Letting Our Fingers Do the Talking [NYTimes.com]

American cellphone subscribers for the first time sent text messages more than they phoned. Teenagers ages 13 to 17 are by far the most prolific texters, sending or receiving 1,742 messages a month, according to Nielsen Mobile. By contrast, 18-to-24-year-olds average 790 messages.

Drilling Down - Letting Our Fingers Do the Talking - NYTimes.com >>


WEITERLESEN...

Investor's Business Daily: A Whole New Dimension (for online 3D virtual worlds)

Employee training and collaboration could well become the "killer apps" for the 3-D Web, says Colin Parris, IBM's vice president of digital convergence. These online meetings do away with the huge cost and hassle of traveling to distant in-person meetings, he says.

Studies show that workers retain just 5% of what they're taught in classrooms. That figure jumps to 50% for group discussions and 70% to 90% for simulation-based training, a natural fit for the 3-D Web.

Investor's Business Daily: A Whole New Dimension In Shopping. WEITERLESEN...

Growth is real in virtual worlds [chicagotribune.com]

Virtual worlds have become the latest shiny object on the Internet, attracting more than $345 million in venture financing in the first six months of this year, according to Virtual Worlds Management, a firm that researches the industry. (...) Each boasts millions of users who buy virtual items, look at advertising or pay for premium subscriptions.

Growth is real in virtual worlds -- chicagotribune.com >>

The reigning kings of virtual worlds for kids and teens include Gaia (15 m), Habbo (100 m) and Walt Disney Co.'s Club Penguin (19 million users)



K Zero collects data for all virtual worlds above 1 million registered users for all age segments in it's own Universe graph WEITERLESEN...

What books, anthropology, grandchildren and virtual worlds like Second Life have in common

Books have long served as “immersion technologies” that transport people to alternate worlds. Today, computer technology takes immersion several steps further.

Peter Crabb, associate professor of psychology, in a book review on Centre Daily

Peter Crabb reviewed an insightful sounding book written by anthropologist Tom Boellstorff, without naming it: Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human

Boellstorff spent 2 years living among the residents of Second Life, observing and studying their customs like anthopologists do with other cultures. I ordered the book and am curious about his point of view.

And I already agree with one of his findings: there will be a time when our children will find a distinction between "virtual world" and "real world" ridiculous - and impossible.

William Gibson reportedly said so, too:

One of the things our grandchildren will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish the digital from the real, the virtual from the real. In the future, that will become literally impossible. William Gibson [picture by will lion, flickr]

WEITERLESEN...

The Psychology Of MMO Players: Community Managers and Psychologists Speak

A group of MMO community managers and psychologists from the University of Texas came together at GDC Austin to examine common scenarios.

community managers "are being the police, the therapists, the legal system, the arbitrators."

Dr. Gosling urges the industry to take advice from outside disciplines, such as psychologists, and even consider specialization in different aspects of community management.

Read the full blog post here: AGDC: The Psychology Of MMO Players: Community Managers, Psychologists Speak >>
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Chat, shop and play in virtual Singapore by year-end

Twinity creators Metaversum (a German company) will soon open shop of a virtual Singapore. Like virtual Berlin, their first highly acclaimed mirror-world of the real Berlin, Germany, you'll have real current weather conditions and you can have an avatar that looks just like the real you :-)

Chat, shop and play in virtual S'pore by year-end WEITERLESEN...

Latest Data on Facebook Age and Gender Demographics

Facebook continues to expand internationally and female users outnumber male users in every age segment.

See more data in the blog post by Steve Rubel: Inside Facebook » Latest Data on US Facebook Age and Gender Demographics >>

And even more international data (not for Germany though, sorry) here on the O'Reilly Radar in Ben Lorica's original post WEITERLESEN...

Virtual Worlds at a glance: The updated Universe graph for Q3 2008 from Kzero

Nic Mitham from K Zero, the UK based virtual worlds agency, updated their Universe graph showing total registered accounts for the virtual worlds sector. There's four graphics now, each one showing segments for different age ranges (between 8 and 25+ years). New data included relates to Q3 2008. Nice that somebody out there does such an incredible job collecting and visualizing all that data for the rest of us to glance at - thanks, Nic!



Universe graph: Virtual Worlds showing total registered accounts over the years for the age range 15 to 25

See all of them here: The updated Universe graph for Q3 2008 : Kzero >>
WEITERLESEN...

Can robots become our 'phriends'?

"A friendly collaboration between humans and robots is not always easy. Either robots work efficiently and far from humans in controlled environments, or they're equipped with lots of sensors to work along humans and not harm them. Now, a EU-funded project, Phriends -- short for 'Physical Human-Robot Interaction: DepENDability and Safety' -- has started to force robots to respect Asimov's laws. In a nutshell, these laws say that robots cannot cause harm to humans and that they have to obey us. This 3-year project will end next year and has received € 2.16 million from the EU. (...) The robots developed by Phriends will be intrinsically safe, since the safety is guaranteed by their very physical structure, and not by external sensors or algorithms that can fail. (...)"

