New World Notes

Weekend Machinima: Torley Explores the Cyberpunk Wonderland of Sick

Here's what Second Life looks like with a high-end graphics card and all the viewer features turned up to full: Presented by Torley, a rollicking, single take trip through Sick, one of Second Life's best cyberpunk city islands, creation of a Japanese Resident named MK Curtiz. I interviewed him last year, who told me, amazingly enough, he built Sick as "a hobby". [SLurl teleport link to Sick here] Mr. Curtiz is also a superb machinima maker himself: After the break, have a look at the subtitled version of an anime-inspired short he made back in 2007:

Continue reading "Weekend Machinima: Torley Explores the Cyberpunk Wonderland of Sick"

NWN in Japanese:Willow's Playlist:ボーカリストPhoe Nixのアコースティックピアノ

NWN限定、Willow Calderaの新しいSLライブミュージックシーン情報

どちらの世界でも、クリスタルボイスを誇り、聴衆の髪を逆立てるような体験をさせるシンガーは少ないでしょう。エレガントなカバー曲とオリジナルソング両方で、Phoe Nixは自信に満ちたピアノの旋律で伴奏された、非の打ち所がない、情緒的な音楽を演奏します。

Continue reading "NWN in Japanese:Willow's Playlist:ボーカリストPhoe Nixのアコースティックピアノ"

I Like Banana's (Second Life Travel and Fashion Blog)

Banana Vella is the quirky name of a fashionista with a yen for SL travel -- and her blog is named the same. Amid sporadic fashion spreads, she lavishly illustrates her many travels in SL, and they're locations you'll want to visit too: say the underwater dreamland in Raimondo, the magical Bentham forest, and an island called Photon Pinks, "sim that looks like someone threw up candy all over it. I mean that in the nicest way possible!" Now won't you care for some Banana too?

Do You Make Your Avatar More Attractive To Make More Friends?

In Second Life, it's a truism that the more gargantuan a female avatar's breasts are, the more likely the owner is actually a man in real life. In an interesting if limited study, Pixels and Policy's Gatsby Crumb conducted a survey female avatars, and found that wasn't always the case. 70% of female avatars told Gatsby that breast size was an important consideration when creating their persona. Most of those surveyed self-reported as women in real life, and while many said they resisted making their breasts stereotypically large, several said they did so... so they could make friends easier. Not for sexual reasons, necessarily, just to encourage basic social contact:

"At first I played with an avatar that I thought represented me physically... But not many people talked to me. Now [with a large-chested avatar] people go out of their way to IM me and send me friend requests."

The study inspires feminist game blogger Tami "Cuppycake" Baribeau to wonder about the social expectations of virtual attractiveness: "I’m an overweight female in real life, yet my avatar in Second Life is thin and adorable," she acknowledges. "Why is it, that we fight the typical female appearance ideals, yet when given a choice to create our avatars as overweight or as similar to ourselves as possible, we don’t?" Image: pixelsandpolicy.com.

What RL Country Has the Most SL Spenders By Proportion?

Quaintly Tuquri, an SL Resident living in Malaysia, looked at the most recent Second Life economic statistics, and noted something interesting: Her compatriots are responsible for 4% of in-world user-to-user transactions. That would not seem like much, but then, Malaysia only has a population of 28 million. By comparison, Japanese Residents also account for 4% of in-world spending -- but Japan has a population of 128 million. (This may have something to do with the fact that SL users in Malaysia can buy their Linden Dollars with a pre-paid debit card sold at retail -- but Japanese cannot.) This makes me wonder which country has the most Second Life consumers by proportion. My quick eyeball guess is Hong Kong, whose citizens account for 3% of in-world spending -- drawn from a population of only 7 million. Or am I missing another country which proportionally counts more big virtual spenders? Image: quirkyquaintly.com

New World Tableau: Musique Gable's "Snowball Fight"

I love this bright and perfectly composed tribute to winter from Musique Gable.

"Not only was this cheap to shoot," she tells me, "but fun as well. I staged the area using sculpty snow (free from a friend), snow particles ($50L), Linden winter trees (free), an igloo (another freebie -- threw some pillows in there to add some warmth) and some Lost Angel poses. Grabbed a friend and started whizzing snowballs at him until he begged for mercy."

After taking several snapshots, the post-processing magic began: "Threw it into Photoshop -- making everything black and white, except for me and my reluctant snowball victim (to draw your attention to the snowball fight) and the pillows in the igloo (to give it a splash of color), along with a little brushwork to add depth and shadows."

See more of Musique's great SL-driven art on her Koinup profile, see the whole New World Tableau series here. To best submit entries of your own, join my New World Tableau group on Koinup, and start uploading them there; be sure to tell us a bit how you created your image.

Chestnut's Choices 11/12 - 11/18: Concert Series Blends Live Jazz & Immersive Art, Science Author Dorion Sagan Speaks, All-Day Fall Music Festival and Much More

Chestnut Rau’s weekly round-up of upcoming SL events…

If you like live Jazz and 3D immersive art, there is a series of mixed reality events that should tickle your fancy. JazzLive at The Crypt presents a short season of jazz concerts celebrating the wealth of talent in the UK jazz scene.  The shows will be broadcast live from the RL venue into a Second Life space filled with art by some of the virtual world’s most respected artists -- DanCoyote Antonelli, Oberon Onmura and Juria Yoshikawa. 

The art covers the entire sim and creates a wild, pulsing, colorshifting environment which serves as the background for the music.  As you can see from the photo above the art is large-scale. What you can't see is the work reacts to avatars which creates an engaging immersive experience.  During performances the RL audience will be able to view the art on a large screen and the SL audience will be able to see the action at The Crypt.  Jazz is experimental by nature and the same can be said about virtual art so the two seem like ideal partners. 

