Tag Archives: Second Life

The hypergrid’s not for everyone

The hypergrid’s not for everyone

Ever since Crista Lopes, professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine invented the hypergrid in 2009, people have been debating whether grids should be on or off the hypergrid. On the... 

Survey: 84% of OpenSim users would recommend platform

Survey: 84% of OpenSim users would recommend platform

OpenSim users overwhelmingly said that they would “absolutely” recommend the platform to others. Out of 114 people who responded to our survey this week and answered this question, 84 percent... 

Virtual designs lack graphical appeal

Virtual designs lack graphical appeal

The power of first impressions is either ignored or overlooked. Perhaps the poor state of design in Second Life is due to myopia—no one can see his or her own face objectively. A stroll around the Aloft... 

Practical guide to virtual education

Practical guide to virtual education

A new book by Coventry University professor Maggi Savin-Baden offers practical advice to educators interested in virtual worlds. A Practical Guide to Using Second Life in Higher Education. According to... 

Community in Distributed Spaces

Community in Distributed Spaces

I have lost track of the number of times over the last few weeks that I have been somewhere in the OpenSim grid and heard someone say “This is like Second Life in the early days – I love it.” ... 

Initiative: free land for educators migrating from Second Life

Initiative: free land for educators migrating from Second Life

The Immersive Education Initiative, a Boston-based non-profit coalition, announced today that it will offer free land, and free migration services, for educators working in Second Life’s Teen Grid. Aaron... 

OpenSim rolls out mesh in one day

OpenSim rolls out mesh in one day

Just a day after Second Life launched its mesh beta, OpenSim already has experimental mesh in the latest test release, and people have begun trying the technology out on OSGrid’s experimental Danger... 

Trends in the Virtual Worlds Industry

Trends in the Virtual Worlds Industry

How do you keep up with industry trends?  You hear from the people setting the trends.  On September 24th, FountainBlue held its annual virtual worlds conference on Cisco’s campus in Milpitas, CA. ... 

Vendors offer Second Life-to-OpenSim migration

Vendors offer Second Life-to-OpenSim migration

UPDATE: TalentRaspel has lowered its price for exporting Second Life regions. It now starts at US $273 (200 Euros)  per region, and is based on the complexity of the build. Vendors are offering full-region... 

Would you want to live for free — under a virtual billboard?

Would you want to live for free — under a virtual billboard?

There’s talk out there in the metaverse of a project to offer free, advertising-supported land in OpenSim. I’ll provide more details as the project gets closer to reality, but there already... 

A Manifesto for Educators in Search of Life After Second Life

A Manifesto for Educators in Search of Life After Second Life

When I first rezzed in January 2007, educators were investing heavily in Second Life, both its Teen and Main Grids. Throughout the “hype” era that ended the next  year, and amid the inevitable... 

Advice to educators

Advice to educators

Today, Linden Lab announced that the price of land for educators and non-profits will double in January. As a result, the price differential between Second Life land and OpenSim becomes even more significant. You... 

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... 

How I lost 20 pounds in Second Life

How I lost 20 pounds in Second Life

Today, my scale shows that I’ve lost 20 pounds over the past three months. In addition, today at my doctor’s office, I learned that, my blood pressure was down, and so was my body mass index. But... 

How to get rid of ‘real life’

How to get rid of ‘real life’

I’m ending it. Beset by criticism on all sides — okay, just one side — I am officially going cold turkey on “real life.” The phrase, that is, not the living itself. Ron Blechner I’ve... 

Cancer charity back to Second Life

Cancer charity back to Second Life

Last week, Laura Crane Trust, a non-profit which provides support to teenage and young adult cancer patients in the U.K., had decided to build its virtual world in OpenSim. Jonathan Tyreman, the charity’s... 

Lindens reverse course on teens

Lindens reverse course on teens

Last month, Linden Lab announced that the Teen Grid was shutting down at the end of the year, sending many educators into a panic at the prospect of losing their virtual projects in the middle of the school... 

