Presenter: Jutta Törnqvist, Arcada, Helsinki, Finland

Marinetta Ombro is a long-term project that originated at Arcada University of Applied Sciences in 2002. Its goal is to explore the possibilities of developing a virtual culture, and using this as the forum for an innovative immersive pedag

The first two versions of the village of Marinetta were small, private virtual worlds. However version 3 of the Marinetta Ombro project has modelled almost all of the island of Rosario, where Marinetta is situated. It has been operational in Second Life since October 2005. We have spent most of the first year getting to grips with the complexities of land ownership, and the ways they can be utilised for our purposes. We have been building on the back-story and developing the basis of a pedagogical methodology.

In May 2007 we organised our first advertised public event in Second Life, in partnership with Institute of Techology, Tallaght, Dublin, whose students worked together with Arcada’s both in-world and in real life. This event took the form of a period of celebration in Rosario as part of Helsinki’s Eurovision Song Contest celebrations. The celebration, which was called Semano Semano, was designed to alert other residents of Second Life to the existence of Rosario; to encourage them to attend; to provide our students with potential audiences and users for whatever items or projects that they created.

The projects included races and competitions; custom-made clothing and gifts representing 23 European countries; the creation of Rosario’s own entry; the filming of a machinima pop video to accompany it; streaming video; an internet radio station; and more.

Over 800 people attended the Semano Semano festivities, which was a number we were more than happy with. I want to look at what happened there and what we learned.