On Friday, 11/13 at  8pm in London and Noon in SL, The Dave O'Higgins Quartet will perform, featuring Dave O'Higgins on tenor & soprano saxes, Tom Cawley on piano, Arnie Somogyi on bass and Matt Home on drums.  For more information about this show and for a schedule of weekly performances please go here. As a special bonus this week, there will be a set by SL jazz musician Seba Sideways who will be playing starting at noon.  In JazzLive.  [SLurl teleport at this link]

Also after the break:NMC Covers 2 Sims with Work from 30 Artists, Political Humor in the Age of Obama, Old-time Thanksgiving Stories, AIDS Benefit and much much more

Continue reading "Chestnut's Choices 11/12 - 11/18: Concert Series Blends Live Jazz & Immersive Art, Science Author Dorion Sagan Speaks, All-Day Fall Music Festival and Much More"

How to Make Second Life Truly Mass Market, Part 2: Point-and-Click Avatar Movement!

World of Warcraft, the largest 3D online world with 12 million subscribers, has it.

Sims 2, which is often compared to SL, and is the biggest single-player 3D game for the PC, selling 13 million copies, also has it.

But Second Life, the largest 3D virtual world with only 750K active users, and a growth plateau, does not have it:

Point-and-click avatar movement.

With a point-and-click interface, the user clicks the mouse somewhere within the display, avatar goes there. Display camera automatically follows the avatar. The basic interaction is common to anyone who's ever used a modern computer.

With Second Life, by contrast, the default movement interface is still based on first-person shooter keybindings -- A strafes left, D strafes rights, and so on. The reason for this is simple:

Continue reading "How to Make Second Life Truly Mass Market, Part 2: Point-and-Click Avatar Movement!"

Willow's Playlist: Indie Rock From [Engrama]: SL's answer to the White Stripes, with added Spanish flair

Exclusive to NWN, Willow Caldera covers SL's burgeoning live music scene

For Pupito Abrahams and Lakua Arriaga, performing in Second Life has become a real-life career. Taking their influences from bands such as Joy Division and The Cure and sprinkling over them a dash of Spanish guitar, [Engrama]'s live presence has a whimsical quality that perfectly complements its indie cool.

The duo live together in Buenos Aires, though Pupito hails originally from Argentina and Lakua from Spain. [Engrama] was born from a shared interest in musical experimentation and blends Pupito's interest in the local independent music scene and Lakua's goal to 'musicalize' images, which comes from her background as a photographer. 

This video was shot by Sound'r at Idylls Club.

"We use to watch a movie and put down the sound and try to do the soundtrack of the movie, and one day we start playing without that mechanism and started making music," says Pupito.

Continue reading "Willow's Playlist: Indie Rock From [Engrama]: SL's answer to the White Stripes, with added Spanish flair"

Philip Rosedale Unveils New Company: "LoveMachine Inc" Offers AI, Destruction of the Ego, Lots of Money-Making

The mystery around Philip Linden's new company keeps getting, well, mysteriouser. Just announced on his Facebook feed (where he also created an invite-only group for it), the LoveMachine Inc site is pretty sparse so far, except to say, "We believe that the right band of people can work together, have a huge amount of fun, make a bunch of money, and try to save the world."

Adding a bit more meat to that mission statement is Philip's help wanted ad for an executive assistant posted to Craiglist, which mentions that "what we are doing is about Artificial Intelligence," then somewhat curiously, says the company will value "freedom, fun, greatness, and the destruction of the ego". (My theology is a bit rusty, but aren't elimination of the ego and massive money making usually considered mutually exclusive?) In any event, it does seem to involve creating, as I first suggested, a mass market version of the original Love Machine, apparently with some AI functionality. Part of me thinks this is all or largely a lark, especially since the job application requirements demand that you start by finding the "word written in sharpie on the lower edge of the sign outside the [Linden Lab] door." Then again, in today's economy, I wouldn't be surprised if several applicants have already made their way there. Image credit: www.lovemachineinc.com. More fun from Dusan Writer here.

In Survey, 90% Call For Critical Second Life Fashion Blog -- Here's Some Advice on Writing One

Noting the dearth of SL blogs that are critical of Second Life fashion, I recently surveyed the demand for same. Here's the results: nearly 90% are potentially interested in reading an SL blog with negative product reviews. Iris Ophelia wrote a classic guide for spotting poorly made Second Life fashion, so here's three suggestions for blogging about them with a minimum of drama:

Continue reading "In Survey, 90% Call For Critical Second Life Fashion Blog -- Here's Some Advice on Writing One"

Open Forum: If Second Life Notecards Are So Frustrating, Why Do Residents Keep Using Them?

Every time I go into Second Life, I'm inundated by all the text notecards that have been piling into my holding queue since I last logged in -- press releases, event announcements, long messages, and so on. Often they take forever to open, and in any case, there's no way to immediately reply to them (you need to discern who sent which notecard, then contact them, a process of several steps), and if you accidentally close or discard one you need, good luck trying to find it in your Inventory. There's no way to automatically export them out of Second Life, so if you want to blog about them, you have to arduously copy/paste the notecard text from multiple windows. For all these reasons and more, I have a profile message begging people to contact me via email, and a post announcing the same. Despite this, the notecards keep coming. I'm hardly the only one frustrated by them, so the mystery is why they're still such a mainstay of Second Life miscommunication. What's your take?

