I've just been playing with Vivaty a new 3D virtual world that runs from within your web browser with only a minimal download (4.5Mb).
The strange thing about it though is that it runs from within Facebook!
Despite this it's quite good and quite easy to set up and customise. You can also easily add pictures or videos to your own personal room. Within a few mins I had managed to add a TV screen to my room and configure it to play a video from my YouTube channel.
Here's my avatar watching me doing a video presentation!Once you've downloaded the 4.5Mb program and installed it, you simply log into your face book account and your room appears at the bottom of your profile page and you just click to enter the room.
There are also a selection of other rooms that you can visit if you want to meet other people to chat with.
Vivaty certainly doesn't have the rich graphics and degree of customisation that you can get from something like Second Life, but it is a much smaller download, runs in your browser (Internet Explorer only - Sorry MAC only users!) and or use with EFL ESL students, it is much safer (that's if you trust Facebook to protect your privacy!).For me though, the strongest thing in its favour is the potential to watch, share and chat about videos whilst in a simple online environment.
Related links:
- Google's Lively Competitor with Second Life?
- 3B Village 3D browser
- Machinima with Moviestorm
- Looking at There.com
- Materials design for Virtual Worlds
- Immersive Image Environments
- Teaching Speaking in Second Life
- Creating multimedia stories
Nik Peachey
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