Second Life and Virtual Worlds
The Inquirer.net has an article on Education Technology funding that mentions Second Life.
Quoting: “A report by Sloan Consortium in 2013 shows that 74% of Chief Academic Officers in US considered the learning outcomes in online education as the same or superior to those in face-to-face instruction.”
I have been looking for reasons why my Internet has been slowing down. Is it just my connection to SL? Well, no. Other sites have been sluggish loading too.
Is my computer bugged? Windows’ Resource Monitor says, not. Adware, virus, and Trojan scans say no problem and I don’t get pop up ads or land on strange search engines.
This is a big change. I’m not sure I like it. In fact I currently dislike it so much this may be a change that drives me to Firefox or CoolNovo.
The change was only appearing in the Beta version of Chrome, which I run. But, it is feedback from beta users that will decide if this feature becomes mainstream, which is probably a near certainty anyway, based on Google’s past history of how they change Chrome and other Google products. Feedback may change it, but I doubt it will stop it.
Did you know it will be FREE? What!?! That is the word on the street. PC World published in January that Windows 10 would be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users. See: Windows 10 will be a free upgrade. There is some question about Vista, but it looks to excluded.
I am somewhat surprised that Windows XP users are not included. But, I know that transferring users from XP to 7 and 8 is a technical pain. It is so bad I only ever move data over now. Installing over XP as an upgrade while a limited possibility, is usually a disaster. A new install is the practical and much easier way to go. Even the Microsoft transfer program doesn’t really work for an XP to 7 or 8 transfer.
The political battle for control of the Internet is being won by politicians, citizens are losing. This loss is very likely to impact everyone in Second Life.
Consider. The news citizens can post on the Internet is mostly uncontrolled, as pure a case of freedom of speech as anyone has. For politicians this a disaster and a threat for their control and power. The Internet gives minorities, crazy or sane, a voice they have never had.
This was planned for release on Monday… but, the blog would not cooperate… I see that Ciaran found the article and reported on it.
Once upon a time manufacturers were thinking that Second Life would be a great way to market their products. A big obstacle to marketing online is letting the potential customer see the product and decide they have to have it. A 3D world moves one closer to the being there.
The immersive nature of 3D with Oculus and other HMD devices is re-awakening those hopes and thoughts. There is potential. The site AdWeek has an article by Christopher Heine titled: How Oculus Rift Is About to Reshape Marketing Creativity.
Second Life has prominent mention in the article. What Christopher does not mention is why 3D marketing in SL failed in the first years of SL’s life.