New World Newsfeed: Top University's Online Advisers Now Required To Maintain Office Hours on Second Life Campus

Penn State is ranked among the United State's very best public universities, and now the Chronicle of Higher Education reports it has another distinction: The school's online advisors are required to maintain office hours as avatars in Penn State's Second Life presence. Judging by the website calendar, that means 12 Penn State representatives being available in SL throughout the week. I wonder if the University's Second Life island gets enough foot traffic of students and would-be students to justify such an active schedule -- but then again, all it really requires is running a SL window in the background, and popping it open when you hear the clicky-clacky typing of a visitor. Direct SLurl to Penn State's Island at this link. Image: worldcampus.psu.edu.

Virtual King Tut Photo Contest - $100 Each For 3 Winners

NWN partner Rezzable is sponsoring a photo contest of King Tut Virtual, their Tutankhamen exhibit running on an OpenSimulator grid. (Direct link here on Rezzable's Heritage Key site.) Three winners will get $100 (USD, not Linden Dollars) for taking high-res pics around these themes: "Avatars exploring", "What in King Tut Virtual would you show to your friends?", and "What's real in a virtual world?" Go here for all the details. Pic by Prad Prathivi.

The Art of M. Linden -- Abstract Peek Into Mind of Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon

In a very interesting interview with Mark Kingdon on Massively, the Linden Lab CEO casually told Tateru Nino about his art student background, and pointed to his Flickr stream of drawings, a striking series of abstract and intricate meshes. I was curious to know more, and how they might relate to his current work in Second Life.

"I've been doing these drawings for 15 years," M. told me, "although the ones you see on Flickr are from a very condensed period of time... Drawing helps focus my mind, like meditation.

"The less colorful/intricate drawings on Flickr were done at the office while on long conference calls -- black ink pen, basic printer paper. (Yes, I can concentrate on the conversation while drawing.) I remember exactly where I was when I did the last one in the set (it's shaped like a lopsided Africa). I had to crop it because it had telephone numbers on it. A true doodle. The more colorful/intricate drawings -- the ones where I used colored pencils -- were done at home. They take a long time (and they're messy) because I am forever sharpening the pencils. I haven't doodled much at all since joining the Lab. When I am in in-world meetings I am always camming around."

So how does his artwork relate to Second Life and his management of Linden Lab?

Continue reading "The Art of M. Linden -- Abstract Peek Into Mind of Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon"

Second Life's Oldest Resident is 97

Los Angeles architect David Denton uses Second Life as a tool for his work (more on that soon), and when colleagues complain that SL is too complicated, he has a novel reply: "If my 97 year old mother can do it, you can do it."

Because that happens to be the case: meet LS Back, who is almost certainly Second Life's oldest Resident. (When I told David about the 88 year old blues singer and the 87 year old Holocaust survivor who also use SL, he snorted: "Whippersnappers.")

Ms. Back, David tells me, enjoys flying around and exploring, and visiting the exhibit hall which David built for her, to display her watercolor paintings in-world. (He made it as a surprise for her 95th birthday.) We are fortunate to have a real life photo of her, because Ms. Back was initially reluctant to be profiled. For as she first told David, "Southern ladies do not reveal their age."

Photo and screenshot courtesy of D. Denton.

Second Life Machinima Shot With an iPhone

Want an economical way to shoot Second Life machinima? There's an app for that. As demonstrated by Botgirl Questi, who captures SL video with her iPhone:

I actually like how the iPhone gives the footage a glassy, abstracted appearance. (This is roughly the way Douglas Gayeton shot his Molotov Alva SL documentary, with a high definition camera pointed directly at his monitor.) Botgirl also edited this video with an iPhone app called ReelDirector, so it's entirely an iPhone package.

My Favorite New World Notes Posts From Last Week

If you missed them last week here's a last chance to check them out before they slide off the front page:

• How to make Second Life truly mass market, Part 1: Deep Integration With Facebook (Very interesting conversation in Comments)
• Iris Ophelia's guide to spotting badly-made virtual fashion (a must read for fashionistas)
• Korean company developing multitouch metaverse screen interface for OpenSim/Second Life
• US Army funds Second Life-based therapy for amputees
• Virtual law expert Ben Duranske's advice on SL Content Theft. Biggest one: Register the copyright of your SL content!
• In reply to Stroker lawsuit, Linden lawyers cite "Unclean Hands" defense -- an expert analyzes why
• How big is the market for SL's enterprise solution, anyway?
• Willow profiles vocalist Phoe Nix, a bit like Tori Amos meets Kate Bush
• The social fallout of SL content theft
• Goodbye Bettina from Second Life blogging (but not gone besides that)

Today Meet Virtual Goods Expert Susan Wu in Second Life!

Today (November 8) at 4 PM SLT/Pacific, virtual goods expert Susan Wu will be the guest on SmarterTechnology's Second Life show, where she'll speak on "The Internet Economics of Vampire Fun". Fast Company named her one of 2009's 100 most creative people in business, and for good reason: Susan's the founder and CEO of Ohai, a new MMO game developer, and before that, was CMO for the Apache Foundation, VP of Strategy for Opus360, and most recently a partner at Charles River Ventures. (She's even been involved in some SL-related projects.) Even more important, she's a good friend of mine, and one of the smartest people working in virtual worlds and games. Please come if you can, you'll learn a lot about both -- including City of Eternals, her upcoming vampire-themed MMO, which I'll be talking more about here soon.

This is the SLurl teleport link to SmartTechnology's auditorium. If you can't reach the in-world venue, here's how to watch the video stream on the web:

Continue reading "Today Meet Virtual Goods Expert Susan Wu in Second Life!"

