Metaverse

Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education 2010 conference.  That’s the official name.  Dates, 12-13 Mar. 2010. 

I reported on it before, when the call for papers was announced:
Virtual World, Real Education in Second Life

Now all the papers are in and the conference planning gets underway in earnest.  The Lindens are giving us 20 sims for the conference-- to be available about now.  So the builders can get busy on the design.  And the Program committee can get busy on reviewing the papers. 

The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) conference is a community-based project, with meetings held entirely inworld (in a virtual reality).    It is by nature multilingual.  That means we have to accommodate newcomers with many different languages.  In the next section I describe our efforts in that direction.

Viv Trafalgar wanted to give me a sneak peek at some of the new content coming for Heritage Key. I'd cast some doubt last fall on how well it worked for my class. So now I'll begin a few dispatches on what we found, on my return visit. This post focuses on the Tomb of Tut. I'll turn soon in another post to the orientation experience for Heritage Key.

I'm pleased that on almost all fronts that worried me, Rezzable's team has made some dramatic improvements to the areas I'd ticked off: lag, navigation, avatar customization, and stability.

What is it that we can do with the internet + virtual environments?  You have no idea.  And we only have a glimmer.  But here are a few hints.  

Powerliner = power user of online services

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The Streamy awards

“As the first and most prestigious awards devoted to honoring excellence in web television, the Streamy Awards identify and celebrate the pioneers laying the groundwork for a new and dynamic entertainment medium. “

In Second Life, we produce a lot of videos.  That is a lot like producing web television.  So much so that several performers and video producers in Second Life will submit their work for the streamy awards.  Here is my promotional theme:

Vote to Promote

A vote for these people is a vote for Second Life video.  Maybe it will get some notice from the SL blogosphere.  Maybe it will get Streamy to set up some VR categories for next year.  

A Job Interview You Don't Have to Show Up For 
From the Wall Street Journal Business Section

You don’t go to the interview, you just send your Avatar.  A number of companies, such as Microsoft and Verizon, are using Second Life to interview potential hires.  Remarkably this article is not the usual smear job.  No sex and violence.   Reasonable coverage.  The article is two years old and written when Second Life had not introduced voice, but is otherwise informative. I looked around for information to update the story and develop content for newcomers,