Tue. 4/27  - Thurs. 4/29

Budding businesses and those looking for new growth may find the nurturing they need at the Beta Business Park's Spring Leadership in Business Conference.

Beta Business Park will host its second semi-annual gathering from April 24-27 in the virtual world of Second Life. The event provides networking and business development opportunities for people who currently work in virtual worlds, those who want to explore the possibilities, or those who just want to take advantage of professional opportunities without leaving the office.

B2P is seeking expert speakers to present to an audience of business people with a range of knowledge and experience. Attendees represent non-profit, governmental, educational, and private sectors and organizations of all sizes.

Speaker applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. Pacific Time on March 15.

• Blogger Peter Stindberg from "Shopping Cart Disco" looks at the potential security and privacy risks posed by Second Life's new Viewer 2.0. The shared media function inadvertently allows IP tracking of users, which could lead to in-world identity theft and real-world abuse.

• The Chronicle of Higher Education talks about the users of Viewer 2.0 for educators. Early reviews from the field say the easy of use and shared media functions will make it a much more attractive tool for teachers looking to utilize virtual reality in the classroom.

• New World Notes wonders what Linden Lab's association with the 3D software company Endorphin could mean for the next generation of avatars. Endorphin is refining software that allows what it calls "adaptive behavior," allowing avatars to essentially self-animate when interacting with other avatars. Includes video.

• A South Korean couple apparently allowed their three-month-old daughter to starve to death while they spent 12 hours a day playing Prius, a popular Asian MMORPG. New World Notes penned a thoughtful essay about the responsibility of online communities to prevent these and other real-world tragedies.

• Just for fun: A video of 1,000 avatars in just three minutes. It's a dizzying array of fantastic (and just plain fantastical) faces.

• New World Notes says Viewer 2.0 is an "epic win" for the user-base and an absolute competition killer...but likely isn't a game-changer in the war for virtual world supremacy.

 

• Betterverse listed five reasons why Viewer 2.0 is going to be great for educators, nonprofits, and government groups, beginning with shared media capabilities and and easier user interface.

 

• Hypergrid Business wonders if Linden Lab is poised to become the new Netscape. Back at the dawn of the Internet, companies like AOL created "walled gardens" that tended to exclude the casual user. The Netscape browser changed all that, opening the Web to a new generation of users. Linden Lab has the opportunity to do the same.

 

• New research for the Stanford University Virtual Human Interaction Lab -- yes, such a thing exists -- shows that an avatar can act as a powerful role model. Watching a avatar exercise, for example, led the viewer exercise more, particularly in the 24 hours after the virtual exposure. Watching a avatar model a bad behavior, like gorging on sugar, had the same real-world impact.

 

• More from Hypergrid Business: as more and more companies set up a presence in Second Life, they are going to have to deal with issues surrounding compliance with legal and regulatory limits imposed in the real world.

For updates on all the Second Life and virtual world news, follow @B2PBetaTech on Twitter, or join our Facebook page.

Designers, retailers, artists, performers, businesspeople...all these and more are operating in Second Life.

As in their non-virtual lives, these very different groups rely on software to do their daily business. Residents from across the Second Life spectrum met at Beta Business Park Auditorium recently to discuss the tools they just can't live without.