Clipmarks | Virtual worlds Clips

Affordances in virtual worlds

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:26:42 GMT

clipped by: morizgupte

I recently attended the 3DTLC conference, as I reported before. Chuck Hamilton presented on his (IBM’s) take on affordances on virtual worlds. Given that I’ve opined before, I asked for more detail on their take, and he was kind enough to forward to me their definitions. I like what they’ve done, but it led me to try to refine what I see as some confounding (they actually separate several of their 10 into two separate ones), and try to capture what I think are core, what can be enabled, and what then arise from those capabilities.

By being active, you can also enable practice opportunities such as simulations, scenarios, and games. If agency includes not just interaction, but creation, and you have social, you can have co-creation (one of the most exciting opportunities for informal learning). The persistence of your activity creates the opportunity to capture traces for reflection, e.g. ‘after-action review’.

Power game online

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:11:21 GMT

clipped by: acuresttm
clipper's remarks: Power game online
# boy
# Gaming Industry
# Gaming Lifestyle
# Gaming News
# Golf
# Hockey
# Horror Games
# Kids Games
# Mature Games
# MMORPG

Clip Source: www.psychoband.com

Power Game

Power game online

Social Bookmarking

Clip Source: www.psychoband.com

Guns Without the Swords

Clip Source: www.psychoband.com

Preview of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: All the Spandex You Want

Clip Source: www.psychoband.com

Clip Source: www.psychoband.com

Wii Firefighter Game Out

[Video]

Clip Source: www.psychoband.com

Suikoden Review by psychoband.com

Tags: power game online# boy # gaming industry # gaming

Psychotherapy News Sept 21st 09

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:32:17 GMT

clipped by: glossop

Clip Source: www.garygraye.com

Psychotherapy News Sept 21st 09

Is there a recent psychotherapy that stresses positive thinking …

I believe a while ago I heard about a new psychotherapy based on the old-fashioned idea of accentuating the positive. Do you know what that therapy might be.

Abstract: Supportive psychotherapy for perinatal depression …

Background: We sought to determine patient factors associated with adherence and response to a manualized supportive psychotherapy designed for pregnant and postpartum women with major depressive disorder.

The Promise and Risk of Virtual Psychotherapy

A slew of new studies show virtual worlds are more effective than traditional therapy in battling depression. But what are the downsides to sitting on the virtual couch?

What Nursing Home Residents Talk About in Psychotherapy

Avatars United - Facebook for your virtual you

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:42:50 GMT

clipped by: mvonallmen

Clip Source: www.avatarsunited.com

http://www.avatarsunited.com/

We Appreciate Your Feedback!

Welcome to the world’s most open community for MMOs!

" It's like Facebook for your virtual personas "

Massively

" What makes AU neat is the fact that it’s got a veritable kitchen sink of features for you to play with "

Avatars United is a website that brings avatars from all virtual worlds together. The project is built in recognition of the fact that strong bonds and close friendships actually can be tied within virtual spaces.

Student Perceptions of a Course Taught in Second Life

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:42:04 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: Catheryn Cheal

Clip Source: innovateonline.info

Catheryn Cheal describes student reactions to a course she and Vagner Whitehead taught in Second Life. The course required students to research a topic about virtual worlds, write a paper, and illustrate their findings by building an environment in Second Life. Negative student responses to the course coupled with the observation that students tended dismiss work in Second Life as "play" led Cheal to consider why and how student perceptions influence learning in virtual worlds. Cheal discusses how Second Life's resemblance to a game may shape student perceptions and explores how the course could be better designed to help students see the educational value of Second Life.

Innovation: Physics brings realism to virtual reality

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:21:32 GMT

clipped by: KoFish

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Innovation: Physics brings realism to virtual reality

The latest multi-core processors and some smart software allow techniques used by physicists and engineers to simulate the real world in extreme detail to be used to create virtual worlds governed by real physics, rather than the simplified versions used today.

Tags: computer graphics, computer science, physics, simulation, water, virtual, moore's law, matrix, raytracing

Interactive Data Eyeglasses

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:46:36 GMT

clipped by: rj3sp

Clip Source: www.popsci.com

Heads-Up Display Embedded In Glasses

A German company turns regular glasses into an eye-motion-controlled PDA screen

Clip Source: www.fraunhofer.de

Interactive Data Eyeglasses

The data eyeglasses can read from the engineer’s eyes which details he needs to see on the building plans. A CMOS chip with an eye tracker in the microdisplay makes this possible. The eyeglasses are connected to a PDA, display information and respond to commands.

