Second Life Geography Institute (Updated February 2021)

Riding the SLGI Voyager 

The Second Life Geography Institute is an ambitious project started in 2013 by Resident Ana Imfinity. She said her goal was to share her love of the places in Second Life with others. The Institute had several major projects:

• Second Life Geography Institute (which is inworld) and
• Second Life Geography Wikia (an encyclopedic collection of articles on Second Life Geography): Here is a sample page:

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  This is part of a sample page of the SLGI Wiki

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• SLGI Transportation Systems (SLGI operated vehicles which make scheduled routes through different parts of Second Life). The Spaceship Voyager was pictured above - here are some of the other vehicles:

Here is one of the SLGI buses after it took to the air.

Another type of SLGI vehicle

Here, a partially-rezzed SLGI train

SLGI Trains: There are twelve different trains, each with a different route. Each train is scheduled to make four runs per day. You can learn more about the trains and their schedules, and see maps of their routes on the Wiki. They are convertible, like Yavanna's pods, and they have regular schedules. They run automatically.

Here is a page that describes one of the vehicles, the "Dam".

Sample description of one of the vehicles and a map showing route. 

Each vehicle also has a schedule. Here is one of the shorter ones:

I have added the red and dark blue information, 

because I once confused "distance" with "approximate arrival time."

The fleet consist of spaceships which travelled different routes.  See the snapshot of one of the spaceships at the top of this page. 

The Route of the Ship New Horizons,

whose circuit takes over 8 hours. 

SLGI worked very carefully with residents and Linden Lab to ensure that these vehicles would not become nuisances or road hazards. They operated under the following guidelines:

- The vehicles were set up to be Phantom so that they could not collide with residents or other vehicles. Here is a snapshot I took of two vehicles that were in the same place at the same time  - the flying car and the flying bus just went right through each other with no harm to either vehicle or passenger.

-All were set to be low-lag and low prim. There were no particle effects or lights with one exception: When the spaceship's plutonium core is released as it changes scripts.

-In order to keep roads and waterways clear, some vehicles fly above the surface. Trains followed the railway at ground level but could fly in busy areas or near switches. ( I first became aware of these vehicles when I was walking down some tracks in the Snowlands and one of the SLGI trains came up behind me and then very carefully left the tracks to go around me. )

- Another thing the vehicles do is to teleport and/or become invisible when crossing certain areas so that they did not annoy residents. 

The SLGI asks that you notify them if you are aware of any problem with their vehicles. 

All in all, the SLGI Institute are a great addition to Second Life. This blog entry is just a brief glimpse at what they have accomplished and what they were planning on doing. Please read their Wikia for more information.   There are over 300 pages of information on different parts of Second Life, but it does not appear to have been updated in the last year. https://slgi.fandom.com/wiki/SLGI_Wiki 

Update 1-27-2020. I received a notice from SLGI that inworld transportation has been restored; however, when I teleported to her new base I was unable to figure out how to use any of the transportation and the information boards did not seem to be being updated.

Update 2-1-2021. I am seeing a lot more of her vehicles lately, and had a short ride in one. I suggest clicking on one as it goes by to get a ride, or checking the schedule to find one.

One problem I see is that they seem to be following a lot of the Pod routes - I think it would be better if they had separate routes so that more of Second Life would be covered. (I am a member of the Pod/Riders group)

Here is the most recent schedule.

Note - my computer is currently wonky. I can add new text, but taking photos in Second Life, or editing text on my blog, is very difficult, so I apologize if I missed correcting something in this update.