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A new government’s genesis viewed from Second Life

November 24, 2007 by 1 Comment

ABC Island played host to an election night party, with lots of chat about unfolding events in the real world. The ‘Australians’ group in SL was also buzzing with a running commentary.

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It’d be an understatement to say those gathered on ABC island and the group chat were pro-Kevin Rudd:

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Numerous comments were expressed in regard to the ALP’s broadband policy and its impacts on the SL experience. There was plain old partying.

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As one party-goer said, “I just wanted to be with some Aussies at this historical moment”. There’s been no involvement by Australian political parties in Second Life to date – my prediction is that by next election there’ll be a marked presence by at least one party in the virtual world sphere.

Filed Under: Australian News, Politics, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Weekend Whimsy

November 23, 2007 by Leave a Comment

1. SpongeBob Squarepants in Second Life

2. Climate Change: In the Real World there is no Second Life

Filed Under: User-generated, Virtual Worlds

Linden Lab CEO responds to technical issues of the past week

November 22, 2007 by 8 Comments

The Official Linden Blog is carrying a lengthy post from CEO Philip Rosedale. Its premise is a revamp of Linden Lab’s mission statement but it’s also an exposition on the future of Second Life in Rosedale’s eyes.

First, he admits to how frustrating the problems of the last week have been for residents. He then stated that the new physics engine (currently in beta) will address a lot of those issues. He’s cited the first half of 2008 as being focused on stability. Many would argue that the second half of 2007 should perhaps have been about stability as well.

Second, Rosedale admitted that “we need to create new and different ways to communicate more often and more clearly with the community”. I doubt anyone would argue with that and the few people who are left that frequent the Second Life forums wold argue there were already some useful mechanisms in place thaty were gutted months back. The commitment by Rosedale to a monthly blog post is encouraging but far from a comprehensive communication strategy. Effective communication needs to come from all facets of the organisation, not just the CEO. Some steps have been made in that regard but it’s well and truly a work in process.

What wasn’t said in the post? Well for one, no mention of further internationalisation of servers, which makes me wonder how close, if at all, the Australian servers are as we reported last week.

One statement of Rosedale’s with which I’d agree wholeheartedly: “The rocket is lit. Virtual worlds are finally real”. There’s no doubt about that at all. The trouble is, the rocket doesn’t launch some of the time, crashes after launch other times and even when it gets into orbit it can undergo decompression for no obvious reason. Here’s hoping in six months that the launch pad is still there and is having a much better launch record.

Filed Under: General News, Op-ed, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

‘edna’ arrives in Second Life

November 21, 2007 by 2 Comments

Terra Incognita is a veteran education presence in Second Life that we’ve covered previously. It’s an area that next week will be hosting the launch of a new service by edna (Education Network Australia).

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The full announcement:

“Education Network Australia – better known as edna – is celebrating ten years of service to the Australian education and training sector on Tuesday, 27 November and is inviting educators from across the country to jump online and in-world to join the celebration.

From 3pm Adelaide time education.au, the company that manages the edna web site and related services, will be doing a live broadcast of presentations and the unveiling of the new myedna service on the island of Terra Icognita.

Pick up a free t-shirt, indulge in some virtual cake and champagne and, following the formalities, your avatar can rock out to popular Second Life band Space Junky.

For educators that don’t have the broadband or hardware to participate in Second Life, there is a parallel being held in edna’s Sandpit Groups using Live Classroom web conferencing software.

For more information, visit the 10th birthday page on the edna web site.”

Check it out in-world

Filed Under: Australian News, Education, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

UK’s National Health Service and Second Life

November 20, 2007 by Leave a Comment

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) is the world’s largest public health system and it’s currently under review. Second Life will play a small role in the review according to a message on the SL Health list today:

“The NHS Next Stage Review in Second Life:

England’s National Health Service (NHS) is under review: The ‘Our NHS our future’ review. The NHS is England’s publicly-funded healthcare system, providing the vast majority of healthcare in the UK, which is based on clinical need and not the ability to pay. The Review provides an opportunity to ensure that the future of the NHS is clinically led and can meet the challenges of delivering healthcare over the next decade.

As a key component of the Review, on the 21st of November there will be an International Clinical Summit on pathways to care, where 1500 invited clinicians and physicians will be meeting in real life in London. But you can follow the meeting in Second Life or via the webcast. In Second Life you will be able to register your own opinions and meet and chat with the speakers.

