It’s fair to say Blue Mars has had some challenges over the years, but it looks like it’s about to go to an even safer pay of hands, with Ball State University buying the platform:
Under Ball State’s terms of agreement with Avatar Reality, the university will begin to fully operate Blue Mars for non-commercial purposes, expand upon the source code, increase its research and academic initiatives, and enhance the community of Blue Mars. In addition, Ball State will continue to deliver original content on Blue Mars as it has done in the past. “I am really excited about the future,” Phil Repp, Ball State’s vice president for information technology, said. “Through our division of Hybrid Design Technologies, Ball State will further our position as a national leader in hybrid worlds and their applications to mediated learning technologies. Our reputation in this discipline is such a perfect fit to our institutional history of innovation in teaching and learning.
Read the rest at over at the superb dwellonit.taterunino.net
A correction – Ball State did not buy the technology – rather it is a partnership agreement between Avatar Reality and BSU where Ball State continues development of both source code and content for Blue Mars. Thanks.
John Fillwalk
Director, IDIA Lab
Ball State University
Thanks for the clarification 😉
LOVE that term, “non-commercial” — read “educational?” I’ll follow this with interest.
The correction by jfillwalk was submitted 3 weeks ago, and the article has still to be corrected?
Well the correction is pretty prominent i.e. it’s the first comment 😉