The largest grid on the hypergrid will upgrade to the new version of OpenSim on Sunday, October 17. The new version supports media-on-a-prim as well as a more secure hypergrid teleport standard. The new version is OpenSim version 0.7. OSGrid is currently running version 0.6.9. The new 0.7 version ofRead More →

In the wake of the closing of Second Life’s Teen Grid, and the price hike to educators and non-profits, many organizations are considering moving to OpenSim. The first question they usually ask themselves is, “Which grid should we join?” But the more important question should be: “Should we join aRead More →

• 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 operated by ReactionGrid, more stable than Second Life Preferred Family Healthcare, Inc., is a substance abuse treatment organization with headquarters inRead More →

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 backlash against SL by mainstream media, many of us in education defended Linden Lab and its platform.Read More →

Press Release: Quantum3D ExpeditionDI Ushers in New Era of Virtual Immersive Combat Training With Successful Completion of U.S. Joint Forces Command FITE Program Industry’s First Wearable Infantry Training Platform Simulates Squad-Based Close Combat to Improve War Fighter Readiness, Team Communication and Decision-Making Skills SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ —Read More →

Press Release: INXPO and HSM Global Partner to Produce Virtual Complement of World Business Forum 2010 HSM Selects INXPO Virtual Platform for Live Video Webcasts from New York City’s Radio City Music Hall CHICAGO — HSM Global has partnered with INXPO to produce a virtual complement to the annual WorldRead More →

I hate that sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach when I know something has been lost that I care about. After my initial shock of hearing that Linden Labs was dropping education discounts, I immediately communicated with colleagues (most of whom I have never met in person) aboutRead More →

Updated May 4, 2013 Yes, you can run OpenSim for free on your own computer -  you can even run it on a USB stick. But do you want to? Here’s a question — would you run your own Apache Web server for your website, or would you use aRead More →

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 can pay as little as $10 for a single region, but for the highest performance andRead More →

The use of virtual meetings has grown at 80 percent of companies, according to a recent report from Carson Wagonlit Travel’s Travel Management Institute. The report, based on a survey of over 1,800 people in companies around the world, showed that the most popular virtual meeting platforms are video conferences,Read More →

Press Release: Cruise Shipping Virtual Launches Sustainability Event Attendees Call It a Success PRINCETON, N.J. — Cruise Shipping Virtual, an interactive live online event, closed on Tuesday with attendees calling the eco-centric event a success.  This is the second virtual event organized by Cruise Shipping Miami and the first to focus solely on theRead More →

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 and say: “Well, sure, you spent four hours a week in support sessionsRead More →

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 this wasn’t on a diet or exercise plan. I didn’t stop eating carbsRead More →

Press release: NYIT Receives $1 Million Grant from the National Science Foundation Project to Enable Teachers to Use Information and Communications Technologies in the Classroom New York, N.Y.  – New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) was awarded with a grant for $1 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) forRead More →

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. I’ve never been a big fan of the wording “in real life,” but haven’t noticed to what extentRead More →

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 online development coordinator, originally wanted to go with Second Life but decided to recommend OpenSim to theRead More →

I was in a meeting recently with a local business networking groups going on — as I normally do — about virtual worlds. And the other folks at the meeting expressed an interest in using virtual worlds. But they didn’t know how to get started. There were too many options,Read More →

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 year. To partially offset this loss, the Lindens also lowered the minimumRead More →

Press release: INXPO Virtual Platform Hosts Meeting Industry’s Most Innovative Event, Cisco Global Sales Experience (GSX) 2010 Cisco Advances Their Next Generation Event Technologies with Global Sales Experience (GSX) 2010 on the INXPO Virtual Platform CHICAGO — This year, Cisco took the Global Sales Experience (GSX) to another level.  WorkingRead More →

Press release: Teleplace Named a 2010 Top Training and Simulation Company by Military Training Technology Magazine Selected Companies Are ‘Top Performers’ in Military Training Industry REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Teleplace, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise-class immersive learning and collaboration solutions, today announced that Military Training Technology magazine has namedRead More →

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 event featured a session titled “Trends in the Virtual Worlds Industry: An Update on What’s New andRead More →

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 training as part of the University of Leicester’s SWIFT project in Second Life. Based on Daden’s open-source award winning software PIVOTE, theRead More →

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 that the Teen Second Life virtual world product was to be discontinued. FireSabre has launched a program to help K-12 institutionsRead More →

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 to OpenSim core developer Justin Clark-Casey, the OpenSim team will adapt theRead More →

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 is the only UK charity dedicated to funding research specifically into cancers affecting young peopleRead More →

(Image courtesy Sococo.)

