On April 22nd, NOAA is hosting a “brown bag lunch seminar” about virtual worlds at 12 PM SLT that will be broadcast directly from the web for those not able to participate from inside Second Life due to lack of avatar or access from the office. Those of you with avatars are welcome to join in-world. You can tune in at:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/noaa-brown-bag/v3
An analysis of two of NOAA’s regions in Second Life for 2009. Hopefully this helps move people beyond the typical “Second Life is empty” knee jerk reaction.
NOAA just updated the Science On a Sphere installation in Second Life based SciLands to include fancy new COP15 data sets and movies. Visit “Meteora!”
Second Life Eco-Tour
If you have never been in a virtual world, here is your chance to visit one of the most popular, Second Life, and see how people are using this online environment to address real world environmental issues ranging from tackling climate change to fostering more sustainable consumption patterns. The Second Life Eco-Tour was developed by The Wilson Center and is part of a larger project with the Environmental Protection Agency to explore how computer and video game technologies can be applied to environmental issues. The Eco-Tour was developed by UC/Berkeley graduate student Stephanie Gerson (Sequioa Hax in Second Life) and Charles Lawrence (Geuis Teses in Second Life). It highlights many environmentally oriented areas in Second Life including our very own SciLands. Click above to watch the video.
NOAA’s Second Second Life Island
We invite you to try out the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) second island in Second Life called Okeanos. There you can hop aboard a survey vessel and map the ocean floor, assist in the clean up efforts of an oil spill, observe the effects of harmful algal blooms known as red tides, and explore a multitude of coral sanctuaries. These and other adventures await you at the SLURL below! Make sure to pick up a heads up display (HUD) before you begin your journey.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okeanos/64/217/30/
Figure 1: Staring down a seal
Figure 2: Cleaning up an oil spill
Figure 3: Charting the sea floor
