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IRS might be saving millions by recruiting in Second Life | AccountingWEB.com - 1 views

www.accountingweb.com/...illions-recruiting-second-life Second Life accounting
shared by Steven Hornik on 19 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Steven Hornik on 19 Aug 09
     
    The IRS uses Second Life as a recruiting tool, and claims that, depending on how one looks at it, the taxing agency is actually saving millions of taxpayer dollars by devoting some time and money to this virtual world
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Facebook Friends FriendFeed - 0 views

www.examiner.com/14-Facebook-Friends-FriendFeed
shared by James OReilly on 16 Aug 09 - Cached
  • I’ve been using FriendFeed for awhile and if you subscribe to my feed you’ll see just about everything that I do online. My feed includes all the articles I bookmark with delicious. When I write a new blog post it automatically shares it on my feed. Every time I tweet on Twitter and when I update my status on Facebook, they’re included here. When I add a video to my favorites on YouTube it is shared here as well. Currently there are 58 different sites that you can link to your FriendFeed, so it’s like the one stop shopping place for everything online!
  • FriendFeed also has a search function where someone without even registering on the site, can easily search all FriendFeed updates.
  • Facebook has been in the news quite a bit this week which they started off with the announcement that they have acquired the social-identity aggregator, FriendFeed.
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Ayumi Cassini Does Second Life: The ultimate guide to prim twisting - 0 views

ayumicassini.blogspot.com/...te-guide-to-prim-twisting.html Second Life slbuilding
shared by Steven Hornik on 29 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Steven Hornik on 29 Jul 09
     
    Aah, prims. Plywood shapes that magically turn into the most beautiful SL builds. Yes, those prims know how to twist and shout! ... Wait, wh... what?! ... I'm talking about prim twisting - shaping prims into unusual shapes. Prim magic!
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Dusan Writer's Metaverse » User-Generated Content as a Business Model: Second... - 0 views

dusanwriter.com/...-generated-content-second-life Second Life
shared by Steven Hornik on 26 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Malaby points out that Second Life is made up of various forms of capital: commodities, cultural, competencies, credentialed, and artifacts.
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Research Article: A Second Life PCR lab evaluation - 1 views

www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/...beej-13-5.aspx Second Life education biosciences research
shared by Eloise Pasteur on 06 Jul 09 - Cached
  • This study examines students’ reactions to the virtual biosciences laboratory developed in Second Life® (SL) at the University of East London. Final year undergraduates and masters students studying biotechnology took part in a trial of a virtual Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) experiment in Second Life and evaluated their experience by anonymous questionnaire. Learning gains were measured at various points during the study using pre- and post-tests, and interaction with demonstrators was monitored and compared during the real life (RL) practical. Both groups showed a significant increase in learning gain over the pre- and post-tests, although no difference in gains between the two groups was detected. However, students who conducted the PCR experiment in SL required significantly less demonstrator assistance during the subsequent RL practical. The SL practical was well received by students, with 92% of participants reporting that they would like to use the system again and many requesting other experiments to be made available in this manner in the future.
  • The aim of this study was to determine whether conducting the PCR experiment in the virtual world of Second Life produced similar learning gains to those observed in the physical world laboratory and to see if working in the Virtual Lab enhanced students understanding of the experiment. The student perceptions of the Virtual Lab as a teaching mechanism and the perceived impact on their learning was examined through questionnaires.
  • The SL group completed a pre(virtual) Lab quiz and then individually registered for Second Life to create an avatar under instructor supervision. Each student completed some orientation exercises on UEL Island to become adequately skilled in using the Second Life environment (e.g. flying, putting on clothing etc.). The student avatars then met in the Virtual Lab to perform the PCR experiment. This was initially demonstrated by a member of staff before each student completed the virtual experiment themselves. Throughout this teaching session the students received face to face and virtual communication from their instructor.
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  • Participants in both groups then completed the physical world PCR practical individually in the laboratory. During the physical world practical the number of questions asked of staff and demonstrators by students in each group was recorded. After the real-world practical all participants completed the in-class quiz once again as a measure of overall learning gain.
  • Pre-, mid- and post-tests were used to examine the learning gains seen in the students at each stage of the teaching process. The learning gains of each group at the three stages of testing are illustrated in Figure 2. Using a mixed (or split-plot) ANOVA there were found to be no significant difference between the learning gains achieved by the SL and non-SL groups, with both groups achieving the same mean increase in test score between the pre and post tests. Interestingly however, there was a significant difference between the scores achieved by students in the SL and non-SL groups overall (p<0.001), with the initial average pre-test score of the SL group being significantly higher than the initial average pre-test score for the non-SL group. Quiz scores increased significantly across the study for students in both groups (p<0.001).
  • The number of questions asked by students during the physical world laboratory practical was recorded for the non-SL and SL groups. As can be seen in Figure 3, the non-SL group (Demonstration) asked significantly more questions (p<0.001) during the practical than the SL group. Furthermore, the staff supporting the practical sessions reported the SL group students to be more organised in their conduct during the class and appeared to take less time to complete the task.
  • Overall, satisfaction with the Virtual Lab was high. Ninety-two percent of respondents said they would use Second Life again and many had commented during the teaching session that they would like to see other experiments in the Virtual Lab. There were no significant differences in opinion between the sexes and between those who are re-sitting the module (11 students) and those that were not. Students who had already completed one Semester of the course joining the programme in October 2008 (21 students) found the in world instructions on how to complete the Virtual Lab experiment more useful than those (29 students) who started in Semester B, February 2009 (p<0.05).
  • A moderate negative correlation was found between age and overall satisfaction (r= -0.54, p<0.001). Younger students were generally more satisfied with Second Life than older students.
  • Those who had used Second Life before the study (16 out of 50 students) differed significantly in their expectation of in-world feedback whilst undertaking the Virtual PCR experiment from those who had no prior Second Life experience (p<0.05). Of the 16 students that had used SL before 6 students answered Q11 of the questionnaire (Table 1) with 3 or lower while only 4 students out of the 34 who had not used SL before answered Q11 in this way. Those who had used Second Life before thought that they had not received sufficient feedback during the experiment.
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ThinkBalm publishes business value study « ThinkBalm: Immersive Internet insi... - 0 views

thinkbalm.com/...publishes-business-value-study
shared by James OReilly on 20 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Nearly 30% of survey respondents (19 of 66) said their organization recouped their investment in immersive technologies in less than nine months, once their project(s) launched.
  • The top motivations for investment in immersive technology in 2008 /1Q 2009 were enabling people in disparate locations to spend time together, increased innovation, and cost savings or avoidance.
  • Early implementers are choosing the simplest use cases first. The most common were learning and training (80%, or 53 of 66 respondents focused on this use case) and meetings (76%, or 50 of 66 respondents). Some intend to take on more complex use cases in 2010 or 2011.
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  • Immersive technology won out over a variety of alternatives primarily due to low cost and the increased engagement it delivers. The leading alternatives were Web conferencing and in-person meetings, followed by phone calls.
  • Work-related use of the Immersive Internet is in the early adopter phase. Before it can pass into the early majority phase, practitioners and the technology vendors who serve them must “cross the chasm.” The most common barriers to adoption are target users having inadequate hardware, corporate security restrictions, and getting users interested in the technology.
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