Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski has reportedly purchased rights to a Wall Street Journal story about a married man in a virtual relationship.

The entertainment publication Variety reports that Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski may be working to bring the Second Life virtual world to the big screen…although perhaps not in a way that would please Linden Labs. According to the paper, Verbinski and Universal have acquired the rights to a 2007 Wall Street Journal article detailing the case of a 53 year-old, married man who spent as much as 20 hours a day in Second Life, where he played the role of a buffed-out entrepreneur…with his own virtual relationship.

Verbinski apparently plans to direct the film; Steven Knight (screenwriter for Eastern Promises and Dirty Pretty Things) will write the screenplay. The film is expected to focus on immersive role-playing in virtual worlds and the negative impacts on the real lives of players.

Verbinski is currently working on the upcoming film adaption of the video game Bioshock.

source: http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/18700/second-life-going-to-the-big-screen

Klimatyczne święta w Second Life

Na wirtualnej wyspie COP 14 zapanował iście świąteczny klimat. Po koncercie legendarnej grupy muzycznej The Traveling Wilburys (fot.), który uświetnił uroczyste otwarcie wyspy w świecie Second Life, nadszedł czas na choinki, Mikołaje, kolorowe ozdoby, światełka i prezenty. Wszystko to składa się na prawdziwie bajkową atmosferę, w jakiej spędzą święta wszyscy, którzy w tym czasie odwiedzą klimatyczną wyspę. 

Fot.(Grand Open by Bogdan Markowicz vel Bodeha Zapedzki)

Second Life to częściowo płatny, wirtualny świat, który zrzesza ponad 15 milionów graczy. Gra nie ma ściśle określonych zasad i umożliwia użytkownikom dowolną kreację wirtualnej rzeczywistości, co jest przez nich traktowane jako największa zaleta Second Life.
Wirtualna wyspa to interaktywny twór, który powstał w ramach kampanii edukacyjno-promocyjnej prowadzonej przez Ministerstwo Środowiska w związku z poznańską Konferencją ONZ w sprawie zmian klimatu.

for.(Swieta na wyspie UN cop14 Poznan w Second Life by Bogdan Markowicz vel Bodeha Zapedzki)

Odwiedzający wyspę na własnej skórze mogą poczuć, jak bardzo niebezpieczne dla człowieka potrafią być konsekwencje globalnego ocieplenia. Na wyspie panuje klimat z 2100 roku – nad jej powierzchnią stale unosi się smog, który znacznie ogranicza widoczność, a dodatkowo, często występują tu gwałtowne zmiany pogody. Jednego dnia pada śnieg, drugiego – występują silne opady deszczu, trzeciego – panuje groźny huragan.Jedynym schronieniem dla gości wyspy w trakcie tych gwałtownych zmian pogodowych jest drzewo, które kształtem przypomina logotyp Konferencji Narodów Zjednoczonych w sprawie Zmian Klimatu Poznań 2008. W środku klimatycznego drzewa znajduje się kilka pokoi tematycznych, po których oprowadza specjalnie do tego stworzony awatar – przewodnik. I tak np. w pomieszczeniu przeznaczonym na prezentację skutków globalnego ocieplenia mieszczą się tablice informacyjne mówiące o konsekwencjach postępujących zmian klimatu, takich jak chociażby topnienie lodowców, czy wymieranie niektórych gatunków zwierząt. W Pokoju przeciwdziałania ocieplaniu się klimatu znajdują się porady dotyczące działań hamujących postępujące zmiany klimatu, natomiast w Bibliotece każdy zainteresowany może obejrzeć i przeczytać ulotki oraz książki poświęcone globalnemu ociepleniu.

 Aby obejrzeć wyspę w wyszukiwarkę, umieszczoną w wirtualnym świecie Second Life należy wpisać nazwę United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan 2008 Poland. Osoby niezarejestrowane w SL mogą też zobaczyć krótki film o wyspie umieszczony na You.tube http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=XEotdrla-Jw. Dotychczas wirtualny świat COP 14 odwiedziły  1 542 osoby. Klimatyczna wyspa dostępna będzie dla zwiedzających do końca roku.

