Evening News 24 - College Second Life project extended: "College Second Life project extended
Second Life - City College computer project. Evening News reporter Tracey Gray with her virtual self.
Second Life - City College computer project. Evening News reporter Tracey Gray with her virtual self.
TRACEY GRAY
07 November 2008 07:00
It's an internet phenomenon in which millions of people lose themselves in a fantasy world, but education bosses in Norwich hope it could be a place where people log-on to learn.
City College Norwich has been using the cyber community site Second Life since September for training purposes and to advertise vacancies, and is now set to expand its use by students.
A virtual City College has now been created in Second Life, which is an online virtual world where people can create an animated alter ego - known as an avatar - to wander around a huge computer generated world.
Harry Greiner, head of new media at the college, has spent more than 150 hours building and creating different venues including a concert stage, a café bar and an art gallery, ready for students to start using.
It is planned that students from the new construction diploma course will use the site, possibly to build their own creations, alongside creative arts students, who will be able to model their own fashion designs on a catwalk especially built on the island. The college is also hoping autism students can use the site.
Mr Greiner said: “When students start on this, a whole world opens up to them. It will give the chance for 14-year-olds studying construction, who would not normally be allowed on a building site because of their age, the chance to get hands-on and start building things themselves online. They will still have to calculate all the maths and dimensions to make sure everything is correct, it will be an excellent learning resource.”
It is hoped that eventually all students will be able to use the programme. At the moment the college island is open to anyone from outside the college to access it, but Mr Greiner says they may consider making it a closed site in the future, and added that all people coming onto the island are vetted by the college.
He said: “The site will also enable students who are studying different subjects to come together and work on projects via Second Life, we could have fashion students displaying their work and organising a show while textile students are creating the clothes online, the possibilities are endless really. This is going to be a real tool for us in opening up learning for students.”
Interest in Second Life has snowballed since it was set up in 2006.
In January 2007, Edinburgh University announced they were buying an island so students can have tutorials on the pretend beach.
The Second Life idea was started by Linden Labs and gained international status at the end of 2006.
Wannabe members are invited to join what they call the in-world.
If you want to buy land or develop an area to call your own then you have to exchange pounds for Linden dollars and start investing Playboy have opened a bunny-shaped island and there has been the first gay pride event online.
In August 2006 Suzanne Vega became the first avatar singer to perform in Second Life.
British police also posted missing Madeleine McCann posters on the virtual buildings.
Do you have a schools story? If so contact Education Reporter Tracey Gray on 01603 772418 or email tracey.gray@archant.co.uk
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Sunday, November 9, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Will Second Life Transform the Way We Do Business?
By Lynda LarsenSpecial to The Epoch Times Sep 4, 2008
ATLANTA—Your profile is not on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn? You don’t subscribe to Twitter? Not a member of Ning? New Web 2.0 social networking applications, the interactive communication devices based on internet technology, appear weekly. Why should you be interested? Just because Wolf Blitzer on CNN has his own blog, and interactivity through blogging, voting or texting is now mainstream? If media adoption of Web 2.0 applications isn’t convincing, then maybe predictions of the future prospects of 3-D will do the job.Intel spokesman Bill Calder was quoted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution as saying the 3-D computing is “an area that’s going to explode” due to intense consumer demand for high definition movies, gaming and digital photography. 3-D is where the creative edge of computer programming lies.Second Life is a 3-D game that has taken social networking to the next level. Wagner James Au, freelancer and (formerly) embedded reporter in Second Life, is quoted as saying in his book blurb that many believe that user-created worlds like Second Life will become the framework for a revolution in the way we shop, work and interact. In addition, the technology analyst firm, Gartner Inc., has projected that 80 percent of all active Internet users will be involved in virtual worlds by 2011, according to their website.Second Life is unique in that it is entirely built and owned by its residents. As of June 2008, according to the Alliance Trends Report, SL had over 12 million avatars or residents from around the world. The users of Second Life have created their own social scene, clothing stores, buildings and classes using currency called Lindens.I’m a member of the Special Libraries Association Working Group in Second Life where I’m still considered a Newbie. My SL birth date is July 1, 2008. On July 31st, I attended my first professional meeting in Second Life where we discussed what we as professional librarians want to do “in world.” We asked, “What does our profession have to offer” in this electronic world of beautiful scenery, people and imagination? We may have to rethink what our profession does and how we do it.Using search techniques I already knew as professional researcher, I quickly learned to check the “Events” tab, selecting education as my topic area, to find interesting places to explore in Second Life. Classes and discussion groups are popular in-world. The classes teach how to alter your avatar’s appearance, how to build structures, how to buy land. Alternatively, you can search ads and find someone to build for you.The most obvious content rich applications of Second Life are likely to be in education, training and recruiting. Universities are already a major presence in Second Life.Large corporations such as IBM have set up virtual office space for meetings, conferences and training. The technology in Second Life for meetings will only get better, my British IBM tour guide advised me. IBM uses their space for new employee orientations, training and staff meetings according to Lee Fox on Blogspot.com. Fox says that IBM finds this virtual environment far superior to teleconferencing or web conferencing. Recruiting is the third promising application of the Second Life environment. A recent CPA Daily article describes how firms like Ernst & Young are increasingly using social networks to find job prospects. The article suggests testing how an applicant would handle a real situation through observing his interactions in Second Life. In his 2006 book, The Making of Second Life, Wagner James Au estimated that the economy in-world averages more than $1,000,000 in transactions every day. Corporations and other organizations are betting their money that Second Life and other virtual worlds have a future in the real world.
ATLANTA—Your profile is not on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn? You don’t subscribe to Twitter? Not a member of Ning? New Web 2.0 social networking applications, the interactive communication devices based on internet technology, appear weekly. Why should you be interested? Just because Wolf Blitzer on CNN has his own blog, and interactivity through blogging, voting or texting is now mainstream? If media adoption of Web 2.0 applications isn’t convincing, then maybe predictions of the future prospects of 3-D will do the job.Intel spokesman Bill Calder was quoted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution as saying the 3-D computing is “an area that’s going to explode” due to intense consumer demand for high definition movies, gaming and digital photography. 3-D is where the creative edge of computer programming lies.Second Life is a 3-D game that has taken social networking to the next level. Wagner James Au, freelancer and (formerly) embedded reporter in Second Life, is quoted as saying in his book blurb that many believe that user-created worlds like Second Life will become the framework for a revolution in the way we shop, work and interact. In addition, the technology analyst firm, Gartner Inc., has projected that 80 percent of all active Internet users will be involved in virtual worlds by 2011, according to their website.Second Life is unique in that it is entirely built and owned by its residents. As of June 2008, according to the Alliance Trends Report, SL had over 12 million avatars or residents from around the world. The users of Second Life have created their own social scene, clothing stores, buildings and classes using currency called Lindens.I’m a member of the Special Libraries Association Working Group in Second Life where I’m still considered a Newbie. My SL birth date is July 1, 2008. On July 31st, I attended my first professional meeting in Second Life where we discussed what we as professional librarians want to do “in world.” We asked, “What does our profession have to offer” in this electronic world of beautiful scenery, people and imagination? We may have to rethink what our profession does and how we do it.Using search techniques I already knew as professional researcher, I quickly learned to check the “Events” tab, selecting education as my topic area, to find interesting places to explore in Second Life. Classes and discussion groups are popular in-world. The classes teach how to alter your avatar’s appearance, how to build structures, how to buy land. Alternatively, you can search ads and find someone to build for you.The most obvious content rich applications of Second Life are likely to be in education, training and recruiting. Universities are already a major presence in Second Life.Large corporations such as IBM have set up virtual office space for meetings, conferences and training. The technology in Second Life for meetings will only get better, my British IBM tour guide advised me. IBM uses their space for new employee orientations, training and staff meetings according to Lee Fox on Blogspot.com. Fox says that IBM finds this virtual environment far superior to teleconferencing or web conferencing. Recruiting is the third promising application of the Second Life environment. A recent CPA Daily article describes how firms like Ernst & Young are increasingly using social networks to find job prospects. The article suggests testing how an applicant would handle a real situation through observing his interactions in Second Life. In his 2006 book, The Making of Second Life, Wagner James Au estimated that the economy in-world averages more than $1,000,000 in transactions every day. Corporations and other organizations are betting their money that Second Life and other virtual worlds have a future in the real world.
The Ethics of a Sex Life in Your Second Life
September 05, 2008 8:57 AM
by Rachel Balik
Second Life entrepreneur Kevin Alderman installs a technology that lets avatars have intercourse, and it may be altering the course of fidelity.
