Beta Technologies

In an effort to support more fund-raising events and to raise awareness of Second Life as a very good platform to deploy cultural and artistic events to raise funds, Beta Technologies was delighted to help to promote the CCV project to bring “Land of the Dreams” to Second Life.

Some of the facilities at the Beta Business Park will be used to help the promotion.

About Land of the Dreams

The Land of the Dreams is a not for profit organization of wish granting in Portugal, founded in June 1, 2007, International Children’s Day, by a group of 33 founding members.

Formally, the Land of the Dreams Association (LDA) is a Private Institution of Social Solidarity, which main objective is to fulfill the dreams of children and adolescents diagnosed with chronic diseases and/or in terminal phases.

We believe in the inspiring and transforming power of small unique moments, as a way of improving the quality of life of children, family and friends who live closely with these realities.

On Land of the Dreams we believe the fulfillment of the dreams of these sick children help them to overcome the painfull processes they live in. We believe that “impossible” is a word created by our mind in order to limit our spirit’s actions. We believe in People and in Life.

We believe that all dreams are feasible.

We believe in the transforming power of dreams.

We believe that one child’s smile is worth every effort.”

This is the basic information about the Land of the Dreams Association. For more details, please visit the official website at http://www.terradossonhos.org.

The VCCA (Virtual Cultural Community Association) is preparing its entry into Second Life®, and relies on the help of all friends and all Second Life® communities, not only Portuguese, to collaborate in this project.

About CCV

CCV is a group of people who joined to promote art and culture on Second Life and Virtual Worlds.

This year’s Hair Fair ‘09 — the largest trade and charity fair in Second Life, with an estimated attendance of over 15,000 people, and having the goal to raise US$ 12,000 for the not-for-profit Locks of Love, is being sponsored by Beta Technologies, which has provided four sims for this year’s event, logistics, and a metrics system to keep track of the visitors.

What is Hair Fair?

Could you believe that a sophisticated pompadour, a jazzy bobbed hair or gothic pigtails can become real hair for real childrens?

In the United States alone, 2 million children and teenagers are stricken with diseases that imply partial or total loss of hair.  Alopecia is an auto-immune disorder that causes the hair follicles to shut down and these children end up with partial or total hair less.  Add to these all kids undergoing radiation and chemo treatments, children suffering from ectodermal dysplasia, loose anagen syndrome, trichotillomania, telogen effluvium, and traumatic injuries – and what you get is millions of kids who are deprived of one of the marks of normality – having hair. This is terribly traumatic for a growing kid.

Most adult wigs won’t really do the job – they’re too big and too grown up. So there are specialized wigs for kids – but they cost thousands of dollars. This is where virtual hair comes in.

In Second Life®, the fastest growing virtual world which already counts with 16 million users, economy is brisk. One of the virtual economy motors is the creation of objects for sale. And one of the most desired items is… Hair!  Since you are free to change your appearance, it’s not uncommon that users feature a glorious mane of red hair one day and a short, cosmopolitan blonde the next.  There are hundreds of hairstyle creators in Second Life, and the virtual job has already become a virtual art form on its own.

This is the fourth year in which the hair designers unite in a common event for getting money to sponsor wigs for children – the Hair Fair 2009. The Hair Fair is a 2-week event that congregates all that is Hair! – in Second Life. Spreading over an area of more than 2 million square feet, Hair Fair resembles a business fair… only the theme this year is ‘Candy Land’ and so you will be able to visit a landscape of sweets in which the merchants’ booths are gingerbread houses… all is possible in Second Life!

Merchants donate the proceedings of at least one hairstyle to the Hair Fair. Hair Fair staff is totally volunteer, and all proceedings are amassed and given to charity. To take care of the costs, Hair Fair is sponsored by real life companies doing business in Second Life – this year the sponsors are Beta Technologies, an US-Portuguese multinational virtual developers company, IllClan, another US company that specializes in state-of-the-art virtual video – machinima, and mechanizedLife, who has sponsored some of the intricate programming that the event requires. IllClan has produced the official videoclip (Click here) and Beta Technologies is lending the virtual area and logistics for this event which has taken almost a year to organize.

Hair Fair will open its liquorice gates at Saturday, the 20th of June, and will carry on until the 4th July. Besides all the multitude of hairstyles to see and buy, the Fair will have several events – music, parties – and a special event day – the Bandana Day, in which Second Life users are invited, for a day, to try the traumatic experience of leaving their gorgeous hairstyles in their virtual pockets and pass the day using a bandana on their heads – so that they can experience something akin to the suffering of millions of young lives.

How to reach Hair Fair ‘09?

• http://slurl.com/secondlife/HF%202009/78/223/28
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Beta%20Business%20Park/195/81/28
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hair%20Fair%202009/91/182/23
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hair%20Fair/166/135/28

For this volunteer project created as a joint partnership between the Museum of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic and CCV, a Portuguese not-for-profit specialised in bringing cultural and artistic events to Second Life® and managing a vibrant community of Portuguese speakers around the world, Beta Technologies was invited as a sponsor to create some commemorative content as well to be displayed on the “Alma” island, where the virtual presence of the Museum is held.

As part of the sponsorship, Beta Technologies’ Moon Adamant and Damien Fate have created an art piece (the image of a crucified Christ), a replica of a 16th century map illustrating the Portuguese-speaking countries of the world, and a small exhibition of digital art evoking Portuguese heritage, culture, and poetry.

