Grand Opening of Virtual Ability Island, in Second Life

VIRTUAL ABILITY ISLAND GRAND OPENING!

Join us on Saturday, August 16th at 1 PM SLT to celebrate the Grand Opening of Virtual Ability Island.
The island was developed with a new resident orientation center, advanced tutorials, and training facilities for individuals with disabilities or chronic health conditions. The entire island is accessibility-friendly for new and experienced residents and will provide ongoing classes for people who want to search for and evaluate health information. Funding came through an initial grant from the National Library of Medicine to the Alliance Library System and is sustained by the generosity of individual contributors to Virtual Ability, Inc. We are excited to present this important resource to members of the Second Life community!

Location: Virtual Ability Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/128/128/23
Contact Carolina Keats or Eme Capalini, inworld, for more information.

–
Carol Perryman MSLIS
TRLN Doctoral Fellow
School of Information & Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research page: http://tinyurl.com/ymljs5

An unambiguous gesture of Olympic spirit and friendship: a handshake. Join in, and watch it circle the globe

As the Beijing Olympics begin, the world looks on with mixed emotions. It's a moment which should bring us closer together, and Chinese citizens deserve their excitement -- but the Chinese government still hasn't opened meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama, or changed its stance on Burma, Darfur and other pressing issues.

Even worse, extremists in China are promoting the view that Olympic activism like ours is anti-Chinese. We can't stay silent, but we also can't let our efforts be abused to divide people. So what can we do? The answer comes from the Dalai Lama himself, in an unambiguous gesture of Olympic spirit and friendship: a handshake.

It began in London, passed hand to hand by thousands of us -- now the handshake has gone online, and is criss-crossing the globe on its way to Beijing. All of us can join, Chinese and non-Chinese, and it comes with a promise: to hold ALL our governments accountable where they fall short, in Tibet, Iraq, Burma or beyond. We'll deliver our message in a bold media campaign in Hong Kong and around the world: Click below to see how the Olympic handshake started, sign up to join in, and watch it circle the globe --

http://www.avaaz.org/en/handshake

The worldwide outcry has produced a little progress, but much resistance from Chinese officials so far. If we are to see advances not setbacks after the Games, we need to show both that our voices will never fall silent, and that our challenge is a positive one.

We have one last chance to reclaim the spirit of the Olympics, with the message of friendship and dialogue we share with the Dalai Lama. The more people join the global handshake, the more powerful our message will be when it hits the Chinese and international media. So let's forward this email on, encouraging everyone to join in. "One World, One Dream" is an ideal that's bigger than the Olympics -- it's time for citizens around the world to take it back.

With hope and respect,

Paul, Ricken, Ben, Milena, Graziela, Iain, Pascal, Veronique and the whole Avaaz team

PS For a report on Avaaz's campaigning so far, see:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/report_back_2

In a representative survey of us from all over the world, 92% of respondents recommended we pursue this handshake instead of the often-suggested boycott -- there's a strong consensus that this is the way to get our message across right now.

For more about the Dalai Lama's support for the Olympics and positions on Tibet and China, see:
http://www.dalailama.com/news.229.htm
and:
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/05/chinese-student-interviewing-the-dalai-lama/



---------
ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Washington DC, and Geneva.

Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns.

Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages!

Teleporting to Laps Grid (OpenSim) from Abandoned Land (Second Life beta grid )

Teleporting from Abandoned Land Linden Lab beta grid to Laps Grid

Success !!!

Laps Grid in Second Life beta grid

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Open_Grid_Public_Beta

Potete visitare LapsGrid scaricando uno degli

Open Grid Public Beta/Open Grid Beta Viewers

e utilizzando la seguente riga:

http://mimirgrid.dyndns.org:9000

Laps Grid in Second Life beta grid

Second Life for eHealth: Prospects for the Use of 3-D Virtual Worlds in Clinical Psychology

A Second Life for eHealth: Prospects for the Use of 3-D Virtual Worlds in Clinical Psychology

Alessandra Gorini^1,2, MSc; Andrea Gaggioli^1,3, PhD; Cinzia Vigna¹; Giuseppe Riva^1,3, PhD

http://www.jmir.org/2008/3/e21/

¹Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy
²Research Institute Brain and Behaviour, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
³Psychology Department, Catholic University of Milan, Milan, Italy

Corresponding Author:

Alessandra Gorini, MSc

Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab
Istituto Auxologico Italiano
Via Pelizza da Volpedo, 41
20149 Milan
Italy
Phone: +39 02 619112892
Fax: +39 02 619112892
Email: alessandra.gorini [at] gmail.comalessandra.gorini [at] gmail.com

