Market Leader Live classes take place online in English City, where students are able to experience business scenarios in a way that is not possible in a classroom environment, bringing detailed case studies to life in a 3D world – be it negotiating in the boardroom, pitching for an advertising agency, or research and development for a fashion house.

LanguageLab.com, a client of Beta Technologies since our very beginning, announced today a partnership with the renowned company Pearson Education, a sister company of Pearson and part of the group that includes the Penguin book publishing company and the Financial Times newspaper. Pearson Education produces books and learning tools to help people around the world to grow their knowledge, develop their skills and realise their potential.

The new partnership will explore together the transformation of Pearson’s leading textbook-based learning, the bestselling Market Leader Business English series, into a highly interactive environment where students of Business English will be immersed in the very same situations they are preparing for, tutored by qualified teachers in a business-friendly virtual world setting.

Beta Technologies has been developing and restructuring LanguageLab.com’s English City in a very long-term project which comprises several stages and will provide LanguageLab.com with its own, personalised Second Life Viewer for the best possible experience.

This is part of Beta Technologies ongoing effort to promote virtual worlds on public, professional, and academic conferences.

As part of the very long project of creating a visual representation of the city of Lisbon in 1755, just before the earthquake destroyed it, Beta Technologies was asked to provide a promotional video of the work done so far, which is going to be used on the many international scientific conferences where the current work in progress has been shown. The above machinima was produced by our US team in New York and Connecticut, and editing and post-production done by our US partners, specialists in TV documentary production.

For more information on the video, please consult the official website for the “City and Spectacle” project.

Virtual recreation of historical cities is an emergent area in historical research, allowing an innovative approach to the study and representation of cultural heritage. Currently, virtual worlds replace the classic instruments of 3D modelling, allowing users to interact in a common environment where model building is easy. These characteristics foster coordination between researchers when confirming historical hypotheses, allowing the object of study to be dynamically changed. The application of the virtual language to historical research thus translates into a laboratory model that enables and expands the traditional context of historical research. This new approach allows testing, in an interactive three-dimensional representation, of a long research path in city history, and provides, to an audience simultaneously specialised and enlarged, an immersive experience in a lost urban reality.

Participants in this workshop include Bernard Frischer, Director of the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory, University of Virginia and scientific coordinator of the pioneer project Rome Reborn, a virtual recreation of Classic Rome; Richard Beacham, Director of King’s Visualisation Lab, King’s College London, an institution focused on application of the virtual language to historical research; Drew Baker, researcher and one of the founders of this institution; Ana Cristina Leite, Director of Lisbon’s City Museum (under confirmation); António Filipe Pimentel, Director of the Portuguese National Museum of Ancient Art; Alexandra Gago da Câmara, researcher of CHAIA; Cristina Gouveia, representantive of the company YDreams – specialists in interactive technologies; Helena Murteira, researcher of CHAIA; José Sarmento de Matos, specialist in Lisbon studies and scientific coordinator of the Cultural Itineraries of the Tourism Association of Lisbon; Luís Sequeira, representantive of the company Beta Technologies – Architects of the Virtual World; Paulo Rodrigues, researcher of CHAIA; and Vítor Cóias, Director of GECoRPA – Group of companies providing conservation and restoration of architecture heritage

For more informations, please contact Paulo Rodrigues via e-mail virtualcities.chaia@gmail.com.

View complete programme

For a list of speakers and the new schedules, please take a look at the “Event Calendar” option on Above the Fold’s blog.

Namssor Daguerre’s Second Skin Labs is one of the oldest brands in Second Life, having sold their first realistic, professional-looking skins as early as March 2004, and being in business since then.

In late 2005, Namssor developed an unique selection method that allowed buyers to select among millions of possible combinations of skin details, so that they could create their personal style.

Now Namssor is opening up a new shop on the Beta Business Park. Designed by Beta Technologies’ Creative Director, Moon Adamant, the new shop is a modern structure, combining architectural prowess with a functional design, taking into account that avatars shop differently than human beings.

Today was held the Grand Opening for Namssor’s new shop, an event organised by the Beta Business Park’s management team.

The Copenhagen Expo, lead by Peter Lundquist (Paolo Rousselot in SL) will feature live streaming of events from Copenhagen with question and answer sessions organized by OneClimate.net, and exhibits in several locations around Second Life. The U.N. conference runs Dec. 7-14,with the goal of trying to stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to prevent catastrophic climate changes.

Applications for climate-friendly business exhibitors at are being taken through Dec. 1. But space is limited. The expo will be open from Dec. 7-18.

(reposted from the Beta Business Park official website)

The Portuguese National Post Service, CTT — Correios de Portugal, have launched their virtual presence in Second Life® today. Their region, dubbed World in Touch, is CTT’s latest project using a vast variety of technological innovations in order to keep in touch with their clients.

Developed by Beta Technologies, CTT’s virtual presence includes a virtual mobile phone from CTT’s daughter company, Phone-IX, a mobile operator in Portugal. The virtual mbile phone will allow two-way text messaging with users in Second Life and real life; it also includes some useful tools as “applets” installed on the virtual phone.

The region “World In Touch” is bilingual (Portuguese and English) and will allow visitors to get a glimpse of CTT’s products and services, spread across six different areas — “The World of CTT”, “World of Philately”, “World of Ecology”, “World of Citizenship”, “Imagination World” and “World of Fun”.

The visitors will land on a central spot, “The World Starts Here” where they are greeted by a message welcoming them, and from where they are able to move to any of the other spots.The  ”World of CTT” features a two-storey building with promotions of CTT products, information about CTT’s services, a visual calculator for parcel costs around the world, and the ability to get a Phone-IX Virtual Mobile Phone HUD.

The “World of Citizenship” completes the information on several panels and will feature information and notices on CTT’s many events. This area will also be open to third-party entities wishing to promote in-world events about citizenship, social issues, or non-profit initiatives.

The “World of Philately” is a building with two floors; on the ground floor, visitors can see and buy (in the real world) stamp collections or philatelic books (another collectable item). These can be browsed inside Second Life and the physical items delivered anywhere in the world — one of the first in-world eCommerce solutions for real items being sold inside Second Life, with L$, and delivered, free of charge, anywhere in the real word.

The “World of Ecology” has two parts. One is a 3D representation of the only cork stamp in the world, which was issued by CTT in November 2007. This representation will allow visitors to “walk inside” the elements depicted on the original stamp. The other part is a labyrinth with a leisure area.

The “World of Imagination” is designed to be a space for simulating, creating, and sharing concepts and innovative solutions, directly or indirectly related to stamps and the postal service, as well as do exhibitions and host contests.

The last area is “World of Fun”, which features an auditorium and some meeting rooms.

CTT/World in Touch also has a companion site, http://worldintouch.sl/. Second Life users can take snapshots inside Second Life and send them by email, using the built-in functions for that, to images@worldintouch.sl. This will allow SL snapshots to be embedded into a postcard or a stamp — a real stamp — which will be printed out and delivered to the users’ home. (Stamps will only be valid for Portugal).

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Beta Technologies provided most of the buildings, and all application development for this project, but the island is staffed independently.

Official press release in Portuguese and English.

World in Touch also has a Facebook page.

Video above created by Halden Beaumont for CTT.

Today, Beta Business Park becomes a Metanomics event partner! This means you can enjoy and participate in the weekly Metanomics broadcast from the comfort of the B2P Auditorium. We’ll be connected to the other locations and the main studio by chatbridge.

Join us at 12pm today and every Wednesday!