University W has researched X amongst Y people and found Z. Gasp!

Filed under: News and developments, Research by Digado

BREAKING NEWS
The University of W has conducted a survey amongst X residents/people within the Y demographic and found Z. Virtual World analyst/University professor A is not surprised by the outcome saying:
“Result Z has been a trend for the past 12 months, and our research confirms this. However Result Z counters the predictions made in article [...]

Fictional Narrative Evolved (part 1)

Filed under: Research, Trends by Digado

 
One of my key interests in virtual reality, or virtual environments is the way it is able communicate an experience, linear immersive experiences (otherwise known as stories) in particular. We use stories for more than entertainment, stories hold tremendous value for social progress and preservation of culture (history), the industry (advertising), creativity and inspiration (fiction), [...]

Client versus Browser Part II

Filed under: News and developments, Research by Digado

Is the future of virtual worlds inside the browser, or will the rich, client-based become the dominant model for virtual worlds? Not even a week after a lengthy discussion on my previous post on this topic, some major clues arrived to the scene as to how this ‘war over the metaverse’ is about to unfold [...]

Communities Explained

Filed under: News and developments, Research by Digado

From the creator of ‘The machine is us/ing us‘ comes ‘An anthropological introduction to YouTube’. A very interesting look into online communities, and what creates this online ‘bonding’. In a very visual presentation Dr. Michael Wesch explains the Library of Congress the need to rethink some of our fundamental aspects of life as the web [...]

The Long Tail of Social Context

Filed under: Research by Digado

 
I came across an excellent post by Jonas Karlsson cleverly titled “I’m in ur browser, chatting in 3D” (A pun on the internet-famous LOLcats). The topic of the post is the recent flood of 3D virtual worlds running inside the browser (Lively/WebFlock), providing very little besides the option to ‘interact’ with other users through chat. [...]

MTV hearts Virtual Worlds

Filed under: Research, Reviews by Digado

MTV and virtual worlds have a ‘thing going on’. Ever since 2006 their name frequently pops up in the media in connection to persistent online worlds. In 2006, the infamous ‘Laguna Beach‘ world was launched as a virtual world based on the Laguna Beach MTV series. But the MTV involvement with virtual environments just [...]

Lively anything but lively

Filed under: Research, Reviews by Digado

Take two on Googles virtual world Lively. I had to try again at home, hoping this time the customization functions would not fail me. Using Vista and Firefox 3 I expected even more problems but apart from having the installer crash once this time I did get to experience the full ‘Livelyness’ of the application.
The [...]

SL Interface Constest: The Finals

Filed under: News and developments, Research by Digado

Last week I posted on Dusan Writers contest to re-design the interface for the Second Life Client. Today Dusan announced the finalists and I’m happy to say I’m one of them with my ‘less = more’ design! I was excited and honoured to compete with 5 other excellent suggestions for improvement. Dusan created a complete [...]