---

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present paper is to describe the role played by three-dimensional (3-D) virtual worlds in eHealth applications, addressing some potential advantages and issues related to the use of this emerging medium in clinical practice. Due to the enormous diffusion of the World Wide Web (WWW), telepsychology, and telehealth in general, have become accepted and validated methods for the treatment of many different health care concerns. The introduction of the Web 2.0 has facilitated the development of new forms of collaborative interaction between multiple users based on 3-D virtual worlds. This paper describes the development and implementation of a form of tailored immersive e-therapy called p-health whose key factor is interreality, that is, the creation of a hybrid augmented experience merging physical and virtual worlds. We suggest that compared with conventional telehealth applications such as emails, chat, and videoconferences, the interaction between real and 3-D virtual worlds may convey greater feelings of presence, facilitate the clinical communication process, positively influence group processes and cohesiveness in group-based therapies, and foster higher levels of interpersonal trust between therapists and patients. However, challenges related to the potentially addictive nature of such virtual worlds and questions related to privacy and personal safety will also be discussed.

(J Med Internet Res 2008;10(3):e21)
doi:10.2196/jmir.1029

KEYWORDS

3-D virtual worlds; virtual reality; eHealth; p-health; Second Life

Social Networking Wars (da Current TV, in Italiano)

Un stupendo video dalla versione italiana di Current TV. Un ragazzo, come molti altri al giorno d'oggi. è assediato dai social network. Da notare le verità *ASSOLUTE* dette da Tom di Myspace.

Semplicemente stupendo.

Aggiunto: 28 luglio 2008

Da: silentman

Openlife Founders and Ethics in Opensource Grids (vs Lindens) and my Openlife Feed-Back

I just posted this message here:

http://www.openlifegrid.com/LearningCenter/Forums/tabid/54/forumid/3/postid/2269/scope/posts/Default.aspx

Hello, I was an Openlife Founder, since 02/15/2008, at least untill this yesterday message, I got from OpenlifeGrid.com

Your user account at Openlife Grid has been recently updated to restrict access to the following Openlife Role:

Role: Foundation Resident
Description: Openlife Foundation Resident Subscription.
These residents are Pioneers of the Openlife Grid owning a region of the mainland in the Foundation Resident Land Release.

Thank you, we appreciate your support...
Openlife Grid

What does it mean? I asked...

You probably received this email, as you are no longer hold a region in world. So it takes your Foundation Resident Status away...

That was the answer.

It's true! One month ago I paid my last 75$ (90+45+75 = 210$, now for a little, very little more, you become a true founder - for the same period !)

and I ABANDONED my region, Coffee/Campanella.

Yes, so, I didn't rent it, I didn't sell it. I consider myself someone that wanted to contribute to the foundation of an opensource grid, so...

My feed-back: Months of silence

About the big promises of the beguinning, about a lot of very good intentions expressed in so many posts on this forums (on how to use the grid, on how to share experiences, on how to let people walk, run, fly, sail too, from region to region), about the continuously updating of the servers, the openlifegrid.com web server included, (btw I tried 3 times to login here, today, before to success)

so about, also, how, when, and where to pay tiers!

No more mails, as at the beguinning, just some messages somewhere, or in the chat.

So

no mind if the grid was down, expecially when you'd like to show it to friends you spammed about in forums, blogs and emails (meantime, Lindens travel from LL to IBM opensource grid, maybe have they to book their visit some weeks before?)

no mind if, as a founder, I contributed, as many, many, many other to buy expensive hardware and pay hours and hours of (silent) work of the Openlifegrid.com

no mind if also when I wrote about my difficulty to continue to support this grid that silent way, I didn't got any answer

no mind it the same happened when I decided to definitely abandon my region

no mind if now the same region is sold for a very smaller amount, and tiers too are smaller than before

no mind of a lot of other little details

No mind.

But, the meaning of the word founder (I'm not anglophone, but I have some dictionaries) should be 'a guy that contributed to found, at the beguinning, now and later in the future - the time is past)

So, what minds is that I'm very hurted that a short message can delete me as .. such!

If this is the ethics of an opensource grid, I'm very sorry that this could happen. Since I still believe to the strong role of the Open Source (and LL too, as everyone can read on their blogs :D )

So

my feed-back is of a great enthusiasm, I found here, a great respect for the openlifegrid.com creator and owner, and, also, an increasing big flop

of all of this.

Maybe the openlife.com business is very fine, increasing and ok.

I'm not interested on.

