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Archives for 2007

Building bridges over Linden Land?

January 7, 2007 by 16 Comments

A great question was asked to me in-world (hi Medoix) – is it possible to build a bridge over a Linden-owned road? Anyone know of this happening? It would seem there’d be permissions issues but if someone has a solution it’d be a great one to share. Hell, there’s probably a business model in building bridges!

Filed Under: For the new user, Virtual Worlds

New Aussie-titled land on its way

January 6, 2007 by 4 Comments

Whilst doing a fly-around looking for some land I came across a new area which looks like it’s about to be released, and it has an aussie flavour to say the least:

Filed Under: Australian News, Virtual Worlds

SL the future of the internet?

January 5, 2007 by 7 Comments

I ain’t sure – and here’s why – it’s too much of a pain in the arse.

Let’s do a hypothetical: the big four banks decide an SL interface is the way to go for their internet banking and introduce it. I can tell you now, if they continue to offer the current web interface I’ll take it over going through the motions of walking up to a virtual counter to go through a virtual conversation to withdraw funds. It’s a trite example but you get my drift.

I’ve shown SL to a bunch of people between the ages of 25 and 65 and the initial reaction is usually flat to say the least – not because it’s new and involves change, but because the feedback is ‘why would I bother?’.

I’ve even done some work to get a company I know to look at SL and I get the same reaction – it’s not that the technology doesn’t have potential, but that it will extend the time taken to do things. I think there’ll be some bridging technology between Web 2.0 and the SL-type interface before there’s even a remote hope of wide user acceptance…

Thoughts? Thanks to Leyah for inspiring the topic 😉

Filed Under: Op-ed, Virtual Worlds

For the currency exchange buffs amongst us

January 4, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Linden have released further trend information on the Linden exchange rate since 2003. It seems the Linden performs against the US dollar at around the same rate as the NZ dollar. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds

Beach party!

January 3, 2007 by Leave a Comment

In the words of owner Shai Khalifa (from the ACT):

“5 O’Clock Somewhere is a beach and we love to see anyone there who wants to chill out and have a cruisy time. Great for chilling and catching up on the dreaded IMs, low lag beach that comes alive at the drop of a hat with instant parties for no other reason than we can.

There’s a back-beach lagoon to laze in, a cave pool to have a swim or rendesvous in, shops (well 1 at the moment – looking for vendors at the moment) and hidden cuddle spots.

Offshore on the islands is a great Surf beach with Heather Goodliff waves and boards for sale – and a nude beach island – and a great waterfall off a volcano – with a grotto beneath.

And under the volcano is SL’s only underwater club – the Downunder dance and watch the fish swim on the reef and wreck beneath the floor.

So there’s lots to do. You can search on 5 O’Clock and find us.”


Filed Under: Profile, Virtual Worlds

‘Get an Aussie Politician into Second Life’ Poll – need your suggestions now!

January 3, 2007 by 16 Comments

Reuters is reporting that the US Congress will have a presence in SL, and it got me to thinking about the upcoming political cycle in Australia. New South Wales goes to the polls in March and all of Australia is likely to vote in another Federal election before year’s end.

Which politicians (if any) would you like to see make an appearance in SL? We’ll approach the most popular suggestions in real life and ask if they’d be interested in joing SL.

Filed Under: Australian News, Virtual Worlds

Mia Farrow makes an appearance in-world

January 1, 2007 by Leave a Comment

As reported on another blog, Mia Farrow will be speaking in SL on the situation in Darfur .

If you’re interested in poverty or conflict in Africa, this may be well worth seeing. It’s occurring on the 9th January.

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds

2007 – The Year of Second Life for Australia?

January 1, 2007 by 1 Comment

It’s the time of year where reflection tends to come a little more to the fore. In this case of SLOz, the reflection is obviously about SL. The interest generated in SL in the past three months has been phenomenal, and recently user concurrence (number of SL users logged in at one time) has broken the twenty thousand barrier. All that said, come January 2008 will SL be any more persuasive as a social medium in the wider population than now? For me the answer is an unsatisfying maybe.

In an Australian context, our smaller population is a double-edged sword – the word-of-mouth regarding SL combined with recent media coverage will increase the aussie userbase, not that it’s possible to quantify that. On the other hand that same small poplation will limit the amount of resources Linden Labs will throw at the Australian market, unless Australia were to become the base for SE Asian marketing / support / operations etc. There certainly is no cohesive Australian community in-world that I’ve been able to nail down. A couple of groups exist that are either inactive or have a handful of members. One of the aims of this site is to increase communication between Australians – if thats one of the facets you’re seeking with SL.

As always, your suggestions and thoughts welcome. Happy New Year!

Filed Under: Australian News, Virtual Worlds

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