Simology Website – simulation development showcase
February 16, 2009
a quick link to our new gallery website
Simology and Ao Kilara
February 10, 2009
SIMOLOGY
Sim Design and Building
ao_kilara@yahoo.com or
IM Ao Kilara in Second Life (SL)
::Commercial/Residential
::Fantasy/Historical
::Custom detailed work
::Retail prefabs (SL and SL Exchange)
Providing design/build services for businesses entering Second Life, existing SL businesses and SL residents or players. I design high-quality, creative, immersive 3D virtual environments.
Currently doing contract work for UCSA International’s sim development department and The Eden Project.
Interesting reading on Second Life “culture” and attitudes of participants:
http://slcreativity.org/wiki/index.php?title=Augmentation_vs_Immersion
See also aokilara.wordpress.com
For more images go to www.flickr.com/photos/ao_kilara
Virtual Reality Training Video from Ford
February 24, 2009
This is an interesting link for anyone wishing to see how virtual reality simulations work as training tools for industrial processes. It also gives one a sense of the experience from the point of view of the trainee.
These Ford training sequences are for contained processes and designed for individual training. In virtual worlds or MMO (massively multiplayer online games, see Wikipedia on MMOs) one can combine this effect with live interaction, instruction, and team or collaborative training.
From the Ohio Supercomputer Center website (about Ohio Supercomputer Center)
Ford Virtual Reality Training Video
Nick Wilson of Clever Zebra on Virtual Worlds
February 20, 2009
Nick Wilson provides a good summary of Virtual World platforms used by businesses for collaboration, meetings and training. It is refreshing to find posts and articles from the business and education sectors focusing on ways that Second Life, and VWs in general, really shine and are flourishing as immersive education tools. There has been plenty of controversy and hype about businesses using Second Life for advertising and more conventional purposes in the past, much of it negative. But other communities are simply sidestepping the controversy and getting down to excellent, serious work that will likely deepen and transform the role of VWs in the future. I look to the education, serious games or game-based learning communities to provide the next wave of innovation. See link below for full Clever Zebra post:
‘Game Over’ – Fast Company article on business simulations
February 15, 2009
First in a series of posts exploring corporate games and training simulations, virtual and not
RE: Fast Company article: Game Over By: Peter Carbonara
I have been foraging for articles on simulation applications across industries or fields. I found a good one in Fast Company on business simulations.
Read it here: Game Over
This is a an interesting application (Project Challenge) with lots of possibilities for curriculum and modeling in existing free virtual world platforms.
I see the beginning of this in Second Life within the SL educational community but less so in the business community which has tended to focus on doing business rather than simulating business for education in Second Life.
Companies such as Forio have developed software tools for DIY, contained, non-virtual, business simulations. The one I looked at apparently takes about 3 hours to complete and is modeled on a business development scenario. This looks like a great educational tool. Would love to try this myself.
I will focus on other relevant links over the next few days. I see great opportunities here.
Simology photos featured on Flickr Hive Mind again
February 14, 2009
Simology pix have turned up again in Hive Mind under the categories of “stone” and “virtual.”
This is an interesting concept my Nathan Siemers of FivePrime.org. Here are some excerpts from the Hive Mind site:
Flickr Hive Mind is a search engine as well as an experiment in the power of Folksonomies. All thumbnail images come directly from Flickr, none are stored on Flickr Hive Mind…
Flickr photo searching of Interestingness, Tags, Users, Groups (discussion) Courtesy of Fiveprime.org and MalcolmMacdonald.org. Flickr Hive Mind is a data mining tool for the Flickr photography database, allowing search by: metadata tags; Flickr photography groups; Flickr users and their contacts and favorites; text annotation; the Flickr Explore algorithm for interestingness.
