An Avatar at Ball State Explains ‘Second Life’ to Dummies

The Chronicle of Higher Education – http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2105/an-avatar-at-ball-state-explains-second-life-to-dummies

by Andrea L. Foster

Who better to help write Second Life for Dummies than Sarah B. Robbins, who since the fall of 2006 has taught composition to Ball State University freshmen in Middletown Island–16 virtual acres in the virtual world of Second Life? A doctoral student in rhetoric and composition at Ball State, Ms. Robbins is an advocate of using Second Life for online education. In Second Life, as the avatar Intellagirl, she is a popular speaker on education who sports pink hair and black clothing, a representation of her real-life appearance.

Virtual Worlds: Building the Virtual Economy, Part 1

Computer Power User – http://www.computerpoweruser.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/archive/c0703/46c03/46c03.asp&guid=

In the fast-evolving virtual worlds online, such as There.com, Second Life, and Entropia Universe, the real world of major consumer brands and big tech companies is starting to blur the lines between real and fantasy economies. Toyota, Nissan, IBM, Dell, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, and a cottage industry of marketing firms started rushing the gates of these persistent online universes last fall. The fantasy avatars that people create and the virtual neighborhoods they construct in these worlds suddenly started feeling a bit more real as the same car and computer dealerships they experience in everyday life popped up next door. As we will see in this first part of our two-part coverage, response to this blending of real and virtual economies is decidedly mixed. This month we look at how real-world marketing and branding are penetrating the carefully constructed fantasies of virtual universes. In our second part next month, we explore how the virtual world elements are being purchased, bartered, and sold in the real world.

The Marketers Rush In

The presence of real-world brands in virtual universes is nothing new, of course. When we previewed the launch of the 3D universe There.com several years ago, Levis was selling jeans to residents. Now, There.com is helping MTV power its own 3D online extension of a hit TV show, Virtual Laguna Beach (www.vlb.mtv.com). Here, the entire world is a branded media experience. In Electronic Arts’ Sims Online, McDonalds pushed burgers. At the wildly popular international world Habbo Hotel (www.habbo.com), advertisers such as…

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At colleges, real learning in a virtual world

USA Today -http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2006-10-05-second-life-class_x.htm

by Gregory M. Lamb

They may be college teachers and students, but they’re also pioneers — exploring strange new worlds that exist nowhere on Earth. That’s because their classes and field trips take place only on computers, using an online digital world called Second Life.

Some 60 schools and universities have set up shop inside Second Life — most in the past year. They join a population that includes real-world business people, politicians, entertainers, and more than 800,000 other “residents” of the virtual world.