So, maybe it's also better that my foundership will be soon forgotten. For ME, I mean.

Well, good bye to all people here :))

(I'll post this message on my 2 readers blog, http://www.centromimir.com )

Forgive my poor English :)

Bye :))))))))

-------------------------------------
Just an update: I'm reading today, August 5, 2008

• OL more buggy than ever??Only for me ?? - Bodhi Moo (Germany)
  

HealthMap un nuovo servizio interattivo disponibile su Internet che mostra la diffusione delle epidemie

Google lancia HealthMap

http://www.corriere.it/salute/08_luglio_14/

Il nuovo servizio interattivo disponibile su Internet mostra la diffusione delle epidemie

La«cartina» di HealtMap (http://www.healthmap.org)

WASHINGTON - Dopo Google Map, arriva HealthMap un nuovo servizio interattivo disponibile su Internet che mostra la diffusione delle epidemie. Si tratta di una mappa interattiva, creata da Google e da un gruppo di ricercatori del Boston Children's Hospital e dell'Università di Harvard. Il sistema è accessibile a tutti, è gratuito ed è stato descritto sulla prestigiosa rivista scientifica «opena access» Plos Medicine. HealthMap è stato creato con lo scopo di monitorare le emergenze e facilitarne la gestione.

LE FONTI - Il sistema raccoglie i dati da 14 fonti (che riassumono informazioni da più di 20 mila siti) ed è in contatto diretto con l'Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità (Oms). La ricerca può essere effettuata per malattia, oppure per sintomo e aiutandosi con alcune parole chiave. Un software provvede anche ad eliminare automaticamente gli articoli con informazioni i ridondanti.

UTILITÀ- «Il Web può giocare un ruolo molto importante nella scoperta di nuove epidemie o nel monitoraggio di quelle già in corso», ha detto John Brownstein, responsabile del progetto. «Molte informazioni utili - ha continuato - possono essere ricavate dalla rete grazie a siti governativi, ma anche forum e blog». Da un primo utilizzo è risultato evidente come la frequenza di dati riguardanti alcune malattie sia direttamente proporzionale a una situazione economica instabile. Si sta cercando ora di migliorare il sistema in termini di copertura geografica, che per il momento arriva solo a livello di regione e stato. Il motore, inoltre, monitora e organizza i dati in tempo reale anche in zone geografiche poco coperte dai sistemi sanitari locali. Sarà però necessario sviluppare contatti con persone residenti nei luoghi meno 'nominatì in Rete, soprattutto in Africa e Sud America.

HealthMap In the News:

• Drexler M (2008) Safety Net. The Journal of Life Sciences.


• Hom K (2007) Before Traveling, You May Want a Checkup. Washington Post.


• Larkin M (2007) Technology and public health: Healthmap tracks global diseases. Lancet Infect Dis 7: 91. (Available only by subscription to Lancet.)


• Holden C (2006) Netwatch: Diseases on the move. Science 314: 1363d.


• Captain S. (2006) Get your daily plague forecast. Wired News


• Pegg M. Google Maps Mania blog
  

About HealthMap

HealthMap brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health. This freely available Web site integrates outbreak data of varying reliability, ranging from news sources (such as Google News) to curated personal accounts (such as ProMED) to validated official alerts (such as World Health Organization). Through an automated text processing system, the data is aggregated by disease and displayed by location for user-friendly access to the original alert. HealthMap provides a jumping-off point for real-time information on emerging infectious diseases and has particular interest for public health officials and international travelers.

HealthMap Publications

• Freifeld CC, Mandl KD, Reis BY, Brownstein JS (2007) HealthMap: Global infectious disease monitoring through automated classification and visualization of Internet media reports. J Am Med Inform Assoc. (Full text available by subscription only.)


• Brownstein JS, Freifeld CC (2007) HealthMap: the development of automated real-time internet surveillance for epidemic intelligence. Euro Surveill 12: E071129 071125.


• Brownstein JS, Freifeld CC, Reis BY, Mandl KD (2007) HealthMap: Internet-based emerging infectious disease intelligence. In: Institute of Medicine, editor. Infectious Disease Surveillance and Detection: Assessing the Challenges - Finding Solutions. Washington, DC. pp. 183-204.
  

HealthMap Presentations

Georeferencing Workshop at Harvard, March 21st 2008. View John's presentation in video format.
Forum One event Global Health and the Internet: How Can We Save More Lives? on Tuesday, November 13th 2007 (slides).
Institute of Medicine's workshop on Infectious Disease Surveillance and Detection December 12 - 13, 2006. View slides from John's presentation, in PDF format.