Most of my exploration of virtual worlds for engineering has been in Second Life and OpenSim. However, this year I have been looking more at Unity3D. Engineers are conservative and seem to dismiss virtual worlds like Second Life and OpenSim. Even though these programs are 3D modeling tools, they don't resemble nor do they use [...]
Archive for the ‘Public Works in the Metaverse’ Category
Using Unity3D to Simulate a City
August 14th, 2010 
Pam Broviak 
Posted in CAD, Civil Engineering, Development, GIS, Public Works, Public Works in the Metaverse 
Tags: CAD, city, engineering, GIS, planning, simulation, Unity3D, visualization 
1 Comment »Virtual Worlds: The Next Level of Government
July 18th, 2010 Pam Broviak In small numbers, people can usually self-govern themselves. But as the number of people in a group grows, better control is needed. So history has shown anytime a large number of people start hanging out in a particular place, a government structure is formed. In our world today, we have nations which then have further [...]
A Brave New Grid – Post 2: The Virtual Plan
March 28th, 2010 Pam Broviak In the first post of this series, I explained my decision about moving my efforts related to building government/public works/engineering sites in virtual worlds from Second Life to OpenSim. And I invited anyone interested to read along or visit as I make this move. From here on out, I will continue to write about the [...]
A Critical Lesson from the Gaming World
March 23rd, 2010 Pam Broviak The momentum for using games in a workplace environment seems to be building. The topic is showing up in conference programs, blogs, forums, and now in a TEDTalk. People are realizing what the game industry figured out long ago – it’s possible to create something that consistently encourages and trains people to perform specific tasks [...]
Posted in Government in the Metaverse, Public Works in Second Life, Public Works in the Metaverse Tags: gaming, McGonigal, serious games, World of Warcraft Comments OffAugmented Reality for Public Works
March 19th, 2010 Pam Broviak Augmented reality (AR) has been gaining ground over the last couple years—most likely as a result of an increasing number of applications incorporating AR and an increase in the capabilities of supporting technology. But while the advances have been useful and impressive, I have not seen much related to the public works industry. This surprises [...]
A Brave New Grid – The Decision
March 14th, 2010 Pam Broviak Last month I decided to close down the Public Works Group island in Second Life. Over the last 2 1/2 years, the island allowed many people the opportunity to see and explore how virtual worlds could enhance the public works industry. The site also provided a place for people to meet and experience virtual worlds [...]
