SL Video: "About You"

 

 (click here if the video does not play)

 

 From Zieb Zen in Sept 2021, "This is a gift for my RL/SL significant other. It is our absolute favorite theme song for our RP characters. This video was a real labor of love that I had been planning for a while. It features sass, romance, drama, and dancing. It's corny AF! Hope you all love it as much as I do..."

 

Commercial District Sims Open in Bellisseria's Ridgewood Area

 

 At one of the Meet the Lindens events at the SL22B, Patch Linden stated that there were plans for "a foray into the commercial" for Bellisseria. Today, the Commercial District sims in Bellisseria's Ridgewood community area were open.

The Ridgewood Enclave Commercial Districts are places to shop for clothing, home furnishings, plants, decor items for your patio and yard … you name it.

Are you a merchant? Any Premium Plus member can claim a 1024 sq m parcel and use its permanent building for a shop. Use simple controls to choose a style and color scheme, then add your own lighting, displays, and signage. There’s no purchase price and no monthly fee.

While the announcement was Tuesday, when yours truly dropped by then, the sims were not yet open. Checking the Bellisseria group today, it had been announced they finally were.

 

The commercial sims are:  Scherzo, Highlight, Yellow Brick, Brubeck, Big Toque, Greenbush Hill, Broadstreet, West Martinet, Fortune Hills, Sidewall, and Downbeat. Readers might remember when the Ridgewood sims were first on the map in September 2025, Scherzo was among them, but was closed. 

 

There are seven styles of shops:  Bridgecrest, Cityview, Edgeworks, Gridline, Overlook, Seamstone, and Vault.  They come in either long, 16 x 64, or 32 x 32. They are arranged around a central square, with roads passing through north and south, east and west, with a decorative island with trees in the middle. Around there are signs one can click with information on the sims, as well as a map of Bellisseria and benches to sit on. The tops of the stores are green with grass, and have decorative vents poking through. 

 

Oh, and you need to have a Premium-Plus account to claim one, not just Premium.  

 

No shop that had been claimed was yet complete in the sim I looked at, but were in various states of setup. Some had only a single sign. One had a few vendors. There was one place that wasn't a store to buy something, but an arcade people could play games for free with a tip jar for those feeling generous.  

 

There is a thread in the official Second Life forums about the commercial districts (I admit I haven't read very far). 

 

There may be more on the topic later if details warrant. For now, those who love to shop have several more places to go to.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Philip Linden Gives VWBPE Keynote Speech, Takes Questions

 

Yesterday, Thursday March 19 at 12 Noon, The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education held it's Keynote. The man giving it was someone familiar to every longtime Second Life resident: Philip Linden, aka Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab, the company behind this virtual world.

 

Today, we have the distinct honor of hearing from a man who actually made gatherings like this one possible. Our keynote speaker is a physicist turned coder turned visionary,  someone who looked at the early internet and saw not just a network, but a world waiting to be built.
 

 He founded Linden Lab and created Second Life, the virtual world that has been home to educators, artists, researchers, and dreamers for over two decades. He has since explored spatial audio, open-source VR platforms, digital currency, and even the frontiers of machine consciousness. And in October 2024, he returned to Second Life as CTO, bringing fresh energy and new ideas to a platform many of us call home.

Someone was saying close to a hundred people were in the area the event took place, an intersection of four sims, Philip on a small cliff overlooking the crowd, "I feel like a king standing on a high rooftop *laughs* I see people I recognize, it's the magical things about Second Life." He thanked the educators for their work in this virtual world. He would talk about AI and how it was impacting society, saying at one point a comparison could be made to the Industrial area when machines did the work of the muscle power of many men, "Now we have gone much father with replicating how our mind works. ... the progress was very quick lately ... we are living in strange times- there are tremendous risks, there are more bad than good impacts at the moment."

After the keynote, Philip took questions, and there was talk about not just AI, but other topics such as Second Life, "It's interesting to reflect on the fact that SL hasn't grown as rapidly as we thought or liked." One subject was about how people often rely on facial expressions, hand movements, and other cues in real life but that was absent in Second Life and other virtual worlds. It was also brought up that being hired to correct an AI could be a roundabout way to do the job of a programmer for a fraction of the cost. Someone also joked it AI had an alignment, it would be "Chaotic Neutral." It was also brought up that there hasn't been a real-life Second Life Community Convention since 2011. Philip Linden did wonder if the possibility of doing another deserved some thinking about. 

 

The conference was broadcast live, and may be available to see later on the VWBPE Youtube channel later.  

 

*Addition*: It's available now.  