This SL event will mainly be of interest to healthcare professionals, both within the UK and internationally. Our Second Health Auditorium can accommodate up to 50 avatars. If there is sufficient demand we will open a second auditorium, and you can always follow the Summit’s live webcast outside SL if we are over-subscribed. Text chat will be logged, and we may record video and audio portions of the in-world event for later playback.

Dates and times:

21 November 2007, 14:20-18:45 Greenwich Mean Time

21 November 2007, 06:20-10:45 Second Life Time (GMT-8)

Locations:

Teleport straight to the presentation area

If the main auditorium is full, the overflow auditorium is here.

To take part in the text chat with speakers in the main auditorium, you will need to join the Second Health London group. This will be explained at the overflow auditorium.

Agenda

14.20-14.30 Welcome and opening the event (CMO)

Overview of SHA engagement events (David Nicholson)

14.30-14.45 Objectives of the NHS Next Stage Review

14.45-15.00 Setting the scene – how to move the needle on health and health outcomes

15.00-16.00 Speaker Session One: High quality care across a healthcare system

David Levine from Montreal

Jack Cochran from Kaiser

Table discussion & questions

16.00-16.30 Tea Break (break in webcast)

16.30-17.30 Speaker Session Two: Examples of integrated care systems from abroad

Dr Schwartz from Westchester

Prof Schulte from Polikum

Table discussion & questions

17.30-18.30 Speaker Session Three: Examples of integrated care systems from UK

Dr O’Kelly from Tiverton

Dr Ian Rutter from Bradford

Table discussion & questions

18.30-18.45 Wrap up

Webcast: If the event is oversubscribed, or you can’t access SL, you can view the live webcast.”

Now if only Australia’s health systems could receive the same amount of attention….

Filed Under: General News, Health, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

Logins down again

November 20, 2007 by 84 Comments

Just for something different, some residents are experiencing login issues again. As mentioned on the weekend, we can only hope this constant problem gets better.

It could be a special Xmas present from Linden Lab.

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Landbots and drowned avatars

November 19, 2007 by 3 Comments

The Second Life Herald ran a story today about landbots, those automated entities that cause all sorts of problems with buying and selling land. The SL Herald is alleging that around 20 avatars placed in water sims are part of the landbot scam. Whatever the reason for the submerged avatars, it’s a little strange. Yesterday I noticed that an avatar was showing up in the middle of a water sim:

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I teleported to the spot and found this:

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I returned 24 hours later and found the avatar in the same position and location. Not surprisingly there’s no profile data and the avatars are usually dressed in stock standard orientation clothing. Have you come across one of these drowned avatars? If it turns out they are linked to landbots then hopefully Linden Lab will have a clean-up. It’s hard to imagine what legitimate reason there is for their presence.

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

A horror week for stability

November 18, 2007 by 7 Comments

The latest blog post by Linden Lab tops off a horror week for Second Life stability. Combine that with the ever-present lag and usability remains the chestnut issue for Second Life.

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If the rumours are true about Australian-based SL servers finally arriving, then part of the significant frustration with the Second Life experience will be remedied. The roll-out of improved broadband in Australia is likely to occur no matter who wins next week’s election, but it’s still a while off. None of it will remediate the enormous logistical task of keeping a virtual world running across thousands of servers – that’s something that can at best be minimised as a performance issue.

We’d be interested in your experiences with lag – has it been around the same for you, better or worse?

Filed Under: General News, Op-ed, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Computers as art

November 17, 2007 by Leave a Comment

It doesn’t get much more artistic than this with computers: 

Coolmacshots
The collection has dozens of masterpieces like that, check it out. 

Filed Under: Who knows... Tagged With: ,

Monash Uni: closed island?

November 16, 2007 by 16 Comments

In an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald this week, I was a little surprised at a quote attributed to Monash University’s Dr Melissa de Zwart: “our area won’t be open to the public; you will need to be on an authorised list to get in”.

I try to avoid real-world comparisons but it’s difficult in this case: this is the equivalent of putting a barbed-wire fence across the entrance of the local university. Doesn’t a total closed-door policy from a taxpayer-funded entity go against its purpose as a community facility? RMIT Island has blocked off most of its island from general access but it at least has a public welcome area. As Gary Hayes says in the same article, it’s not hard to prevent damage to a Second Life presence. So why the lockdown?

Perhaps someone attending this event can ask.

Filed Under: Australian News, Education, Op-ed, Virtual Worlds, Virtual worlds in the media Tagged With: , ,

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