1. Ars Technica (USA) – Real banking coming to virtual worlds. “Virtual economies of MMO games have been becoming increasingly intertwined with real-world money over the past few years. Titles like Second Life allow players to exchange cash for in-game currency, while others like EVE Online are player-driven and don’t limit currency or materials in the game’s economy. Now, however, the lines are being blurred even further, as a Swedish video game developer has been granted preliminary approval for a real banking license by the Swedish Finance Supervisory.”

2. Gerson Lehrman Group – High risk, High Reward: MMOGs as the Next Wave of Entertainment Media. “Gazillion Entertainment has captured headlines by inking a long-term deal with Marvel for creating online games based on Marvel’s characters. Gazillion also has other IP-related agreements, such as LEGO World. The company acquired online developer NetDevil last year and has quietly acquired other small studios to build up to their current 300-strong team. This is not the first agreement to produce online games (massively multiplayer online games — MMOGs — or virtual worlds, which are becoming increasingly synonymous) based on mass-market properties, but it is notable in its breadth and term: apparently all of Marvel’s 5000+ characters are included, and for a span of ten years. Successful MMOGs typically take 2-3 years to produce, so there is some room for a running start there, and historically these products have retained strong revenue for between five and ten years, making a long-term agreement like this sensible.”

3. MSNBC (USA) – UC San Diego and IBM Launch Center for Next-Generation Digital Media to Power Tomorrow’s Virtual Worlds. “Researchers at the University of California, San Diego today announced plans for a new campus center dedicated to invent the next generation of virtual worlds, multiple player online games, and high fidelity digital cinema, using one of the world’s most sophisticated computer servers — the IBM System z mainframe. IBM (NYSE: IBM) provided a Shared University Research (SUR) award to help the university jump-start its new Center for Next-Generation Digital Media on the UC San Diego campus. In addition to multiple peripherals and additional support, the IBM award consists of the company’s newest System z10 Enterprise Class server with the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.).”

4. ReadWriteWeb (USA) – Finally, A Practical Use for Second Life. “When you think of virtual worlds, the first one that probably pops into your head is Second Life, but in reality, there are a number of different virtual worlds out there. There are worlds for socializing, worlds for gaming, even worlds for e-learning. But one thing that most virtual worlds have in common is that they are places for play, not practicality. (Yes, even the e-learning worlds are designed with elements of “fun” in mind). Outside of some reports that virtual worlds will replace web conferencing in the enterprise, we haven’t seen a lot of innovation in this space which would make businesses sit up and take notice. However, that may be about to change thanks to new software that lets you perform data visualization and manipulation techniques within the virtual world environment.”

5.The Ontarian (Canada) – Out of the dungeon and into the chat room. “Just over a decade ago the release of the popular romantic comedy, You’ve Got Mail, helped make the concept of meaningful social interaction online seem realistic and accessible to the average internet user. The Matrix, released a year later in 1999, likewise offered a vision of a shared virtual existence (though admittedly with more sinister implications). At around this time, the internet was a rather new and startling phenomenon to the average person. According to the International Telecommunication Union, developed nations saw only 17 per cent internet usage in 1998. Measured against a much more prominent 62 per cent in 2007. Canada in particular has a high number of net users at 84.3 per cent of the total population according to a recent estimate by Internet World Stats. In Canada, the internet has become a tightly woven part of our social fabric, changing the way we interact. Where you used to ask for someone’s number you might ask for their email or you might Facebook them (sometimes without their consent).”

6. The Industry Standard (USA) – 3D data visualizations in virtual worlds: A “wonderful advance” or fancy window-dressing? “Will “walking” through your data help you understand it better? The folks at Green Phosphor think it will, and hope to convince you. Their product Glasshouse, currently in beta, will place interactive data presentations into virtual worlds like Wonderland and Second Life. Company founder and CEO Ben Lindquist posted an article at CyberTech News Saturday describing the service. “Users can see data, and drill into it; re-sort it; explore it interactively — all from within a virtual world. Glasshouse produces graphs which are avatars of the data itself.”

7. The Chronicle of Higher Education (USA) – New Research Center to Design ‘Next Generation’ of Virtual Worlds. “Watch out, Second Life. The University of California at San Diego announced today the creation of a new research center aimed at creating the “next generation” of virtual worlds, which designers hope will be more visually rich and have more features than Second Life and other popular online environments. The center will use a new hybrid-computing platform developed by IBM. Sheldon Brown, a professor of visual arts at the university who is also the director of the new center, said artists working with simulations have been limited by the computing technologies available. The new IBM platform, Mr. Brown said, offers an increased level of flexibility and power that will give artists more freedom.”

8. The Associated Press – Hillary Clinton, e-diplomat, embraces new media. “Her videos aren’t quite viral yet and she’s not tweeting, but Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is embracing new media, using the Web to promote the agency and her role as the nation’s top envoy.
In less than three months, Clinton’s State Department has embarked on a digital diplomacy drive aimed at spreading the word about American foreign policy and restoring Washington’s image. Part of a broader Internet outreach by President Barack Obama’s administration, Clinton’s Web efforts already have outpaced those of her predecessors.”

9. Church Solutions (USA) – Church 2.0: What It Means and Why It’s Important. “I’m working on a strange sort of book titled “Church 2.0.” Often, when I’m at conferences, I run into several church leaders who aware of the project and ask what the book is about, which makes me realize I need to explain my definition of Church 2.0. You see, when most people hear my book title they automatically think of one of two things: technology or theology. Assuming the book is about technology is understandable for a few reasons. First, the term closely resembles “Web 2.0,” which refers to the recent wave of increased interactivity and social networking on the Internet. I do cover this topic but so much more, also. Another reason many assume this book is about technology is I am the Director of Technical Arts at a church. I write and speak on technology, and I have a blog called ChurchVideoIdeas.com. But this book is currently divided into three sections and technology is only one of them. My hope is that once the book is released and word spreads, the term “Church 2.0” will be much larger and more definitive than just using Web 2.0 in a church setting.”

