1. ReadWriteWeb (USA) – Kids on The Web: Are They Satisfied With Virtual Worlds and Games? “For kids under 12 years of age, entertainment websites and virtual worlds are all the rage. My 8-year old daughter plays ToonTown a lot. Club Penguin and Moshi Monsters are also popular in this demographic. But are these types of sites fulfilling the potential and talent our kids have with technology? In order to help us answer that question, we’re asking those of you who are parents of a child aged 12 or under to do a short survey accompanied by your child. With this survey, co-hosted by Boston research firm Latitude, we’re hoping to discover what kind of web apps kids want but don’t necessarily have right now.”

2. VentureBeat (USA) – New Zealand’s MiniMonos raises $550,000 for kids virtual world. “Virtual worlds aren’t exactly fashionable these days. They went through a hype cycle when everyone predicted that we’d all be living virtual lives in online worlds like Second Life. Now our expectations of them are more down to earth — but new virtual worlds continue to pop up. MiniMonos is the latest. The Christchurch, New Zealand-based company has raised $800,000 in New Zealand dollars ($550,000 U.S.) for a virtual world for children.”

3. Inside Higher Ed (USA) – ‘The Warcraft Civilization’. “Virtual worlds have been making headlines in higher ed for a number of years now. From The Sims to Second Life, all-encompassing video games have caught the attention (favorable or otherwise) of faculty and administrators as well as students. But it’s safe to say that few have explored virtual realities with the fervor of sociologist William Sims Bainbridge. Bainbridge — who is currently co-director of Human-Centered Computing at the National Science Foundation and adjunct professor of sociology at George Mason University — spent over 2,300 hours (that’s more than a year of 40-hour work weeks, if you’re counting) playing World of Warcraft as part of the research for his latest book, The Warcraft Civilization: Social Science in a Virtual World (MIT Press). Bainbridge spoke to Inside Higher Ed via e-mail, discussing what he’s learned from and about virtual worlds — and the vast potential they offer for future research.”

4. Wall Street Journal (USA) – Zynga To Buy Social Gaming Developer Serious Business. “In just two-plus years, social gaming is proving to be a lucrative business for Internet start-ups, particularly for the largest maker of these games, Zynga Inc. The San Francisco company, founded in 2007, has put some of the $180 million it raised in December to work, acquiring smaller and younger rival Serious Business Inc., also backed by venture capital. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Zynga, whose popular games include “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars,” is the oldest in the nascent social-gaming industry and also the largest with more than 235 million monthly users. The company is reportedly generating upwards of $250 million in revenue per year. It also develops games for Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone. Its two biggest rivals are Playfish Inc., which was acquired by Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) for $300 million in November, and Playdom Inc., which a day later raised an unusually large $43 million first-round of venture funding. Playfish was founded in 2007 like Zynga and has more than 49 million monthly active users, while Playdom, which has said it’s profitable, was formed in 2008 and boasts 25 million monthly active users, according to Appdata.”

5. Psychology Today (USA) – Cool Intervention #2: Virtual Reality. “Get ready for Avatar-meets-Xbox-meets-Freud’s-couch as techies like USC’s Skip Rizzo usher psychotherapy out of the 1980s and into the information age. Just in time to become one of the Ten Coolest Therapy Interventions. When it comes to technology, psychotherapy has woefully trailed the other sciences. Biology, physics, chemistry, engineering and other “hard sciences” pounced on each technological advance to squeeze every last kilobyte of data from the research. For years their supercomputers thundered away while psychology gingerly tapped at a Commodore 64. Geophysicists studied paleomagnetism using an arsenal of techno-gagetry and we hand-scored Rorschachs with our trusty slide rule and abacus. In a field that takes pride in its progressive thinking, psychology was largely comprised of Luddites. Until now.”

6. Mashable (USA) – Glitch: Flickr’s Stewart Butterfield Explains His Ambitious Online Game. “Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield and five other former Flickr employees are joined by one Digg alum, one games expert and several freelancers in Tiny Speck, a company that’s working on an online game that has a shot at rebooting the stagnating massively multiplayer online game genre. The 2D game — called Glitch — incorporates beautiful illustrations and cutting edge game mechanics, but its most interesting features are its social aspirations and the lessons it learns from the web that its founders mastered at their previous gigs.”

