Business First

Wed, Jan 18 2012
Open Wonderland’s Games Village

Open Wonderland’s Games Village

Game developers in Singapore now have a new avenue to try to find publishers — showcasing their games in the Singapore Games Village, part of the Media Development Authority of Singapore’s... 

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Thu, Dec 29 2011
Why the fuss about Island Oasis?

Why the fuss about Island Oasis?

Earlier this month, little-known Island Oasis showed up in our survey as the grid with the most satisfied residents. Now, Island Oasis is tiny — it didn’t even break our top 40 list this month.... 

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Tue, Oct 25 2011
WoW FanCon draws thousands

WoW FanCon draws thousands

A total of 3,208 visitors came to this month’s World of Warcraft fan convention, held online, on the Utherverse immersive environment platform. They spent the in-world equivalent of $14,250 over... 

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Thu, Sep 22 2011
Easy, slick virtual campus tour

Easy, slick virtual campus tour

Designing Digitally Inc. is at National Association for College Admission Counseling’s 2011 National Conference this week showing off its 3D Virtual Campus Tours product. You might remember... 

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Fri, Sep 9 2011
Virtual cockpit for executives

Virtual cockpit for executives

A French virtual design firm has created a virtual command center for organizations looking to have all their business intelligence dashboards in a single virtual location. Internet 3 Solutions‘ Cockpit... 

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Mon, Aug 22 2011
Docs to get virtual diabetes training

Docs to get virtual diabetes training

The world’s first virtual diabetes institute opened its doors last Wednesday, helping physicians improve the ways in which they treat Type 2 diabetes patients. The institute was built by SciMed,... 

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Fri, Aug 12 2011
Patients manage diabetes virtually

Patients manage diabetes virtually

Final results of the effectiveness of Boston Medical Center’s virtual diabetes training program won’t be in for a while, but one early sign is very encouraging — everyone who started... 

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Thu, Jul 7 2011
Educators save $200,000 with OSGrid

Educators save $200,000 with OSGrid

A group of educators has come together to create an enclave on OSGrid, a non-profit grid running on the OpenSim software — and, in so doing, saved themselves around $200,000 compared to what they... 

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Sat, May 21 2011
Army extends MOSES to other researchers

Army extends MOSES to other researchers

MOSES — Military Open Simulator Enterprise Strategy — is an OpenSim-based, 3D, virtual environment platform originally developed by the U.S. Army as an alternative to Second Life Enterprise.... 

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Tue, Apr 19 2011
Webstock 3D to be held in VirtualU

Webstock 3D to be held in VirtualU

Six Boston-area bands are scheduled to perform at Webstock 3D, kicking off the first of a virtual concert series run on Digitell’s VirtualU virtual world platform. The free concert will be held on... 

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Fri, Apr 15 2011
Browser-based platforms report growth

Browser-based platforms report growth

Educators, startup-virtual world operators and individuals looking for opportunities to create their own virtual environments have been flocking to OpenSim over the past few months. But for business customers,... 

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Fri, Mar 25 2011
Paper: OpenSim may help fashion industry

Paper: OpenSim may help fashion industry

Using tools built on the OpenSim virtual world platform could transform fashion design, Fashion Research Institute, Inc. CEO Shenley Winkler said in a paper released yesterday, by saving money, reducing... 

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Tue, Feb 15 2011
China school programs in 3D

China school programs in 3D

Changchun is a city in northeast China known for its auto plants. David Deeds “We’re the Detroit of China,” said David Deeds, IT manager and teacher at the Changchun American International School.... 

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Wed, Feb 9 2011
Arizona school goes virtual with VenueGen

Arizona school goes virtual with VenueGen

Chris Lineberry is the principal of the Florence Virtual Academy in Florence, Arizona, about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix, serving students in grades six through 12 who live in the district – or anywhere... 

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Sat, Oct 16 2010
UK to teach citizenship with OpenSim

UK to teach citizenship with OpenSim

Teesside University is piloting a quarter million pound (US $400,000) citizenship education project in OpenSim this year. The project, which will eventually involve as many as 900 high students in the... 

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Thu, Oct 14 2010
Youth charity moves to OpenSim mini-grid

Youth charity moves to OpenSim mini-grid

This month, the Youth for Christ charity celebrates its second year in Second Life. But the big party will be held in OpenSim, the charity’s new home. The reason? The Second Life Teen Grid, where... 

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Tue, Oct 12 2010
NASA’s Moon World moves to OpenSim

NASA’s Moon World moves to OpenSim

NASA’s OpenSim-based Moon World — a quarter-million-dollar project –  will go live on December 1, allowing students to experience what it’s like to live and work on a NASA moon... 

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Fri, Oct 8 2010
Treatment center gets $865,000 for OpenSim project

Treatment center gets $865,000 for OpenSim project

• Clients three times as likely to complete virtual treatment program as face-to-face program • Outcomes ‘as good or better’ as at physical treatment centers • Private OpenSim grid... 