10. CNET (USA) – Sony says 4 million go home to PlayStation Home. “In an interview with GameDaily, Sony’s senior marketing vice president Peter Dille has revealed some stats on PlayStation Home, Sony’s online virtual community, which was greeted with a rather lukewarm reception when it launched late last year. Word is 4 million people have come into Home and those who do stick around stick around for 55 minutes on average.
Sony doesn’t differentiate between active and idle users (by idle, I mean you’ve gone in once, checked it out, and never gone back), so it’s hard to say how many folks are really hard-core Home dwellers. However, what’s clear is that now that it’s had an opportunity to mature a bit, the company is making a push to publicize the virtual world that Sony officials have admitted has been a challenge to build and maintain.”

1. Kotaku (Australia) – Worlds.com Targets World of Warcraft, Second Life For Patent Suit. “Virtual world patent holder Worlds.com filed suit against NCSoft in December, claiming its games, including City of Heroes and Guild Wars, were violating its patent for multiplayer virtual environments. And it won’t stop there. Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin says that the company “absolutely” has intentions of going after other big virtual world creators, including Blizzard for World of Warcraft and Linden Labs for Second Life”.

2. CBC (Canada) – Virtual dealings in Second Life pose real-life privacy risks: study. “You can shop, date and commit crimes virtually in online fantasy worlds like Second Life, but you may jeopardize your privacy in the real world, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada says. What sets such worlds apart from mere games is the fact that they involve real money and real personal information, said Janet Lo, the author of the study released late last week by the Privacy Commissioner. The rules and agreements concerning privacy, however, were sometimes “missing, or just a bit unclear or vague,” Lo added.”

3. Business Insider (USA) – Linden Lab Finally Cracks Down On Second Life Porn. “Second Life is about to get a lot less sexy. Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, announced today a range of new measures meant to finally confine Second Life’s sprawling adult community to a virtual “red light district.”

4. Information Week (USA) – Second Life Putting A Leash On Sex, Violence. “Linden Lab will build a fence around adult content in Second Life, creating dedicated adults-only areas in the virtual world and banning adult content from appearing anywhere else on the public grid, the company said Thursday. Users — known as “residents” in Second Life jargon — who want to visit the new red-light districts will need to verify their age, according to a statement on the Second Life Blog. Residents hosting adult content on their areas of Second Life will be required to flag that content. Search results will be filtered so that people who don’t want to see adult results won’t have to see it.”

5. RedOrbit (USA) – Virtual World Second Life Continues To Thrive. “Some media reports have suggested the potential demise of the former Internet virtual world of Second Life, but Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon claims the former Internet darling is doing better than ever, the American Free Press reported. “The reality is that Second Life continues to grow; every second someone joins. Second Life is hopping,” said Kingdon, who last year took over for founder Philip Rosedale as chief executive of San Francisco-based Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life.”

6. Gamasutra (USA) – Qube, RedBedlam Partner For ‘Messiah’ MMO Tech. “iddleware company Qube Software and virtual worlds company RedBedlam, both of them UK companies, are partnering on new MMO development tech they call Messiah. Qube’s Q Engine middleware will provide the genre and platform-agnostic client base, while RedBedlam’s ZoneBubble System will provide the server technology for a single, persistent virtual world. RedBedlam says ZBS allows for the creation of large contiguous worlds without loading zones or artificial barriers, for the benefit of developers aiming for large communities that share the same environment. ”

7. Wall Street Journal (USA) – How Do Morals Translate Offline to Online? “How does a 12-year-old’s sense of right and wrong play out when he or she is online? A recent Michigan State University study, published in the academic journal Sex Roles, isn’t answering the question but attempting to get the conversation going. The study, titled “Gender, Race and Morality in the Virtual World and Its Relationship to Morality in the Real World,” looks at responses from 515 seventh-graders to questions about the acceptability of “virtual” actions. Those actions included spreading computer viruses, emailing test answers to friends, viewing pornography and sending sexually explicit messages to strangers. It compares those results to the same students’ responses to questions about real-world behavior like cheating on tests, bullying or teasing, lying to parents or teachers and using racial slurs.”

8. MSNBC (USA) – Nortel Teams Up With Virtual Heroes to Deliver 3D Virtual Training Application. “Nortel(1) (TSX: NT)(OTCBB: NRTLQ) today announced that it is working with Virtual Heroes Inc.(2), a leader in simulations for learning, serious games and virtual worlds, to further enhance the simulation and training functionality of its web.alive communications application. Virtual Heroes Inc. (VHI), the “Advanced Learning Technology Company”, creates collaborative interactive learning solutions for the healthcare, federal systems and corporate training markets. The company is best known for its work with the America’s Army Game training platform architecture, and HumanSim(TM)(2) for medical training and education.”

9. Mediaweek (USA) – Sony a Hit With PlayStation Home. “Sony’s gamer-targeted virtual world PlayStation Home has reached a new audience milestone, having been downloaded by 5 million users since going live back in December, said officials—2.2 million of which reside in the U.S. and Canada. But don’t expect the avatar playground to become flooded with ads anytime soon, according to Jack Buser, director of PlayStation Home, Sony Computer Entertainment America.”

10. The Associated Press – Deaths of gamers leave their online lives in limbo. “When Jerald Spangenberg collapsed and died in the middle of a quest in an online game, his daughter embarked on a quest of her own: to let her father’s gaming friends know that he hadn’t just decided to desert them. It wasn’t easy, because she didn’t have her father’s “World of Warcraft” password and the game’s publisher couldn’t help her. Eventually, Melissa Allen Spangenberg reached her father’s friends by asking around online for the “guild” he belonged to.”

1. Associated Content (USA) – Islands for Sale Follow Cave Home onto Real Estate Oddities Market. “First it was a cave house that was auctioned off on eBay; now there are private islands for sale. Would you buy an island right now? What is more, would you buy a private island on Second Life? Private islands for sale aside, there currently is a unique cave home listed on eBay while a balloon note threatens a cave foreclosure. The eBay cave home auction is scheduled to go until 03-11-09 and for only $300,000 the cave could be yours; unfortunately, even though the story generated much interest, there are no bidders thus far. Will those holding private islands for sale have better luck?”

