Virtual Worlds

Economist Virtual worlds If you build it…Economist, UK - 1 hour agoMillions of people log into virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life every day, but they require special software and their complexity can … Written by Google Inc. and Powered by WordPress

CSCW 2008 Workshop (W6): Virtual Worlds, Collaboration, and Workplace Productivity - Call for ParticipationNovember 9, 2008 - San Diego, California, USAWorkshop Website: Overview: Following the recent and explosive success of virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, and the rising wave of research about virtual worlds, major efforts are underway in both the public and private sec

Emerging Ethical Issues of Life in Virtual WorldsCall for chaptersScholarly articles on emerging issues of life in virtual worlds such as Second Life are solicited. Work that connects streams of ethics research and theory to virtual worlds as they are and to what they are developing into is particularly sought.Among the virtual world issues explicitly invited are:privacy, monitoring and eavesdropp

Meeting with the students and visiting the projects from the course " Working in Virtual Worlds" - Texas University and other studentssleducators-coopsome partecipants links://machinimalibrarians.blogspot.com/://www.thinkerer.org/Background/BakSiteMap.htm%20Urqhart

Japan.  Within the framework of the “Global Lab” project at the National Institute of Informatics (NII) in Tokyo, our lab is conducting pioneering work in combining the real world with the virtual world - in particular, the 3D online virtual world “Second Life” (and soon, OpenSim) - in novel ways, for the benefit of both. We [...]

Second Life is part of a new media category known as “virtual worlds,” an area that has been receiving a lot of attention recently. The channel’s ascension begs the question: What possibilities exist for SL’s use in pharma/healthcare marketing and sales? To better answer... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I am sick today (bad cold).   Tried a mix of Neem Powder (said to detoxify your digestive system) and plain filtered water.  I think  drank too much of the concoction, ended up feeling bloated and wanting to puke.  >,<     Aaargh! I am off non-drowsy panadols as I believe too much “man-made chemicals” actually makes our bodies [...]

Virtual WorldsLawdit Commercial Solicitors, UK - 38 minutes ago… tasks to complete and rewards given for completing these tasks (for example World of Warcraft) and some are 'simulation' types for example Second Life, … Written by Google Inc. and Powered by WordPress

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - Special Issue: Social Identity and Consumer Behavior in Virtual WorldsCALL FOR PAPERSSpecial Issue: Social Identity and Consumer Behavior in Virtual Worlds.Deadline: August 15, 2008Guest EditorsCaja Thimm, Bonn University, GermanyNatalie Wood, Saint Joseph's University, USAVirtual worlds are 3-D computer-mediated environments that offer rich visual interfaces a

The excellent Dark Web project at Arizona Universities Artificial Intelligence Lab has recently completed research into the use of Web 2.0 media by International jihadi groups. While fascinating in some respects it also clearly demonstrates how traditional text-mining attempts to collect data can be applied to some Web 2.0 applications, but miss the mark with virtual worlds. The leader of the lab Dr. Chen kindly forwarded their research paper to me and it can be linked to here ( Cyber Extremism in...(read more)

I’ll be attending Virtual Worlds 2008 in NYC starting tonight. Online marketing is extending into online games and virtual 3d worlds with Second Life being the most popular virtual 3D world today. I’ll be posting to all the blogs I write to, including BigGreenBlog, when I see or hear something that is applicable to Online Advertising [...]

Journal, "Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds"Call for PapersDeadline For Submissions: 1 May 2008 (First Issue)Details:The Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds is a peer-refereed, international journal which focuses on theoretical and applied, empirical, critical, rhetorical, creative, economic and professional approaches to the study of electronic games across platforms and genres as well as ludic and serious online environments such as Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games and Second Life.The Journal aims at researchers and professionals working in and researching creative new media and entertainment software around the globe and seeks to document, harmonise, juxtapose and critically evaluate cutting-edge market trends, technological developments, as well as socio-cultural, po

Ph.D. and Post.doc scholarships: Virtual WorldsThe research project "Sense-making strategies and user-driven innovations in Virtual Worlds" (2008-2011) funded by the Danish Strategic Research Council, KINO offers two full, 3-year Ph.D. scholarships and one 2-year Post.doc scholarship. The start date is 1 July 2008One of the Ph.D. and the Post.doc scholarship will be located in the Research Group, Communication Forms and Knowledge Production, Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT), Roskilde University. One Ph.D. scholarship will be located inthe research group, LIKE Leadership, Innovation, Knowledge and Entrepreneurship, Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy (LPF), Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.The overall aim of the research project is

