A visit to virtual China
HiPiHi World

by Surfdaddy Orca

HiPiHi is a virtual world very similar to Second Life. Parts of it are stunningly beautiful, and it offers the potential to “bridge the worlds” of East and West through the use of 3D Internet technology. Founder and CEO Hui Xu recently announced that NGI Group is the lead investor in Beijing-based HiPiHi’s current funding round.

I found HiPiHi surprising easy to learn after upgrading my PC to support Simplified Chinese. The newly released English interface (partially translated) is a major convenience for an “overseas visitor” like myself. Of course, as an experienced Second Life resident, I had a good   more...

Federation of American Scientists
Virtual Worlds Review
"Building virtual worlds
for education and training"

by Surfdaddy Orca

The Seventh Sun: News from the Virtual World was honored recently to become one of two Second Life (SL)-originated virtual world discussion web sites listed by the Federation of American Scientists. Formed in 1945 by atomic scientists from the Manhattan Project, the sixty-year-old Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is endorsed by 68 Nobel Laureates and provides annual public service awards to individuals who have “made a distinctive contribution to public policy at the intersection of science and national security.” Notables include Carl Sagan, Edward Kennedy, Herbert York, and Lester Brown.   more...

Quincy Jones III, CMP’s Newest Internet Evolution Blogger Declares Digital Media
the New Hip Hop

ThinkerNet blogosphere features
QD3 and more than 80 world-famous
Internet expert contributors

09.26.07, 8:00 AM SLT

Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- CMP’s Internet Evolution (www.internetevolution.com), a Web 2.0 site dedicated to investigating the future of the Internet, today published an opinion piece by Quincy Jones III (“QD3”), filmmaker, writer, producer, visionary, and founder of QD3, an urban multimedia and entertainment company, which provides an insider’s view of how the Internet is affecting the world of Hip Hop.   more...

Taming the Linden Lab Beast
with JIRA

by Gigs Taggart

Want to find out the latest statistics on Linden Lab’s software development efforts? I’ve aggregated the statistics at a public beta site at Rob Linden’s request.
The goal of this site is to draw attention to issues that are important to users and
open source developers. You can find out today’s hottest issues, the most hated bugs,
the most wanted features, the top commenters, and the top bug reporters.  more...

  TECHNOLOGY

Virtual Project Update

3D Mind Map work moves to Rockcliffe University Research Park

by Butch Dae

In the November edition of The Seventh Sun I introduced you to our work on Virtual Information Technology (VIT). The VIT group is developing new ways to visualize information in a 3D mind map using Mindjet’s Mind-Manager Pro 7. Our objective is to find better ways to view and collect information on virtual worlds, virtual humans, and virtual IT concerns,   more...

Click here for a holiday greeting!

Tips from the pros
CNN+SKY News = SUCCESS

By Pollywog Gardenvale

I just returned from CNN’s first iReports in-world training session for citizen journalists in Second Life. I’ve been looking forward to this event ever since I heard about their plan to extend their presence into Second Life.

CNN’s Second Life facility includes a news desk where CNN producers plan to hold weekly editorial discussions with iReporters, and an amphitheater for larger events, such as the one on the opening day. Each citizen journalist iReporter is given a kit with a HUD, a press badge, tee shirt, and a nice cap. There are also video   more...

Shopping for Virtual Goods

by Pollywog Gardenvale

What’s the best way to shop in the virtual world? Are you one who enjoys wandering around the mall, or would you rather do a quick search, find what you want, click to buy it and be done with it?

Although tens of thousands of merchants maintain places of business in Second Life, an increasing number are choosing to list their products in what amounts to a good, old-fashioned online catalog--similar to what you might find on Amazon or eBay. The two primary providers of these robust e-commerce solutions are the ubiquitous SL Exchange and the former SL Boutique (which has been recently   more...

Comparison Shopping
     How much does it cost to sell virtual goods?

The Merchant’s Guide to Shop OnRez
     A sneak preview of a new book
     from Pollywog Press.

Holiday Shopping
     A shopping guide for the holidays.

  TECHNOLOGY

A facebook for avatars

IMVU: Instant Messaging with a
3D Viewer

by BalancingAct Balbozar

You may recall the banner ads--the IMVU logo with its cute blue font and pictures of cute avatars.

IMVU is a 3D avatar-based instant messaging system with extensive user-created content, Facebook-style avatar home pages, and a cute and sexy anime style. It is still in the public beta phase and pushes roughly one software update to users each week.  more...

  TRAFFIC REPORT

Congratulations
San Diego!

Traffic competition winner

Congratulations
to San Diego, California, the grand prize winner of The 2007 Seventh Sun Traffic Competition! In second place is New York, followed by London.

In a dramatic final hour show down, Santee, California, was disqualified from second place for being a spider. Another decision that affected the results was to adjust the rankings of   more...