7. Gizmodo (Australia) – Apple Patent Shows A 3D Virtual World For Buying Their Goods In. “There was a time, before Avatar, when 3D meant crummy virtual gaming. A recent patent granted to Apple shows they are (or were) considering a 3D virtual Apple Store – a more welcoming way to shop for Apple products.”

8. The Sunday Leader (Sri Lanka) – Avatar As America’s Political Unconscious. “When one watches James Cameron’s Avatar one is tempted to dismiss it as a special effects film with a very traditional plot. After all, what is new about a story that tells you about a hero, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, who leads a resistance against bad Americans? The film uses some hyper-romantic version of primitivism to talk of a better world. The simple, nature-connected natives are good; the technologically-advanced, materialistic Americans are bad. The bad Americans want to conquer the resources of the planet Pandora, and when the natives get in the way of this they must be pushed out or exterminated.”

9. TechCrunch (USA) – In English-Crazy China, 8D World Teaches Kids To Speak In Virtual Worlds; Lands A Deal With CCTV. “In China, learning spoken English is giving rise to a huge and growing market. For instance, in addition to English classes in public schools, parents send their children to about 50,000 for-profit training schools around the country, where English is the most popular subject. Instead of American Idol, on CCTV, the national government-owned TV network, they have the Star of Outlook English Talent Competition. This is possibly the largest nationwide competition in China. Last year, 400,000 students between the ages of 6 and 14 took part in it.”

10. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Weopia Launches Dating Virtual World. “Virtucom announced the launch of its entrance to the virtual worlds space today: Weopia, a virtual world aimed at bridging the gap between meeting someone through an online dating service and then meeting in the real world. Unlike Utherverse, which looked to partner with sites like Flirt.com, Weopia stands alone–something that may be an extra hurdle in the way of users downloading the software. It sounds, though, like Weopia envisions itself as related to other sites: users pick the person they want to chat with in the virtual world and share a link to their private space rather than mingling with strange avatars. Matches occur elsewhere, and meetings occur in Weopia.”

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.”

1. CNET (USA) – How ‘Avatar’ may predict the future of virtual worlds. “Since the release of his massive hit “Avatar,” director James Cameron has gotten plenty of deserved attention for his filmmaking innovations, having invented a camera system that captured live footage of his actors and integrated it immediately into fleshed-out scenes from his fictional world of Pandora. But movies may not be the only medium Cameron’s innovation is pushing toward the future. In fact, the technology he and his visual effects partners built for the record breaking film may also provide our first real glimpse of the future of 3D virtual worlds.”

2. Hypergrid Business (Hong Kong) – Business virtual needs. “When most people compare virtual worlds, they do so from a technical perspective — how many concurrent users, what kind of interface is being used, what data standards are supported. Too often, however, general business requirements are overlooked. This is a pity, because from a technical perspective there are few differences between the various virtual world platforms, and the differences that do exist are likely to vanish over time as users demand these features and vendors add them to their offerings.”

3. Inc. (USA) – Should You Stake Your Claim in a Virtual World? “A basic but sturdy tenet of social media is to go where the people are. So if virtual worlds like Second Life have lost some cultural cache to the likes of Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook what’s the point of getting involved? In short, setting up your own avatar, or even an in-world space for your company can save you money and maybe even get that eyeball play your marketing team has been gunning for. For starters, just because virtual worlds are no longer a media darling doesn’t mean they emptied out overnight. “I think it’s trending slowly but inexorably upward,” says Michael Wilson CEO of Makena Technologies, which runs the virtual world There, when asked about the number of people using virtual worlds.”

