1. Los Angeles Times (USA) – Virtual Muslim world bans drinking, sex. “Ever wanted to experience life in the Muslim world but didn’t have enough money to fly to Cairo? The first-ever virtual version of the Muslim world was recently launched online. Muxlim Pal lets you adopt an animated avatar and interact with others online in a virtual world governed by the rules of Islam. You can shop, socialize in a beach cafe and, of course, pray at a mosque. Aimed at Muslims and non-Muslims, the website aims to foster understanding and communication between East and West.”
2. CNET (USA) – Littlest Pet Shop virtual world about to yipLittlest Pet Shop is going virtual.
Those tiny, plastic creatures with the larger-than-life googly eyes are set to come to life in the virtual world this fall, with manufacturer Hasbro and gaming giant Electronic Arts teaming up to launch the site, the companies said Thursday. The site, which will be banking on the popularity of the 2-inch idols, will be jumping into a tween market that is already heavily populated with the likes of the Webkinz, Disney’s Club Penguin, and start-up Dizzywood. Once launched, the Littlest Pet Shop site aims to offer preteens the ability to customize their favorite pets, participate in games and events on the site, and dive into social networking with friends.”
3. The Nation (Thailand) – Sun Microsystems and Kasetsart University drive Virtual World Innovation in Thailand with ‘Project Wonderland’ Technology. “Sun Microsystems (Thailand) and Kasetsart University launch the ‘Wonderland Challenge 2009’ – a competition encouraging students to innovate and develop rich multimedia 3D virtual worlds using Project Wonderland, a 100% Java toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Project Wonderland is an open source project currently supported by Sun Microsystems Laboratories, Sun’s research and development group. The objective of the ‘Wonderland Challenge 2009’ is to initiate the Education 3.0 movement and raise greater public awareness of the potential impact of emerging Virtual World Technologies in Thailand. This nationwide challenge is open to students who will be pitting their skills against their peers to create an innovative 3D virtual learning environment with ‘Project Wonderland’, a powerful open source solution that enables developers to build a collaborative virtual world easily.”
4. Religion Dispatches (USA) – Dreaming Cyborg Dreams: Virtual Identity and Religious Experience. “If it is true that, as theorist Sherry Turkle has claimed, that in our increasingly mediated world “we are all dreaming cyborg dreams,†it is certainly safe to say that at least some of these dreams are religious ones. In this essay, I look at four types of immersive new media that address the issue of religious identity: Waco Resurrection, a religiously-inspired first-person shooter, Noah’s Ark, a religious online reality show; Roma Victor, a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, and religious experiences in the online world of Second Life.”
5. MSNBC (USA) – Fantastic plastic? Barbie’s changing role. “Since its introduction to the toy world in 1959, the 11.5-inch plastic sensation originally known as Barbie Millicent Roberts has reflected the rise of the modern woman in society. But 50 years later, Mattel faces a challenge to sell the iconic dolls amid worldwide economic woes. And then there’s the biggest challenge Barbie faces — beating Barbie’s modern rivals in the marketplace. In a world where “hip” dolls are those with higher hemlines, sexy heels and heavy makeup. Can the more traditional Barbie survive another half century?”
6. Eureka! Science News (Canada) – Tracking the digital traces of social networks. “Why do we create and maintain social networks? Most people can immediately think of a few natural reasons — we get something from the interaction, or the person is nearby and is close to us in proximity, age or gender. But researching such theories on a large scale has never before been possible — until digital social networks came along. Noshir Contractor, the Jane S. and William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University, has studied the massive online virtual world Second Life to test whether these and other social theories are true.”
7. New Scientist (UK) –Valentine’s Day Special: The dating game. “IF YOU’RE looking for love, chances are you have considered the online dating scene. According to Mark Brooks, editor of onlinepersonalswatch.com, half of singletons in the US – around 40 million people – now use internet dating. And a fair number, around 20 per cent, find long-term romance that way. So what is the best strategy? Psychologists who study romance are fascinated by this question as cyberspace changes all the rules. Online, you can be who you want to be. Just ask David Pollard. Pollard’s avatar in Second Life is Dave Barmy, a sharp-dressing hunk with flowing locks, designer stubble and sunglasses. Real-life David is bald, fat and being divorced by his wife after she caught him having an online affair with another Second Life avatar.”
8. The Guardian (UK) – The killer app? Metaverse makes 3D games 2D. “A big problem for virtual worlds and other MMO environments is the gargantuan amount of space, processing power and RAM they take up on a computer. Developers have been chasing what they believe is the holy grail for some time – pared down, browser-based versions of the same content that feeds back into the full version of the game seamlessly. There was, for example, a text version of Second Life. ActiveWorlds resurfaced in 2007 when they announced a Facebook app of their virtual world. Still others, like the forthcoming Metaplace, have done away with downloadable content altogether, opting instead for browser-only experiences.”
9. Walrus Magazine (Canada) – Let’s All Be Neighbours on Will Wright Street. “I am a wriggling, water-borne spore. My life depends on how vigilantly I navigate treacherous currents full of predators. I chase drifting morsels of decaying flesh (my food), and kill off rivals (for what their brains, when consumed, might unlock in my own consciousness). For a scavenger like myself, these are inspiring waters, and after a few minutes of bottom feeding I advance up the food chain. Now I am a trematode, one of those ghastly liver flukes you get when you drink from the banks of the Mekong River. I look like a cartoon hot dog with eye stalks and tusks.”
10. New York Times (USA) – How Google Decides to Pull the Plug. “GOOGLE recently set the blogosphere abuzz by announcing that it was pulling the plug on several products. The victims included Lively, a virtual world that was Google’s answer to Second Life; Dodgeball, a cellphone service aimed at young bar-hoppers who wanted to let their friends know where they were hanging out; Catalog Search, which scanned paper product catalogs so they could be searched online; and Notebook, a simple tool that allowed people to take notes on Web sites they had visited.”
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