The McCluskey Blog

Sweden creates virtual embassy

I first wrote about Second Life & the travel industry in an earlier post - Second Life, the online 'world', already has at least one virtual hotel, a travel guide and some virtual tourists.

Now Sweden has announced it is 'building' a Second Life embassy - the first country to do so.

The embassy will be built and run by the Swedish Institute, which is run by the Swedish Foreign Ministry - which is in turn in charge of promoting tourism to the country.

The Swedish Institute says the embassy will not issue passports and visas, but it will inform users how to get them in the real world. The embassy will be "primarily an information portal for Sweden".

In the longer term the Swedish Institute envisages buying an island in the virtual world to create a home for Swedish companies.

The next Google Earth?

Microsoft Live Labs is currently developing what could be the next Google Earth-style hit - Photosynth.

Photosynth takes a large collection of photos of a place or object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed 3-Dimensional space. This means you can Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle, seamlessly zoom in or out of a photograph whether it’s megapixels or gigapixels in size, and see where pictures were taken in relation to one another.

The technology works by scanning collections of photographs, which can be taken from different cameras at different times. It picks out distinctive features in each image and cross-references them against the other photographs, checking for similarities. This allows it to pinpoint a feature's 3D position and to also calculate where the position of the camera would have been when the picture was taken.

For a full explanation click here, and for a video click here. It looks very cool, and should be ready very soon.

You only live twice

Worried about rising emissions and the many tonnes of carbon you are spewing into the atmosphere? Concerned about terrorism or just bored waiting in security queues?

Fear not - with virtual travel you can travel the world without leaving the comfort of your own home. Well, another world, that is. Starwood Hotels has just opened its newest hotel in Second Life - an online computer game, perhaps better understood as a virtual world. By registering and downloading the game, you can enter the world and create an 'avatar', an in-game representation of yourself.

The hotel, named Aloft, opened on 20th October with a live gig by Ben Folds. In doing this, Starwood became the first company in history to open a new hotel brand inside a virtual world. Aloft hotels open in the real world in 2008.

Other business people are there too - a US PR agency recently held a seminar, an agency named Crayon is opening its only office there, and Reuters has a Second Life newsroom. Publishers are creating a virtual literary scene, and Radio 1 recreated its One Big Weekend gig on a 64 acre virtual island.

The question is - why? Well, with almost a million users, its own economy and a currency known as Linden Dollars (L$), it's fast becoming big business. Residents receive an amount of L$ when they start an account, and can earn more by selling objects or services. Up to L$135million - £269,000 - changes hands every day.

So whether you want to be a pole dancer, see Scottish band The Hedrons, or drive the latest Toyota 4x4, you can do it all in Second Life. But be vigilant while you're there, even utopias are prone to the odd crime wave. Best to go with a virtual tour guide.

Oh, and the next must-see event in Second Life? Aloft's Halloween party on October 31st of course.