Category Archives: mirror world

collaboration, creativity, Data visualization, digital identity, lifetime learning, Media, mirror world, participation, presence, re-invention, serious games

$9bn Serious Games Market

The worlds largest annual trade show for consumer technology gets underway in Las Vegas today. This years CES keynotes will include Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates sharing his thoughts on natural user interface, Sony CEO Howard Stringer bringing updates on the high definition video format wars and Intel CEO Paul Otellini offering a glimpse of Third Life.

Reena Jana reports that Microsoft conservatively estimates its widened definition of the Serious Games market to be a $9 billion opportunity. The above video shows some early offerings of Virtual Earth + 3DVIA. This along with the remixing of MS Flight Simulator which debuted as Microsoft ESP (a platform for visualisation simulation) shows Microsofts commitment to the space.

While 2007 was very much a proof of concepts year, 2008 will see wider experimentation and adoption of social computing within enterprises worldwide. GM is getting the year off to a good start with the launch of GMnext which incorporates a weblog and wiki among its offering. Interesting times indeed.

blended reality, co-creation, collaboration, creativity, Data visualization, digital identity, geospatial web, lifetime learning, Media, mirror world, participation, presence, re-invention, SL News, virtual world

Media, Memes and Maps

Catching up on news over the last week three pieces caught my attention. The first was Draxtor Despres video report titled Media in SL : old vs new? An indigenous media sector was already well established prior to the arrival of Reuters, AvaStar, Sky News and iCNN over the last year. Draxtor speaks with representatives of each camp on how they view each other in this 5 minute clip.

The second piece was Sir Tim Berners-Lee commentary on the social graph meme doing the rounds. Paul Miller has an excellent post which follows the conversations which have taken place since and is recommended reading. Looking forward to seeing what semSL, a project to combine the virtual world of Second Life with semantic technologies, holds in store once it goes live.

The third was Anne Eisenberg’s NYT piece on EveryScape with details of its upcoming December launch. The mapping services provider will offer virtual street tours for ten urban areas including Aspen, Boston, Cambridge and New York. Unlike other providers within this space it will also offer interior views. Harvard Square was profiled with a preview of the browser based service here.