2. New York Times (USA) – Portrait of an Artist as an Avatar. “Certainly, Filthy Fluno is not the first artist to realize that in order to sell his paintings, he needs to sell himself. He does, however, work at it with impressive zeal. Every day he makes new friends and cultivates new contacts, edging himself and his work — a collection of expressionistic oil paintings and vibrant, graffiti-laced pastels — just a little bit farther into a universe that to others might appear huge and indifferent, but as Filthy sees it is stuffed with possibility and also potential customers. To this end, you will often find him wandering around art openings and dance parties, dressed in a spiffy suit and pair of sneakers, trying earnestly to chat up every person in the room.”

3. NPR (USA) – Scott Simon Looks for Coffee in Second Life. “When you think of school, you may think of students sitting in rows of desks in a classroom while a teacher lectures up front. But, what if you could go to class in your pajamas while lying on your couch? Dr. Michael DeMers is a geography professor at New Mexico State University. While he does teach in a traditional classroom, he also invites his students to join him in an online virtual world called Second Life. At least once a week, their avatars (digital versions of people) head to an island in this virtual terrain to review class notes. Host Scott Simon’s avatar paid a visit to this online virtual island to meet with Dr. DeMers, our Second Life guide. While there, Scott asked for a cup of coffee, but what he opened was a can of worms instead”.

4. Slippery Brick (USA) – VR headset mimics all five senses. “What you are looking at in the pic above is a virtual reality helmet that recreates sights, smells, sounds and even tastes from far-flung destinations. Created by British scientists, the device will allow users a life-like experience of places such as Kenya’s Masai Mara while never leaving home. You could greet friends and family on the other side of the world as though they were present in the same room. Previously, scientists have only had success with virtual reality technology recreating sound and vision. This helmet named the Virtual Cocoon could change all that.”

5. Money (UK) – Real Money Trading in a Virtual Environment – Virtual Items Can Lead To Immense Wealth (And Occasionally Death). “A virtual economy is generally taken as being the exchanging of virtual goods in a virtual world, just as it reflects how a real economy works in the Real World. However, there are times when the line between Real and Virtual economies can bleed together, when players exploit “virtual” goods in order to profit from their deeds in the “real” world. Here is an amalgamated list of some well-known (and perhaps some not so well-known) instances of where the line between “real” and “virtual” becomes a little too blurred for some.”

6. Campus Technology (USA) – Second Life: Engaging Virtual Campuses. “n the previous article in this series, Real-Life Teaching in a Virtual World, we looked at the state of Second Life as it pertains to higher education. There are so many schools represented that one could spend days exploring the college and university campuses. The ways they are used in the 3D online virtual world vary drastically, and how much and how well they are used appear to vary as well. First, the bad: ghost towns abound. Just as many corporations have created presences in Second Life with the approach of “if you build it, they will come,” some colleges and universities have done the same.”

7. Science Daily (USA) – Virtual And Real Worlds: Two Worlds Of Kids’ Morals. “Children’s moral behavior and attitudes in the real world largely carry over to the virtual world of computers, the Internet, video games and cell phones. Interestingly, there are marked gender and race differences in the way children rate morally questionable virtual behaviors, according to Professor Linda Jackson and her team from Michigan State University in the US. Their research is the first systematic investigation of the effects of gender and race on children’s beliefs about moral behavior, both in the virtual world and the real world, and the relationship between the two.”

8. The Guardian (UK) – Friendship studies reveal the power of pals. “A recent study from the University of Leipzig found that college freshmen were more likely to be friends with people they met in their first week at university if they had been randomly assigned a seat next to them in an introductory lecture. The happiness of our friends is infectious, according to researchers at Harvard and the University of California. In a study that measured the happiness of nearly 5,000 individuals over a period of 20 years, reports showed that when an individual was happy it spread through their network of friends, and their friends’ friends, and the measurable effect could last for up to a year.”

9. Accountingweb.com (USA) – Financial literacy moves to Second Life. “Ohio University and credit union industry leaders have launched a new educational video game that uses the virtual world Second Life to teach financial skills to young people. The game, Credit Union Island, is designed for high school students. Based in the teen grid of Second Life, a simulated world with millions of users, the game enables players to guide their avatars through real-life financial decisions such as taking out a college loan, making car payments and buying a home.”

10. Computerworld (USA) – No security reprieve from Blizzard’s Warden – Two good reasons to pass on MMORPGs in the office. “World of Warcraft (WoW) and other massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) are the source of recent rumbling in the industry. The online gaming numbers are staggering, but the notion that a significant percentage of people is logging in from work is truly the stuff of executive nightmares. The impact from lost work hours and the legality of alternate-currency businesses or “gold pharming” are worthy of discussion, but the alarm is a bit misplaced. Games have been a staple of computer workers’ existence since J. Martin Graetz, Alan Kotok and others cooked up Spacewar! on a PDP-1 in 1961, and people have been exchanging virtual identities and goods for real money since the first multiuser dungeons (MUD) in the ’80’s. Such games will always be with us, and the further up the knowledge-worker ladder one goes, the seemingly more essential their importance for blowing off steam. Modern role-playing games aren’t my thing, but I’d much rather see a senior security officer ganking Blood Elves in a cathartic frenzy for 30 minutes on company time than losing her cool when cornered by a tightly wound executive in some postincident blamestorming session.”

1. University World News (USA) – Alliance to create virtual worlds. “A major IT company has teamed up with a Canadian open university to establish a research centre that will create bespoke three-dimensional virtual learning environments. Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc has announced the creation of a new education centre for excellence at Athabasca University, Canada’s Alberta-based open university. Athabasca delivers the bulk of its courses online and the centre will be charged with enabling academics, students, schools and communities to develop virtual world-style online learning platforms. The university will integrate this three-dimensional immersive technology research into its curricula.”

2. Toronto Star (Canada) – Second Life makes classical music fans feel at home. “You can hear the breeze caressing the West Coast pines and the gently rolling sea. High clouds float overhead as people gather in the amphitheatre on Music Island. It is as pretty a spot as one could ever imagine for a concert. Three early-music specialists from Switzerland perform for an hour on recorders and flutes to an audience of listeners from Philadelphia, North Dakota, Norway, Finland, Holland, Italy, France, China, Korea – and Toronto.”