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday March 21

 

    ~*~

 

At 9 AM PST  (2 hours)

 

Moon Base Selene

 

Lead Presenter: Vic Michalak / Phil Youngblood, PhD
Co-presenter: Sumo Itano / Natalie Foster, PhD

 

More info here: https://www.vwbpe.org/event/ie-moon-base-selene-lunar-space-elevator-hub 

 

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/71/128/30

 

    ~*~

 

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝  

 

VWBPE Conference Starts Today

 

 Today is the first official day of the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference for 2026. A few events actually started earlier, but the keynote is today at 12 Noon SL time, given by Philpi Rosedale / Philip Linden. 

 

 From today to Saturday March 21 will be a number of discussions. There are also some exhibits and a few activities. 

 

 For more information on the conference, go to https://www.vwbpe.org/  .

 

SURL to entrance:  https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VWBPE%20Grasslands%20Gateway/128/123/23

Schedule: https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe26-program 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

RFL Announcement: Bullish To Beat Cancer Race

 

Event Name: BULLISH TO BEAT CANCER RACE
When:
Friday MARCH 20, Noon
thru
Sunday MARCH 29, Noon
+ followed by 1 hour of dancing and award-giving

Brief Description of Event:
Avatars both large and small can race a "wild bull" along a trail that winds through an environment of four seasons to compete for the fastest times. Go as many times as you want during the 9-day contest to improve your times. Top three fastest racers during the event will win trophies and cash donations to their team kiosks. End of race period will be followed by 1 hour of music, dance and award-giving to the winners.
1st place = $L3000; 2nd place = $L2000; 3rd place = $L1000.
Location:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kangean/128/207/2805
TEAMS: ELMF+SHB GEMS 

Linden Lab Announces New VP of Engineering: Jerome Despret

 

A few days ago on Friday March 13, Linden Lab announced it had a new Vice President of Engineering: Jerome Despret. The Lab stated he had more than 25 years of experience in the gaming industry, " and a deep background in building and scaling large online platforms." He has worked at Electronic Arts and Maxis, where he worked on The Sims Online (a competing virtual world in Second Life's early days), and would continue to work on other "The Sims" games. He would also work af Riot Games, Zynga, and Pantheon Platform,

 

Jerome will focus on strengthening our engineering organization and continuing to evolve the technology behind Second Life, helping ensure the platform can keep growing and improving for residents, creators, and communities around the world. We’re thrilled to have him join the team and look forward to the impact his leadership will bring to the future of Second Life.

 

The announcement in full can be read (here).  

 

The Willows

 

A few weeks ago, reporter Netera Landar wrote about a Valentine's Day party at a club called the Willows. Today, her article is about the club itself, which has been around since 2012 and has events every day. She had a few words with it's owner, Faleen Renard, about what led her to create the club, and what happens here. 

 

Read Netera's article in Design. 

 

RFL in SL Video: "2026 Relay For Life - WILD SPECULATION"

 

 (Click here if the video does not play)

 

 From King of Queens Productions in February 7, " This video was created for Relay For Life 2026 in Second Life, celebrating hope, love, and the strength of community. The story follows two teams — Ertina Loopen Memorial Foundation and Hope Floaters — alongside two dinky cats, whose faith is tested as they face a heartfelt question: should they marry, or follow separate paths? 🐾💍 Created with love in Second Life to support cancer awareness, remembrance, and fundraising through Relay For Life.

 

"To vote, please TP inworld to the following Second Life location: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kangean/138/124/3211 

 

Events This Week at the Sunweaver and Montecito Bay Clubs, Furry Fashion, Urban Furry, and Club Scorn

 

Here's what's going on at the Sunweaver, Montecito Bay, Furry Fashion, Urban Furry, and Scorn clubs.

Club Cutlass: Pajama Party, Spies, Electronic Dance Music 

Happy Vixen: TBA, DJ Scratch, TBA, TBA, DJ Khyra

Club Zero Gravity: DJ Snowy - Saint's and Sinner's

 

Bouncing Bunny Beach Club:  DJ Snowy - Scalies

Xanadu: DJ Jesse 

 

Montecito Bay:  CAYA, After Dark

Club Scorn: Th 8-12, Sat 2-12

 

Furry Fashion: Celtic/Green, Cats and Rabbits, Scalies

 

Urban Furry :  DJ Juana, DJ Charlee, DJ Whiskey, DJ Vantox

 

Read the schedules in SL Clubbin'

 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

 

Taken at Cafe Lilardo. The theme was "Best in Green," which led to some St. Patty's looks a little early.

