Today's coverage by Asher Moses in Fairfax newspapers on the latest saga with content filtering in Australia, alludes to virtual environments such as Second Life being added to the list of content not suitable for viewing in Australia. Essentially, the issue is that online 'games' like World of Warcraft and Second Life have not received an Classification rating and therefore … [Read more...] about An open letter on virtual worlds for Senator Conroy
Australian News
Interview: Andrew Campbell – Director of Prometheus Research Team, University of Sydney
(Published earlier today on Metaverse Health) Over the past couple of years I've had the opportunity to chat with Andrew Campbell on a couple of occasions. As Director of the Prometheus Research Team, Andrew is heavily involved in the area of mental health and technology. I've always been struck by Andrew's objective view of gaming and virtual worlds, which he rightly sees as … [Read more...] about Interview: Andrew Campbell – Director of Prometheus Research Team, University of Sydney
Australia revamped
Back in May 2007 we covered the launch of a sim in Second Life called Australia. Up until a month or so ago, things hadn't altered much until the sim's change of ownership when it's previous owner sold due to real-world time contraints. Now run by Australian Second Life developers Top Dingo, there's been a significant remodification. Top Dingo partners Noel Jacobson (SL: Pants … [Read more...] about Australia revamped
Beautiful Kate – virtual worlds as normality
Beautiful Kate is both a visually stunning and emotionally confronting movie that builds a warmth that belies its subject matter. Based on Newton Thornburg's 1982 novel of the same name, Director Rachel Ward has transplanted the bleakness of Idaho USA to outback Australia (the film was shot primarily at Wilpena Pound in South Australia). It made its debut at the Sydney Film … [Read more...] about Beautiful Kate – virtual worlds as normality
Interview – Prof. Young Choi and Dr. Thomas Furness, HIT Lab Australia
In 2008, with not a lot of fanfare, the Human Interface Technology Laboratory Australia (HIT Lab) was created. Part of the University of Tasmania (UTAS), its brief is to be a specialist human interface technology teaching and research centre. Headed in an interim capacity by Professor Young Ju Choi with significant involvement by veteran virtual reality researcher Tom … [Read more...] about Interview – Prof. Young Choi and Dr. Thomas Furness, HIT Lab Australia