A lot of news about virtual worlds has crossed my laptop lately, so – since this is a big growth sector of cyberspace (with the global VW population growing from 186.5 million now to 638 million by 2015, according to Strategy Analytics) – I thought I'd package it up for you....1. Avatar PRNow (if not yesterday or last year) is a good time to fold avatars into family discussion about reputations … [Read more...] about Virtual-world news update
Search Results for: "second life"
‘Red-light district’ makes virtual world safer
San Francisco-based Linden Lab, which runs Second Life, has sequestered adult content and activity in the virtual world onto a new continent called "Zindra." Residents of the virtual world have to verify that they're adults before they can search for anything on Zindra or go there (here's the page that explains how the age verification process works). The entire "world" is now classified as either … [Read more...] about ‘Red-light district’ makes virtual world safer
Thin avatar, thinner self?
Virtual world "residents" and their parents know what avatars are: An in-world representative of you. In Second Life, though some users have more than one avatar, most avatars are quite human-looking versions of users. It depends on the world quite a bit. In ClubPenguin, they're, well, penguins. In a lot of kids' virtual worlds, the avatars are cartoon-y humans with big eyes and heads. In … [Read more...] about Thin avatar, thinner self?
Voice chat for Facebook users
The social utility's some 300 million users will soon be able to download a plug-in and talk to each other out loud. This news is not just about Facebook; it reflects a trend. Online chat may never move away from text entirely, but voice chat's footprint is definitely growing. "The new technology is not being offered by Facebook itself," CNET reports. "Instead, it's from Vivox, a Boston-based … [Read more...] about Voice chat for Facebook users
Starring students: Real-world projects in virtual world
Wonder how and what students are taught in virtual worlds? Watch this video (13:46) at Teachers TV, a professional development site in the UK (which has similar videos on blogs, cellphones, and podcasting in the classroom here). You'll see how middle-school student Daniel made the case for and, "in a couple of weeks," built an exhibition of the history of steam engines in Second Life, his teacher … [Read more...] about Starring students: Real-world projects in virtual world