tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74475297405766325172024-02-08T12:37:40.021-08:00NOTES ON VIRTUAL REALITYCOLL FROM NEXT LIFE IS A BLOG ABOUT VIRTUAL REALITY PROJECTSvolkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-26573932756678780452007-12-06T07:38:00.000-08:002007-12-06T07:51:24.748-08:00Estonia opens a virtual embassy in Second Life<strong>VIRTUAL ESTONIA</strong> - More cosmopolitan and technologically advanced than many Westerners realize, Estonia wants <strong>Second Life</strong> residents and would-be residents to know that she has arrived with the opening of its virtual embassy.<br /><br />The address: <a href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Estonia/140/111/57">http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Estonia/140/111/57</a>.<br /><br />The government decided to establish a presence in Second Life, believing this world is as progressive as its own. Distant Signals, the Estonia’s liaison and SL Embassador was asked by <strong>Martin Kokk</strong><em>, the Estonian</em> <em>Vice Chancellor of the Ministry</em>, to find a way to promote Estonia in the virtual world. Distant, who is in real life the head of the Hill & Knowlton consultancy in Estonia, determined that a virtual embassy would be a perfect choice.<br /><br />“<em>I guess the foreign ministry has no problem experimenting and setting up projects like this,”</em> Signals explained. They decided to employ Scope Cleaver, SL architect, to do the build.<br />The Estonian government had specific goals. The main purposes of the Embassy are as follows:<br />“<em>… to learn to operate in virtual worlds, to understand them, gain experience; to promote Estonia among small groups of professional individuals...</em>". For example to host discussions and lectures with people who not be able to travel to Estonia and to promote Estonia in general.<br />The build tells the tale: inside are photos of the country and its people.<br /><br />“<em>The pictures are from a brochure ‘All things Estonian</em>,’” Signals said. “<em>These pictures indicate different aspects of being Estonian; the brochure will also be available as a free book here.</em>”<br />An exhibit of art work done by Estonians is also on display. The exhibit, which is travelling to real Estonian embassies, is currently in Sweden. The building also hosts a small conference area with table and chairs specially designed by Cleaver using a motif he saw on many pieces of Estonian textiles that he viewed. This theme is echoed in the pattern on the rug on the first floor.<br /><br />The top floor houses a technology theme. A sculpture by <strong>Seifert Surface</strong> issues objects and notecards with stories about technology written by Estonian volunteers. One of the most important objects in the build—a voting box—is also here. Made by Cleaver and employing the decorative motif he chose, it represents the e-voting that the country has embraced.<br />The build is not just intended as a public relations piece.<br /><br />“<em>One of the important ideas is that they will have content here. So, in January there will already be some lectures and discussions that are carried out by the ministry itself. The ambassador to Great Britain will have a session here; it may get quite academic at times</em>,” Signals said.<br /><br />The build is another triumph for Cleaver, following quickly on the opening of his Alexander Beach build. Though the building appears massive and angular from a distance, a look that Cleaver says makes it “<em>more masculine than Alexander Beach</em>,” the build has several intimate spaces for discussion and relaxation.<br /><br />Angular, glass blocks with complex metal skeletons line the building in an aggressive and sharply forward angled tilt. “<em>I wanted an interesting space that’s very modern and contemporary reflecting a wired Estonia and forward looking dynamic,”</em> Cleaver said.<br />Cleaver added terraced gardens to the building. “<em>I wanted a suspended garden with some of the plants in Estonia to warm up the building"</em>.<br /><br />“<em>The idea of Scope very well fits into Estonian type of thinking… Try to stress the nature and actually we have a lot of forest</em>,” Signals said.volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-5183298257995914542007-03-28T01:35:00.000-07:002007-03-28T01:39:55.355-07:00Amsterdam in Second Life sold for US$50,000The Amsterdam sims, a popular Second Life destination with canals, houseboats, and a sexually explicit red light district, sold on eBay for US$50,000 on Monday, one of the largest sales of a Second Life business by a private developer.<br /><br />The detailed re-creation of the European city was put up for auction starting at US$20,000, but the property with acquired outright with a single bid at the higher price by eBay user nedstede2769. The identity of Amsterdam’s new owner, who is based in the real-world Netherlands and has no eBay feedback rating, is unknown.<br /><br />Amsterdam was created by Stroker Serpentine (real life name: Kevin Alderman of Tampa, FL) from high-resolution photographs of the city. The adult content-filled area was among the most popular Second Life sites. According to the eBay listing, rental space for merchants in Amsterdam has a wait-list several months long.<br /><br />Neither Serpentine nor Amsterdam’s new owner were available for comment.<br /><br />Serpentine plans to focus his efforts on building a new, larger, adults-only business within Second Life, according to a report in InformationWeek. Serpentine, who got started selling sunglasses back when Second Life had only two thousand users, has since branched out into numerous online ventures under the real-life umbrella Eros LLC. He also maintains an adult toy and furniture business.volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-26037133956935695252007-03-22T07:24:00.000-07:002007-03-22T07:30:32.274-07:00Calvin Klein Launches Scents in Second LifeThe nose knows nothing in virtual worlds, but that hasn’t stopped Calvin Klein from launching a virtual version of their new ck IN2U fragrances for men and women in Second Life, according to a press release. The virtual launch accompanies the real-world launch of the same scents today, March 21. Since avatars can’t smell, the virtual perfume bottles will enable SL users to spray each other with bubbles that “initiate dialogue,” as the release puts it — probably requesting the sprayee to engage in a Calvin Klein animation. There will also be “graffiti bottles” available from the Calvin Klein build, put together by Justin Bovington’s Rivers Run Red on their Avalon island in Second Life, where Calvin Klein is holding a L$1 million photography contest to accompany the launch. Finally, if you’re in the UK you’ll be able to click through to a Web site and order a free sample.