3. ScienceNews (USA) – Playing for real in a virtual world. “In a virtual setting where fifth-graders become wizards and athletes, and even change sexes, preteens stay true to their real-world selves. Classic sex differences in play preferences, characterized by rough-and-tumble games among boys and intimate conversations among girls, still exist after youngsters adopt a range of personas for virtual encounters, investigators find. Boys who create girl avatars — or computerized altar egos — and girls who create boy avatars still behave consistently with their biological sex, say psychologist Sandra Calvert of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and her colleagues.”

4. Game Fwd – Mathew Kumar on Why Virtual Worlds Miss the Mark. “Speaking at an International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Ottawa event on February 26, 2009, Gamasutra contributing editor and one of Canada’s most renowned games journalists Mathew Kumar discussed the place of virtual world games in the video game industry. Not shy to express his dislike for the concept as it has been executed so far, Kumar pointed out some of these games’ essential flaws to an intimate crowd at Ottawa’s bitHeads Studio. The event was organized as part of the Interactive Ontario gTalk game industry speaker series. Kumar was quick to highlight that virtual worlds, which are usually based on social interaction functions, rarely succeed in their goal of being effective vehicles for social interaction. While their developers and marketers portray them as a great way to meet new people, most players don’t take advantage of these features.”

5. CNBC (USA) – Virtual Meetings Get A 2nd Life. “Forget the days of companies flying employees to exotic locales to rally the troops and strategize. Who has the money to sustain that the corporate conference excesses of the past — and big remote gatherings just simply look bad. With companies cancelling Las Vegas meetings and Pebble Beach golf outings, some are finding a new, inexpensive way to gather far-flung employees — virtually, in Second Life. Linden Lab’s virtual world, which is home to 1.3 million regular residents, or avatars, has become the new hot spot for corporate gatherings.”

6. Allakhazam (USA) – Console MMOs: Are We There Yet? “If you’re an MMO player, there’s a good chance you have at least one video game console in your home. Personally, I have a Wii and Xbox 360 on the shelf under my television for those times I just don’t feel like sitting in front of my PC to play games. I even have most of my older systems, ranging back to my original NES, for when I get nostalgic. But with the current trend of companies such as Sony Online Entertainment pushing for console MMOs to become commonplace, will there be a time in the near future where players are more likely to pick up a controller than a keyboard to enter a virtual world? It’s certainly a possibility, but the slumping sales of the PlayStation 3 may make it difficult to entice gamers to try out an MMO from the comfort of their couches when their PCs will do just fine.”

7. ZDNet Asia – Bringing online marketing to life. “he 25-year old founder of Singapore-based Dream Axis, which specializes in creating 3D environments on virtual platforms such as Second Life, sees much potential in the 3D online space as a marketing platform for companies. Soh told ZDNet Asia in an interview: “There is so much opportunity for Web 2.0 to move to Web 3.0, where social collaboration in the 2D space goes to 3D.” Dream Axis recently completed building a set of islands for the National University of Singapore. The tertiary institute last year developed the online replica of its campus in an effort to reach out to potential students.”

8. Earth2Tech (USA) – Geekout: Sun, Second Life & Green Data Centers. “It’s the geekiest thing I’ve ever done: I just watched Sun Microsystems give a tour of its green data center designs in Second Life via a Ustream feed. Complete with Sun execs flying between data center designs, chuckling about their virtual outfits, and red (hot) and blue (cold) air flow designs emanating from the server gear, the media event lasted about 45 minutes. That was about 45 minutes too long (kidding!), as it was actually pretty hard to hear or understand what was going on. I’m going to wait for a “first life” tour in Santa Clara some day.”

9. Business Insider (USA) – IBM: We’re Still Committed To Virtual Worlds. “Earlier this week, we wondered if the departure of IBM’s (IBM) “Metaverse Evangelist” means the company is scaling back its interest in virtual worlds and Second Life. We haven’t heard much from the group in months, which only added to our speculation. IBM reps finally got back to us, and they let us know they’re still in there”

10. Telepresence Options – Holograms: coming soon to your front room? “I’ve done some daft things in my time, but inter viewing someone who wasn’t there for the best part of an hour must be in a class of its own. The person in question, Ian O’Connell, director of London-based Musion, wasn’t  invisible. I could follow his every movement, gesture and eye motions: it was just that he himself was somewhere else. I was chatting to one of his company’s products, or maybe I should say non-products: a hologram.”

1. Forbes (USA) – The Second Life Hype Has Fizzled—Is Twitter Next? “Second Life is still a vibrant virtual world—with over 12.2 million registered users and more than 54,000 online the last time I logged in—but you wouldn’t know it from the media coverage (or lack thereof) lately. It wasn’t always this way, as MediaShift’s Mark Glaser recounts, in a post covering how Second Life’s media hype has fizzled.”

2. Mediashift (USA) – Reuters Closes Second Life Bureau, but (Virtual) Life Goes On. “The sun shines brightly as I stroll along the curving pier above the water, looking out toward a beautiful island with trees swaying in the wind. There’s a looming ampitheater festooned with signs for Thomson Reuters, and a series of concrete buildings that appear ready to hold important meetings. I stride in confidently through the doorway… You might think I was describing a trip to visit Reuters in the UK, but really, I was strolling through the virtual world of Second Life (SL), visiting the Thomson Reuters island, now largely vacant. The island symbolizes the efforts of media companies not only to cover life in the virtual world of Second Life, but also to live there and set up virtual offices. Reuters made waves by setting up a bureau in SL, with reporters Adam Pasick and Eric Krangel covering stories about the virtual currency and the startup businesses springing up in-world.”

