Geodemographic Data in Second Life

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Day 2 on Second Nature Island in Second Life and looking into ways to import map data into the virtual environment.


Pictured above is the Output Area Classification for London (see the OAC user group for more info on the data). Second Life works remarkably well for importing representations of geography, indeed it is looking like it would be useful in the class room environment.


As yet there are not any real-time shadow's in Second Life so the only option is to 'bake' textures in 3D Max and import them back into the world, our first attempt is pictured above.

If you have Second Life installed and would like to pop by to see what we are up to then you can visit our evolving cityscape by clicking on our SLURL... that's a Second Life Uniform Resource Locator or Second Life URL:

Visit us in Second Life - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Second Nature/233/159/116

The blog will get back to normal in a few days with more architectural visualisation posts and our HDR tutorial. We are aware it been rather 'Second Life' heavy this week but the environment holds distinct potential and one that if you haven't already is well worth a look.

You can read more about the build so far at Joanna's Nature Network Blog.

The Digital Neighbourhood - Geodemographics

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The image above takes away the natural geography of the city and replaces it with classifications of neighbourhoods - known as Geodemographics it provides an overview of the social and economic characteristics of your local neighbourhood.

The use of geodemographics details a unique insight into the city in terms of its cultural and social structure. This information is widely used by commercial companies to decide how to target customers with products or services depending on a number of classifications and in terms of academia it provides a good insight into the social geography of the county. As such the Output Area Classification User Group has been formed with the mission of promoting the use of the National Statistics Output Area Classification (OAC) and area classifications.

The Group is focused around the well established methods and output of area classification, but OAC is distinctive as it is in the public domain - a basis for ‘open geodemographics’ - encouraging interchanges between sectors on issues ranging from the underlying statistical methodology to interactive graphics for effective presentation. This open approach is possible as a result of relatively recent changes in the policy on access to government information.



Using our labs Google Map Creator it is possible to view the Output Area classification of the UK. The Output Area classification (OAC) distills key results from the 2001 Census for the whole of the UK at a fine grain to indicate the character of local areas. It was created in a collaboration between the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the University of Leeds using the same well established methods as the related classifications of local authorities and wards.

Take a look at the Output Area Classification User Group for more info, especially the Quick Start Guide for all you need to know about Geodemographics.