<br /><br />Why Second Life? As Lori Singer, Calvin Klein Fragrances’ VP of Global Marketing, puts it in the release, “ck IN2U speaks the language of a generation connected by technology — the aptly named technosexuals.” Unfortunately, she also goes on to note that Calvin Klein has trademarked that word — not an indication that the company is completely in step with the generation it’s trying to reach.<br /><br />Singer does point out something very interesting, however: “They are the first generation to be defined more by their means of communication rather than fashion or music.” This is actually a great observation about the cohort I occasionally refer to as “the 3pointD generation.” The technological “revolution” is just that: it’s the strongest force affecting the culture of the developed world at the moment. Whether this also means punters wants their perfume in pixels remains to be seen. Smell you later.volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-37569122712661210332007-03-13T02:37:00.000-07:002008-11-06T18:18:52.895-08:00RatePoint Inc. launches avatar rating system in Second Life<table><br /><tbody><tr><td><br /><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TYj9Q7in8-8/RfZzoVcWc2I/AAAAAAAAAAc/BmpIlcYURk8/s320/rplogo.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041343969675866978" border="0" /><br /></td><br /><td><br /><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TYj9Q7in8-8/RfZzaFcWc1I/AAAAAAAAAAU/fZ7sqS0wEeo/s320/sl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041343724862731090" border="0" /><br /></td><br /></tr></tbody></table><br /><a href="http://www.ratepoint.com/">RatePoint, Inc.</a>, creator of the universal platform for social ratings, today announced the general availability of a unique technology for use in the Linden Lab<span id="bwanpa2">®</span> 3D virtual world, Second Life<span id="bwanpa3">®</span>. RatePoint <span style="font-style: italic;">connects people based on their personal tastes, and presents personalized rating information</span> so that users can make more informed decisions about everything from products, services, websites and now Second Life Residents. This new Second Life technology is an extension of RatePoint<span id="bwanpa4">’</span>s free <span id="bwanpa5">“</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">People Powered Ratings</span><sup style="font-weight: bold;" id="bwanpa40">SM</sup><span id="bwanpa6">”</span> service and is available at <a href="http://secondlife.ratepoint.com/">secondlife.ratepoint.com</a>. <p> <span id="bwanpa7">“</span>When it takes off, RatePoint will provide Second Life Residents with the power of both eBay's rating system and Facebook<span id="bwanpa8">’</span>s social networking,<span id="bwanpa9">”</span> said Second Life power user Joe Munkeby. <span id="bwanpa10">“</span>This has tremendous implications from improving the Second Life Residents experience to helping accelerate the growth of Second Life.<span id="bwanpa11">”</span> </p> <p> RatePoint<span id="bwanpa12">’</span>s Second Life extension leverages RatePoint<span id="bwanpa13">’</span>s unique rating system to provide personalized ratings for Residents in Second Life. As RatePoint members build a ratings profile, they are connected with other members called <span id="bwanpa14">“</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">dittos</span><sup style="font-weight: bold;" id="bwanpa41">SM</sup>.<span id="bwanpa15">”</span> A member<span id="bwanpa16">’</span>s <span id="bwanpa17">“</span>dittos<span id="bwanpa18">”</span> are leveraged to determine personalized ratings on everything from websites to Second Life Residents. </p> <p> RatePoint members <span style="font-weight: bold;">can also provide comments</span> (GABs) so that they can share a review with the community. RatePoint<span id="bwanpa19">’</span>s unique algorithms allow for highly relevant, customized information to be shared with like-minded individuals. This same concept is now applied to the world of Second Life. </p> <p> RatePoint<span id="bwanpa20">’</span>s Second Life Extension has two components. First, Residents can install a private view panel that displays any Second Life Resident<span id="bwanpa21">’</span>s five star rating in their immediate vicinity. RatePoint members with this view activated can see the ratings of all residents in the Second Life environment and rate them, regardless if they are members of RatePoint.com. A Resident can also install an optional rating icon that displays their individual rating to other residents in public view. This rating hovers over their head for all Second Life Residents to see. This can be used to show off a user<span id="bwanpa22">’</span>s rating status to all other Second Life Residents even if they are not a member of RatePoint. </p> <p> <span id="bwanpa23">“</span>In general, the Web 2.0 experience is one of community involvement and user input in design and functionality,<span id="bwanpa24">”</span> said Mike Rowan, co-founder and CTO of RatePoint, Inc. <span id="bwanpa25">“</span>What RatePoint can offer is the ability to provide disintermediation from the aggregate information provided by most rating services. We are committed to continuing to build applications that will help focus community commentary and will grow with the needs of popular online environments like Second Life.<span id="bwanpa26">”</span> </p> <p> Second Life Residents can download the <span style="font-weight: bold;">RatePoint Ratepack</span><span style="font-weight: bold;" id="bwanpa27">™</span>, which will then allow for Residents <span style="font-style: italic;">to rate each other and leave comments</span>. <span id="bwanpa28">“</span>Second Life Residents interact in a variety of ways in this environment<span id="bwanpa29">”</span> said Rowan. <span id="bwanpa30">“</span>RatePoint provides an additional layer to their experience whether they are interacting socially or having a business transaction in Second Life<span id="bwanpa31">’</span>s rapidly growing economy.<span id="bwanpa32">”</span> </p> <p> Generally, communications within Second Life require physical proximity of residents to <span id="bwanpa33">“</span>hear<span id="bwanpa34">”</span> a conversation; the same is true for this rating technology. Once a Resident approaches other residents, they are able to see their respective ratings, and also rate the resident. </p>volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-57876067973123527632007-03-05T04:38:00.000-08:002007-03-05T04:52:09.240-08:00Second Life gets nuked by online terrorists<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/02/assplode.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/02/assplode.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Second Life player <span style="font-weight: bold;">Marshal Cahill</span> decided to take things into his own hands. He was unhappy what the development of Second Life and decided to set off virtual nuclear bombs near two in-game stores from <span style="font-weight: bold;">American Apparel</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Reebok</span>.