Newbie Tips: Basic Skills in Second Life

Jokay Wollongong (jokay.com.au) and Sean McDunnough have put together a nice collection of slides called “Newbie Tips: Basic Skills in Second Life.” It’s well worth a view if you are just getting oriented in SL.

VoIP in Second Life

Brian Boyko of Network Performance Daily reports that Linden Labs will soon begin “a by-invitation technical trial available to about 1000 simultaneous audio users, after which a public beta will be available. VoIP is expected to become a standard feature in future versions of Second Life, (emphasis mine) and the roadmap includes letting users eventually “design” the sound of their voice much like they currently design the current look of their avatars.”

VoIP in Second Life will also project sound in three dimensions by calculating distance and direction to other avatars. One can imagine even more sophisticated acoustics in future releases. The codec will be Siren 14/G.722.1 Annex C, developed by Polycom.

Second Life to Open Source Server Platform

At the Platforms and Technologies Panel at VW07 Joe Miller, VP for Platform and Technology Development at Linden Lab announced:

• We’ll be open-sourcing the back end so sims can run anywhere on any machine whether trusted by us or not.
• We’ll be delivering assets in a totally different method that won’t be such a burden on the simulators.
• Very soon we’ll be updating simulators to support multiple versions so that we don’t have to update the entire Grid at once.
• We’ll be using open protocols.
• SL cannot truly succeed as long as one company controls the Grid.

Source: 3pointD.com

v-learning and v-business

When Irving Wladowsky-Berger talks, I listen.

As a pioneer at IBM, he played a lead role in helping Lou Gerstner take the company out of its death spiral in the 80s. He was also instrumental in formulating IBM’s internet and e-business strategy, pushing the stodgy company to embrace heretical doctrines as “Linux”

Wladowsky-Berger, IBM’s Vice President of Technology Strategy and Innovation, is now embracing virtual worlds and second life.

“We are poised for the next major step. We can now bring these exciting capabilities, already in wide use in science, engineering, defense and consumer applications, into the worlds of business, education, health care and government. This was the step that led to IBM’s e-business strategy ten years ago. Could we be at the onset of v-business? Based on my initial experiences in Second Life, we are all in for an incredible ride. “

In this blog we will be tracking metaverses and gaming in education. Put on your seat belts.