3. Computerworld (New Zealand) – Reality is broken so go virtual, says games developer. “Web developers and designers have a lot to gain by looking to the virtual world, because compared to the gaming world, reality is broken, says Jane McGonigal, game designer and director of game research and development at the Institute for the Future, a California-based non-profit research group. People are not as happy and fulfilled in reality as they are in online, virtual realities, such as World of Warcraft, McGonigal told the audience at developer and designer conference Webstock, which kicked off on yesterday in Wellington. ”

4. Telepresence Options (USA) – The Case for 4D Immersive Holographic Spaces. “The United States of America has steadily fallen further and further behind Asian and European nations with respect to broadband penetration and related services. This is impeding the development of new consumer applications (and related new industry and services) and limiting communications in an economy where knowledge exchange is vital in order to be to be a major player of the emerging , seamless and unobstructed global market. Reversing this trend may be of high interest to the incoming administration, but the viability of extending broadband is dependent on the deployment of new high bandwidth and high value applications that (a) will justify the investments required and (b) will contribute digital solutions to many of the key societal problems in this Energy-Climate Era (as recently identified by Thomas L. Friedman in his book Hot, Flat and Crowded) such as growing demand for ever scarcer energy supplies and natural energy, rapid and accelerating biodiversity loss, and disruptive climate change.”

5. Atlanta Journal Constitution (USA) – Gamers want to look rivals in eye. “he scene unfolding one recent Friday evening at Cyberdome in Easton, Pa., couldn’t be sweeter for a group of teenage boys poised for a night out with friends. Teens and tweens, ages 12 to 19, popped open cans of caffeine-loaded Liquid Lightning, slouched into the kind of swivel chairs executives use and centered themselves behind 20-inch screens, the windows into their virtual worlds for the night. “This is Disney World for them,” said Cyberdome’s owner Mark Dressel, who was hosting the all-night video game lock-in for nearly 20 area teens.”

6. Gameplanet (New Zealand) – The Sims 3 Q&A session. “With over a hundred million units shipped to date, you can’t deny that The Sims is one popular franchise.
Developers Maxis started the series nearly a decade ago, after venerable designer Will Wright insisted he could take their immensely popular SimCity series in a new direction and make a “people sim”. The concept of manipulating people sitting in their houses whilst you sat in yours was, perhaps surprisingly, a hit, and even after seven expansions the series is still going from strength to strength.”

7. The Malaysian Star (Malaysia) – Philips extends invitation to its virtual island. “PHILIPS is inviting Malaysians to take a peek at its virtual R&D island located in Linden Lab’s Second Life where virtual concepts are being tested and visitors can participate in co-designing the projects. The company called the island its collaborative working space for the real and virtual worlds, which provides the opportunity to research ideas with creative global early adaptors of new trends. “It fits with the company’s philosophy that design should be based around people and grounded in research,” said Dolf Wittkämper, senior director of Philips Design.”

8. Campus Technology (USA) – Real-Life Teaching in a Virtual World. “Few technologies have been subject to more hype and subsequent disappointment than Second Life. Corporations from shoe manufactures to cruise lines to news services set up shop with hopes this new frontier would bring soaring profits. Most evacuated shortly thereafter when the effort resulted in spaces devoid of audiences and buyers. A notable exception, though, is education. Education is thriving in Second Life. This enthusiastic subculture is abuzz within the Second Life realm, constantly interacting inside and outside Second Life. Educators are exploring every possible tool the 3D virtual world offers and establishing best practices along the way.”

9. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Interoperability Gaining Steam Again? “In Fall 2007, interoperability was the buzz word surrounding our show in San Jose. IBM had organized a summit of leaders from the industry and announced plans with Linden Lab to work on avatar interoperability. Things died down a bit after that as individuals returned to their own projects, but IBM, Linden, and others continued to work to integrate OpenSim and Second Life, which OpenSim is based on. It looks like things are picking up again, at least for Linden and IBM, which are co-chairing the Internet Engineering Task Force’s Massive Multiplayer Online Experiences working group.”

10. RedOrbit (USA) – Microsoft To Study Educational Benefits Of Video Games. “Devin Krauter sits on the end of his bed, using his video game controller to shoot down aliens while taking with other players through a headset, all the while texting on his cell phone and chatting with a visitor. A video game Web site ranks the 17-year-old high school junior among the best players at “Gears of War 2,” a game in which soldiers fight their enemies using an assault rifle with a mounted chain saw bayonet. Krauter says the game teaches him to think on his feet, and that he thinks about succeeding, not slaying.”

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.”

1. SiliconValley.com (USA) – Some startups adding muscle in tough economy. “MVU Chief Executive Cary Rosenzweig used to make his living pushing practical products such as Tide, Clorox and QuickBooks Payroll. Now he leads an Internet “virtual world” company where visitors spend actual money for something as seemingly frivolous as a new wardrobe for their digital alter egos and gifts for avatar pals. Yet IMVU recorded four consecutive quarters of record revenue in 2008, accelerating even as the economy crashed, Rosenzweig says. With the holiday season over, business was expected to slow a bit — but January delivered another uptick, he said. Why? One theory suggests that people with maxed-out credit cards were substituting low-cost shopping sprees in the virtual realm for trips to the mall.”

2. AsiaOne (SIngapore) – Romance isn’t dead, it’s online. “According to a poll of 128,000 teens, romance isn’t dead, it just went online. The poll, conducted by Habbo, the world’s largest virtual world for teenagers, revealed that 76% of respondents believed that romance is still alive and well in today’s digital age. They believe too, that taking romance online actually makes thing easier – about two-thirds, or 64% of teens polled believe that virtual winks and MSN hearts actually make it easier for young people to flirt with each other. But that doesn’t’ mean that Singapoean teens have totally dismissed seeming ‘old-fashioned’ forms of communication. More than a quarter (27%) still prefer to flirting face-to-face than going virtual.”

3. The Jakarta Post (Indonesia) – Online gaming, good for some, disastrous for many. “High school student Ade spends his days in class like any other kid, but after school he morphs into a sword-carrying warrior, fighting ogres, monsters and dragons in the fantasy world of online gaming. Ade and other online gamers have become part of the furniture at Internet cafes throughout Jakarta, which are now sprouting up around university campuses and schools.”

