In the ten days that Telstra’s islands have been in operation, I’ve dropped in for fifteen minutes or so each day. As mentioned last week, new users of SL appear to make up the bulk of the island’s explorers.

The issues haven’t changed over time – these users wander around not sure what to do next. When a more experienced user is around and provides advice, the response is appreciative. I’ve given dozens of clothing packs to users wanting something other than Linden’s default garb and provided advice on everything from changing appearance to using the search functionality. I remain suprised at the lack of basic guidance for BigPond SL users and also at the lack of motivation on behalf of some users to go beyond the Telstra Islands. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, there’s a lack of understanding that there’s anything beyond the Telstra Islands for some users. Secondly, because BigPond users can frequent the Telstra Islands without incurring any bandwidth metering, a proportion of new users are unable to explore further due to being on lower bandwidth plans with BigPond.

BigPond can’t be criticised for making their presence unmetered, but some more guidance for new users wouldn’t go astray.

One of the criticisms that has been levelled at SL has been the way in which the search function works. This is frustratingly true for those of us trying to find Telstra’s Bigpond presence.

Most people will do the obvious thing and just type in Telstra or Bigpond in the search window. Note that the default tab is “All”. This is one of the main problems with the search function. If you choose the other tabs you need to type in your search all over again.

Most people would assume that the “All” tab means just that, all categories are searched and results posted, in some cases you find what you want in others, as above, you have a zero result.

In the BigPond Islands example, a search of “All” is not very successful at all:

However, if you select the “Places” tab and retype your query you will find that not only is BigPond easily located, but all the sub-sections and islands are listed:

So the moral of the story is to try and use a variety of queries and tabs when searching for a specific area. It may take a while but you may just find what you’re looking for.

Today we received a press release touting the launch of SLCN – Second Life Cable Network. The founder and technical dorector of SLCN is Australian Gary Wisniewski.

“What is really exciting about the broadcast is that it will be streamed onto the web live at the same time as the event is taking place in-world. This means that for the very first time, people can view in-world events without needing to be there themselves”, says Wisniewski.

The first SLCN telecast will be this Wednesday, March 15th at 7pm (SL Time), when SLCN presents it’s first live telecast. The broadcast will be live from the Hoe Down Under – Texas’ Aussie Music BBQ where Australian bands and performers will stage a virtual concert, sponsored by AUSTRADE’s Australian Music Office in Los Angeles, as an adjunct to the real Australian Music BBQ in Austin Texas as part of the SXSW Music and Media Conference 2007.

The SLCN broadcast will be filming the performances, interviews and surrounding activities on the day and can be viewed on various screens around Second Life as well as onto the SLCN website (not live at time of writing).

Wisniewski claims the system also overcomes the issue of maximum avatars in one sim – once events get really popular there is the ability to spill over crowds into other sims where they can at least watch a multi-camera shoot of the live entertainment.

Since Telstra’s launch on Friday, I’ve spent around 30 minutes on half a dozen occasions, at a central point on one of the Telstra Islands. The time spent has been well and truly worth it, as it has demonstrated the power of a corporate Australian presence in SL.

BigPond are promoting their Second Life presence on their front page. Any BigPond members who sign-up via that page start out at Telstra’s own Orientation Island ( a SL feature described by Logan Linden during our interview with him). All of these new SL users end up at the Telstra Islands. Over the weekend the influx of Australian SL users has been incredible – I don’t have numbers but each time I’ve been there, dozens of new people have arrived within minutes of each other.

This leads to a second point: all these new people are lost. They wander around like most of us did initially, wondering what to do next. The difference is, there’s a real sense that people aren’t quite aware that there’s a lot more to SL than the Telstra Islands. Each time I interacted with a new user I’d get questions like ‘so what’s good to look at around here?’. I’d give some suggestions and off they’d wander, coming back later on having wandered around the islands but not having teleported anywhere else. It’ll be interesting to see how many Telstra sign-ups remain longer term users.

Overall my perception of the first few days of operation is that older SL users see the Telstra Islands as an interesting new development mixed with a healthy scepticism around the reasons Telstra has launched in-world. And a corporate presence like this is a magnet for protest although nothing organised has occurred to date. I did however see one member of the Second Life Liberation Army taking a tour…..

Again. we’d love to hear your thoughts on Australia’s largest corporate presence – good, bad or indifferent.

After months of development Telstra have launched their SL presence. And a significant presence it is – eleven islands called The Pond, Ponderosa, Billabong, Ponden, Ponderama, Pondessa, Pondex, Pondfield, Pondice, Pondillion and Pondshen (pictured above). Each offers a range of activities and sights which we’ll cover in-depth in future, but for now an overview of the sights:

The Opera House:

The compulsory outback pub (The Billabong Bar):

Uluru:

The BigPond Dome:

A highlight, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, fireworks included:

Check it out for yourself

We’d love to hear your initial impressions – are you inspired or indifferent? Do you find the whole thing amazing or kitsch? Let us know.