Trends in the Virtual Worlds Industry

Trends in the Virtual Worlds Industry

How do you keep up with industry trends?  You hear from the people setting the trends. On September 24th, FountainBlue held its annual virtual worlds conference on Cisco’s campus in Milpitas, CA. The... 

Daden to build genetic screening lab in Second Life

Daden to build genetic screening lab in Second Life

Press Release: Daden selected for new genetic screening virtual application Virtual world solution specialists Daden have been awarded a contract to create the laboratory functionality to enable scenario-based... 

FireSabre to help educators move content to OpenSim

FireSabre to help educators move content to OpenSim

Press Release: Virtual World Campus for OpenSim HOUSTON, TEXAS  — FireSabre Consulting, a virtual world developer focused on educational clients, responded this week to the announcement by Linden Lab... 

OpenSim to have mesh soon after Second Life

OpenSim to have mesh soon after Second Life

The lack of mesh imports has long been a problem for enterprise users of OpenSim and Second Life. But Second Life is about to start open beta testing of mesh — and OpenSim won’t be far behind. According... 

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... 

BU to hold diabetes study in Second Life

BU to hold diabetes study in Second Life

Press release: Wiecha Receives Grant to Study Face-to-Face vs Virtual Health Education for African-American Women BOSTON — Boston University School of Medicine Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs... 

Sex world recruits Emerald team

Sex world recruits Emerald team

The adult-themed Utherverse virtual world platform is in discussions with former developers of the controversial Emerald Viewer for Second Life, the company announced. Prior to recent scandals involving... 

Avoid disruptions with virtual events

Avoid disruptions with virtual events

The world is about to turn nasty. I don’t mean the world is about to turn nasty on you, personally, but its going to be a much harder world to do business in, as economic disruptions throughout... 

We all live in a virtual world

We all live in a virtual world

Mike Treder, the managing director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, recently asked a loaded question: If you could live in a world that was just the way you wanted it to be, with... 

Utherverse launches casino for US customers

Utherverse launches casino for US customers

Utherverse, a proprietary virtual world platform known for its adult content, has launched a virtual casino targeting US customers. While the winnings cannot be converted into cash today, that might change... 

Renting or owning your OpenSim land?

Renting or owning your OpenSim land?

Hosting providers with previous experience in Second Life are bringing some Second Life terminology with them into OpenSim. For example, Coral Estates draws a distinction between “owning” a... 

Rooms and regions: pros and cons

Rooms and regions: pros and cons

Business users choosing virtual environments usually focus on particular features — does it support mesh imports? Are there in-world editing tools? How good is the voice? Is the a web viewer? However,... 

OpenSim business roadmap: past, present and future

OpenSim business roadmap: past, present and future

My company is a small, enterprise user of virtual worlds. Over the past year, we’ve used them for meetings with partners, new hires, internal collaboration, and external business networking. There... 

Second Life discontinues enterprise platform

Second Life discontinues enterprise platform

Update: “As Philip has mentioned, Linden Lab has discontinued the Second Life Enterprise development program,” Adam Nelson, Linden Lab’s Executive Director of Monetization, told Hypergrid Business.... 

Viewer 2 a net gain for OpenSim

Viewer 2 a net gain for OpenSim

The latest versions of OpenSim support Second Life Viewer 2 and, over the next couple of months, grids and hosting providers will be upgrading their OpenSim server software to make Viewer 2 usable everywhere... 

How to save Second Life’s Teen Grid

How to save Second Life’s Teen Grid

The TeenGrid has low traffic compared to Second Life’s mainland, and its primary renters — educators — pay half of what Second Life’s other customers do for land. It makes sense... 

CyberWatch to train faculty in Second Life

CyberWatch to train faculty in Second Life

Press Release: CyberWatch Launches Virtual World Environment for Learning, Training and Global Meetings Second Life environment will extend services to national members in virtual space. Washington, DC.,... 

