1. Fox News (USA) – ‘World of Warcraft’ Gets Kids Interested in School. “t’s not unusual for video game players to speak of a routine that involves ordering pizza, getting a sugar jolt, and then playing “World of Warcraft” for hours. But the person talking in this case is Constance Steinkuehler, an educational researcher who organized an afterschool group for boys to play, for educational purposes, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game.”

2. MarketWatch (USA) – Virtual World ‘Planet Cazmo’ Integrates AllPosters.com Content. “Today Planet Cazmo, http://www.planetcazmo.com, a virtual world that hosts a global audience of ‘tweens and teens, announced a major update which includes integration of ad content from AllPosters.com, the world’s largest online retailer of quality wall decor, with over one million items including posters, prints, and specialty items. Planet Cazmo is one of the first virtual worlds to partner with AllPosters.com — a relationship which gives Cazmo players access to thousands of poster images with which to decorate their virtual rooms.”

3. BBC News (UK) – Future football stars start here. “If you ever had the desire to live the life of a top football player both on and off the pitch but lack the real world ball skills, then Football Superstars might be able to help. The online game combines a football simulation with a virtual world and lets players work their way up towards superstar status, earning money as they go.”

4. ScienceDaily (USA) – Virtual World Offers New Locale For Problem Solving. “Second Life, a virtual world created in 2003, currently boasts more than 12 million users worldwide who go there for everything from college recruiting to shopping. Now, Penn State researchers are investigating how virtual teams can better solve real world problems by collaborating in Second Life. Nathan McNeese, undergraduate, psychology; Gerry Santoro, assistant professor, and Michael McNeese, professor, information sciences and technology and psychology, Penn State; and Mark Pfaff, assistant professor of media arts and sciences, Indiana University-Indianapolis, created an experiment in which students formed teams and were asked to solve a problem, posed by a video, using different meeting styles.”

5. Ottawa Business Journal (Canada) – Living in a virtual world. “It was when he mentioned we could teleport to our next meeting that I got a little skeptical. I’d been chatting with Eilif Trondsen, program director of the Virtual Worlds Consortium for Innovation and Learning at California’s SRI Consulting Business Intelligence. He was in town last week to deliver a series of presentations to Industry Canada, OCRI and the National Research Council on the growing importance of ‘virtual worlds’ (VW) – those quasi-geeky, online simulated realities such as Second Life – in the business world. “The key message is corporations are recognizing that these are technologies they need to understand better,” said Mr. Trondsen, with a distinguishable Scandinavian lilt, just before heading off to the NRC early last week.”

6. Online Media Daily (USA) – HipChicas.com Targets Tween Latinas with Eco-Friendly Virtual World. “Hip Venture Co. is the latest company to enter the crowded virtual worlds market for kids, tweens and teens (KT&T) with the imminent launch of HipChicas.com. But what separates this Flash-based virtual community from some of its competitors is its focus on socially conscious, young Latinas, and its “eco-friendly” stance, differentiators that analysts say may help it stand out from the pack. HipChicas.com members can create and customize avatars and living spaces, as well as purchase items with virtual currency called Hip Change. Girls can chat in English, Spanish, Portuguese or French, with an automatic translator that displays the appropriate language for each user.”

7. io9 (USA) – Real Economist Studies Virtual Economy in EVE Online. “Today’s virtual worlds have their own virtual economies, whether you’re coughing up enough gold to buy an epic mount in World of Warcraft or converting real money to Linden dollars so you can buy realistic genitalia for your Second Life avatar. EVE Online, a sci-fi online game of space warfare and commerce, may have the deepest, most complex virtual economy in the world. It’s so deep, in fact, that EVE Online has a chief economist, Eyjolfur Guomundsson. What do real economists think of fake economies?”

8. The Guardian (UK) – We’ll all be citizens of virtual worlds. “Most people still look askance if you admit to using virtual worlds where you move around with an avatar or 3D version of yourself. It recalls the technophobic reactions in the early days of the internet. But attitudes may now change for two reasons. First, children are piling into their own virtual worlds, so their parents can get a glimpse of what it is all about. And second, a huger user base is being created, one that is accustomed to virtual worlds and is ready to trade up to more sophisticated ones as they grow older.”

9. TMCnet (USA) – Vollee Enables Nokia N96 for Second Life Mobile. “Vollee, a 3G streaming services provider, announced support for Nokia (News – Alert) N96, and also its start of sales worldwide. With Nokia’s new model, N96, users can access Second Life, the 3D virtual world platform by Linden Lab. Other than new Nokia N96, other Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, LG and other manufactures models are being supported for access to Second Life as well. In fact, with N96, there are now more than 70 3G handset models supported by the Vollee service.”

10. The Daily Telegraph (UK) – Space travel: The urban spaceman. “Richard Garriott grew up surrounded by astronauts, keeps two Sputniks in his home, and claims to own the Moon. And next week, the British-born video-game pioneer will become the sixth person to make a private flight to the International Space Station. Peter Lyle joins him in Russia as the countdown begins.”

