Category Archives: education

Content, Copyright, and Fashionably Dressed (?) Cartoon Animals

Posted on April 15, 2011 by | Comments Off

This article in the NY Times was a nice segue into editing what we hope is the last draft of the Legal Primer for Content Creators in Virtual Worlds.

Google has an interesting approach to copyright offenders: they make them ‘go to school’.  We would question, though, whether a 4 1/2 minute video and 4-question multiple choice (guess) quiz will really deter offenders.  We appreciate the fact that it may, perhaps, be possible that someone somewhere may not realize that if they didn’t make the cool content they want to share they are probably infringing someone’s copyright. But that seems unlikely in today’s interconnected world of sophisticated content consumers.

It is interesting that Google has decided to soft pedal their enforcement efforts by giving offenders what amounts to a one-time wrist slap for the ignorant.

When we were drafting, and then reviewing, the Legal Primer, we had a fair bit of discussion about how to deliver the information at the right level.  We’re still discussing whether or not it is as accessible as it should be for an audience of visual thinkers.  The term accessible, for uninitiated, can often mean dumbed down.

Since we’re writing about what is inherently a complicated topic, and a topic which is usually discussed in a great deal of dry, boring, legal jargon, we’ve been challenged to somehow deliver this information in a way that we hope won’t make our readership bleed from the ears, but without diluting the value of the information by dumbing it down.

As the primary drafter of this document, we are taking the approach that our audience deserves a more intelligent document than YouTube’s Copyright School, because we think our audience is smart enough to manage to read a document that is short on cute cartoon animals and long on words and weighty concepts.  There isn’t a video (and no plans for one) and the text is a heck of a lot longer than a single above-the-fold web questionnaire.

Of course, given that the focus is content in OpenSim and SecondLife, perhaps we could illustrate it with an adorable tiny avatar.

Thinks for a minute…

Nah.

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Posted in 3D, 3D content creators, Content, education, OpenSim, Second Life, secondlife, Shenlei

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Richard Beard, Historian, Joins Fashion Research as Gettysburg Fellow

Posted on March 26, 2011 by | 2 Comments

New York, NY March 26, 2011 – Richard Beard, Historian, Joins Fashion Research Institute as Gettysburg Fellow

Fashion Research Institute CEO, Shenlei Winkler, announces that historian Dr. Richard Beard has joined the FRI team as Gettysburg Fellow with the Fashion Research Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of FRI. Dr. Beard is a historian and administrator who has held senior leadership positions in several of the nation’s most noteworthy history museums, including the Museum of the City of New York, the Atlanta History Center, the New-York Historical Society, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

His career, characterized by a commitment to vibrant exhibitions and public programming, has included the development of major exhibitions on the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln.  Dr. Beard publishes regularly on historical topics as well as matters related to the museum profession.  Recent publications include “The Legacy of the Civil War,” a co-authored essay for the National Park Service’s official Sesquicentennial handbook The Civil War Remembered and “From Civil War to Civil Rights: The Opportunities of the Civil War Sesquicentennial,” a forthcoming article to appear in History News.

Dr. Beard is currently part of the project team developing a national exhibition on freedom and slavery, the volunteer coordinator for the Civil War Sesquicentennial for the American Association for State and Local History.

“I am very excited to be involved in the initial stages of developing what promises to be an incredible on-line resource for any and everyone interested in the Civil War.  As more and more Americans turn to the Web for their history, the development of Virtual Gettysburg could not come at a better moment.  The upcoming commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War promises to engage millions of Americans with the three-day battle in the small Pennsylvania town of Gettyburg, an event that did much to determine the war’s outcome.” says Beard.

”We are excited about having Dr. Beard join the Fashion Research Team.” says Shenlei Winkler, CEO of the Fashion Research Institute. “We think his wealth of knowledge about the American Civil War and expertise in producing substantive public programming will provide tremendous insights into the Gettysburg Redux project, and his input and guidance will help ensure that the project is developed with  historical accuracy.”

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Fashion Research Institute has been leading the effort to push the use of virtual immersive environments (virtual worlds) for the purpose of training, development and education.  Gettysburg Redux is a visionary project intended to accurately reproduce the 3-day Battle of Gettysburg in a virtual world for multidisciplinary uses.

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About Fashion Research Institute, Inc.: The Fashion Research Institute is at the forefront of developing innovative design & merchandising solutions for the apparel industry.  They research and develop products and systems for the fashion industry that sweepingly address wasteful business and production practices. Shenlei Winkler’s work spans both couture and mass-market design and development for the real life apparel industry. A successful designer, her lifetime sales of her real life apparel designs have now reached more than $70 million USD, with more than 25 million-dollar styles in her portfolio. Her couture work has appeared extensively on stage and movie screen.

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Posted in education, Fashion Research Institute, OpenSim, ScienceSim, Virtual World

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White Paper Available: Leveraging the Power of Virtual Worlds for Collaboration

Posted on March 25, 2011 by | 1 Comment

New York, NY March 24, 2011 – Fashion Research Institute Publishes Latest Thought Piece: Leveraging the Power of Virtual Worlds for Collaboration by CEO Shenlei Winkler.

Fashion Research Institute CEO, Shenlei Winkler, announces that FRI’s latest publication, Leveraging the Power of Virtual Worlds for Collaboration, has been published.

Based on a presentation initially made in January 2008 to IBM Research North America, this whitepaper incorporates case studies drawn from FRI’s well-publicized collaborations in business, education and fashion, and focuses on some additional use cases.

Leveraging the Power of Virtual Worlds for Collaboration may be downloaded from the Fashion Research Institute web site.

About Fashion Research Institute, Inc.: The Fashion Research Institute is at the forefront of developing innovative design & merchandising solutions for the apparel industry.  They research and develop products and systems for the fashion industry that sweepingly address wasteful business and production practices. Shenlei Winkler’s work spans both couture and mass-market design and development for the real life apparel industry. A successful designer, her lifetime sales of her real life apparel designs have now reached more than $70 million USD, with more than 25 million-dollar styles in her portfolio. Her couture work has appeared extensively on stage and movie screen.

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Posted in 3D, Avatar, design, education, fashion, Fashion Research Institute, IBM, Intel, OpenSim, Shenlei, Virtual World

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