There’s been some interesting debate following the Metaverse Roadmap this past weekend; I’ve been following much of it via some links I mentioned earlier (reLink). The discussion now centers around a more recent post by Ethan Zuckerman (Link) which, in effect, drags some reality into the virtual universe. If you’ve read my posts over on the SL Future Salon website or are aware of some of my other comments on the situation in the Third World which, as it turns out, I’ve seen up front and personal in my travels abroad, it should come as no surprise that I agree with much of what Ethan has to say. His remarks fit right in with my own comments on this sort of thing. If you’ve not read my SLFS posts, you might find those of interest. From The Flat Earth’s Shaky Virtual Ground (Link):

Assume for a moment you are the Boss, the person running a real world sweatshop employing low-cost laborers who spend 12-18 hours per day inside games and sims to earn virtual currency and whatnot for later sale on sites like eBay. Do you really want your employees learning all the tools necessary to replace you in your real life job? Or to leave your business and start their own in competition to yours? Or to make secret contact with someone in the West for the purpose of conducting real world business? Furthermore, does the upper class community in the region truly want lower class citizens being educated by someone in the West? How would some Indians feel about my teaching aerospace engineering theory to an Untouchable? Has anyone really considered the social impact of this kind of interaction? And what are the consequences?

Continue reading →

Missouri? That’s a bit of a surprise. If anything, I’d have expected a state like Connecticut to jump on the virtual school concept (Connecticut’s educational spending, from what I’ve heard, is usually quite high compared to most states). But according to USAToday’s story (Link), Missouri is giving the idea some serious consideration. From the short article:

Supporters envision an Internet-based school used by a variety of students — the sick, disabled and home-schooled, those failing in a traditional classroom or those needing a more challenging curriculum. Students could enroll full time in the virtual school or take just a course or two.

Just to be clear, there’s nothing here that suggests the implementation will be immersive in the sense of a 3D virtual world classroom – just “virtual” (which I take to mean “online”).

This gets me to wondering what Missouri’s legislature would think if they saw the potential in spaces like Second Life, where residents are developing their own educational systems. Then again, maybe some of them are residents. That raises some interesting questions, but let’s not go there.

Plenty of interface news out there now which makes sense since E3 is in full swing and all the fun stuff has been dragged out of R&D and put on display.

First up is a nice entry over on the 3pointD blog (Link) about the Novint Falcon haptic device which I’ve previously discussed (reLink). I wish there had been some mention of whether the device felt robust enough to endure serious use. That’s an issue I’ve had with Sensable’s device which is similar to the Falcon.

Another one that got my attention is eMagin’s Z800 3DVisor which is was the first image in a slideshow on C|Net (Link). The device appears to have all the technical specs but even at the reduced price of $549, I’d be hesitant. Besides, everyone knows it’ll be under $300 in another couple of years. I can wait.

Last up is an interesting entry on the New Scientist Invention Blog (Link). It appears Apple Computer has a new idea for a screen-based interface. Clever idea. Reminds me of Microsoft’s “skin as conductor” patent. I bet this one spawns a few other ideas.

I feel better. After seeing Microsoft’s “workplace of the future” presentation (blogged yesterday – reLink), I needed a pick-me-up.

{Image source: New Scientist}

As someone who is becoming increasingly virtualized, where I work – my office – is similarly evolving. I often generate concepts using a Wacom tablet, create virtual models in CAD software which get sent overseas for manufacturing, and process my paperwork in MS Office/OpenOffice. I’ve had a 3D virtual office – of a sort – inside Second Life since last year, but security issues keep me from exploiting the potential of that space for now. So basically I’m caught in two worlds, and because of that I find all of this to be a bit of a mess. Actually, a big mess. Change usually is and this is all a pretty big change from what I did only a few years ago.

So it’s with obvious interest that I caught a slideshow on C|Net for “Microsoft’s workplace of the future (Link). On first look, I’m underwhelmed. Perhaps because it looks like what I could do today and doesn’t get into some of the other things that are of greater concern. I’ll need to review it again though; perhaps after I give some additional thought to a new entry on Terra Nova, “The Virtual Office” (Link). If you’re in the same boat as me, you might want to give it a look and follow the comments – they’re usually well-informed and insightful. But right now I need to get some food. My avatar is hungry.

When word of the Second Life auction exploit/scam first surfaced at the end of April (most recently reported over on Clickable Culture), the first thing I did was log into “The Land Store” portion of the Linden Lab website. I’d not visited since it was first announced and what struck me most wasn’t the exploit, it was what I saw on the sim reservation map (image above). I didn’t have to check who was perhaps building their own continent near the large “all your sim are belong to me” red area below the “main grid” (the large red area in the center) – I was relatively certain it was well-known virtual world land baron Anshe Chung.

A couple of days ago I went to see if the sub-continent might be part of Anshe’s growing virtual empire. Sure enough, the familiar land sale primboards littered the virtual landscape. I even used a teleporter on the land which took me to a central real estate office with a well-organized, theme-sim teleport system. Not to say the new block will necessarily tie into the new continent, but the placement seems strategic.
Continue reading →