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The Archives
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06.13.08Second Life Teaching Yesterday’s News, and the Sun RisesThere's nothing like meat space for nuance, conversations on the bus, the level of applause in an audience or lack of it - and at the New Media Consortium conference its been no different - maybe once we're all walking around with expressive avatars or Emotiv headsets or whatever, we'll be able to give off that body language that you can only really feel by being there, and at Princeton this year the body language is a sort of collective foot shuffle when it comes to Second Life. OK...well, first, this is anecdotal. It's not like I ran around taking a ...
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06.10.08Virtual World Winter is Only Leaving the MMOs ColdOK, look, I keep meaning to pick up on the thread over on Terra Nova about this coming virtual world winter. And sure, I know the posting was meant to be provocative and a set-up for some sort of burning insight into how we can all save ourselves before the glaciers freeze the grids, but I just don't get it. Second Life is Getting Richer, Not Wider First, Bruce starts out on the wrong foot, citing erroneous statistics about Second Life as a sort of litmus test for the stall of virtual worlds: 1. Is Second Life (the flagship platform) user growth stalled ...
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06.08.08Virtual Earth Arising: Google, Microsoft and, um, SwedenThe announcement that Google Earth would be moving to a browser seemed to elicit collective silence from the virtual world industry - while last September, everyone was foaming with anticipation about Google secretly planning a Virtual Google that would put places like Second Life to rest. Meanwhile, over at Microsoft, moves to 'virtualize' through a serious, um, serious gaming initiative, and their partnerships with 3DVIA, their purchase of Caligari, and the previews of Photosynth put them in the middle of the battle for 3D visualization and by extension virtual worlds. Caligari Platform Owned by Google: The move by Google to open up its ...
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06.06.08OpenSim and Second Life InteroperableTeleportation between OpenSim and Second Life has been accomplished. Last night, Ruth arrived on the OpenSim grid...FROM Second Life. According to Zha's Virtual Musings: This wasn’t a normal login. All three Avatars had been logged on via the Agent Domain in the Linden Lab Aditi test grid. The Agent Domain took a “place_avatar” request from the client, and issued a “rez_avatar” request to the OpenSim, which handed the Agent Domain the necessary details so it could relay it to the client, and permit a login. We’re all Ruth, because we’re not yet syncing the agents with openSim inventory yet. That’s just ...
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06.05.08Experts Say: VWs Better for kids than TV!Women in Technology reports that virtual worlds, by virtue of their interactive nature, are a promising way for kids to learn about real life. "Virtual worlds can be a powerful, engaging and interactive alternative to more passive media," said professor David Gauntlett of the University of Westminster. "They really do have good ideas to contribute and they are very critical friends." The researchers studied kids as they used an island called Adventure Rock that is geared towards kids aged 6-12 and created through the BBC. The professor suggests that kids get involved in virtual worlds from an early age, a conclusion which ...
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06.03.08Another Entry for 3D ChatEveryone wants to go 3D, and the number of applications promising an enhanced social experience by giving you access to a virtual living room, club, or lounge continues to grow. Now there's Twinners which is given the once over by Killer StartUps: Twinners is a 3D online community with chat, TV, and mobile integration. The sets are mostly posh looking lounges and bars, or tropical beaches and other such stylish locales. There are several version of Twinners 3D chat available—Twinners’ light which requires no 3D plugins and works across browsers and operating systems; Twinners’ medium which requires installation of a Quest 3D ...
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05.28.08MMO Population Woes: Metaplace, Culture and the End of the Big Game?The Guardian is at it again - covering virtual worlds, games, MMOs as if this stuff is a real business. While other media either have a sort of "gosh, we'd better explain what an MMO is, and isn't it cute how dwarves run around with giant axes" kind of pie-eyed sensibility (and usually get it all wrong), and others are either deeply cynical or cynically shallow, the Guardian has been a source of good MMO coverage. Now, they've picked up the Raph Koster "metaMeme" about how the era of the mega-MMO is coming to a close. It's too expensive to compete ...
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05.27.08MMO Widgets as Collaborative ToolsA Canadian expert in Web 2.0 technology recently said that MMORPGs can be of use for business collaboration because of the special characterisitics of widgets, according to ITbusiness.ca. Deepak Ramachandran, vice-president, Enterprise 2.0 research program, at New Paradigm, a Toronto-based think tank, noted that it is how widgets are created and used that makes them an attractive business tool. Any somewhat advanced player of an MMORPG runs any number of widget on the screen at one time. Sometimes, the game becomes more about the widgets than about the actual game itself. And this, says Ramachandran, is the point. “One popular widget ...
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05.26.08Govt Gets Feet Wet in Virtual TrainingFirst came news that the Department of Homeland Security is developing a virtual social network that its employees will use for training and taking courses. Then, the Mixed Realities blog makes the case that government interest in virtual worlds is accelerating, but that the government will face the same hurdles as non-profits, universities, etc. in implementing virtual environments. Nextgov's Anne Laurent notes that the DHS platform will integrate with one being created for the National Guard. The Guard's platform is built on the same technology as Disney's Toon Town, minus the gaming component. As well, the Army has given a research ...
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05.25.08MPEG-V - Establishing Virtual World StandardsFrom the good folks who brought you MPEG, a new initiative to create standards for virtual worlds. MPEG, a working group in ISO/IEC, has produced many important standards (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MPEG-7, and MPEG-21). MPEG feels that it is important to standardize intermediate formats and protocols for “Information exchange with Virtual Worlds”, MPEG-V in the areas of “Interfaces between virtual worlds” and “Interfaces between virtual worlds and the physical world”. According to their approved project, they're looking to establish a working framework in 3 main areas: · Part1: Architecture · Part2: Interfaces between virtual worlds · Part3: Interfaces between virtual worlds and the physical world The ...
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