Harvard Still Has a Sim in Second Life, But I'm Not Sure Even Harvard Remembers That

When I noted the decline of "the most prominent and active presence of a major university in Second Life" on Monday, I added "active" as a qualifier because there's still some other prominent universities in SL, up to and including the most prominent in the entire world: Harvard University. Click here to visit Berkman, sponsored by Harvard's law college of the same name.

Thing is, you may be one of the few visitors in quite some time.

That wasn't always the case, because a decade ago, it was quite active, hosting events like "Avatar-based Marketing: What's the future of Real Life Companies Marketing to Second Life Avatars?", which spun out of an article from the Harvard Business Review. I was a panelist at that event, and another time, distinctly remember first meeting Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on the sim, as he was exploring SL as an avatar named Jimbo Berkman (yes).

The place is more or less empty now, except for a public sandbox, and to judge by the surroundings, hasn't been updated in many years. For instance, clicking a nearby bulletin board produces this notecard, dated 2011:

Q: Is this a School?

A: Yes, This is Harvard Law School.

Q: What is Berkman Sim used for?

A: Currently Berkman is being rebuilt. There was a error with Linden Labs and the sim was "attacked". Done Rebuilding date is unknown. The sandbox is open to everyone.

One wonders if Harvard is still paying to keep the unused sim in Second Life, possibly because their accounting people haven't bothered to investigate the monthly $199 debit on their credit card -- or, as is sometimes the case, Linden Lab forgot to remove it from the grid. For now, it remains a testament to how even the most brilliant minds at the world's most brilliant university can over-estimate the importance of the virtual with cold hard cash.

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Comments

[Adeon Writer]

Or - check for skyboxes. Some educational sims, once forgotten by their owners, were still by whoever nudged the college to use SL in the first place - as a free personal sim on the company's dime.

[Pathfinder]

Dang, all the cool stuff I remember being there originally is gone. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pathfinderlinden/137026743/in/photostream/

Harvard (specifically the Berkman Center) was the first university I worked with to help them get into Second Life.