For car designers, secret agents in the movies and jet fighter pilots, data eyeglasses – also called head-mounted displays, or HMDs for short – are everyday objects. They transport the wearer into virtual worlds or provide the user with data from the real environment. At present these devices can only display information. “We want to make the eyeglasses bidirectional and interactive so that new areas of application can be opened up,” says Dr. Michael Scholles, business unit manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS in Dresden.

Tags: interactive, eyeglasses, display, fraunhofer, technology, cmos, eye,

The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online

Wed, 27 May 2009 12:28:50 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: A worthwhile article , KK explores the newly arising power of social networks, adhocracy and the newly emergent cyberculture. Though I do not resonate with his use of the term 'socialism', a deep forray into the web event of collaboration provides a different view of the potential for a change we all hope for. Open source is definitely the way to go.

Clip Source: www.wired.com

We're not talking about your grandfather's socialism. In fact, there is a long list of past movements this new socialism is not. It is not class warfare. It is not anti-American; indeed, digital socialism may be the newest American innovation. While old-school socialism was an arm of the state, digital socialism is socialism without the state. This new brand of socialism currently operates in the realm of culture and economics, rather than government—for now.

Instead of gathering on collective farms, we gather in collective worlds. Instead of state factories, we have desktop factories connected to virtual co-ops. Instead of sharing drill bits, picks, and shovels, we share apps, scripts, and APIs. Instead of faceless politburos, we have faceless meritocracies, where the only thing that matters is getting things done. Instead of national production, we have peer production. Instead of government rations and subsidies, we have a bounty of free goods.

Tags: collectivist society, kk, web

The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online

Sun, 24 May 2009 12:38:58 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: From the article:
"We underestimate the power of our tools to reshape our minds. Did we really believe we could collaboratively build and inhabit virtual worlds all day, every day, and not have it affect our perspective? The force of online socialism is growing. Its dynamic is spreading beyond electrons—perhaps into elections."

Interesting thought.

Clip Source: www.wired.com

The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online

digital socialism is socialism without the state

This new brand of socialism currently operates in the realm of culture and economics, rather than government—for now

The Old
Socialism

The New
Socialism

It is not an ideology

It is a design frontier and a particularly fertile space for innovation.

I. SHARING

II. COOPERATION

III. COLLABORATION

IV. COLLECTIVISM

decentralized public coordination

can solve problems and create things

bigger than

imagined

Tags: internet, online, social networking

How Cellphones Will Enhance Reality

Fri, 22 May 2009 08:29:49 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: An application called Enkin developed by two German researchers for phones using Google's Android operating system provides a straightforward example. It acts like an enhanced satnav system, helping you to find nearby services or points of interest.

Nokia's Mobile Augmented Reality Applications project does a similar thing, drawing its annotations from known points of interest in the satnav software found in Nokia smartphones.

And now Nokia is taking this further by getting your phone to augment people as well as places and objects. Users will be offered a service similar to Google's Latitude software. When the software is running on the phone, icons will appear next to anyone nearby who is also running the program to show if you have mutual friends or common interests.

By seeing what we see and adding to our knowledge of the world around us, AR-capable phones offer real benefits that are only just starting to be explored.

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Despite decades of hype, virtual reality has never really managed to live up to, well, reality. But new applications that blend real and virtual worlds via the medium of a smartphone may have the missing ingredient needed to make the technology take off.

Instead of completely immersing a person in a virtual environment, augmented or mixed reality involves adding digital features to the world they see around them.

Changing the world in this way requires drawing on nearly every faculty the latest smartphones possess – camera, GPS, tilt sensors, digital compass and wireless broadband – to determine exactly what is being looked at, and to find and display relevant extra data.

So what are the advantages of augmenting your reality? Simply, the technology allows you to point a phone at an object and see an enhanced version of reality on the screen – whether a mountain labelled with its height, a person tagged with their name, or celestial objects properly labelled in the night sky.

Tags: cellphones, innovation, smart phone, camera gps, tilt sensors, wireless broadband, digital compass

Online, Death Is Not The Final Word

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:05:00 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

In today's world of always-connected social media, there's no reason to stop interacting online simply because you're dead.

A wave of new companies are starting to offer services such as virtual cemeteries where guests can visit and e-mail alerts set up by funeral homes to remind relatives near and wide about the anniversary of your death.