NWN in Japanese: IBMとNokiaが、より進歩したリアリティー会議システムをセカンドライフで開発している

IBMとNokiaが、より進歩したリアリティー会議システムをセカンドライフで開発している。この開発によって、参加者はリアルとバーチャルの会議スペースを共有することが出来る。ここにあるシステム作動中の映像では、目とアバターの位置を追跡するヘッドマウントカメラが取り入れられ、現実世界とセカンドライフのビデオをまとめている。これにより、デモではミーティング参加者がセカンドライフの中にしか存在しない３Dの建物をチェックしているところを見ることができる：

Continue reading "NWN in Japanese: IBMとNokiaが、より進歩したリアリティー会議システムをセカンドライフで開発している"

Virtual Law Expert Ben Duranske on SL Content Theft

Chestnut Rau has a good summary of a recent in-world presentation on legal issues and SL content theft by virtual world law expert Benjamin Duranske (Benjamin Noble in SL), author of Virtual Law: Navigating the Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds. Among the highlights Chestnut reports: "He remarked that the class action suit recently brought against Linden Lab regarding content theft was very well done", and "suggests content creators make sure they register their copyright with the government because in the US doing so increases the ability to sue for damages and recover legal costs". Emphasis mine, because I strongly second his second point. Shockingly, in a recent survey, 85% of SL content creators polled say they have not registered their works. So I'll put it even more bluntly than Benjamin:

If a Second Life content creator wants to show they're actually serious about protecting their SL content, they should register it with the US government.

Anyway, read the rest of the summary here, with more from Phaylen Fairchild.

Image credit: A slide from Benjamin's SL talk, from Dusty Artaud's Flickr stream.

The Heartbreak of Second Life Content Theft

SL fashion designer Sasy Scarborough has a long and tormented post on the heartbreak of content theft, sent to me by my style columnist Iris Ophelia. Here is Sasy talking about one of her regular routines, tracking down stolen content, so she can report it:

Let's start with the malls, the places that are so seedy that I used to feel dirty just being there, and even worse would constantly panic that someone might think I was actually in a stolen content store to actually shop, because I couldn’t say anything, wasn’t able to explain, just had to get in get info and get the hell out. 

Then there are the full blown stores selling every single item you have in your inventory from the original creator, up there so blatant in its copybotted glory, that I used to have to stand there for twenty or more hive inducing minutes to rez it all, and then to find out it was even worse because it was all being sold full perms, so the travesty would continue.

Last week, I noted that it's difficult to see evidence of substantial content theft's impact in the Second Life economic reports, which show continued growth of revenue transactions. (My basic sense is that most content theft is too low margin and fly-by-night to show up on a macro level.) However, I also suggested then that the moral and social impact is grave. Ms. Scarborough's story is but one illustration of that.

Iris put it best, when I asked for her take on content theft's economic impact: "It's hard to say," she told me, "because money is still being spent and we can't see where it's being spent. Designers who get copybotted incessantly like Maitreya still do well, but we have no idea how much they could be doing better if content theft wasn't so rampant."

However, she continued, "In truth the only thing that we really can measure is the stress that it puts on designers and people in the community who do care like Sasy, and the added strain it puts on the system of Lindens in charge of dealing with governance and copyright enforcement issues who already have a hell of a lot on their plate to begin with."

Image credit: sasypants.com

In Defense Against Stroker Serpentine Content Theft Lawsuit, Linden Lawyers Cite "Unclean Hands" Defense Against Plaintiffs -- an Expert Analyzes Why

The Lindens' lawyers have filed a response to the content theft-related lawsuit filed by Stroker Serpentine and Munchflower Zaius -- the Alphaville Herald has a full copy here. Among the defenses is the legal doctrine of "unclean hands", in which a defendant argues that the plaintiff (Serpentine and/or Zaius in this case) are acting unethically or have acted in bad faith. To me this seemed a surprising defense to make, but since I'm not a lawyer, I contacted an actual one, for his opinion: Sean Kane of Kane & Associates, who's an expert in law related to virtual worlds and online games. Here's his take:

"Linden Lab's inclusion of Unclean Hands as an Affirmative Defense in their Answer to the Complaint may not mean much of anything. There are several Affirmative Defenses that are almost always included in an Answer because if they are not raised they may be deemed waived. Unclean Hands is one of them." (More after the break.)

Continue reading "In Defense Against Stroker Serpentine Content Theft Lawsuit, Linden Lawyers Cite "Unclean Hands" Defense Against Plaintiffs -- an Expert Analyzes Why"

New World Tableau: "Surfer" by Arminius Heron

Ideal viewing for a cold Fall day, Arminius Heron shot "Surfer" in a beach region with a kneeling model pose and a surfboard, turning a static shot into a perfect freeze frame of action. (You definitely want to click to see the full effect.)

"It was quite difficult to obtain the right camera angle," Arminius tells me, "because what you would never suspect is that Vanessa is actually hovering about one meter above the board. Plus, this was before WindLight and environmental controls were introduced to SL, so the lighting was rather dull, too. The water and splashing effects are all Photoshopped in using only default-brushes, A LOT of layers and emboss effects."

See many more of Mr. Heron's great SL-based images here, and see the whole New World Tableau series here. To best submit entries of your own, join my New World Tableau group on Koinup, and start uploading them there; be sure to tell us a bit how you created your image.

Survey: How Big Is the Market for Second Life Enterprise?

