Monday, January 22, 2007

Reality Growing in Virtual World - Secondlife


Reality Growing in Virtual World is the title of an article in the Startribune from Minnesota.
The learning community's Mark Oehlert (aka ChuckNorris Mission) is quoted and the article highlights some of the big work being done in Secondlife by the likes of IBM and others.



"We're really at the very, very bleeding edge of companies doing this," said Mark Oehlert," an associate at the Booz Allen Hamilton technology consulting firm in Herndon, Va.

"For one thing, I think people are still trying to answer, 'What can we do better in Second Life than the other ways we're already doing them?' "

IBM's interest is significant, he believes, because it brings instant credibility to this frontier.

2 comments:

Mike said...

Personally, I think Second Life is a great idea, and it's pushing the boundaries in more fields than I think we really want to let ourselves believe. There's an article in the UK edition of PC Gamer this month that centres around the sex industry that's a very 'illuminating' read, and we're all heard about the bands and organisations - the BBC for example - that stage concerts in the virtual world. Not sure if it's a replacement for real life (give a few hundred years and some optomistic cyberpunk novels) but it's a superbly expansive and intriguing diversion, if nothing else.

bschlenker said...

Its strange how the sex industry is always on the driving edge of technology. They've influenced standards all the way back to the VHS v. Beta wars. They drove the creation of online video technologies in BIG way. Now they've taken sides in the DVD v. Blueray war by backing the DVD standard. It just never ceases to amaze me.
I knew VR would be big when I started working with it back in '95, but it was cost prohibitive for most back then. Now its crazy cheap and anyone can get in and create stuff. Its absolutely going to change the learning development industry as well. Personally, I'm psyched!!!