"
Moj Splet", the largest portal in Slovenia with its own online community, is run by MMC, the multimedia department of
RTV Slovenija, Slovenia's national TV. It's only appropriate that very large online communities everywhere "make the jump" (so to speak) into Second Life — and this has happened today.
The interesting bit is that this is not "just another media splash project" in Second Life. The consultants for MMC/RTV Slovenija,
Artesia, are long-time experts in developing online communities profesionally. Both
IYan Writer and
iAlja Writer know fully well how to funnel people to get together online — and they know very well how to do the same in Second Life. So this is one of those projects "done right". Granted, a working knowledge of Slovenian might be helpful to visit the events on
MMC island, but all information there is bilingual (Slovenians tend to read, write, and speak English fluently). Gadgets abound, but it's the island as a gathering place, where residents will work with the MMC technicians to build together some of the event spaces, which will catch people's attention. In fact, Artesia is employing "crowdsourcing" on this project as well — involving the vibrant online community of "Moj Splet" in building things together in Second Life.
Users from the "Moj Splet" portal can even 'pair' their Second Life avatars with their "Moj Splet" account names. There is a fantastic HUD which allows that pretty easily. The HUD is also available in English for non-registered users and will still work, allowing cool things like staying in touch with the event list at MMC Island, a timezone converter (useful when the US and Europe cannot agree on daylight savings!), and a L$-to-Euro conversion tool.
Official press release available
here.