Web Worker Daily

3D Systems Modeling - Amazon Web Services evangelist Jeff Barr wanted to build a dynamic, working model of some of his company’s software - and so he turned to Second Life. This blog entry shows how he built the 3D pieces representing AWS entities, and concludes with a movie showing the system in action. Though he ran into a few challenges along the way, the end result works, I think, as a way to grasp some of the “big picture” behind AWS.

It seems to me that there’s a lot of potential promise in this approach for architects and designers who want to get concepts across to their clients and other constituencies, if only they can find the right 3D environments to meet in. We’ve covered Second Life as a web worker tool in the past, but even if that’s not the place for you, could some sort of 3D web lie in your future?

Another Option for Photo Sharing - There’s certainly no shortage of places to drop your photos online these days, but Photrade offers a twist that I haven’t seen elsewhere: they’re doing what they can to help the average person monetize their creative work. It’s a combination of photo-sharing, stock photography site, and Cafe Press-style merchandise site with free registration for anyone who wants to give it a whirl - the sort of thing that can turn into a web work sideline.

Got an idea? Want $10,000? - Take a look at Ideablob, a community-oriented site that’s encouraging people to submit small business ideas, and then holding a series of votes to determine which one will get the big prize money. Even if you don’t win you might end up getting some good advice from other involved folks.