Flickr Hive Mind – The World’s Best Photos of: stone and virtual
On the Article: First Responders meet Second Life
February 11, 2009
Just received this great article in the Medhill Reports – Chicago, from Michelle Miakos (UCSA International) forwarded to her by one of the Linden family:
First responders meet Second Life: Public health enters the virtual world
by Liz Hoffman and Chris Kelly
Feb 04, 2009
This is a great article about how to creatively use virtual worlds, in this case the 3D, immersive virtual world called Second Life owned by Linden Labs, for real life training and scenario simulations. This is a growing field; a few companies are developing simulations and offering full services to support training and meet this demand. UCSA International is one of them, offering similar services to other government agencies for training, collaboration and meeting purposes.
Companies, governmental agencies and educational facilities would do well to determine how they might effectively use virtual world simulations to save money, increase training retention, and, above all, create simulated scenarios that will enable employees or trainees to practice real time responses otherwise extremely difficult to pull of without an exorbitant budget and logistics. The possibilities of this are endless for any type of business. The field is new, so I look forward to working on many upcoming design projects that involve 3D design of effective serious learning environments, curriculum design and other aspects of this work.
Kudos to the team that developed this. I was very happy to see this fascinating article. Follow this link to read the full article.
US News & World Report on Simulation Development – “Ahead of the Curve” Occupations for 2009
February 10, 2009
Simulation Development, (broadly defined in all of its manifestations including everything from game-based learning to virtual world simulations) was listed in US News & World Reports list of 30 Best Careers for 2009 that offer strong outlooks and high job satisfaction. The short description lists specific applications used by corporate, educational and other entities.
Interesting to watch and participate in the wave of innovation using new technologies to improve learning, business and expand creativity.
30 Best Career for 2009 – US New & World Report
Posted December 11, 2008
Forrester Research analysts on Second Life
February 3, 2009
Two interesting articles on Virtual Worlds at the end of this post – log into Forrester’s website to get free copies. Also watch UCSA International for presentations, look for UCSA International on LinkedIn, or contact them in Second Life – search “UCSA International”.) Gene Leganza of Forrester Research spoke in January ‘09 on Enterprise Architecture at UCSA International’s sim in Second Life. Very interesting.
Should You Be In Second Life? by Jaap Farvier, Vice President / Research Director at Forrester Research
http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,44748,00.html
Case Study: Michelin Uses Second Life for Enterprise Architecture Training by Erica Driver, former Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, co-founder of Thinkbalm
http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,46085,00.html
More info on:Thinkbalm
Qlock – a great tool for those working across time zones
February 3, 2009
Machinima in Second Life
November 28, 2008
Sanders Beaumont just sent a link to his animation: Lost – Viva la Vida – Coldplay. Click now and watch! It’s beautiful and a wonderful use of SL for great effect.
What is Machinima? From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima):
Machinima (pronounced /məˈʃiːnəmə/ or /məˈʃɪnəmə/), a Portmanteau of machine cinema,[1] is a collection of associated production techniques whereby computer-generated imagery (CGI) is rendered using real-time, interactive 3-D engines instead of professional 3D animation software…
Machinima is an example of emergent gameplay, a process of putting game tools to unexpected ends, and of artistic computer game modification. The real-time nature of machinima means that established techniques from traditional film-making can be reapplied in a virtual environment…
I have a film background and love animation, but I have not been paying much attention to machinima in Second Life. This piece opened my eyes to the possibilities. Thanks for the link, Sanders, and good luck in the competition!
Excellent blog and older post on branding in Second Life
September 24, 2008
My new reading assignment for the next half year in between teaching and creating…
Ao
http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/09/experimenting_with_brands_in_s.html
Ao’s work included on Flickr Hive Mind’s “World’s Best Photos of SL”
September 21, 2008
Thanks to Nathan Siemers who added Ao’s work, (and Anhinga Chaika’s and Lex Dagostino’s pix) to Flickr Hive Mind under the category of “World’s Best Photos of secondlife and terraforming.” There are some wonderful images at Hive Mind.
For more information about Flickr Hive Mind, follow the link below and click on the tag at the top of the page.
Great article for businesses considering Second Life
September 21, 2008
From McKinsey: ignore Second Life at your peril
Companies which do not embrace virtual worlds risk missing the next wave of the web’s development, the consultancy said
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3803056.ece