This week, the Lindens officially launched its behind-the-firewall product, Second Life Enterprise™, formerly code-named "Nebraska", with a starting price of $55,000. It comes out the gate with 14 clients, including a number of high profile firms like IBM and Northrop Grumman; how many more potential clients are out there? Please make your best educated guess below:

Online Surveys & Market Research

Possible points to consider: On the plus side, the stellar reputation of SLE's existing clients may encourage many more companies to invest in this, as will the recommendations of leading analysts who consider virtual world enterprise solutions a rising business trend, and Second Life's brand name dominance in this space. On the negative side, much of the same functionality for SLE can be obtained at much cheaper prices with OpenSimulator-based virtual worlds, such as ReactionGrid. Looking at the larger market, the existing user base of consumers active in 3D immersive non-game virtual worlds is still relatively small (probably under a million total), which means an organization which chooses to invest in SLE will not only have to pay $55K+, but plan for a long learning and adoption phase. So what's your take?

Open Forum: What Upcoming Second Life Events Should We Cover In Chestnut's Absence?

Chestnut Rau's real life owner is under the weather, so Chestnut's Choices won't be running this week. If you know about excellent Second Life events happening from today until next Wednesday, please post details in Comments. Don't forget to include description, date/time, and SLurl, and include related website links where available, especially to images. And wish Ms. Rau a quick recovery!

Ophelia's Gaze: 5 Signs of Low-Quality Second Life Fashion

Exclusive to NWN, Iris Ophelia's ongoing showcase of all things stylish in SL

I've decided to give you a pretty pic up top because it's going to get real ugly after the jump, believe me. There's been a lot of discussion going on lately about the value of highly critical fashion blogging in SL. Do you gloss over the flaws or zero in on them? Even if you aren't a blogger, how can you tell if the item you're wearing is truly well made? It's a fairly broad subject to cover, but I've got five points and some very valuable advice for anyone who wants to start poring over the contents of their virtual closet with a little more scrutiny.

So if you want to be critical of SL fashion, or you just want to be a more discerning consumer, here's what to look for...

Continue reading "Ophelia's Gaze: 5 Signs of Low-Quality Second Life Fashion"

US Army Funds Second Life-Based Therapy For Amputees

The United States Army is funding a Second Life project to develop a virtual environment therapeutic space for amputees, through the auspices of Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) of the US Army's Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) branch. In Second Life, the project will be handled by Virtual Ability, a non-profit that's been using SL as therapy for the disabled for years, and Remedy Communication, a Canadian media agency whose well-known representative in SL is Dusan Writer.

The Army's TATRC, Dusan tells me, "was aware that virtual worlds are helping to bring people together, whether people with disabilities, vets or casual users, and are increasingly being used in therapy and peer-to-peer support." This project in Second Life aims to establish a "global standard" to this phenomenon. It'll operate in SL's recently launched "Nebraska" behind-the-firewall enterprise solution.

I'm fairly skeptical there's a large and sustainable market for Nebraska yet, but in this case, it's a perfect match:

Continue reading "US Army Funds Second Life-Based Therapy For Amputees"

Willow's Playlist: Acoustic Piano From Vocalist Phoe Nix: Think Tori Amos meets Kate Bush in Second Life

Exclusive to NWN, Willow Caldera covers SL's burgeoning live music scene

Few singers in either world can boast a voice so crystal clear and haunting that the collective hair of the audience stands on end. Performing a mixture of elegant covers and self-penned songs, Phoe Nix delivers a flawless, emotional set accompanied by the confident notes of her piano.

Phoe Nix began her career singing in choirs in her native Singapore, moving on to run her own studio, Firebird Music, and reached the Asian Top 40 with her debut release, 'Binary Star'. In the real world, she has toured globally and played venues from the Coventry Skydome Arena, with 50 dancers accompanying her set, to the Whisky A Go Go on Sunset Boulevard. She now lives in the UK, where she fronts electro-rock band greenhaus.

This video was recorded by Sound'r at A Cluster of Stars, a beach venue designed for the romantic music lover. It features the original song 'Still You're There'.

"I'm a piano-vocalist-songwriter playing jazzy folk/pop lounge original and cover songs," says Phoe.

Continue reading "Willow's Playlist: Acoustic Piano From Vocalist Phoe Nix: Think Tori Amos meets Kate Bush in Second Life"

Leading Blog for Metaverse/Second Life Art Suspended

Bettina Tizzy has just announced she's suspending her NPIRL blog, the leading voice for art created in Second Life and other immersive virtual worlds. She is not departing from SL or her role as metaverse art maven, however, just reportedly devoting her energies elsewhere.

"It's bittersweet, Hammy," she tells me, when I ask her how she feels to do so. "Delicious to have a soapbox from which to highlight and discuss both the good and the worrisome about virtual worlds. I can remember worrying that I'd run out of things to say, content to feature, and great content creators to interview. Ha! My only regret is that I never wrote about some of the best, and there are so many new talents coming on board now. Simply not enough time in the day."

While praising the blog's collaborators, especially Turkish designer Alpha Auer, she also hinted at what's to come: "I am not going away. The Not Possible IRL working group and the in-world Impossible IRL group remain. As for a hint to what I'll be doing next, I'm looking at Google Wave as as way to encourage discussion and collaboration, as well as other web platforms and worlds, and I'm taking on a few projects which I'll talk about soon enough."

Good to know Ms. Tizzy will still be around. Still, losing the blog is a sharp blow to the evolution of metaverse-based art. Image credit: Bettina Tizzy in 2007, showing me one of AM Radio's first SL art installations, based on "The Death of Marat".

How To Make Second Life Truly Mass Market, Part 1: Deep Integration With Facebook

The latest official economic stats for Second Life are now available, and they tell a mixed picture: while user-to-user transactions continue to grow, the absolute number of unique users does not. After a steady growth period at the start of the year, monthly unique repeat SL users have plateaued to around 750K. In his report, Linden Chief Product Officer T. Linden suggests this flat growth is the result of the new policy (imposed last May) banning Traffic-gaming bots.

