The virtual world Second Life has been around a while now and has built up a bit of a following. When you connect up you appear as an avatar which you can customise with clothes and tools. You can then move around the sims, as the environment is called, and communicate with other avatars.
Like real life there are many things you can do in this environment and one of them is you can collaborate with others. I have my own Second Life avatar and I have been to several functions in Second Life myself ranging from educational courses, I have both been a teacher and a pupil, as well as several business type collaborative meetings. Second Life has a voice facility which can be used if you have the equipment.
Second Life has a couple of problems at the moment. The recession and some competition. The management style of Linden Labs (LL), the company that runs Second Life, also has some issues with many people complaining about the way they make their money. As LL try and retain their margins they are alienating the people that actually make it work. Also, like many high tech firms in the US, politics are brought into their work and many things are banned. This also causes issues for those not in the US but bound by US rules. This aids any competition as people want to tell them to stick it but can’t because no other virtual world at this moment has anything like the flexibility and the resources, by the users, invested in it. It will be a long time before any company threatens LLs near monopoly because of this investment.
Which makes it an ideal place to set up for your own collaboration projects as many are doing now. If you are simply using the system just create a free account and away you go. Log in and teleport your avatar to your agreed meeting spot and follow the instructions of your host. If you are hosting the system you need a bit more than that as you need to set up the venue and ensure that the presentation is prepared. All this can also be performed by a free account if you know what you are doing. So it can all be done on the cheap.
I actually see Second Life as a first generation virtual world. Once others start generating world with better clients and better facilities for business use then online collaboration will take off with business paying to have these services the same we they pay for conference facilities and online collaboration space now. Google experimented with their own virtual world called Lively which has now closed. Others are experimenting now and IBM have released their software called OpenSim where you can host your own virtual world. Opensim is compatible with Second Life so many items created in Second Life can be ported, which helps as nobody wants to start from scratch but Second Life’s proprietary protection stops many items from being copied. Bear in mind that you can host your own OpenSim on your own servers at home or on a hosted domain. Companies as well as individuals can build their own virtual worlds as well and I know a couple who have so they can get away from US control. Of course at the moment they are not all linked up but like the internet opened up the world soon you will be able to take at least your basic avatar to other sims to participate in what goes on there. Won’t be long before someone wants to regulate that to enforce their rules on it like China and the US but that is a story for the future.
All these virtual world will improve as computer power gets better until soon many of us will never have to leave our own homes and once we get holograms and home based interfaces then no matter where you are you can interact with others no matter what country or soon what planet or spacecraft. There are many advantages of using computers this way and human ingenuity will make this happen sooner rather than later.
Think about it. The options are endless. No longer will the UK be stuck with a third world education system. We can all attend virtual classes where we will actually be taught something. We can have massive conferences such as, *cough*, global warming conferences without anyone hypocritically burning any CO2 to get there, Yeah Right! You can even have political meetings like council meetings on line where voters can attend and comment. All this can be done now with Second Life. Think what we will have when the next generation is here. I wish it would hurry up.
Virtual worlds
The virtual world Second Life has been around a while now and has built up a bit of a following. When you connect up you appear as an avatar which you can customise with clothes and tools. You can then move around the sims, as the environment is called, and communicate with other avatars.
Like real life there are many things you can do in this environment and one of them is you can collaborate with others. I have my own Second Life avatar and I have been to several functions in Second Life myself ranging from educational courses, I have both been a teacher and a pupil, as well as several business type collaborative meetings. Second Life has a voice facility which can be used if you have the equipment.
Second Life has a couple of problems at the moment. The recession and some competition. The management style of Linden Labs (LL), the company that runs Second Life, also has some issues with many people complaining about the way they make their money. As LL try and retain their margins they are alienating the people that actually make it work. Also, like many high tech firms in the US, politics are brought into their work and many things are banned. This also causes issues for those not in the US but bound by US rules. This aids any competition as people want to tell them to stick it but can’t because no other virtual world at this moment has anything like the flexibility and the resources, by the users, invested in it. It will be a long time before any company threatens LLs near monopoly because of this investment.
Which makes it an ideal place to set up for your own collaboration projects as many are doing now. If you are simply using the system just create a free account and away you go. Log in and teleport your avatar to your agreed meeting spot and follow the instructions of your host. If you are hosting the system you need a bit more than that as you need to set up the venue and ensure that the presentation is prepared. All this can also be performed by a free account if you know what you are doing. So it can all be done on the cheap.
I actually see Second Life as a first generation virtual world. Once others start generating world with better clients and better facilities for business use then online collaboration will take off with business paying to have these services the same we they pay for conference facilities and online collaboration space now. Google experimented with their own virtual world called Lively which has now closed. Others are experimenting now and IBM have released their software called OpenSim where you can host your own virtual world. Opensim is compatible with Second Life so many items created in Second Life can be ported, which helps as nobody wants to start from scratch but Second Life’s proprietary protection stops many items from being copied. Bear in mind that you can host your own OpenSim on your own servers at home or on a hosted domain. Companies as well as individuals can build their own virtual worlds as well and I know a couple who have so they can get away from US control. Of course at the moment they are not all linked up but like the internet opened up the world soon you will be able to take at least your basic avatar to other sims to participate in what goes on there. Won’t be long before someone wants to regulate that to enforce their rules on it like China and the US but that is a story for the future.
All these virtual world will improve as computer power gets better until soon many of us will never have to leave our own homes and once we get holograms and home based interfaces then no matter where you are you can interact with others no matter what country or soon what planet or spacecraft. There are many advantages of using computers this way and human ingenuity will make this happen sooner rather than later.
Think about it. The options are endless. No longer will the UK be stuck with a third world education system. We can all attend virtual classes where we will actually be taught something. We can have massive conferences such as, *cough*, global warming conferences without anyone hypocritically burning any CO2 to get there, Yeah Right! You can even have political meetings like council meetings on line where voters can attend and comment. All this can be done now with Second Life. Think what we will have when the next generation is here. I wish it would hurry up.