Birmingham: Go to Second Life to Use Google Maps to Explore City
If I understand correctly, that’s what visitors are asked to do when visiting the new Birmingham (UK) island that will debut in Second Life tomorrow.
Although several other cities have a presence in Second Life, Birmingham Island’s showpiece attraction, b-scape, is the first to integrate other online applications such as Google Maps, video and RSS feeds to provide a whole new layer of collaboration.
b-scape is effectively a 3-D information area centred around an interactive screen, which focuses on a map of Birmingham’s physical city centre. It allows visitors to experience the city via an avatar (a virtual self), which are then able to interact and collaborate with other avatars in Second Life and control b-scape. Through the avatar, the user can navigate around Birmingham using Google Maps technology and discover information about key buildings in the city centre, play videos and access RSS data. Importantly, b-scape can be experienced collectively by many individuals at the same time, making it an ideal virtual environment for meetings and training sessions.
Sounds a bit like stepped through the looking glass to step through the looking glass…