<br /><br />Cahill, the self proclaimed political officer of the newly formed <span style="font-weight: bold;">Second Life Liberation Army</span>, wants Linden Labs to give his army an opportunity <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">to control their environment through voting</span></span>. It's a bit unclear whether he wants this voting authority to be granted to his army only, or all of SL's denizens, but either way, I suppose it was just a matter of time before this sort of "political unrest" made it's way into the online community.<br /><br />Seems like an awfully long way to go to protect the integrity of a game that has dubious uses in the first place, but I have ceased trying to understand Second Life and it's bizarre ways a while back. Although, one commenter on The Last Boss' article on the subject managed to encompass my feelings on the situation: <blockquote><div>I just have no desire to play this "game" unless it turns into some war torn wasteland, like Escape from NY or some such nonsense... That'd be awesome.</div></blockquote>volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-7392036768574967942007-02-19T06:47:00.000-08:002007-02-19T06:55:20.873-08:00Second Life to go open sourceWhile this initial step will open up what is essentially the user's window into Second Life for modification, it will leave Linden Lab in control of the proprietary software code for all Second Life's backend services - the server software that makes the world exist. However, executives say that the company's eventual intention is to release an open source version of that software as well, once it has improved security and other core functions. They say they have been preparing for the open source move for about three years.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">The client, or viewer, software now being open sourced</span> is what enables users to control their avatars, or digital in-world personas, as well as communicate with other users, and buy and sell virtual goods and services.<br /><br />"We think that if we open source Second Life its product quality will move forward at a pace nobody's ever seen," says Rosedale. Almost all of Second Life's in-world content is already created by the company's customers, the world's residents, using software created by Linden Lab. With it, residents build a vast variety of in-world experiences, ranging from sex clubs to skydiving stations and golf games, from a fantastic anime-themed city to virtual recreations of Dublin and Amsterdam. All are populated by the avatars, or virtual representations, of other users. Many users own land where they build homes and businesses.<br /><br />Linden executives calculate that over 15 percent of Second Life's residents are currently writing code in the so-called "scripting language" which enables users to build sophisticated in-world creations. <span style="font-style: italic;">Today Rosedale says they are writing 7 million lines of new code every week</span>, in order to do things like modifying a doorbell so that it sends an e-mail message when a visitor rings it.<br /><br />"We feel we may already have a bigger group of people writing code than any shared project in history, including Linux," says Rosedale. While this is often elementary code, it means, he says, that "we have an army of people waiting to work on this." Adds CTO Cory Ondrejka: "Why wouldn't we leverage our community and give them the opportunity to make Second Life what they want it to be?"<br /><br />Many soldiers in that army are professional programmers at companies like IBM (Charts), Sun (Charts) and Autodesk (Charts) which have employees working on projects in Second Life. In addition, Linden Lab calculates that 65 small new companies have arisen that help build products and services inside Second Life.<br /><br />Improving the client code is urgent for the company. Says Sibley Verbeck, CEO of Electric Sheep, one of the largest in-world construction companies, with 30 employees: "Linden Lab has done extraordinarily well creating a platform for very motivated early adopters. But they have not made the front-end experience ready for the mass market. It's hard to learn, hard to use, and hard to find content even once you learn how to use it." He's confident, though, that "those barriers will be addressed very rapidly upon the adoption of this open source initiative." He says his own company, among many, has a big incentive to improve Second Life's client code.<br /><br />Interest in Second Life - which is free for basic use - has grown dramatically with a quickening pace of press coverage in places like Reuters, Business Week, Time, Wired and The New York Times, as well as consumer publications and Web sites worldwide. New registrants were arriving at a rate of 20,000 per month last January but by October the number had soared to 254,000. But many were apparently thwarted by how difficult the service is to use. Only 40,000 of those October registrants were still using Second Life 30 days after they first joined, according to figures recently provided by Rosedale.<br /><br />Linden Lab claims <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">2.5 million "residents</span>," meaning people who have registered for Second Life. But the service has only around <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">250,000 active members</span> who still sign in more than 30 days after registering. Nonetheless, that group of active users is currently growing at about 15 percent per month.<br /><br />Linden Lab claims its move represents the first time a market-leading company has taken a proprietary product and released it instead as open source. Netscape, by contrast, only released code for its Web browser once Microsoft had overcome its one-time lead in the market. That code, of course, eventually became the base for today's popular Firefox.<br /><br />CEO Rosedale says that opening up the software is good for Linden Lab: "We believe that if we open-sourced every single line of code we have ever written it would only increase our rate of growth." That's because, he says, Second Life is a business that shows what are called "network effects." In such a market, every incremental user makes the service of greater value to existing users. The more people there are in Second Life the more interesting it becomes.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Under the GNU General Public License</span> that Linden is using, if competitors were to use its open source code to build their own virtual worlds, any improvement they make to the software would have to be shared publicly. That means it would give the most benefit to Second Life, so long as it remained the largest such world.<br /><br />Rosedale and other executives say they fully expect there eventually to be multiple virtual worlds that use Linden's code, or that at least are interoperable with Second Life, so avatars can pass from one world to another. Says Rosedale: "Say IBM builds its own intranet version with our code that's somewhat different from Second Life. But it's probably not that different. A user may say 'Wow, this virtual thing IBM's built is pretty cool. Now I want to go the mainland.' And we have another customer."