This paper describes some of the tools developed by Daden Limited to explore the geo-data display potential of virtual and mirror worlds, and reflects on the potential of such technologies, their future possibilities, and some of the associated issues like user interface accessibility and individual privacy. Here again it is the interfacing of the virtual space to real world data which can start to open up new possibilities in the ways that we view and analyse geographic data. Whilst so-called 'mirror worlds', such as Google Earth, have developed little further, the major innovation of the last 18 months has been the rise in popularity of 'virtual worlds', such as Second Life (the US Department of Defense has been using virtual worlds since the 1990s). This capability is now (in November 2007) two years old. But what made Google Earth come alive was the ability to create so-called 'network links'–displays of data, often captured in real-time–which could be overlaid on the basic Google Earth mapping. However, the imagery is static, and relatively out of date. When Google Earth and Google Maps first appeared many people marvelled at the ability to zoom in on almost any part of the planet and see objects at little more than 1 m resolution. The paper also covers some of the issues associated with these technologies, namely user interface accessibility and individual privacy. their use to develop emergency/public health virtual situation rooms to effectively manage emergencies and disasters in real time. We explore the geo-data display potential of virtual worlds and their likely convergence with mirror worlds in the context of the future 3-D Internet or Metaverse, and reflect on the potential of such technologies and their future possibilities, e.g. The technologies presented thus serve as a bridge between mirror worlds like Google Earth and virtual worlds like Second Life. Users can also do the reverse: put pins on a map in the virtual world, and then view the data points on the Web in Google Maps or Google Earth. This approach enables users to visualise, interact with, and even walk or fly through, the plotted data in 3-D. This paper describes technologies from Daden Limited for geographically mapping and accessing live news stories/feeds, as well as other real-time, real-world data feeds (e.g., Google Earth KML feeds and GeoRSS feeds) in the 3-D virtual world of Second Life, by plotting and updating the corresponding Earth location points on a globe or some other suitable form (in-world), and further linking those points to relevant information and resources.
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