I’ve previously posted about telepresence and technologies that allow us to “be there” for face to face interactions over the internet. The World Heritage Tour is a collection of Quicktime 3d panoramas that allow web users to be “telepresent” and look around at many world heritage sites themselves. As more and more photos and videos are geo-tagged, I hope we will see virtual “web tourism” leveraging technologies like Microsoft Photosynth in the future.

It had been rumored earlier this year that Sony would purchase ClubPenguin for $450 million, and the Disney deal has priced in a similar range. Both companies have been seeking footholds in the online social virtual worlds space. ClubPenguin founder, Lane Merrifield, said the decision to go with Disney over other bidders hinged largely on their ability to bring other value beyond cash to the table.

As soon as my flight out of O’Hare was canceled I used my mobile to call our travel specialist. They quickly found the next available flight (today) and a local hotel for my stay overnight. I was able to quickly check-in with the airline for my new boarding pass and quickly check-in at the hotel since I already had a reservation. The only real trouble was standing in line at the gift shop to buy toothpaste (my luggage is apparently at an undisclosed location somewhere in the ether).

From my hotel room last night I used EVDO to login, do some work, and then hang out virtually with my east coast friends in Second Life and via meebo. I mentioned my waylaid status on twitter and Facebook and got a good night’s sleep.

I woke up this morning to a Facebook message from a coworker lamenting that he hadn’t seen my status last night, as he would have set me up with a friend of his in Chicago to go out and hit the town. While the connection was missed this time, it all speaks to the power of the network. Sometimes life gives you lemons, but it is getting easier and easier to make lemonade.

Most of my week was spent in sessions here in Anaheim, but I did get a chance to pop into Second Life for Chuck Fishman’s talk on media convergence. Dannette CiscoSystems was logged into to broadcast his talk into a breakout in the lounge here at Networkers, but I wanted to participate so I logged in from Laptop Lane.

Experiences like this really drive home the place-shifting enabled by networked virtual worlds like Second Life. The event was held in Second Life, but mediated from the Networkers lounge in Anaheim. I was physically in Anaheim near the lounge, but logged into the event on my laptop in Second Life. I realized while talking to a colleague that it was completely unclear what the word “here” meant.

Second Life seems to be in Gartner’s “trough of disillusionment” at present, and a lot of people are skeptical of the value for collaboration. It’s amazing though, that a single event like today’s can really bring in some converts. When the talk was over, other real-life attendees at Networkers pulled out their laptops and asked how to create accounts.

Second Life may be seeing difficult times in the press, but the paradigm is gaining mindshare.

There’s a new cut of the famous Shift Happens video going around on Youtube. The graphics on this one really help to drive home the points.

Being the occasionally spontaneous person that I am, I came home with a new Wii, extra Wiimote, Wii Sports, Wii Play, and whatever the current Zelda game is called (for good measure). Connecting and configuring could not have been much easier… I plugged it in, answered a few questions with the remote and was off and running. Quickly I realized that my Wii wanted to use my wireless. AES encryption? No problem for the Wii. It even managed to configure the wireless encryption in a friendly way – the first device I’ve ever seen to do that.

After being amazed at the built in weather and news applications I decided to download the Wii Opera Web Browser. This is the killer app. Not only can I load Youtube on my TV, it’s easy to do it. I can fullscreen videos just like on my PC. Facebook? No problem, I can log in and post to my profile. Del.icio.us? Check. Digg? Check. Consolenomad.com? Of course.

I think you get the picture. Opera on the Wii is a real web browser and it’s surprisingly easy to use. As someone that no longer watches cable TV, I consume a lot of online video – from humor to educational lectures. I now have an easy way to do a lot of this viewing directly from my TV with a remote control. If you’re a geek for web video, I highly recommend it.

As for the games, well, I’m just now getting to that part =)

The following quote pretty much says it all:

“Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified U.S. worker … we are complying with the law fully, but our objective is to get this person a green card.”