<br /><br />IBM Vice President for Technical Strategy Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a close student of Second Life, heard about the impending move toward open source from a Linden employee. "They have the right thought," he says, "which is that open source things work with the marketplace. But this is a field in its infancy that will be very competitive. Linden Lab might end up with a huge leadership position in a certain class of tools for virtual worlds, but those might not be the right tools for, let's say, a surgeon learning a new procedure in an immersive online environment. Second Life can be wildly successful, but so can others."<br /><br />Says Linden Lab Board Chairman Mitch Kapor: "The whole philosophy of the company is about empowerment, with the overwhelming majority of everything being built by the residents. So going open source is part of the logical progression of our business. The most open system is also what will foster the most innovation, because people will be free to experiment."<br /><br />In total, the software for Second Life comprises five gigabytes of source code, according to Joe Miller, Linden's vice president for platform and technology development. He says that with the members of its community helping it improve the client software, Linden can devote more of its own efforts to essential work at the server level to enable Second Life to grow faster. Near-term, the company expects users will create code to address bugs and other problems, as well as do things like enable Second Life to run on cell phones, or add support for different kinds of multi-media content inside the world.<br /><br />Linden Lab will review open source contributions to decide which outside features it will incorporate into its own official versions of the client software. Unofficial software will not be given customer support by the company. But it will shortly open a test version of its server "grid," so developers can try out their software before unleashing it in the real Second Life.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >By <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/07/technology/secondlife.fortune/">David Kirkpatrick</a>, Fortune senior editor</span>volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-49336514250551774682007-02-19T05:18:00.000-08:002007-02-19T05:23:38.532-08:00Manchester recreates city in Second LifeThe Manchester Evening News <a href="http://http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/technology/s/236/236498_city_recreated_in_second_life_.html">reports</a> that Manchester is set to open a virtual version of itself in Second Life. The aim is promote the Manchester 'brand' and raise awareness of the city in the real world. The move is a collaboration between the Urbis museum, Manchester's Digital Development Agency (DDA) and consultants Clicks and Links.<br /><br />Dave Carter, head of DDA, said: "Second Life has succeeded in creating a virtual community of more than two million people.<br /><br />"By creating a Manchester presence, we will be opening doors to this vast community - and having conversations with a huge range of people that will help shape and advance the city's digital development."<br /><br />I do recognise its potential and this is a good way of benefiting from the opportunity. Second Life citizens (audiences) might be tiny, but they and Second Life carry influence way beyond their size.<br /><br />The BBC already has a spot in Second Life. Last year, it held a virtual Radio One concert and Jeremy Paxman hosted a special edition of Newsnight from within the game.<br /><br />Real-life newspapers, the Reuters news agency and even the country of Sweden have been created.volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-32888463767358714992007-01-15T07:17:00.000-08:002007-02-19T04:47:13.281-08:00Grand Slam tennis that's out of this worldIBM, which provides the IT services and technology backbone for Tennis Australia's Grand Slam tournament, has built a three dimensional facsimile of the Melbourne Tennis Centre complex inside a virtual world called Second Life.<br /><br />On Monday they'll be flicking a switch that will pump real time centre court action from the Australian Tennis Open - ball-by-ball, point-by-point - into a parallel, virtual universe.<br /><br />Over the duration of the two week tournament, data will be fed from games in the real Rod Laver Arena into the unreal one, nano seconds after happens.<br /><br />The feed will come from game-tracking technologies such as the line-calling system HawkEye, PointTracker which plots shots and ball trajectories and Speed Serve which clocks the players' serves.<br /><br />Computers then crunch the numbers to recreate the positioning of the ball inside the virtual stadium. And avatars, 3-D characters representing the players, can simulate strokes made by Roger Federer or Alicia Molik - or whoever is playing at the time.<br /><br />And spectators inside this computerised world will have not only the pick of the seats (including the match umpire's), but they can choose to watch the action from a player's perspective.<br /><br />Forget stump cam. In Second Life you can get inside the heads of the players on the court and see what they see … after a fashion.<br /><br />The Australian Open is IBM's second crack at such a project. As an experimental exercise, the company built a more bare bones set-up for the Wimbledon tournament last June.<br /><br />"This time we've used Second Life physics engine," said Mr Brad Kasell, Asia-Pacific Manager for IBM Software Group's Emerging Technologies. "So we're plotting the ball's trajectory in a much more refined manner so you can see the trace of the ball far more accurately."<br /><br />IBM has poured many, many hours into this project to showcase what some at the giant US technology company believe could be a new way of doing business. It's no gimmick. Big Blue is serious about this.<br /><br />Dr Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's Vice President of Technical Strategy and Innovation, likes to call it v-business - virtual business, or business conducted in a virtual space.<br /><br />"I believe that highly visual interfaces and virtual worlds will become increasingly important for interacting with applications, communicating with people and engaging in commerce," he wrote in a post on his blog at the start of the year.<br /><br />He draws a parallel between e-business on the nascent internet in 1996 and v-buisness today, which he calls a "key trend" that will take off this year and become more widely accepted.<br /><br />The tournament shop inside the Second Life complex has been set up to show how the v-business model works. On offer is a variety of virtual souvenirs.<br /><br />As well, the shop links customers through to Tennis Australia's e-commerce internet site where products like t-shirts can be purchased for real money for use in the real world.