Press release: Sococo Debuts Team Space at Demo Fall 2010 New Communication Service For Professionals Demonstrated at Premier Silicon Valley Confab SANTA CLARA, CA — At DEMO Fall 2010, Sococo® debuted Sococo Team Space, a group communication service for distributed teams. Team Space is built on Sococo’s revolutionary communication platform.Read More →

You might be interested to learn that virtual world IMVU has almost 1.4 million fans of their Facebook fan page. Why do they use Facebook? Lots of reasons… It’s a marketing and communications channel: IMVU communicates the latest news, competitions and user updates Their users also use Facebook: So itRead More →

Press release: Utherverse® Digital, the Leader in 3D Virtual World Webâ„¢ Development, Seeks First-Ever Venture Funding at Banff Venture Forum Largest Player in Software for 3D Internet Communities Sets Sights On Raising $20 Million for Broad Range of Marketing/Sponsorship Initiatives Vancouver, BC — Virtual world developer Utherverse Digital Inc. todayRead More →

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 John Wiecha, MD, MPH, in the Department of Family Medicine, has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) American Recovery & Reinvestment ActRead More →

Last week, InWorldz became the second-largest grid running on the OpenSim platform, after shooting up the charts over the course of just the past three months. Between April and September 15, the grid grew from 130 regions to 531 regions. In addition, the grid now has over 15,000 registered usersRead More →

Press Release: UBM Studios Introduces LAUNCHPAD, New Virtual Platform to Launch Products and Product Enhancements CHICAGO — UBM Studios, delivering a complete solution for virtual events and virtual business environments, today introduced LAUNCHPAD, an interactive platform that allows businesses to deliver targeted information and materials directly to key audiences toRead More →

Press Release: Inaugural Virtual Car Show Features Latest Green Car Technologies DETROIT, MI and SAN FRANCISCO, CA– AutoWeek is hosting its first virtual auto show, the AutoWeek Virtual Green Car Show, in partnership with ON24, the global leader in webcasting and virtual events. The live event is scheduled for SeptemberRead More →

Press release Shaker Recruitment Advertising & Communications has strategically partnered with InXpo to provide companies with innovative opportunities to attract talent by hosting their own Virtual Career Fairs. The mutually beneficial relationship enables clients to capitalize on Shaker’s nearly 60 years of recruitment expertise and the advanced technology resources providedRead More →

We don’t normally cover the InWorldz grid — the owners have told us that they don’t consider to be an OpenSim grid — but we have to make an exception this month because of the grid’s stellar performance over the past thirty days. The grid — which runs on aRead More →

Press Release: ProtonMedia Releases ProtoSphere 1.5: First Portable 3-D World for Business Collaboration Now Companies Can Stop Meeting and Start Working with World’s First Portable App for 3-D Virtual Collaboration LANSDALE, Pa.–Today ProtonMedia released ProtoSphere 1.5, a major update of the company’s market-leading virtual collaboration environment for the high-performance workplace.Read More →

Press Release: ON24 Survey Shows Dramatic Preference for Webcasts With Increased Interactivity and Social Networking Next-Generation Platform Enables Greater User Control, New Applications SAN FRANCISCO, CA –  ON24, the global leader in webcasting and virtual event solutions, announced today the results of its recent survey of webcast attendees participating inRead More →

Press Release: Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Support to be Introduced in ProtonMedia’s ProtoSphere LANSDALE, Pa. — ProtonMedia today announced that its ProtoSphere virtual immersive environment for the high-performance workplace will support the new Microsoft Lync Server 2010 (formerly known as Microsoft Office Communication Server). By incorporating ProtoSphere into their MicrosoftRead More →

Press Release: Unicruit Partners with the Big East Virtual Career Fair, Combines Expertise to Deliver 3D Virtual Career Fair on November 10, 2010 Revolutionary approach to recruiting college students and alumni that brings the career fair to the employer and job seeker Chicago, IL — UBM Studios’ Unicruit today announcesRead More →

I regularly hire people I’ve never met in real life. We cover international business, and we like having correspondents and editors around the world — and with today’s economy, we just don’t have the budget to fly out and meet everyone in person. So we make do. We review resumesRead More →

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 an alleged distributed denial of service attack, privacy violations, and a Second Life ban this Wednesday, the Emerald viewer was primarily knownRead More →

Many virtual designers are wary of coming to OpenSim because of worries about content protections. One virtual worlds company is bending over backwards to alleviate these concerns and to create a safe and supportive social environment. But the security comes at a cost, that of heavy restrictions on enterprise users.Read More →

Mark Szelenyi (Image courtesy On24)

Webcasting is seen by many professionals as an ideal marketing and communications tool, offering the effectiveness and efficiency that enterprises require in today’s business environment. These best practices can help you easily run a successful webcast. Maximizing Registration Rates Timing.  Avoid Mondays and Fridays, as these are peak meeting daysRead More →

Press Release: Daden Announce Series of Emerging Technology Seminars Virtual world solution specialists Daden Limited announce the inaugural dates for a programme of half day seminars on emerging technologies. The seminars are designed to help businesses develop a greater understanding of how virtual worlds and chatbots can be used withinRead More →

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 Europe make strikes much more likely. Greece already is as close to aRead More →

Press Release: Unisfair Hosts “The Virtual Classroom: Effective Training on a Virtual Platform” Showcase Event on Sept. 9 Experts from ASTD and The eLearning Guild Outline How to Effectively Train Key Audiences While Significantly Reducing Cost per Attendee Menlo Park, CA — Unisfair, the leading provider of virtual events andRead More →

International Freelancers Day is “the biggest ever (FREE) online conference exclusively for solo professionals.”  Want to know how to effectively generate virtual event registrations? Follow this event’s lead.  They make it easy for you to sign up.  And once you do, they provide you with compelling value well before youRead More →

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 specifications you’d chosen, customized and personalized to meet your every need and fulfill yourRead More →

Press Release: Unisfair launches virtual training environment Shown to reduce costs by up to 95% Companies like IBM, Intuit, Novartis and ACS Are Leveraging the Unisfair Virtual Classroom to Easily and Cost-Effectively Train Customers, Partners and Employees Menlo Park, CA – On September 15, Unisfair, the leading provider of virtualRead More →