Rosedale promises meshes; Teen Grid to close

Rosedale promises meshes; Teen Grid to close

Philip Rosedale who recently returned to the helm of Linden Lab, gave his first major speech of his second term as CEO on Saturday with a couple of bold announcements — Second Life was definitely... 

The business of virtual sex

The business of virtual sex

Would be sim-commerce millionaires gathered at the Hypergrid Entrepreneurs Group meeting Thursday night on the Trombly Grid to discuss recent innovations in OpenSim hosting, currency systems, and selling... 

Why virtual worlds suck for business — and some solutions

Why virtual worlds suck for business — and some solutions

Wagner Au and Gwyneth Llewelyn have recently posted thought-provoking pieces about how to make virtual worlds more engaging. Au proposed an achievement system to encourage new users to make friends and... 

Using machinima for real business

Using machinima for real business

Editor’s introduction: Machinima refers to animations filmed inside virtual worlds or video games. Machimina is cheaper and faster than the alternatives — traditional filming using real actors... 

Qarl Linden’s layoff is bad news for OpenSim

Qarl Linden’s layoff is bad news for OpenSim

Linden Lab developer Qarl Linden reported that he was laid off yesterday. The developer — known as Karl Stiefvater outside of Second Life — was responsible for such innovations as scupties... 

Media-on-a-prim coming to OpenSim in two months

Media-on-a-prim coming to OpenSim in two months

Earlier this year, Linden Lab released Second Life Viewer 2 which, though it had a large number of usability problems, also offered one huge advantage for business and education users: the ability to put... 

Virtual world lead generation

Virtual world lead generation

Ever since Second Life made virtual world a common reality, people have been trying to find ways to utilize this new-found platform for unimaginable reasons. Soon enough other companies cropped providing... 

The grid is another country

The grid is another country

For the past year that I’ve been attending meetings in Second Life and OpenSim, I’ve been thinking of the virtual platforms as another kind of collaboration tool. I compare it to Web-based... 

Founder returns to Linden helm

Founder returns to Linden helm

Press release: Linden Lab Announces Management Changes SAN FRANCISCO, June 24 — Linden Lab®, creator of 3D virtual world Second Life®, announced today that company founder Philip Rosedale... 

VenueGen Offers Free Migration for Second Life Business Customers

VenueGen Offers Free Migration for Second Life Business Customers

Press Release: VenueGen Offers Free Migration Solution for Second Life Business Customers RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC- –  VenueGen, provider of a 3-D virtual meeting platform for collaborative... 

Citizant, Cranial Tap team up to help agencies visualize data in 3D

Citizant, Cranial Tap team up to help agencies visualize data in 3D

Press Release: Citizant and Cranial Tap Partner to Develop 3-D Environments for Collaboration, Training and Data Visualization In Federal Agencies Second Life environments will add new dimension to... 

Second Life cuts staff, promises Web viewer

Second Life cuts staff, promises Web viewer

Linden Lab announced 30 percent staff cuts today, and also promised a Web-based viewer for Second Life. While a Web-based viewer would be a significant benefit for companies interested in using virtual... 

Paper: Second Life, OpenSim best for education

Paper: Second Life, OpenSim best for education

The Second Life and OpenSim platform are the best bet for educators, according to a white paper released today by virtual worlds research firm Daden Limited. “It is the only one offering reasonable... 

How open are virtual worlds?

How open are virtual worlds?

There are three ways in which a particular platform or service can be considered to be “open.” One is whether it runs on multiple systems, or is locked into a system from one particular vendor. For... 

Resilience during virtual disasters

Resilience during virtual disasters

Virtual worlds have been offered up in recent weeks as alternatives to physical events because they are disaster-proof. No volcano or tsunami can take down the whole Internet. And virtual events are particularly... 

UK Company wins U.S. Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge

UK Company wins U.S. Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge

Press Release: UK Company wins U.S. Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge Birmingham, UK — UK Virtual Worlds solution provider Daden Limited has won first place and second place prize respectively in...