Institutional IPR, Purchasing Issues & Custom Last Name in SL

As the institution begins to move tangibly forward with our Second Life implementation, I find myself revisiting a few issues related to purchasing guidelines and intellectual property rights.  I’ve discussed these issues previously, one and two years ago, in some respect.  I have a solution in mind for two potential issues.

First Issue. How does a college employee get the funds they need to make in world purchases?  How are those purchases tracked and documented?  The source of both questions is the need to avoid “a gift of public funds.”  Given the budget based on taxpayer dollars, a transfer of college funds to an individual prior to the purchase of any goods is not permitted; plus, the purchase of $Lindens, a virtual currency, isn’t exactly covered by current purchasing guidelines.  I know there’s a tremendous amount of gray area in which we could play – describing $Lindens as software to avoid the currency issue – however, approaching the implementation from an institutional perspective suggests we shouldn’t sidestep the issue or work in gray areas.

Second Issue. When a college developer or faculty member creates/builds items in world with the support of college funds, the college must retain ownership.  IF $Lindens are transferred to an individual representative of the college, any non-consumable byproduct of that transaction must remain the property of the college.  The intermediate, hands on solution is to ensure that all assets are transferred with full permissions to the college; problem is, what “is” the college within Second Life?  Further, that solution presents an administrative nightmare from an auditor’s perspective, and the “creator” of the item will, to my knowledge, still be listed as the original developer.

Solution. I believe one solution addresses both issues.  Purchase a custom, institutional surname from Linden Lab; any employees developing institutional resources with the support of college funds does so with an institutional surname account.  The college retains ownership of all accounts using the institutional name including access to the login credentials.  With that arrangement, the college never transfers funds to an individual – as Lindens$ or US$ – and any items developed begin and remain college intellectual property.

Since I originally started this post, I had the opportunity to chat with ChrisG Techsan (RL: Chris Gibson) of vTSTC in-world.  I learned that the Techsan name is in fact a custom, institutional surname purchased by TSTC, originally for use by their core Second Life development team for several of the reasons I mention above.  Namely, any items created using those accounts remain clearly identifiable in world as belonging to TSTC.  Other benefits of the institutional surname have been realized since then.  Many, but not all, faculty and staff use the institutional name, and it has become a marketing and identification tool.  Currently, however, learners are not issued institutional surname accounts.

Does your institution have an institutional surname?  How is it used and by whom?  If not, to your knowledge did your institution ever consider the option?  Why?

A useful tool regarding Second Life surnames is SLNameWatch.com: founded in May 2007., it is a database of the last names available for selection inside Second Life. Both currently available last names as well as “heritage” last names are tracked. Statistics are collected on the usage of the names, and the date span of their availability (provided they were released after May 2007).