US Learning Network Meeting (NVS) and Web 3D

The US Learning Network meeting was interesting. A variety of people attended from various NVS divisions. Even G. Aggarwal was there via TC !
I was struck that even though these training functions are all much more established then us, they have not embraced new technologies for the most part. One attendee reported on attending a conference where they learned about new technolgies such as interactive feedback systems. I was surprised that no one else in the audience besides me seemed to have any knowledge or experience with these systems! Similarly, they seemed low tech in the area of wikis, blogs, podcasting, etc but we are not much further ahead...

G. Bilsky was invited to discuss Web 3D. It was really interesting to see the NVS investment in this area. We actually own an island in Second Life. It's a private island at the moment so the public can not see it but it allows "us" to test things out. Part of it may go public some day but the discussion was also around using the private 3D meeting environment for internal educational activities. I assume you all have some knowledge of Second Life? The concept of building a virtual version of yourself (an avatar) and interacting with others in this 3D virtual environment. I personally have not tried it yet but have definitely heard a bit about it. It is really interesting how there is a defined currency system that is real and there is established conversion between "Linden dollars" and US dollars. Apparently there are a lot of people who work virtual jobs in Second Life, get paid in Linden dollars and then convert it back to US dollars.
Back to NVS - we have an island - it is 256 meters by 256 meters. There are apparently some buildings and stuff there already - but plenty of room to do more. They are seeking internal partners who recognize the potential and wish to grow with it as it expands. Maybe something for us to keep an eye on. Personally I think we have plenty to do with our existing elearning aspirations but this Web 3D stuff is really cool. The coolness factor is probably enough to ensure some good level of success if one were to implement it for our purposes.
Thoughts? Is anyone in the EO an existing Second Life user?

Blogging....

It is quite interesting who reads these blogs. Did any EO people read lately and notice the comments under the "faster, better, cheaper" blog entry? Someone named Gene asked a question - and then Thiagi himself appears to have responded.
Also note how Tony Karrer had responded after the e-learning entry (However, I deleted his post since it did not add anything to the discussion).
They must both be using del.icio.us or a similar social bookmarking tool to keep tabs on what people say about them on the web.

It has been awhile since my last blog entry but I am still in favor of using this tool. However, I don't really like the emailed subscription service that you all seemed to want. So I think I will unsubscribe you all and you will have to actually come to my blog if you are interested in these types of topics (or use RSS feed to keep track - maybe this is a test for RR).

And here's a teaser - my next entry will be about Web 3D - Second Life environments and the like. At the NVS Learning Network meeting in EH, one of the speakers was an "information technology architect" at NVS who discussed our efforts in this area.