Get ‘Physically’ Intimate in the Virtual World
Like a growing number of Internet users, Kevin Alderman was eager to jump on the Second Life bandwagon. Second Life is a computer game that allows users to design avatars and operate in a fully elaborated virtual world. It enabled users to do most real-life activities, but Alderman noticed that it prevented users from touching. He founded the company Eros LLC and developed the SexGen software for Second Life. Now, avatars can engage in a variety of sexual positions and activities with other avatars. Since each avatar represents a real human being, the software adds a new dimension to user relationships on Second Life, reports The Guardian.
Alderman’s avatar, Stroker Serpentine, is currently in a loving and “physically” intimate relationship with an avatar named Fyre Rain. The woman behind Fyre Rain lives a thousand miles from Alderman and has a family, as does Alderman. However, his wife Debbie is fully aware of the relationship, and remains unperturbed. She argues, “He might be physical with himself, but he’s not actually physical with her, and that doesn't bother me. It’s a role, a fantasy, a character.”
Background: Second Life encroaches on real life for many
While Debbie may claim that her husband’s Second Life infidelities don’t affect their marriage, the evidence suggests otherwise. Studies have been conducted suggesting that people’s self-perception in their Second Life actually bleeds into their actual life. “When we cloak ourselves in avatars, it subtly alters the manner in which we behave,” Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford told Time magazine. “It’s about self-perception and self-confidence.” Bailenson, who conducts research on Second Life, also suggested that 90 seconds of avatar conversation could alter real-life behavior. That raises some questions about what a Second Life sexual encounter could do. Researcher Nick Yee found that people who watched their avatars exercise were more likely to exercise themselves in the following 24 hours. Sex and exercise are both representational physical behaviors. If one virtual behavior influences real-life inclinations, the other might do so as well.
Actions on Second Life also have clear financial and legal implications. Alderman’s company, Eros LLC, holds the patent rights for the SexGen bed, a virtual bed containing animations of 150 sex positions. A SexGen bed costs approximately $45. When another Second Life user copied the bed and started selling it for less than Eros LLC, Alderman filed a suit against the user for copyright infringement in a Tampa court.
He won his lawsuit, and 19-year-old Robert Leatherwood was ordered to stop selling his copies. An article in the Albuquerque Journal suggests that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and that virtual environments can provide a fertile ground for real-life crime.
Related Topic: Sex addiction and the Internet
When David Duchovny entered treatment for sex addiction in August 2008, it brought new attention to the disease. The Internet seems to enable the condition. “The Internet has provided a level of access (to pornography) that was previously unavailable. So many people have this problem and the Internet has driven that,” Rob Weiss, executive director of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles told Reuters.
Reference: More about Second Life
BusinessWeek takes a trip through Second Life’s flourishing fantasy world. The article chronicles all the pretend banality of a virtual rookie’s (mis)adventures, from finding a home to buying clothes and going to bars.
Source: BusinessWeek
by Rachel Balik
Second Life entrepreneur Kevin Alderman installs a technology that lets avatars have intercourse, and it may be altering the course of fidelity.
Get ‘Physically’ Intimate in the Virtual World
Like a growing number of Internet users, Kevin Alderman was eager to jump on the Second Life bandwagon. Second Life is a computer game that allows users to design avatars and operate in a fully elaborated virtual world. It enabled users to do most real-life activities, but Alderman noticed that it prevented users from touching. He founded the company Eros LLC and developed the SexGen software for Second Life. Now, avatars can engage in a variety of sexual positions and activities with other avatars. Since each avatar represents a real human being, the software adds a new dimension to user relationships on Second Life, reports The Guardian.
Alderman’s avatar, Stroker Serpentine, is currently in a loving and “physically” intimate relationship with an avatar named Fyre Rain. The woman behind Fyre Rain lives a thousand miles from Alderman and has a family, as does Alderman. However, his wife Debbie is fully aware of the relationship, and remains unperturbed. She argues, “He might be physical with himself, but he’s not actually physical with her, and that doesn't bother me. It’s a role, a fantasy, a character.”
Background: Second Life encroaches on real life for many
While Debbie may claim that her husband’s Second Life infidelities don’t affect their marriage, the evidence suggests otherwise. Studies have been conducted suggesting that people’s self-perception in their Second Life actually bleeds into their actual life. “When we cloak ourselves in avatars, it subtly alters the manner in which we behave,” Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford told Time magazine. “It’s about self-perception and self-confidence.” Bailenson, who conducts research on Second Life, also suggested that 90 seconds of avatar conversation could alter real-life behavior. That raises some questions about what a Second Life sexual encounter could do. Researcher Nick Yee found that people who watched their avatars exercise were more likely to exercise themselves in the following 24 hours. Sex and exercise are both representational physical behaviors. If one virtual behavior influences real-life inclinations, the other might do so as well.
Actions on Second Life also have clear financial and legal implications. Alderman’s company, Eros LLC, holds the patent rights for the SexGen bed, a virtual bed containing animations of 150 sex positions. A SexGen bed costs approximately $45. When another Second Life user copied the bed and started selling it for less than Eros LLC, Alderman filed a suit against the user for copyright infringement in a Tampa court.
He won his lawsuit, and 19-year-old Robert Leatherwood was ordered to stop selling his copies. An article in the Albuquerque Journal suggests that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and that virtual environments can provide a fertile ground for real-life crime.
Related Topic: Sex addiction and the Internet
When David Duchovny entered treatment for sex addiction in August 2008, it brought new attention to the disease. The Internet seems to enable the condition. “The Internet has provided a level of access (to pornography) that was previously unavailable. So many people have this problem and the Internet has driven that,” Rob Weiss, executive director of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles told Reuters.
Reference: More about Second Life
BusinessWeek takes a trip through Second Life’s flourishing fantasy world. The article chronicles all the pretend banality of a virtual rookie’s (mis)adventures, from finding a home to buying clothes and going to bars.
Source: BusinessWeek
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Realizing the Potential of Virtual Worlds: Why and How to Support OpenSim
Posted from
UgoTrade
Crossing Digital Divides - Virtual Realities in “World 2.0″
http://www.ugotrade.com/2008/07/23/realizing-the-potential-of-virtual-worlds-why-and-how-to-support-opensim/
Are you one of those people who need something more to get you excited about the future of virtual worlds than, “I am in ur browser, chatting in 3D?”
Well, perhaps, it is time for you to take a close look at the burgeoning open source ecosystem surrounding OpenSIm.
Jonas Karlsson, Xerox, (avatar Poinky Malaprop) wrote an excellent post (I quote his great title above!) explaining why he is not turned on by the big bubble of browser based worlds that have sprung up recently - Vivaty, Lively, JustLeapIn, ExitReality, WebFlock and more
This flood of browser based worlds into the virtual world scene has caused many commentators in the field to articulate clearly what is important about virtual worlds and where these lite weight worlds fall short (see Dusan Writer) and how they can’t realize virtual worlds’ potential as innovative disruptive technnologies that will actually improve the human condition.
Even the the mainstream of the blogosphere can see how retro and limited this new crop of VWs lite are (see PC World’s look at Lively).
I am not arguing that these “stepping stone” browser worlds won’t be something that many people try out. But, like Jonas and Gwyneth Llewelyn, I believe that the destiny of virtual worlds lies elsewhere. I agree with Jonas, the keys that opened the doors for virtual worlds to bring something new, exciting and very beneficial to human communication were sown in Second Life with the “in-world creation tools, that enabled co-creation and a new form of collaboration” - none of these “in ur browser” wannabes are even close to offering this kind of paradigm shifting experience. Though some of them may play a role in introducing a wider audience to a limited sense of the possibilities of avatar interaction.
Why is OpenSim Important?
While Second Life demonstrated most of the key paradigm shifts to social interaction possible through virtual worlds, open source and open standard development, as Linden Lab has acknowledged for a while now, are central to unleashing the full potential of virtual worlds into a scalable, global and world changing phenomena.
A number of interesting open source virtual world projects are out there. But, of all these, OpenSim is beginning to show its got the right stuff to move virtual worlds forward quickly, in a positive direction. Open standards are not arrived at by ivory tower committees. They are worked out on the ground in a process which requires the magic of “rough consensus and running code” (this phrase is drawn from a conversation I had with Mic Bowman, Intel, about interoperability of virtual worlds).
This magic, “rough consensus and running code” is exemplified in the rapidly developing ecosystem committed to growing OpenSim technology - OpenSim provides powerful and fexible software modules for building virtual worlds.
