Springfield Technical Community College is poised to launch a venture into a wholly online world. Project organizers will unveil their creation to hundreds of peers from community colleges across the nation Tuesday at a conference in Austin, Texas.

The project, two years in the making, utilizes a virtual island within a computer-generated world on a Web site known as Second Life. The National Center for Telecommunications Technologies, a division of the college, purchased a virtual “16-acre” island within Second Life earlier this year for $1,200 in very real cash.” (more…)

If women are still struggling for power in the tech world, maybe we should turn to the virtual world for guidance. Before the evening came to an end, I caught up with Philip Rosedale (who Pattie — and a few others — forgivably mistook for Chris DeWolfe, the CEO and co-founder of MySpace). Rosedale, who is chairman of Linden Lab and the father of Second Life, said that at secondlife.com, a 3-D online world created by its residents, women rule society in a way that parallels the Victorian age (as rulers of their households, women of that earlier era coordinated the social events where alliances were created between families, businesses, etc.). (more…)

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We’ve all heard the warnings: addiction, isolation, a waste of time. But some 50 million people log on to online role-playing games like The Sims and Second Life—and many of them never log off. The makers of a new documentary called “Second Skin,” which hits theaters in September, followed seven hard-core gamers to find out why. Victor Piñeiro, the film’s producer, spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Jessica Bennett:

It all started with a teacher friend who got so into Star Wars Galaxy that he was leading a double life. He’d run home from work during lunch, 10 blocks, to check what was going on inside the game. He was staying up all night and would show up to class with bags under his eyes. From the outside it looked crazy. But from the inside it was kind of amazing. He’d become the mayor of his town and was leading hundreds of people. (more…)

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The British Computer Society has launched an e-learning specialist group in the Second Life virtual world.

The British Computer Society said the specialist group will hold regular meetings in Second Life and other virtual worlds.

“E-learning provides a solution for those who cannot access colleges and schools,” said the British Computer Society (BCS).

“Employers are also embracing the technology that allows their employees to develop additional skills without leaving the workplace,” it added. (more…)

The U.S. government recently denied a green card application by a well-known Second Life artist, declaring her two-year marriage to an American citizen to be fraudulent. The news isn’t all bad for her, though — the denial gives her an opportunity to appeal and prove that the marriage was legitimate.

However, she says she’s growing weary of trying to untangle the red tape, and is preparing for the probability that she’ll be forced to abandon her adopted home in America.

Irena Morris, known in Second Life as “Eshi Otawara,” married an American citizen who died while her application for residency was still in progress. A provision in U.S. immigration law called the “widow’s penalty” says that, in that situation, an alien’s green card application should be rejected if the marriage lasted less than two years. The Morrises were married one year and 10 months when Glenn Morris died suddenly. (more…)

The most financially successful virtual worlds are not 3D and sophisticated, but flat and appealing to younger audiences. Think Neopets, Webkinz, Club Penguin and Runescape, not Second Life.

Habbo, whose graphics are reminiscent of the Code Monkeys cartoon and 8-bit 80s video games, announced today that its 100-millionth avatar had been created. That does not translate as 100m active members - the service had 10.3m unique visitors in May, according to comScore - but it is still an impressive indication of the growth of the service since its launch in Finland eight years ago. (more…)