Business in Virtual Worlds: A Hive of Activity
I find myself adopting the role of debunker and myth-breaker lately. Yet another “nobody takes virtual worlds seriously” message from a tech blogger. (IT guys… sheesh…) I’m not quite ready to make further announcements about Virtual Worlds Keynote, so how to address this?
Tell you what, its been a few days since I hit the news reader. Let’s see what kind of highlights I can pull out:
Design goes digital in Second Life
Architecture & Design does a big writeup on the recent unveiling of the National Portrait Gallery’s virtual world rendering.
The Virtual Whirl: Community guide to Virtual Worlds
Massively (an AOL property) opens a new section specifically for “virtual environments”.
WV University Creates Virtual Campus on Second Life
Marshall University joins hundreds of other universities in creating a virtual campus.
Avatars of Palin, Huckabee, Romney, Pawlenty, McCain, McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, Pence, Dobson, DeMint, Perry, Steele, and Others Virtually Descending on U.S. Capitol
Haiti support via some tiny paper-doll avatars, demonstrating that it doesn’t matter how non-immersive the environment, avatars still matter…
EA Joins VanEdge Venture Fund
Fresh VC cash to be had for virtual world builders.
Phoenix NAP Launches Virtual Data Center Tour
Pheonix NAP takes a cue from IBM and creates a sales tour / orientation space to help people understand their product better. See video:
Telepresence: Tandberg & Polycom Shine as Mid-Market & Small Business Interests — Event Platforms Look to Integrate with Mid-Tier Vide
Teleconferencing integration with virtual worlds is proving to be a great success, according to analysts.
Tool places learners in virtual world
Language education via a virtual environment called “RendezVu” gets an award.
Prototyping Environment in SL for Dow Chemical: Three Questions with Robert Emory from Scott & Miller Group
Dow Chemical creates a prototype environment. See video below.
ISN Virtual Worlds Rolling Out Platform For Elderly, Disabled
The Oasis Foundation creates an environment aimed at the elderly and disabled to provide education and training.
Building a 3D workspace
Hypergrid Business summarizes the history of technology and interface design, various studies, and shows how it all points to a virtual environment exceeding the efficiency of a real-world environment.
AI Learning Center Being Built in Second Life
IEEE moves its critical training in AI to the virtual environment.
That’s just four random days, two of which were a Saturday and Sunday. Please please puh-lease can we stop loudly proclaiming “I haven’t been paying attention so it must not exist” in the press now?
Thank you.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:14 am
Great roundup Caleb.
Thanks for this post!