1. PC World (USA) – Real Life will Trump Second Life, Microsoft Says. “Microsoft’s Craig Mundie has dismissed the potential of “synthetic virtual worlds” like Second Life, saying that the potential for immersive environments will be likely realized through 3D tools that capture and model the real world. Mundie and robot/Photosynth demoMundie, who oversees research and long-term strategy for Microsoft, devoted a significant portion of his “Rethinking Computing” presentation at MIT’s Emerging Technology conference to what he called the “Spatial Web,” a blend of 3D, video, and location-aware technologies. At the center of several of his demos was Photosynth, a Microsoft software tool that can create 3D models using 2D photographs taken with an ordinary digital camera.”

2. Kotaku (USA) – ‘Next Big Thing, or Next Big Bust?’: Virtual Worlds. “The Cutter IT Journal is offering their latest issue — on the subject of the challenges of virtual worlds — for free (registration required); the issue includes articles on ‘real world’ applications of virtual worlds and the pitfalls and promises of such a presence. I’ve only had time to read the introduction and breeze quickly through the rest of the issue, but if you’re interested in the rise (?) of virtual worlds, it looks to have some interesting fodder.”

3. Associated Content (USA) – Armed Services Train in Virtual World. “It all began in 2001 when a Czech game studio released an award winning video game title on the PC called Operation Flashpoint. Developed by Bohemia Interactive Studio, the game was praised as being the most realistic war game to ever hit the market. Booming in sales with millions of copies sold, Bohemia Interactive decided to take what they have created, only this time create a product that deviates from gamers, and focuses on the United States Armed Forces and others. A new Bohemia Interactive was built in Australia, where Operation Flashpoint would be amped up into what’s called Virtual Battle Space 1 (VBS1). The USMC now uses VBS1, training soldiers in combat and strategy. It is also used by Australia and New Zealand.”

4. Law.com (USA) – An Avatar’s Bill of Rights. “The 3-D Internet, or “Web 3.0,” is an amalgam of virtual reality, convention center, circus, college campus, nightclub, mall, playground and Main Street. Users are getting their first taste of Web 3.0 on virtual world sites like Second Life, which are typically “members only” proprietary sites accessed through the Internet. People are drawn to the interactive, immersing experience these sites offer, and by some estimates there are as many as 300 million active users. Businesses are also intrigued by the promise of making real money there.”

5. Design News (USA) – Dassault Helps Microsoft Shape Virtual Earth. “outing a new 3-D remix capability, Dassault Systemes has released the latest version of Shape, its free 3-D modeling software, which also lies at the core of the newest release of Microsoft’s Virtual Earth platform. The new Shape 2.0, aimed at consumers who want to get their feet wet building 3-D models and similar to Google SketchUp, will now allow users to construct or “remix” 3-D scenes using models contributed by other users on the 3DVIA.com community’s content library.”

6. Gamasutra (USA) – How Do You Kickstart The Virtual Worlds Movement? “Defining the future of virtual worlds is difficult when clear guidelines for what they are and what they can do have not really been established — hence, the formation of the Virtual Worlds Roadmap Special Interest group, which plans to have its first formal workshop next month in the San Francisco Bay Area. The group, which is formed by high-placed members from a variety of technology companies, aims to meaningfully define what is required from virtual worlds in a variety of social and technological contexts, hoping to grow the nascent space beyond just a group of children’s online hangouts (like Habbo Hotel) and game-related MMO applications (such as World of Warcraft).”

7. InformationWeek (USA) – Second Life’s Popularity Rests On Breadth Of Activities. “The Second Life phenom could not have happened without the many in-world avenues for users, or residents, to express themselves, often through through collaborative play and performance.
As the company tries for a second act under a new CEO and targets new markets, users are busy doing what they’ve always done in Second Life. What is there to do in Second Life? Finding your way around and learning about what to do there can be tricky for newcomers. Here is some information to help you get started.”

8. Haber 27 (Turkey) – Textual Satisfaction: Beyond the Sex Machine. “It was just a matter of time before what we knew about autoeroticism became old news and conventional cybersex became just another devolved masturbation technique. In this era of sexual technology revolution, people are always toiling away at making things better, getting the bugs out and making a product more satisfactory. Masturbation has come a long way from finding creative ideas using items at home, other than your hand, to do the job. ”

9. The Sun (UK) – Super Mario vs … Sackboy. “Stand aside Super Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog –— this is Sackboy . . . and he is about to become a worldwide celebrity. The little cloth man is being pushed by video games giant Sony as their defining mascot for the Noughties — and he’s British. The Japanese computer giants, who are pumping millions into the character, reckon every kid in the world will want their own virtual one in the next few months.”

10. The West Australian (Australia) – A Second Life chance on the beat in WA. “WA Police have entered a new world in police recruitment – a virtual, 3D universe to attract real life budding police officers. The Second Life “Step Forward” Virtual Recruiting Pavilion is WA Police’s way of boosting new officers to the beat via the social network, Second Life.”

1. Centre Daily Times (USA) – Virtual worlds provide real interaction. “When I was a boy, I loved the Tom Swift books. Whether Tom was plumbing the depths of the sea in his Jetmarine or flying into space on his Rocket Ship, technology and quick thinking always managed to save the day. Those books delightfully immersed young readers in exciting worlds of imagination and possibility. Books have long served as “immersion technologies” that transport people to alternate worlds. Today, computer technology takes immersion several steps further.”