That may well be the case, but what's undeniable is that Secnd Life is still struggling to become a virtual world with mass market status. By way of comparison, consider today's largest virtual world: YoVille, from Zynga, a web-based MMO played in Facebook and MySpace. Only launched in May 2008, it now counts nearly 20 Million unique monthly active users on Facebook alone. (Making it much larger than not just World of Warcraft, but web-based MMOs like Habbo.)

There are a number of reasons for YoVille's rapid and sustained growth, but one in particular stands out: Deep integration with leading social networks, especially Facebook with its 300 million active users. This explains how YoVille managed to grow so speedily, for its appeal is not just the virtual world itself (cartoonish and simple as it is), but the desire to play it with Facebook friends. "At their most fundamental level," Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, recently told me, social network-based games like YoVille "are games that you can play with real people with real identities."

I recently wrote about how mass adoption is so crucial to Second Life, and at the time, I promised to offer suggestions for making that possible. Taking YoVille's success as a reference point, my first recommendation is this: Second Life needs deep integration with Facebook.

Continue reading "How To Make Second Life Truly Mass Market, Part 1: Deep Integration With Facebook"

Korean Company Developing Multitouch Metaverse Screen Interface For OpenSim/Second Life

Watch this cool early prototype video of a multitouch screen interface for interacting in OpenSim/Second Life, the possibilities are exciting:

100" Multi touch screen with Second Life from junhee, yeo on Vimeo.

It's being developed by IMG512 (site here), a development lab with a South Korean company called Zentium.

"That SL server (we're using OpenSim server we implemented) can communicate with the client PC that connects to the OpensSim server by the Internet," Junhee Yeo, a VP with Zentium's Interactive Media Group, explained to me by email. "Also client PC has the multi-touch engine. That multi-touch engine gives touch event to the SL client like a mouse or track pad on your laptop." Junhee tells me the company is now focused on improving the multi-touch hardware, but may return to improving their SL/OpenSim interface later on. Hat tip: Gromike in Second Life.

Is Your Second Life Property Mentioned In Your Real Life Will?

The New York Times has an interesting story on a topic most of us would rather not discuss: What will happen to your virtual assets after you leave the material world? In the case of Leto Yoshiro, an avatar whose owner died last year, the Times reports that his SL partner Enchant Jacques was left having to maintain the tier fees for the island they shared, and ultimately had to sell it. The issue was recently brought up by Bettina Tizzy, who wants avatar-based artists to will their Second Life projects to trusted parties, so they'll still exist in-world after death. But metaverse artists aren't the only Residents who have good reason to will their Second Life content. There's all the SL entrepreneurs who earn a livelihood from their work in-world, and the landowners who've turned their property into a virtual community space that dozens rely on. (To name but two.) Add to that the fact that 20% of active SL users are over 47, and the question becomes even more pressing: Have you mentioned your SL content and property in your real life will?

Top Ten New World Notes Posts From Last Week

• My challenge to other SL bloggers: If content theft is pervasive, why does in-world spending continue to rise (fascinating conversation in the Comments)?
• IBM and Nokia Developing Augmented Reality Conferencing System in Second Life
• Second Life Tells Twitter: Enjoy the Hype While It Lasts, Get Ready for the Backlash!
• Mr. Whybrow Builds AT-AT Walker That Walks With Physics
• Open Source Second Life Viewer Removes Undesired Avatars From View!
• Iris Ophelia's Hot Tips For Halloween in Second Life
• Artificial Mutating Flower Grows, Mutates... and Microblogs!
• Willow Caldera checks out The Matthew Show, metaverse-based geek country-western from Texas.
• When Does Second Life Advocacy Start To Seem Cult-Like?
• RMB City re-imagined by two excellent metaverse photographers, Osprey Therian and Ran Garrigus.

Sunday Open Forum: What Open Forum Topics Should We Discuss Next Week?

An open forum for open forums: What burning SL/OpenSim issues do you want to discuss this month?

New World Tableau: "Sleep Walk" by Gahum Riptide

Ideal for Halloween, Mr. Riptide presents this disturbing image inspired by the song "Sleep Walk", from Santo and Johnny. "Now, this song is usually used in a romantic or dreamy way," Gahum allows, "but I wanted to play up this very sinister feel I get from the song (likely due to its use in the films Sleepwalkers and Twelve Monkeys). Either way, I felt an appropriate sim for this would be the 'Cellar' sim due to its rather dark, spooky feel." [SLurl teleport at this link]  "So, this is sort of my interpretation of the song. I've done minimal editing, just cropping, brightness and contrast correction."

See the whole New World Tableau series here. To best submit entries of your own, join my New World Tableau group on Koinup, and start uploading them there; be sure to tell us a bit how you created your image.

Ran Garrigus Wins RMB City Photography Contest!

I'm happy to announce that Cao Fei and the staff of RMB City have chosen Ran Garrigus a winner in the RMB Photography contest, taking the prize in the "Synthetic Virtual" category with the striking image below, "Planet RMB City".

"My motivation to make this image," Mr. Garrigus tells me, "followed reading Cao Fei's RMB City Manifesto, in which her final point is 'The World'. In there, she explains that one aim of the project is to bring to participants in the project the 'experience' of 'the whole World'. Depicting RMB City as a planet, as a singular urban ecology amidst a world of water, was my attempt to interpret the manifesto visually." Ran's challenge was realizing that concept in a screenshot:

Continue reading "Ran Garrigus Wins RMB City Photography Contest!"

