As many of you may know, FireSabre had announced an upcoming virtual world product designed exclusively for the needs of educators and non-profits. We are happy to inform you that we are now officially accepting applications for the closed beta that will begin shortly. We're also pleased to announce that closed beta members will be eligible for special rates.

Applications are limited to individual educators, educational institutions, non-profits and NGOs, and governmental institutions (outreach and education programs in particular). To apply, simply sign up at closed beta sign-up.

It has been a turbulent few months for the educational and non-profit community when it comes to virtual worlds, with many changes — from the closing of the Teen Second Life® grid to the discontinuation of educational discounts for the Second Life® virtual world by Linden Lab.

However, we believe that the educational applications and possibilities of virtual worlds are just beginning. With the launch of what we are initially dubbing the "Starlight Education Space", we at FireSabre Consulting — a firm focused on working with educators and non-profits to use virtual worlds — are in a position to help transform that potential into reality. Starlight is an education-focused grid aimed at schools, museums and other educationally-oriented non-profits. It will also provide a home for those dedicated individual educators who have used their own resources to create virtual world resources for their students and other learners.

"Starlight" is based on the open-source OpenSim technology. Therefore, while we will be hosting and supporting this grid, our users will have the ease-of-mind knowing that the content and infrastructure is not at the mercy of a single provider. However, as a member of the Starlight community, educators will also have access to a developer who has specialized in serving education and non-profits and a team of people who are responsible for some of the most innovative, artistic and usable sites created for open virtual worlds.

Because this virtual world grid is focused on education and enrichment, we believe Starlight is an opportunity to develop a virtual world with a rich and varied community, but one that is safe, rewarding and learner-centric.

Features of Starlight Education Space will be:

• Hosting of 256m x 256m high-performance regions able to handle a full complement of objects, scripts and visitors at tier fees of around $60/mo. (well under the original Second Life® educational pricing).


• Options for quarter or half regions.


• Options for high-performance regions that can hold two or more regions' worth of objects and large numbers of avatars.


• Ability to connect to a grid-wide transportation system


• Pre-made "campus parks" maintained and supported directly by FireSabre. These will allow users without the need for a full region (or even quarter region) to affordably collaborate and host learners in a well-designed space with rich content and professionally-developed infrastructure.


• Content and access management tools that assist the educators to decide what is appropriate or desirable for their students.


• A-la-carte and packages for items such as 24-hour support subscriptions, technical assistance and consulting — allowing you to tailor the options to your requirements.
• Content migration service to help educators with existing content in Second Life® adapt their site to the OpenSim platform. This can be straight transfer of materials and testing functionality or it can include aesthetic/design and functionality upgrades.

We look forward to collaborating with you on both our beta program and on the future of the Starlight Education Space upon release to create a great resource for educators, non-profits and learners alike. With your input and participation in the beta process, we feel confident we can create the best educational virtual world possible.

Regards,

Fred Fuchs,
President
FireSabre Consulting
(713) 429-1750, Option 2
info AT firesabre.com

*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***

HOUSTON, TEXAS – May 9, 2010 – FireSabre Consulting, a virtual world developer focused on educational and non-profit clients, has begun accepting applications to participate in the closed Beta of its upcoming education virtual world dubbed "Starlight Education Space".

"Starlight" is targeted toward educational, non-profit and governmental institutions. In addition, FireSabre has stated that it will be offering a program to help qualified participants move their content to Starlight.

"The closing of the dedicated Teen Second Life® virtual world grid and the end of the educational discount program by Second Life® created a real need," said Fred Fuchs, the owner of FireSabre Consulting, "and because of our dedicated focus on this market, we felt we were the perfect people to step into the gap."

The Starlight Education Space world is based on the OpenSim platform, which is an open-source virtual world platform.

“We’re aiming to tailor our pricing and options toward education clients' needs. That means both price and flexibility" said Fuchs, "we’ll have all-inclusive packages and a-la-carte options for things like content transfer and 24-hour consulting and support. That way, educators can meet their goals and balance their budget. Also special discounts are available for those participating in the closed Beta.”

Qualified participants for the closed beta are individual educators, educational institutions, non-profits, NGOs and and governmental institutions. FireSabre Consulting is accepting applications for the closed beta at closed beta sign-up.

Media Contact:
Ian Tepoot
Tel: (713) 429-1750, Option 4
media /AT/ firesabre.com

Here's FireSabre's press release about our new product and services for Education in OpenSim.

*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***

HOUSTON, TEXAS — September 27, 2010 — FireSabre Consulting, a virtual world developer focused on educational clients, responded this week to the announcement by Linden Lab that the Teen Second Life virtual world product was to be discontinued. FireSabre has launched a program to help K-12 institutions migrate to open-source virtual world software as an alternative to Teen Second Life, which is expected to be discontinued no later than December 31, 2010. The announcement by Linden Lab was made at the 2010 Second Life Community Conference (SLCC) held August 13-15 in Boston.

FireSabre will be offering services to move educators from the Teen Second Life environment to the OpenSim platform. While open to all organizations affected by the Linden Lab announcement, the company will also be offering special discounts to those with which they have previously worked.

OpenSim is a server product used to create virtual environments (worlds) that are accessible over the Internet. Although it is compatible with Second Life based viewer software, it is open-source, able to be hosted by a variety of providers and can be extended by plug-ins.

“While the shutdown of Teen Second Life is unfortunate, I think it offers an opportunity,” said Fred Fuchs, the owner of FireSabre Consulting. “The new platform has many of the same capabilities, but it’s open standard, so educators will have a choice of providers to ensure they aren’t tied to a single company and will be able to control their own access to the virtual space — whether that’s age restricted logins, enrollment requirements or whatnot — rather than have a third-party decide for them.”

Although Second Life will be lowering the entry age for their main virtual world grid from 18 years of age to 16-years-old, Fuchs notes that such a change would not address the fact that this would still exclude many enrolled students.

The educational content migration service offered will include content transfer and adaptation for the new platform, 24 hour support, and hosting of the virtual spaces within an education-only grid. Upgrades to existing content will also be available as an optional part of the service. The consulting company further stated that they have committed to providing educational hosting plans under the current price tiers for server space on the Teen Second Life platform.

“We expect this product to be available in October,” said Fuchs. “This means we’ll have to move quickly, but we’ve done that before!”

Media Contact:
Ian Tepoot
Tel: (713) 429-1750, Option 4
media /AT/ firesabre.com