2. GigaOM (USA) – Virtual World Marketing That Works: My Top 3 Tips. “So last year, most people decided that marketing real products in virtual worlds like Second Life doesn’t work. Since then, however, I’ve come across some avatar-driven advertising campaigns with very impressive numbers. In Gaia Online, for example, users grabbed over a million virtual copies of a Toyota Scion; in Second Life, a promotion for the IMAX screening of the latest “Harry Potter” movie was credited for boosting the movie’s ticket sales online.”

3. Orange County Register (USA) – UCI tackles ‘World of Warcraft’ mystery. “The National Science Foundation has given UC Irvine $100,000 to figure out why Americans go to greater lengths than the Chinese to modify “World of Warcraft,” the hugely popular multiplayer online game produced by Blizzard Entertainment of Irvine. About 5 million Chinese play “WoW,” which is twice the number of American players. But Americans produce far more modifications, or “mods,” to enrich the gaming experience.”

4. VentureBeat (USA) – Robotgalaxy raises $5M to launch virtual world. “Robotgalaxy, a retailer that lets kids build toy robots, is developing a virtual world where players can take those robots on science fiction adventures. The New York-based company has raised a second funding round of more than $5 million to launch the game, as well as for other expansion.”

5. AsiaOne (Singapore) – Chat, shop and play in virtual S’pore by year-end. “Local Internet users and their life-like 3D digital avatars can soon sip virtual cuppas in virtual Shenton Way cafes. What’s more, they will also be able to chat, work and play in other true-to-life, online 3D cityscapes of Singapore.
This virtual world that looks and feels like Singapore is the brain child of German firm Metaversum. Virtual Singapore, which will be based on a Metaversum platform called Twinity, will be rolled out by year-end, a senior company official told BizIT this week.”

6. The Canberra Times (Australia) – Real interest in Canberrans’ virtual worlds. “Canberra software company Simmersion says its new 3D program Mycosm could rival YouTube with 30million users.
Two years ago chief executive Bob Quodling told his creative team to come up with something that would ”blow the world”. At the Virtual World Expo in Los Angeles two weeks ago, multi-national software companies said his team had done just that. Mycosm, a 3D version of Facebook, allows users to build their own worlds and share them online to play games, exchange media, make money and socialise with friends.”

7. InformationWeek (USA) – Second Life Tries For A Second Act. “I first joined Second Life in January 2007, near the peak of the hype cycle. Second Life was supposedly the next technology megatrend. It would transform the face of the Internet and make present-day technology obsolete. Then the hype cycle burst. Second Life didn’t change the Internet much. Journalists quit the service en masse to follow the next big trend. But I didn’t leave Second Life. I stuck around. I cut back my professional involvement to an article or blog every few months. But I still spend a few hours a week in Second Life, just playing and keeping in touch with friends.”

8. Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) – Exit reality with 3D web browser. “A total internet revolution is here. That’s according to ExitReality founder Danny Stefanic, who launched his 3D web browser software at Melbourne’s Federation Square today. ExitReality purports to be for 3D internet what Google was for web searches, what You Tube was for video and what MySpace and Facebook were for social networking. Available for free at www.exitreality.com as a four megabyte download, ExitReality operates as a plug-in for existing web browsers. The developers say it was designed with the average computer in mind.”

9. Ars Technica (USA) – Hands on: ExitReality, another useless 3D Internet tool. “Yep, it’s that time again kids. Gather round and hear the story of yet another “we’re giving you the Internet—but in 3D!” product. ExitReality (get it?) is a company based in Melbourne, Australia that apparently isn’t very happy with browsing, searching, and socializing on the web in its current state. Thursday, it released a plug-in named after itself that “allows anyone to view every web page in 3D.” Its ExitReality plug-in is built for IE and Firefox on Windows (though you won’t find any of those details on its barren download page), and also offers 3D search, chat with other users, customizable avatars, social networking, and virtual recreations of real-world destinations.”

10. Silicon.com – Naked CIO: Virtual worlds will disappear. “At a recent golfing outing I found myself paired with a software salesman from a company that develops ‘virtual worlds’. I then reviewed silicon.com to find a CIO Jury, which discussed social networking possibilities within the IT field. Not long ago I also read an article about the CIA developing a social networking virtual world program to allow its employees to share intelligence information in a more proactive fashion.”

1. Globe and Mail (Canada) – You’ve got the whole world in your hands. “Best to get the hyperbole out of the way early: Spore, the new computer game from Sims creator Will Wright, rolls the past, present and future of interactive entertainment – not to mention life as we know it – into an absorbing ball of fun and big ideas. No matter what you think of video games, it is something everyone, young and old, should see and experience.”

2. Market Watch (USA) – Motorhead Frontman Lemmy to Launch Own Private Army Inside Virtual World Entropia Universe. “Mindark, developer and operator of Virtual World Entropia Universe, and rock icon Lemmy from Motoerhead, today announced a partnership in which Lemmy and his band will team up with Mindark to create Motoerhead Stadium and Lemmy’s Castle within Entropia Universe. The Stadium and Castle are being built utilizing the award-winning CryENGINE(R)2 graphics engine. This will be the virtual universe’s first major virtual rock arena and castle that will enable fans to hear exclusive music as well as battle Lemmy’s Guardians in hopes of joining his private Virtual Army. ”

3. Science Daily (USA) – Real-world Behavior And Biases Show Up In Virtual World. “Americans are spending increasing amounts of time hanging around virtual worlds in the forms of cartoon-like avatars that change appearances according to users’ wills, fly through floating cities in the clouds and teleport instantly to glowing crystal canyons and starlit desert landscapes. Simply fun and games divorced from reality, right?
Not necessarily so, say two social psychologists from Northwestern University who conducted the first experimental field studies in the virtual world.”