                                                                                                 ***

COP 14 (Conference of the Parties – COP) 14 Konferencja Stron Ramowej Konwencji Narodów Zjednoczonych w sprawie Zmian Klimatu (UNFCCC) wraz z 4 Sesją Spotkania Stron Protokołu z Kioto) odbyła się 1 – 12 grudnia 2008 r. w Poznaniu. Organizatorem Konferencji jest Sekretariat Konwencji Narodów Zjednoczonych ds. Zmian Klimatu (UNFCCC, www.unfccc.int), gospodarzem – Rząd RP, a koordynatorem przygotowań z ramienia Rządu – Ministerstwo Środowiska RP (www.cop14.gov.pl).

Szerszych informacji udziela:
Magda Sikorska
Koordynatorka ds. mediów / Oficer Łącznikowy Kraju Goszczącego COP 14
Tel: (022) 579 27 22
Mobile: 0695100978
E-mail:    magda.sikorska@cop14.gov.pl

Joanna Józefiak
Partner of Promotion
Tel: (22) 858 74 58
E-mail: j.jozefiak@partnersi.com.pl

Bad news for home owners in the virtual world of second life as the virtual terrorists have been at it again.

The Linden Dollar (L$) is the currency for this pretend world which people are paid for doing jobs and selling items that they have made. Items are made by using Second Life Script, which creates an object that other people can own, such as a house, a car, a dress or a complete cosmetic make-over.

Screwed up This scripting has been co-opted by the Free Second Life (FSL) movement several times in the past to cause virtual explosions over brothels and virtual drug dens, as well as make it rain penises or Angelina Jolie. Now they have done it again by creating a Linden Dollar multiplier.

“We got the idea from Zimbabwe,” said Slash Dot Con, head of the FSL (his screen name, as he prefers to keep his identity secret). “In essence it looks like a simple script that people can pick up and use to their hearts content, but what it does it multiply the amount of Linden Dollars a person has by ten.”

This insidious script has proven very popular with the denizens of the imaginary world in need of a bit of cash and has turned every avatar that found it into a Second Life Millionaire. The location spread rapidly around the worlds and about ninety percent of residents have used the multiplier multiple times raising their capital with no thought as to the consequences.

“This was our intention,” said Slash Dot Con. “Before people realised what was happening the Linden Dollar developed inflation of a south-west African nation and is now worthless. With a chuckle, Slash Dot Con said: “It now costs several billion Linden Dollars to buy a new hairdo.”

Slash Dot Con states that his hatred stems from the fact that the game designers would not let him create a virtual world within the virtual world where people could get away from their dreary virtual jobs, called Third Life.

source: http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s5i44825

Konferencja Klimatyczna odbywa się nie tylko terenie Międzynarodowych Targów Poznańskich. Szczyt COP14 Poznań można oglądać także w wirtualnym świecie Second Life. Targowe pawilony zastąpiła… wyspa.

Second Life jest wirtualną rzeczywistością, zawierającą elementy graficznego chatu, portalu społecznościowego i do pewnego stopnia gry. W tym wirtualnym świecie możemy spotykać znajomych, nawiązywać nowe znajomości, kupować i sprzedawać nieruchomości czy też handlować.

Niedawno w tej internetowej platformie pojawiły się tereny szczytu klimatycznego. Do internetu nie zostały w wersji trójwymiarowej przeniesione poznańskie targi, lecz eksterytorialnym terenem Konferencji Klimatycznej została… wyspa, na której znajduje się między innymi prototyp wagonika kolejki Mister, jaki można oglądać także na wystawie “Technologie dla zmian klimatu” w pawilonie 5 MTP.

Kto wie, być może na wirtualnym szczycie ONZ zapadną ważne dla świata decyzje i porozumienia w sprawie zmian klimatu?