 

By Bixyl Shuftan 

 

"The Last Dance" - Relay for Life Team "Relay Rockers" To Disband At End of Season

 

The list of teams for the Relay for Life has seen much turnover as time has gone on. Some of the top teams from when the Newser started covering have long gone. One that's been around since the start has been the Relay Rockers. This is the team that introduced "Bid Me Bald" to the Relay in Second Life and brought them the Relaystock and "Bid the Lindens Bald." But sadly, the year of the team's twentieth anniversary will also be their last. In an announcement, it was revealed the Relay Rockers plan to end after this year's fundraising season. 

 

The team, which was founded in 2005 and has participated in every Relay For Life in Second Life has decided that 2026 will be the final RelayStock©.  The team itself will retire from active relaying after this season.

The Rockers are dedicating their final season to long-time member Madelyn Majestic, who is currently undergoing treatment for Breast Cancer.  Mady was diagnosed late last year after being reminded to get her exam by the Making Strides campaign.  “Never doubt what you do here is important.”  Mady stated, “Making Strides prompted me to schedule my exam that found the  cancer. With all the knowledge I gained from all of you and the ACS website, I knew what questions to ask and what to expect. As I go through this journey, I’m so immensely grateful to all of you and everything you’ve done to help fight back against cancer.”
 

 The Relaystock will take place from April 10 to April 12. Bid the Lindens Bald will take place Wednesday March 15.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Newser Nominated For Avi Choice Awards

 

 Remember the Avi Choice Awards? They were held for a number of years until finally having the last one in 2016. But after a decade, they're back. 

 

 We’re so excited to announce that we’re back!  After a long break, the Avi Choice Awards are returning to Second Life.  It’s time to recognize, applaud, appreciate, embrace and celebrate our virtual community with the Avi Choice Awards again.

And among those nominated, The Newser.  

 

Congratulations!  You have been nominated for an Avi Choice Award!  For the past couple months Second Life residents have been submitting nominations, for the Second Life Experience categories, via the Avi Choice website.  After a process of consolidation, you are a finalist and eligible to receive votes. https://avichoiceawards.com/vote-is-open/

 

The Newser was nominated for "Favorite Magazine, Newspaper or Periodical."

 

Votes for this and other categories such as Shopping Event, Club DJ, Region to Explore Through, and others, will be accepted until April 19, "Winners will be announced during the Avi Choice Awards show on Apr 25th at 1pm SLT."

 

Space will be limited at the awards show, so when tickets are available, they'll be sold on a first come, first sold basis. 

The Avi Choice Awards are not about the determination on who is best but rather an opportunity for all of us to applaud our favorites.  It is a platform for us to show how much we appreciate you for adding to what makes our Second Lives full, beautiful and fun.  THANK YOU! 

 

Read more at https://avichoiceawards.com/ .  

 

The Sunbeamer Air Show, And Other Weekend News

 

 Pictures from Nydia Tungsten and Kamida Delec. This weekend saw the Sunweaver Air Show, which took place on both Saturday March 14 and Sunday March 15. While the details on how much was raised on Day Two are not yet available, for Day One a combination of 51,100 for the Sunbeamers and Roos With A Dream combined. 

 

 

There were other Relay events, such as a live music performance by the Second Life Cheerleading Squad. Sadly not all the Relay news was happy as it was announced the upcoming Relaystock and Bid the Lindens Bald will be the last one as the Relay Rockers, the team behind them, will be folding at the end of the Relay season. 

 

In other news, on Friday Linden Lab would announce a new Vice President of Engineering: Jerome Despret. 

 

More on these, and other stories, later.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Press Release: VWBPE 2026 Conference INSIGHTS 19-21 March 2026 in Second Life®

 

 

The 19th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference, beginning on Thursday, March 19th, 2026, will be an online distributed conference happening in multiple virtual spaces. This conference focuses on the use of immersive virtual environments for educational purposes, including virtual and augmented reality. 

This year we are returning to our Earth build. Each region represents a different terrestrial biome, including wetlands, desert, badlands, grasslands, and forests. Conference attendees will be able to explore 3D immersive virtual representations of these biomes.

The conference regions will be open to the public on Sunday, March 15th at 9:00 am SLT (Second Life Time / Pacific Daylight Time).

**VWBPE 2026 GATEWAY** 
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VWBPE%20Grasslands%20Gateway/128/123/23 

To the best ability possible, VWBPE provides educational and networking opportunities that are relevant to educational curriculum development utilizing virtual environments and “best practices”. These include

helping to build community through extension of learning best practices to practical application of those ideas and techniques;
providing networking opportunities for educators and the communities that help support education; and
providing access to current innovations, trends, ideas, case studies, and other best practices for educators and the communities that help support education

One of the key challenges faced by the educational community is how to make the best use of new immersive technologies in a way that is sustainable and accessible based on limited budgets available to both instructors and students. Platforms that are free or open source, or that can be shared across a broad audience, are showcased, including methods and research around best practices in their use and applicability.