There is a powerful community of amazing diversity working with OpenSIm - from many enthused individuals to contributors from some of the world’s largest corporations, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft (see the many commentaries, here and here, in the blogosphere on the MS dev community entry into OpenSim and for my interview with Kyle Gomboy of the MS dev community and Zain Naboulsi, Microsoft, see here).
And, while Linden Lab do not contribute code directly to OpenSim yet, some of Linden Lab’s top developers are involved in a major an interoperability effort between Second Life and OpenSim. This effort has also been spearheaded by David Levine (avatar Zha Ewry), IBM.
David’s interoperability patch and Linden Lab’s OWG (Open Grid Protocols) will go into Beta on the LL Preview Grid at the end of the month. To become part of this Beta you must join the Gridnauts group in Second Life. The code developed from this interoperability work will eventually be part of the OpenSim trunk.
There is a common misunderstanding about OpenSim. OpenSim is NOT a virtual world, and is certainly not as many in the blogosphere like to suggest a virtual world competing with Second Life. On the contrary as the err “love child” of Second Life, it carries the qualities of Second Life into the future. And Linden Lab’s acknowledgement and support of OpenSim is clear in their interoperability efforts.
Adam Frisby sets the record straight on his blog:
OpenSim is not a virtual world. It’s a piece of software, which if configured in a specific way allows you to run a virtual world. Consider it another way - the Apache Webserver is not a website, but ~50% of the websites online are running Apache.
I have blogged some of the diverse projects OpenSim has spawned including the highly innovative realXtend (see here, here, here and here -my most recent post on reX) and Tribal Net (see here). But Adam includes an excellent list of some of the diverse applications that have been developed on OpenSim and explains the difference between application and platform in this post.
Check out this wonderful slide show of the work some 3rd - 4th grade students are doing with their quests on the Opensim based GreenbushGrid VW.
How to become Involved in the OpenSim Community
Here I am as noobie in OSgrid standing in front of the fountain built by master builder and OpenSim developer, Nebadon Izumi (Michael Cerquoni in RL). Charles Krinke told me: “The fountain behind me was built by Nebadon last September and the day scripts were sufficient to run the particle system, we turned the water on.”
OpenSim is alpha still. But there is an immense pride and excitement to being there a
nd contributing in these ground breaking days. The OpenSim Wiki is the most complete source for information on OpenSim but there is a nice tutorial here on White’s Virtual White blog on how to get your own standalone openSim server up and running in Windows Vista (hat tip to Dusan Writer)
But there are many different ways to become part of the OpenSim effort.
One of the important entry points to the OpenSim development community, other than joining the IRC channels #opensim, #opensim-dev, and #osgrid is to visit and participate in activities in OSGrid (see later in this post for a complete list of the goals of OSGrid).
OSGrid is also the place where developers, content creators, and ordinary users can support the OpenSim effort. Two good times to find the OpenSim community gathered in OSGrid are:
“Test Hour”, “Wright Plaza”, Saturday 1900UTC, Noon PDT, 3PM EDT.
“Office Hour,” Wright Plaza, Tuesday 1900UTC, Noon PDT, 3pm EDT.
OSgrid is the second oldest OpenSim grid. It was created in July, 2007.
The picture opening this post is taken inside the Scriptwerks building, Wright’s Plaza, OSGrid. This room is part of the effort in OSGrid to teach scripting. It is built by Pablo Pharmanaut (avatar name), a pharmacist in Northern California. Pablo has set up a number of demonstrations of scripting including the scripts themselves. The scripts are also on the forum. One of the goals of OSGrid is to encourage folks to copy the scripts and use them to learn how to script.
The picture below shows Wright’s Plaza where office hours are held. OSGrid guru and organizer Charles Krinke (avatar Charles Krinkeb) is showing me a demo of OpenSim’s version of html on a prim, which is implemented differently from the LL version. And on the right is the “grafitti” board written by Justin Clark-Casey that is used to set the agenda at meetings now.
Th first “Office Hour” in OpenSim was on a blank island, no physics, no scripts, no clothes, last August. This blank island is now Wright Plaza, named for Michael Wright, the creator of OpenSim. Stephan Andersson, known as “Lbsa” is honored in the second plaza created.
There are several ways to join the OpenSim effort. And Charles Krinke the tireless and brilliant community organiser for OSgrid pointed out to me there are roles for all who want to get involved as:
The goals of OSGrid are 1) to test OpenSim releases on a daily basis and 2) to build a healthy community.
Charles Krinke (avatar Charles Krinkeb), whom I met first in the OpenSim office hours, began running OSGrid in August with 150 users and a dozen regions. Others were brought in as managers, most notably “Nebadon Izumi”, “Hiro Protagonist”, “Paulie Flomar” and more in the Fall. “We now have 3200 users and nearly 400 regions attached as of early July, 2008,” Charles noted.
In the picture above, Hiro Protagonist (James Stallings in RL) and I are seated in Zaius Plaza, OSGrid (see also Hiro’s blog).
The Goals of OSGrid
Charles Krinke described the Goals of OSGrid in detail to me.
Goal 1: “Testing OpenSim releases”
There are several considerations here from a grid viewpoint. First and foremost is the fact that differing regions on OSGrid run on differing operating systems and with differing configurations. This includes both Windows and Linux servers running regions. Some regions run scripting with the dotnet script engine. Others run with xengine for scripting. Some regions use local assets, some grid assets. Regions running different operating systems and different configurations are right next to each other. Additionally two regions might be adjacent on the grid, but physically on opposite sides of the planet. Some are in colo-farms with fat pipes and some are in homes with modest cable modem connections.
Testing things like avatar appearance editing, script functionality (or lack thereof), region crossings, inventory usage all become important in a heterogeneous grid like this as we use a systems approach to testing and facilitating software development.
It is entirely appropriate to report at http://opensimulator.org/mantis bugs found in OpenSim regions on OSGrid particularly if these bugs can be confirmed on at least two regions running different operating systems. To the extent we can identify and replicate with a simple recipe problems in the software, it becomes easier for the core developers in OpenSim to fix these problems. OSGrid provides a fairly rich spectrum of region configurations to allow more bugs to be identified then with a single standalone of even a grid will all identical regions.
Goal 2: “Building more community”
Our “Plaza” regions all honor a different personality in OpenSim history. Each one is a little different. But each serve as seed regions to expand the mainland and folks wishing to connect regions to OSGrid are encouraged to attach to a face or corner of one of the plazas to help expand and fill in the gaps of our mainland. As we expand, there will be new plazas from time to time and all of them will have a unique personality.
All of our plazas run on donated, community servers and the OSGrid control operators administer the servers and encourage community builds, freebie zones, script demonstrations and the like. As time goes on, we establish more “Hours”, which are dedicated times set aside to discuss, learn, teach or demonstrate some aspect of using OpenSim.
Around the plazas are various personal, corporate and university regions. All of these regions are owned by their providers and not by OSGrid. Commercial activies are encouraged by those whose corporations put up regions. Other things such as artist colonies, homesteading areas and the like exist and are encouraged.
It is reasonable for organizations to build additional mainlands elsewhere on the grid. There is no requirement that all regions be near the existing mainland at 20000,20000. After all, OSGrid is intended to develop a diverse, global Metaverse and it certainly seems to be happening.
Folks are encouraged to donate original creations to the various freebie areas for others to get with the “Take Copy” option and use, modify and understand as they wish. Also there are a number of scripts on the forums at http://osgrid.org/forums for folks to use as they expand their scripting knowledge.
UgoTrade
Crossing Digital Divides - Virtual Realities in “World 2.0″
http://www.ugotrade.com/2008/07/23/realizing-the-potential-of-virtual-worlds-why-and-how-to-support-opensim/
Are you one of those people who need something more to get you excited about the future of virtual worlds than, “I am in ur browser, chatting in 3D?”
Well, perhaps, it is time for you to take a close look at the burgeoning open source ecosystem surrounding OpenSIm.
Jonas Karlsson, Xerox, (avatar Poinky Malaprop) wrote an excellent post (I quote his great title above!) explaining why he is not turned on by the big bubble of browser based worlds that have sprung up recently - Vivaty, Lively, JustLeapIn, ExitReality, WebFlock and more
This flood of browser based worlds into the virtual world scene has caused many commentators in the field to articulate clearly what is important about virtual worlds and where these lite weight worlds fall short (see Dusan Writer) and how they can’t realize virtual worlds’ potential as innovative disruptive technnologies that will actually improve the human condition.
Even the the mainstream of the blogosphere can see how retro and limited this new crop of VWs lite are (see PC World’s look at Lively).