Janusz Ludwiczak www.lazarz.pl

Fot. Youtube

Scientists demonstrate their commitment to the environment by going ‘virtual’

Imperial College London and Nature Publishing Group co-host conference in Second Life

Scientists from around the world proved their green credentials by participating in a conference on climate change and carbon dioxide storage in the virtual world, this week (3 December).

Organised by Imperial College London and Nature Publishing Group, the conference encouraged scientists to meet in the virtual environment of Second Life, instead of the real world, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions normally associated with travelling long distances to international events. 

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world populated by people who operate computer characters, or avatars. These can interact with millions of other avatars to participate in a range of activities online. In this world, Nature Publishing Group has created a virtual island and virtual buildings to hold meetings in. 

Dr Tara LaForce, from Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, has already held a lecture on carbon capture and storage on Nature’s virtual Elucian Islands. She decided to organise the Virtual Climate Change conference in the same place to demonstrate the environmental benefits of meeting online. Dr LaForce says: 

“On average, scientists travelling to international conferences generate at least 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per trip. This is roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide produced by the average commuter in London for an entire year. We scientists could contribute more to reducing our carbon footprint by making at least one of our yearly conferences virtual. Second Life provides a great opportunity for us to experiment with this idea.”

The Virtual Climate Change conference broadly covered all aspects of climate change and carbon dioxide storage, from the future effects of extreme climate change on the planet such as hot and dry spells, to new technologies and advances in capturing and storing carbon dioxide deep underground.

The conference was broadcast live from Second Life via video screens into lecture theatres including Stanford University, University of Wyoming, University of Southern California and the University of Texas, Austin, and at Imperial’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change. Attendees were able to ask questions via a representative avatar.

Professor Martin Blunt, Head of the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, was one of the key speakers at the conference.

Through his Second Life avatar, Boffy Destiny, Professor Blunt delivered his virtual lecture on methods for capturing carbon dioxide from UK power stations and injecting it into depleted North Sea oil reservoirs or salt water aquifers. He says his experience online showed him how civilised virtual conferences could be. He adds:

“Since the days of Socrates people have understood the importance of meeting face-to-face. However, I think we’ll see more academics and students meeting in virtual spaces in the future because it wipes out travel costs, lessens our environmental impact, and reduces the hassle of travelling, especially for non-European academics and students whose travel can often be frustrated by visa restrictions.” 

Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, gave a talk on climate science, and says his first experience of delivering a virtual lecture was very positive as it enabled him to reach an international audience with great ease. However, he did say that there were some drawbacks.

“I like to gesticulate when I am communicating and I obviously couldn’t convey that through my avatar. So I had to remember to get my message across to the virtual audience verbally,” says Sir Brian Hoskins.

He added that he could see the potential benefits that this technology could bring in the future.

“Part of the ‘oomph’ from a real lecture comes from being able to see and interact with your audience. As this technology evolves so that characters can sense each other’s gestures and movements, I can see this being an even more important tool for exchanging information between people,” says Sir Brian Hoskins.

Other speakers at the one day conference included Professor Franklin M Orr, Jr., Director of the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University. He spoke about the use of various technologies to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Since its inception in 2003, Imperial has been keen to exploit Second Life as a learning and communication tool. The Department of Biosurgery and Surgical Technology was one of the first at Imperial to hold a virtual conference, and scientists such as Dr James Kirkpatrick, from the Department of Physics, and Dr Simon Colton, from the Department of Computing, have also given virtual lectures.

Lord Ara Darzi, Professor of Surgery at Imperial, also worked with the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to create a virtual hospital in Second Life. Called ‘Second Health’, the initiative has been devised to show Londoners how they might experience hospital care in the future.

