Monday, September 7, 2009

#9 Virtually Online


Since its launch in 2003, Second Life has been gathering momentum across the globe. Although not yet as popular in Australia as in other countries, it is a fascinating Web 2.0 application.Developed by Linden Research, Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its Residents (users). Echoing the "real world", in Second Life, you can own land (islands), trade goods and services, engage with the artistic community and participate in educational activities.

Residents are represented in Second Life by avatars which are human in appearance but may be of either sex and have a wide variety of humanoid of other forms. Avatars communicate through two main methods of text communication: local chat and "instant messaging" (IM).

Some interesting facts about Second Life:
  • There are just over 15 million accounts registered (as at September 2008).
  • 9,195 islands were added during July 2007.
  • The currency of Second Life, the Linden Dollar, can be converted to US dollars at several Linden Dollar exchanges (sparking the interest of various Taxation Departments and Internal Revenue Services across the globe).
  • The Maldives was the first country to open an embassy in Second Life.
Many international universities and libraries have bought islands in Second Life. The way these universities and libraries use the land is unique (check discovery resources below). Some use it as a marketing tool, others use it as a new way for people to attend university in the virtual world. Deakin University has bought an island on Second Life, but it is just that, an island. It is currently in an experimental stage. Only restricted users are allowed onto the island and there are no buildings, no classes taking place and no virtual campus life apparent.

For more information on Second Life, go to:
Please note that some content within and about Second Life can be offensive and should be viewed with this sensitivity in mind.

VideosOther resources



ExitReality is a free Internet plug-in that allows anyone to view every web page in 3D. Over 40 billion websites are now instantly available as one massive virtual ecosystem, allowing web citizens to convert their 2D web pages into a 3D customisable space; meet and chat with people at any website; or search and explore thousands of online 3D communities. ExitReality also boasts the world’s largest search engine of Web3D content.

ExitReality was globally launched into public beta on the 18th September 2008. You can download and experience it here. (Note: ExitReality is currently unavailable on Mac environments and can be quite slow to download)





World of Warcraft, often referred to as WoW, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment. With more than 11.5 million monthly subscribers, WoW is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPG and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG. In April 2008, WoW was estimated to hold 62 percent of the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) market. [courtesy Wikipedia]

#9 Virtually Online

Check out some of the videos and links about SecondLife, ExitReality and World of Warcraft. (You are not expected to spend a large amount of time with any of these tools. Simply gaining an understanding of how they work, who might use them, their downfalls and benefits etc is satisfactory).

Create a blog post about; Second Life trends in education, the benefits of virtual environments, online gaming etc.

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