<br /><br />On a tour of the facility conducted by Mr Kasell and three of his IBM colleagues via their Second Life avatar - we saw a complex that was constructed with almost pedantic attention to detail.<br /><br />"They've gone to a lot of trouble in terms of down to the nitty gritty little signs everywhere, the chairs, the plants, the park benches," said Mr Kasell, referring to his colleagues who had been slaving over their computers for the past month and more to get the complex up and running.<br /><br />On the tour we saw and participated in a simulated game on centre court. Slowed down to half speed, the balls chugged rather than whizzed past.<br /><br />To avoid identity ownership issues, IBM has chosen generic characters to represent the players, although it is possible to create avatars that look like their real counterparts.<br /><br />The bad news is that tickets to the virtual centre court may be harder to come by than ones to the real thing. Mr Kasell says that, at least for the duration of the tournament, IBM is keeping this an invitation-only affair.<br /><br />By <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/what-a-racquet/2007/01/12/1168105128562.html">Stephen Hutcheon</a>volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-8053715637718715722006-12-05T03:05:00.000-08:002006-12-05T03:11:44.720-08:00Blog for WOWDo you know who is Shawn Fanning? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Fanning">Shawn Fanning</a> started a digital phenomenon when he built Napster, one of the original peer-to-peer file-sharing programs released on the Internet. Now Fanning is looking at another phenomenon, Blizzard Entertainment's massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft, for his next project.<br /><br />As sad <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/news/6162588.html">Gamespot</a> Fanning is planning to introduce Rupture, "a virtual social community for online gamers," sometime in the near future. The idea reportedly stemmed from Fanning's own troubles with communicating with other World of Warcraft players.<br /><br />The MySpace for Azeroth will pull data directly from WOW and publish stats and information on a personalized page. Gamers will also be able to instant message while playing, as well as track the progress of their guilds and organize playing time with their online buddies.<br /><br />Rupture will rely on ads for revenue and also focus on exchanging info on gamers' real lives, should they have one. WOW is the first game on the plate for Rupture, but no other titles have yet been mentioned.volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-85802177927374966492006-11-30T16:55:00.000-08:002006-11-30T17:10:05.689-08:00Why We Need an Open Source Second LifeBy <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/user/1000846">Glyn Moody</a> on Tue, 2006-11-28 09:15.<br /><br />Unless you have been living under a rock for the last six months, you will have noticed that the virtual world Second Life is much in the news. According to its home page, there are currently around 1,700,000 residents, who are spending $600,000 – that's real, not virtual, money – in the world each day. These figures are a little deceptive – there are typically only 10,000 to 15,000 residents online at any one time, and the money flow is not a rigorous measurement of economic activity – but there is no doubt that Second Life is growing very rapidly; moreover, we are beginning to see it enter the mainstream in a way that has close parallels with the arrival of the Web ten years ago.<br /><br />Companies are beginning to set up shop in Second Life, including big names like Adidas, American Apparel, Dell, Nissan, Penguin Books, Reebok, Sun Microsystems, Toyota, Reuters and Wired. Often they choose to create their virtual buildings on self-contained islands, which are essentially three-dimensional analogues of the early corporate Web sites: that is, vaguely pretty to look at, but not very functional.<br /><br />One of the pioneers in Second Life is IBM, which also played an important part in helping to make the Web (and open source) respectable for businesses. Here's what Irving Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of technology strategy and innovation at IBM, and the man who oversaw the company's GNU/Linux policy in the early days, <a href="http://irvingwb.typepad.com/blog/2006/11/irving_in_a_vir.html">says</a> about IBM's interest in Second Life:<br /><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">I think that what we are seeing is the evolution of the Internet and World Wide Web in incredibly important new directions. Foremost among them is a much more people-centric Web.<br /><br /> We see this people-centric evolution of the Web in social networks and Web 2.0 - capabilities that enable people to find each other, form communities, share information, and collaborate on a variety of endeavors. Now we are bringing to this new people-centric spirit the highly visual, interactive applications in Virtual Worlds. This new breed of applications is being rethought around the people who design them, maintain them and use them, instead of asking those people to come down to the level of the computers.<br /><br /> We can now bring these exciting capabilities, already in wide use in science, engineering, defense and consumer applications, into the worlds of business, education, health care and government. This was the step that led to IBM’s e-business strategy ten years ago. Could we be at the onset of v-business? Based on my initial experiences in Second Life, we are all in for an incredible ride.</span><br /><br />His boss, Sam Palmisano has backed up those words with actions. A couple of weeks ago, he entered Second Life himself to give a major speech about IBM's future path, and <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/20605.wss">announced</a> a $100 million fund to create 10 new businesses within the company, including:<br /><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">3D Internet: Partnering with others to take the best of virtual worlds and gaming environments to build a seamless, standards-based 3D Internet -- the next platform for global commerce and day-to-day business operations.</span><br /><br />So, things look bright for Second Life and the other virtual worlds that are being developed. There's just one problem: they are all closed source. This means that free software is falling behind in <a href="https://secondlife.com/community/linux-alpha.php">one</a> of the most innovative areas in computing today.<br /><br /><a href="http://lindenlab.com/">Linden Lab</a>, the company behind Second Life, is very open-source friendly. Its computing infrastructure is based on thousands of servers running GNU/Linux, Apache, Squid and MySQL. Alongside the usual Windows and Macintosh clients for Second Life, there is already one for GNU/Linux (if still a little rough at the edges).