4. The Guardian (UK) – The Man is in your virtual world. “Maybe it’s because it’s tax time, or coming up to the end of the financial year, but several high-level government bodies are weighing in on virtual worlds. Specifically, the bodies are interested in the financial and security implications of these multi-user, networked spaces. The first report comes in from the European Network and Information and Security Agency. According to Metaverse Law, they’ve released a position paper called Virtual Worlds, Real Money: Security and Privacy in Massively-Multiplayer Online Games and Social and Corporate Virtual Worlds”.

5. Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) – No classification: online games legal minefield. “Video game publishers and retailers are risking hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines by illegally selling online role playing games such as World of Warcraft without age classifications. The games industry believes there is a legal loophole exempting online games that don’t have a single player component from classification requirements but this view is contradicted by the federal and state attorneys-general.”

6. MyCustomer.com (UK) – Twinity offers new forms of customer interaction. “Virtual worlds offer customers and businesses new ways of interracting online, creating innovative brand extensions and sales channels for companies, and giving customers new forms of brand experience – that’s the view of Dr Mirko Caspar, co-founder and CMO of Metaversum, the Berlin-based company behind the development of virtual online environment Twinity. Unlike the superficially similar Second Life, which many brands and organisations already have a presence in, Twinity aims to model real-world cities as virtual locations that customers can ‘walk around’ in avatar form. Its first virtual city, Berlin, is online. More cities, including London, are planned.”

7. VentureBeat (USA) – Social network hi5 aims its 60 million users at casual games. “Social network hi5 is introducing a casual games section to its site today, complete with its recently-launched virtual currency (called “Coins”) and a range of more than 40 arcade, casino, card, sports and strategy games. It’s the latest move in the company’s effort to focus on “social entertainment” — later this year, it plans to introduce instant messaging (wrapped into games, as well), avatars and eventually a full-blown virtual world.”

8. This Is London (UK) – Welcome to cyber-London. “A virtual recreation of London is attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every day. An online version of the capital, complete with Big Ben and Marble Arch, is featured on the 3D virtual world website Second Life. The online city boasts five areas of London –— Mayfair, Kensington, Chelsea, Westminster and Hyde Park. Users who sign up free of charge can create an avatar of themselves, and can walk or fly around while interacting with other users via text or speech.”

9. VentureBeat (USA) – PlaySpan makes virtual goods transactions more convenient. “In-game commerce network PlaySpan is taking one of the hassles out of trading virtual goods. In the past, gamers had to engineer a risky drop-off inside a game world in order to trade valuable virtual goods between game characters. The gray-market system (often not sanctioned by game operators) required that player arrange to meet inside a virtual world and was also rife with fraud, as many people didn’t show up as promised.”

10. Silicon.com (UK) – Virtual meetings to ground two million airline seat. “irlines could be hit hard as workers ditch face-to-face meetings in favour of cheaper virtual link-ups.
The worldwide economic downturn will boost videoconferencing tech, according to analyst house Gartner that predicts virtual meetings will replace more than two million airline seats per year by 2012. Telepresence systems – such as Cisco’s TelePresence and HP’s Halo – use high definition video, stereo audio and purpose built videoconference suites to help make participants feel as if they are meeting in the same room as each other.”

1. Escapist (USA) – World of Warcraft: A Religion? “To say that hardcore WoW players are fanatics is one thing, but to call them religious is another. That’s what a graduate student at the University of Colorado is arguing, though. Citing the French sociologist Danil Hervieu-Lger’s definition of religion, Theo Zijderveld argues that though World of Warcraft isn’t a religion proper, it certainly contains the four key ingredients: community, ethics, culture and emotion. The communal aspect, Zijderveld says, comes from playing with people and making friends within the game. As for the ethics, the rules of the game (and presumably the rules of the community) constitute that.”

2. PC World (USA) – Second Life Profitable Despite Interface Woes. “In exclusive interviews with The Industry Standard, Linden Lab’s two top executives have confirmed that the company is still profitable and Second Life is continuing to grow users and expand its enterprise services. However, Linden Lab founder and chair Philip Rosedale and CEO Mark Kingdon admitted that the in-world experience still takes too long for new users to master, an issue that will require significant amounts of technological work to rectify.”

3. CBC News (Canada) – Strangers in Paradise. “Around the world, millions have gone on-line to create a virtual life for themselves — a simulated fantasyland where the economy booms, the sun shines and everyone looks gorgeous. For many “second lifers,” the game is just that, a game. But, for others, it takes on a life of its own. Hana Gartner introduces us to two women who fell in love with their fantasy life and lovers. They gave up everything, husbands and children, to meet the man behind their fantasies. Find out, if the real thing measured up.”

4. Second Thoughts (USA) – Stranger Than Paradise: Is Second Life Really Like This? “Having gone over to the CBC to watch this, I have to say: no, SL isn’t like this. I haven’t seen a guy with nose-rings and eyes that bug open like that waiting at the bottom of a waterfall that I jumped off — well, ever — ROFL.”

5. LA Times (USA) – ‘Heroes’ hops on to Habbo’s virtual world. “If you haven’t heard of Habbo, you’re probably older than 16. Among younger teens, Habbo is one of the more popular virtual hangouts on the Web, with about 2.8 million unique U.S. visitors in December, up 110% over a year earlier, according to ComScore. That’s why NBC Universal struck a deal with Habbo’s Finnish developers, Sulake, to drum up interest in the show “Heroes.” NBC is introducing a new spin-off character there named Syn Anders. Though she doesn’t appear on “Heroes” itself, she’ll be Habbo residents’ virtual guide to the series, assigning players with quests and puzzles that mirror the show as it continues into its third season.”

6. Israel21C (Israel) – Getting the kids to save the world. “When was the last time you saved the world? Now, there’s a challenge. Ekoloko, a new, green-themed virtual world not only gives kids a chance to chat and play games, they can also help to save the world from destroying itself. “All of the content is around the environment and social awareness,” says Guy Spira, CEO of Ekoloko. “We feel passionate about the mission. Kids can get involved with the adventures, have a total fun experience and at the same time absorb values and knowledge.”