Read the full article here: Can robots become our 'phriends'? >>
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What is Web 3.0 - What Does Our Web 3.0 Future Hold

If we distill the essence of change between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, we can derive an answer. What is Web 3.0? It is the next fundamental change both in how websites are created and, more importantly, how people interact with them.

What is Web 3.0 - What Does Our Web 3.0 Future Hold >>

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Papermint: "You know - for kids!" teens made of paper in a 3D cartoon world

[youtube=http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=lkFT2gvWoQ8]

I dismissed Papermint earlier as too simple (flat people in the age of life-like 3D graphics??) because up to date I only saw screenshots of this weird little virtual world built by Austrian company Avaloop. But when I watched the video above (made by a creative Papermint user called Seppl - skip over the first 30 secs) I got their special drift and think I finally see why kids and teens find it interesting...I never thought I'd say it, but maybe it doesn't have to be 3D all the way to have fun in social virtual worlds ;-)

[caption id="attachment_325" align="alignnone" width="430" caption="Papermint people: click on "watch movie" in the upper left corner of their homepage, it's a cute and entertaining demonstration why flat people sometimes have all the advantages..."][/caption]

Papermint Homepage >> WEITERLESEN...

If you don’t “get” Facebook and Twitter, read this NY Times article [Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog]

Blog post listing the highlights of an excellent New York Times article by Clive Thompson (who is also columnist in Wired magazine) about:

- the psychological and sociological view: ambient awareness and weak ties

- how microblogging and social networking is having effects a small-town life has

If you don’t “get” Facebook and Twitter, read this NY Times article on Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog >> WEITERLESEN...

Bigstage: Create the digital you in 3-D and put yourself into photos, videos

[youtube=http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=AEn6uR_edS4]

Johnathan Strietzel from Big Stage is showing Craig Raymond (Intel "demo guy") how to get his virtual me into a TV series and publish that video on Facebook.


All it takes is three pictures of your face (taken with any ordinary digital camera) and you're off to posing with historical figures or playing a real acting character in a real movie or your favorite TV series. Then show off your new entertainment career on Facebook etc. Runs on Windows XP/Vista only (and under Bootcamp on a Mac).

Here's a full review by Mashable: http://mashable.com/2008/09/03/big-stage/

Bigstage Homepage>> WEITERLESEN...

IBM integrates Lotus SameTime with virtual worlds - does it make sense?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzuiEzTah5w&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1]

Probably not with a heavy-wight client like Second Life (OpenSim, like shown here) but I think this video shows quite nicely how virtual meeting spaces could some day soon be integrated in our current individual business workflows.

>> IBM Drinks Second Life Kool-Aid, Makes More For Lotus Users (IBM). WEITERLESEN...

PlayStation Home - just for gamers or a huge 3D social network with a pre-installed user base?

Short preview of Sony's upcoming 3D virtual meeting space "Home" by Greg Miller, a beta tester.
See his blog post with video here: IGN: PlayStation Home Preview >>

Sony Playstation Home is still in closed beta but promising a real stunning kind of second life to PS3 owners.

It's going to be the home of all PS3 players worldwide, where they can chat, hang out and play their favorite Sony games on virtual consoles - together. You're not into games? Me neither. But it's not just about games, but a platform with more than 14 Million units out there. I am in the new media and training/education business, and Sony's PS Home is nothing less than a stunningly realistic looking 3D virtual world where millions of young people will socially connect for a reason (in this case: playing games together). More than one study revealed:  Gaming is not for loner's, gamers are more social than non-gamers (and here's a recent German study "Freunde auch in virtuellen Welten wichtig").

Meaning: this will be something like an instant, huge 3D social network consisting of people who like to consume.

Getting any ideas about that? While I am not into selling virtual goods I am thinking: those players will not only sit at their console all day/night, they will be sitting in their office at some point of their life and they will have adapted totally different social interaction and user interface standards than former generations did - everything is 3D, realistically into the last detail, playfully designed and international. I don't think they like the flat web (what you're using this instant) very much and that's why I am insterested in what Sony, Nintendo, vMTV, Linden Lab, Google (Lively) and so many more are doing.

Multiverse Places is another example of the Gestalt the multitude of 3D virtual online worlds are taking on: It's all about socializing and integration with existing social networks and user generated content.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQneY7-Y_Q]

Multiverse Places - just another virtual world. I rather dislike the avatars. Runs only on Windows XP or Vista (Mac/Linux is on the roadmap)

Mein deutscher Beitrag zum Thema Social Gaming vom 22.7. >> WEITERLESEN...