It wasn’t too long ago I was taking upFront.eZine/WorldCAD Access writer Ralph Grabowski to task (reLink) for what I considered extraordinarily subjective (and, by extension, myopic) comments regarding the potential of Second Life and social applications that, like it, allowed for immersive 3D content creation. Not that Grabowski is alone; from my experience, most people involved with highend CAD – engineers, industrial designers, and application technicians – tend to look down their nose at anything that doesn’t meet a very narrow set of expectations. Their blinders have names like “advanced surfacing”, “construction history”, “simplified rep” and the like. Fortunately it appears some relief is on the way. Design News Magazine (the print edition) will be carrying an article on Second Life which may break through the crusty veneer of the CAD crowd and open their eyes to what may be on the near horizon.

In an entry on the Design News website, “Second Life Will Revolutionize Engineering Design” (Link), author Matthew J. Traum, Ph.D. says:

The culmination of several months of research, I report on the virtual world of Second Life (SL) and show how this new technology will impact engineering design. My conclusion: SL is disruptive technology that will revolutionize computer aided engineering design and facilitate new kinds of global design collaboration.

I look forward to seeing some crust flaking off a few veterans in the near future. And hopefully, for those who can’t refrain from spending some of their working hours huddled around screens ogling naughty pictures on unblocked websites, Second Life’s seedier activities won’t be added to their list of distractions.

via Second Life Insider (cuz for no good reason, I’ve not stopped by Design News in weeks)