4. Kotaku (USA) – Future Trends for Virtual Worlds. “he Virtual Worlds Expo took place last week in Los Angeles, and there’s been bits and pieces of news from the event floating around — the wrap ups of roundtables and panels are the most interesting. Over at Free To Play, they have put together five big trends in virtual worlds, ranging from ‘the war on geekiness’ (oh, ouch) to one I’m most interested in, the movement from virtual world to real world instead of the other way around.”

5. Market Watch (USA) – Forterra Systems Named Winner of “Innovation in Virtual Worlds for Enterprise” Award. “Forterra Systems, the market and technology leader in enterprise virtual worlds, announced today that it was awarded the prestigious Innovation in Virtual Worlds for Enterprises award at the Virtual World Expo held September 3rd and 4th in Los Angeles. These awards recognize the significant achievements in innovation to companies in five categories: Consumer, Enterprise, Youth, Pioneer, and Overall Innovation.”

6. CNN (USA) – Virtual September 11 memorials bring back memories, emotions. “People around the world who are unable to visit Ground Zero and pay their respects to September 11 victims can still find solace in contacting others through the technological wonders of their home computers. Especially if they’re willing to venture into a virtual world. A series of September 11 memorial events in Second Life, a virtual world run over the Internet, were created to give visitors the ability to connect with others scattered around the country and world.”

7. CNET (USA) – Multiverse touts extensible virtual-world effort. “The Multiverse Network, a developer of virtual world platform software, announced Wednesday that it was unveiling what it calls Places, two related social elements that tie Multiverse users together. Essentially connective tissue for users of the Multiverse platform, Places has two separate components. The first is a social networks application that automatically connects people using Multiverse virtual worlds together with others who are also friends in social networks like Facebook.”

8. Los Angeles Times (USA) – Six Degrees Games hopes to become a heavy hitter in the virtual world. “Virtual worlds, once a niche market within the video game industry, are heading to the big leagues. Six Degrees Games Inc., a Marina del Rey company, is planning this fall to launch a sports-based virtual world for kids called ActionAllStars.com. Members will be able to create avatars, chat with buddies as well as collect virtual trophies for competing in games based on baseball, basketball and extreme sports.”

9. IT Business (Canada) – Using the virtual world of Second Life to snag young IT talent. “The competition sure is fierce when it comes to landing good young talent these days. Organizations are standing shoulder to shoulder around the global talent pool, trying to hook their share of Gen X and Gen Y keepers. But despite their youth, these new recruits are as wary and tight-lipped as a wily old bass. If you don’t find just the right way to attract them, they won’t give you a nibble.”

10. NT News (Australia) – Telstra plasters Uluru in Second Life. “It has long been the subject of great controversy and debate in the real world, but now the Territory’s most famous landmark is at the centre of a virtual storm. Telstra is under fire after it posted billboards advertising its BigPond internet service in front of Uluru in the online virtual world, Second Life.”

1. The Denver Post (USA) – Club Penguin gets it right. “The newspaper industry is constantly bewailing its need for a new economic model, as the Internet upends the old one. Maybe it could take a page from the Club Penguin Times.
The Club Penguin Times, after all, is more widely read than New York’s Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, or The Dallas Morning News.”

2. Techdirt (USA) – Maximizing Profits Doesn’t Mean Screwing Your Customers. “A few years back, we wrote a post debunking the ridiculous notion spread by some that Craigslist was somehow “anti-capitalist” or not “maximizing profits” because it actually offered most of its services for free. As we noted, much of Craigslist’s long-term success was because of these decisions — which in all likelihood did increase overall profits for the company in the long run by building up further trust in the company.”

3. The Daily Egyptian (USA) – Second Life used to teach foreign languages. “Alicia Guebert struggled with boredom in her French class last semester. But this semester, characters in a virtual world hold her attention while she learns German. Guebert, a junior from Modock studying art history, said the new experiment to help students learn a foreign language as characters in the simulation game Second Life has her staying awake and learning in German class.”

4. Finding Dulcinea (USA) – The Ethics of a Sex Life in Your Second Life. “Like a growing number of Internet users, Kevin Alderman was eager to jump on the Second Life bandwagon. Second Life is a computer game that allows users to design avatars and operate in a fully elaborated virtual world. It enabled users to do most real-life activities, but Alderman noticed that it prevented users from touching. He founded the company Eros LLC and developed the SexGen software for Second Life. Now, avatars can engage in a variety of sexual positions and activities with other avatars.”

5. Pocket Gamer (UK) – Vollee reveals Second Life mobile beta stats. “We’ve written about Vollee before and its innovative mobile application that lets you access the Second Life virtual world. Now the company has revealed some data about that app’s beta trial. Specifically, Vollee says that it’s been downloaded by users in more than 98 countries, on more than 253 mobile operators, for 70 different handsets.”

