Cornell Chronicle: Using Second Life as a classroom

Cornell Chronicle: Using Second Life as a classroom

Students get a 'Second Life' in first 'metanomics' course
By Anne Ju

Anyone who thinks virtual reality is just a game should have a talk with Beyers Sellers, a virtual-reality character in the online world of Second Life. The flesh and blood behind the sandy-haired avatar (a virtual persona) is Rob Bloomfield, a Johnson School professor who uses the online virtual world Second Life as his classroom for a course that guides 10 students this semester through the complex economics arising in the "metaverse" of virtual worlds.
Beyers Sellers, professor Robert Bloomfield's Second Life avatar
Provided
Beyers Sellers, professor Robert Bloomfield's Second Life avatar.

Business and Oversight in Second Life is a new directed-study seminar for graduate students. Required to create their own avatars, the students use Second Life to study the business and policy issues surrounding the largely unregulated "wild west" of the metaverse. Created by the company Linden Labs, Second Life has some 9 million subscribers and handles more than $1.5 million in exchanges every day.

Bloomfield, the Nicholas H. Noyes Professor of Management, has even coined a new word -- "metanomics" -- the economics of the metaverse, which answers to a distinct set of masters.

"Metanomics, by necessity, is an interdisciplinary endeavor," Bloomfield said. "There's a technical side, a legal side and a business side, as well as a game side."

Bloomfield also offers a lecture series in Second Life on how Second Life's metaverse relates to and influences the real world, at http://www.metanomics.metaversed.com/.

Through collaboration with the Web site Metaversed.com and its editor, Nick Wilson, the lectures and seminars can be attended either via Second Life or streamed live over the Internet. Events (which include some real-world activities) will run through December and feature such speakers as Dan Miller, senior economist of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress; Anshe Chung, one of the first users to earn $1 million in Second Life; and representatives from IBM, MTV, Sun Microsystems and other corporations that explore the business potential of virtual worlds.

BBC Second Life show a virtual first

The BBC2 broadcast on Friday 1st of June will see reporter Max Flint setting up shop in Second Life and investigating whether it's possible to find his fortune within the virtual world.

According to the BBC the programme will look at two aspects of such virtual worlds, firstly online spaces such as Second Life which seek to recreate a version of real life and also a look at MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft.

Viewers will have a chance to see interviews with Second Life creator Philip Rosedale and the folks behind Reebok's virtual shop and the company Rivers Run Red which earns a large revenue within online worlds.

On the MMO side The Money Programme will also meet David Solari, Vice President of Codemasters Online Gaming and will investigate the concept of virtual crimes.

As well as being able to see the broadcast on BBC2, the show will also be broadcast within Second Life at the Rivers Run Red Cinema (coordinates 200, 123, 45) at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm on 1st June.

Heather Hopkins - Hitwise UK: Paid and Organic Search - Impact of Ad Copy on Click Through Rates (Post 2 of 3)

Heather Hopkins - Hitwise UK: Paid and Organic Search - Impact of Ad Copy on Click Through Rates (Post 2 of 3): "Paid and Organic Search - Impact of Ad Copy on Click Through Rates (Post 2 of 3)
In my first post in this series I walked through some of our data on paid and organic search terms for MoneySupermarket. In this second post in the series, I will look at a couple of examples of the ratio of paid and organic visits to better understand the impact of different ad copy on click through rates (CTR).
Consider the following screen grab from Hitwise showing the top search terms sending UK visits to Expedia.co.uk in the four weeks to 30th September 2006. Volume refers to the volume of visits that term represents to the website and paid rate and organic rate refer to the rate at which consumers reached the site from a paid or organic listing. "

Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible

Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible: "Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible
By Ryan Naraine
April 4, 2006





LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.�In a rare discussion about the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation."

Microsoft Lures Spammers With Zombie Trap - Oct 28, 2005

Microsoft Lures Spammers With Zombie Trap - Oct 28, 2005: "Microsoft Lures Spammers With Zombie Trap
Oct 28, 2005 By News Staff
On Thursday Microsoft revealed some of the technological and legal maneuvers it has used to unmask individuals using several zombies to send spam.

Zombies are computers that are infected with malicious code so they can be controlled remotely by other people for illegal purposes. Through technological trickery, criminals can use these unconscious accomplices to send illegal spam, launch phishing campaigns to steal personal information, attack Web sites and computers, or engage in other illegal activity."

The Sorting Door Project: Frequently Asked Questions

The Sorting Door Project: Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat are RFIDs, and how prevalent are they?
RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags are small devices that can be queried and read from a distance, using radio waves. The most commonly-encountered RFID tags in the near to long-term future will likely be so-called passive tags, bearing Electronic Product Code (EPC) numbers, identifying items they're attached to--these tags are primarily what the Sorting Door has been created to detect and assess.

Watching us through the Sorting Door RFID

Watching us through the Sorting Door [printer-friendly] | The Register: "'I believe that tags will be readily used for surveillance, given the interests of various parties able to deploy readers,' said Ross Stapleton-Gray, former CIA analyst and manager of the study, called the Sorting Door Project (http://www.sortingdoor.com)."

Testing of e-Passports Begins at Los Angeles International Airport and Sydney Airport in Australia

Testing of e-Passports Begins at Los Angeles International Airport and Sydney Airport in AustraliaWASHINGTON, June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- A "live test" of e-Passports that contain computer chips with biographic and biometric information begins today at terminals 2, 4 and 7 of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and at Sydney Airport in Australia. The "live test" will run from June 15 to September 15, 2005.