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Journalism in Second life: research underway

August 17, 2008 by 1 Comment

In the past week i had the pleasure of spending an hour with Annabelle Boyd Jones, an Honours research student from the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney.

Her research is on the role of journalism and governance in Second Life. To my knowledge this is an unexplored research area and should provide for some fascinating results. I’m pleased to have been what will hopefully be one of many research subjects. The Fourth Estate role of journalism in virtual worlds is at an early but influential stage. Research like Annabelle’s will help to encapsulate the progress so far and the challenges to come.

Kudos to the University of Sydney in driving communications research in arenas like virtual worlds.

If you’d like to put your view forward on this topic, head to Annabelle’s blog.

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

Live Future 2020 event in Second Life this Sunday

August 16, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Global Youth Futures are running an event this weekend called ‘Live Futures 2020:A World of Possiblity’.

It’s being held in Newtown, Sydney but there’s a stream being coordinated by Jokay Wollongong, with some interesting speakers confirmed (all times in AEST):

12pm – Welcome and Second Life orientation

12:30pm AEST – Dell Wolfensparger shares some his work and insights, followed by a tour of his island.

1:30pm – Topophilia – Love of Land: AAEE Gallery Exhibition, Islands of jokaydia. Birut Zemits and members of the Australian Association for Environmental Education will share their exhibition in Second Life, titled Topophilia – Love of Land

3:00pm AEST – Global Challenges and Sustainable Futures – Cocreation and Collaboration Session
Janine Cahill and her team will lead an inworld discussion and collaboration session – which will explore some of the issues presented at the real life conference. Help co-create the future!

4:30pm – Dr. Andrew Wallace PhD, Director of the Network of European Technocrats
Dr Wallace will give a presentation titled Technocracy: Building a New Sustainable Society for a Post Carbon World live in Second Life.

If you want to join in, here’s where to go.

Filed Under: Australian News, Non-Profit, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Weekend Whimsy

August 16, 2008 by Leave a Comment

1. WoW & Second Life: Review Of MMORPGs (Part 2)

(Note: some swearing in this one)

2. Second Life Visions

3. Lucent Heart

Filed Under: General News, User-generated, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

Interview – Nathan Organ (AUGrid)

August 13, 2008 by 4 Comments

Back in February this year we interviewed Steve Sima, founder of the Openlife grid. Since then another Australian has set up a grid based on the Open Simulator architecture. This one is called AUGrid and has been set up by Norgan Torok (RL: Nathan Organ) and we caught up with him for an interview this week.

Lowell: Can you tell me a little about your background and how you got into virtual
worlds?

Norgan: I discovered Second Life around a year ago, after resisting for a while I finally logged in and started exploring. I found it fascinating but had to look into this “game”and work out just what it was about. After realising quickly just how great and diverse the culture and people in
there were I had to explore more. As with most things i encounter I looked deeper and deeper into it. Until the interoperability announcement I considered SL a closed system. The interop test showed me the light into OpenSim and its great possibilities.
.

Lowell: What was the impetus for you setting up AUGrid?

Norgan: Two things inspired me to do AUGrid. Firstly, the interoperability of OpenSim and Second Life opening up that user base to a wider world of virtual worlds. There was concern that Linden Lab would make Second Life a closed world for a while there. Secondly, my own work supporting 1000 hours for autistic kids and my work with EnGeneIC who develop novel cancer treatments, and my
yearning to help support these admirable causes. AUGrid is focused on providing exposure and services to these causes as well as the education sector.

Lowell: Are you personally hosting the grid or working in conjunction with
others?

Norgan: For the moment i am personally paying for co-located servers, with a view to reselling regions servers to help bring money back into the project. Reactiongrid have been helping with supply of cost effective servers to run the grid on. My training and experience in network design and operation helps me manage the topology of the grid servers and plan for growth. We also get support form various developers and sub-communities within the OpenSim project and in return I share my knowledge and experience in networking and my work in OpenSim with the community at large. AUGrid has also set up its own dedicated PayPal account to more easily manage any donations or funds coming in. With
these funds I hope to bring in extra resources to help expand the project and donate services to schools and charities.

