Training in Second Life®
Last Updated on Wednesday, 09 September 2009 11:51 Written by Reuben Antiesse Saturday, 05 September 2009 17:10
How to Build a Foundation for Your SL™ Experience
Second life is a whole new world. It’s a place where you can let your imagination free in any way you wish. It’s a place where you have to work to succeed. When you first entered the succulent world of Second Life, many would’ve asked you these words: “What skills do you have?”
Well, let’s be honest, you probably didn’t have any. But did you know that many different companies offer various training programs. In this article, we will take a look at two different types of training in two different interviews; Gramma Fiddlesticks representing NCI and Erik Goff representing People Pool by GMG.
Interview with Gramma Fiddlesticks
Reuben Antiesse: So, before we begin with the interview, let's just get some details about yourself out of the way. How long have you been involved with Second Life?
Gramma Fiddlesticks: I joined Jan 19, 2007.
Reuben: How long have you been helping fellow citizens for?
Gramma: I began teaching for NCI in July of 2007.
Reuben: It is great to have people like you keeping Second life healthy. What are your skills here in Second life?
Gramma: My skills are pretty much standard fare. I build. I make textures. I help people learn their way around, I teach classes. I plan, and host various Events for NCI and for our sponsors. Oh, I also shop!
Reuben: Haha, looks like you've got your hands full, and not just with shopping bags! So what's your rank here in NCI?
Gramma: I am now Chairman of the Board.
Reuben: Alright, if you could sum up what NCI has to offer in a few sentences, what would you say?
Gramma: NCI is one of the largest help groups in SL™, sitting at 9,717 members. It is also the oldest other than those that are operated by Linden Lab® themselves. What we offer is the opportunity to learn as much as you wish about Second Life. We help new residents of SL to get off to a good start, and hope for them to become productive, self-reliant and good citizens. Able to help others in turn.
Reuben: It looks like NCI is a great help in Second Life's economy, tell me about your training programs. What different classes do you provide?
Gramma: We hold more than 60 classes and events each week. Skills that are taught are mostly building, texturing, or scripting related. However, we also offer classes that teach how to maneuver your way around SL, how to use the search function, maps, and organize your inventory for instance. Land ownership, how to deal with griefers, along with skills like making clothing items, getting your avatar to look like you want.
Reuben: Looks like there is a lot to offer. What is the importance of training classes?
Gramma: I believe it's the same here as in real life. Education is a must and the most effective way I know is to attend classes. It should be noted that NCI does not charge you anything for our classes. They are all free to attend.
Reuben: Do you think that new citizens are aware of classes as much as they should be? Or do you think many do not know of training classes?
Gramma: Good question. And I'm not at all sure of the answer, though we do have information at all the Linden Lab help islands about our classes that are available for all.
Reuben: Is NCI linked with any other companies?
Gramma: No. We are independant and staffed totally with volunteers.
Reuben: does NCI offer training for companies or RL corporations establishing in SL?
Gramma: We are curretnly in the process of putting a program together for exactly that Ruben. It will be a new service we offer very soon. Hopefully within the next 60 days we will be ready to begin advertising that service.
Reuben: Has there been any similar requests in the past?
Gramma: I don't know if there have been actual requests made, but doing this has been talked about for some time once we saw the direction Linden Lab seemed to be going with corproate clients.
Reuben: Alright, well thank you very much, Gramma for the interview in representation of NCI.
Gramma: You are very welcome and a big welcome to Second Life for you Reuben.
Reuben: Thank you!
Interview with Erik Goff
Reuben Antiesse: Well, let's get to know a bit about you. How long have you been a member of Second Life?
Erik Goff: Somewhat more then 3 years now
Reuben: Wow, so it looks like you have a lot of experience under your belt! So, you are the CEO of GMG, tell us what exactly GMG is.
Erik: GMG stands for Goff Management Group. It’s a conglomerate of 14 companies in SL We do a lot of stuff; varying from building and scripting, management, all the way to personnel services.
Reuben: How long has the company existed?
Erik: Also for about 3 years. I started to call it GMG when it really became a group. I started business in SL on day 1.
Reuben: Wow, and look at the company now. It has grown so big! Well, Mr. Goff, People Pool is a division of GMG, what does People Pool provide for the public?
Erik: We select people for companies. We are mainly into active recruiting. Unlike other job agencies in SL, they are mostly just an advertising space for jobs. We also have different systems which allow us to place people at a spot. For instance a company’s main desk; many are usually 24 hours a day. We can monitor the workers performance; to make sure not just camping and such. We take Second Life serious, and so our crew must do that to. To bring that to the next level, we introduced the trainings. We want to make sure that if we select a person, he/she is trained for the job and ready to go. That’s part of the service, we relieve the company owners form training new crew.
Reuben: Let's talk more about training, I hear this is not ordinary training, the training depicts if the person is hired by GMG, am I right?
Erik: Not only GMG, although we pick out our own pool too of course, but also the training give us proper crew to forward to our customers.
Reuben: Wow, that is a great idea, what does PeoplePool Training teach?
Erik: We currently have newbie training and a host training as permanent ones. In some cases we do give other training, depending on the customers. For instance, we have had a time that we had to cover a photo studio 24/7 with photographers, and they have to be good at their profession.
Reuben: What does "newbie training" entail?
Erik: In the newbie training we teach some basic stuff like how to move, how to open boxes, how to create a note card, SL-etiquette, stuff like that. Training is free. In many other cases you see that they ask money for a host training and then don’t hire them lol. That’s just evil.
Reuben: I agree, what do you think the importance of training is to Second Life?
Erik: Oh that’s very important. In general, Second Life is at the 2nd wave of development. Just like the old internet 30 years back, first came the geeks, then the education, then the mainstream. SL is at this 2nd wave now. When you look at the 2d-training market (e-learning on the old flat internet), even that’s huge! It’s a no-brainer almost to see that in SL that is going to follow.
Reuben: Yes, that is a very interesting theory, It is best to train the users how to operate SL to prepare them for the "2nd Wave" as you say. Do you think that new citizens to Second Life are aware of these free training programs provided by many companies, as much as they should be?
Erik: No, I don’t think so. There is no general SL user. It’s like the real world where people have to accidentally see an ad or actively look for it in search. So it’s dependant on the resident.
Reuben: Alright, thank you very much for the interview Mr. Goff!
Erik: You’re welcome. :)
There you have it, two successful companies that offer training. It appears to be evident that training is important whether you first start Second Life, want to take up a trade, buy land, etc.
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