Beta Technologies

For the launch of the Beta Business Park next Tuesday, we have a small promotion video that tries to explain the purpose of the B2P — where business meet people:

As part of the ongoing work with CHAIA (University of Évora), Beta Technologies upgraded their long-term project for the virtual recreation of the city of Lisbon just prior to the 1755 earthquake which utterly destroyed most of the downtown.

As further research reveals more fascinating aspects of a Lost City that we don’t know any more, and with the technological advances of both the Second Live viewer (which now allows realistic shadows) and OpenSimulator (upgraded to 0.6.6 for this stage of the project), several old areas were remodelled, and a whole new section added (the Patriarchal Church and its piazza, of which there are no images or engravings from the period, only textual descriptions and some blueprints). Thanks to the untiring work of the research team at CHAIA, and the thorough expertise of Beta Technologies’ modelling team in the area of virtual archeology, the Baroque Lisbon that was lost can be revived in an immersive environment.

The video footage from inside OpenSimulator is amateurish and poor and just meant as an example; Beta Technologies hopes that adequate funding in the future might lead to the development of a professional documentary.

Images can also be seen on our portfolio gallery.

Beta Technologies will be officially launching on September 15, 2009 their new product for bringing businesses, organisations, and individuals interested in business to Second Life: the Beta Business Park.

Beta Business Park (B2P), a project of Beta Technologies, is a community of businesses and the people who own, operate, and work them.

This business-to-people community is a different way to do business in Second Life. B2P provides a coherent territory dedicated to businesses and their clients, allowing easy connections between business people, as well as convenient shared costs of common facilities.

B2P tenants use their Second Life offices for bringing together geographically diverse staff and clients, saving traveling costs without forfeiting the personal touch of being in the same place at the same time.

B2P is a superb entry point for widening your business’s market. B2P staff and partners assist tenants with everything from introducing their staff and clients to the basics of virtual worlds and Second Life, to creating entire communities of their own. Around-the-clock support from the B2P staff gets tenants answers and assistance when they need it. The B2P staff are trained concierges. If the answer to a question is not on the tip of their tongues, they work to get it quickly.

Networking between tenants is key to what makes B2P special. Regularly scheduled events encourage community members to share ideas and learn from one another, as well as from the experts brought in to speak. Topics range from “Second Life 101″ to the intricacies of navigating the global market.

Registered users at the B2P portal will have access to a wide range of documentation and information on business-related topics in Second Life as well as special invitations to attend business-related events.

The launch on September 15 will be open house: drop in for a tour of our facilities, music, information and networking. Our staff will be on hand all day to answer your questions about the park and our services.

For more information, please register at the Beta Business Park portal: http://www.betabusinesspark.com/

After the success of sponsoring the Hair Fair ‘09 event, Beta Technologies continues to support the space for a fund-raising event for the “Land of Dreams” charity, an organisation which tries to give children and teenagers with terminal diseases a last dream.

This time, on Saturday, July 11, 2009, at 10PM GMT (2 PM PDT), “Land of Dreams” will be doing a real-life Fado concert in a typical club in Alfama, in the old part of Lisbon. The show will be broadcasted live into Second Life, organised and promoted by CCV (Comunidade Cultural Virtual), in a virtual recreation of a Fado house, jointly done by Beta Technologies and CCV.

Second Life residents will obviously be able to contribute with their donations as well.

You can join us by teleporting to Beta Technologies’ island.

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!