I like maps. Not only because they give us direction, but also because they can be art. Yet, maps lie. They seem to be complete, but by focusing, obstinately on a few details they are transformed. A street map ignores topographical information, which would simply get in the way. Subway maps use internal relationships to [...]
Being fluent in finance is important. Now, even more so because institutions take advantage of the average person’s ignorance on this issue. If you’re not sure how, check out a fantastic video on the recent credit crisis by my instructional design hero, Jonathan Jarvis. The Credit Crisis – Animatic from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo. Today, [...]
Nuff said, watch for yourself: Push (Mini Project 4) from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.
While in Second Life working on supporting an SL artist to be named later, I received this notecard from Crap Mariner – known as Mr. Mariner at home. Here is a link to his blog post, but I also copied it here. Greetings, y’all. SLCC is being held in San Fancisco in August this year. [...]
To celebrate the 60th Anniversay of the Declaration of Universal Rights, I went to the human rights festival in Second Life. What’s still blows my mind is that it started off with a set from Maximillion Kleene playing from Niagara Falls. Then it was followed by Joaquin Gustav, who was playing live from somewhere in [...]
I was walking through Delaware Park and was thinking about making stuff in Second Life. I think one could make a tree that changes the color and texture of the leaves based on the calendar. For example, the script would check the once a day. If the time is the spring equinox, then it would [...]
Thanks to malburns on Twitter I have this great site: Keho : the place for Presence wiki. Presence is an importent concept for virtual world research and they have a companion site that allows researchs to collaborate: PeachBit. I need to look at them both more closesly, but I’m wondering if copresence is included or [...]
When businesses employ geographically dispersed employees, they have to overcome the challenges of culture and lack of social contact. It seems that Second Life and other virtual worlds can provide a medium where social interactions can be provided, while also allowing for cultural differences (example bowing, deferring to superiors when using email or phone). Yet, [...]
So it seems that I could post nothing on this blog and still get hits because of two blog posts about scripting doors in SL. So that I can die and live on in my blog posts, I have yet another post about doors. Enjoy the link to scripts you can use to create a [...]
Brands and Worlds. Who’s the Daddy? : Kzero This is an excellent article on RL brands and virtual worlds. Trys to answer the question: “Do brands need VW?” How Second Life Affects Real Life – TIME This article summarizes research on how having an avatar affects how you view yourself in RL. For example, if [...]
Yesterday, I went to an event that I learned about from Botgirl’s Second Life® Diary about the book Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human by Tom Boellstorff. It was a great discussion and I received permission from the event coordinator and author to post the chat. Enjoy.
That’s the questions Featherstone and Burrows try to answer in the book “CYBERSPACE/CYBERBODIES/CYBERPUNK: CULTURES OF TECHNOLOGICAL EMBODIMENT.” A review of the book is at EBSCOhost. What interests me is that they though that synthetic worlds “[have] the potential for intellectual disembodiment and transcendence of flesh and bone (Gerhard et al, 2004).” What amazes me most [...]
The rumor in the SL grapevine is that the recent changes (trademark policy, CEO, and Cory Ondrejka quitting) are preparation for going public. Also, that an internal struggle regarding whether they should use open standards or closed might be the impetus for these changes as well. The Economist has a great article that should help [...]
I really enjoy reading Arminas’s posts because he writes about busniess AND particle effects – my two favorite things in SL. Here are two posts he wrote on running a club in Second Life: Second Effects: The Economics of Second Life Clubs, Part 1 Second Effects: The Economics of Second Life Clubs, Part 2 I [...]
SRI Consulting Business Consortium’s research program on virtual worlds has just published a report on VW work. The results are interesting and I’m sure VRWorkplace would agree with them: that VW will be a role in certain types of collaborative work, research and development should embrace this medium, and that ease of use will be [...]
