Nokia Island

I spent time today with Digistar Brouwer, manager of the Nokia Island.  Nokia has created some fun aps for inworld cell phones.  For several months I have been using a Nokia N95 phone that has a poofer that sends out blah blah blah, busy, and BRB.  It's a fun way to let other avatars in Second Life know that your avatar is busy.  The latest Nokia phone has a Twitter ap,  you can now send out your tweets while you are in Second Life.  

For some time now companies like Vodafone and Nokia have been using SL to have their communities send SMS messages to Real Live celll phones from SL.  I am anxiously awaiting the next virtual cell phone application that Nokia creates.

The N96 smart phone supports Second Life along with smart phones from Sony, Samsung, Ericcsson, Motorola and LG.  Second Life can now be run on more than 70 3G enabled handsets.

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.

Say a Prayer for Google Lively

There was a lot of buzz when Google entered the Virtual World scene with Google Lively, would this be the virtual world to take over Second Life? The brand opportunities were talked about in Lively without understanding the target market.

Lively didn't have anything that captured my attention, they lost me as soon as I realized they didn't have a Mac platform. Being a Mac user, I could only view from afar and from what I could see it looked like just a 3-D chat room to me.

Good Nite Google Lively