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February 19, 2007

Tourism in Second Life and in other online virtual worlds

Mike Olson will introduce Second Life, Linden Labs' interactive 3D environment, a virtual 3D world that recently reached more than a million online users. Mike Olson is currently an Adjunct Professor and Resident Researcher at ITP working on physical interface projects for interactive 3D.

This semester, he's teaching a class at ITP called Massively Multiuser Media which explores the creation of content for online worlds using Second Life as a production platform. Prior to graduating from ITP in 2005, Mike was VP of Technology for an internet financial services start up.

Mario Gerosa is the author with Aurélien Pfeffer of "Mondi virtuali" (Castelvecchi, 2006) and of an upcoming book about 2L. Mario created www.synthravels.com a tour operator for virtual worlds.
Other sources include Matt Gross, New York Times, Marie Lechner, Christophe Alix, Liberation. Let's follow some of Mario's picks from his book "Mondi Virtuali".

Blogs and news:
Wolkam Winker SLObserver
Hamlet Au
Adam Reuters

Must see:
Treasure Island in Entropia Universe
Founder's Fall in Paragon City - City of Heros
Caledon Cay - gothic city
Svarga - natural park

Artistic communities:
(Nakama46,46) city inspired by japanese anime
The Port island creted by Tor Lindstrand, architect
Ars Virtua Gallery - 13 most beautiful avatars by Eva and Franco Mattes
Mood Indigo (Olive217,227) dance floor
The virtual Hallucinations Experiment (Sedig 45, 25)
Church of Elvis (Nampo 231,228)
Memorial to Carl Sagan

Digital remains:
Gardens of memories in Tatlina

Fashion and style:
www.secondstyle.com
Adidas creates shoes for avatars
Yoko Xiao designer

V commerce:
American apparel (Lerappa 152, 64)
Toyota for free special 2L SUVs
IBM
Dell
Uitvaart

In some cases large online games can evolve into virtual worlds built by developers and gamers. For example, in Entropia Universe, a memorial dedicated to Tina Leiu, alias Island Girl is visited by thousands of virtual tourists, The memorial was built by her lover Neverdie, an avatar and owner of Treasure Island.

City of Villains, Mercy Island

There, Red Light Disctrict

World of Warcraft, Molten Core,

Star war Galaxies, Gold Beaches at Corellia, Lok's Labyrinth

Everquest, Nettleville, The Beach of Cobalt Scar

Posted by jean-marc at February 19, 2007 01:18 AM

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