For immediate release:

NEW YORK – In the 1980s there was teleconferencing. In the 1990s, videoconferencing came of age. Now there is 3D collaboration. Global companies like IBM and Northrop Grumman as well as many smaller ones are using the virtual world of Second Life Grid® for holding business meetings, conducting employee training, and getting product feedback.

What they gain is a foothold in a new world experiencing rapid economic growth. And they eliminate travel costs. Gone too is the productivity drain when people are pulled out of the office for meetings. Meanwhile, from  networking to learning opportunities to spending time with the top execs, all the benefits of meeting face-to-face are real though the environment is virtual.

“Companies that are thinking of establishing a business presence in a virtual world need a solutions consultant that is serious about business,” says Jeff Bush, managing director, Beta Technologies in the U.S. The firm is like a website designer for virtual worlds, and has just been named a Gold Solution Provider by Linden Lab®, creator of the virtual world Second Life®. After a rigorous qualification process, Beta Technologies has been certified for its expertise in creating solutions for design and programming in Second Life.

In announcing the Gold Solution Provider Program, Linden Lab stated, “We are excited about taking this step to recognize the excellence and experience and provide further support of Solution Providers operating on the Second Life Grid.”

Beta Technologies’ stake in Second Life Grid is called Beta Business Park. Its level of service and level of seriousness are appreciated by clients like Xerox and DHR\New Media, LLC.

Contact: Jeff Bush, (212) 645-2228

About Beta Technologies

Our skills and knowledge range from 3D content design, real architecture, programming, web and logo design to project planning and management. All of these have proved effective in helping companies make a transition to a virtual world for doing business. We are incorporated in the United States. Our home office is in Lisbon, Portugal.

Joining Second Life® could not have become easier for business professionals. At Beta Technologies, we offer you the comfort of an orientation area, where you will be assisted in your first steps in this brand new world – just call one of our assistants for help!

I-Learning Workshops, Immersive Learning for the Classroom and Workplace, is DHR New Media’s division for hosting workshops and seminars using the Second Life® platform for job training.

As part of their extensive area in Second Life, Beta Technologies was assigned to redevelop a Coffee Shop to be used as a scenario for the Talent for Growth language classes. Supervised by professional educators, Beta Technologies’ creative team presented DHR New Media with high-quality, realistic content for this first setting.

Two of our clients, the Frootcake Diner and the Sunbelt Software Island, were recently included on Linden Lab’s Second Life Showcase list, where a selection of the best spots in Second Life are presented.

Both are included in the “Hotspots” list. Congratulations to both, and our thanks for allowing us to build them for you!

As of December 1, Beta Technologies US Inc. has been incorporated in the United States of America. Beta Technologies will thus operate under its own corporate name from the new company instead of relying on the former joint-venture partner for the US market.

US operations and most of the world-wide invoicing will be handled by Jeff Brooks.

Since September, Beta Technologies’ CEO, Eggy Lippmann, has also been physically located in Munich, Germany, where we are currently establishing a market presence. For 2009, we’re preparing, as part of our expansion, to open offices in London, UK.

Coordinated by Profs. Alexandra Gago da Câmara and Helena Murteira from CHAIA (University of Évora), Beta Technologies deployed an historical representation of the city of Lisbon in 1755, shortly before it was destroyed by the 1755 earthquake, to be included in the presentation City and Spectacle: a vision of pre-earthquake Lisbon in the workshop Serious Games in Cultural Heritage at the VAST2008 (Braga, December 2, 2008).

Having previously recreated a model of the Royal Opera House, this latest project involves the recreation of the eastern side of the Terreiro do Paço (Royal Courtyard), including the palaces built by King Manuel and King Phillip, as well as the Terzi Tower. The recreation extends to the Gardens behind the palace and the streets and courtyards leading to the Royal Opera House, which was included in this model.

This was also Beta Technologies’ largest-scale project based on OpenSim server technology, having been built in its entirety on Beta Technologies’ own OpenSim mini-grid. Internauts (residents subscribed to the Open Grid Public Beta Trial) are able to visit the 3D models directly; images are also available here and here.

In a long-term project, Beta Technologies has been modelling in Second Life® 19 European theatres (from Ancient Greece up to the 20th century) for the Theatron 3 project of King’s Visualisation Lab (part of King’s College London).

During this undertaking, old models from the Theatron 2 project (done on legacy technologies) are being adapted by Beta Technologies’ experts in virtual archeology so that they can be fully used as buildings inside Second Life. The extraordinary detail of the historical models require a high level of expertise to be properly recreated in Second Life, and be used by several European universities as objects for further study (which include the recreation of historical plays in its proper environment). The historical accuracy of the models and the research are provided by experts from King’s Visualisation Lab who supervise the work in close collaboration with Beta Technologies’ creative director, our specialist in virtual archeology (recreation of historical buildings in virtual worlds).

As part of the project, the Theatron Reservation System was also developed by Beta Technologies. This is a device allowing the universities participating in the Theatron project to register for a particular theatre to be displayed, select a “pedagogical pack” (usually a set or scenario specific to a certain play or epoch), and have the corresponding building rezzed at the apropriate time. The terrain of the “Theatron” simulator is also terraformed accordingly.

Continuing well into the third year of developing unique content for Language Lab, the first and largest language school entirely run inside the Second Life® virtual world, Beta Technologies designed Language Lab’s Registration Centre, with a mix of futuristic and Oxbridge elements, which will serve for potential students to have individual interviews with Language Lab’s teachers, as well as their welcome area.

The Arch Plaza and the Café (not shown) were also part of this project.

Developed separately, Beta Technologies also provided Language Lab with their own branded version of the Second Life® Client, which will soon be available for all students to log in to Language Lab’s areas.