7. CNET (USA) – Daily Tidbits: $594 million for virtual worlds in ’08. “Virtual Worlds Management, a company that provides research on the growth of online virtual worlds, said $594 million was invested in 63 virtual worlds during 2008. Gaia Online and PlayFish were two of the most prominent recipients of venture funding during the year. That said, investments in virtual worlds declined as the year wore on. In the first quarter of 2008, virtual worlds received $184 million in funding. By the fourth quarter of that year, investments dropped to $101 million. Virtual Worlds Management expects a further decline in funding in virtual worlds during 2009.”

8. TMCnet (USA) – Linden Lab Bolsters Leadership Team. “Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life, announced the appointments of Brian Michon as Vice President of Core Development and Judy Wade as Vice President of Strategy and Emerging Business. Reporting directly to CEO Mark Kingdon, Michon and Wade join a recently expanded executive team that will help drive Linden Lab to the next level in 2009.”

9. The Industry Standard (USA) – Second Life continues global expansion, but China remains on the back burner. “Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon says that growing Second Life’s presence in certain international markets is a strategic goal for the company. However, he said that expansion in the country with one of the world’s largest Internet populations — China — is not a priority. In an interview with the Industry Standard at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, Kingdon described the company’s recent efforts to localize Second Life for residents who do not use English.”

10. WebWorkerDaily (USA) – Conferencing and Market Research Services Get Second Life. “Depending on who you ask, Second Life is either an early pioneer in what promises to be a brave new virtual world of peer-to-peer interaction, rife with business opportunities, or a non-starter that got way too much hype way too early and won’t live up to any of it, no matter how long we wait. I believe my fellow WWD writer Aliza Sherman is very much on the former side of the fence. I’ll only say that Second Life’s rise hasn’t been as meteoric as Twitter’s, for instance, but that I still see potential for it to grow.”

1. VentureBeat (USA) – iMafia, a social game for iPhone with new virtual goods model. “Social games have taken off on networks like Facebook, and now mobile platforms like the iPhone. One of the newest examples is the iMafia game from PlayMesh, which has found a clever way to integrate virtual goods — a challenge for most iPhone apps. Social games like Mob Wars are already hugely popular online. But Charles Ju, co-founder of PlayMesh in San Francisco, believes the time is right to migrate the concept to the iPhone, which is capable of supporting the same features that draw audiences on the web. The result, iMafia, was released on Friday and already ranks No. 88 in the Apple AppStore.”

2. The Industry Standard (USA) – Virtual worlds getting a dose of reality. “Virtual worlds, at least those looking for funding, are meeting the all-too-real world of the worsening economy, according to a new report. Prepared by Virtual Worlds Management, a provider of market research and events related to the virtual worlds industry, the report says investments in 63 virtual-world related companies declined by 58 percent from 2007 to 2008, shrinking from $1.4 billion to $594 million. This year will see more contraction, Joey Seiler, editor of Virtual World News, told The Standard. ”

3. VentureBeat (USA) – Updated: Game and virtual world fundings top $885 million in 2008. “In 2008, VentureBeat chronicled lots of game and virtual world fundings. Our updated list shows 93 game companies that raised more than $885.6 million worth of venture capital and angel funds. That’s nothing compared to the $4.1 billion that went into U.S. deals for clean tech, according to the National Venture Capital Association. But it’s certainly a big chunk of the $2 billion that went into 407 media and entertainment companies in 2008. It’s probably one of the biggest years for venture investment in video game companies. Many of these companies may shut down because of the recession.”

4. BusinessWeek (USA) – Architect Designs Sony’s Virtual World. “Back in July 2007, architect Kenji Ikemoto got an unexpected call from a contact at Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony’s (SNE) video game unit. Was he interested in designing an online virtual world for the company’s PlayStation 3 gaming console? Ikemoto, 37, was intrigued. The founder of Jota Associates had worked on residential and commercial buildings around Tokyo, but had no experience in video games and no clue why Sony would want to hire a real-world architect for such a project. The offer began to make sense when he met with officials at Sony Computer Entertainment’s office: They wanted to create a virtual cityscape rivaling hip areas of Tokyo.”

5. Web Worker Daily (USA) – Enhance Live Events With Virtual Ones. “I’ve talked about live blogging events as a way to enhance and promote a real world event, literally as it is happening. But lately, I’ve been asked to host virtual world events simultaneous to real world events. Mike Gunderloy and I also included planning and hosting virtual events in our 10 More New Ways to Make Money back in August. The virtual events I hosted recently were both held in Second Life. Clearly, Second Life is not dead.”

6. Ars Techica (USA) – New cafe space coming to PlayStation Home. While the original iteration of Home was very light on content, Sony is attempting to remedy that with the addition of more spaces for users to socialize in. Following the release of Red Bull Island, Sony has announced a new cafe space for the virtual world. Unfortunately, it looks to be just as devoid of content as the rest of Home. A batch of screens for the new space were released on the PlayStation.com message boards, which show off the modern looking cafe area. While no details have been released, the early images don’t show much promise for additional activities.”

7. PC World (USA) – Teleconferencing will be Big in 2008, Gartner Says. “Current economic conditions are set to drive uptake of video telepresence in the next three years, with the travel industry losing out, according to Gartner. The analyst firm predicts that high-definition-based video meeting solutions will replace 2.1 million airline seats annually, costing the travel and hospitality industry US$3.5 billion per year. This is one of the firm’s top 10 predictions for the year.”

8. Times of India (India) – Virtual 3D worlds or Web 3.0? “While the world debates over what Web 3.0 could actually comprise, Sudhir Syal explores the virtual 3D World and realises that it could well be a serious contender. It was in the summer of 2004, during a conversation between internet evangelist Tim O Reilly and MediaLive International that the now inescapable term Web 2.0 was first coined. Just after the dotcom bust, Web 2.0 was meant to signify the resurgence of the World Wide Web and it was to reinforce this that the Web 2.0 Summit was first held. ”

9. Scoop (New Zealand) – Virtual Islam: Peace, Love, and Some Understanding. “In these times of rockets and bombs exploding in Israel and the Gaza Strip, Islamophobia alive and well in the homeland, an uptick in anti-Semitism in Europe, a lively Rapture Index, and the economy still in a shambles, it may be worth your while to step away from these realities and enter conversations that haven’t yet gotten as much attention and support as they may deserve. Dozens in Egypt, Morocco, Italy, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, France, and the United States gather to protest the recent attacks in the Gaza Strip; American University in Cairo launches a Virtual Newsroom with James Glassman, the US Undersecretary of State of Public Diplomacy, in conversation with eight Egyptian political bloggers who covered the 2008 US presidential campaign; people from around the world join in a pilgrimage to Mecca and witness a burning synagogue depicting Kristallnacht.”