6. The News Journal (USA) – Virtual worlds inventing legal codes. “Virtual worlds have often been called the digital equivalent of the Wild West, where animated alter egos can live in a fantasy frontier. But in some of these universes, a sheriff has come to town. Slipping a four-letter word into an instant message now could land a user in a virtual timeout. Repeated attempts to make friends with an uninterested character could result in a loss of blogging privileges. And if convicted of starting a “flame war,” or an exchange of hostile messages, a user may endure the ultimate punishment — permanent exile.”

7. The Washington Post (USA) – In the Beginning, Finally. “After years of delays, the universe is set to begin this weekend — and it’s about time.
Tomorrow marks the U.S. launch date of Spore, an ambitious and long-awaited computer game that takes on the broad topics of life, the universe and everything. For publisher Electronic Arts, the unusual game is one of the biggest debuts of the year.”

8. The Tampa Tribune (USA) – Off The Screen: ‘Second Life’ Players Meet. “Distinct personalities in real and imagined worlds collided Friday at the fourth annual “Second Life” convention. That was only the beginning of the confusion for those outside Second Life, the virtual online community that is anything but confusing to those immersed in the virtual world.”

1. LA Times (USA) – Fans flock to Disney’s Club Penguin Times. “The newspaper industry is constantly bewailing its need for a new economic model, as the Internet upends the old one. Maybe it could take a page from the Club Penguin Times. The Club Penguin Times, after all, is more widely read than New York’s Daily News, the Chicago Tribune or the Dallas Morning News. And it’s not even 3 years old.”

2. Half Life Source (USA) – Sony confirms that the PS3 Home 3D virtual online community service has been delayed until later this year. “Sony Corp’s game unit said on Tuesday it was delaying the launch of its “Home” 3D virtual online community service for the PS3 game console to later this year. It’s been the second such delay for the PlayStation 3. Last Year, Sony postponed the launch of the “Home” service, which is aimed at giving users a place to interact with other PS3 users, to early this year from last Winter.”

3. SecurityPro News (USA) – Next Malware Breeding Ground: Online Games? “Dr. Igor Muttik, senior architect for McAfee Avert Labs, has published a 19-page whitepaper (PDF) warning we may soon see a spike in malware targeting in virtual worlds and online gaming. What would they want with virtual goods? The same thing they always want: money. Virtual goods and currencies can be traded for real goods and currencies. General data can work too for nefarious purposes, so key-logging and the like are distinct possibilities. ”

4. Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (USA) – Goertzel on “OpenCog Prime: Design for an Open-Source Thinking Machine”. “Dr. Ben Goertzel from Novament will be in the area and has graciously offered to give a presentation of their current project on Sept. 7: Topic: OpenCog Prime: Design for an Open-Source Thinking Machine (Underlying Principles and Early Experiments) OpenCogPrime is a highly detailed software design, aimed at powerful Artificial General intelligence at the human level and ultimately beyond, intended to be implemented within the OpenCog open-source AI software framework.”

5. 1UP.com (USA) – Building a Better Virtual World Through Democracy. “EVE Online is a massive and persistent universe where players have direct involvement in both the economy and the game’s political system. This serves as an important, always-changing, plot device. But because of this, for better or worse, the world lives and dies by community involvement to a much greater degree than most MMOs. If things start to go bad, the game’s subscribers can’t simply take their character over to another server. Unfortunately, some employees of the game’s developer, CCP, have been caught trying to manipulate the system. In response, CCP created an Internal Affairs division to monitor the activities of both player and staff accounts.”

6. Times Online (UK) – Computer warriors pay geek mercenaries to fight their wars for them. “Andy Crowther used to have time to play a lot of computer games. Not any more. At 33, he is now a supermarket manager in North London and has a girlfriend. Despite the intrusion of real life, Mr Crowther still enjoys slaughtering hordes of monsters and capturing treasure in online games such as World of Warcraft and Star Wars Galaxies. But, like increasing numbers of gamers, he no longer has endless hours to earn the “virtual gold” needed to buy weapons and upgrades which make the game more fun. Luckily for him, 400,000 geeks, mostly in East Asia, are available for hire at the click of a button.”

7. itbusiness.ca (Canada) – Toronto’s Webkinz brings fantasy world to real global market. “Webkinz has become a household name in North America by appealing to children with its brand of cuddly, plush animals that come with a key that grants access to a virtual world. Now the company is hoping it can evoke the same interest internationally. Pre-teen kids and their parents are very familiar with the plush phenomenon started by Woodbridge, Ont.-based Ganz Inc. in 2005.”

8. Medical News Today (USA) – Burnt Kids’ Pain Lessened By Distracting Device. “Cunningly disguised as a toy, a new medical device that harnesses the power of distraction can greatly reduce the pain felt by young burns victims. Designed for medical device company Diversionary Therapy Technologies by Sam Bucolo, who is a Queensland University of Technology industrial design Associate Professor, Ditto is a virtual reality-inspired diversionary therapy aid. ”

9. The Washington Post (USA) – Gameworld: Videogaming enters the Third Dimension. “Videogamers, your glasses to transport you into three dimensional space. Visual computing technology company Nvidia (NVDA.O) has unveiled the first mainstream 3D gaming technology at the inaugural NVISION 08 conference in San Jose, which focused on the convergence of technology with Hollywood, games and business. With Hollywood migrating to 3D for event movies like “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and next year’s “Avatar” from James Cameron, the electronics and gaming industries have created new technology that lets home systems and PCs also deliver true 3D.”

