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.

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.

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.

Since Languagelab’s own simulators are private — only students and their teachers are allowed to enter their simulators — there was a need to allow students to interact socially outside the classroom, while still enjoying moments of pleasure in the Second Life® virtual world. A solution was to add residences for the students on Languagelab’s virtual campus. From a concept by Beta Technologies’ Creative Director, Moon Adamant, Beta’s team has developed a set of modular buildings (able to host around 280 students per simulator) that also allow students to configure their own rooms using a simple button to select different environments, and load the one they prefer.

Two environments (a study room and a leisure lounge) with several different options are available at the touch of a button; students can always change their mind at any time. Pictures can be placed on walls and doors and they will be saved; common social spaces allow students to further develop their language skills in informal conversations between classes.

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 understand the differences between the web and virtual worlds and know the importance of relationships and community in Second Life. That is why we decided to extend our existing web (”MojSplet”) community into Second Life.” said Zvezdan Martic, Head of Multimedia center at RTV Slovenia.

Artesia, a start-up community development company from Slovenia with offices on Silicon Island, helped extend MMC’s role of providing information into Second Life in the form of events - scheduled by and held by the users themselves. The events are administered by four Editorial boards (covering News, Culture, Music and Fun), staffed by the Second Life users and include an editorial building and an event space each. The events can be anything - from classes on building or scripting to live music or DJ events. The event organizers are free to collect tips, and the editors are allowed to maintain residential skyboxes and customize the editorial and event spaces. Main focus of the MMC Island is on the local users, but all Second Life users are welcome to visit or become a part of the community.

“Our main goal was to provide value to the Second Life community by enabling them to hold events in an ad-free and camp-free setting. The best part of Second Life is the creative expression it allows its users; we believe that they will be able to do a far better job with the events than we could.” said Jan Isakovic, CEO of Artesia (SL IYan Writer).

To help new users with Second Life, the main building on the MMC island houses tutorials, instructional videos and freebies. Content creators, interested in promoting their work and shops, are invited to donate a freebie or two - they will be distribued with info notecards and landmarks. There is also an option of a free HUD, which comes in two languages - English and Slovenian. The HUD keeps the users updated with the latest news and upcoming events, and allows the conversion between Linden dollars and Euros and Central European time zone and Second Life time, and the Slovenian version has an added feature of pairing users with the MojSplet web community account.

MMC has teamed up with one of the most experienced virtual world architect companies, Beta Technologies. They were responsible for all Second Life elements of the project - from designing the island and the HUD to building and implementing it.

“We are very glad to have worked with Beta Technologies on the project. They have built us a beautiful island and their professional attitude helped the project run smooth and fast.” said Jan Isakovic, CEO of Artesia.

“This was a challenging project, and we are happy that, with the excellent coordination of the Artesia team, we managed to create a place of beauty and a successful Second Life environment for the MMC users,” commented Moon Adamant, Chief Creative Director for Beta Technologies.

The grand opening of the MMC island is scheduled for Saturday, 29th of March from 18:00 to 0:00 CET (10AM to 4PM SLT). The opening event will include music performances by DJ Rush Roff and several Trauma DJs, a presentation of SL art by Hatris Panacek and several presentations of the MMC community project in Slovenian and English.

MMC island is located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/MMC/91/127/26/?img=http%3A//artesia.si/english/wp-content/MMC_PR/MMC_sm.jpg&title=MMC&msg=MMC%20in%20Second%20Life

For more information, contact Jan Isakovic (SL: IYan Writer, jan@artesia.si, CEO of Artesia) or Alja Sulcic (SL: iAlja Writer, alja@artesia.si, Community architect at Artesia). The island is closed to public until March 25th - if you wish to visit sooner, please send an IM to IYan or iAlja.

About RTV Slovenia

According to the Law (lex specialis) passed on 12 November 2005, Radio-television Slovenia is “a public institution of special cultural and national importance performing public service in the field of radio and television activities … with the intention of fulfilling democratic, social and cultural needs of the citizens of the Republic of Slovenia, Slovenians abroad, Slovenian national minorities in Italy, Austria and Hungary, Italian and Hungarian national communities in the Republic of Slovenia …

(Article 1)
The public service of RTV Slovenia has been established by the Republic of Slovenia.

It is the duty of the founder to assure institutional autonomy and editorial independence of RTV Slovenia and provide adequate funding for the fulfilment of public service.

