NMC Campus Observer

Technology Review on Second Earth

CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) : Jun 20, 2007 10:38am

The July/August issue of Technology Review features a comprehensive story on Second Earth, where it not only highlights many compelling regions in Second Life, but looks more broadly at the future, which may in fact combine the data and rich media of Google Earth with the high level engagement of Second Life.

The World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an environment combining elements of Second Life and Google Earth.

The article by Wade Roush is vast in links, SLURLs, videos, images, and has an audio version of the story available in podcast format. The online version of the article features special callout blocks of information that were not in the print version.

Setting the stage for Second Life….

But aside from such diversions, the navigation tools provided by Second Life–users can fly and hover like Superman and zoom between micro and macro views of any object–make it an excellent place to investigate phenomena that would otherwise be difficult to visualize or understand. In that sense, this hideaway from the reality outside is beginning to function as an alternative lens on it. Ever wondered when the International Space Station might pass overhead? At the spaceflight museum, your avatar can fly alongside models of the station, the Hubble Space Telescope, and many other satellites as they orbit a 10-meter-diameter globe in sync with real-world data from the Air Force Space Command [video] [SLurl]. Or perhaps you suspect a bad call by the line judges at Wimbledon. If so, just stroll a virtual tennis court inside Second Life and examine the paths of every serve and volley of a match in progress, reproduced by IBM in close to real time [YouTube video].

The article then provides coverage of other virtual worlds and the trends in map software:

Even as social virtual worlds incorporate a growing amount of real-world data, virtual globes and their 2-D counterparts, Web maps, are getting more personal and immersive. Digital maps are becoming a substrate for what Di-Ann Eisnor, CEO of the mapping site Platial in Portland, OR, calls “neogeography”: an explosion of user-created content, such as travel photos and blog posts, pinned to specific locations (see “Killer Maps,” October 2005)…

As these two trends continue from opposite directions, it’s natural to ask what will happen when Second Life and Google Earth, or services like them, actually meet.

This article is a must read for anyone working in virtual worlds! Read it at http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18911/.