This is the 18th in a series of interviews that are being conducted with new residents, in order to gauge the effectiveness of the orientation process, and to gauge disparities between the preconceptions and the realities of Second Life. The questions may be tailored slightly for each interview; responses may be edited for purposes of clarity.

I bumped into Footsy Furse at NCI South in Hamnida. She was willing to talk in detail about her early experiences and was able to articulate them clearly and distinctly.

Way back when, I kicked off classroom teaching at NCI, with a Basic Building class that ran every week for over a year. These days I'm out of the education loop at the NCI, but I really wanted to see how the classes are being handled, and I have an especial affinity for the Basic Building class.

With that in mind, I looked up a class that was on at a convenient time, and quietly slipped in to see how Kerhop Seattle handled his Basic Building class at NCI South yesterday.

(extract authorised by Dept. Interstellar Trade and Commerce from Galactic Census 3162)

Shawk Pertwee, is a custom builder who specializes in pretty large things. Cyclopean builds and colossal avatars, primarily. Though he's been known to make some smaller stuff, it's the big things he's most well known for.

Right now, the biggest thing in his pile of assets is the sim Hamnida. While a chunk of Hamnida's been donated to NCI as NCI South, the rest is given over to the Freeport Alliance, along with a fair-sized bite of sim Kaseyo.

Shawk started Freeport originally in the hopes of building a market that would acquire a lingering population of sci-fi themed regulars, giving it that future-bazaar on-another-world feel, and hoping to draw a little profit on the side. These days, the notion's a little different, just focusing on having the operation support itself, but the living-market idea is still nascent.

With the overall influx of new residents to Second Life, new resident support organizations such as the NCI had become increasingly overloaded, crowded and laggy. At the last general meeting of the NCI management team (headed by the personable and able Carl Metropolitan) it was decided to establish an NCI outpost in the Hamnida sim, adjacent to the new Welcome Area there.

The new extension is affectionately named NCI South, and owes it's existence to the generous donation of NCI Member, helper and contributor Shawk Pertwee. Although the facilities are quite recently built, NCI South is starting to establish itself during usual peak times, and before long will likely be busy around the clock, just as the New Citizens Plaza in Kuula.