Birmingham Island – a ‘virtual Birmingham’ in Second Life – was developed in 2008 by Digital Birmingham and Virtual Worlds consultancy Daden, both of whom are based at Birmingham Science Park Aston.
Its remit was to demonstrate the potential of digital and virtual technologies in delivering public services and interacting with citizens. In the long term it aims to provide city planners amongst others with a powerful tool for online consultation and marketing, alongside huge scope for inward investment.
Since its launch two years ago, Birmingham Island has been lauded for its innovative qualities and ground-breaking technology. More importantly, however, it has delivered real benefits to Birmingham City Council in terms of profile raising, increasing local democracy, stakeholder engagement and educating students.
Birmingham’s Second Life presence went further than any other UK city’s in utilising a range of virtual world technologies to interact collaboratively with the public and local businesses. It was the first in the world to showcase the integration of Google Maps and data.
Birmingham island has helped cement the city’s growing reputation as the digital capital of the UK – and with the creative and digital sector now growing at an estimated 2% above the rest of the economy, creative businesses forming 10% of Birmingham’s employers and producing more than £660 million of GVA – these businesses form a significant part of Birmingham’s inward investment target. (Daden itself has tripled its staff from two to six since launching Birmingham Island.)
Birmingham Island incorporates a revolutionary mapping tool, b-scape, developed for the application by Daden which has been used by numerous third party organisations as an example of excellence in the UK, Europe and beyond. The technology won a prestigious US Government Award for Daden, and Birmingham Island is regularly used by Second Life creators Linden Labs as an exemplar demonstration of the power of the virtual world.
Over 300 unique visitors have visited Birmingham Island since February 2010, which is high for a non-consumer location. Total dwell time on the b-scape showpiece attraction was around 50 hours.
