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Rare Tour of Sun Microsystems' "Wonderland"

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the back-to-dumb-terminals dept.

Surinder Kahai writes "Last week I had the rare opportunity to see an emerging virtual world called Wonderland, the product of an open source project, Project Wonderland, sponsored by Sun Microsystems. The tour was given by Nicole Yankelovich, Principal Investigator of the Collaborative Environments Project at Sun Microsystems. Some of the key aspects of this dynamic virtual world are voice communication with distance attenuation, the ability to join a Wonderland meeting through a regular phone if a computer is not handy, and the sharing of applications such as Open Office. Wonderland is currently being used by educational facilities and can be used by other organizations for virtual collaboration. Since the project is an Open Source project, users can tweak the tools available to suit their particular purpose."

7 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. oh joy by ILuvRamen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You know, people might have said this was a ridiculous waste of time a couple years ago cuz you might as well just do it all in real life. But these days if you can have a Stargate convention in a virtual world without having to spend $700 on travel or having to leave your house or having to put on clothes, that's a good idea :D

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    1. Re:oh joy by vertinox · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You know, people might have said this was a ridiculous waste of time a couple years ago cuz you might as well just do it all in real life.

      Considering the increasing costs of driving and airline tickets, teleconferencing is going to get real popular real soon for many people.

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  2. no way this is going to be used as intended by JazzyMusicMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I work at a software firm and a good chunk of the QA staff and even some product strategy folk can't work LiveMeeting and you're trying to tell me that this is easier and more intuitive to the point of wide adoption?

  3. how many of you by jacquesm · · Score: 5, Funny

    clicked the bio link to see if she's hot and didn't bother to click the article ?

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  4. Re:Why? by benevixit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The big reason for 3d virtual worlds in business is the same as for gaming: They have the potential to be a richer, more natural and engaging user experience. Imagine trying to sustain participants' attention in a 30-minute SMS business meeting.

  5. Re:A Wonder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I take it you just grab whatever hogwash was true when you hated the company and continue to spout it off. Sun actually booked a PROFIT last year, they had revenues up 6.2% (13.87 Billion) and a better than expected 8.5% operating margin.

  6. Re:Why? by lostmongoose · · Score: 4, Funny

    Your use of the word 'almost' has me both disturbed and curious at the same time...