Animation World Network In Virtual Worlds, the Audience is AnimatedAnimation World Network, CA - 9 minutes agoBy Mary Castillo When Tobi-Dawne Smith enters World of Warcraft, she encounters trolls, ogres, monsters, humans, dwarves, elves and dragons in the skin of … Written by Google Inc. and Powered by WordPress

Today Congress held its first hearing on virtual worlds . I don’t have much to add to the summary already provided by Virtually Blind . Discussion did at one point turn to the use of Second Life by terrorists with Representative Jane Harman (D-California) reading from a very lazy article by the UK Sunday Times (owner News Corporation ) published last August, which was a re-working of a horrendous hack job on the subject by The Australian the week before (owner News Corporation)! Sadly these...(read more)

CHILDREN IN VIRTUAL WORLDSA one-day conference, London, 22 May 2008* Attendance is FREE *BBC Children's and the University of Westminster invite you to the first conference in the UK to draw together producers and researchers working on virtual worlds and immersive gaming environments for children aged 7-11 online.Keynote speakers include Richard Deverell, Controller, BBC Children's and Dr Adrian Woolard, Head of Innovation, BBC Future Media and Technology.Other speakers include representatives from Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters, and Lego Universe; Prof David Gauntlett (University of Westminster), Lizzie Jackson (University of Westminster), Dr Diane Carr (Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media), Marc Goodchild (Head of Interactive and On Demand, BBC Children's), Aleks Krotoski (G

ORLANDO, FL - 20 Mar 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Forterra Systems are working to solve an age-old problem that challenges U.S. security and costs taxpayers millions. Forterra plans to develop a futuristic unified communications solution code-named "Babel Bridge" that could allow U.S. intelligence agencies to use a common graphical collaboration system to instantly communicate within a virtual world. To meet this challenge, IBM and Forterra have entered into a teaming agreement under which Forterra will integrate its On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment (OLIVE™) 3D platform with the IBM Lotus® Sametime® software and the IBM Unified Communi

Project Wonderland from lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.netProject Wonderland is a 3D scene manager for creating collaborative virtual worlds. Within those worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio and can share live applications such as web browsers, OpenOffice documents, and games.Contributed by: The Project Wonderland Team @ Sun.

PC Pro Real trouble in virtual worldsPC Pro, UK - 41 minutes agoLike millions of others, I spent much of 2007 within the virtual worlds of Second Life, There.com and World of Warcraft. For most, time spent in these … Written by Google Inc. and Powered by WordPress

Virtual world technology firm The Electric Sheep Company let go nearly a third of its employees yesterday. The move is part of a restructuring to focus the company on larger monetization efforts in 2008, according to CEO Sibley Verbeck. As part of the reorganization Electric Sheep laid off 22 employees, scaling back its events staff and cancelling several projects, including the creation of an ad network for use within the Second Life virtual world. "We feel that the time is not right to place more bets on that currently," said Verbeck of the network. "We felt that large scale advertising to the current Second Life user base by real world companies is not a big opportunity in the short term." Although Verbeck said his firm has never had more than half its projects based in Second Life, and he still believes in Linden Lab's virtual environment, going forward Electric Sheep aims to expand to other adult virtual worlds such as Icarus and Metaplace, as well as children-oriented virtual en

Governments are catching-up with the arrival of 3-D virtual worlds with a number of initiatives across both public and privately accessed virtual worlds. The focus of these projects to date, has been the ‘training’ element that these environments offer to their users. Therefore, diverse agencies from the Police in Columbus, Ohio to the JFK Special Warfare School are developing environments with companies such as Virtual Heros , where they can dry run role-playing counter-terrorism scenarios....(read more)

JOURNAL OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE RESEARCH: SPECIAL ISSUE ON VIRTUAL WORLDSCALL FOR PAPERS: Special Issue on Virtual WorldsSubmissions due: November 1, 2007Scheduled Publication date: August 2008Overview:The emergence of virtual worlds and Web 3.D change the way of doing business. Web 3.D is the synonym for Internet-based virtual worlds, where people can create own 3-D virtual personalities. Virtual Worlds such as Second Life and others are undergoing an evolution similar to that of the Internet in the mid nineties and might impact profoundly the way people cooperate, communicate, collaborate, and conduct business.The recent entering of companies such as Toyota, American Apparel, Nissan, or Adidas indicate the upcoming role of this platform for the next generation of conducting electronic business. This call for papers is intended to cover a wide range of business and research topics that fall within the broad description of activities, challenges, opportunities, applications, innovations

