For the ongoing “Greening Business Operations” project, we had hoped to implement a variety of educational strategies within Second Life, including websites, movies, note cards, and even a pre-programed “virtual tour.” Embedding Quicktime movies is simple enough, and potentially of great value. But I’ve discovered that support for web-based applications and sites within Second Life is still rather primitive.
The process to embed a website is almost identical to the process for embedding QT movies. You must navigate to the “World” menu and select “About Land…” Assuming you have the proper permissions, you can then select the “Media” tab, enter the URL for the website or movie you wish to embed, and choose a texture that will serve as the default “projector” surface.
If everything has been configured correctly, you can walk up to the chosen texture and press the blue play button on the bottom right corner of the screen (there should also be a little icon down there that says something like: “This location has Web content”).
Unfortunately, the embedded website is only a static image and cannot be clicked on or changed in any way. It also appears that you can only embed one website or movie per parcel, which seems kind of ridiculous. If anyone out there knows of a way to embed multiple URLs, please let me know. More information on “HTML-on-a-Prim” technology can be found here.
One solution to the static website issue is to simply take screen captures of various pages and upload them to the Second Life matrix at 10 Lindens a piece. This would allow you to create a kind of website slide show. But it could get expensive and complicated. Another option is to simply link to the website using a script:
{
touch_start(integer total_number) {
llLoadURL(llDetectedKey(0), “Name of Site Here”, “http://www.siteaddresshere.com”);
}
}
When the user clicks on the object containing this script, they will be prompted to open the website in their default browser. I actually think that this method, combined with the “Y” notecard info stations, is the best way to go. This great website includes information on how to create interactive signs, notecards, teleport links, etc.
Of course, this may all be a moot point if Congress decides to ban Second Life from schools and libraries. It would be almost comical, if it were not so tragic.