We're pleased to announce a brand new Drupal module...

...but first, the reason we created it:

No matter how appealing an online service is, users and developers alike always feel frustrated when their noses bump up against walls.

Facebook users feel it when they receive email messages notifying them that they've received Facebook messages... without saying what those messages contain. LinkedIn users have felt it when they try hunting for a news feed for their own LinkedIn Answers.

And Second Life users feel it when they want to find some way to connect their in-world activity in some way with the rest of the online world; with a few limited exceptions (and to their credit, Linden Lab is working hard to expand them), that can be an exercise in frustration.

Maybe we can help change that.

Introducing the Second Life framework, a free Drupal module that allows scripts within Second Life to interact over the web with applications running on a Drupal web site.

This is an enabling module, built for developers. It allows you to create new Drupal modules with cool Second Life-integration functionality, but doesn't add new functionality in and of itself. It's built to interact with scripts written in LSL, the Second Life scripting language. (We built it as part of a larger project within SL; more on that as it develops.)

The download package includes a sample module and a handy Second Life client emulator. (It lets you test your work even if you aren't running Second Life. That reduces development time and lets you write modules for SL even if your LSL scripts aren't ready yet.)

The module was created by Khalid Baheyeldin of 2bits, our Drupal programmer of choice for brilliant coding. (Khalid is starting to take on mythic qualities. The other day, we mentioned to a friend who moves frequently in Drupal circles that we were working with Khalid. "Ah," the friend said, his eyes widening slightly. "'The Hammer.'" Apparently we aren't the only ones who think there isn't a Drupal problem out there that Khalid can't crack.)

He worked closely with LSL whiz Catherine Winters as they braved the idiosyncracies of LSL and mapped out the protocols needed for Drupal and Second Life to talk to each other.

We have our own cunning plans for employing this module, but we're eager to see how the community puts it to work. Exposing SL activity to the rest of the web? Bringing blog content interactively into SL? Using Drupal as a database for an SL script?

We hope this module will work alongside efforts like SLFeed to help break down the barriers that separate avatars from the wider world of the world-wide web. There's some amazing stuff going on in the walled gardens of the online world; it's time some of those walls came down so we can all have a look.

And if you're working with Drupal and Second Life, drop us a line. We'd love to know what you're up to.

Links: 

• The Drupal project page for the Second Life framework
• Khalid's announcement of the release 

User-based sites like Vancity's ChangeEverything.ca thrive on participation. And there's a lively community creating changes and blogging about them... which is a tribute to the community, to the site's compelling concept and to the work of community animator Kate Dugas.

Now Vancity wants to take participation to the next level.

Every community site has a large, often-untapped base of what are sometimes called "lurkers"; according to usability guru Jakob Neilsen, they're the vast majority of users. By giving them a quick, simple way to make a meaningful contribution, we think we can start them on their way up the participation ladder.

And the way we're doing that is a new feature called Nudge, which is being released today as a free open-source module for Drupal. (You can download Nudge here.)

It's programmed by the go-to guy for great Drupal module creation, Khalid Baheyeldin of 2bits.com, and it works like this:

• When you see a blog post or change on ChangeEverything.ca, and you'd like to encourage the author to keep working on it, you click on the Nudge link below that post or change.
• The author gets an email message letting them know you're nudging them, along with an optional custom message from you.
• And you get the satisfaction of knowing you've given someone a little encouragement (and perhaps a gentle push forward).

There's an obvious appetite out there for small-scale participation (witness the popularity of a feature like "poke" on Facebook, which is like Nudge on the surface, but lacks Nudge's use of context and personalization). And it may well be that one of the tricks to getting people to start climbing the participation ladder on your site is to make the first rung as low as possible.

As Neilsen says, "The lower the overhead, the more people will jump through the hoop."

Nudge lowers the overhead for initial participation, but there's an added bonus: the encouragement it gives people to contribute more richly with blog posts and changes.

If you're looking to give participation on your Drupal-based site a Nudge, check out the module. And let us know how you're using it.