10. iTnews (Australia) – VIC government shuts down Second Life presence. “The virtual bulldozers have moved in on Melbourne Laneways on Second Life’s ABC Island, after Multimedia Victoria said it would not renew the lease. The research project was launched in October 2007 to test the ‘potential impact [of virtual worlds] on the economic and social lives of Victorians’.”

1. The Times Online (UK) – Lifelike animation heralds new era for computer games. “Extraordinarily lifelike characters are to begin appearing in films and computer games thanks to a new type of animation technology. Emily – the woman in the above animation – was produced using a new modelling technology that enables the most minute details of a facial expression to be captured and recreated.”

2. Press of Atlantic City (USA) – Virtual Realtor home finds real fans online. “I like stories that have something surprising about them, as I’m sure most readers do. While it’s nice to have what I know or suspect confirmed, it’s more valuable and maybe entertaining to find out something I didn’t imagine. Early last month, the New Jersey Association of Realtors announced it had opened offices in Second Life, a virtual world online. That was surprising enough, since its members’ obsession with real estate in this world leaves little time to worry about one where there’s no commission for property sales.”

3. The Independent (UK) – Stroke sufferers take virtual road to recovery. “It may look like a futuristic video game, but this virtual reality treadmill could hold the key to rebuilding lives for stroke and injury sufferers. A scientist at Portsmouth University has developed technology that can speed up recovery for patients by tricking them into believing they are moving more slowly than they actually are.”

4. Top 40 Charts (USA) – Worlds & Paid, Inc. Partner To Deliver Advanced 3-D Virtual World with e-Commerce For Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels. ” Futuristic 3-D social networking community Worlds.com (OTCBB: WDDD) and PAID, INC. (OTCBB: PAYD) have joined forces to develop a cutting edge, rich immersive 3-D environment for hip-hop legend Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels, who co-founded the pioneering hip hop group Run-DMC. The highly symbiotic relationship is expected to open an ever-evolving series of pathways to increase web site traffic, enhance the experience of WORLDS.COM users and PAID celebrities’ fans and grow the revenue and profits of both companies and their clients.”

5. The Vancouver Sun (Canada) – Break the rules in cyberspace and suffer exile in a virtual cornfield. “Where’s Roy Bean when you need him? The legendary hanging judge claimed he delivered the only law west of the Pecos back in the Wild West days in Texas. The modern-day equivalent of is nowhere to be found in the modern frontier known as the Internet. The Internet remains a dangerous place where real-life hucksters, thieves, sexual predators and fraud artists roam all too freely. But it is also home to imaginary worlds that are not unlike the gated communities of cyberspace.”

6. BBC News (UK) – Poor earning virtual gaming gold. “Nearly 500,000 people in developing nations earn a wage making virtual goods in online games to sell to players, a study has found. Research by Manchester University shows that the practice, known as gold-farming, is growing rapidly.”

7. Information Week (USA) – Google’s Lively Unloved. “So Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s Lively isn’t so lively. According to The Economist, “Hardly anyone is using Lively.” That’s not exactly a surprise. As I said when Lively was released, “Lively feels more like a Google Talk-powered chat room with 3-D camera controls than an immersive environment like Second Life.” And that’s not to praise Second Life, which I find equally tedious.”

8. Christian Science Monitor (USA) – A second income on Second Life. ““Blaze Columbia” is, by any measure, doing well with his line of designer clothing. He’s on track to generate more than $100,000 in annual profits, barely a year after launching his business. And that’s in addition to a first career as a professional photographer. There’s just one big difference between the clothing that this Missouri resident produces and that of any other top-of-the-line dress or business suit: His don’t exist – at least not in the physical world.”

9. OStatic (USA) – An Introduction To OpenSim: the “Apache of Virtual Worlds”. “You’ve probably read a bit about OpenSim, the BSD-licensed virtual world server, and recent news that IBM and Linden Lab are working to make Second Life and OpenSim interoperable. Besides that project, what’s OpenSim about, who’s working on it, what are they doing with it, and how do you get involved as a developer and participant? Here’s a starter’s guide, created with the help of Tish Shute, whose virtual world blog UgoTrade is an indispensable resource on the latest in OpenSim news.”

1. Newstrack India – Stardoll.com is Brit kids’ most popular site. “Britain’s most popular website for under-12s has been set up to pass on the art of knitting clothes for dolls, according to a new survey. The survey by the Internet analysts Nielsen Online put Stardoll.com at the head of its Top Ten sites visited by the youngest web users. Second in the list was Club Penguin, a virtual world in which players adopt a bird and march it round the beach, theatre or school.”

2. Tampa Bay Business Journal – Entrepreneurs find typical business strategies don’t work in a virtual world. “After previous stops in New York, San Francisco and Chicago, the Second Life Community Convention steps into reality at the Tampa Marriott Waterside the weekend of Sept. 5. It’s visiting a city that already has had its share of entrepreneurs who have jumped into a realm only the Internet, and maybe even a little science fiction on the side, could create.”