Lowell: How far along the development path is AUGrid?

Norgan: AUGrid follows the core development path of OpenSim. I have been busy
talking with the core development teams and some people from Microsoft who have been helping AUGrid along with feedback, advice and techniques. This project and many others on OpenSim are a 2-way development structure where the users and various groups contribute to each other and the common code. This is how I am able to setup AUGrid confident in the fact that the OpenSim community is there to help as am I to help them. As I mentioned before I try to keep the
code quite new, which can bring in new bugs and cause some down time but also pick up the improvements as they are developed.

Lowell: Compared to say Second Life, what would a new resident see on your
grid? Is it a similar experience at this stage?

Norgan: The experience is quiet similar to Second life for general navigation and user experience, in fact you use the SL viewer in many cases to log into AUGrid. There are also other viewers with extra features like building higher height and megaprims allowed. The LLFunctions script
implementations are two-thirds the way through with new ones being added every day, so the scripting and building environment is similar also. The real difference is the flexibility on the server side. For example, we can play with gravity and I have setup an experimental sim that has moon gravity; but really that’s just the start. With some projects using RL integration of robots and information fed in from hardware and external databases, the possibilities are almost endless. This is
the real power of the OpenSim platform – using a modulated approach to the code design, you can create and integrate your own modules on the server. An example of some of AUGrid’s technology is the data center that monitors RL servers in real time. It actually pointed out a problem with one of my DNS servers which I was able to investigate and correct as a direct result of seeing the server in-world.

Lowell: What have been some of the biggest challenges to date with the grid’s
development?

Norgan: Biggest hurdle is the code management and avoiding downtime. Rapid development code is always a task to handle but for the most part the core systems are very stable. We try to explain and notify of any bugs and issues as they asrise and why there was any downtime to help the
users understand how the system works and just how quickly things can change.

Lowell: What are you plans for AUGrid in the coming 6-12 months?

Norgan: To expand the grid onto more servers, which is why we have started taking donations, and allow a more powerful grid for better in-world experiences. The topology of
AUGrid is designed in such a way that it can be easily scaled up and this has been done because i have grand visions for AUGrid. Aside from the obvious expansion of the grid the biggest thing will be to provide free or low cost regions to educational and medical projects, allowing them a powerful platform on which to teach and learn. Ideally, the grid will pay for itself and allow donations of regions to schools and charities.

We have started toying with the idea of medical and education hubs and once we acquire more servers i will be setting these up so when users visit in-world they may more easily get to those areas and projects they are interested in.

Lowell: What differentiating factor do you believe you have over other grids, including Australian ones like Openlife?

Norgan: The differing factor is AUGrid’s primary focus on real life support of charities and good causes and it’s non-profit business model. As well as a true aussie flavour while travelling around the grid with many and varied parts of aussie culture on show. Triple X Industries sim is
a great example with an Aussie pub and amazing aussie shop fronts and areas. This is one of the big helpers to establishing AUGrid’s content – I don’t know what I’d do without him. We also have an accurate representation of Brisbane’s Southbank with much more coming along.

Lowell: For people wanting to check out AUGrid, how do they best do that?

Norgan: Thanks to TheCritic we have an SL Launcher that can be downloaded from a
link on www.augrid.org. It works for Windows, Linux and Mac and allows the user to quite easily launch their existing SL Viewer to connect to AUgrid, among others. There is also a Hippo Viewer made for OpenSim that with a quick shortcut modification can be used on AUGrid allowing the extra features like higher build height limits and larger prim sizes.