NWN in Japanese:バスト機能強化:オープンソースSLビューワーがアバターのバスト物理現象を取り入れ議論を呼び、5万ダウンロードを記録

 
Danny Nolanバストの物理現象をコード化した人物：挿入図は、彼が開発したエメラルドのメニューオプション

Continue reading "NWN in Japanese:バスト機能強化:オープンソースSLビューワーがアバターのバスト物理現象を取り入れ議論を呼び、5万ダウンロードを記録"

When Does Second Life Advocacy Start To Seem Cult-Like?

Recently virtual community visionary Howard Rheingold described Second Life users as "a tiny cult following", which he clearly didn't mean pejoratively (Howard's an early supporter of SL), but in the sense that it's still relatively small, and the platform awaits killer apps that will grow the user base into "a small cyber subculture." Still, the term provoked Roland Legrand of Mixed Realities to make this observation:

I must admit, sometimes I clearly feel the cult-like aspects – especially when avatars react [against] people who don’t believe in Second Life or in virtual worlds in general. When such people eventually change their position and “admit” there is value in Second Life, there is joy in the Second Life communities which can only be compared to the joy of the faithful for a conversion.

And I see some resonance in that admission too. To me, it's less important that the uninitiated embrace and "convert" to Second Life (especially when the entry barriers are still so high), than they understand the full measure of possibilities it affords now. What's your take on Roland's reaction? Image from this Rheingold video presentation.

SL Entrepeneurs, Do You Beta Test Your Products?

Philippe Pascal, partner of the metaverse company SnowCrash Digital (he's ppmediadev Blinker in SL), suggests Second Life entrepreneurs have a beta release of their products:

Based on their feedback you can decide if the product is ready to go, or if it needs another round on the drawing board... Secondly there is the marketing side of beta testing. Firstly, it shows (potential) customers you care about their experience with your product. Having people beta test your product also engages your end users in the product development process.

He offers many other reasons for having a beta period, and advice for organizing one.

Fine Caliber, Fine Fashion Blogger

Forget how I found her, but I dig the SL fashion blog of Fine Caliber, who creates slick, evocative, occasionally surreal style spreads to illustrate her clothing choices. Here for example is her film noir tableau, posted to celebrate her rez day: "Was required to get an SL account by a professor that held his office hours in-world. Set it and forget it for about two years before I find out Gossip Girl was doing some promotion thing via Second Life." Glad she stayed. And here's another nice spread, weirdly juxtaposing cheerleaders, fast food workers, and "Alice in Wonderland". Image credit: finethanks.tumblr.com.

Educator Blogs Experiences Teaching Inner City Teens in SL

"PESD Island" is a blog devoted to an island in Teen Second Life, where the teacher Norma Underwood (Noreen Strehlow IRL) blogs her experiences educating a group of kids in SL. "I work with inner city youth who do not have much access to computers outside of school. In doing the work we have done on the island," she wrote on a recent NWN thread, "these students are getting a chance to think about careers they would not have thought about before. Many are talking about doing work in the graphic arts or architecture. They are getting a chance to create with almost limitless materials which is something that rarely happens when even art supplies have to be doled out carefully." Excellent stuff. (Above, some of Norma's students in-world, posing on a group photo.) Photo: pesdisland.blogspot.com

Typepad Makes Comments Fail Whale (Update: Fixed, Comment Away!)

Apologies to folks who've wanted to post a Comment on this blog over the last 24 hours or so; for unexplained reasons, Typepad is apparently not enabling comment threads. Will let you know when/if the problem is resolved.

SL Blogger Challenge: Show Me the Economic Effects of Virtual Content Theft (Updated)

Here's a simple challenge for fellow Second Life bloggers. Here are the most recent economic numbers for in-world spending, as compared to previous quarters, going back to 2006:

In this chart, where is the evidence that in-world content theft is having a substantial impact on the Second Life economy? Recall that the first instance of the CopyBot, often blamed for the most damaging forms of content theft, was in November 2006. Since then, however, user-to-user L$ transactions have increased, often extremely so. Recall also that the number of Residents who spend L$ in-world has remained relatively stable since last year, at around 450K. (It was roughly 300K in 2007.) And while the number of consumers hasn't significantly increased, total transactions between them very much has. If content theft increased, wouldn't consumer spending decrease?

Once again, this is only a challenge regarding the economic impact of content theft. The moral and social impact of such theft, as seen in a recent, mysterious incident reported by Shopping Cart Disco, has a terrible substance of its own. But looking at the broader macro picture, where is evidence of the damage?

Surely I'm missing something obvious; please tell me what.

Update, 9:02am: Typepad seems to be having trouble enabling Comments today, working on that now. SL bloggers, if you post replies on your own blog, be sure to send a Trackback to this post.

Update 2, 11:40am: Comments seem to be working now. If you have trouble, let me know via "Hamlet Au" in SL or via email to hamlet at secondlife dot com.

Osprey Thereian Wins RMB City Photography Contest!

I'm happy to announce that Cao Fei and the staff of RMB City have chosen Osprey Therian a winner in the RMB Photography contest, taking the prize in the "Natural Virtual" category with this powerful image above. When exploring RMB for subjects to photograph, Osprey tells me, "What I felt was important was the way the disparate elements are juxtaposed, so rather than singling out individual things I looked around, searching for intriguing slivers. I cammed around relentlessly on numerous visits, always in KirstenLee's Shadow Viewer, and always adjusting WindLight for each shot. I did a lot of looking, from every vantage point -- I didn't have anything in mind, but just looked and looked. There's a lot to see!" [Direct SLurl at this link]

Winner in the "Synthetic Virtual" category announced next week!