I am not arguing that these “stepping stone” browser worlds won’t be something that many people try out. But, like Jonas and Gwyneth Llewelyn, I believe that the destiny of virtual worlds lies elsewhere. I agree with Jonas, the keys that opened the doors for virtual worlds to bring something new, exciting and very beneficial to human communication were sown in Second Life with the “in-world creation tools, that enabled co-creation and a new form of collaboration” - none of these “in ur browser” wannabes are even close to offering this kind of paradigm shifting experience. Though some of them may play a role in introducing a wider audience to a limited sense of the possibilities of avatar interaction.
Why is OpenSim Important?
While Second Life demonstrated most of the key paradigm shifts to social interaction possible through virtual worlds, open source and open standard development, as Linden Lab has acknowledged for a while now, are central to unleashing the full potential of virtual worlds into a scalable, global and world changing phenomena.
A number of interesting open source virtual world projects are out there. But, of all these, OpenSim is beginning to show its got the right stuff to move virtual worlds forward quickly, in a positive direction. Open standards are not arrived at by ivory tower committees. They are worked out on the ground in a process which requires the magic of “rough consensus and running code” (this phrase is drawn from a conversation I had with Mic Bowman, Intel, about interoperability of virtual worlds).
This magic, “rough consensus and running code” is exemplified in the rapidly developing ecosystem committed to growing OpenSim technology - OpenSim provides powerful and fexible software modules for building virtual worlds.
There is a powerful community of amazing diversity working with OpenSIm - from many enthused individuals to contributors from some of the world’s largest corporations, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft (see the many commentaries, here and here, in the blogosphere on the MS dev community entry into OpenSim and for my interview with Kyle Gomboy of the MS dev community and Zain Naboulsi, Microsoft, see here).
And, while Linden Lab do not contribute code directly to OpenSim yet, some of Linden Lab’s top developers are involved in a major an interoperability effort between Second Life and OpenSim. This effort has also been spearheaded by David Levine (avatar Zha Ewry), IBM.
David’s interoperability patch and Linden Lab’s OWG (Open Grid Protocols) will go into Beta on the LL Preview Grid at the end of the month. To become part of this Beta you must join the Gridnauts group in Second Life. The code developed from this interoperability work will eventually be part of the OpenSim trunk.
There is a common misunderstanding about OpenSim. OpenSim is NOT a virtual world, and is certainly not as many in the blogosphere like to suggest a virtual world competing with Second Life. On the contrary as the err “love child” of Second Life, it carries the qualities of Second Life into the future. And Linden Lab’s acknowledgement and support of OpenSim is clear in their interoperability efforts.
Adam Frisby sets the record straight on his blog:
OpenSim is not a virtual world. It’s a piece of software, which if configured in a specific way allows you to run a virtual world. Consider it another way - the Apache Webserver is not a website, but ~50% of the websites online are running Apache.
I have blogged some of the diverse projects OpenSim has spawned including the highly innovative realXtend (see here, here, here and here -my most recent post on reX) and Tribal Net (see here). But Adam includes an excellent list of some of the diverse applications that have been developed on OpenSim and explains the difference between application and platform in this post.
Check out this wonderful slide show of the work some 3rd - 4th grade students are doing with their quests on the Opensim based GreenbushGrid VW.
How to become Involved in the OpenSim Community
Here I am as noobie in OSgrid standing in front of the fountain built by master builder and OpenSim developer, Nebadon Izumi (Michael Cerquoni in RL). Charles Krinke told me: “The fountain behind me was built by Nebadon last September and the day scripts were sufficient to run the particle system, we turned the water on.”
OpenSim is alpha still. But there is an immense pride and excitement to being there a
nd contributing in these ground breaking days. The OpenSim Wiki is the most complete source for information on OpenSim but there is a nice tutorial here on White’s Virtual White blog on how to get your own standalone openSim server up and running in Windows Vista (hat tip to Dusan Writer)
But there are many different ways to become part of the OpenSim effort.
One of the important entry points to the OpenSim development community, other than joining the IRC channels #opensim, #opensim-dev, and #osgrid is to visit and participate in activities in OSGrid (see later in this post for a complete list of the goals of OSGrid).
OSGrid is also the place where developers, content creators, and ordinary users can support the OpenSim effort. Two good times to find the OpenSim community gathered in OSGrid are:
“Test Hour”, “Wright Plaza”, Saturday 1900UTC, Noon PDT, 3PM EDT.
“Office Hour,” Wright Plaza, Tuesday 1900UTC, Noon PDT, 3pm EDT.
OSgrid is the second oldest OpenSim grid. It was created in July, 2007.
The picture opening this post is taken inside the Scriptwerks building, Wright’s Plaza, OSGrid. This room is part of the effort in OSGrid to teach scripting. It is built by Pablo Pharmanaut (avatar name), a pharmacist in Northern California. Pablo has set up a number of demonstrations of scripting including the scripts themselves. The scripts are also on the forum. One of the goals of OSGrid is to encourage folks to copy the scripts and use them to learn how to script.
The picture below shows Wright’s Plaza where office hours are held. OSGrid guru and organizer Charles Krinke (avatar Charles Krinkeb) is showing me a demo of OpenSim’s version of html on a prim, which is implemented differently from the LL version. And on the right is the “grafitti” board written by Justin Clark-Casey that is used to set the agenda at meetings now.
Th first “Office Hour” in OpenSim was on a blank island, no physics, no scripts, no clothes, last August. This blank island is now Wright Plaza, named for Michael Wright, the creator of OpenSim. Stephan Andersson, known as “Lbsa” is honored in the second plaza created.
There are several ways to join the OpenSim effort. And Charles Krinke the tireless and brilliant community organiser for OSgrid pointed out to me there are roles for all who want to get involved as:
The goals of OSGrid are 1) to test OpenSim releases on a daily basis and 2) to build a healthy community.
Charles Krinke (avatar Charles Krinkeb), whom I met first in the OpenSim office hours, began running OSGrid in August with 150 users and a dozen regions. Others were brought in as managers, most notably “Nebadon Izumi”, “Hiro Protagonist”, “Paulie Flomar” and more in the Fall. “We now have 3200 users and nearly 400 regions attached as of early July, 2008,” Charles noted.
In the picture above, Hiro Protagonist (James Stallings in RL) and I are seated in Zaius Plaza, OSGrid (see also Hiro’s blog).
The Goals of OSGrid
Charles Krinke described the Goals of OSGrid in detail to me.
Goal 1: “Testing OpenSim releases”
There are several considerations here from a grid viewpoint. First and foremost is the fact that differing regions on OSGrid run on differing operating systems and with differing configurations. This includes both Windows and Linux servers running regions. Some regions run scripting with the dotnet script engine. Others run with xengine for scripting. Some regions use local assets, some grid assets. Regions running different operating systems and different configurations are right next to each other. Additionally two regions might be adjacent on the grid, but physically on opposite sides of the planet. Some are in colo-farms with fat pipes and some are in homes with modest cable modem connections.
Testing things like avatar appearance editing, script functionality (or lack thereof), region crossings, inventory usage all become important in a heterogeneous grid like this as we use a systems approach to testing and facilitating software development.
It is entirely appropriate to report at http://opensimulator.org/mantis bugs found in OpenSim regions on OSGrid particularly if these bugs can be confirmed on at least two regions running different operating systems. To the extent we can identify and replicate with a simple recipe problems in the software, it becomes easier for the core developers in OpenSim to fix these problems. OSGrid provides a fairly rich spectrum of region configurations to allow more bugs to be identified then with a single standalone of even a grid will all identical regions.
Goal 2: “Building more community”
Our “Plaza” regions all honor a different personality in OpenSim history. Each one is a little different. But each serve as seed regions to expand the mainland and folks wishing to connect regions to OSGrid are encouraged to attach to a face or corner of one of the plazas to help expand and fill in the gaps of our mainland. As we expand, there will be new plazas from time to time and all of them will have a unique personality.
All of our plazas run on donated, community servers and the OSGrid control operators administer the servers and encourage community builds, freebie zones, script demonstrations and the like. As time goes on, we establish more “Hours”, which are dedicated times set aside to discuss, learn, teach or demonstrate some aspect of using OpenSim.
Around the plazas are various personal, corporate and university regions. All of these regions are owned by their providers and not by OSGrid. Commercial activies are encouraged by those whose corporations put up regions. Other things such as artist colonies, homesteading areas and the like exist and are encouraged.
It is reasonable for organizations to build additional mainlands elsewhere on the grid. There is no requirement that all regions be near the existing mainland at 20000,20000. After all, OSGrid is intended to develop a diverse, global Metaverse and it certainly seems to be happening.