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

Von Johin’s public relations bid for ‘stardom’

August 13, 2008 by 10 Comments

Today we received a breathless press release announcing a ‘world first’. The release in full then some commentary afterward:

PRESS RELEASE
Virtual Reality Becomes Reality for Second Life Musician

Foresthill, CA – For the first time in history, a virtual avatar has received a real worldwide recording contract. Second Life (SL) blues musician Von Johin has been signed to an artist contract with California based Reality Entertainment, Warren Croyle, CEO of Reality Entertainment, announced today. “Never before has a virtual character been signed to a worldwide recording contract. Von Johin is legendary in the virtual community Second Life for his heart pounding live shows,” says Croyle. Second Life resident Pud Puchkina, who in real life is director of operations for the east coast division of Reality Entertainment and Second Life resident Kateyes Wingtips, the virtual representative for Reality Entertainment have been scouting the growing number of live performers in SL for several months and handling the daunting task of choosing the Avatar that fits the ethos of Reality Entertainment – a multimedia, virtual music label, book publisher and film company. Puchkina stated, “It was a hard decision, but Von Johin is the real deal, he is original and plays from his heart. Just the man and his guitar, with just these two instruments and a virtual appeal like no other, he brings crowds to their feet daily.” Reality Entertainment plans to release Von Johin’s debut album exclusively on iTunes and then to all digital download outlets worldwide.

About Reality Entertainment:

www.reality-entertainment.com

Reality Entertainment (RE) is a diverse multimedia company that specializes in music, books and film. Known for #1 musical acts such as Marcy Playground and KC and the Sunshine Band, RE also is known for #1 best selling books on Amazon.com as well as nationally successful films such as The Extraordinary Voyages of Jules Verne.

About Von Johin:

Blues musician, guitarist and vocalist, Von Johin hails from Nashville, TN and grew up playing juke joints across the Midwest. An ardent follower of the blues greats, Von Johin delivers his powerful shows every week in the clubs and dance halls of Second Life. Once you hear Von Johin you never forget him because he is a unique performer who resonates deeply with his audience providing compelling and hypnotizing performances.

About Second Life:

http://secondlife.com

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents. Each Resident participates in a virtual environment via their “Avatar” or second life persona. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has experienced explosive growth and today is inhabited by millions of residents from around the globe. Recently, live performances have become a viral phenomenon in Second Life with real life musicians performing to audiences within the SL global community.

Ok – there are two obvious flaws with the press release. First, there’s absolutely no way of verifying that this is the first avatar to have music ‘published’ worldwide. Second, any individual can now publish their music worldwide on iTunes using services like TuneCore for the princely sum of US $9.99 per year.

Expecting hyperbole from PR people is par for course, but this is an outright case of trying to get the lead spot in a race where the race already over. Applying 20th century concepts (worldwide recording contract) to the metaverse is bordering on farcical. It’ll be fascinating to see if the mainstream media pick this release up.

All that said, no comment is made on Von Johin’s ability as a musician. Avatar music performance in Second Life is one of it’s most interesting activities and here’s to continued growth in that area.

Update: Wired and New World Notes have picked up the story with no hint of understanding that everyone can buy their own ‘world record deal’.

Update 2: Von Johin has contacted us to emphasise that he is the first avatar to sign a record deal and given there’s no contrary evidence we accept that he is indeed the first. We also accept that the record deal may involve activities that offer more than services like TuneCore do. The main point was the hyperbole in the press release and the reality of cheap digital music delivery methods available to anyone wanting to utilise them. Of course, the purpose of record deals are to increase sales, so we look forward to seeing increased sales of music by avatars in Second Life.

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

A year ago on The Metaverse Journal

August 13, 2008 by Leave a Comment

August 2007 saw some new Australian areas in Second Life:

1. We profiled the Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundays in Second Life.

2. We also had a look at Lake View Waters Fishing World.

Filed Under: Australian News, Virtual world history, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

Future freedom loss creeps up unawares?

August 12, 2008 by 1 Comment

Above and beyond Second Life‘s many attractions, many residents prize the ability to make and enjoy user-created content. It is the main thing that separates Second Life from the profusion of other virtual worlds making their appearance, both recently and further in the past. Nonetheless, Linden Lab is pushing for a more “mainstream” approach. Does this spell out the demise of user-created content? During this push, does Linden Lab plan on cravenly sidling up to each step necessary to achieve this end?

