium, which set up shop in the virtual world of Second Life sometime back, has announced that it has established a new services unit, NMC Virtual Worlds, to cater to “educational institutions wishing to explore, build, or establish a presence in a range of virtual worlds.” NMC itself is a non-profit consortium of more than 225 research and educational institutions, so it will be interesting to see what kind of virtual world educational initiatives the organization can catalyze both within its own ranks and in the broader educational realm. While there’s only one project on their portfolio page at the moment, NMC is apparently working with Second Life creator Linden Lab to create a specialized new-user experience for educators, and is already working with a number of groups within SL. (See the announcement for more details.) Services will also be offered for 3D online spaces like Croquet. We look forward to learning what they come up with.