<br /><br />And Linden Lab hopes to go even further by opening sourcing Second Life's software. Here's what Philip Rosedale, Second Life's creator and CEO of Linden Lab, told me during an extensive <a href="http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2006/11/interview-with-second-lifes-philip_28.html">interview</a> recently, when I asked about his current thinking on opening up the code:<br /><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">Without speaking to specific timing or plans - and we've thought and are thinking lots and lots where there might be exceptions to this - but it seems like the best way to allow SL to become reliable and scalable and grow. And we've got a lot of smart people here thinking about that.</span><br /><br />Further proof of Linden Lab's goodwill towards the free software world can be found in its tacit approval of an open source project to reverse-engineer the Second Life protocols. Called <a href="http://www.libsecondlife.org/">libsecondlife</a>, it has already done valuable work, although this has been overshadowed somewhat by the recent brouhaha over the CopyBot program, which drew on libsecondlife's code. CopyBot allowed some or even all of an object in Second Life to be copied. This is obviously a problem for a virtual economy that depends on selling digital objects. And yet, despite many cries to the contrary, the sky is not falling, as I've explained <a href="http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1954158,00.html">elsewhere</a>.<br /><br />More than the blip of CopyBot, there are deep problems that need to be addressed in the context of creating an open source version of Second Life, notably as far as security is concerned. Most of them have to do with how open source clients would interact with Linden Lab's servers, and how it might be possible to allow users to run their own Second Life servers – effectively creating separate virtual worlds based on the same protocols.<br /><br />As well as libsecondlife, there are a couple of other open source virtual world projects of note. For example, <a href="http://www.opencroquet.org/">Croquet</a> employs an ambitious approach that goes beyond Second Life in many ways; however, it is still at an early stage. The same can be said about <a href="http://www.uni-verse.org/">Uni-Verse</a>, a European consortium that includes the foundation behind the popular 3D tool <a href="http://www.blender.org/cms/Home.2.0.html">Blender</a>.<br /><br />These are all useful initiatives, and there will doubtless be others. But if open source is to give the lie to Jim Allchin's famous <a href="http://catb.org/esr/halloween/halloween1.html#comment14">jibe</a> in the first Halloween Document that it is always "chasing tail-lights", the free software community must become more involved with the existing virtual world projects, and invest much more time and effort in new ones.<br /><br />Developing expertise with the underlying technologies is particularly important because it is quite possible that the next stage in the Web's evolution will incorporate elements from three-dimensional virtual worlds. Philip Rosedale <a href="http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2006/11/interview-with-second-lifes-philip_28.html">explained</a> why he thinks that is likely:<br /><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">People always believe that the idea of simulating a three-dimensional world will make the experience of people in it different because it's three dimensional, and that's certainly true. However, there's a second thing about the 3D web that makes it different than the 2D web, and is really important, which is that there are other people there with you when you're experiencing it.<br /><br /> Look at MySpace. When you go to a MySpace page, you can listen to their music. What is the listening experience like? Well, it's still just you sitting in front of your computer listening alone to that music. But in SL, if you're listening to somebody's music, whether live or pre-recorded, there's a very good chance that there's someone next to you listening to the same music, and so you're able to turn to them and say: What do you think? Or you're able to turn to them and say: Have you been here before, and, if so, do you know where the lawnmower section is?<br /><br /> That, I think, is what makes the potential of the 3D Web different perhaps even more so than the spatial difference between 3D content, and 2D content. And I think that alone makes it very likely that there will be a kind of a 3D Web, that has this shared experience property. That's what everyone will look back on and say: Wow, that is what made it different.</span>volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-1342155937716243332006-11-30T16:06:00.000-08:002006-11-30T16:11:53.303-08:00Learning a Language in SecondLifeWhat about using <a href="http://callfromnextlife.blogspot.com/2006/11/what-is-second-life.html">SecondLife</a> for education. We can design innovative 3D virtual environment with <a href="http://callfromnextlife.blogspot.com/2006/11/what-is-second-life.html">SecondLife</a>. Real classroom alike environments with interactivity and global reach. We spot an innovative initiative called LanguageLab. Its virtual venues offers new generation learning spaces with language classes, self-learning kiosks and virtual cafes.<br /><br /> <a href="http://languagelab.com/">Languagelab.com</a> is a language school unlike any other. Students explore a whole new world using a virtual body, called an avatar, that can interact and talk with other avatars - all controlled by real human beings. Some will be teachers, some will be other students, and still others will be native speakers; all will be there together to learn or to facilitate learning. We are currently offering English and Spanish, and plan to expand to other languages soon.<br /><br /> For a realistic experience, <a href="http://languagelab.com/">Languagelab.com</a> uses a specially designed voice system that enables participants to speak to one another in real time. Languagelab.com offers classes as well as a full range of learning events. Classes are small, generally 6 to 8 students, and run for 50 minutes.volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-85424148699639525832006-11-29T16:32:00.000-08:002006-11-29T16:34:34.711-08:00EA To Make $5 Million in Three Months Selling In-Game Ad Space in Online GameThe gaming industry is excited about the prospects of in-game advertising, a revenue stream widely untapped. A spokesman for Electronic Arts, the world's largest game publisher, explains that Need for Speed: Carbon will bring in close to $5 million in advertising revenue just for the last three months of 2006.<br /><br />A little more than 50% of the ad revenue will come from traditional static ads (billboards, etc. you see inside the game while driving), which can't change after a game is published. But the remaining ad revenue, nearly half, will come from dynamic ads previously not used by EA. For anyone playing the game online (via a computer or Xbox 360), new types of ads are added and updated seamlessly into the gameplay.