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May 2009
The Archives
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05.30.09Second Life Artists Avert the RecessionI missed this when it first came around, but wanted to point to CNN's coverage of Second Life and a well-reported story that focuses on some artists making money and creating art in SL. The article is nice because CNN's access to the artists gives it a slice-of-life quality that plays down the tech angle and focuses on the fact that Second Life is run by people, a key notion that can get lost in technology coverage. The writer visits Cylindrian Rutabaga, a folk singer who goes by the name Grace Buford in her offline life in Atlanta, Georgia, ...
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05.29.09Europe Drive to Virtual World InnovationSince the European Union came along, countries in Europe have been more eager to cooperate with one another, with the most dominant example being the creation of the controversial Euro. But now, this cooperative attitude has trickled down into the virtual world/virtual reality industry, as reported at Scientific Blogging. The developments really began to hit full stride in 2004, with the creation of INTUITION, an EU-funded Network of Excellence that brought together various arms of the virtual reality industry - 58 participants in total - to reach the shared goal of cooperation and a sense of community. And also, of course, ...
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05.29.09FBI Looks Inside SL for 10 Most WantedThe FBI has been pursuing Web initiatives over the last few years, including such stand-still functions like e-mail alerts, news feeds, podcasts and widgets. But as everyone and their grandma has watched the unprecedented rise of social networks, user-generated video, and virtual worlds, the FBI is now jumping head-first into these initiatives. You can now friend the FBI in Facebook; watch FBI videos on YouTube for recruitment purposes; and read FBI tweets. You can also stick a 'Most Wanted' widget into your iPhone: if you're lucky enough to spy one of the world's most wanted fugitives, I guess the idea ...
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05.29.09US Army Expands into Virtual World Support for AmputeesA while back, the US Army hinted that it would be building a MMOG where a wide range of training could take place, as reported on Wired's Danger Room blog. The Army is now looking at another element of its activities - post-service conditions - and wishes to build a virtual space geared to the challenges of amputees. As posted on the Federal Business Opportunity Web site, the Army is soliciting a vendor to build a virtual support space. Support for amputees and their families, says the Army, "have proven to be extremely helpful to patients with a variety of ...
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05.28.09Philipisms #7 – Get Those Tiny Humans Out of Your HeadPhilip Rosedale has a way with a phrase. Comes from being so, um, smart, or visiony. See the side bar on the right for other Philipisms such as his famous "SL is a terrarium" quote, or his claim that meetings in Second Life are better than real life because there's no threatening eye contact. In any case, the latest Philipism points to Second Life as better than a conference call because on the phone, we imagine little tiny humans in our heads: “Think about when you are sitting at a meeting using a speaker phone, and you are ...
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05.27.09Medical Professionals Find Health Sites Flourishing in Second LifeThe University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health recently completed a study of health-related activites in Second Life, and the findings have been published at the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The authors, Leslie Beard, Kumanan Wilson, Dante Morra, and Jennifer Keelan, conclude that health sites in Second Life are heavily weighted towards education and training, with a number of smaller categories also existing. The study also notes that their numbers are expanding, having found 68 relevant sites, and that activites in Second Life "translate to the real world... suggesting that users are engaged in a range of ...
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05.26.09Midwifery and Counselling Gain Traction in Virtual Worlds: Media ReportsScoop, an independent news outlet in New Zealand, reports on the introduction of virtual education to Otago Polytechnic’s midwifery programme. First, second and third-year students will visit the government-funded SLENZ island on SL to supplement their real world learning. One of the advantages to this is that it enables students to build their education within their own community, enhancing their connection to the people they may eventually service as midwives. "They are supported by a midwife from their area who provides face-to-face tutoring and support,” said Dr. Deborah Davis, the school's principal lecturer. The students will still travel to the ...
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05.25.09US Navy Teams Up With QwaqWe've already reported on the Naval Underseas Warfare Center (NUWC), a virtual home where members of the US Navy can train on a virtual submarine. Now Virtual Worlds News has the inside scoop on the Navy's upcoming training sessions that will be held in a virtual world built by Qwaq using their Qwaq Forums, a "secure virtual workspace that combines voice, video and chat communications with multi-application and document sharing." According to an interview with a team leader at the NUWC, cost savings is one of the main selling points of using a virtual training space. "A lot of ROI is looking ...
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05.25.09Quick Link: New England B.B. Vouches for SLThe New England Business Bulletin recently published a primer on how virtual training spaces, and 3D worlds in general, are being used by corporations and are one of the growth areas in this recession. The article cites a number of corporations that are using Second Life as a training playground: IBM (which the author's note have saved in the hundreds of thousands of dollars from virtual training), Michelin, and Xerox, among others. Scott Ahrens, a UMass Dartmouth professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, notes that there are three main areas where Second Life is being used. "It ...
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05.25.09iAlja Writer Moodles AroundiAlja has recently posted on her blog a paper she presented at the 3rd International Slovenian MoodleMoot, where she also offered a live demonstrated of Webline.lite, a way to add avatars on top of any Web site. Her short paper - it runs at an efficient nine pages - gives an overview of virtual worlds, the applications of virtual worlds to education, and an overview of Moodle, an online learning management system, and Sloodle, an open source project that integrates a virtual world to an SMS. She concludes by writing that "virtual worlds can be a valuable tool for education, ...
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