Second Life at FIT, some links and events

SUNY in SL
Some info from Jim Greenberg of SUNY Oneonta:

Tomorrow (December 7) at 8 pm EST, 5 pm SLT the last of SUNY Oneonta’s concerts for the fall term in SL will be held.  This one is a fashion show. Original designs by students in our Fashion program.  Original music by students in Music program. Animations and build done by students in Computer Art and coordination and production done by students in Music Industry. 

And Jim’s comment: In all my years here I have never used a tool (Second Life) so good at allowing for such a cross discipline collaborative effort.

Join us if you can… SLURL:
 http://slurl.com/secondlife/Monroe%20CC%202/43/18/21/

Some Recent News about Fashion and Education in SL
Read about Fashion Research Institute’s PLM solution for virtual reality (a collaboration with IBM) This “specifically addresses the industry’s unique needs, cutting time to market. Designers will be able to access 3-D tools from within SL or Open Sim to create their fashion product. The 3-D models of the design can be shown in a virtual showroom.  Everyone who has a share in the product will be available to review the design: product managers, designers, design directors, merchandizers, costers, executives, sales staff and show room managers.  After the creative vision has been finalized, factory specifications are created that will enable the item to be manufactured in real life.“

“Drawing Clothes and Inspiration from SL to Real Life and Back”

This just aired on CNBC tonight (includes a short interview with a fashion designer in SL making $85,000 this year).

And a brand new article from NBC News, “Professors Learn in Virtual World.”

And here’s an interesting link to an interesting about Virtual Worlds that came in from Sandy Krasovec (thanks Sandy!).

SL at FIT
We are working on posting a video of tuesday’s SL event at FIT that IT kindly made for us. We hope to have that available later this week.

Given the large turnout at FIT for the two presentations about fashion, design and business in Second Life, it is clear FIT faculty are interested and excited about virtual reality. Many faculty emailed or spoke to me afterwards, interested in learning more, getting an avatar in SL, and perhaps teaching something their respective disciplines in Second Life.

I think that the presentations demonstrated how virtual reality will soon be an inevitable part of doing business and socializing in the 21st century. As Nyla said, virtual reality is the next telephone. Great metaphor!

I learned so much listening to our three presenters, who discussed Second Life from three very distinct viewpoints — Shenlei, who has a side business in reproduction Victorian clothing in SL but also has several beautiful islands ideal for collaborating with artists, and business partners. Shenlei is also working on a PLM solution with IBM using virtual worlds to make the design and production process more efficient and more cost effective. Then we had Nyla — who began as a couture designer and opened a business in SL selling both her virtual clothing and her real clothing and has become very successful, and will use the momentum she has built in SL to expand her real-life clothing design business. Then of course, Elaine was able to talk about SL from an educator’s perspective, teaching students how to design clothing, develop a line, and and create runway shows in SL.

What is clear is that there are very few places in the country who are offering curriculum to students in the areas of virtual reality and fashion design, marketing, and building a business and that we at FIT can and should begin to think about how best to do this.

We have a unique opportunity to explore this and to collaborate with our SUNY colleagues who are also exploring SL (though not with FIT’s unique curriculum) — like Buffalo State, Oswego, Monroe Community College and Finger Lakes Community College.

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