<br /><br />Advertisers seem very interested, as study after study indicate that 18- to 34-year-old men are spending more of their time playing games at the expense of missing what's on TV. Some advertisers are making parallels between this new form of advertising and the huge growth of web advertising. Mostly it seems that advertisers are dying for new channels to reach audiences more effectively.<br /><br />Electronic Arts expects to sell about 30% of what is being referred to as its "advertising inventory" (positions available and suitable for advertising) in the new Need for Speed game. That leaves room for even further growth just from this one game. Still, others are skeptical about how exactly this can work in the longterm. The factor not studied very well is the level of advertising gamers will tolerate after paying $50-$60 for the game in the first place. And some games, such as fantasy or role playing games, might not work well with advertising; ads in such games would seem a little weird and out of place.<br /><br />Personally, I'd like to see some market research on in-game ad tolerance levels, but my gut feeling is that this isn't a bad way to go for advertisers and probably won't bother gamers much, if it's not "abused" (well, at least it won't bother this gamer, but the problem is "abused" is going to mean different things to different gamers).<br /><br />By <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bob Caswell</span></span>volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-88248734504003123122006-11-29T16:10:00.000-08:002006-11-29T16:14:32.559-08:00When Virtual Worlds Collide<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Grand Theft Auto crashes through EverQuest into The Sims! The walls dividing the game universe are coming down.</span><br /><br />Sometimes futurists get the future right. Millions of us now commute to massively multiplayer online games in worlds much like the metaverse predicted by William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, and the Wachowski brothers. We live vicariously through our digital avatars in lushly rendered virtual environments, building and bartering, chatting and flirting, even falling in love. The population of the computer-generated universe is increasing at a rate that rivals email's growth 15 years ago. A decade hence, you'll drop a reference to your virtual doppelg�ngers just as casually as you give out your email address today.<br /><br />But virtual reality has failed to conform to forward-looking visions in one crucial respect. We don't live in the Matrix, but in the matrices. Your World of Warcraft persona can't visit a Stonehenge replica in <a href="http://callfromnextlife.blogspot.com/2006/11/what-is-second-life.html">Second Life</a>. You can't impress an EverQuest elfin hottie with Jedi skills honed in Star Wars Galaxies. If you want to buy an Ultima scepter with Therebucks, you'll have to exit both worlds and consummate the transaction on eBay.<br /><br />Because the current metaverse evolved largely out of videogames, it makes sense that it should be composed of fiefdoms - after all, you wouldn't expect a Grand Theft Auto crack dealer to drop in for a barbecue with the Sims. But there is reason to believe that the divided metaverse is merely a transi�tional phase, and that its component worlds will coalesce.<br /><br />All virtual worlds require a communication protocol that lets you talk with other people, a software platform that lets you build things on top of it, and a currency that enables trade. These three elements share one thing: a gravitational pull toward a common standard. Think of the diversity of the<br /><br />PC marketplace in the early 1980s: the Apple II, Radio Shack's TRS-80, IBM's PCjr, the Commodore-64, the Atari 400/800 series - they all ran different operating systems or flavors of Basic. Ten years later, however, Windows held 90 percent of the market. Email followed the same pattern. Diverse and incompatible standards - CompuServe members could only email other CompuServe members - gave way to a common platform that allowed everyone to connect.<br /><br />The logic of convergence may be even stronger in the metaverse. The cost of switching from Windows to, say, Linux is just annoyance and expense: You have to buy applications and port data to the new OS. But if you view your avatar as an extension of yourself, moving from EverQuest to World of Warcraft is like volunteering for a lobotomy. You have to surrender the skills you've culti�vated, along with all your (other)worldly possessions.<br /><br />Within a decade, then, the notion of separate game worlds will probably seem like a quaint artifact of the frontier days of virtual reality. You'll still be able to engage in radically different experiences - from slaying orcs to cybersex - but they'll occur within a common architecture. The question is whether the underpinnings of this unified metaverse will be a proprietary product, like Windows, or an inclusive, open standard, like email and the Web. (The Open Source Metaverse Project is currently working on such a nonproprietary platform.)<br /><br />One way or another, consolidation is all but inevitable. A single, pervasive environment will emerge, uniting the separate powers of today's virtual societies. And then we really will have built the Matrix.<br />By <span style="font-style: italic;">Steven JohnsonPage</span>volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-9440899044535402612006-11-29T15:59:00.000-08:002006-11-29T16:01:05.259-08:00MultiverseIn July 2004, a team of Netscape veterans founded The Multiverse Network, Inc., a company aiming to become the world’s leading network of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and 3D virtual worlds. Multiverse has pioneered a new technology platform designed to change the economics of virtual world development by providing independent game developers with the resources they need to enter and compete in the $2 billion online game market.<br />When Multiverse's team of world-class engineering and business professionals worked at Netscape in the very early days, they helped architect the Internet-based platforms now used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Other ground-breaking companies they have made significant contributions to include Borland, Silicon Graphics, Excite, and Netflix. The full Multiverse team also includes video game industry veterans.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />The Multiverse Solution</span><br />Multiverse's unique technology platform will change the economics of virtual world development by empowering independent game developers to create high-quality, Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and non-game virtual worlds for less money and in less time than ever before. Multiverse solves the prohibitive challenges of game creation by providing developers with a comprehensive, pre-coded client-server infrastructure and tools, a wide range of free content--including a complete game for modification--and a built-in market of consumers. The Multiverse Network will give video game players a single program--the Multiverse Client--that lets them play all of the MMOGs and visit all of the non-game virtual worlds built on the Multiverse platform.