Provided by Imperial College London 

source: http://www.physorg.com/news147702946.html

CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) 

Yes, we took out our virtual clipboard back in May 2008 to conduct a followup to our first survey in 2007 of Educators in Second Life. We appreciate the great response this year, with nearly 360 educators completing the survey, an increase of 170% from 2007

Agaqin, we provide the survey results for free under creative commons licensing, along with a summary of comparison between the 2007 and 2008 surveys:

• 2008 NMC Educators in Second Life Survey Summary
• 2008 NMC Educators in Second Life Survey Results

Among the summary points, we found:

• Educators are moving from exploration to use of Second Life for teaching and learning. More respondents report being involved in an educational-related activity in Second Life (increasing from 54% in 2007 to 71% in 2008). More than half report that the organization they are affiliated with owns a sim (up from 36% in 2007) and 74 individuals report in 2008 they own their own sim. This year 29% of survey participants report holding virtual office hours in SL; 37 of them (12%) have taught a class entirely in SL (up from 14 or 8% in 2007).
• Educators are expanding their Second Life social networks.  This year recorded an increase in the numbers of people educators maintain as contacts. In 2007, 53% reported 10 or fewer contacts while in 2008 , this percentage dropped to 32%. The most common range for the size of their contact list in 2008 was 11-30 and the number reporting more than 100 contacts doubled from 2007 (4% to 8%).
• This year’s educators are much more experienced in Second Life.  The percentage who have been in Second Life for 1-3 years increased from 30% in 2007 to 56% this year. However, the demographics of this group are about the same; in terms of game experience most self-classify as “Pac-Man” generation. More then two-thirds are between 36 and 55 years old, and more than 75% do not play console games or MMORPGs. Also similar to last year, about half of the respondents find time for Second Life by watching less television.

source: http://sl.nmc.org/2008/12/06/2008-educators-survey/

Why has Obama no avatar?

(Flickr picture by Olivia Hotshot, Creative Commons License)

Avatars rejoice: the US mainstream press takes notice of Second Life and this in a knowledgeable and rather positive way. Dusan Writer runs a story about a very positive and interesting article in The New York Times about the architects of Second Life, Original Sim.

On Twitter Loic Le Meur, the founder of Seesmic, mentioned the article Second Life’s Second Wind in Forbes. Le Meur said (about Second Life): “No, it’s not dead, I hear it’s doing very well actually”. Glad to hear, but the upcoming LeWeb conference in Paris, which is organized by Le Meur, hardly mentions virtual worlds.

Forbes mentions the demise of Lively and the fact that Reuters pulled its embedded reporter out of Second Life, but the biggest part of the article is an interview with CEO Mark Kingdon of Linden Lab, which is worth reading.

Andy Greenberg of Forbes asked why president elect Barack Obama has no Second Life avatar, while he did use about every other social media technique available (even though it seems an Obama avatar appeared in SL, the official status of that avatar remains unclear). Kingdon had a good answer:

Social media is good for reaching large volumes of people. But Second Life allows you to connect with people in a direct, more engaged level. Virtual worlds allow for a level of participation and a level of dialogue that you can’t get with 2D social media properties. They’re very different, but I think they’re complementary rather than substitutes. So I think in future elections we’ll see virtual worlds play the same role that social media played in this election.

This is very true I think, but I must admit that the absence of Obama in the virtual arena puzzles me. Can it be that, like Eric Krangel (the former embedded Reuters reporter in SL) says, “Second Life’s reputation is now a liability”?

I am not sure about the “liability” argument. I tend more to read the unspoken part of what Kingdon says: “Social media is good for reaching large volumes of people. But Second Life allows you to connect with people in a direct, more engaged level.” Putting it in a less positive way: one does not reach large volumes of people by using virtual worlds such as Second Life.

The same phenomenon is well-known by media companies experimenting with synchronous interaction: while at times one can reach large volumes of people on a liveblog or chat, it is hard to keep doing so in the absence of big events. The people who do respond to chats and liveblogs (in 2D or in 3D) tend to be very engaged, as Kingdon says, but is is also true we talk here about a limited number of people in comparison with the total communities involved.

However cool engagement may be, at the end of the day people have a hard look on the numbers reached. If time is in very short supply and reaching large groups is essential (like in an election campaign), virtual worlds are not a good solution.

