Oscar Niemeyer and Second Life
July 28, 2008
Oscar Niemeyer’s work has gained many plaudits over the years and his architecture is now gaining some attention in Second Life, thanks to Hidenori Watanave and a student team from Tokyo Metropolitan University (Kanako Hayashi, Kaname Shimizu, Makiko Suzuki, Ryuta Kawahara and Yohei Nakano).
A 3D image database of Brazilian Niemeyer’s work is being developed and the team will spend a week in Brazil in early August. It’s all part of the 100th anniversary of the exchange relationship between Japan and Brazil. The current build is quite striking so I’m looking forward to seeing the final product.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Wow factor: Google Maps in Second Life
June 16, 2008
UK virtual world consultants, Daden Limited have created an amazing build in Second Life that directly leverages Google Maps content. The visuals say it all:
The NPIRL and Digital Urban blogs have more info as well.
With multiple mirror worlds in development and work like this being done, can you imagine how interesting booking a holiday is going to be in coming years?
Check it out in-world and thanks to Meta Linden for the heads-up.
Popularity: 6% [?]
2008 Australian Open Tennis in Second Life
January 15, 2008
Following on from last year’s foray into Second Life, IBM and the tournament organisers have again teamed up to replicate the real world action in Second Life. Australian IBM staff are central to the whole thing and are hoping for a response at least equal to last year’s.
Features of the build include the replica Rod Laver and Margaret Court arenas, an integrated scoreboard, virtual gameplay (you can be one of the players on the court - racket supplied) and you can even open the Rod Laver arena’s roof by shouting ‘open sesame’. As matches are occurring in real life the Second Life court avatars move in the same locations as their real-life counterparts. It’s one of those experiences that really demonstrates the growing evolution of what virtual worlds can do. And of course you can even buy a t-shirt.
Something a little different from last year is the ‘Couture on the Court’ competition. You have until the 21st January to enter your tennis outfit design. From the 22nd January Second Life residents can vote on the submitted designs with the top 10 receiving a prize. First prize is a quarter of a million Linden dollars so if fashion design’s your thing this may be worth spending some time on.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Contraception talk in Second Life
December 12, 2007
The University of Plymouth have an excellent presence in Second Life devoted to sexual health. AIDS / HIV awareness, sexually transmitted diseases and other sexual health topics are the focus. Their blog lists a lot of their activity. One upcoming event that may interest you:
“Barbara Hastings-Asatourian, Managing Director of Contraception Education and Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing at the University of Salford, is our guest speaker for the second seminar in our bimonthly sexual health seminar series.
Her seminar will be about Contraception, and will take place on 13 December 2007 at 8:00 PM (UK/GMT time = 12:00 PM/noon SLT) at the University of Plymouth Sexual Health SIM.
We are writing to invite you to attend this event. Please also forward to colleagues and friends who might be interested in attending. We will also have Christmas celebrations, a huge Christmas tree and much more at our SIM on the seminar day!”
Popularity: 4% [?]
Freedom Expressed
November 27, 2007
Freedom Xpress is one of the more recent memorials to appear in Second Life. Its subject is freedom of expression and the journalists who have been killed for doing their job.
The organisers of the memorial, Dakila Lacava and Galilla Sinatra, describe their motivations:
“Freedom Xpress is a place of tribute to those who have fallen in the name of freedom of expression and the press. We are also a group dedicated to promoting these freedoms as indispensable to genuine human development and understanding.
Today, people continue to be persecuted, even killed as governments and groups with dire agendas seek to suppress the truth and those who bear witness to it. Freedom XPress is our small contribution to the effort to stave off the darkness from descending on us.
At the moment, we have erected two monuments, one to Philippine journalists murdered since 2001, and another to slain Russian journalists.
We would like to invite journalists from as many countries as possible to join us, to build their own tributes to the heroes of press freedom and free expression in their lands. We also welcome those who, journalists and non-journalists alike, wish to join us spread awareness through SL about how freedom of the press and of expression continue to be threatened and attacked all over the world.
If you want to know more abut Freedom XPress or get involved with us, please feel free to IM Dakila Lacava or Galilla Sinatra. We would be honored to have you on board.”
Popularity: 10% [?]
Virtual Melbourne has arrived
October 4, 2007
Melbourne Laneways is a new build featured on ABC Island. It was created by Gary Hazlitt and Ben Zabelin from The Project Factory on behalf of the ABC and Multimedia Victoria, who have produced an associated publication titled ‘Would Your Business Benefit from a Second Life’ (download here).
The public launch was held this evening (Thursday night) at 7pm AEST with a good roll up of aussie residents:
The creators describe the build as such: “The project uses real-life images of graffiti, architecture and objects found in Melbourne’s iconic city streets, and recreates these to produce a completely interactive world where people can explore mysterious laneways, clubs, puzzles and cafes.
Head of Virtual World Development at The Project Factory, Gary Hayes, says: ‘We wanted to catch the vibrancy of the Melbourne Laneways and the architecture of Federation Square. Second Life gave us the ability to animate these buildings and give them the movement that we feel they want.’ ”
There’s a lot to explore in a fairly modest area. Without giving too much away, here’s some glimpses of what to expect:
And there’s even a cafe you can drop by with a well-known face behind the counter:
It’s great to see an iconic part of Melbourne in Second Life. Now, where’s Hobart?
Popularity: 10% [?]
Assisi in SL
September 25, 2007
In my recent research on foreign language areas in SL, I came across Assisi. It was launched a few days ago and on my initial wanderings amongst different world areas I missed this excellent replica build of the Saint Francis’ Basilica in Assisi.
To quote from the notes and in-world press release:
“The Basilica, built with original proportions and sizes, is unique in its quality and details, and in its interior churces avatars can enjoy many renaissance paintings of Giotto, Cimabue, Pietro Lorenzetti and many others.
Every painting has a caption explaining the brief details, just by clicking on it. It’s also possible to wear an HUD (Heads Up Display), built by Wedoit too, to have a complete virtual visit, accessing textual and audio informations about the paintings. The device is currently available in italian and english languages only, and it is distributed at the two entrances of the churches.”
The detail and effort that has gone into this particular build is quite impressive. Add to that the use of Audio and HUD and the SL visitor has a unique experience in culture and language not often found.
It’s possibility in structured lessons from; language to architecture to cultural studies to art to history is not to be underestimated and perhaps examples one of the fundamental ways in which SL may be headed in supporting educational RL world.
Further info can be found here.
Popularity: 7% [?]