It seems clear that Linden Lab is ready to start making changes, both in their business model and in their approach to the governance of Second Life. In “mainstreaming” the running of the Lab, one hopes that the plan is to move from a start-up model to a corporate model. Right now, the Lab seems to function as a conglomeration of start-ups, each of which has a large amount of trouble communicating with the other start-ups in the system. Improved communication between the parts should improve the overall capacity of the business to run efficiently and competently. In “mainstreaming” Second Life, the newly effective and better-resourced Linden Lab might have less trouble governing, even as they bring in tighter measures to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for all-comers. Unless, of course, they continue in the current vein of slowly taking away our favorite toys and making it look like they’re hoping to keep the patronage of the current crop of residents until the money from future residents – “mainstream” residents – comes flooding in. Hey, Linden Lab? We’re adults – do you seriously think that we’re not going to notice if you pull the table-cloth out from under us, even if the flowers are still standing? Also, as mature-minded folk, we can accept that sometimes you need things for your own benefit – just don’t try to pass them off as things that are for our benefit.

It looks like the coming changes are destined not to be necessarily popular with current residents. Perhaps as the residents we should be concerned about this, about the welfare of our virtual tribes, virtual locations, and virtual hobbies. Linden Lab, perhaps, should not be concerned about our reactions at all. They have a business to run, and profits to be made. If this a major priority for them, they should by all means be looking to the future, to future residents and their desires. If this is the case, it would be nice to see two things happen:

1. A removal of the potentially hypocritical slogan “Your world. Your Imagination.” (or even “Your world, Your Way,” a trademark Linden Lab recently applied for);

2. For Linden Lab to “supercharge” the changes in Second Life and get it all over and done with as fast as possible. They should risk losing all the residents they have now, if that is their end goal anyway. Much better that to be strung along and hugely disappointed in the end.

Despite being supported by observation of the news and current events within Linden Lab, this is to some extent just speculation. Things are certainly changing within Linden Lab, but without more straight from the horse’s mouth, it is very difficult to see where the next few months might take us. I’d personally like to say to Linden Lab, “Don’t take away the thing that makes Second Life special. Let us keep our freedoms, and let us deal with all the consequences that come with them. We live in the real world. Virtual worlds can be a reflection of that reality, as well as having their own unique aspects of reality – don’t make it a sheltered thing, a lesser thing than it has been.”

Linden Lab has claimed repeatedly that they and the residents are partners in this world building – shouldn’t partners tell each other what is going on?

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

What do you think about Mainland zoning in Second Life?

August 11, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Second Life resident Diag Anzac has posted a thoughtful response to Jack Linden’s recent zoning announcement on our forums.

Jump in and give your thoughts about a significant change to Second Life.

Filed Under: From the TMJ forums, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

August 11, 2008 by Leave a Comment

1. 7thSpace – TORC at UH turns to virtual world of Second Life for new study. “The University of Houston department of health and human performance is launching an international effort to recruit 500 participants for a study promoting healthy dietary habits and physical activity. The study will take place entirely in the virtual world of Second Life (SL).” (Also – see our report on Metaverse Health)

2. Network World – 10 questions for virtual world evangelists (Microsoft’s) Zain Naboulsi, and (G-Squared’s) Kyle Gomboy. “Welcome to a new regular feature of this blog … “10 questions for … ” where we talk to interesting people in the Microsoft world through a series of 10 questions (more or less, but who’s counting?) Think of this as a cross between James Lipton (Actor’s Studio) and Robert Scoble (Scobleizer). For the inaugural entry in the series, Microsoft Subnet interviewed two of the people responsible for Microsoft’s presence in Second Life and other virtual worlds.”

