1. Galaxy Class Space Ship – Second Life Star Trek spoof
2. Sha Dar Legend in Second Life
3. Getting It Right by Seth Breitman
Popularity: 3% [?]
Openlife currency on the way
January 16, 2009 By
In another evolutionary move for Second Life alternative OpenLife, a virtual currency is on the way for the platform. February 2009 is the tentative timeline, and any Openlife resident can purchase what will be called ‘credits’ via PayPal or credit card. Only region land owners will be able to cash out credits which may concern some, but it’ll also be interesting to see what impact this has on the Openlife economy.
Arguably, region owners will be more set up to declare virtual earnings in an environment of greater scrutiny from tax officials. The availability of the currency itself should also see a boom in Openlife businesses selling virtual goods which in turn drives growth in the platform. Momentum is key for any development and Openlife at this stage have certainly maintained that.
Thanks to CyberTech News for the heads-up
Popularity: 4% [?]
Forterra release paper on enterprise virtual worlds
January 16, 2009 By
Virtual world developer for enterprise and government, Forterra, have released a white paper titled Recipe for Success with Enterprise Virtual Worlds.
Aside from an overview of the potential of virtual worlds in business, the cost comparisons may catch the eye of some enterprises looking at cost-cutting measures.
Additionally, an interesting case study is provided on Accenture and its initial use of Forterra’s OLIVE platform to determine the utility of the approach for its own business. The short story is that Accenture are working on a wider business case for virtual world utilisation as a money-saving proposition – in their case primarily for training and meetings.
If you’ve not heard of Accenture then you won’t be aware of what a behemoth they are in the worldwide business sphere. As a management consulting company they have more than 186 thousand employees with a revenue of over US$23 billion. If widespread adoption were to occur in a business that size, it alone would create some significant momentum in the virtual world sphere. Add to that the impact Accenture have in their consulting role – if they end up advocating enterprise virtual worlds as a legitimate business strategy, then even the more optimistic forecasts to date on adoption of the technology may start to look conservative.
You can download the full paper here – by pitching their product mid-field between teleconferencing and videoconferencing, Forterra has started to make inroads with companies of the scale of Accenture and assisted in the eventual development of a cohesive ROI case. That can only assist the wider virtual world industry in demonstrating its potential. It’s ironic that the ecomonic downturn may be the thing that helps overcome the intrinsic cynicism of business toward virtual worlds as it becomes apparent they may actually assist in business costs.
What’s your view? Is Accenture’s momentum in the area a sign of further significant growth on the horizon or just a behemoth of a company testing the waters to keep abreast of developments?
Popularity: 3% [?]
Second Life infrastructure: progress continues
January 15, 2009 By
In what I think is his third update on progress in improving the infrastructure that underpins Second Life, FJ Linden (Frank Ambrose) has outlined where things are up to.
As always, his explanations are saturated with terminology and geek-speak, but the upshot is that February should see some improvements that will be noticeable to all. There’s also an admission that the past month has seen some significant stability issues – here’s hoping (again) that some improvements are on the near horizon.
Am I safe in assuming we can forget 2008 being the year of usability for Second Life and that the mantle has been passed to 2009? Given it’s mid-January 2009 and all.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Virtual Worlds Research Discussion Group
January 13, 2009 By
Whilst Linden Lab list their education highlights for 2008, a standout from the past year in an Australian context has been the successful establishment of the Virtual Worlds Research Discussion Group.
Organised by organized by Greg Wadley (Uni of Melbourne), Deb McCormick (Monash Uni) and, Sabine Lawless-Reljic (San Diego State), there are weekly meetings held at alternate locations. The 2009 seminars kick off next Tuesday the 20th January with a presentation by Don Wen titled ‘A study of Avatar Personalization Systems in Three Virtual Worlds’.
Whether you’re actively involved in conducting research yourself or interested in hearing about research underway, these seminars are hard to go past. You can view to future schedule of seminars here. Second Life may be the venue of the discussions but they explore much wider horizons than that.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Education Faire and School of the Air
January 12, 2009 By
At The Metaverse Journal we’ve repeatedly discussed specific education projects in virtual worlds and also argued that Australian educators are key drivers in the adoption of virtual worlds in a widespread way.
Tateru Nino at Massively asks the question: does virtual education have to get dreadful before there’s widespread adoption by those who determine budgets in the education community? She uses the well-known Aussie icon, the School of the Air to demonstrate how education funding can be used in innovative ways. It’s generated quite a bit of discussion and links to our prediction that there’s unlikely to be a mainstream adoption by the tertiary sector this year.
Monash University’s Virtual Learning Research Project
Whilst the budget and policy-makers drag their feet, Linden Lab are holding their Inaugural Education Support Faire. Aimed at educators and those who provide learning support, it’s being held on the 25th-30th January this year. Linden Lab are inviting educators to present / demonstrate at the event as well.
Over to you: if you’re an educator, how do you see the barriers being broken down at the higher levels so that the self-evident opportunities of virtual worlds become clear to those not at the coalface?
Popularity: 4% [?]
Migration to Openlife: one story
January 11, 2009 By
Aussie Second Life resident, Shai Khalifa, has posted an interesting piece on our discussion forums.
As Shai writes, she had been a Second Life resident since September 2006. Technical problems, the lowering of sim pricing and the Openspaces issue led to her making a full migration to Openlife.
Shai goes on to put the case for Openlife having a greater sense of community, something that can be expected given Openlife’s current size. She also agrees that Openlife is a long way off providing the range of services that Second Life does, but is excited about progress to date and the new possibilities on the horizon.
You can read Shai’s piece in full here and discuss the issue further as well. My view is fairly similar to Shai’s in that Openlife has a very different vibe to Second Life – primarily due to its stage of development. This is something that’s appealed to a number of people, as have a number of other alternative grids. The real challenge for the alternative grids is maintaining infrastructure and momentum – only then will Linden Lab start looking over their shoulder regularly.
Just for interest, Openlife is certainly growing judging by the world map:
As always, we’ll keep a close watch on Openlife, one of the many grids popping up. If you’re running a grid that’s developing a community, let us know.
Popularity: 5% [?]
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