Second Places

July 13, 2010; Mark Duffy

Second Places announces the winning on 2 contracts won over May and June 2010. 

With over 20 Private Virtual Worlds and over 40 clients ranging from Secondary Schools to Multi National Business Consultancy, Second Places is the largest supplier of Private Virtual Worlds in the UK.  Based in Manchester and Aberdeen it has grown massively in the past 12 months, moving to larger offices and investing in better technology to enhance the Virtual World products. 

"These new contracts will allow us the ability to grow even more", said Managing Director Mark Duffy, "It has been a hard 2 months getting the contracts agreed and we are all looking forward to building what I think will be the most fantastic builds ever done in a virtual world."

"The 2 contracts are both Scottish in location which shows the insight Scotland has to over come the problems of a diverse and spread population, these projects are both primarily aimed at the younger generation however we hope in future that adults will be able to access while giving security to children".  Mark Duffy continued, "Child security has always been paramount to any social internet media, Second Places have developed the capability for administrators to completely control every users abilities, be that chatting verbally, chatting through text, Instant messaging  or even creating objects.  This has opened up Virtual Worlds to Schools, Educators, Local and Regional Government."

South Lanarkshire Dharma Project

Some time ago South Lanarkshire opened up a private island within Second Life.  There were many educational products created within the island, however the restrictions put up by Second Life and the inability to expand without massive costs restricted the ambitions of the kids and staff.  In April 2010 South Lanarkshire’s Youth Learning Service put out an invitation to tender to enhance their Second Life island.

Second Places tendered for the rebuild but also put in information about the possibilities of a private Virtual World.   

"We were delighted to be told that South Lanarkshire had gone for the private virtual world solution", said Mark Duffy, "This opened a whole new world of possibilities, so much in fact that at our first meeting we had agreed to increase the size of the present build by 300% giving the client much more space to play with, and all at a much reduced cost to what they were already paying for in Second Life."

The project is due for completion in Mid August 2010.

Linlithgow Palace (past and present)

Building on their fantastic success of CANVAS (Children’s Art at the Virtual Arena of Scotland) LTS (Learning and Teaching Scotland) put out an invitation to tender to recreate the present ruin of Linlithgow palace and recreate the palace as it would have been at some point in the past. 

Although Second Places were the builders of the CANVAS system all IPR is passed over to the client when the project is completed.  “Although this means at the end of the project the client has the ability to get someone else in to upgrade or enhance a build further it gives the client complete confidence that Second Places will not hold them to ransom when they do wish to add to the build.”  As such a very meticulous tender process was undertaken.  After a couple of months of the process Second Places was awarded the contract. 

"This is the kind of build we always dreamed about", said Mark Duffy, "The ability for people all around the world to visit a national treasure, and then to add to the experience virtually go back in time to see the palace as it was at its height!".   Access to the palace will be through the GLOW system.

The project is due for completion Early August 2010.