The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

1. The Register (UK) – Oracle: destroyer of virtual worlds. “Another of Sun Microsystem’s almost-practical projects for Java has been shuttered now that Oracle holds the purse strings. Project Darkstar, an open-source application server catered specifically for massively multiplayer online games, will no longer receive Snoracle funding. The news was announced yesterday with a post to the Project Darkstar community forum. Loosely, Project Darkstar is open-source middleware written in Java aimed at helping developers create massively scalable persistent virtual worlds. The project later expanded its aim to include social networking applications as online ventures are wont to do these days.”

2. CBC News (Canada) – New online payment system takes cash for virtual goods. “New startup company Kwedit Inc. is making it easier for users of free online games like Farmville who don’t have credit or debit cards to pay for the virtual goods sold in such games using cash or third-party payments. The California-based company on Thursday launched a payment system called Kwedit Direct that allows users in the U.S. to pay for their digital purchases after the fact by mailing in cash, paying the bill at a 7-Eleven store or getting a friend or family member to pay on their behalf through a social payment network called Pass the Duck.”

3. Gamasutra (USA) – Sci-Tech Firm Buys Forterra’s OLIVE Platform For Virtual Training. “Several weeks after Forterra Systems reportedly laid off almost half its staff and rumors of a possible acquisition began to spread, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has revealed that it has purchased Forterra’s On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment (OLIVE) product line, including all names, trademarks, and licenses. Neither Forterra — formerly a spinoff of still-in-operation virtual world There.com — or SAIC disclosed financial terms for the purchase. OLIVE enables clients to deploy persistent and secure 3D virtual environments where users can collaborate, train, learn, and interact in real-time with avatars. The software platform supports virtual world implementations in healthcare, financial services, energy, transportation, retail, government, and higher education markets.”

4. VentureBeat (USA) – Vivox raises $6.8M for voice chat for online games. “Video game voice-chat provider Vivox is announcing today that it has raised $6.8 million for its business of providing voice services for online games, virtual worlds and social networks. Vivox ustomers include CCP Games, Electronic Arts, Gaia Online, Hi-Rez Studios, Linden Lab, NCsoft, Nexon, Realtime Worlds, Sony Online Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast. While others provide voice-over-Internet-protocol voice services in games, Vivox focuses on providing a managed service.”

5. NPR (USA) – The Technology Paradox: It Separates But Unites. “In filming at the IBM offices in Westchester N.Y., we were astonished to find the huge, slick office park almost deserted. We learned it was a byproduct of the fact that so many IBM employees telecommute from home or hotels. In fact, now, IBM is shifting a significant portion of their internal meetings into virtual worlds like Second Life, giving their employees another excuse not to come into the office. A couple of those employees told us they find virtual worlds like Second Life to be much more human and intimate than video conferencing or phone calls. A group of avatars sitting around a virtual conference table can share a joke, grab a virtual cup of coffee or divulge a virtual secret.”

6. Security Director News (USA) – Virtual worlds on the horizon for security. “Virtual worlds and augmented reality are not just the stuff of the gaming world anymore. “A lot of this technology isn’t as futuristic as we think, it’s upon us now,” said Frank Yeh, senior security and privacy architect at IBM, who delivered the keynote address at TechSec Solutions Feb. 1. Further, there’s tremendous potential for this technology to harness data in new ways and really change and improve the way physical security systems work, he said. Want to do facial recognition using your iPhone?, Yeh asked. You can download an app, called TAT, which does just that. It not only recognizes faces, information about the person appears in dialog boxes floating around that person’s image. How about attending a “virtual meeting” with colleagues who are located in cities around the world? Yeh showed a demonstration of Cisco’s Telepresence, which he called “a phenomenal technology” that will save businesses money be allowing them to “tranport bits not bodies, in the future.” One of the coolest things about telepresence technology, he said is that “it offers you things that you can’t do in a face-to-face meeting.”

7. The Escapist (USA) – Virtual Egg Sells for $70,000. “The hidden virtual worlds out there never cease to amaze, with virtual items and property in MMOG Planet Calypso selling for enormous amounts of money. First Planet Company, a subsidiary of MindArk that runs MMOG Planet Calypso, has announced that an in-game item called the Atrox Queen Egg recently sold for $69,696. That’s in real dollars, not virtual currency. I say again, and this is not a joke, somebody bought a virtual egg for $70,000.”

8. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Arbopals, Infinite Spaces Developing Tree Virtual World. “Arbopals and Infinite Spaces, the Virtual World Design Centre at Loyalist College, have partnered to create a tree-themed virtual world for kids aged 5-10. The site is now in beta, and the company has promised to plant a tree for every avatar created in the virtual world’s beta, up to 1,000 avatars. “Every kid these days is an environmentalist,” explained Peter O’Brien, President and CEO of Arbopals. “I have a daughter who is 13, and she, like all her friends and everyone from the age of about 5 to 20 is a real environmentalist. They understand global warming, they get that the world needs help, they understand the importance of trees and how trees clean our air and water. If anything, the kids are even more enthusiastic about the environmental hook of Arbopals than their parents.”

9. Information World Review (UK) – The wonders of a virtual world. “Want to look round the Egyptian pyramids or view Stonehenge from any angle? Well, there’s an app to do just that. No, it is not an iPhone application but a freely accessible interactive website called Heritage Key. Historians, archaeologists, academics, researchers and anyone interested in exploring ancient civilisations and monuments from the comfort of their homes now have a web-based resource to let them do so. Heritage Key, from Rezzable, offers visitors a 3D reconstruction of historical sites, excavations and monuments. Users can join live online lectures, ask questions, post on discussion boards and conduct their research.”

10. The Daily Star (UK) – Doctor Who Enters Computer Game World. “THE BBC is turning Doctor Who into a computer game. Bosses want to cash in on the show’s huge popularity by taking the Time Lord into the new market. Until now they had held off from making a game based on the show, only allowing the release of the Eidos game Top Trumps: Doctor Who in 2008. But Dave Anderson, head of multi-media development at BBC Worldwide, said: “We are having discussions about a variety of ideas around Doctor Who that are complementary to each other rather than in competition, including boxed product console games, virtual worlds and other experiences.”