3. The Times (UK) – Where the web kids are. “Are they lurking in the darker reaches of YouTube? Or delivering a series of ‘pokes’ and other greetings on the social networking site Facebook? Nope. Today’s kids aged 12 and under are likely to be whiling away their online hours playing games on sites you have never heard of.”

4. Wall Street Journal (USA) – Fluid Entertainment Invites Kids to Play With Purpose in Emerald Island. “Today, Fluid Entertainment announces the title and first details for Emerald Island(TM), their original children’s MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game. The company, whose formation and funding was announced earlier this year, is adding this upcoming title to their extensive library of software games for children. Currently in development and slated for release Fall of 2008, Emerald Island challenges players to become online eco-heroes in a mission to save a vibrant, imaginary, virtual world from environmental destruction.”

5. AsiaOne (Singapore) – Donation, sir? It’s online. “A Singapore charity has taken fund-raising to the virtual world, The Straits Times reported. Instead of selling flags or lucky draw coupons potential donors now visit the giant virtual universe Second Life. They enter a special zone filled with candy castle, lollipop trees and chocolate rivers. Each of these virtual goodies come with an option to buy them, and all it takes is a click for the cost of the items to be debited from their virtual accounts. At the close of the donation drive on Sept 21, the virtual funds, collected in Second Life’s currency Linden dollars, will be converted to real Singapore dollars.”

6. Ars Technica (USA) – One month later: Google Lively? Not so much. “In July, Google released Lively, a “Second Life in the browser” plug-in that lets anyone embed a basic 3D chat realm on a website or blog. We strolled through Google’s new social world back then and found that, possibly as a result of the “20 percent time” Google allows employees to spend on projects like this, Lively seemed to be 20 percent done. Now, a month later, we took another look to see if Lively is living up to its name.”

7. Times Union (USA) – Redirecting kids’ passion for video games. “Your son in high school can lay down a face-melting solo on “Guitar Hero,” while your middle school daughter can reach the highest levels on her Hannah Montana video game. They spend hours, without parental provocation, passionately engrossed in their Nintendo DS and Xbox 360 systems like young Einsteins burrowing into a physics problem.”

8. GigaOM (USA) – Why The MMORPG Subscription-Based Business Model Is Broken. “Famed game developer and analyst Scott Jennings recently announced on his blog that he’s quit online game publishing giant NCSoft to join John Galt Games. His new home is the small casual game startup developing Web Wars, a sci-fi game played via a browser plug-in, where web sites themselves are territories to fight over. (Sort of RocketOn meets battle cruisers.) The move is a bit like a top Hollywood producer quitting the movie business for an obscure online-video startup; it’s such a big jump, you want to know why.”

1. 7thSpace – TORC at UH turns to virtual world of Second Life for new study. “The University of Houston department of health and human performance is launching an international effort to recruit 500 participants for a study promoting healthy dietary habits and physical activity. The study will take place entirely in the virtual world of Second Life (SL).” (Also – see our report on Metaverse Health)

2. Network World – 10 questions for virtual world evangelists (Microsoft’s) Zain Naboulsi, and (G-Squared’s) Kyle Gomboy. “Welcome to a new regular feature of this blog … “10 questions for … ” where we talk to interesting people in the Microsoft world through a series of 10 questions (more or less, but who’s counting?) Think of this as a cross between James Lipton (Actor’s Studio) and Robert Scoble (Scobleizer). For the inaugural entry in the series, Microsoft Subnet interviewed two of the people responsible for Microsoft’s presence in Second Life and other virtual worlds.”

3. The Industry Standard – Playboy’s Second Life sim buzzes, even as real-world brand falters. “PaidContent reported earlier this week that Playboy is having a difficult time extending its brand online. Citing a Q2 loss, including declines in online and mobile content categories, it’s easy to assume that Playboy has failed to effectively position its brand on the Web. However, the publisher appears to be succeeding in an unlikely place: Second Life. After launching its virtual world presence early in Q2 last year, rumors abounded that Playboy was pulling up its stakes. Clickable Culture was sure that the Playboy sim was all but abandoned by late July of 2007.”

4. The Houston Chronicle – ‘Avatar’ has taken on life of its own and not just online. “In 2001, the decidedly literate nerd-rock group Harvey Danger penned and sang the lines “I bowed before the avatar / He said the problem’s clear to me / You never got over Morrissey.” The rock cognoscenti would have no trouble identifying the mopey crooner Steven Morrissey of the Smiths, but they may have wondered what precisely an avatar is. Nowadays Harvey Danger would find themselves in no such peril, as avatar appears to be everywhere, though not in the sense that they intended.”

5. MarketWatch – Linden Lab Appoints Frank Ambrose as Senior VP of Global Technology. “Linden Lab(R), creator of the virtual world Second Life(R), today announced the appointment of Frank Ambrose as Senior VP of Global Technology. Ambrose has 20 years of experience in technology infrastructure development, data architecture and operations, including his most recent role as AOL’s Senior Vice President of Technology for Infrastructure and Network Services. Reporting to Linden Lab’s CEO, Mark Kingdon, Ambrose will oversee the development of new processes, systems and tools to maximize the scalability of Second Life’s network architecture.”