While such services seem to reach beyond the grave, a growing generation of funeral customers refuse to let death have the final word.

As baby boomers plunged headlong into online social media in recent years, they've become especially interested in upending the traditional philosophy that funerals are really meant for the survivors. After all, this is the "Me Generation."

Funeral directors expect more baby boomers will create a vibrant online life after death.

And with so many boomers active online, Creedy said, they've simply become accustomed to creating virtual worlds to stay in contact with friends, family and co-workers no matter the circumstances.

Tags: online, death, memory, internet, social networking

Trying To Catch A Phish.

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:56:46 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: There are so many dangers out there on the Internet, just like in the world of reality. One cannot be naive. you must always be vigilant and on guard for those who wish to hurt you. The two worlds of virtual reality and reality are mirrors of one another. You would not walk down an unfamiliar street late at night because an inner voice tells you this is unwise. Well even when you are secure feeling safe and sound in your home that inner voice must be trained to warn you of the dangers that lurk on the Internet. Educate yourself, if something seems a bit phishy, it probably is and will do you harm. Please click this link for information and a video about phishing on the Internet.
http://www.thethinkingblue.com/other/phishing.html thinkingblue

Clip Source: www.thethinkingblue.com

CATCH A PHISH!

I just received this email in my yahoo email account from this email address: alert@yahoo-inc.com

making this webpage to alert others who may possess a gullible nature

not only to, NOT PAY ATTENTION TO THIS "ALERT' but also to, TRY AND REPORT IT.

my response

ATTENTION YAHOO.COM
I am forwarding this email to yahoo-inc because I believe something should be done to whomever is phishing/spamming these emails to unsuspecting victims. I know everyone should know, not to give out their information such as ID and password to some email address just because it sounds like it's coming from the official yahoo site. Please let me know what else I can do to help eliminate such threats.

Dear User

We are sorry to inform you that we are currently working on securing our
server, during this process account which is not manually verified by us will
be deleted,

confirm and submit your information

User Name:
User Id:
Password:
Date Of Birth:
Country

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update

Tags: internet, phishing, spamming, email, fraud

Architecture as Psychotic Break

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:11:15 GMT

clipped by: baydawg
clipper's remarks: inanimate objects see, hear, and comment on our interactions with them.

Clip Source: bldgblog.blogspot.com

"the intersection of physical and virtual worlds"

"the practice of immersive and virtual architecture, which spans animation and 3D technologies, digital environments, and questions of materiality...

"Pervasive computing will make inanimate objects see, hear, and comment on our interactions with them. This experience will, in many cases, be indistinguishable from a psychotic break, or from the rituals of classical Animism." That, or it will feel like The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Benjamin Bratton

Tags: architecture, psychosis, sorcerer's apprentice, reality, alternate reality

bionic contact lens

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:47:07 GMT

clipped by: dylin17

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Vision of the future seen in bionic contact lens

Prototype includes light-emitting diodes, basic wiring and a tiny antenna

Thumper has seen the future.

Researchers at the University of Washington have created the prototype for a bionic contact lens — recently tested on rabbits — that includes light-emitting diodes, basic wiring for electronic circuits and even a tiny antenna. Future versions, the scientists believe, could serve as a flexible plastic platform for applications such as surfing the Internet on a virtual screen, immersing gamers in virtual worlds and monitoring patients’ medical conditions.

Vets Use SecondLife to Treat PTSD

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:15:20 GMT

clipped by: paisleyraven
clipper's remarks: Second Life is so much more than a shut in's escape mechanism. It's not just for "gamers". Real world applications abound for SL.

Clip Source: nwn.blogs.com

Monday, March 23, 2009

For Some Combat Veterans, Second Life Used For PTSD Therapy "Working when nothing else has”, Ret. Lt. Col. Says

I wrote about how military veterans were forming large Second Life support groups, in large part as a way of help each other recover from post-traumatic stress disorder.

After all, many vets are uncomfortable about discussing their PTSD in public for many reasons, and are often physically disabled and/or live in remote areas, making it logistically difficult for them to commune in person with fellow service people. In these cases and others, a virtual community of avatars embodied in a shared space seemed like an ideal solution.

Often SL is touted for various real world applications, but by people already vested in the metaverse, so some skepticism is warranted.

more inclined to take at face value an endorsement from someone whose interest isn't virtual worlds per se, but in helping vets.

it's an application we're likely to see more of, in coming years.

Tags: second life, sl, veterans, ptsd, metaverse, sim