However, if one can go for the long run and when gathering a group of highly motivated people is crucial or at least beneficial, virtual media can be very interesting. So maybe the new president will use Second Life after all.

Roland Legrand

source: http://www.mixedrealities.com/?p=926

Escape the relatives this Christmas by losing yourself in Sony’s long-awaited virtual world

Alex Pell

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The annual battle of the consoles that takes place every Christmas will heat up this week when Sony launches its own version of Second Life for the PlayStation 3. The new service, called PlayStation Home, will allow players to create an online “virtual life” and interact with other players in a make-believe world.

Sony hopes to cash in on the massive success of Second Life, which claims to have 15m registered players around the world — albeit that the highest number active at any one time is about 76,000. It is, however, available only on a computer rather than a games console. To try Home, which is slated for release in the next 10 days, players must download a piece of free software from Sony’s PlayStation store onto their own PS3.

From here they must create their own character, known as an avatar; they are then free to explore Sony’s virtual lands complete with shops, apartments and cinemas. They can also meet and interact with other avatars from around the world, exchange ideas and play mini-games such as chess or 10-pin bowling. Avatars can dance together or blow each other kisses but, in case you’re wondering, interaction will fall short of full-on sex, a popular option for many Second Life fans.

Sony has high hopes of Home becoming a digital clubhouse where those with time on their hands can let their avatars hang out together online. Most of the service’s initial features will be free, and you are given a harbourside apartment that you can furnish as you choose. If you want to embellish your virtual home with fancy furniture or bling up your avatar with posh clothing, this will inevitably cost real money. For example, a pair of jeans will cost about 85p and a flash apartment will cost about £4. This will be paid for via PlayStation’s online store.

Home has been in the pipeline for some time, but the announcement of the launch so close to Christmas is no coincidence. This is traditionally the most popular time for gamers to invest in new consoles. Two years ago, when Nintendo launched its Wii, the device sold out across many shops in Britain, and — in what was something of a PR coup — the company was forced to airlift new stock in from mainland Europe. It pioneered the idea of creating permanent player avatars on a console.

Whether Sony’s marketing move will prove as successful remains to be seen, but initial reports are good. While Home is not as ambitious an undertaking as Second Life, Sony appears to have successfully created a slick environment for gamers to enjoy exploring. The initial choice of clothing for your avatar is limited, but many of the virtual stores have not opened for business yet and this, along with other aspects, will undoubtedly evolve rapidly.

Perhaps the most important feature is that if avatars meet up online, the players can launch a PS3 game directly from within Home that they can participate in, if they all have a copy. This may help PlayStation to catch up with the hugely popular Xbox Live online service.

Sony is not alone in attempting to entice buyers by adding new features to its console: Microsoft has completely revamped the software for its Xbox 360 consoles in time for Christmas shoppers. The company also insists it has finally replaced the errant chip that caused so many of its consoles to malfunction and has begun building some storage memory into even the cheapest of Xbox machines.

The crucial point for many buyers in these cash-strapped times will, of course, be price. And here the Xbox 360 has the advantage. Microsoft has recently slashed the cost of its Xbox range so that gamers can buy the most basic console for £130. The PS3 will set you back at least £350.

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• Have your say

“have-your-say”

For £300 you can get the latest 65nm chipped PS3 with two recently released games. Add PlayTV and a NAS drive and a decent Cinema System and you really do have yourself a really good and reliable multimedia system. HOME is just another cool addition to what is rapidly becoming a great piece of kit.

Neil, Reading, UK

The basic price for a PS3 console is £299.99 NOT £350.00. Also, Sony recently announced that the “Currency” system for home would be based on your Trophys. If you collect a lot of Trophy’s in PS3 games, you can get extra “Bling” for your avatar/apartment for free.

David Macphail, Cupar, Scotland

The PS3 originally WAS backwards compatible with PS2, but Sony pulled that function to bring down the price. It required an actual PS2 chip inside the console; unfortunately, a software update is never going to fix this. If it’s that important to you, go find one of the early release PS3s.

