Beta Technologies

For the second time, the University of Aveiro will be hosting cef^SL, a conference about the use of the Second Life® environment in Communication, Education, and Training/Teaching, which will be held in Aveiro from June 26th to the 28th.

Besides two full days with several tracks, the last day will be featuring an intensive workshop on Second Life programming, building, texturing, and avatar personalisation. For the conference itself, about 20 scientific papers were submitted and approved to be presented.

Sessions will be mostly in Portuguese, although a few will be in English as well, and many presentations will be done via Second Life or videocasting, in what has become the most mixed-reality event in Portugal.

Beta Technologies will once more be an official sponsor of cef^SL and welcomes all partners and clients to attend what should be one of this year’s highlights in the roll of conferences about Second Life® in Portugal.

Dolce Vita is an international shopping centre chain in Europe with a strong presence in Portugal. They’re launching a contest for the “Best Fashionable Avatar” in the Second Life® virtual world.

To register, you only need to go to a Dolce Vita kiosk and touch it to get an unique registration code. With that code you can now send postcards with pictures of your avatar and have them displayed on a voting site. The 10 most voted avatars until May 15th will be  invited to a fashion show (with live music) on May 16th, where a jury will pick their choice among the best. Contestants can pick up free clothes (up to a limit) from the Portuguese fashion designer Maria Gherardi on her MG Fashion shops in Second Life.

The winner will get a voucher to spend €500 on any Dolce Vita Shopping Centre in Portugal. There will be a second round of voting on May 23rd with another €500 to be won.

All design and programming were developed by Beta Technologies.

Languagelab is the world leader in a new approach to language learning. The approach combines the interactive and social potential of virtual environments with highly qualified, innovative teachers from around the world to provide a unique space for formal and informal learning. And all of this can be accessed from your computer. Learning in Languagelab is memorable and effective, realistic and immersive, targeted and informal, collaborative and enabling. Their project is quite long-term, and they have been developing in Second Life for a few years, even introducing voice technology well before Linden Lab released their own software.

Beta Technologies has been working with Languagelab from the very start, creating realistic content for the many settings and environments used to teach classes in several languages.

Artesia helps Slovenian’s public broadcaster enter Second Life, build a community

LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA, EU (March 25, 2008)

MMC, new media department of Slovenian public broadcaster (RTV Slovenija - http://www.rtvslo.si/) is entering Second Life on March 29th. The island, called MMC, is an extension of its Multimedia Center. The purpose of their Second Life presence is to extend its web community into Second Life by allowing users to schedule and hold events. They have partnered with community consultants Artesia (http://www.artesia.si/english) and the experienced virtual world architects Beta Technologies (http://betatechnologies.info/) in the execution of an ambitious Second Life project.

MMC has always been on the forefront of technology - it was among the first to webcast its programs and to enable web access to its digital archives. The extension of their activities into virtual worlds was a natural next step for the Multimedia centre of RTV Slovenia.

We are completing the move to our new locations in Lisbon and do apologise if you had any difficulties contacting us recently. Fortunately, Internet access has been restored during the weekend and we should be back on track next Monday!

Our contacts have been updated and we will soon announce new phone numbers for contacts and fax if you require them; obviously, all our emails and our in-world contacts will remain the same.

Sustainability is the main subject when Grundfos the pump group open the doors to a brand new world in the virtual universe of Second Life on September 12th.

“New ideas, the option to invite users to take part, dialogue across national borders, innovation power and a large amount of curiosity are the reasons why Grundfos is going to open a new and completely different island in Second Life,” said Thomas Koldbæk from Grundfos eBusiness & -innovation.

Looking at the world with new eyes

Grundfos is primarily entering the three dimensional universe with the purpose of learning. “We want to examine all the possibilities of the computer made worlds. The natural way to enter for us is to focus on sustainable development, and so we have built up our island with environmental issues and energy consumption as the main topic. We want as much interaction as possible. In several places visitors are invited to support projects that, in the longer view, will result in initiatives in the real world. For instance, users of Second Life are invited to buy virtual SQ Flex installations and thereby contribute to the donation of one real SQ Flex installation for a water supply project in Africa in the real world”, Mr Koldbæk explained.

More than 4 walls and a logo

“We have used quite some time to decide how and why we want to be present in Second Life. Our island is of optimum quality and facilities and buildings have inviting and exciting designs. Users are constantly invited to be active. Grundfos will let the island live for about six months, during which time we shall take stock and evaluate the efforts and benefits,” Mr Koldbæk said.

Long-term perspectives

Grundfos also want to clarify the trends of the virtual worlds now and in the future. “The virtual universes are right now going through a phase of experimentation. Our approach is focusing on our commitment to sustainability and our corporate values. The primary aim of Grundfos is to learn and then analyse what use we can make of the virtual universes. For instance, this could be a forum of co-operation in which we arrange meetings and conferences with all the parties interested in our business,” Thomas Koldbæk concluded.

To visit Grundfos Energy Saving Island, all you need is to have Second Life installed and click here.

Launch event

To promote the official launch today, a rather intense schedule of several events are scheduled. They include a DJ and a live piano player, as well as a series of presentations related to sustainability.

• 12 (Noon) to 12:30 - Grundfos Welcome to Second Life
• 12:45 to 1:00 - Water for Life and Overview of water and other environmental issues we face — Delia Lake
• 1:00 to 1:45 pm - Brazillian Music — DJ Speelo Snook.
• 2:00 to 2:30 - Climate Changes — John Galland, RL climate scientist and researcher presenting the latest scientific thinking about global climate change.
• 2:45 to 3:15 - You Can Make a Difference — RiverSong Garden will tell about projects in African villages.
• 3:30 to 4:00 - Solar Sunrise. — Bjerkle Eerie will talk about Solar power for Africa
• 4:15 to 4:45 - Water for Life and Overview of water and other environmental issues we face — Delia Lake
• 5:00 to 6:00 - Water Music — Enniv Zarf, pianist and composer will play piano improvisations inspired by environmental photography

António Costa, candidate for Mayor of the Lisbon Town Hall through the “Unir Lisboa” campaign, opened today (Saturday, July 7th) his Virtual Campaign Headquarters in Second Life, a project managed by Eggy Lippmann and developed by Beta Technologies.

The Virtual Campaign HQ provides the programme of the campaign through an interactive interface that gives notecards and links to the visitors. Images and videos of all candidates, as well as of several people endorsing the candidate for Mayor, are also present at the headquarters, as well as an RSS feed to the campaign blog. A small auditorium is further provided for meetings and presentations.