Obama Administrator to appear in Second Life

Kevin Werbach, served on the FCC segment of the Obama transition team, remains as an Administrator as a part-time advisor on broadband issues.

Wagner James Au reports that Werbach, who is a veteran the Virtual World Second Life, will make an appearance this week:

Webach wil be in-world this Wednesday at 1PM PDT on the Metanomics show:  "The Age of Obama: Virtual Worlds,Open Government, and Policy"

The Weather Island

Its taken me a long time to get around to checking out the skiing on the Weather channel.  What a scream.  I am however a much better skier in RL than I am in SL.  This is going to take a lot of practice.   I think maybe I should stick to the ski lodge.

Education in Second Life

I have toured around to many universities in Second Life, the list is long.  Business, engineering, library, science, IT,  legal, and distance learning departments are just a few who are taking advantage of the Second Life platform.  The islands are being used for recruiting, training, teaching, lecturing, testing, and I have even talked in on meetings between professor and student in a virtual office of a professor, complete with credentials and family photos framed on the office wall.  One school of business even offers retail space for students to create an SL business using information they have learned in their courses.

Loyalist College in Ontario Canada is reporting that their testing scores have increased by 28% because of training and testing they are doing in SL for a border crossing patrol program they have.

Today an article was posted on the SL Blog by George Linden about yet another University entering Second Life.  The National Autonomous University of Mexico is the largest university in Latin America, with the Engineering School alone having 11 K students.  UNAM is currently building their campus in SL for Engineering School Distance Education Programs and also connecting with companies in the Real World to help take engineering design and training to the next level.

The island opens May 1st  SLURL (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ingenieria%20UNAM/212/128/23) 

Science and Innovation in Virtual Worlds

One of my favorite islands in Second Life is the Tech Museum of Innovation, based in San Jose, CA.  After visiting the island several times in SL, I decided to use it as an example of innovation in my many virtual world presentations.  While teaching a workshop at KM World in San Jose last September, I was able to visit the Tech Museum in Real Life.  I was there a couple of days before the Leonardo exhibit was to open.  I was very impressed with the Second Life (Virtual Worlds) display that they have created.  I love the movement activity where you can stand, make motions and watch your avatar make the same motions.  The Millennials are the first generation to grow in virtual worlds, this exhibit is a great hands on environment for children of all ages to learn.

Helix Virtual Worlds Canadian Second Life Developer

Helix Virtual Worlds is a division of Helix Commerce.  We specialize in developing and building island experiences in Second Life, we are a full service consultancy with several web 2.0 experts on board.  We have a full team of designers and developers in Second Life to build, script and create your virtual world experience.

We have just finished our innovation center for hosting conference and will be opening it soon to the public.  You can search in Second Life under Helix or Innovation.

Helix is located in Toronto, Ontario Canada

Kaline Hax - Second Life Avatar

Kathryn Gibson

647 477 6254

April Fools Announcement - Second Life Behind Company Firewalls in Alpha Testing

April 1, 2009 Linden Labs announced  that their stand-alone version of Second Life solutions is available in alpha phase.  IBM, Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), New Media Consortium (NMC), Intel, and Northrop Gramman are all currently using this install.

This is a server solution that is completely independent of the main Second Life environment.

It's now in alpha phase with plans for a limited closed beta phase in the summer and general availability later this year. 

This is good news for those companies who like the 3D advantages of a virtual world experience but have concerns about the content that abides on Second Life.  Training sessions, client interactions, knowledge transfer and conferences can all be conducted behind a company firewall.

Looking forward to seeing more as the in the box, corporate solution for behind company firewalls becomes available. 

Hopefully this isn't a bad April fools joke.   

Parliament Building

Several months ago we created the parliament building.  Today we placed the building on the lower part of the Helix Commerce Island.  The parliament building will be an Ottawa landmark for our Innovation as a Nation Island.  Our building can be seen on Bountiful, Helix's Innovation Island.

CN Tower in Second Life

We have created the CN tower in Second Life.  This is the first Canadian landmark that we are building.  The Real Life Canadian Icon is located on Front Street in Toronto, Ontario and had maintained the title as the tallest free standing structure for 31 years.  The tower is still the largest building in the Americas.

You can visit the CN tower on the Helix Commerce Island named Bountiful.