A couple of months ago I did a popular "Second Life Do-gooders" tour of how various non-profits were setting up shop in the virtual world. I focused on non-profits featured in the Tech Soup non-profit HUD, which the Tech Soup folks had recently launched. I neglected to visit one of the featured groups though, the…
Dr. John Bransford talks on using virtual environments for education on Oct 2
Folks in the Second Life education list tell me this event is a super-big deal. Dr John Bransford, education psychology specialist affiliated with the National Science Foundation will be speaking on "Virtual Environments as ways to Reorganize Thinking about Research and Education" on October 2 in Second Life. Here’s the complete description from the Learning…
A detailed look at the Virtual Aloft Hotel
I got a (somewhat illicit) sneak peak at the Virtual Aloft hotel built within Second Life last month (direct teleport here). They have been quietly opening the Aloft Island for visitors and I got to get a closer look at it today. It’s come quite a ways since my last visit a month ago. What’s…
Google justice for Gift Assistant
Ok, it’s not the same as getting my freakin money back, but it’s still gratifying to see that when you do a search for "gift assistant" on Google, my blog complaints (I and II) and Consumerist’s followup are all in the top 5 listings, right under the link to the actual Gift Assistant website.
Media Shift asks “Can human rights videos go viral?”
Mark Glaser, on the PBS-sponsored blog "Media Shift," recently posted about the new WITNESS "Human Rights Video Hub". Mark asks "so what if you could take videos shot by citizens of human rights violations, such as police brutality or torture, and got them to go viral, bringing more attention to the crimes?" He quotes from…
Love kids? Love Second Life? Here’s the job for you!
Cool dude Barry Joseph (aka "Globalkids Bixby" in SL) at Global Kids sends along a job opening at the Online Leadership Program of this innovative New York-based youth organization. They are looking for a program associate to help develop and run workshops for teens in person and in the virtual Teen Grid of Second Life. The…
Jnana helps dumb people build smart agents
Just got back from a presentation in SL by Lex Lardner of his "Jnana" smart agent builder, a powerful application that enables non-programmers to create a set of dialog menus using simple logic and query-answer statements. (Full transcript provided by Signpostmarv.) Lex showed us how easy it was by building a quick set of dialog…
Web-mediated shopping: My Space closing on Google
The Center for Media Research reports on recent numbers from the web statistics site Hitwise, which indicate that search engines are still the primary drivers of shopping traffic, but that social networking sites are catching up. Google of course is still the leader in online retail visits, at 14% of all shopping traffic. But Myspace…
Addicted to virtual worlds? No really, I can quit any time
Are you addicted to Everquest (i.e. Evercrack), Warcraft, Second Life, There, and/or Ultima? You won’t be alone, says a new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Pew surveyed 742 "internet leaders, activists, builders and commentators," asking them about the effect of the internet on social, political and economic life in the year…
Playing with Alt-Zoom’s tracking camera
I read on New World Notes about the free Alt-Zoom camera being promoted by machinimaniac Moo Money. Moo posted a cool video on YouTube that consisely and clearly demonstrates how to use this in-world video camera. I decided to give it a spin tonight, and finally got it to take a very basic tracking shot…