Case Western Reserve University to Be First Educational Institution to Deploy Standalone Version of Second Life
Case Western Reserve will become the first educational institution in the world to host a standalone version of the virtual world Second Life® behind its firewall, making it available to its faculty, staff and students.
The university, along with the New Media Consortium, unveiled its virtual environment for education, using the new standalone version of Second Life, during its annual summit on technology and collaboration known as CollabTech, earlier today on the Case Western Reserve campus. Linden Lab's new standalone version of Second Life, codenamed 'Nebraska,' comes complete with all the power and potential of Second Life, including features like rich media and voice, but because it is hosted on an organization's own servers behind a firewall, it provides customers with an additional level of data privacy, confidentiality, and IT security.
The new solution provides a platform for the creation and operation of completely customizable virtual environments, which can be used by educators of all levels, from pre-K through graduate school. 'Nebraska' is currently in alpha testing, with a limited beta phase planned for this summer and general availability later this year. Read more.
Campus News
The university's book club is currently reading Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Those interested in discussing the book are invited to attend the group's next meeting from noon to 1 p.m., Tuesday, May 12, in Adelbert Hall 352. Contact Sue Benedict for details.
The Weatherhead School of Management's Executive MBA program is hosting an open house from 6 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, May 12, at the George S. Dively Building. Attendees will have an opportunity to meet faculty, current students and alumni. Appetizers and beverages will be served, and parking will be available. Contact Kate Coleman, EMBA program manager, at 368-6411 to reserve a spot, or register online.
Case Western Reserve University's Emerging Infections Committee continues to monitor swine flu conditions and provide updates to help students, faculty, staff and visitors avoid contracting this new strain of the flu. No cases of swine flu have been reported on campus. Additional information is available on the university's emerging infections Web site.
For Faculty and Staff
Resources are available from University Archives to help departments and offices determine how long records need to be kept, which ones should be transferred to the archives for long-term preservation, and how to dispose of records containing confidential information. Records disposition schedules are a well-established tool to ensure that records are kept as long as needed. Schedules are available online. Guidelines for records that should be transferred to the archives also are available online.
For Students
Volunteers are needed for the Cleveland Orchestra's upcoming Family Concert activities on Saturday, May 16. Shifts are available from 9:45 to 11 a.m., and from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. Students who volunteer will receive two tickets to a Cleveland Orchestra concert at Severance Hall or Blossom Music Center, subject to availability. Contact Lisa Judge at (216) 231-7353 for details.
Events
The Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence will host retired Navy Capt. Rick Rubel from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 12. He will give a talk on "Lessons from the U.S. Naval Academy on Teaching Leadership, Ethics, and Character Development," based on his 11 years as a distinguished military professor at the Naval Academy. His talk will address topics including teaching character, developing leaders who embody virtues like integrity and moral courage, and more. Free and open to the public. A light lunch will be served. Contact the Inamori Center's Christian Frano by e-mail or by phone at 368-2579 for parking information or for large group requests.
Joan Steitz of Yale University will deliver a report on "Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering" from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday, May 12, at the Biomedical Research Building, Room 105. This report, which she helped produce, analyzes the reasons for the underrepresentation of women in academic sciences. Lunch will be served. RSVP by May 11 to Sharon Burke. Sponsored by the Women in Science and Engineering Roundtable (WISER).
The views and opinions of those invited to speak on campus do not necessarily reflect the views of the university administration or any other segment of the university community.
Data Center Renovations
The final phases of the data center renovation project involve moving individual data servers, which may result in periodic planned outages for some information technology services. Server and application administrators will alert affected users.
Friday, May 8:
- ERP Student Development Servers (Application Development only)
- LDAP Server (Redundant replica, no outages expected)
