CPA Island

XBRL International Conference via Second Life

Check out our video clip of the opening of XBRL International's 19th Annual Conference live from Paris, France and virtually in Baltimore (at MACPA offices) and on CPA Island in Second Life.

This highlights the power of this medium for education and learning activities.

See more photos of both the live and virtual events on our Flickr stream

More resources on XBRL:

CPA Success articles about XBRL

Our earlier virtual event featured a mixed reality session with the SF Feng live in an Francisco and virtually from CPA Island - see our blog post with links to archived video of the entire session

CPA Island welcomes University of Texas - San Antonio

Who said virtual worlds aren't really "real" networking?

I just finished a meeting with UTSA Professor, Jim Groff, Accounting Department Chair, in front of their new kiosk in the Accounting Education Pavilion on CPA Island 2 in Second Life. He was in his office in San Antonio and I was in my home office. I popped in to check on the work our interns did and there he was.

He mentioned that he wants to hold virtual office hours and possibly have guest speakers and even suggested a meet the firms event. These are all possible and in fact effective uses of virtual worlds.

Jim and UTSA join eight other University Accounting programs who are exhibiting on CPA Island (Salsibury, Stevenson, Cornell, UMUC, Towson, Frostburg, University of Central Florida, and Suffolk). We are excited to have UTSA join us - welcome!

Here is the link to their kiosk http://slurl.com/secondlife/CPA%20Island%202/159/196/27

This also follows the big news about UT being the first to roll-out a statewide university initiative in Second Life.

CPAs & Second Life featured at AICPA Tech+ Conference

What are CPAs doing in Second Life?

Find out by attending the upcoming AICPA Tech + Conference in Las Vegas. Or pop into Second LIfe and join us as we present this session in Second Life along with real life!

Join Byron Patrick (in-world as Bean Wollongong) of Hosted Solutions (and one of the founder's of MACPA's NYPN group) and Tom Hood of MACPA (appearing as Rocky Maddaloni) in a session, CPAs & the Virtual World of Second Life. This session will feature the major activities of CPAs in the virtual world. Watch for some special guests that will be joining us... 

Including a surprise visit by Linden Lab & Second LIfe founder Philip Rosedale (Philip Linden).

From accounting education to continuing education, meetings, student recruitment, and even consulting and business development. The virtual world of Second Life offers an exciting new medium to do real work!

Register for CPAs & the Virtual World of Second Life Monday, June 15th 4:00 pm - 4:50pm (ET) or 1:00 pm - 1:50pm PT/SLT

Here are our materials for the session: CPAs & Second LIfe and a post on our companion blog CPAs in Second Life

Pictures from the session are here on Flickr - STay tuned for archive of video from today.

Resources & recent articles:

See our blog post – 2008 Year in review – CPAs start adopting Second Life for Training

and our post at CPAs in Second Life – Is Second Life for Real?

Accopunting Technology (Alexandra DeFelice)  article - Second Chance for Second Life - May 20, 2009

Hypergrid Business (Maria Korolov) – Do You Need a Virtual World – May 13, 2009

Accounting Web article (Gail Perry) – Flying Around CPA Island with Tom Hood – March 5, 2009

SLENTREPENEUR MAGAZINE - Real Life in Second Life

Ground Breaking article in Journal of Accountancy – Accounting for Second Life June, 2008

2008 Year in Review - CPAs start adopting Second Life for training

2008 was a big year for CPAs and Second Life!

We held over a dozen events, 13hours of free CPE (Continuing Professional Education), had demos at 4 colleges & universities and did a presentation to the AACSB International conference. We had thought leaders from all segmentsof the CPA profession speaking from the podium in our BLI Conference Center on CPA Island.

We were featured on the Metanomics show with Beyers Sellers, interviewed by the Mike O'Hara of the iinternational Virtual Worlds Business Cast, and even made the Journal of Accountancy.

We had Bob Laux of Microsoft, John Zdanowski of Linden Labs, Chris Newman of Restoration Hardware. We covered hot topics like Fair Value, XBRL, Enhanced Business Reporting, using social media for job searches, and more. Who could forget the Maryland Business & Accounting Expo where Intuit came and did the Future of Small Business session live and in Second Life, followed by John Zdanowski projected to the EXPO floor from his office in Silicon Valley.

The biggest highlight for me gets to the whole point of social media. It is not about the technology at all, it's all about the relationships!

We met lots of new friends and built new relationships with cool people. There ie the San Francisco Financial Executives Networking Group, the Bay Area chapter of the Financial Executives International who worked to hold several "mixed reality" sessions. Mixed reality is an event that is both live (in the real world) and live in the virtual world (see our recap here). Special thanks to Gladys Lam (SF FENG & SF FEI) and Richard Acton-Maher of Linden Labs.

We met three innovative accounting educatorsand CPAs, students, accounting educators from all over the world. We even connected with CPA Australia as they held their inaugural event in Second Life this past October and all of our friends that took the risks and ventured into the virtual world with us.

2008 was indeed a great year and we are already making plans for an even better 2009. Check back for updates and special events.

Mark your calendar now for the Maryland Business & Accounting Expo on June 16th & 17th, 2009 where we will feature more Second Life and social media sessions.

CPA Island Hosts Session with the AACSB

Dr. Michael Kraten of Suffolk University will present "Using Virtual Reality Technologies to Explore Worlds Beyond the Blackboard" at the AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) International Conference in St Petersburg, Florida. This session will be presented in a "mixed reality" format at our outdoor amphitheater on CPA Island 2 in Second Life. The event will be held Monday, June 30 from 1:30pm - 3:00pm (EST) or 10:30 am - Noon (SLT/PDT).