Chestnut's Choices: 10/29 - 11/4: Author Douglas Rushkoff in SL, Spooky Halloween Events, Live Ballet and Much More

Chestnut Rau’s weekly round-up of upcoming SL events…

The grid is covered with pumpkins, zombies are everywhere looking to slurp up our avatar brains, and people are dressed in even more crazy ways than usual, which can only mean one thing -- it's Halloween in Second Life!  If you are looking for ways to celebrate the season there are plenty of parties and events happening.  Here is a partial list with more scary fun after the break. 

• Thursday 10/29 at 7pm - Ghostly Stories with Shandon Loring.  Shandon reads from The Dead Smile, by F. Marion Crawford.   This macabre story will chill you to the bone.  Shandon also reads from Housewarming, by Steve Rasnic Tem.  A subtle study of mounting terror, poor Judith creates her own fear-ghost, one that will be around for a long time. This kind of situation could happen to anyone - and probably will.  In West of Ireland.    [SLurl teleport at this link] 

• Friday 10/30, All Day - Masquerade Ball with the Phantom of the Opera.  From 9am to 12 midnight every hour on the hour you can hear a different live musician at the lovely Paris Opera House. Listen to the wonderful music from some of the top perfomers from Russell eponym, Keith Mdasen, Inchino Melson, Hazideon Zarco, Sojourn Rossini, Mimi Carpenter, Strum Diesel, Harper Messer, Damian Carbenell, Amforte Clairity, Skye Galaxy and more.  The Phantom of the Opera is haunts the venue so you should probably expect him to make an appearance or two on the day before Halloween, no?  In Zentopia.     [SLurl teleport at this link] 

• Friday 1/30 at 6pm- Extreme Reality Halloween Party.  With music provided by Slim Warrior, Doubledown Tandino,  Zak Claxton and DJ Eris this party is sure to be attended by the SL Glitterati.  There will be Halloween trivia with Hydra Shaftoe so you can show off how scary smart you are, pumpkin boat races, bobbing for apples, and a haunted grave yard where you can practice your zombie shooting skills.   This party promises to be a hauntingly good time.  In Mystical Island.  [SLurl teleport at this link]

• Saturday 10/31 - Roleplayers at Erie Isle Host Two Costume Balls.  The haunted Erie Isle is crawling with ghosts, demons and  vampires. The trick is -- on Erie, the dead walk among the living you never know who (or what) you might bump into.  The first event will be the “Halloween Ball”  in the Sacred Garden on Erie port at 1pm. Prizes for the best male, and best female costume as well as gift bags for attendees provided by Vanilla C. Designs. Later in the evening at a secret Erie Isle location Randolph Renfold and Journey Maertens host the “Light and Dark Ball”. Activities include a costume contest and a live music performance from musician Kellee Blaylock.  In Erie Isle Port.  [SLurl teleport at this link]

Also after the break: Steampunk Authors Speak, Live Electronica Show, Surf Festival and Boat Show and much much more...

Continue reading "Chestnut's Choices: 10/29 - 11/4: Author Douglas Rushkoff in SL, Spooky Halloween Events, Live Ballet and Much More"

New World Newsfeed: Silicon Alley Insider Ranks Linden Lab Among Top 25 Most Valuable Startup, With $800M Valuation

Silicon Alley Insider: The SAI 50+: World's Most Valuable Internet Startups

In a new list of top 50 Internet startups, the Silicon Alley Insider puts Linden Lab at 21, with an estimated valuation of $800 million based on annual revenue of $100 million. (That's significantly more bullish than a July analysis, which pegged Linden's value at $658-700 million.) By SAI's reckoning, that puts Linden above prominent startups like Hulu and Yelp, and notably, a couple dozen ranks above Gawker Media (49 of 50, valued at $190 million), the former publisher of avid (if not very accurate) Second Life detractor Valleywag -- which was, in a supreme irony, discontinued earlier this year. Hat tip: Catherine Linden.

Mr. Whybrow Builds AT-AT Walker That Walks With Physics

On a place called Bug Island, a man named Ignatavicius Whybrow sports a giant afro while making something amazing: an AT-AT walker that actually walks with fully articulated limbs that put one foot in front of the other. Behold:

I had a look at Mr. Whybrow's creature first hand, and can confirm it truly walks (indeed, it often teeters and strains at the effort.) Unless I missed the memo, this is something that has until now not been built in Second Life. Moving objects with legs we have aplenty, but far as I know, none but this that truly uses those legs to move.

How does Ignatavicius Whybrow script his AT-AT to move? He refused several times to be interviewed, but finally deigned to explain how it happens:

The walker uses a llTargetOmega to turn the legs, llRotTarget to stop the legs at certain angles, and llListen to hear me and the other parts. The legs tell each other when to start and stop after Whybrow tells each one to go.

See for yourself Mr. Whybrow's walker, and if you see him on Bug Island, stop to chat. While declining to be quoted, he does seem a friendly sort. SLurl teleport at this link.

Hat tip: Second Life Update.

Artificial Mutating Flower Grows, Mutates... and Microblogs!

Paypabak Writer of Moonletters reviews an amazing new artificial Second Life plant created and sold by Alidar Moxie.

This new plant, Seymour, depends on you to feed and water it. It has its own genetic code with thousands of possibilities making it highly likely that you will have a one-of-a-kind plant once it’s grown. Should that be the case, the plant will IM you in SL and give you the opportunity to give it a species name!

But wait, as they say, there's more. Not only does it grow and change shape as you water and care for it, you can set up your plant to contact you on its status via Twitter, or Plurk. This exudes awesome in every direction. More here from Ms. Moxie's site on Seymour, the Twittering, Plurking plant. Image credit: Ms. Moxie's xStreet listing.