It seems to me that the system is broken, because the dialogue is broken. The U.S. is largely divided between pro- and anti- immigration/outsourcing camps right now. I think we need an honest and open debate about the state of the U.S. labor market and the needs of U.S. based employers. If we want market forces to drive things, then we need a transparent hiring system unencumbered by these sorts of requisite deceptions. The system as it stands today hurts both U.S. natives and sometimes the visa holders hired in their stead.

If the U.S. wants to be competitive in the long term, there needs to be focus on developing the right kind of talent pool here in the U.S. We’ll have to address our educational system and the reasons that math, science, and engineering don’t appeal to disenchanted college students. We’ll have to address immigration policy – I don’t think we need visa constrained “guest workers”, we need new American citizens from overseas with all the privileges and responsibilities entailed in that title. We need to take an honest look at where we are, where we’re headed, and whether we have the will to do anything about it.

There’s a lot of talk about how web2.0 and web-based technologies are going to enable everyone in all kinds of new ways. I don’t doubt that for a minute, but I think it’s just the beginning. Software is great, but the world is more than software. There’s a generation today growing up accustomed to the easy enablement and rapid improvement that goes hand-in-hand with the whole web paradigm. Applying that web mentality to progress outside the realm of software is going to make for some amazing changes.

I think most of technology community is a little bit myopic right now. It is easy to see how these paradigm shifts are changing software and collaboration. That it is not as easy to see the changes taking place beyond the web will only make them all the more interesting when they are finally apparent.

There’s a lot to be said for having the right attitude.

I saw this today on Facebook and it was too funny not to post here. In general, I’m a big fan of technologies like Microsoft Surface, but it’s good to be able to laugh at ourselves from time to time.

It is often said “never fail alone”… Fortunately, it looks like the United States is failing alongside Liberia and Myanmar in converting to the metric system.

Competitiveness in math and science? Decide for yourself.

Christian posted this concept video on del.icio.us, and I couldn’t resist passing it along. It’s essentially the intersection of nanotech, distributed fabrication, and synthetic/augmented realities. Move over holograms, I want claytronics.

We recently streamed the local Philadelphia band Trouble Everyday into SecondLife, and it was really well received. Will bringing augmented reality to happening music venues be the next big thing?

I’ve already made an account, but didn’t bother downloading the client software to my laptop. The download looked to be over 100meg, so I’m curious whether that means we are dealing with a “pre-distributed” world, or whether dynamically generated content will be possible. Hopefully I’ll find out soon.

Pondering the misery of security lines, delays, flight cancellations and taxiing on the tarmac, I can’t help but think how much more I enjoy my train travel. I don’t have the opportunity, nor take the time to travel long distance by train, but I do occasionally take Amtrak from Philadelphia to New York. The seats are comfortable, there’s power for my laptop, and I can access the internet with my EVDO card. In contrast, it’s a battle to find a power outlet near a chair in the airport.

I can’t help but to daydream about the possibilities of high speed coast-to-coast rail travel. It would be a virtual office on wheels – I could be as accessible as I desire, but no more. Free from interruptions, but still wired in, perhaps I could get some real work done. Noone would make me take my computer out or take my jacket off – they might even allow liquids.

I’m still waiting for the first total reconstruction of a modern city online – all the way down to geo-positioned avatars for my friends and “windows” of real time video where the feeds exist…

Last Friday they announced a partnership to build a virtual world for China with an aim to scale to 150 million avatars, 7 million simultaneous logins, and a billion dollar economy. CRD hopes that such a project could ultimately create 10,000 new jobs in China – many of them virtual.

While many Second Life fans see Entropia as more of a game than a virtual world, there are a number of reasons they may have won out over Second Life, who also bid for the project. China, more than many countries, has concerns about the nature of content its people are exposed to online. Despite their experience protecting the “teen grid”, the openness of Second Life does not lend itself to a “walled garden” scenario as well as a closed platform would.

Additionally, Entropia has been on the forefront of tightly coupling virtual and real economies together – even offering an Entropia debit card allowing real world purchases against virtual cash accounts. Given the run away success of the unregulated QQ economy, China may be seeking to build a more controllable alternative online economy.

At this point it’s just a press release, and there are certainly other contenders such as HiPihi, so it will definitely be interesting to see how it plays out.