|
April 2010
The Archives
-
04.15.10Models Move from Catwalk to Virtual Runway and Back AgainFashion has many times been on the cutting edge... not just literally, but in terms of technological advances. A couple of recent items caught our eye that place the fashion industry squarely in the cross hairs of virtual world innovations. First, ChipChick reports on a slew of Intel breakthroughs that will help in the fields broadband access, home energy management and shopping. Another item of note is the collaboration between Intel and the Fashion Research Institute to create fashion-specific virtual worlds featuring 'model bots.' Known as Shengri-La, the institute, featuring its Virtual Runway, was launched this month, and is intended ...
-
04.15.10Oprah Buys Film About Second Life for New NetworkAlthough the Oprah Winfrey show will still run more than a year into fall of 2011, her new network, the imaginatively-named Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) has been in high PR gear lately, plugging itself for its launch in January of 2011. One of its recent acquisitions is Life 2.0, a film by Jason Spingarn-Koff in which the director creates an avatar and explores Second Life and the users therein. The film will air as part of the new network's documentary film club strand and will air once a month, according to C21. Life 2.0 becomes the second film picked up for ...
-
04.15.10Are Virtual Pets the Future of the Music Business?The ever-inquisitive Eliot Van Buskirk, one of Wired magazine's best writers who covers the disruptive technology beat, has taken a close look at Music Pets, a new app for Facebook, in the context of virtual goods, social networks and music, and determined that it may hold the keys to a new model of business conduct. Buskirk notes that Music Pets' strongest attribute is its social network-like functions, where its recommendation systems "includes every element of the real-world music experience." You collect music for free by taking part in activities with your pet and spend money to cut the time it ...
-
04.15.10Beyers Sellers and the Reztones: Celebration 100 Episodes of MetanomicsA huge thanks to Chantal Harvey for capturing a moment of history on the Grid! Not just the celebration of the 100th episode of Metanomics, but the super smooth dulcet tones of Beyers and the ReZtones - hip contemporary music that hops. Er, well, maybe scratch the contemporary part, but I love it anyways. Congratulations Beyers and a big thanks to the Metanomics community!
-
04.14.10Celebrating 100 Episodes of Metanomics: L250,000 Design CompetitionToday marks the 100th episode of Metanomics and to mark the occasion I'm sponsoring a design competition on "The Future of Metavision". (By the way, join us live for the 100th episode celebration featuring Beyers Sellers and the Reztones! It will be held immediately after today's show which starts at 12:00 p.m SLT and features a discussion of the Second Life Terms of Service). As we look forward to 100 more episodes of Metanomics, I'm inviting you to picture what the future of broadcasting looks like. I'm of the firm belief that Metanomics represents a milestone of sorts - truly interactive 'destination ...
-
04.10.10iFeel_IM Robot Adds Sensations to Second LifeDebuting at the first Augmented Human International Conference was a new wearable device called the iFeel_IM, a robot intended to add physical feelings to the Second Life experience. Developed by a husband-and-wife team from Japan, the aim of the device is to increase the emotional level of online experiences by triggering feelings using the iFeel_IM's core component, the Affect Analysis Model. This model automatically senses nine emotions in text and, according to a book chapter from "Human Interface and the Management of Information. Designing Information Environments," uses haptic devices (called HaptiHeart, HaptiHug, HaptiTickler, HaptiCooler, and HaptiWarmer) to create a more ...
-
04.09.10Government Looks At Impact of the Virtual on the RealFollowing a request for information from the US government's Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA), Federal Computer Week (FCW) has helped to clarify what interest, exactly, the federal government has with avatars and so-called immersive environments. The quick backdrop: the gov is seeking RFI's to find: focused, quantitative research to understand how virtual worlds and immersive games may have RW effects, particularly those effects that could positively impact individual and group analytic performance. What are the important VW (and RW) environmental variables that control the strength and persistence of such effects? Examples of variables include, but are not limited to: degree ...
-
04.09.10War Online: Virtual Battle of the FutureAntony Adolf is a peace activist and a scholar of things war-and-peace related, and aside from being a teacher, public speaker, and scholar, also finds time to blog for Change.org, the site dedicated to empowering social movements around the globe. His latest entry, "Companies Trump Countries in First Virtual World War," has some interesting thoughts on what a virtual world war will look like. Looking at the recent Google vs. China showdown, Adolf comes to the conclusion that companies, and not countries, "will play the leading roles, with countries relegated to the supportive roles they once held, in the first ...
-
04.09.10Free Land For Educators: Summit Attendees Get Second Life TierAny school or non-profit who sends a teacher, student or administrator to the 2010 Immersive Education Initiative Boston Summit will receive a "full region of space measuring 256x256 meters in size (65,536 square meters)" in Second Life. The space is valued at $2,500 and can be renewed on a yearly basis. The summit will take place April 23-25 and covers education in virtual worlds, exploring the various benefits and challenges that educators and students face. The event follows three tracks: general interest and higher education, K-12, and a research track.
-
04.08.10Using Virtual Worlds for Brand Development and AwarenessLooking like it's 2006 all over again, Indian company Godrej, a huge conglomerate that runs the business gamut from real estate to appliances, has launched a virtual world called Gojiyo which it inteds to use as a marketing tool for its own products and services. Clearly, this harkens back to the 'golden age' of Second Life corporate-branding efforts, and the company is not being shy about its expressed purpose. "We want to reinforce our relevance to the youth," said ED and President of Marketing Tanya Dubash. "So there's a fair amount of branding and strategic messaging." Continue Reading...
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.