6. Wired – Is the Army’s Virtual World Already Here? “The Army wants to build a World of Warcraft-style virtual world for training, DANGER ROOM reported a couple weeks back. “There have been a number of partial explorations in this direction, but nothing near a complete system has been created to our knowledge,” Dr. Roger Smith, an Army researcher, told us. But one commercial game maker insists that’s not true. “There is such a game already in existence,” says John MacQueen from Playnet.”

7. What PC? – Very real legal issues exist in a virtual world. “The past few years have seen the entry of major brands such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola, BMW and Dell into the virtual world Second Life, alongside millions of traditional individual users. Businesses typically use Second Life as a marketing tool to raise brand awareness and as a shop window for products, but it is also used for direct sales and recruitment.”

8. redOrbit – Virtual World in Wii Games is a Fitness Hit You Can Run, Play and Watch It All Unfold With a Cartoon Version of Yourself. “As Kathy Winstead was going for a run one recent day in Ponte Vedra Beach, she saw mountains ahead, as well as waterfalls and fellow runners who waved as they jogged by. “What will they think of next? Rose Signorile, 90, asked as she watched Winstead, 66, exercise with a Nintendo Wii Fitness program at The Players Community Senior Center. Winstead was actually running in place in a classroom at the center on Landrum Lane while watching a cartoon version of herself, on a television screen, running through the beautiful mountain park.”

9. VentureBeat – Six Degrees Games raises $7M for sports virtual world. “Virtual world creator Six Degrees Games has taken $7 million to develop a world for six to 14 year old children with a sports theme. The funding is the company’s first.”

10. CNET – Want to screw up a virtual world experiment? Here’s how. “An island all to yourselves sounds dreamy if you’re planning a vacation with your spouse. But not so in the virtual world, where that sort of solitude is potential poison for companies setting up shop.”

1. News.com.au – Virtual spend making real money. “Spending $26,500 on an imaginary island might sound outlandish, but it’s paid off for computer gamer David Storey who now makes $300 a day from online game Entropia. The 26-year-old Sydney student is promoting the “virtual world” game at the GO3 Electronic and Entertainment Expo at the Perth Convention Centre. His family and friends were initially sceptical when Mr Storey told them he had bought a virtual island with houses, hunting lands and a shopping centre which all existed only in cyberspace.”

2. Abilene Reporter-News (USA) – Texas State Technical College to offer certificate via Second Life. “Texas State Technical College has announced that it will become the first institute of higher education to develop a complete online certificate or degree in the virtual world, as in the fall of 2008. TSTC will offer a digital media certificate utilizing virtual world technology, using Second Life as the primary delivery method, according to a news release. Students earning the digital media certificate will have the opportunity to earn an associate degree in digital media in spring 2009.”

3. HD-Report (USA) – Sony finally starts testing ‘Home’. ““Home,” the much talked about and long delayed virtual world from Sony, began accepting applications for beta testing in Japan. 10,000 Playstation 3 users will be allowed on the beta run, but only gamers with Japanese online accounts are allowed so far.”

4. VentureBeat (USA) – Google testing “AdSense for Games” in bid to shake up in-game advertising. “Google is the sleeping giant when it comes to advertising in video games. While the company dominates search advertising, it has yet to make a big splash in video games. That could change soon, as the company has been quietly testing its “AdSense for Games” product for months.”

5. What PC? (UK) – Virtual answers to real-life ills. “Online virtual worlds are just for teenagers and twenty-somethings, right? To some extent, yes, but not entirely. Organisations are starting to explore the benefits of using virtual worlds not just to share information, hold meetings and allow employees to learn new skills, but to provide an interactive multimedia online environment to reach out to customers.”

6. Washington Post via TechCrunch (USA) – Philip Rosedale Doesn’t See Browser-Based Virtual Worlds As A Threat to Second Life. Is He In Denial? “ecently, there’s been a growing wave of startups and products appearing that are bringing 3-D virtual worlds to the browser. These include Vivaty, Google’s Lively project, and the Electric Sheep Co.’s WebFlock. And I’ve seen a few stealth companies working the same vein. None of these are as fully featured or immersive as Second Life, which requires a separate desktop client download. But it may not matter because a good-enough experience available via standard browsers may eventually qwn Second Life. Linden Lab, which operates Second Life, is working with IBM and others to make virtual worlds interoperable with each other. Still, for the most part, they don’t play nicely with the Web.”

7. Business Standard (India) – Real life Indians yet to get a Second Life. “A year ago, S Sundararaj, founder-member of the Chennai-based IT start-up Anantara Solutions, had just completed his online MBA course from U21 Global. He was under the impression that he would have to attend the convocation ceremony in Singapore where U21 Global is headquartered. However, even as he waited anxiously for the schedule, he was officially informed that he had to collect the certificate of the online university at a virtual convocation on Second Life.”

8. MarketWatch / Wall Street Journal – Manpower Inc. Celebrates First Anniversary in Second Life. “Manpower Inc. announces the worldwide celebration of the company’s one-year anniversary in Second Life. The celebration kicked-off with a multi-media convening of virtual world gurus on Manpower Island to reflect on the ways leading brands can attract a creative and diverse pool of talent and leverage virtual worlds to further real-world social responsibility programs.”