May 08
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Weblins - another transitional step to 3DWeb?

I was hanging out with @malburns and @tarayeats yesterday evening in Chilbo and we were having a wide ranging discussion of all things Second Life, Web 2.0, and virtual worlds more generally, when Malburns mentioned this cute little program at http://weblin.com. He was describing how it gives you a little avatar and you “teleport” [...]

Author: Fleep
May 02
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MetaTrends, EdTech, and the Changing Role of Educators

I came across a couple of great thought provoking things yesterday, all come from Twitter friends - @gsiemens, @Larry_Pixel, and @lparisi.
First up, George Siemens shared his presentation from the Pacific Northwest Higher Education Teaching & Learning Conference in Spokane, WA. When thinking about where all of this digital connectivity is heading and [...]

Author: Fleep
Apr 30
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Hey! I’m on (Draxtor) TV!

Life4u reporter Draxtor Despres just sent me an IM about his latest report on the past week’s vBusiness Expo and Federal Consortium of Virtual Worlds in Second Life. I was a speaker for the Education track at the vBusiness Expo and Draxtor interviewed me afterwards. Look ma, I’m on virtual TV!

Author: Fleep
Apr 30
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Essayish: Traditional Learning Spaces in Virtual Worlds

What follows are some thoughts that have been percolating since I read Peter Ludlow’s critique of virtual campuses in Second Life (Chronicle article) back in early December (talk about a long tail, eh?) and recently re-sparked by some conversations on the SLED listserv. In any case, the question about traditional learning spaces keeps coming [...]

Author: Fleep
Apr 26
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Human-Centered Research for Avatars

Aleks Krotoski from the University of Surry and Mark Bell from Indiana University discuss best practices for performing survey research in virtual worlds like Second Life. One key affordance of doing research in virtual environments is the ability to capture reams of data, not just from the avatar, but [...]

Author: Fleep
Apr 26
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IBM’s Sandra Kearney on 3D Internet & Virtual Business for…

On the third day of the vBusiness Expo in Second Life, IBM’s Sandra Kearney, Global Director for 3D Internet & Virtual Business, speaks about the evolution of internet technology and the potential of virtual worlds for work and collaboration. She sees an ecosystem of technology tools, platforms, and services that [...]

Author: Fleep
Apr 25
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Accelerate Reports on Corporate Responses to Virtual Worlds

From the vBusiness Expo in Second Life - On-boarding new hires with virtual worlds, John Boring, Accelerate
John reports on study to gauge barriers and interest in virtual worlds from corporate sector, sneak peek from the report:
Top 5 Barriers to Adoption of Virtual World Tech
1. lack [...]

Author: Fleep
Apr 19
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Testing a Google Map - Virtual/Real Travel

Testing embed code for a Google map I created that shows the real life locations that I have visited to give presentations or learn more about Second Life, virtual worlds, and Web 2.0, and social media. (Hint, they’re all the same thing.) The lighter blue markers are places I traveled to “virtually” to attend [...]

Author: Fleep
Apr 14
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VW2008 - Update on Open Source Virtual Worlds Panel

Many thanks to Tish Shute (SL: Tara5 Oh) for bringing this to my attention, there is now an audio recording of the Open Source Virtual Worlds panel I mentioned in my last post at Ugotrade. Tish writes:
Some people may have walked away from Virtual Worlds 2008, NYC, thinking the vision of the metaverse has [...]

Author: Fleep
Apr 13
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Virtual Worlds 2008 - A Very Mixed Bag

As promised, I finally got my photos from Virtual Worlds 2008 uploaded to Flickr, better late than never, right?
As I went through the images, I tried to remember exactly what about the event left me so.. cold. It wasn’t really the people, I was thrilled to see many friends again, Aldon Huffhines from the [...]

Author: Fleep