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October 2008
The Archives
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10.30.08Online Therapy Institute opens in Second LifeIf you're looking for information about online counseling, clinical supervision and the impact of technology on mental health, then the newly-launched Online Therapy Institute (OTI) is the place to visit. The center has just launched its presence in Second Life, according to MMD Newswire. Founded by Kate Anthony and DeeAnna Merz Nagel, both former Presidents of the International Society for Mental Health Online, the OTI is a think tank for all issues related to e-therapy. The center is interested in some of the key therapy-related issues of our day, including Internet and cybersex addictions, gaming, virtual worlds, and social networking. ...
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10.30.08Medical Education in Second Life: Pros and ConsOne of the nascent professional spheres in Second Life is medicine and medical care. While nothing can truly replace the physical doctor-patient relationship, there is room for growth in virtual worlds for the medical community. Walter van den Broek, a Dutch psychiatrist who blogs as Dr. Shock, recently wrote a post weighing the strengths and weaknesses of virtual worlds for the medical community. He writes that virtual worlds "may serve as an adjunct or pre- or post-learning tool" instead of replacing the interaction mentioned above. As for strengths, van den Broek finds at least eleven. The major advantages he cites include the ...
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10.29.08The Courage to Create (Part Two): Virtual Worlds and the FrontierRollo May wrote that courage contains the "seeming contradiction that we must be fully committed, but we must also be aware at the same time that we might possibly be wrong. This dialectic relationship between conviction and doubt is characteristic of the highest types of courage, and gives lie to the simplistic definitions that identify courage with mere growth." This dialectic is at the heart of the struggle to translate virtual worlds, and in particular those based on the imagination of their users, into the wider adoption that is often quoted as the end goal. We've Reached the Frontier, But It's ...
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10.27.08The Courage to Create: The Virtual City (Part One)Virtual worlds will shut the airlines down I guess, the ozone layer will be saved, we'll all be working from home and meeting virtually, watching movies together with our avatars on our X-Box, running a marathon on Wii Fit probably, and holding our family reunion at our beach house in Second Life. In the gloomier world of Professor Castranova we're part of an exodus to virtual worlds because life, having become unbearable, is a good excuse to leave it, or at least escape it for a while. Mind you, Castranova finds Second Life trivial somehow, there's more to be learned in ...
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10.24.08Gaming/MMOs and Education: A Natural FitTwo separate blog entries that we came across point out similar conclusions: that video games and massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMPORPGs) have very real applications in the education realm. Over at the Cisco Systems' Virtual Worlds blog, Steve Hall, a Network Consulting Engineer, writes about a Fox News story that reports on the MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW) being used to get school kids more engaged in their work. Hall notes that, rather than games being a distraction and a way to avoid homework and social interactions, the can be used to expand the learning skills of students. The ...
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10.23.08First Avatar Arrest for Virtual World Murder? The Hack JobIn what might be the first arrest for the murder of an avatar, Associated Press reports that a woman in Japan killed off her virtual husband when he divorced her. The police threw her in jail for 'hacking' because the murder was accomplished by using her 'ex husband's' log-in information to perform the act of revenge: " "I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations. The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said. She has not yet been formally charged, ...
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10.23.08Virtual Worlds and the Trend Towards Free: Second Life and the Object EconomyPrad Prathivi wants to nip freebies in the bud: "Freebies can be a good way to get yourself recognised, but they’re far too often just abused. The Fashion Feed is packed full of freebie content, and if an avatar can get an entire wardrobe for free, then they will. So in the interest of sustainable content design in Second Life, the freebie culture needs to be nipped in the bud and set up so it can’t be abused at the expense of designer’s generosity." And I believe that people should get paid for their work. But the reality is, that in a world ...
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10.21.08Polish Music Fest Broadcasts VirtuallyPoland's Sacrum Profanum music festival, held in Krakow in September, was attended by 11,000 people in person and by over 1,000 people per night in Second Life, according to The Observers. This was the sixth year of the festival, but the first time it held events in Second Life. This year's festival focused mostly on significant German composers of the 20th century, such as Ute Lemper, Paul Hillier, and the Sinfonietta Cracovia conducted by Marc Minkowski. Concerts were held at venues such as the Museum of Urban Engineering, Oskar Schindler's factory, a former chemical tinning plant, and the city's Philharmonic ...
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10.21.08Dolby Sound for MMOs and Virtual WorldsDolby, one of the leading entertainment technology companies in the world, has announced its immersive 3D voice communication platform. According to the Dolby press release, the 3D voice experience will be "clearer, more realistic, and more immersing." (We'll let it slide that I think they mean 'immersive.') The technology is called Axon, and Dolby has made available software development kits to the public. "We want Dolby Axon to be the voice platform of choice for the most innovative and creative game developers in the world," said Matt Tullis, Senior Manager, Games Market, Dolby Laboratories. You can read more here about the tech ...
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10.20.08M Linden Goes to London: Joe the Plumber, and Where We Go is Where We’ll GetM Linden gave the opening keynote in London at the virtual world conference and, well, it's more of the same really, just with a bit more data thrown in, at least according to the summary over on Virtual World News. But just as intriguing, in some ways, was the lead-up TO the keynote, with his last minute post to the Second Life blog, and the community response. And call this a crazy reference from the sidelines of popular political "narrative" (maaaaan how I hate the media's use of that word) but my gut reaction to M's post was, well, what ...
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