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Virtual worlds now at bottom of Gartner hype cycle Press Release: Gartner’s 2010 Hype Cycle Special Report Evaluates Maturity of 1,800 Technologies Hype Cycle Research Provides a Cross-Industry Perspective on Potentially Transformative Technologies STAMFORD, Conn. —  Media tablets, private cloud computing, and 3D flat-panel TVs and displays are some of the technologies that have moved into the Peak of Inflated Expectations, according to the 2010 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle by Gartner, Inc. IBM virtual world defies laws of physics Network World - IBM's uptight, starched-shirt image has survived for many decades, but the stereotype may finally meet its demise at the hands of a giant boulder and a meeting room up in the sky. IBM is building a virtual world to help its employees collaborate, and while it's not the first big technology company to do so, Big Blue may be unusual in that it decided not to mess with those silly laws of physics in its own virtual environment. "Why do we need walls and ceilings to do a meeting?" asks Michael Ackerbauer of IBM, who is building the company's virtual world, called the Metaverse. "We’ve had meetings under water and up in the air.

Are virtual worlds off the boil ? The August release of Gartner’s 2010 hype cycle for emerging technologies, which sees Virtual Worlds lodged in the pit of the disillusionment trough, has generated some interesting discussion in the blogosphere. VW’ds marketing consultant Mary Ellen Gordon asks why this has occurred, especially in light of Gartners’ much quoted 2007 declaration’ that by 2012, 80 percent of Internet users would have an avatar. One way to look at this is that Gartner pretty much got it right: the notion of ‘avatar’ needs to be widened, and seen as one’s personal web identity, across social platforms and beyond. But why does Gartner predict VWd’s are 5-10 years away from mainstream adoption, when in 2009, it suggested the range of 2-5 years was the more likely marker? Chris Arkenberg, a researcher at California’s Institute of the Future proffers this insight: ‘The ongoing failure of virtual worlds is due to their failure to embrace the predominant social API’s.

Virtual Worlds News: Linden Lab to Beta Lightweight Second Life Client in February Rivers Run Red and Linden Lab announced earlier today that version 2.0 of Immersive Workspaces was available on the Second Life Grid . Also significantly, Rivers noted that they were working with Linden Lab on a solution to host business applications behind the firewall. While IBM has already been testing certain applications, an official solution is on the way. "In enterprise and education, people are asking for easy sign-up to sign people up in bulk, a safe and secure hosted solution. Despite the many urban myths, it’s possible to hold a secure meeting in our hosted Second Life," said Linden CEO Mark Kingdon in his keynote at Virtual Worlds London.

Immersive Learning: on or off the boil? Immersive Learning was very much on the agenda in Australia in 2008, as this video made by Educationau enthusiastically demonstrates. So what has happened in the interim; has the momentum gone? Is innovation on the wane, failing to gravitate past the ‘worthy experiment’ stage ? SECOND LIFE TOOLBOX: 50+ Resources for Second Life#more-16018 The 3D world of Second Life has taken the real world by storm. It's a complex beast, though, and sometimes getting the hang of things isn't too easy; especially if you plan to become a top Second Life entrepreneur. Enjoy our collection of 50+ resources for Second Life consisting of companies, news, tutorials and other stuff which will make your virtual world exploration easier. Also, don’t forget to check out our post where you can suggest future toolbox topics! Companies

Call for Proposals, 2011 Virtua Designer Conference Jan 25-27 in ScienceSim 2011 Virtua Designer Conference January 25-27, 2011 ScienceSim The field of virtual goods is in its nascent, formative stages. The road is open to express and define what virtual goods are, and how they may be best developed and used. The field is new and exciting, but it should be informed by design disciplines that have evolved before it. With issues of standardization, intellectual property concerns, micropayments, and even interoperability between virtual worlds now under consideration, the world of customer-generated content has shifted. In order to be prepared, existing research should be showcased and new research areas defined.

SL WindLight: Second Life But Not As You Know It Linden Lab released the WindLight First Look Second Life client Wednesday, the first serious release of Second Life that incorporates the technology Linden Lab acquired when it took over Windward Mark Interactive in May. We noted at the time of the acquisition that the technology would bring “better clouds and wind” to Second Life, but this was in retrospect an understatement. Having tested the new client, it not only brings photo realistic clouds to Second Life, it also introduces realistic water, and more importantly far improved shadow and time related graphical representations. One of the most common criticisms of Second Life is that the in-world 3D rendering is poor; I’ve been supportive of the concept of the Second Life metaverse in the past, but I’ve always thought we were seeing the 1.0 version of a virtual world without having yet seen the 2.0 version, or the really amazing universally accepted virtual world that will gain much wider acceptance. Daytime: Sunset

Virtual Worlds News: Microsoft Buys Vivaty For New Project, May Be Looking For More The rumor that Microsoft is bidding on troubled virtual world Second Life just got a bit more interesting. It turns out that Microsoft is the previously unnamed company that acquired Vivaty, a virtual competing with Second Life that went out of business in April . The terms of the deal remain undisclosed but Microsoft definitely paid less than $75 million , according to Microsoft Managing Director of Corporate Development Marc Brown. The acquisition was confirmed by Vivaty founder Keith McCurdy, in an email to paidContent.org . When Vivaty closed earlier this year, McCurdy said that the company acquiring Vivaty intended to use it as the foundation for an unnamed new project.