(Article 2)
According to the Law, public service of RTV Slovenia includes creation, preparation, archiving and broadcasting of:

• two national TV channels
• three national radio channels
• radio and TV programmes in the regional centres in Koper and Maribor
• one radio and TV channel for the Italian and Hungarian national community respectively
• radio and TV programmes for the Romany community
• radio and TV programmes for Slovenian national minorities in the neighbouring countries and Slovenian emigrants and workers abroad
• radio and TV programmes for foreign audiences
• teletext and an Internet and mobile portal
• according to the Law, public service of RTV Slovenia includes a special national TV programme for direct broadcasting of the sessions of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia and its working bodies, and the sessions of the National Council.

http://www.rtvslo.si/modload.php?&c_mod=static&c_menu=1048034034

About Artesia

Artesia is a start-up company, focusing on user communities. We are located in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia (European Union).

We firmly believe that in the inter-connected business world of today and tomorrow, the successful companies will be the ones that will create added-value communities of their customers, employees and business partners, using the best tools to accomplish that - from classic forum systems via wiki to virtual worlds.

We use our own methodology to build and enhance user communities and define added value for community members and the company. MMC is Artesia’s first large Second Life project, but they are also involved with Metanomics, Second Life’s premier TV show, where they help prof. Robert Bloomfield (SL Beyers Sellers), the host, with the management of Metanomics’ thriving community.

Link: http://www.artesia.si/english

About Beta Technologies

Beta Technologies is a joint-venture of two companies, Beta Technologies, Lda., headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal (EU) and Full House Productions Inc. in New York (USA).

The joint-venture explores the development of institutional virtual presences in three-dimensional environments like Second Life and has customers all around the world.

As a full service provider, Beta Technologies’ workforce is multinational, spreading across several continents, and has a team of skilled specialist professionals including consultants, project managers, architects, urban planners, graphical designers, interior designers, Web designers, 3D modelers, animators, programmers, system administrators, sound and video engineers, movie directors, and multimedia producers.

Beta Technologies specializes in complex virtual environments that are challenging either from an architectonical, technological, or cultural point of view — adapting the existing virtual world technology to better fit a corporate image, appealing to the overall users of virtual worlds, as well as closely reflecting a company’s branding and mission.

http://betatechnologies.info/

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.

“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

As sponsors of the 5th SOPCOM Conference, to be held on September 5th, 2007 at the Gualtar Campus of the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal, Beta Technologies will be present to hold there a one-day workshop on Second Life.

To our customers and colleagues we apologise for any lack of communication during this day, and kindly suggest that any prioritary requests should be forwarded to Jeff Bush (Jeff Brooks in Second Life) in New York.

Individually and as a team, Beta Technologies has always encouraged and supported previous issues of the SLCC, from helping out with overall promotion and in-world events, as well as being responsible for building the central auditorium for SLCC 2006, so it’s not surprising that this year we opted for direct sponsorship of the event. We wish the organisation of SLCC ‘07 a huge success and hope that all attendees have a great time in Chicago attending to the plethora of excellent speakers on so many different tracks.

This event will feature about a hundred companies and organisations, invited from among Portugal’s most innovative technology leaders in the market, and is integrated in the many events organised during Portugal’s presidency of the European Union, which features technology, research and development, as some of the key elements.

We apologise to all our customers and partners for some delays in any eventual contacts during these three days. As usual, Jeff Bush in New York will be available during this period, and all email sent to info@betatechnologies.info will always be the preferred way to contact all the team.

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.

António Costa also showed his own avatar to the audience of a discussion meeting on creativity and technology (two of the leading points of his campaign programme) with the presence of the Minister for Science and Technology, Mariano Gago.

While today the candidate did not have enough time to spend some time in-world to talk to the many visitors who approached the virtual headquarters, more events are expected to be launched during the campaign’s last week, including some live concerts, which will be announced soon.

The headquarters were opened to visitors after the official announcement and are located on the mainland.

Official press release: http://www.unirlisboa.com/data/main.php?pag=000&id=NOT468f9e262e656

Coverage on the campaign support blog: http://costadocastelo.blogspot.com/2007/07/muito-frente.html

National coverage on the launch: Diário de Notícias, Expresso Online

This structure was designed by Lordfly Digeridoo and Moon Adamant. More images are available here.