Q, Atlanta, USA

source: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article5292380.ece

I find this:

source : http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2008/11/poland-creates-climate-change-second-life-sim.html

-The Click Heard Round The World by Rik Riel – (Blog name)

United Nations Climate Change sim opens in Second Life tomorrow (November 29)

Starting tomorrow, November 29, the Ministry of Media officially opens in Second Life, a sim dedicated to the UN Climate Change Conference happening in Poznań, Poland from December 1-12. The Poznań meeting, which is expected to draw 8,000 participants from around the world, is intended to “advance international cooperation on a future climate change regime and ensure progress on key issues” related to global warming.

More on my brief tour of the sim after the jump…

This morning, I teleported to the Ministry of Media sim (click here to teleport) to check out the preparations for the climate change conference. I ran into Bodeha Zapedzki, CEO of Servicetek, the Polish SL development firm organizing the inworld activities of the UN conference.

I asked Bodeha what we should expect to find in the sim during the conference. He told me that there will be live video streaming from the UN conference, which is pretty incredible.  I wish we had this kind of live streaming into Second Life when I was involved with the World Summit on the Information Society back in 2005.

Unfortunately, he explained that there will not be any communication from Second Life back to the real life participants, which I found disappointing considering they had more interactivity at the Bali climate change conference in 2007. It would have been neat if they had the capacity to organize at least a daily briefing with some conference organizers or environmental groups attending the talks to report back on what is happening, and entertain questions from the virtual observers.  Or have some informed attendees inworld during key parts of the negotiations to explain to us what is happening and why its important.  Oh well, I know how hard these things are to organize even in the best of circumstances.

Tomorrow at 1pm, avatars at the opening of the sim will be entertained by the featured performers are the “SL Travelling Wilburys.”  Visitors can also check out an evocative art exhibit called “The Last Fir Tree” by Poid Mahovlich (see image above), virtual replicas of sustainable structures made out of bamboo, and an exhibit area with information about climate change and the environment.

It’s great to see a UN conference experimenting with bringing in a broader global audience using a virtual world. Hopefully there will be other ways to engage the virtual audience other than just passively watching a video feed, which will get boring very fast, no matter the urgency and importance of the subject matter.

author: Rik Riel

thx Rik for this:)

-Ayumi Cassini Does Second Life- ( Blog name)

source: http://ayumicassini.blogspot.com/2008/12/meet-mister.html

Meet the MISTER

My favourite avatar in SL and a talented scripter, Sql Miles, has created the coolest SL transportation system ever. It’s a recreation of MISTER – Metropolitan Individual System of Transportation on an Elevated Rail. In real life the system consists of electrically powered gondolas gliding on a rail track suspended overhead. In SL it looks similar, except the gondolas are powered by LSL scripts

Sql created this system for COP14 conference island in SL (The 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). The track goes around the island and there are four stations where you can get on/off (the main areas of the island). Once you’re there, just sit in a gondola and choose where you want to go. Fun!

The COP14 island, where MISTER operates, was developed by Bodeha Zapedzki. It is worth to explore it and learn how to be eco-friendly in everyday life. Let me give you a bit more information about the conference:

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is one of the most important environmental agreements to lay down a framework for international actions to address global climate warming. On the basis of the agreement adopted in the course of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992), the objectives and principles were set for the cooperation among the States to prevent climate change and to mitigate its adverse effects, e.g. by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As a result of negotiations, political decisions and legal instruments emerge to ensure the implementation of the provisions of the Convention, such as e.g. the Kyoto Protocol, which set out the States’ commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

There’s lots to see on the island, including constant weather changes every few minutes and an art installation ‘The Last Fir Tree’ by SL artist Poid Mahovlich. Oh, and if you come across Bodeha on the island, ask him to show you the tornado

Posted by Ayumi Cassini

Thx Ayumi i show you Tornado;)