Folks are encouraged to donate original creations to the various freebie areas for others to get with the “Take Copy” option and use, modify and understand as they wish. Also there are a number of scripts on the forums at http://osgrid.org/forums for folks to use as they expand their scripting knowledge.
Friday, July 18, 2008
IBM and Linden Lab Interoperability Announcement
IBM and Linden Lab Interoperability Announcement
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 12:01 AM by: Hamilton Linden
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/07/08/ibm-linden-lab-interoperability-announcement/
This is a historic day for Second Life, and for virtual worlds in general. IBM and Linden Lab have announced that research teams from the two companies successfully teleported avatars from the Second Life Preview Grid into a virtual world running on an OpenSim server, marking the first time an avatar has moved from one virtual world to another. It’s an important first step toward enabling avatars to pass freely between virtual worlds, something we’ve been working toward publicly since the formation of the Architecture Working Group in September 2007. These are still early days, however, so amid all the excitement, we thought it would be helpful to clarify exactly what we’ve done — and what still lies ahead.
Q: What did Linden Lab and IBM accomplish with this experiment?
Researchers from IBM and Linden Lab teleported avatars from the Second Life Preview Grid to an OpenSim virtual world.
Q: Why is that significant?
It marks the first time an avatar has moved from one virtual world to another, an event with implications for the entire virtual world industry. As the name suggests, the Open Grid Protocol used in the project enables interoperability between virtual worlds. With this experiment, we’ve taken a first step toward not just interconnecting Second Life with other virtual worlds, but other virtual worlds with one another. An open standard for interoperability based on the Open Grid Protocol would allow users to cross freely from one world to another, just as they can go from one Web site to another on the Internet today.
Q: Did you make a video of the event?
Yes we did:http://torley.s3.amazonaws.com/Across-the-Metaverse.mp4
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 12:01 AM by: Hamilton Linden
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/07/08/ibm-linden-lab-interoperability-announcement/
This is a historic day for Second Life, and for virtual worlds in general. IBM and Linden Lab have announced that research teams from the two companies successfully teleported avatars from the Second Life Preview Grid into a virtual world running on an OpenSim server, marking the first time an avatar has moved from one virtual world to another. It’s an important first step toward enabling avatars to pass freely between virtual worlds, something we’ve been working toward publicly since the formation of the Architecture Working Group in September 2007. These are still early days, however, so amid all the excitement, we thought it would be helpful to clarify exactly what we’ve done — and what still lies ahead.
Q: What did Linden Lab and IBM accomplish with this experiment?
Researchers from IBM and Linden Lab teleported avatars from the Second Life Preview Grid to an OpenSim virtual world.
Q: Why is that significant?
It marks the first time an avatar has moved from one virtual world to another, an event with implications for the entire virtual world industry. As the name suggests, the Open Grid Protocol used in the project enables interoperability between virtual worlds. With this experiment, we’ve taken a first step toward not just interconnecting Second Life with other virtual worlds, but other virtual worlds with one another. An open standard for interoperability based on the Open Grid Protocol would allow users to cross freely from one world to another, just as they can go from one Web site to another on the Internet today.
Q: Did you make a video of the event?
Yes we did:http://torley.s3.amazonaws.com/Across-the-Metaverse.mp4
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
CIGNA Creating a Virtual Health Care Community
CIGNA Creating a Virtual Health Care Community: "CIGNA, a leading health service company, is announcing the development of a virtual health care community. This computer-simulated world is situated on a Second Life® island, where seminars, interactive displays, educational games and virtual health consultations help foster real and sustainable behavior change that improves health.
Developed by Method, a brand experience agency, CIGNA’s virtual community provides 3-D video game-like interactivity that enables people to learn and interact anonymously with like-minded peers in order to positively change the way they live their lives. For example, the newly developed nutrition zone helps participants develop their nutrition knowledge, learn how to make healthier food choices, manage their weight and understand portion sizes and food labels - skills that will enable them to lead healthier, more energetic and productive lives. Stress, physical activity and sleep zones within the community will be developed following an evaluation of people’s experience with the nutrition zone."
Developed by Method, a brand experience agency, CIGNA’s virtual community provides 3-D video game-like interactivity that enables people to learn and interact anonymously with like-minded peers in order to positively change the way they live their lives. For example, the newly developed nutrition zone helps participants develop their nutrition knowledge, learn how to make healthier food choices, manage their weight and understand portion sizes and food labels - skills that will enable them to lead healthier, more energetic and productive lives. Stress, physical activity and sleep zones within the community will be developed following an evaluation of people’s experience with the nutrition zone."
CIGNA Creating a Virtual Health Care Community
CIGNA Creating a Virtual Health Care Community: "CIGNA, a leading health service company, is announcing the development of a virtual health care community. This computer-simulated world is situated on a Second Life® island, where seminars, interactive displays, educational games and virtual health consultations help foster real and sustainable behavior change that improves health.
Developed by Method, a brand experience agency, CIGNA’s virtual community provides 3-D video game-like interactivity that enables people to learn and interact anonymously with like-minded peers in order to positively change the way they live their lives. For example, the newly developed nutrition zone helps participants develop their nutrition knowledge, learn how to make healthier food choices, manage their weight and understand portion sizes and food labels - skills that will enable them to lead healthier, more energetic and productive lives. Stress, physical activity and sleep zones within the community will be developed following an evaluation of people’s experience with the nutrition zone."
Developed by Method, a brand experience agency, CIGNA’s virtual community provides 3-D video game-like interactivity that enables people to learn and interact anonymously with like-minded peers in order to positively change the way they live their lives. For example, the newly developed nutrition zone helps participants develop their nutrition knowledge, learn how to make healthier food choices, manage their weight and understand portion sizes and food labels - skills that will enable them to lead healthier, more energetic and productive lives. Stress, physical activity and sleep zones within the community will be developed following an evaluation of people’s experience with the nutrition zone."
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Researchers teach 'Second Life' avatar to think
TheStar.com - Business - Researchers teach 'Second Life' avatar to think
May 16, 2008 MICHAEL HILLThe Associated Press
TROY, N.Y.–Edd Hifeng barely merits a second glance in ``Second Life." A steel-gray robot with lanky limbs and linebacker shoulders, he looks like a typical avatar in the popular virtual world.
But Edd is different.
His actions are animated not by a person at a keyboard but by a computer. Edd is a creation of artificial intelligence, or AI, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who endowed him with a limited ability to converse and reason. It turns out ``Second Life" is more than a place where pixelated avatars chat, interact and fly about. It's also a frontier in AI research because it's a controllable environment where testing intelligent creations is easier.
"It's a very inexpensive way to test out our technologies right now," said Selmer Bringsjord, director of the Rensselaer Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Laboratory.
Bringsjord sees Edd as a forerunner to more sophisticated creations that could interact with people inside three-dimensional projections of settings like subway stops or city streets. He said the holographic illusions could be used to train emergency workers or solve mysteries.
But first, a virtual reality check. Edd is not running rampant through the cyber streets of "Second Life." He goes only where Bringsjord and his graduate students place him for tests. He can answer questions like "Where are you from?" but understands only English that has previously been translated into mathematical logic.
"Second Life" is attractive to researchers in part because virtual reality is less messy than plain-old reality. Researchers don't have to worry about wind, rain or coffee spills.
And virtual worlds can push along AI research without forcing scientists to solve the most difficult problems – like, say, creating a virtual human – right away, said Michael Mateas, a computer science professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Researching in virtual realities has become increasingly popular the past couple years, said Mateas, leader of the school's Expressive Intelligence Studio for AI and gaming. "It's a fantastic sweet spot – not too simple, not too complicated, high cultural value," he said.
Bringsjord is careful to point out that the computations for Edd's mental feats have been done on workstations and are not sapping "Second Life" servers. The calculations will soon be performed on a supercomputer at Rensselaer with support from research co-sponsor IBM Corp.
Operators of "Second Life" don't seem concerned about synthetic agents lurking in their world. John Lester, Boston operations manager for Linden Lab, said the San Francisco-based company sees a "fascinating" opportunity for AI to evolve. "I think the real future for this is when people take these AI-controlled avatars and let them free in 'Second Life,'" Lester said, "... let them randomly walk the grid.''
That is years off by most experts' estimations. Edd's most sophisticated cognitive feat so far – played out in "Second Life'' and posted on the Web – involves him witnessing a gun being switched from one briefcase to another. Edd was able to infer that another "Second Life" character who left the room during the switch would incorrectly think the gun was still in the first suitcase.
