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February 2008
The Archives
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02.29.08New and Improved SimsUsing the Sims Online architecture, a development team has launched EA-Land, a revised version of the game that the team says, “has made this game fun again.” Every Wednesday, the game will be stopped for a few hours, new features will be added, and the game will be restarted, a revolutionary tact. Not only will users have to keep up with the weekly changes to the game, but it also keeps developers in closer contact with community and can respond quickly to its wants and needs. This newer version of The Sims Online also includes: - All 12 cities housed into EA-Land - A Wiki for ...
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02.29.08San Diego’s Hospital of the Future Gets SL ShowcaseAn $810-million medical complex will open in San Diego, California in 2011. The center, called the Palomar West Medical Campus, will transform the functionality of a hospital, relying heavily on data connectivity for patient evaluation and treatment, and on a close connection with the natural environment to aid in the healing process. However, for those who cannot wait for the bricks-and-mortar version, Cisco has created a virtual hospital in SL to preview the center’s unique capabilities. Highlights of the virtual Palomar West include: -- Cisco TelePresence. Visitors are welcomed to Palomar West in "Second Life" by a virtual receptionist appearing via Cisco ...
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02.29.08Cisco and Content: The Academy of Digital SignageHere’s an example of a long-standing technological infrastructure giant getting into the content game. Cisco is starting up a “new qualification program for media professionals” that will allow people to study the creation, management, and distribution of digital signage. What is digital signage, you ask? These are those electronic displays increasingly becoming a part of our visual environment. It includes information signs (such as in airports), advertisements, and brand exercise presented in message boards, LCD screens, electronic billboards, scrolls, and something called Organic LED screens. China, for example, according to www.adfotain.com, currently has 100,000 digital displays and a market capitalization estimated to ...
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02.29.08Educational Practices Talk in SL on March 13 by CiscoJohn Connell, Education Business Development Manager for the Emerging Markets for Cisco Systems, will deliver a “non-tech” presentation in SL that will focus on “the key issues and questions around social technologies and their relationship to the shifts in educational thinking and practice.” Connell is well-known in Scotland as an educator and blogs frequently on education issues, the Web, and virtual worlds (and also writes a nice travel blog. His presentation is part of Cisco’s series of Learning 2.0 Tech Chats in SL. It will happen on March 13 at noon, Pacific Time. Mark your learning calendars for this one!
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02.29.08Tweaking e-Learning – Web 2.0 and Virtual WorldsRan across Enzo Silva's excellent blog on Web 2.0, virtual worlds, and education. A great read with lots of resources and ideas, including this presentation of David Brear that summarizes practical technologies and approaches: [slideshare id=257416&doc=web-20-educational-applications-1202450018501881-3&w=425]
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02.28.08Healthcare Mash-Up: Imagine Second Life, IBM Avatars and Google HealthSpeculation maybe, but hints of things to come in a series of recent announcements in the healthcare field: * IBM is opening a healthcare sim in Second Life whose purpose is to provide a 3D demo of how its information systems facilitate better patient care and information management. Nothing like walking through a "real" simulation to see the impact of what's usually invisible, namely technology. Continue Reading...
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02.27.08Emotiv Demo at GDC ConferenceThe Metaverse Journal coverage of the GDC conference included a summary of the Emotiv headset. One of the news pieces focuses on a demonstration of the Emotiv headset, which we’ve written about before. The piece describes a demonstration at the 2008 Game Developers Conference of a future that is now: the helmet uses 16 EEG sensors attached to the head to detect electrical impulses, which trigger different tools that set off applications to control the game and, the makers say, to be able to control games using thoughts. Over at Gamasutra, no comment is made on the deeper implications of an interface ...
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02.27.08MIT Dialogues on Truth, Technology and the Virtual WorldMIT has added a videodisk of the Cleveland Public Library’s Lockwood-Thompson Dialogues from 2005 to its collection. The dialogues, monitored by Jaron Lanier, are titled “Truth, Technology and the Visual/Virtual World.” Participants include DJ Spooky the Subliminal Kid, V.S. Ramachandran, and Bellamy Printz. "Jaron Lanier, computer scientist, composer, and visual artist from Berkeley, California was the moderator for both programs. In April he held a public conversation with Dr. Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, a scientist interested in art and the brain. The discussion topic was learning to appreciate the brain in new ways because of new technologies for looking at the brain. In ...
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02.27.08Tribute Bands in Second Life – U2 and the Craft of InstrumentsA blogger who follows SL bands recently took note of a U2 concert in SL. Shauna Skye is the author, and she is interested in not just U2 but other SL versions of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and others. Speaking of the concert, she writes: “These were not just avatars doing little guitar animations, but they looked frighteningly realistic and had custom moves. It almost felt like being at a real concert; and yes, I’ve seen the real U2 live.” An SL ambler points out a unique guitar maker from the Netherlands who has started making electric and acoustic virtual guitars. Taking ...
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02.27.08The Government is WatchingData mining and profiling could soon become a part of online game worlds, if the US intelligence community has its way. In the Data Mining Report Act, it is being proposed that suspicious behaviors and actions that occur in virtual world could pose a national security threat. Sound Orwellian? Sure is. This is not the first time that we’ve noted the movements of government into online worlds under the ruse of terrorist and security threats to the nation. The report comes from the Federation of American Scientists, a group founded in 1945 – after the Manhattan Project was completed – that believes ...
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