Hope to see you there!

Here is the presentation we will be using Download cpas_second_life.pdf

First CPE in the Virtual World of Second Life

Join us on June 18th at the Maryland Business & Accounting Expo to experience two "mixed reality" educational sessions. "Mixed reality" means there is a real life component (which will be at the Baltimore Convention Center) and a virtual component (which will be held at the BLI Conference Center on CPA Island in Second Life). The sessions are as follows:

Intuit's Future of Small Business Report and What it means to CPAs: June 18 8:10  to 10 a.m. EST, 5:10 to 7 a.m. SLT / PST.

Steve Blundell, CPA, and Catherine Harrell will present Intuit's three-part study authored by the Institute for the Future. The presentation will look at the significant trends and forces affecting entrepreneurship over the next decade, including the changing face of small business, technology trends and their impact on small business formation and operation, and how these concepts are shaping an environment where small businesses can thrive, benefiting from collaboration with big business, access to enhanced computing power and a global marketplace.

The Virtual World of Second Life: June 18, 2:15 to 3:05 p.m. EST, 11:15 a.m. to 12:05 p.m. SLT  / PST.

Johns Zdanowski, CFO of Linden Lab (the company that created of Second Life), will present from in-world to take you into a future that is already here, where real business gets done in virtual worlds like Second Life. If you think you have enough to do in this life, you may need to step out of your comfort zone and find out how real money is being made in virtual worlds.

Plans are already under way to host a session on XBRL in the next month.

The Expo has several sessions that focus on Web 2.0 and Second Life (see session 150 on Tuesday and 231 on Wednesday), if you want to learn about these exciting technologies and how to use them as a CPA. Download a conference brochure here

Join us in-world at CPA Island for the first virtual tradeshow for accounting and business and the first CPE in Second Life on June 18 at the BLI Conference Center on CPA Island.  To visit CPA Island, you must be a member of the SLACPA in Second Life. Once you have created your avatar, join the group "SLACPA" (it is free) and you will get announcements and instructions to sign up for the virtual sessions.

How to attend the virtual CPA session on June 18

The sessions from within Second Life will qualify for three hours of CPE

1.Login to Second Life.

2.Select Edit -> Groups from the top menu, then click the "Search" button and enter SLACPA (short for Second Life Association of CPAs).

3.When the SLACPA group appears, click the "Join" button. This will give you permission to visit CPA Island.

4.Enter the following URL into the address bar of your Internet browser:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/CPA%20Island/145/115/22/

It will teleport you directly to the conference.

5.Alternatively, you can select "Map" button at the bottom of the Second Life screen, then enter "CPA Island" in the search box and click the "Search" button. Double-click "CPA Island" in the search results box and you will be teleported to the welcome center on CPA Island.

6.Look for a wall of signs and select the BLI Conference Center picture with your mouse. Right-click and select "Teleport," and you will be placed at the entrance to the conference center.

7.Proceed through the lobby and follow the signs to the conference center.

I hope to see you in-world...

Resources:

Second Life Association of CPAs www.slacpa.org

CPA Success blog posting about Second Life

Registration for the EXPO (in real life)

Demo & Discussion with Towson University

Today at the BLI Conference Center on CPA Island

Noon - 1:00 pm (EST) 9:00 am - 10:00 am (SLT/PST)

The Towson Office of Technology Services and the College of Business & Economics will be hosting this "brown bag" event which will be a "mixed reality" format - real life in Cook 404B Training Room on campus and in-world at the BLI Conference Center on CPA Island.

MACPA CEO, Tom Hood (SL- Rocky Maddaloni) and MACPA Editor Bill Sheridan (SL-Billy Mapp) will present the MACPA's efforts in Second Life, including CPA Island, the Second Life Association of CPAs, and their future plans.

Check out the promo they did here: Towson's Office of Technology Services

Recent interviews about CPAs in Second Life:

Voices in Business - Virtual Worlds Business Cast - Interview with Tom Hood

Metanomics interview with Beyers Sellers - Accountants (CPAs) in Second Life

Towson Brochure: Download macpa_sl2.pdf

Download the presentation here: Download cpas_second_life.pdf

New Accounting Education Center open for business!

CPA Island completes the new Accounting Education Exhibition Center and holds its first event. On January 4, 2008 we opened the doors to members of the SLACPA group in Second Life and a real life demonstration by MACPA NYPN leader Byron Patrick of KAWG&F.

  This new facility will host kiosks of accounting educators in Second Life and was announced as a service to all accounting educators interested in exploring Second Life. The MACPA will give each university or college a customized kiosk with their logos and a computer with a link to their website for accounting education. They will be able to use all of the facilities and conference areas. We believe that CPA Island can be a place to attract the public to accounting majors and ultimately the CPA profession. MACPA plans to add more exhibits focused on accounting careers and other training activities.

The photo on the right shows an example of an educational kiosk customized for the MACPA. Note the computer terminal that when touched will display the real web page in another browser session. Educator's who are interested in displaying on CPA Island should contact the Tom Hood at the MACPA mailto:tom@macpa.org and send a copy of the logo in a *.jpg file and a link to their website. This was announced at MACPA's Educator's Conference live on January 4, 2008. Already we have gotten responses from  Villa Julie College and University of Central Florida.