We have looked into Virtual Worlds in the past, concentrating on ActiveWorlds. Sadly ActiveWorlds doesn’t seem to of evolved as many expected it would and other systems have come along using better graphical techniques and more important with a in built economy.
The above clip shows our first steps in Second Life, Business Week has a excellent article which is well worth a read. For the time being we are looking to see if its worth revisiting our 30 Days in ActiveWorlds project and the following papers but in Second Life:
1) 30 Days in ActiveWorlds – Community, Design and Terrorism in a Virtual World. The paper featuees as chapter 8 in the book ‘The Social Life of Avatars’, Ralph Schroeder (Editor), Springer-Verlag UK.
2) ActiveWorlds: Geography and Social Interaction in Virtual Reality, written with Ralph Schroeder and Avon Huxor, published in Futures, 33 (2001) 569-587.
If you have any thoughts come find me in Second Life – User name Smithee Bertrand….