Second used as a demonstrative medium for real-world software:
Not the most innovative way to use an immersive environment but I suppose it gets the message across.
Metaverse Health
Addiction, research, health in a virtual world
Stories from the Vault
USA healthcare reform: Obama and Second Life
Over the past few days, there’s been quite a bit of buzz around the latest piece created by the talented Draxtor Despres. It reports on discussions held on US Healthcare reform in Second Life that will be looked at by the incoming Obama administration as part of much wider community consultations going on at present. [...]
Enhanced clinical simulation information for you (and me)
Over the weekend I familiarised myself with Scoop.it, thanks to the kindness of Jo Kay who provided me an invite. Basically what Scoop.it does is take a lot of the hard work out of trawling the web and social media for information on a topic of interest. Once you spend some time setting up your [...]
Second Life: declining as education platform of choice?
This story appeared earlier in the week over at The Metaverse Journal under the title ‘Why Second Life is already second-best for education’. The announcement by Linden Lab in the past 24 hours that their discounting of pricing for educators and non-profits would cease in January 2011, has engendered the expected level of outrage. And [...]
Virtual Worlds and Metaverse Platforms: New Communication and Identity Paradigms
Just a quick note that the book chapter on virtual worlds, health and simulation I wrote during late 2010 is now available for ordering as part of the book Virtual Worlds and Metaverse Platforms: New Communication and Identity Paradigms Each chapter has an abstract available for viewing and a PDF sample of the first couple [...]
ME / CFS support in Second Life
In recent weeks, thanks to a health professional colleague, I became aware of a research project underway at Murdoch University, looking at the use of virtual worlds as a support mechanism for people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). It’s an ARC funded, three-year project titled Isolation, illness and the Internet: Exploring the possibility of a [...]
Molecular visualisation
Erich Bremer is a computer and systems engineer who has created Monolith, “a molecular visualization system created to display molecular structures within the virtual world known as Second Life and allow real-time interaction with the displayed structures”. It pulls information from the Rutgers Protein Data Bank and creates that structure in Second Life, allowing people [...]
China: name registration for gamers
As reported on Ars Technica, China are taking some interesting steps to battle MMO addiction. Ignoring the hyperbole around the issue, it poses some interesting discussion points around the role of governance in regards to virtual worlds. In the tightly controlled society of China, compulsory registration is rightly or wrongly more achievable than most other [...]
Stepping into Health Conference
I ran across the following promo this week: “Stepping into Health” becomes Third in Popular “Stepping into Virtual Worlds” Series Using virtual worlds to promote health and healthcare is the topic of the next installment of the popular “Stepping into Virtual Worlds” conference series, to be offered October 7th, 2008 in Second Life. Hundreds of [...]
Health Beyond 2009 – e-health, Serious Games and Second Life
As a Registered Nurse with a passion for the use of emerging technologies to improve health, it can sometimes be a little frustrating when things don’t seem to progress as fast as one would like. There’s also the ‘they just don’t get it’ phenomenon amongst some in health leadership and management roles, which can lead [...]
Vietnam’s online addiction courses
I noticed this interesting news article at the Thanh Nien Daily. Essentially, it’s an intensive course running on weekends for two months. On the face of it it seems a useful option for those with issues impacting their lives detrimentally. Looking a little closer though, and the alarm bells start ringing. Take this for example: [...]
Vanderbilt nurses: a case study
Tech website TMCnet has a very useful overview of Vanderbilt University’s use of Second Life with their nursing students. For the seasoned observer there’s nothing particularly new but if you’re only starting to familiarise yourself with the area, it’s an excellent read. The article is useful in another way: it reinforces where health professionals are [...]
Second Life and medical education: new study
The Journal of Medical Internet Research has published a study on the outcomes of a a pilot postgraduate medical education program at the Boston University School of Medicine presence in Second Life. You can read the full paper here, but the synopsis of the study is: 1. Fourteen physicians participated in the pilot, with twelve [...]