by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
Activeworlds, conference calls, and interactive web pages - but no SL
It is hard to know exactly what to make of this, but a reliable source pointed us to the Kauffman foundation's web site where this page http://www.kauffman.org/3D announces a "3-D Internet for Learning Summit" hosted not on Second Life - but on ActiveWorlds.
It would not do to speculate on what Philip Linden thinks of this development - but speculation is sure to follow as the announcement promises "a first-ever public demonstration of IBM’S privately-developed capability" where participants will "experience a real-time, seamless and simultaneous environment that combines telephony, wiki and virtual world environments. This will allow global participants to collaborate in building some of the next-generation capabilities of the 3-D Internet."
This summit is to be open to all - and the Herald expects strong representation from the furry and babyfur metaverse demographic - assuming fur avatars are avalable in ActiveWorlds. The event will take place February 19th and 20th, 2008, in three spaces simultaneously - a toll free conference call, within IBM's Active Worlds based Extraverse, and on the web through an interactive wiki environment.
I lol'd
Posted by: Tony zadoq | February 09, 2008 at 03:36 PM
IBM uses lots of virtual worlds. Not just SL. Anyone paying attention would know this.
Posted by: duh | February 09, 2008 at 04:37 PM
Torque... http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/entry/ibm_rolls_its_own_virtual_world
Innov8... http://blog.rebang.com/?p=1278
Active Worlds... http://blogs.activeworlds.com/martin/?p=30
HiPiHi... http://www.massively.com/2008/02/03/ibm-partners-with-hipihi/
OpenSim... http://www.orient-lodge.com/archive/2007/12/12
Posted by: duh | February 09, 2008 at 05:05 PM
more...
“In addition to our desire to work more closely with Linden Labs, we’re exploring how we can work with many virtual world players, including companies like Multiverse and Bigworld Technology, as well as open source platforms like Uni-Verse.org,” the spokesman said in an email. “IBM’s ultimate aim is for inter-world integration, instead of separate islands of virtual worlds, where you cannot cross over from one to the other in a consistent way.”
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2006/11/09/ibm-accelerates-push-into-3d-virtual-worlds/
Posted by: duh | February 09, 2008 at 05:13 PM
Wow, Pixeleen is SO BEHIND on the news. IBM has been in Active Worlds for ages -- at least a year, if not more. In fact, one of the things the Metanomics series did oh, about 8 months ago, was have a hook-up between Active Worlds, Second Life, and a real-life meeting at Cornell University. There's one gal at IBM who really loves AW more than SL. So she's doing her thing there and getting attention. I can't possibly see what she finds 'better' about AW, as much as it has "host your own server" blah blah just because of the lack of other features. But...whatever. Each to his own. IBM uses lots of different things, as has been stated, but I'll bet dollars to donuts it's spent more on SL than any other platform.
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | February 09, 2008 at 06:12 PM
crazypersonsayswhat
Posted by: Tenshi Vielle | February 10, 2008 at 12:01 AM
I hadn't seen that place before. Is it just me, or does it seem kind of ugly compared to SL?
Posted by: GreenLantern Excelsior | February 10, 2008 at 12:03 AM
I'll bet you'd bet a lot of dollars for donuts, Prok.
Posted by: anon | February 10, 2008 at 01:24 AM
Here is something that really caught my eye.... I have been dealing with 3D worlds way before Second life was even a thought. Back in the day in which started all this was something called Traveler!. MTV even used to use them for their chat system. no bodies only floating avatar heads but even then they had way better voice chat then SL has today. Anyway to my point... I was looking at the web site for ActiveWorlds and when I got there I felt as if I had been there before. I could not figure it out then it hit me! when Traveler went under just like SL is going to do... They sold to a company called DigitalSpace. Now the funny part is... Their web sites are about exact! Design, color everything.
Take a look!
http://www.activeworlds.com/
http://www.digitalspace.com/
Now as to who is a copy of who... As stated above, Traveler! is what started all this back in the day. Is it the same ocmpany? Just smells a bit odd to me.
Posted by: Voodoo Bamboo | February 10, 2008 at 01:40 AM
IBM is doing UOneNet too.
Sluts.
Posted by: Bill Gates loves the Herald | February 10, 2008 at 03:17 AM
SL is probably some IBMer's personal foible. He/she probably hangs out in some fetish sex club while not at work and thinks they can introduce it as a serious platform during work time. All the time ignoring problems with logging in, inventory, lag, crashes etc. etc.
Posted by: NinaA | February 10, 2008 at 07:59 AM
IBM transformed corporate adoption of Linux by enhancing its scalability, they are not going to transfer away from SL, which to my knowledge is the only virtual world than can handle Linux. Maybe this is Pixaleen trying to play serious journalist after getting Penny to write that offensive article about a resident's mental health.
Posted by: Francoise Fairey | February 10, 2008 at 09:20 AM
I don't think Steve's a perv....
Posted by: Jessica Holyoke | February 10, 2008 at 08:43 PM