3. The Industry Standard – Playboy’s Second Life sim buzzes, even as real-world brand falters. “PaidContent reported earlier this week that Playboy is having a difficult time extending its brand online. Citing a Q2 loss, including declines in online and mobile content categories, it’s easy to assume that Playboy has failed to effectively position its brand on the Web. However, the publisher appears to be succeeding in an unlikely place: Second Life. After launching its virtual world presence early in Q2 last year, rumors abounded that Playboy was pulling up its stakes. Clickable Culture was sure that the Playboy sim was all but abandoned by late July of 2007.”

4. The Houston Chronicle – ‘Avatar’ has taken on life of its own and not just online. “In 2001, the decidedly literate nerd-rock group Harvey Danger penned and sang the lines “I bowed before the avatar / He said the problem’s clear to me / You never got over Morrissey.” The rock cognoscenti would have no trouble identifying the mopey crooner Steven Morrissey of the Smiths, but they may have wondered what precisely an avatar is. Nowadays Harvey Danger would find themselves in no such peril, as avatar appears to be everywhere, though not in the sense that they intended.”

5. MarketWatch – Linden Lab Appoints Frank Ambrose as Senior VP of Global Technology. “Linden Lab(R), creator of the virtual world Second Life(R), today announced the appointment of Frank Ambrose as Senior VP of Global Technology. Ambrose has 20 years of experience in technology infrastructure development, data architecture and operations, including his most recent role as AOL’s Senior Vice President of Technology for Infrastructure and Network Services. Reporting to Linden Lab’s CEO, Mark Kingdon, Ambrose will oversee the development of new processes, systems and tools to maximize the scalability of Second Life’s network architecture.”

6. Wired – Is the Army’s Virtual World Already Here? “The Army wants to build a World of Warcraft-style virtual world for training, DANGER ROOM reported a couple weeks back. “There have been a number of partial explorations in this direction, but nothing near a complete system has been created to our knowledge,” Dr. Roger Smith, an Army researcher, told us. But one commercial game maker insists that’s not true. “There is such a game already in existence,” says John MacQueen from Playnet.”

7. What PC? – Very real legal issues exist in a virtual world. “The past few years have seen the entry of major brands such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola, BMW and Dell into the virtual world Second Life, alongside millions of traditional individual users. Businesses typically use Second Life as a marketing tool to raise brand awareness and as a shop window for products, but it is also used for direct sales and recruitment.”

8. redOrbit – Virtual World in Wii Games is a Fitness Hit You Can Run, Play and Watch It All Unfold With a Cartoon Version of Yourself. “As Kathy Winstead was going for a run one recent day in Ponte Vedra Beach, she saw mountains ahead, as well as waterfalls and fellow runners who waved as they jogged by. “What will they think of next? Rose Signorile, 90, asked as she watched Winstead, 66, exercise with a Nintendo Wii Fitness program at The Players Community Senior Center. Winstead was actually running in place in a classroom at the center on Landrum Lane while watching a cartoon version of herself, on a television screen, running through the beautiful mountain park.”

9. VentureBeat – Six Degrees Games raises $7M for sports virtual world. “Virtual world creator Six Degrees Games has taken $7 million to develop a world for six to 14 year old children with a sports theme. The funding is the company’s first.”

10. CNET – Want to screw up a virtual world experiment? Here’s how. “An island all to yourselves sounds dreamy if you’re planning a vacation with your spouse. But not so in the virtual world, where that sort of solitude is potential poison for companies setting up shop.”

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds, Virtual worlds in the media Tagged With:

Reminder: $5000L on offer for forum sign-up competition

August 10, 2008 by 1 Comment

A couple of weeks back we relaunched our forums and there’s been a number of people sign up and start contributing. For any forum’s success there needs to be a critical mass of participants and there’s certainly not that yet.

To help get things kick-started we have a competition running. Any person who signs up on the forums between now and the end of August goes into the draw to win 5000 Linden Dollars. It’s not a huge prize but if you’re looking for a virtual worlds community to be part of anyway, it’s certainly a nice little incentive. If you’re not a Second Life user you can easily cash the Linden Dollars out for US dollars (we’ll explain how).

So jump in and register and join the community.

Filed Under: Australian News, TMJ Site News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

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