Press Conference

Second Life

“By 2012, more than 70 percent of organizations will use private virtual worlds to support internal collaboration and social interaction,” according to Gartner, a research and advisory group.
A press conference was given today by Brett Atwood, a web content strategist for Linden Lab, speaking about their new open Beta program for its behind-the-firewall product, Second Life Enterprise that launched today.
According to Atwood, the Second Life program is one that simulates real world interaction through a web based program. The point of this is for a company’s employees to be able to collaborate and interact with one another without the expenses and hassle of travel. Through this program individuals can have meetings, socialize, do office work, and even use simulation training.
Atwood went on to say that up to 800 users can login and work together at any one given time. This can save literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel costs that would normally be accrued for members of a company across a nation to meet together.
The Second Life Enterprise has over one billion virtual items created for its program, the Beta program is already in use by 14 organizations including IBM, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, DefenseWeb Technologies as well as many others.
More than 1,400 organizations around the world use Second Life for training, and holding meetings. The new Beta program comes with both software and hardware so that a company can have ultimate security making its virtual world, non-accessible to any outsiders. Because of the sophistication and the hardware of this program the Beta version of the Second Life Enterprise runs at a price of $55,000.
According to Atwood the Second Life Enterprise is state of the art technology, using its immersive 3D platform including audio one can map out anything from geographical regions to DNA strands, while hearing sounds from behind, in front and from all sides within the 3D world.
While the Second Life Enterprise is not a replacement for meetings, offices, training etc. it is a great solution for many situations, and can save companies money from traveling expenses as well as cutting carbon emissions making a company a greener environment.

What's Happening to the News?

In these news clips it is interesting to see the decline of news on television and the transformation that the news world has gone through. This news story really covers what the news has become as well as what the people want to see now. I have a friend who’s father owns the Columbia newspaper in Clark County. His family and its business have been struggling due to the changes of readers switching to the internet for their source of news. It is unbelievable the changes that the news industry has been going through with the transformation through the online community.
These clips went on to talk about how comedy has stepped into the news as well. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has become one of the top sources of news for Americans today. This is very weird to think of how serious the news has always been and the transformation that has become of it. Americans look for and expect entertainment in everything they do.
The news has also transformed from just basic hard news to investigative news shows. These news shows have become one of the most popular genres of news in America. People are always curious to see the in-depth truth to the news of the world and these investigative teams really show us that, thus quickly transforming news operations to more in-depth news reporting.