This ability to make inferences about the thoughts of others is significant for an AI agent, though it puts Edd on par with a 4-year-old – and the calculus required "under the hood" to achieve this feat is mind-numbingly complex. A computer program smart enough to fool someone into thinking they're interacting with another person – the traditional Holy Grail for AI researchers – has been elusive. One huge problem is getting computers to understand concepts imparted in language, said Jeremy Bailenson, director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University.
AI agents do best in tightly controlled environments: Think of automated phone programs that recognize your responses when you say ``operator" or "repair.'' Bringsjord sees "Second Life" as a way station. He eventually wants to create other environments where more sophisticated creations could display courage or deceive people, which would be the first step in developing technology to detect deception.
The avatars could be projected at RPI's $145 million Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, opening in October, which will include spaces for holographic projections. Officials call them "holodecks" in homage to the virtual reality room on the "Star Trek" television series. That sort of visual fidelity is many years down the line, just like complex AI. John Kolb, RPI's chief information officer, said the best three-dimensional effects still require viewers to wear special light-polarizing glasses.
"If you want to do texture mapping on a wall for instance, that's easy. We can do that today," Kolb said. "If you want to start to build cognitive abilities into avatars, well, that's going to take a bit more work.''
Friday, March 14, 2008
Second Life and Real Life
March 13, 2008, 12:44 pm
By Andrew C. Revkin
Andy Revkin lectured on sustainability and communication at the real University of Delaware and its synthetic campus on Second Life.
More and more these days, I make video “visits” to colleges to talk about the environment and development, saving time and the environmental and financial costs of travel. But I hadn’t found my way into the completely synthetic universe of Second Life until Wednesday, when I made a real visit to the University of Delaware to talk about journalism, climate and sustainability.
growing list with Second Life cyber-campuses that can be explored by any of the million or so people who populate this parallel universe as avatars.
While I stood in an actual auditorium on campus, live video of my talk was streamed on screens on a cube floating over an artificial amphitheater, bathed in late-afternoon sunshine, on the university’s Second Life “island.”
spoken with secondary-school students around the world. Last year, in a climate forum at the United Nations, I talked with students from the borough of Queens to the Arctic (Yellowknife) and the subtropics (Karachi).
More important, they talked with one another. When I heard a girl in Karachi asking the students in Queens what they were doing to make their school greener, I knew something very interesting was happening. Video of the students, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and me is archived online.
Real life, called RL on Second Life, is still the vital underpinning of experience — especially life outside of walls and away from LCD screens.
But virtual experience is clearly a tool that will be a growing part of life from now on.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Lombard-Freid Projects
Lombard-Freid Projects
Cao Fei
RMB City
February 29th - April 5th, 2008
Friday, February 29th, 6-8 PM
"Is this your city?" asked the young man.
"It's yours." The angel answered.
February 29 – April 5, 2008
Opening reception Friday, Feb 29, 6–8 PM
One of the most important young Chinese artists emerging on the international scene, Beijing based Cao Fei’s newest project RMB City opens at Lombard-Freid Projects on February 29th. RMB City has been created by Cao Fei’s avatar China Tracy as an experimental utopian world for the 3D online virtual community of Second Life. Institutions and investors have been invited to buy buildings in RMB City and program events and activities within them where other Second Life users can participate. Thousands of young people in Asia and around the world are embracing Second Life as a “parallel universe” on the Internet.
RMB City will be the condensed incarnation of contemporary Chinese cities with most of their characteristics; a series of new Chinese fantasy realms that are highly self-contradictory, inter-permeative, laden with irony and suspicion, and extremely entertaining and pan-political. China's current obsession with land development in all its intensity will be extended to Second Life. A rough hybrid of communism, socialism and capitalism, RMB City will be realized in a globalized digital sphere combining overabundant symbols of Chinese reality with cursory imaginings of the country's future.
___Cao Fei aka Second Life: China Tracy
From February 29th through April 5th, Lombard-Freid is providing China Tracy, as Chief Developer, with retail space for a New York RMB City leasing office and showroom. The public is invited to view an RMB City model, promotional videos, detailed RMB City photographs and go online via laptops providing real time links to RMB City under construction in Second Life.
The pure white RMB City Model proposes an ideal futuristic city in three dimensions for viewers outside of Second Life. China Tracy’s RMB City video projected onto a reflection pool showcases the myriad details of the metropolis – exposing layers of urban activity and the dense beauty of its architecture.
Also on view i.Mirror, Cao Fei's quasi-documentary of China Tracy’s adventures in Second Life over a 6 month period premiered at the last Venice Biennale. i-Mirror the 3-part machinima of her Second Life experience inspired Cao Fei aka China Tracy to build RMB City.
Cao Fei’s recent exhibitions include: Brave New Worlds at the Walker Art Center, and Laughing In A Foreign Language at The Hayward Gallery, London. The 10th International Istanbul Biennial, the 52nd International Venice Biennale, the Lyon Biennial, China Power Station: Part 1, at the Serpentine Gallery, and China Power Station: Part II, at Astrup Fearley Museum of Modern Art. Upcoming exhibitions include a solo retrospective at Le Plateau, Paris.
Cao Fei
RMB City
February 29th - April 5th, 2008
Friday, February 29th, 6-8 PM
"Is this your city?" asked the young man.
"It's yours." The angel answered.
February 29 – April 5, 2008
Opening reception Friday, Feb 29, 6–8 PM
One of the most important young Chinese artists emerging on the international scene, Beijing based Cao Fei’s newest project RMB City opens at Lombard-Freid Projects on February 29th. RMB City has been created by Cao Fei’s avatar China Tracy as an experimental utopian world for the 3D online virtual community of Second Life. Institutions and investors have been invited to buy buildings in RMB City and program events and activities within them where other Second Life users can participate. Thousands of young people in Asia and around the world are embracing Second Life as a “parallel universe” on the Internet.
RMB City will be the condensed incarnation of contemporary Chinese cities with most of their characteristics; a series of new Chinese fantasy realms that are highly self-contradictory, inter-permeative, laden with irony and suspicion, and extremely entertaining and pan-political. China's current obsession with land development in all its intensity will be extended to Second Life. A rough hybrid of communism, socialism and capitalism, RMB City will be realized in a globalized digital sphere combining overabundant symbols of Chinese reality with cursory imaginings of the country's future.
___Cao Fei aka Second Life: China Tracy
From February 29th through April 5th, Lombard-Freid is providing China Tracy, as Chief Developer, with retail space for a New York RMB City leasing office and showroom. The public is invited to view an RMB City model, promotional videos, detailed RMB City photographs and go online via laptops providing real time links to RMB City under construction in Second Life.
The pure white RMB City Model proposes an ideal futuristic city in three dimensions for viewers outside of Second Life. China Tracy’s RMB City video projected onto a reflection pool showcases the myriad details of the metropolis – exposing layers of urban activity and the dense beauty of its architecture.
Also on view i.Mirror, Cao Fei's quasi-documentary of China Tracy’s adventures in Second Life over a 6 month period premiered at the last Venice Biennale. i-Mirror the 3-part machinima of her Second Life experience inspired Cao Fei aka China Tracy to build RMB City.
Cao Fei’s recent exhibitions include: Brave New Worlds at the Walker Art Center, and Laughing In A Foreign Language at The Hayward Gallery, London. The 10th International Istanbul Biennial, the 52nd International Venice Biennale, the Lyon Biennial, China Power Station: Part 1, at the Serpentine Gallery, and China Power Station: Part II, at Astrup Fearley Museum of Modern Art. Upcoming exhibitions include a solo retrospective at Le Plateau, Paris.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Humanitarian Life in Second Life: Red Cross: not everyone can take refugee in Second Life
Humanitarian Life in Second Life: Red Cross: not everyone can take refugee in Second Life: "Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Red Cross: not everyone can take refugee in Second Life
en::
SL is an important tool for non profit organizations which intend to share their work with other people. This time we decided to explore the Danish Red Cross' island in SL.
The island is divided into four different scenarios:
Conflict and war island (visitors walk through a refugee camp full of land mines that explose and send avatars into the air)
Tsunami zone (visitors can experience a Tsunami and the effects that follow this calamity)
Earthquake island (visitors are suddenly surprised by an earthquake)
'What we do island' (visitors can learn what Red Cross does)
Once again SL provides an immersive virtual experience with an eye to real life: the island actually provides slides and pictures displaying Darfur's conflict and 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. However, after the troubling experience, you can relax having a coffee at Red Cross Café, camping or playing volley-ball, hopely without forgetting what you have seen before."
Red Cross: not everyone can take refugee in Second Life
en::
SL is an important tool for non profit organizations which intend to share their work with other people. This time we decided to explore the Danish Red Cross' island in SL.
