Tech -- Culture -- Humour
Kookaburra Pub on Eragon was the scene for widely known Aussie SL resident Wolfie Rankin’s ‘rez-day’. Well over forty people turned out for the surprise party:
I asked Woflie what has meant the most to him in his first year of SL residency:
“I think getting Eragon and finding so many lovely friends and supporters, everyone in their own way helped me in so many ways and I’m extremely grateful”.
More photos of the party at: http://flickr.com/photos/quadrapop/
Sapphire Technologies are an Information and Communications Technology recruitment company running out of Australia and New Zealand. They’ve launched their Second Life presence on Vedior Asia Pacific. It’s a fairly standard office building with podcasts, free t-shirts and lots of desks with computers linked to the Sapphire Technologies website. The ability to meet up with recruitment consultants in-world is being touted and there’s certainly plenty of space for interviews.
It’s the sort of presence that’s unlikely to get a lot of repeat visits aside from employers or prospective employees interested in ICT recruitment. That said, there is a pool table on the top floor for use after a hard day at the Sapphire virtual office and a small sandbox.
The Contempo Institute is a gallery space holding an opening party on July 19th at 7pm SLT (Midday this Friday the 20th Australian Eastern time).
The exhibition is titled The Body Graffik and it showcases 2D works by four artists working with the human form. Additionally, they are showing two works by Australian artist Reni Voom: Metal Sea and the Touchable Autumn.
Reni’s take on his work and the exhibition:
“If I had my life over again I’d be a computer programmer;
If I had my life over again I’d be an architect;
If I had my life over again I’d be a graphic designer;
If I had my life over again I’d be an animal trainer; Dogs? No, more likely ducks. (Maybe I like animation rather than animal training);
If I had my life over again I’d be a bird or a goat;
If I had my life over again I’d be a scientist who studies obscure quirks of nature;
If I had my life over again I’d be a child for life;
If I had my life over again I’d be a mathematician who could fill a chalkboard with complicated equations and formulas. And understand what I have written, of course. (I’ll need a bow tie for that job).
Second Life offers an opportunity to dabble in all these fields of experience. I enjoy environments where my learning curve is steep. The ease of building within virtual reality allows me to visually brainstorm, experiment with ideas and, if luck is on my side, bring works to a stage of resolution. It happens faster in here than in real life.
Second Life is not separate from the real world, it’s an extension. I’ve spent years working in the fields of ceramics and printmaking Both these mediums combine my interest in Visual Arts and Science. Two years ago I finally completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts. My honours year was spent exploring the nature of rust and decay.
My challenge in my first series of work, as a Second Life groupie, is to create objects that evoke the sense of touch though visuals and sound. Often in galleries in real life we have to stand back from the art and experience the work passively. I want you to walk into, touch and attempt to knock over my pieces.
Enjoy.
Reni Voom”
Orion Keynes Design is one of those Australian businesses that keeps on keeping on. It’s just had a relocation and expansion of product offerings. Furniture is the mainstay but there is also a small range of buildings. And refreshingly, not a dunny or Hills Hoist to be found.
The Greenies House is one of those builds that comes from nowhere and just astounds you with its originality, attention to detail and pure whimsy. We don’t want to take too much away from experiencing it yourself, but the pictures say it all:
Builds like this define the opportunities virtual worlds provide. Thanks to SL Insider for the heads-up
We’re back with an expanded STI. The overall feedback has been positive, particularly once we’ve explained the general purpose of the STI. Our favourite quote in reaction to last month’s initial effort was that using traffic to measure popularity was like using turds to measure digestion (thanks Metaversed).
Which leads perfectly to a reminder on methodology as well as a couple of disclaimers:
1. The number linked to each presence is a standard average based on dwell statistics provided to all SL users via the Search Places option.
2. For large presences we’ve chosen the most popular area rather than add up total dwell – this means larger presences may have overall larger numbers but that’s not what we’re measuring (see also point 5). Example: The Pond and ABC Island have many different areas – we track the traffic on the most popular area for both those presences.
3. Each presence, unless an addition since the start of the reporting period, has had their traffic stats measured at least ten times with each instance at least 24 hours apart.
4. The individual times and statistics can be found here
5. The STI is indicative only – yes we know there are much more detailed methodologies and that ours is a rough guide only for the SL community – we think of it as a ‘what’s hot’ measure. Discussion / criticism on the STI here.