Our theme for this year is Insights.

The 2026 theme, “Insights”, invites us to look deeper—beyond the tools and platforms—toward the lessons, challenges, and opportunities that are redefining education in an age of rapid technological transformation. For more about the theme, see the blog post here: https://www.vwbpe.org/vwbpe-news/welcome-to-vwbpe-2026-insights.

Join us as we all share experiences and successes in how virtual technologies used in the classroom have helped shape education for the better.

This year's keynote speakers are Philip Rosedale, Ryan Schultz, and Mark Childs. Invited speakers include representatives from Linden Lab, and many of the Thinkerer Award winners. 

The VWBPE conference keynote speakers and their respective presentations are featured on the conference website (http://vwbpe.org), along with a program of exciting presentations, social activities, and networking events that will set extraordinary discussions in motion.  

The VWBPE Immersive Experiences showcase unique and interesting work being conducted across the metaverse. We invite you to join us as we explore eleven interactive and engaging locations across five virtual environments. The Immersive Experiences are scheduled from March 14th through April 1st (exclusive of the conference dates). Details and access instructions for the experiences are found at https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe26-program.   

Additionally, this open and free conference would not be possible without the generous contributions of our VWBPE sponsors. https://www.vwbpe.org/vwbpe-2026-sponsors.   

The Rockcliffe Registration Portal is open for people to register new Second Life® avatars and find out more about the VWBPE conference in-world. Go to https://www.enroll.onl/secondlife.php . The instructions are there to get you and your friends started at this educator-friendly newcomers’ region in Second Life®.

The full conference program is online here: https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe26-program. 

You can also view presentations live on YouTube at http://vwbpe.org/watch. 

All of the conference events will be in Second Life® this year, and the locations are included in the listings. When you click on a conference event and click Add to Calendar, you can add the event to your own calendar (Google and more).

NOTE: Daylight Savings Time
In most of the United States and Canada (and in Second Life), Daylight Savings Time is in effect as of 8 March 2026. In Europe, Great Britain, and many other locations, DST is in effect as of 29 March, 2026, after the conference begins. Check this page to find out when (and if) a time change is in effect for you: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/2026.html.


**VWBPE 2026 GATEWAY**
SLurl: 
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VWBPE%20Grasslands%20Gateway/128/123/23 

**VWBPE 2026 SOCIAL VISITOR CENTER** http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VWBPE%20Wetlands%20Marsh/175/158/21 


**KEYNOTES**
https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe-2026-keynotes  

KEYNOTE:
Philip Rosedale / SL: Philip Linden
CTO, Linden Lab
Thursday 19 March 2026
12:00 pm noon SLT @ VWBPE Auditorium

KEYNOTE: 
Ryan Schultz
Science & Agriculture Librarian, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
Friday 20 March 2026
9:00 am SLT @ VWBPE Auditorium

KEYNOTE:
Mark Childs / SL: Gann McGann
Senior Learning Designer, University of Durham (Durham UK)
Saturday 21 March 2026
9:00 am SLT @ VWBPE Auditorium


**INVITED SPEAKERS**

ABOVE THE BOOK: Catching Up with the Lindens
Host: Kevin Feenan / Phelan Corrimal
Linden Lab Guests: TBA
Friday 20 March 2026
1:00pm SLT @ VWBPE Auditorium

ABOVE THE BOOK: Catching up with the Thinkerers
Lynne Berrett / Lissena (Wisdomseeker)
VWBPE 2021 Thinkerer
Saturday 21 March 2026
3:00 pm SLT @ VWBPE Auditorium


**WEB PAGES**

Conference Information: http://vwbpe.org 
Program: https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe26-program   
Registration: http://vwb.pe/register  
Sponsors: https://www.vwbpe.org/vwbpe-2026-sponsors 
Rockcliffe Gateway to Second Life®: https://www.enroll.onl/secondlife.php 
Watch VWBPE Livestream: https://www.vwbpe.org/watch 

**MAJOR SPONSORS**

Linden Lab
https://www.lindenlab.com/

Rockcliffe University Consortium
https://urockcliffe.com/ 

Knomaze Corporation
https://knomaze.com/ 

Virtual Ability
https://virtualability.org/ 

Agile Dimensions
https://www.agiledimensions.com/blog/ 

Whole Brain Health
https://www.agelessmindproject.org/  


**CONTACT**
Bevan Whitfield
VWBPE Communications Chair
marketing@vwbpe.com 

Cartoon of The Day: Dragons At The Air Show

 

 Taken at the RFL Sunbeamer & Roos Air Show (which raked in 50,000 L on Day One). Among those in the audience were two dragons. Why weren't they flying too? One very good reason came to mind

 

By Bixyl Shuftan