The island is divided into four different scenarios:
Conflict and war island (visitors walk through a refugee camp full of land mines that explose and send avatars into the air)
Tsunami zone (visitors can experience a Tsunami and the effects that follow this calamity)
Earthquake island (visitors are suddenly surprised by an earthquake)
'What we do island' (visitors can learn what Red Cross does)
Once again SL provides an immersive virtual experience with an eye to real life: the island actually provides slides and pictures displaying Darfur's conflict and 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. However, after the troubling experience, you can relax having a coffee at Red Cross Café, camping or playing volley-ball, hopely without forgetting what you have seen before."
Saturday, March 1, 2008
FT.com / Business education - A second life for classrooms with vision
FT.com / Business education - A second life for classrooms with vision: "A second life for classrooms with vision
By Andrew Baxter
Published: February 29 2008 20:12 | Last updated: February 29 2008 20:12
For a brief period last year, Miklos Sarvary’s marketing class at Insead, in Fontainebleau, France, played host to foxes and other creatures as the human students took a back seat. The animals were not real, however, but virtual – they were the students’ avatars or alter-egos in Second Life, the three-dimensional online world.
Insead set up a campus on Second Life early last year, and is one of a handful of business schools that are exploring the virtual world’s potential as part of the never-ending quest for innovation in business education."
By Andrew Baxter
Published: February 29 2008 20:12 | Last updated: February 29 2008 20:12
For a brief period last year, Miklos Sarvary’s marketing class at Insead, in Fontainebleau, France, played host to foxes and other creatures as the human students took a back seat. The animals were not real, however, but virtual – they were the students’ avatars or alter-egos in Second Life, the three-dimensional online world.
Insead set up a campus on Second Life early last year, and is one of a handful of business schools that are exploring the virtual world’s potential as part of the never-ending quest for innovation in business education."
State-of-the-art hospital opens in Second Life
State-of-the-art hospital opens in Second Life
Future patients can stroll through facility that's slated to open in 2011 in the real world
By Sharon Gaudin
February 27, 2008 (Computerworld) A health care center in California this week opened a new state-of-the-art hospital -- in Second Life.
The opening of Palomar Pomerado Health's virtual hospital follows ground-breaking ceremonies in the real world for its $773 million, 600-bed Palomar West facility. The actual hospital, in Escondido, Calif., will cover 1.2 million square feet, have 600 beds and serve 900,000 people in the state's largest health care district, which spans from San Diego to Riverside County.
With completion of the first phase of the real-world hospital still three years away, executives at the health care provider figured that future patients would like to see what's coming. Therefore they created the facility and all of its state-of-the-art technology in the Second Life virtual world.
"We want to demonstrate to our patients what they can expect when this new hospital opens," said Orlando Portale, the chief technology and innovation officer at Palomar Pomerado. "They can see it and go in and experience it. You can show people pictures and talk about it, but this virtual world technology enables us to have people experience the environment on their own. They can guide themselves through there and look at all the stuff. In the patient rooms, they can play with the technology, like ordering meals electronically."
Second Life is an open-ended, 3-D virtual world that provides an online society for people to meet in virtual bars, buy and sell products, hold meetings, and even fly.
Palomar Pomerado teamed up on the virtual hospital project with Cisco Systems Inc., which is slated to supply the real hospital with various technologies. Visitors are welcomed to the Second Life version of Palomar West by a virtual receptionist appearing via Cisco TelePresence technology, which uses high-definition video and spatial audio.
The virtual hospital also shows off new operating rooms equipped with robotics technology and functional imaging systems capable of supporting various medical procedures such as cardiovascular surgery, urology and gastroenterology. An advanced surgical cockpit, which surgeons can use to remotely manipulate robotic systems while viewing vital signs and imaging information, is also shown off in the virtual facility.
The virtual Palomar Medical Center West
Visitors to the virtual hospital also will receive a radio frequency identification technology-enabled bracelet that will enable elevators to take them to the right floor and guide them to the appropriate rooms. Portale said Palomar Pomerado Health is considering using RFID technology in the real hospital but is biding its time to see if a new technology supersedes it by the time the hospital is ready to open. If the organization does go with RFID, it could be used to track patients, guide visitors and protect hospital property.
"We're fortunate that in San Diego we've got one of the most wired communities in the U.S.," said Portale. "Our patients are very tech-savvy. I think they're really going to grab onto this. When you go in, you can experience what the new hospital room will look like. The rooms will be very, very different than any other hospital rooms. Nurses can be stationed right outside the rooms, and depending on the severity of your illness, that room can transform itself to an ICU type of room down to [one that can] accommodate someone who's not very sick."
The first phase of real-world construction, slated for 2011 completion, consists of a 750,000-square-foot center. The full project should be completed about two years later, Portale said.
Future patients can stroll through facility that's slated to open in 2011 in the real world
By Sharon Gaudin
February 27, 2008 (Computerworld) A health care center in California this week opened a new state-of-the-art hospital -- in Second Life.
The opening of Palomar Pomerado Health's virtual hospital follows ground-breaking ceremonies in the real world for its $773 million, 600-bed Palomar West facility. The actual hospital, in Escondido, Calif., will cover 1.2 million square feet, have 600 beds and serve 900,000 people in the state's largest health care district, which spans from San Diego to Riverside County.
With completion of the first phase of the real-world hospital still three years away, executives at the health care provider figured that future patients would like to see what's coming. Therefore they created the facility and all of its state-of-the-art technology in the Second Life virtual world.
"We want to demonstrate to our patients what they can expect when this new hospital opens," said Orlando Portale, the chief technology and innovation officer at Palomar Pomerado. "They can see it and go in and experience it. You can show people pictures and talk about it, but this virtual world technology enables us to have people experience the environment on their own. They can guide themselves through there and look at all the stuff. In the patient rooms, they can play with the technology, like ordering meals electronically."
Second Life is an open-ended, 3-D virtual world that provides an online society for people to meet in virtual bars, buy and sell products, hold meetings, and even fly.
Palomar Pomerado teamed up on the virtual hospital project with Cisco Systems Inc., which is slated to supply the real hospital with various technologies. Visitors are welcomed to the Second Life version of Palomar West by a virtual receptionist appearing via Cisco TelePresence technology, which uses high-definition video and spatial audio.
The virtual hospital also shows off new operating rooms equipped with robotics technology and functional imaging systems capable of supporting various medical procedures such as cardiovascular surgery, urology and gastroenterology. An advanced surgical cockpit, which surgeons can use to remotely manipulate robotic systems while viewing vital signs and imaging information, is also shown off in the virtual facility.
The virtual Palomar Medical Center West
Visitors to the virtual hospital also will receive a radio frequency identification technology-enabled bracelet that will enable elevators to take them to the right floor and guide them to the appropriate rooms. Portale said Palomar Pomerado Health is considering using RFID technology in the real hospital but is biding its time to see if a new technology supersedes it by the time the hospital is ready to open. If the organization does go with RFID, it could be used to track patients, guide visitors and protect hospital property.
"We're fortunate that in San Diego we've got one of the most wired communities in the U.S.," said Portale. "Our patients are very tech-savvy. I think they're really going to grab onto this. When you go in, you can experience what the new hospital room will look like. The rooms will be very, very different than any other hospital rooms. Nurses can be stationed right outside the rooms, and depending on the severity of your illness, that room can transform itself to an ICU type of room down to [one that can] accommodate someone who's not very sick."
The first phase of real-world construction, slated for 2011 completion, consists of a 750,000-square-foot center. The full project should be completed about two years later, Portale said.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Solution for Corporate Training – Smart Robots in Second Life Simulations
NewswireToday - /newswire/ - State College, PA, United States, 02/01/2008 - Communication / sales simulation is the first and the only commercially available simulation that allows trainee to get experience by practicing communications with the robotic avatars in a virtual environment closely resembling real life.
Computer-based training simulations are a proven effective tool in corporate training. “Flexibility of Second Life, along with questions from our clients, gave us an idea to create robotic avatars that make simulators available to trainees at any time and do not require instructor’s presence,” said Alex Heiphetz, Ph.D., CEO of AHG, Inc. announcing release of first ever training simulations using smart robotic avatars, ”Instructor is necessary at the first – lecture or introduction – stage. Then trainees get around-the-clock access to the simulation so they can polish their skills.”
New simulations allow rapid changes not only of scenery and avatars, but also of dialogs wording. Unlike traditional flash simulations, dialogs can be changed by an instructor via web interface without involving software developers.
The simulation links to the database located on your network. All sensitive data, such as dialog contents, trainee information and results of exercises are stored in that database behind corporate firewall. The data is accessible to administrator via password-protected web interface. No sensitive information is ever stored on Second Life servers.