10. Massively (USA) – Linden Lab arrivals and departures. “The lineup of staff at Second Life virtual environment developer/operator, Linden Lab changes on a month by month basis. There’s been a bit of motion since the last high-profile hire. Judy Wade, formerly Entrepreneur-in-residence at Kapor Enterprises Inc, has been hired as the vice president of Strategy and Emerging Business. That’s the same Kapor as Mitch Kapor who has a seat on the board of directors as the Lab.”

1. CNET (USA) – American Idol shows how to extend brand with Habbo virtual world alliance. “As reported earlier on Webware, FremantleMedia, co-producer of American Idol, announced it has teamed up with Habbo to create an Idol-branded community within the Habbo virtual world.
Habbo claims 11.5 million unique users on a worldwide basis and more than 121 million characters have been created. VentureBeat reports “about 90 percent of its users are 13 to 18. They spend an average of 45 minutes on the site per visit.”American Idol and its show sponsors will post their signs and merchandise throughout the Habbo environment. They will hold events on stages and use spaces that resemble those in the show.”

2. AppScout (USA) – Girl Ambition: Virtual World for Tweens. “Girlambition.com, a new site for tween girls, debuted yesterday, opening up a new world of online possibilities to the age group. Girl Ambition was created to help both parents and girls, ages 7 to 13, in learning how to safely use the Internet. The site is two-fold: both parents and daughters have their own logins, and access different sites. The main site gives girls a safe place to e-mail, chat, blog, watch videos, and play games. Girl Ambition aims to educate, but also increases self-esteem. The content on the site helps girls raise their self-esteem through fun games and videos. ”

3. Radar Online (USA) – First virtual world school. “A school in North Yorkshire, England has become the first to use the virtual world to educate students. According to the Evening Gazette, students use the Second Life virtual world to populate their ‘Acklam Grange’ classroom with characters which can walk around, interact with classmates, and engage in virtual lessons. (Ed: Am I the only one that finds the ‘first’ claim to be nonsensical to the extreme?)

4. Massively (USA) – Openspaces: Linden Lab short on answers. “The fifth of January has come and gone, and the Second Life Openspaces 2.0 product has passed into history, to be replaced with the lower-value Openspaces 4.0 and Homesteads 1.0 products. In the couple of months since the initial announcement, we’ve been inundated with reader-requests asking us to get some sort of explanation of the reasoning from Linden Lab, and render it into comprehensible form. Unfortunately, despite repeated promises over the last ten weeks or so to provide us with that information, Linden Lab has been unable to actually provide us with any explanation or reasoning behind the changes in pricing and specification.”

5. Softpedia (Romania) – IBM Thinks World of Warcraft Players Make Good Employees. “Online games are starting to become one of the most popular types of entertainment out there. We all play or have played various online titles like MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) in order to relax and enjoy ourselves, but it seems that some people become very addicted to them and start neglecting real-life tasks in favor of the virtual ones. This trend was observed by various employers across the United States, which have revealed that companies are now starting to dislike job applicants who reveal that they play various online games, especially World of Warcraft, one of the most popular MMORPGs out there, with over 11,5 million subscribers every month. They reveal that, although the game does teach you leadership skills, it becomes very distractive and, as such, people can’t really focus on their jobs.”

6. Innovations Report (Germany) – Virtual World users to get their own dedicated search engine. “The Meta-Mole, created by the Centre for Design in the Digital Economy (D-LAB) based within the University’s Institute of Digital Innovation, will ultimately be a dedicated searchable online resource for the 350 plus virtual worlds currently existing on the Internet. Philip McClenaghan, Deputy Director of D-LAB explains: “We were analysing virtual world platforms and realised that there doesn’t appear to be a comprehensive service offering to list and compare key data for major 2D and 3D environments. This surprised us considering the current popularity of virtual worlds. We intend to fill the gap with the Meta-Mole.”

7. Ars Technica (USA) – Online gamers in China must soon register with real names. “The addictive nature of online gaming has been proven, at least anecdotally, time and time again. While not everyone who jumps into the digital realms of World of Warcraft or the various other massively-multiplayer online role-playing games is liable to get endlessly sucked in, those with addictive personalities certainly run the risk. In fact, in the East, the problem has gotten so severe that the government of China will soon require MMO players to register their real names when creating online accounts as an anti-addiction measure.”

8. The Daily Mail (UK) – What happened when we took Mandy’s avatar to Second Life. “Lord Mandelson is creating an alter ego on a virtual reality website to drum up support for Labour…but the Mail has beaten him to it. What WILL Gordon say about that tattoo? Peter Mandelson, it can be said with some confidence, is the sort of chap who always has the right clothes for every occasion. Deck shoes, casual slacks and a blazer for swapping small talk with Russian billionaires on board a yacht in the Med. How about something fur-trimmed to impress the crowds down at the House of Lords? You can bet your bottom dollar that Baron Mandelson of Foy in the county of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the county of Durham has them all. ”

9. Digital Journal (Canada) – Sexy Job on Internet, Prostitute as Avatar. “Second Life is one of those Internet sites that allows people to become anyone or anything they want. On this particular site an individual can assume a new identity, a dream image, as a way of escaping perhaps a humdrum world or becoming a fantasy that has been wished for. This particular transformation to prostitute on “Second Life” is certainly creative. But will it pay like the real thing? ”

10. WebCPA (USA) – Taxing Virtual Worlds. “The IRS could start taxing virtual environments like Second Life and World of Warcraft to get a cut of the real dollars that are spent on potions, armor and weapons in the online gaming world. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson suggested the IRS should proactively look into issuing guidance for taxpayers who are already concerned the taxman might one day audit these transactions.”