The July results:
There are a couple of additions to the index, with PIER one of the more popular new ones. The Enchanted Realm traffic is based on one sample only so it’s too early to tell if it’ll maintain its current position. The Billabong Bar and ABC Sandbox retain their appeal and Armory Island’s wall-to-wall gun-toting keeps it in prime position.
If you have a presence in SL that you’d like added to the index, let us know. It just has to be owned / operated by Australians for inclusion. We look forward to any feedback.
Tasha’s place is a new addition to aussie-owned shops in SL, but it’s a little different to others: it’s a non-profit shop. All profits are donated to an organisation devoted to progressing native title and reconciliation. In Tasha’s own words:
“I created this little shop (with help from my friend Justy) about six weeks ago. Initially it was for the challenge of seeing if I could find a suitable plot of land, building a shop and making items for sale. All these things were great fun and learning experiences.
I’m Australian and I love to have Australian art around me so the idea of having that as a theme for the shop was appealing. I wanted to make pictures and simple clothes using the patterns and schemes that I love. Many of these patterns you can see in the shop are from Aboriginal artists and that’s why I run the shop as a not-for-profit business with profits donated to the community organisation: Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTAR). It’s my attempt to promote Aussie art and images while trying not to rip people off through the greyness of copyright in SL.”
“My best selling items are Unisex T-shirts with Aboriginal and Australian flag designs (come by and get one free one at the entrance!), vegemite boxes you can use as a seat and a decorative didgeridoo stand I made. About half of my customers are Australians looking for some familiar things that they can have in their SL. The rest of course are from all over the world. It’s a nice feeling to think that some of my things are dotted about in SL and I hope that people get pleasure from them as I do. I keep prices as low as possible and there’s nothing in the shop that costs more than $L89.”
There’s unlikely to be many Australian SL users who don’t have to deal with the frustrations of lag. The physical location of the servers in the United States are a key issue, but the speed of broadband internet in Australia is also a contributing factor.
To throw the issue into very stark relief, the OECD has relesased a 310-page report entitled “OECD Communications Outlook 2007”. It’s not a report for the light-hearted but it provides some fascinating comparisons of broadband access, speed and price.
1. Dial-up versus broadband:
Australia is well below OECD average of broadband take up. One would think speed and pricing would play a role as well as geography.
2. Broadband speed by incumbent telecommunications operator:
Australia is second lowest in speed across the whole OECD. Do not the disclaimer however that there was a speed bump late last year but we remain well down the list. With a bit of luck your connection may match that of a New Zealander.
3. Cost of bandwidth:
No surprise here – broadband in Australia isn’t cheap. GigaOM have covered the report and cite how expensive broadband is in the United States. They should be thankful they’re not Australian based.
Linden Labs have publicly committed to Australian-based servers, but it looks like we’ll be accessing those servers via comparatively low-bandwidth, expensive connections. A number of promises have been made by the Government and Opposition in the lead up to this year’s election but that’s all they are until well after polling day. We’re running a poll on the SLOz forums on your Second Life experience from a broadband point of view, so jump in and have your say.
Jana Gillespie, director of Big-Bit Australia Pty Ltd has let us know that the REA Group, best known for its site realestate.com.au, has signed on for an SL presence. There’s nothing to see at this stage but the island is present in search and is called ‘Real Estate Life’:
The presence will represent the group’s worldwide operations and contain a community area with events and seminars planned. It’ll be interesting to see if they decide to get into virtual real estate. Will Anshe Chung and the other large land barons end up having another big player in the arena? It’d make for an even more interesting market.
(disclosure – Big-Bit are a paying advertiser on SLOz)
Since the release of the June metrics, there’s been a general consensus that a peak has been reached. The only conjecture is when growth is likely to increase again. Or if it will at all. The northern hemisphere commentators are calling it summer doldrums but not ruling out a deeper change.
Australian users are contradicting the trend, with a jump from 1.93% to 2.61% in active Australian users. That’s arguably because the Australiam media’s interest in Second Life is recent when compared to the USA and Europe. As media stories increase their focus on user growth, some will argue the media are spooking potential new users. That may be a risk, however any product lives or dies on its usability and Second Life is no different. Imminent enhancements like voice will determine in a large way that perception of improving usability.
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