British Science Festival – Virtual Science Map

Welcome to the British Science Festival Virtual Science Map.

The aim of this small project is to create a map of virtual world based scientific research and educational initiatives at UK universities. The map is being created by Birmingham-based virtual world specialists Daden Limited as part of this year’s British Science Festival hosted at Aston University in Birmingham.

Virtual Worlds such as Second Life, where users can socialise and connect on-line are already being extensively used by UK Universities and other educational and research organisations – but it can be hard to find out what is going on, and where. It can hopefully become a lasting resource for UK Science which can live on beyond the 2010 British Science Festival.

The map is, appropriately, presented as virtual map inside of Second Life where visitors will be able to click on map markers to gain further information on each project, and to be directly transported to the science project location.

Users without access to Second Life, or running projects in other virtual worlds, are not excluded from the project. All information will be available through this micro-site, which includes a browser based version of the Second Life map, and lists of projects in other worlds.

Taking Part

In order to take part and have your project and virtual location listed please Register Your Project.

The form is just one page and should just take a minute or so to fill out. If you are in Second Life please fill out you SLURL so that we can plot you on the map! We are interested in UK science use of virtual worlds for not only science research, but also for science outreach and higher education.

If you know of other people with virtual worlds projects then please also let them know!

Viewing the Map and Data

You can view the data in a number of different ways:

• As a simple list of projects (including non-Second Life projects) - List Projects

• As a web based map of projects in Second Life - View the 2D Map

• As a map inside of Second Life Visit the 3D Map in Second Life

Questions and Contact

If you have any questions about the project then please contact us as bsf2010@daden.co.uk.