<br /><br />For the first time, indie developers will have the opportunity to create the virtual worlds they've been dreaming about. And many of these new worlds will attract players who are completely ignored by today’s MMOG publishers.<br /><br />This is the start of a revolution.volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-17816151035326767322006-11-29T15:56:00.001-08:002006-11-29T15:56:45.514-08:00Active WorldsActive Worlds (AW) is a 3D virtual reality platform. The Active Worlds Browser runs on Windows, and on the majority of computers today. Users assign themselves a unique name, log into the Active Worlds virtual universe, and explore 3D worlds and environments that other users have built. Users can chat with one another or build structures and areas from a selection of objects. AW allows users to own worlds, and universe and develop 3D content. The browser has web browsing capabilities, voice chat, and basic instant messaging. This integrated software can allow users to connect, explore, and gain a more in depth understanding of 3D. Corporate and educational clients of Active Worlds can make use of the interaction, communication, and media to provide functional environments suited for their objective.<br /><br />The program's original goal was to be the 3D-equivalent to a 2D browser (such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla). Instead of creating a website, the user could construct an office, building, or area in which to display products or information. Currently in version 4.1 released May 30th, 2006, there are many new features which allow users to interact with the environment more so than previous versions.<br /><br />The necessity for 3D art within Active Worlds to enrich one's world has led to the development of a market place for 3D models, textures, avatars (and associated animation sequences), and more. There is also plenty of free exchange of 3D content. There is also custom design services for 3D art available, especially avatars.volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-91359345235975956702006-11-29T03:44:00.000-08:002006-11-29T03:45:39.868-08:00Second Life realtor makes $1 million<h5 class="f14 mb10">Language teacher Ailin Graef sells virtual property--and becomes a real millionaire.</h5><br /><p> Ailin Graef--who is better known by the name Anshe Chung--works as a real estate developer. She buys property, develops it, resells it, and uses the profits to buy even more. Her business has rapidly snowballed, and she has just made her first million--although none of the "property" is real. </p><p> All the houses are virtual houses in the online game Second Life--where players create an avatar and can buy, redecorate, and furnish property; run businesses; and interact with other players. Now Graef has become the first virtual-world millionaire. </p><p>Graef started with an initial investment of just $9.95 and developed her fortune over 32 months. She worked along the same principles as real estate developers do--she began by buying small amounts of virtual real estate, which she then subdivided and developed with landscaping and "themed architectural rebuilds." She then resold or rented the property out for a profit. </p><p> Second Life has had a lot of publicity recently--companies including Dell and Sun Microsystems have held press conferences in the virtual world, where Reuters has a reporter covering goings-on. All this publicity has meant more curious gamers opening accounts and needing somewhere to "live" in the game--which is great news for real estate agents such as Graef. </p><p>The currency used in the game is called Linden dollars, and the exchange rate is around $1 to 275 Linden dollars. The average going rate for land parcels in Second Life is between $100 and $1,000 and players can also buy virtual clothes, furniture, and other accessories from a variety of in-game businesses. </p><p>Graef was born and raised in Hubai, China, although she is currently a German citizen. She now runs Anshe Chung Studios with her partner Guntram Graef--the company has a real office in Wuhan, China, and is currently recruiting to expand its workforce from 25 to 50. </p><p>She said she believed that the estimated valuation of her virtual assets was in fact somewhat "conservative" and that the actual value may be "significantly higher." She also owns virtual property in IMVU, There, and Entropia Universe. </p><p> She will be holding a virtual press conference in Second Life on November 28 to discuss her success. </p>volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-49970248258883332832006-11-29T03:42:00.000-08:002006-11-29T03:43:53.719-08:00What is the Entropia Universe?The <span style="font-weight: bold;">Entropia</span> Universe is more than a game. The Entropia Universe is for real. Real people, real activities and a Real Cash Economy in a massive online universe.<br />Join people from around the globe who use the Entropia Universe currency, the PED, to develop their characters everyday on the untamed planet of Calypso. The unique and secure Real Cash Economy allows you to transfer your accumulated PED back into real world funds.<br />Online around the clock for decades to come, the Entropia Universe is continually enhanced with new content every month and supported by the Entropia Universe Support Department.<br />The Entropia Universe is a direct continuation of Project Entropia, which had a 2005 turnover of 1.6 Billion PED (<span style="font-weight: bold;">160M$</span>).volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-25564491987872008132006-11-29T03:39:00.000-08:002006-11-29T03:40:51.289-08:00What is Second Life?<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Second Life</span> is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of <span style="font-weight: bold;">1,703,500</span> people from around the globe.<br /><br /> * From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.<br /><br /> * You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow residents. Because residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents.<br /><br /> * The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world currency, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online currency exchanges.volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7447529740576632517.post-41888554463908804952006-11-23T14:54:00.000-08:002006-11-23T15:14:52.780-08:00Virtual realityCurrently over 16 billions people have accounts in massively multiplayer online games. The population of virtual worlds are growing expotentially during last several years. Virtual worlds become a large part of the life of humans.volkovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989771822202430886noreply@blogger.com0