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Thu, Sep 30 2010
How Club One lowers your weight and BP virtually

How Club One lowers your weight and BP virtually

In a recent post, I wrote about how the Club One Fitness program in Second Life helped me lose 20 pounds, lower my blood pressure, and make permanent changes to my lifestyle. A skeptic might read that... 

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Fri, Sep 24 2010
Cancer charity turns to OpenSim

Cancer charity turns to OpenSim

Update: The Chat-World project has moved back to Second Life. According to the Laura Crane Trust, cancer is the most common form of non-accidental death in teenagers and young adults in the UK. The Trust... 

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Thu, Jun 17 2010
ScienceSim demos 1,000 avatars on a sim

ScienceSim demos 1,000 avatars on a sim

The Intel-backed ScienceSim grid, running the open source OpenSim virtual world server software, ran a demo with over 1,000 avatars in a single region. Watch video here. “We broke 1,000 with plenty... 

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Tue, May 18 2010
Do House: consumer research in OpenSim

Do House: consumer research in OpenSim

Japanese consumer research firm Do House Inc. announced today that it has begun conducting consumer interviews in OpenSim, using a Web-based viewer from Tokyo-based 3Di Inc. The 3Di Web viewer, which is... 

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Thu, Apr 22 2010
Non-profits experiment with grid payments

Non-profits experiment with grid payments

Virtual worlds run by non-profit organizations focus on providing a low-cost platform for other non-profits and individuals. To many in the non-profit sector, in-world economies belong on for-profit grids... 

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Sat, Dec 19 2009
Virtual worlds cut commutes

Virtual worlds cut commutes

Bernhard Drax (s Draxtor Despres in Second Life) has produced a nice report about using virtual worlds to cut down telecommuting time — and create a greener work place. AKPC_IDS += "33414,"; ...

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Sat, Nov 14 2009
Firm prototypes HQ in Second Life

Firm prototypes HQ in Second Life

Amsterdam-based architecture firm Dedato has moved into its new headquarters — a building originally prototyped in Second Life. Rakeem Buaku, who coordinated the virtual construction, called the... 

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Thu, Aug 20 2009
ThinkBalm’s 3D Reception Area

ThinkBalm’s 3D Reception Area

Analyst firm ThinkBalm has created a virtual reception room for Web site visitors, using the 3DXplorer virtual worlds platform. ThinkBalm is  an independent industry analyst firm focused on work-related... 

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Tue, Jul 28 2009
Crescendo architects virtually

Crescendo architects virtually

Crescendo Design, an architecture firm based in Madison, Wisconsin, is doing some innovative work in virtual worlds, using the OpenSim offspring RealXtend. Image courtesy of Crescendo Designs. “The... 

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Fri, Jul 17 2009
UK university offers OpenSim design course

UK university offers OpenSim design course

Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland will become the first UK university to offer a comprehensive virtual world creation course, the institution announced this summer. The course, available to fourth-year... 

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Wed, Jul 15 2009
IBM: four OpenSim regions for $50,000

IBM: four OpenSim regions for $50,000

The $50,000 price tag might scare off smaller customers, but IBM’s Lotus Sametime 3D product is designed to help large enterprises start holding virtual meetings. The product – released at the... 

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Fri, May 22 2009
Singapore fund manager to hold virtual annual meeting

Singapore fund manager to hold virtual annual meeting

The company is in Singapore. The owners are in Thailand, Moscow, and Shanghai. What’s the most convenient location for the annual corporate meeting? Hint: it’s got dragons, a spaceport, and... 

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Fri, May 15 2009
Hollywood producer wrestles with OpenSim

Hollywood producer wrestles with OpenSim

Mike Joyce – that’s Michael R. Joyce on imdb.com – is a Hollywood producer. You may have heard of him from such projects as “Battlestar Galactica” and “Jewel of the Nile.” “The kind... 

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Wed, May 13 2009
Do you need a virtual world?

Do you need a virtual world?

Few companies today actually need a virtual world — but yours could be one of them. Here’s how to tell. Are you in the education business? Take for example, Tom Hood, president of the Maryland... 

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Fri, Apr 17 2009
3D Worlds Developer Launches Online Magazine

3D Worlds Developer Launches Online Magazine

According to Ralf Haifisch, a virtual worlds developer, what we’re seeing now is the emergence of a new Internet. And he knows what’s he’s talking about – he was the first one in his... 

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Wed, Apr 15 2009
Folk Cafe Does OpenSim Right

Folk Cafe Does OpenSim Right

If you want to see how the OpenSim platform works in practice – and who doesn’t want a glipse of the next generation of the Internet? – you might be tempted to come to the OSGrid, the largest... 

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Tue, Apr 14 2009
Folk Cafe Does OpenSim Right: How to Visit

Folk Cafe Does OpenSim Right: How to Visit

If you’re looking to see what a good OpenSim deployment looks like, I strongly recommend the Folk Cafe and the surrounding German village region on the Grid4us OpenSim grid. How to get in: If you... 

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