Games and MUVES– VLENZ Update, No 182, April 22, 2011

Future Forecasts for Games and Virtual Worlds Is Rod Humble going to take  SL back to the desert?  Seriath sees days of Bohemians and pirates reborn…  The new CEO of Linden Labs CEO Rod Humble just might have something in common with OpenSim blogger and builder, free content distributor and Hypergrid explorer, Vanish Seriath. Humble, [...]

OpenSim Grids Growing apace – VLENZ Update, No 180, January 24, 2011

Is SL fading? The ‘Top 40′ OpenSim grids gain 529 regions in month Latest figures from Hypergrid Business The top 40 OpenSim grids gained 529 regions since mid-December, to reach a new high of 15,623 regions on January 15 of this month, according to  Maria Korolov  in her latest article in  Hypergrid Business. The full [...]

‘Full Perms?’ – VLENZ Update, No 178, January 18, 2011

Virtual World Commerce and transport Second Life: where you can pay through the nose  but never ‘own’ your skin … I have never had a real problem with individual creatives who protect the intellectual property in their product: Just with  those who want to regionalise the real world and the virtual worlds so  they can [...]

OpenSim Worlds– VLENZ Update, No 177, January 09, 2011

OpenSim Grid worlds are spreading But do you want to pay ‘twice’ for your skin? … and  everything else just because you want to ‘travel’ the worlds The Lindens have rightly been concerned about guaranteeing intellectual property creator rights and Second Life’s place in the sun (Let’s lock in the users to a closed world by [...]

SLENZ Update, No 150, November 17, 2009

The potential: “Daddy, Miss America wont share her toys.” Obama vision could be crippled by rich, greedy US institutions … and commercial interests who want an arm  and two legs. 1. Sharing knowledge – The Gronstedt Group begins tour  of the SLENZ birthing unit. The more time I spend in Second Life and  other virtual [...]

SLENZ Update, No 136, September 17, 2009

CAN NEW ZEALAND USE THIS LESSON? Texas shows the way forward in virtual world education … John Lester (SL: Pathfinder Linden) and Leslie Jarmon (SL: Bluewave Ogee) meet in front of the virtual version of Johnson Claudia Taylor Hall at the University of Texas System.(Picture: Pathfinder Linden) The New Zealand tertiary education system  should probably [...]

SLENZ Update, No 133, September 01, 2009

CARTOON  OR SUPER-REALISM Do the graphics really matter in virtual worlds? … and is Blue Mars really the third generation? Blue Mars 2050 … does super-realism matter? I have always wondered just how much the graphics matter in virtual worlds: I know my personal preference falls into the super-realism category when it comes to graphics [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 80 , May 11, 2009

Need a virtual loan? Creating a ‘real buck’ - virtually-speaking Picture: Freefoto.com The Linden dollar  has  had its ups and downs and Linden Lab’s is probably making a fortune out  of  of its forex dealings, but there is still no dedicated “real world” banking/forex facility in  Second Life, or any other virtual world. That, however,  is [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 65, April 8, 2009

Coming to a screen near you Another Second Life may live behind firewall at your work IBM in Second Life … now trialling stand-alone Second Life Business and sometimes academic administrators’ worries about the lack of security of intellectual property within Second Life  appear to be about to be put to rest by Linden Labs with [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 46, February 16, 2009

Making SLENZ work! Learning by doing Learning by doing … Aaron Griffiths, building developer, Terry Neal, joint project leader, and Merle Lemon, lead educator (foundation leaning). Background: Sarah Stewart (lead educator midwifery). The SLENZ project team has continued to test and modify the design and development processes, despite some on-going communication challenges which are similar [...]