Virtual Worlds – Page 100

January 22, 2015January 22, 2015

Forthcoming Events By The Alexandrian Free Library In Second Life

Regular readers of blog may be familiar with the fact that I’m a big fan of Storytelling and I’m happy to see quite a few storytelling groups in virtual worlds. Some are in Second Life, some go beyond Second Life’s borders but they all have a story to tell.

In this post I’m going to list some of the forthcoming events from The Alexandrian Free Library in Second Life. The Alexandrian Free Library is a community based group, supporting libraries in Second Life and their members come from lands such as :

Caledon, Winterfell, Steelhead, New Toulouse, New Babbage, Amatsu Shima, West of Ireland, Steeltopia, Deadwood, Al Andalus & Constantinople.

With that said, on with the forthcoming events :

Sunday, 25 January 2015

Philomena Public Library
Philomena Public Library Weekly Book Discussion Club
3:00pm – 4:00pm SLT
Where: Philomena Public Library
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bruda%20Plateau/15/38/57

Description:

A 1903 novel by Frank Norris set in the wheat speculation trading pits at the Chicago Board of Trade Building. Aspects of love, marriage and wealth are included. We get a glimpse of urban life in the early 1900’s.

You are invited to attend the informal discussion. We often assemble in 1900 – 1920 period clothing. We meet over tea and often talk over other topics as well. All are welcome to attend.

Reading Schedule:
January 25th: Chapters VII and VIII
February 1st: Chapters IX, X and Conclusion

A copy of the book can be found in the Town of Philomena Public Library.

Sunday, 25 January 2015

Philomena Public Library
Philomena Public Library – Oral Reading
4:00pm – 4:30pm SLT (immediately following the weekly Book Discussion)
Where: Philomena Public Library
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bruda%20Plateau/15/38/57

Description:

Skilled Sage and Bard Big Red will continue reading from Jules Verne’s “Master of the World.” This is a serialized book and will end with a cliff hanger each week. Red will also read a personal letter written by his uncle during the first world war circa 1916 – 1918.

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January 20, 2015

Can Our Avatars Change Our Behaviour Outside The Virtual World?

There’s an interesting article over at The Wall Street Journal : Practice Personalities: What an Avatar Can Teach You. The article by Robert Lee Holz highlights research from the likes of Stanford University to suggest that not only can our avatars and inworld interactions change the way we behave, they can also be used to change the way we behave via role-playing in areas such as corporate diversity :

As digital experiments in identity, our personal avatars mingle real and virtual worlds in ways that scientists are only beginning to analyze. While data is scarce, emerging technology such as 3-D virtual reality goggles and more immersive computerized experiences promise to make avatars more common. Scientists and psychologists are finding new uses for avatars, including role-playing for corporate diversity training, for business conferences and for teaching.

I’ve seen this discussed before but there is a theory that people often create an extension of themselves when they create an avatar for a virtual world or game experience and that in many ways the customisation choices available reveal far more about a person that they realise. I’m not 100% sold on this theory as I’m often a Dwarf, Drow or Wizard. I would also like to be an Orc … actually some of the powers of those characters would be beneficial outside the virtual world, maybe they’re on to something :

American Scientific Blogger Jennifer Ouellette is quoted as saying :

Your brain will start to incorporate your avatar into your sense of self, the more strongly you bond with that avatar, the more it will impact your behavior in the real world.

Jennifer is very familiar with Second Life and is involved with Virtually Speaking Science, a podcast that takes place in Second Life. I’ve covered Virtually Speaking Science a couple of times.

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January 20, 2015

Baylor College Of Medicine Utilising Second Life To Aid Women With Physical Limitations Lose Weight

Sometimes you see a news item or a blog post in a stream and you wonder if it’s something that has been rehashed from many moons ago. That was my first thought when I saw the story I’m about to blog about, however after delving further it looks like the real deal.

BCM Momentum, the blog for Baylor College Of Medicine informs us : Online program aims to aid in weight loss for women with physical limitations. The program addresses a very serious issue, as Margaret A.Nosek PHD explains :

If you really want to see something rarer than a vegetarian at a rib cook-off, try looking for a woman in a wheelchair at Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, or 24 Hour Fitness. Why are we such rare birds in these environments?

The answer is simple – these programs don’t really understand what it’s like to try to lose weight when exercising is simply not an option.

Therefore there’s a need for women with physical limitations to share ideas on how to lose weight and of course a good way of doing this is to meetup in small groups to discuss methods that may work. However there are times when physical limitations are problematic for people who may benefit from meeting up in a central physical location, so what better way to address this than via a virtual world :

We are now testing this program with small groups of women who have mobility limitations, but instead of making them deal with all the hassles of coming to one location, we hold our meetings in the virtual online world of Second Life.

Whereas this program is aimed at women in the Houston area, it still shows the power and benefits that a virtual world can bring.

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January 17, 2015

Visit The Timekiller Goth Festival Before It Runs Out Of Time

Linden Lab’s continued excellent promotion of The Destination Guide alerted me to the Timekiller Goth Festival. Alas this also alerted me to the fact that the festival is running between January 9th – 18th, which means if you want to visit, you’re almost out of time!

The festival is taking place on the parcel of SL Goth Magazine, whom I didn’t know existed. This is another good reason for holding events or getting yourself in the destination guide.

The event is supported by a host of creators, whom I shall list from the SL Goth Magazine website :

Black Arts – BYRNE – Biscuit Clothing – Cute Poison – Cherished Memories Wedding Store
Dark Passions – DEADPOOL – Devae – Galactic Wunder Nails – Ghost Story – Howling Asylum – ImmateriA – Morphe Inc. – PIXEL BOX – Stargazer Creations – Thanks for All the Nebulae and more!

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January 16, 2015

High Fidelity Talk About The Ease Of Setting Up High Fidelity Local Servers

Dan Hope of High Fidelity has blogged this week : Stack Manager Makes Local Servers Easy to Setup. The post is aimed in the main at those who have been in High Fidelity Alpha and have attempted to setup a local server before. However the post is also worth a glance from those who may want to know where High Fidelity is heading.

Stack Manager is the name of the application that allows people to setup a local server in High Fidelity, this amounts to running a server on a local machine. The application has been through a lot of changes, and in the past people found it a bit cumbersome. However the latest version makes setting up a local server a breeze, as High Fidelity engineer Stephen Birada explains in the blog post :

Basically, in less than two minutes — from download to installation to running the Stack Manager — you will have a local server, and you can start to build with it.

Basically that’s it, you download the application, run the setup and then start the server and you have a High Fidelity world running on your local machine. At the moment you need be an alpha tester to download and try Stack Manager I believe. However in the future anyone will be able to use Stack Manager, as the blog post explains :

After creating a new world, the next step is to invite people to visit, and Stack Manager is designed to streamline that process. Create a temporary place name — even without a High Fidelity account — and connect friends without making any firewall/NAT changes to your router or computer. If you like the domain, buy a place name in our directory to preserve it.

Continue reading “High Fidelity Talk About The Ease Of Setting Up High Fidelity Local Servers”

Category: Virtual Worlds

Forthcoming Events By The Alexandrian Free Library In Second Life

Can Our Avatars Change Our Behaviour Outside The Virtual World?

Baylor College Of Medicine Utilising Second Life To Aid Women With Physical Limitations Lose Weight

Visit The Timekiller Goth Festival Before It Runs Out Of Time

Timekiller Festival

High Fidelity Talk About The Ease Of Setting Up High Fidelity Local Servers