4. Computerworld (USA) – Augmented reality: Pure hype or Next Big Thing in mobile? “Augmented reality technology is getting a lot of attention these days — particularly the use of AR with smartphones. The idea is that by using certain software, you can turn your iPhone, Droid or other smartphone into a virtual heads-up display. Aim your phone’s camera at a shop, restaurant or landmark, and information about the place, such as hours of operation, reviews or directions, appears on the device’s screen as graphics floating over the image of the place. Dozens of developers of mobile augmented reality apps are banking on AR becoming the Next Big Thing in the mobile market. Indeed, a recent Juniper Research report predicted that annual revenues from mobile AR apps will reach $732 million by 2014, up from less than $1 million in 2009.”

5. Macworld (USA) – Onverse offers free-to-download social MMO. “If you thought there could be no social network more time-consuming than Facebook, you were wrong. Onverse, launched in beta last June, brings social networking into 3D, then spices it up with avatars, interior decorating, and mini games you can play against your friends. Best of all, it’s completely free for Mac users to download. Designer Steve Pierce, a Sony Online Entertainment design manager behind EverQuest II, brought Onverse to life with four other artists and engineers on a “shoe-string budget”, creating a virtual world that he describes as “much more of a game environment than many of our chat-only competitors.”

6. The Christian Science Monitor (USA) – ‘Avatar’ reality: It’s just a show, people. “In my continuing quest to remain slightly behind the times, I saw “Avatar” in 3-D several weeks after its release. Don’t worry: You won’t hear me breathlessly reporting that it is really cool. Half the planet already knows that. Nor am I going to get into its meaning or metaphysics. Yeah, I was bothered by the villainous former marines. I have marines in my family and respect them. The noble savage, white savior, and eco-worship were also a bit much, but most plays and movies are controversial if you choose to see them that way. I mean, “Mary Poppins” was about a nanny with magical powers who was blown in on the West Wind. Did anyone check her immigration status? Fairies and love potions figured prominently in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Just saying.”

7. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Facebook Credits Coming Soon To FarmVille. “Players of Zynga’s smash hit social game FarmVille will soon have the option to pay for virtual goods with Facebook Credits, according to sources close to TBI. The new payment option may debut in FarmVille as early as this week. With many other virtual worlds, including Habbo, spreading to Facebook, the roll out of Facebook Credits could present a lucrative new monetization option.”

8. News Observer (USA) – Virtual looks and feels almost real. “As Mushtaqur Rahman floated to the rafters of Duke Chapel, it was easy to forget that he was neither in a church nor off the ground. “Feeling rather angelic right now?” asked Rahman’s colleague, William Rice II, as both men peered through oversize 3-D goggles at the virtual chapel being projected above, below and all around them. Rahman and Rice are engineers with Parsons Brinkerhoff, one of the world’s largest civil engineering firms. They had come to Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering on a recent morning to experience a cube-shaped virtual reality theater called the Dive, or Duke immersive virtual environment.”

9. The Wall Street Journal (USA) – Zachary Quinto Has No Time for Tomfoolery. But For Those Who Do, There’s Star Trek Online. “With the success of World of Warcraft, videogame publishers have been looking for new virtual worlds to offer to videogame players. Next week, there’s a new option with the release of Star Trek Online. Developed by Cryptic Studios, the game will allow fans be the head of their own starship as they travel the universe and battle rival ships and seek out new civilizations. Zachary Quinto, whose role as Spock in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” movie received a shout-out during this week’s iPad presentation, serves as one of the voices in the game.”

10. Computerworld (USA) – Apple iPad: Will it run Second Life? “As a Second Life enthusiast, I really want the iPad to run Second Life. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t. As my friend Wagner James Au points out on the blog New World Notes, the iPhone already has a couple of rich, text-only Second Life clients, and the iPad now has the horsepower and screen size to support Second Life graphics. Moreover, as a Second Life enthusiast I want to see more people use the service. The existing software client is a major barrier to widespread Second Life adoption: It’s hard to learn. And it only runs well on desktops or powerful notebooks, while the world is adopting smartphones instead. The iPad has the potential to solve both those problems: Touching and tilting the iPad would provide an easier interface for Second Life than mousing and keyboarding. And iPads and other tablet-netbooks are going to become very popular pretty soon, as Apple sells iPads by the millions and competitors jump in to grab some of that action.”