Virtual Philadelphia: Because there aren't enough lunch trucks in Second Life
The Center City District and the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, in conjunction with GeoSim Systems, have recently released Virtual Philadelphia, a richly textured 3-D model of the city. The model covers area of the Center City District – roughly Locust to Race and Front to 20th Streets – in great detail. Every building, street, alley, dumpster, and manhole cover is included. You can even click on any building and retrieve its address, history, and current business tenants. It’s just like the real Philly, except the streets are spotless, all the people are skinny, and it’s totally quiet.
One caveat: the Virtual Philadelphia application is a resource hog; make sure you have a high-speed internet connection, a decent graphics processor, and lots of memory. Even with these, it can be crash-prone – please save anything you were doing before you start the exploring! (If you don’t have a computer that will run it, check out this early promotional video; it’s a good demonstration of the model. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxk0Xm0fRFw) Even with these problems, Virtual Philadelphia is a very exciting achievement.
New Tactical IT Research Reports from BurtonGroup.com
Drexel University has purchased a license to Burton Group’s IT Research Reports. These are tactically focused to keep IT managers ahead of the curve on new tech and marketplace developments. Used by Drexel's IRT, Burton Group reports are part of a proprietary knowledgebase built on their research and real-world experience from hundreds of global enterprise consulting engagements. Their reports ranging from 25-50 pages with loads of practical advice - much more in-depth and technical than Gartner or Forrester reports with which you may be familiar.
BurtonGroup's content is based on something they call “Reference Architecture” that describes the underlying principles of a particular technology. Then they supplement the core document annually with more formulaic “if-then” logic pieces to help an IT manager make planning decisions that are up to date with technology and marketplace developments. You can read more about it (here).
Due to publisher restrictions, only full-time Drexel Faculty and Staff may sign up to view BurtonGroup content directly HERE.
Students and adjunct faculty may view the index of content on their website (see links below) and request full-text of individual reports through Tim Siftar, the IST Librarian.
Video is the brave new world of web content. Who handles it well? Well let me ask you - how satisfied are you with the results of your YouTube search? Do you think it searches every word spoken in the video? I don't think so. But imagine some day not too far in the future, you'll be able to search every word spoken in every home-made YouTube video, along with every Hollywood blockbuster, every recorded faculty lecture and every newscast or radio program. Then just >click< and watch the video clips. It's inevitable...but we're not yet there.
Some of you may have noticed how I've added a browser-based Meebo widget to my IST Research Guide pages recently. I really enjoy being able to offer quick, informal assistance this way. Users type in the bottom area and then the dialog appears up above. No IM client is required on your part - it happens all in the browser! One downside though, is that it's not obvious to patrons when I step away from the monitor. And if I'm not here when you IM me ... so much for the instantaneous aspect! So what are your options for getting a quick answer?