JOURNAL OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE RESEARCH: SPECIAL ISSUE ON VIRTUAL WORLDSCALL FOR PAPERSSpecial Issue on Virtual WorldsSubmissions due: November 1, 2007Scheduled Publication date: August 2008Overview:The emergence of virtual worlds and Web 3.D change the way of doing business. Web 3.D is the synonym for Internet-based virtual worlds, where people can create own 3-D *virtual* personalities. Virtual Worlds such as Second Life and others are undergoing an evolution similar to that of the Internet in the mid nineties and might impact profoundly the way people cooperate, communicate, collaborate, and conduct business.The recent entering of companies such as Toyota, American Apparel, Nissan, or Adidas indicate the upcoming role of this platform for the next generation of conducting electronic business. This call for papers is intended to cover a wide range of business and research topics that fall within the broad description of activities, challenges, opportunities, applications, innovations

JOURNAL OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE RESEARCH: SPECIAL ISSUE ON VIRTUAL WORLDSCALL FOR PAPERSSubmissions due: November 1, 2007Scheduled Publication date: August 2008Overview:The emergence of virtual worlds and Web 3.D change the way of doing business. Web 3.D is the synonym for Internet-based virtual worlds, where people can create own 3-D *virtual* personalities. Virtual Worlds such as Second Life and others are undergoing an evolution similar to that of the Internet in the mid nineties and might impact profoundly the way people cooperate, communicate, collaborate, and conduct business. The recent entering of companies such as Toyota, American Apparel, Nissan, or Adidas indicate the upcoming role of this platform for the next generation of conducting electronic business. This call for papers is intended to cover a wide range of business and research topics that fall within the broad description of activities, challenges, opportunities, applications, innovations and implications associated w

Serious Virtual Worlds ’07 :First European Conference on the Professional Applications of Virtual Worlds.13 – 14 September 2007 @ The Serious Games Institute, Coventry , UKThe Serious Games Institute and Ambient Performance announce the first Serious Virtual Worlds conference.The ProgrammeThe extraordinary success of virtual worlds such as ‘Second Life’ as virtual social spaces for play leads to the question ‘What is the potential for the serious uses of these worlds?’ The theme for this first Serious Virtual Worlds conference is ‘The Reality of the Virtual World’ and takes a close look at how virtual worlds are now being used for serious professional purposes. Many organisations are now actively researching and deploying virtual worlds. Serious Virtual Worlds is your introduction to the serious uses of virtual worlds.Who should attend?Professionals with interests in using technology for communication and collaboration, for education and training, scenario planning and

Study: User Acceptance of Virtual Worlds: An Explorative Study about Second LifeA new report assesseing the user acceptance of Virtual Worlds, specifically Second Life has been released. By means of a survey with almost 250 respondents this report provides first empirical results of the user acceptance of Second Life. The data has been gathered during spring 2007. Our results show that 90% of respondents have less than a year experience, 70% access Second Life from home and 54% with a desktop. There are 67% of respondents who are not afraid of giving personal information. Almost 60% are very likely to buy virtual goods from Second Life, and 42% are willing to use their credit card to purchase on Second Life. About 70% perceive Second Life improves collaboration and communication, and more than 60% perceive that it improves cooperation between people. 56% of respondents perceive Second life as easy to use. Finally, our results indicate that people are using Second Life not to change the

The Eduserv Foundation event "Virtual worlds, real learning" on Thursday 10th May at the Congress Centre in London will attempt to look past the hype surrounding virtual worlds such as Second Life and evaluate whether they offer real opportunities for learners at UK educational institutions. (For more information see the Eduserv Website)The event has attracted much interest so although there are no places available we will be streaming all the presentations live into Second Life and on the Web. There will be at least three Virtual venues in Second Life at which the steams can be viewed, including:-The Virtual Congress Centre on Eduserv Island.-The auditorium on Cybrary City.- The outdoor teaching space on NMC's Teaching 2 Island.We are grateful to Alan Levine at NMC and Lori Bell at the Alliance Library System for the use of their venues for the virtual symposium.Note that the Symposium starts at 2.00am PDT (Second Life Time)To attend, you must be registered with Second Life, have ins