Cyber-city design
TEESSIDE University is spearheading a new project that could spawn a thriving creative hub in cyberspace.
A new centre catering for design firms will be developed as a 3D virtual world by experts at the university’s Centre for Design in the Digital Economy (DLab) - giving companies access to global business opportunities and the chance to carry out complex research and development tasks remotely.
The new virtual Northern Design Centre (NDC) district will support 76 companies and has been tipped to create 100 jobs.
Backed by £515,000 from the European Union’s ERDF Competitiveness Programme and £565,000 from Teesside University, NDC will provide virtual incubation space, operational services, facilities and business accommodation for live online occupancy by regional enterprises. It will also use ground-breaking digital technology to remove many of the physical, service, logistics, cost or communication limits that can be barriers to growth in the real world.
According to DLab, the technology behind the NDC district is far more advanced than popular socially driven phenomenon Second Life, allowing more users to collaborate in particular areas and providing much more of a business-oriented environment.
DLab director, professor Brian Wilson, said: “Users will inhabit a 3D environment populated with office buildings, exhibitions, training resources, conferencing and meeting areas. Users will appear as ‘avatars’ - representative virtual human forms. The creation of business premises and technical support of interactive ‘real-time’ services through 3D online facilities will allow businesses to present their capabilities and resources to the market place, and attract market and investment engagement in a completely new way.”
NDC will be piloted as part of DLab’s ambitious online city project, a business-to-business community built on 1,600 digital hectares with room for more than 6,000 avatars.
The virtual city has room for more than 3,000 companies, which can lease a plot of land from as little as £1,000 per year.
Regional development agency One North East is also leading plans for a physical Northern Design Centre building to be constructed in the Baltic Business Quarter on Tyneside. It is expected to open in early 2011.
Share