Today AHG made available two simulations: Work Under Pressure / Multitasking and Communication / Sales. “The robotic avatar technology, allows us to quickly create new simulations on as-needed basis for clients in dissimilar industries,” concluded Dr. Heiphetz. “Now that we have the technology, customization is relatively easy. For example, in one of our simulations, robots play roles of a receptionist and a client that are visited by a salesperson – role played by a trainee. In another, robot avatar plays a role of a person who tries to distract trainee from performing assigned task”.
http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/29286/
About AHG
AHG, Inc. (ahg. com) and it’s training division – Delta L Training - specialize in developing tools and simulations for training and education. Further information on can be obtained by calling 814-234-0900 or visiting the website.
Computer-based training simulations are a proven effective tool in corporate training. “Flexibility of Second Life, along with questions from our clients, gave us an idea to create robotic avatars that make simulators available to trainees at any time and do not require instructor’s presence,” said Alex Heiphetz, Ph.D., CEO of AHG, Inc. announcing release of first ever training simulations using smart robotic avatars, ”Instructor is necessary at the first – lecture or introduction – stage. Then trainees get around-the-clock access to the simulation so they can polish their skills.”
New simulations allow rapid changes not only of scenery and avatars, but also of dialogs wording. Unlike traditional flash simulations, dialogs can be changed by an instructor via web interface without involving software developers.
The simulation links to the database located on your network. All sensitive data, such as dialog contents, trainee information and results of exercises are stored in that database behind corporate firewall. The data is accessible to administrator via password-protected web interface. No sensitive information is ever stored on Second Life servers.
Today AHG made available two simulations: Work Under Pressure / Multitasking and Communication / Sales. “The robotic avatar technology, allows us to quickly create new simulations on as-needed basis for clients in dissimilar industries,” concluded Dr. Heiphetz. “Now that we have the technology, customization is relatively easy. For example, in one of our simulations, robots play roles of a receptionist and a client that are visited by a salesperson – role played by a trainee. In another, robot avatar plays a role of a person who tries to distract trainee from performing assigned task”.
http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/29286/
About AHG
AHG, Inc. (ahg. com) and it’s training division – Delta L Training - specialize in developing tools and simulations for training and education. Further information on can be obtained by calling 814-234-0900 or visiting the website.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
'Second Life,' Banks Closed
Cheer Up, Ben:
Your Economy Isn't
As Bad as This One
In the Make-Believe World
Of 'Second Life,' Banks
Are Really Collapsing
By ROBIN SIDEL
January 23, 2008; Page A1
In the real world, banks are reeling from the subprime-mortgage mess. In the online game Second Life, a shutdown of the make-believe banking system is causing real-life havoc for thousands of people.
Robin Sidel
At BCX Bank, a sign said it was "not currently accepting deposits or paying interest."
Yesterday, the San Francisco company that runs the popular fantasy game pulled the plug on about a dozen pretend financial institutions that were funded with actual money from some of the 12 million registered users of Second Life. Linden Lab said the move was triggered by complaints that some of the virtual banks had reneged on promises to pay high returns on customer deposits.
Second Life is an elaborate online world where players create new identities for themselves -- images called avatars. These avatars can own land, run businesses and build homes. And there's a link to the real economy: To buy things, players use credit cards or eBay Inc.'s alternative payment service PayPal to convert actual U.S. currency into "Linden dollars," which can be deposited using pretend ATMs into Second Life's virtual banks.
The banks of Second Life were operated by other players, who enticed deposits by offering interest rates. While some banks paid interest as promised, others used depositors' money for unsuccessful Second Life land and gambling deals. Under its new banking rules, Second Life says only chartered banks will be allowed -- though it isn't clear any real chartered banks will operate in the virtual play world.
The shutdown has caused a real-life bank run by Second Life depositors. Though some players managed to get their Linden dollars out, others are finding that they can no longer make withdrawals from the make-believe ATMs. As a result, they can't exchange their Linden-dollar deposits back into real dollars. Linden officials won't say how much money has been lost, but a run on another virtual bank in August may have cost Second Life depositors an estimated $750,000 in actual money.
Play Money to Real Money
"Everyone thinks that because you're losing play money, it excuses everything, but it's convertible to real money," says a Second Life player whose avatar is named UpMe Beam. On Sunday night, the female character was wandering topless through the virtual lobby of a Second Life bank called BCX Bank, where a sign said it was "not currently accepting deposits or paying interest."
In real life, UpMe Beam is a man who says that he is a certified public accountant who has audited banks. He wouldn't disclose his name, but says he has been unable to withdraw $5 he deposited in November to see how a Second Life bank works.
Steve Smith, who runs BCX bank under the avatar name Travis Ristow, yesterday said depositors -- who are owed a total of $20,000 -- will be able to get their money back next week. The bank, which had promised to pay depositors more than 200% in annual interest, is now allowing only small withdrawals.
INDEPENDENT STREET BLOG
Should make-believe business be more regulated?Read Wendy Bounds's latest post and share your thoughts. "This won't affect us long term. It's just a short-term difficulty," said Mr. Smith, 40 years old, who also has significant land and real-estate interests in Second Life. He said he retired from the real-life mortgage business to devote his time exclusively to his Second Life enterprises.
"There is not a whole lot that is fake about this," says Robert Bloomfield, a professor at Cornell University's Johnson School of Management. Mr. Bloomfield's own Second Life avatar, named Beyers Sellers, hosts a pretend television show in the online game about virtual economics.
Plans for Shutdown
Your Economy Isn't
As Bad as This One
In the Make-Believe World
Of 'Second Life,' Banks
Are Really Collapsing
By ROBIN SIDEL
January 23, 2008; Page A1
In the real world, banks are reeling from the subprime-mortgage mess. In the online game Second Life, a shutdown of the make-believe banking system is causing real-life havoc for thousands of people.
Robin Sidel
At BCX Bank, a sign said it was "not currently accepting deposits or paying interest."
Yesterday, the San Francisco company that runs the popular fantasy game pulled the plug on about a dozen pretend financial institutions that were funded with actual money from some of the 12 million registered users of Second Life. Linden Lab said the move was triggered by complaints that some of the virtual banks had reneged on promises to pay high returns on customer deposits.
Second Life is an elaborate online world where players create new identities for themselves -- images called avatars. These avatars can own land, run businesses and build homes. And there's a link to the real economy: To buy things, players use credit cards or eBay Inc.'s alternative payment service PayPal to convert actual U.S. currency into "Linden dollars," which can be deposited using pretend ATMs into Second Life's virtual banks.
The banks of Second Life were operated by other players, who enticed deposits by offering interest rates. While some banks paid interest as promised, others used depositors' money for unsuccessful Second Life land and gambling deals. Under its new banking rules, Second Life says only chartered banks will be allowed -- though it isn't clear any real chartered banks will operate in the virtual play world.
The shutdown has caused a real-life bank run by Second Life depositors. Though some players managed to get their Linden dollars out, others are finding that they can no longer make withdrawals from the make-believe ATMs. As a result, they can't exchange their Linden-dollar deposits back into real dollars. Linden officials won't say how much money has been lost, but a run on another virtual bank in August may have cost Second Life depositors an estimated $750,000 in actual money.
Play Money to Real Money
"Everyone thinks that because you're losing play money, it excuses everything, but it's convertible to real money," says a Second Life player whose avatar is named UpMe Beam. On Sunday night, the female character was wandering topless through the virtual lobby of a Second Life bank called BCX Bank, where a sign said it was "not currently accepting deposits or paying interest."
In real life, UpMe Beam is a man who says that he is a certified public accountant who has audited banks. He wouldn't disclose his name, but says he has been unable to withdraw $5 he deposited in November to see how a Second Life bank works.
Steve Smith, who runs BCX bank under the avatar name Travis Ristow, yesterday said depositors -- who are owed a total of $20,000 -- will be able to get their money back next week. The bank, which had promised to pay depositors more than 200% in annual interest, is now allowing only small withdrawals.
INDEPENDENT STREET BLOG
Should make-believe business be more regulated?Read Wendy Bounds's latest post and share your thoughts. "This won't affect us long term. It's just a short-term difficulty," said Mr. Smith, 40 years old, who also has significant land and real-estate interests in Second Life. He said he retired from the real-life mortgage business to devote his time exclusively to his Second Life enterprises.
"There is not a whole lot that is fake about this," says Robert Bloomfield, a professor at Cornell University's Johnson School of Management. Mr. Bloomfield's own Second Life avatar, named Beyers Sellers, hosts a pretend television show in the online game about virtual economics.
Plans for Shutdown
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