New World Notes

Vigilant Bunnies: Second Life's Playboy Staffers Investigate Knock-Offs, Offer Partnerships To Some Violators

According to CNN, virtual Playboy Bunnies are leaving their island paradise to track down unauthorized Playboy products being sold in Second Life.  This is not a sentence I ever imagined writing, but it happens to be the case, with voluptuous managers Kimberly Laughton and Kattatonic Yates showing up in full  regalia at sites advertising knock-off Playboy items, and scrupulously taking notes.

Contrary to the CNN report, Playboy Island manager MSGiro Grosso tells me, it's not a "crack-down"-- at least not yet.

"I asked the managers to find out who was doing knock offs," he tells me. "I just wanted to know how widespread it was."  In real life, Grosso is Marc Girolimetti of Green Grotto Studios, the metaverse development company that's running Playboy's official presence in Second Life.  Concerns over content theft have wracked SL's grassroots content creators for months, but this may be the first instance of a real world company actively joining their cause.

I ask Grosso how widespread the Playboy knock-offs are.

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Signing and Speaking Tomorrow At Where 2.0

I'll be speaking tomorrow at O'Reilly's Where 2.0 in Burlingame, California, a conference devoted to mapping the real world in the Web 2.0 era.  My topic, of course:  "Mirror World: Using MMOs for Real World Mapping".  Afterward I'll be signing books.  Hope to see you there!

Iron Man Unbound: Defying Fears Of User-Created Content, Official Avatar Released In Modifiable Form

Chances are you'll catch a glimpse of Iron Man adventuring in Second Life, nowadays-- fighting evil doers, cutting through the sky, and acting generally heroic. 

If you're lucky, you'll also spot him flirting with bar floozies and exotic dancing, or even hooking up with Wonder Woman. 

All this wackiness was made possible by Silver Screen, the Second Life division of Picture Production Company, a movie marketing firm that's promoting Paramount/Marvel Studios' hit movie in-world.  To help do that, Silver Screen recently launched an SL screenshot/ machinima contest that challenged Residents to make Iron Man-related videos and images in Second Life.  And to do that, they created and distributed an official, modifiable version of an Iron Man avatar, to let Residents play with as they wish.  Since it can be freely copied and customized, it's spread far and wide through SL.

“We've had reports of it being given away and sold all over the grid," Silverscreen general manger Dannyboy Lightfoot tells me.  "As such, it's impossible for us to know exactly how many avatars there are in circulation, but I can tell you that from our own records alone we know that the total runs into five figures."

Which brings us back to all those sightings of Iron Man acting decidedly un-superheroic.  When metaverse marketers consider advertising clients in Second Life, a common concern is how the user-created community might put their brand in embarrassing situations.  How did Silverscreen allay those worries? 

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Second Life Backlash Reversed? Former Detractor Now Touting SL For Enterprise Use

The front page of last weekend's Los Angeles Times included a very interesting story on corporate use of Second Life, and it's even more intriguing if you know a bit about the writer's background.  The article itself is about how companies like Sun Microsystems and Intel are embracing SL to hold company meetings and training sessions for their far-flung employees-- not news to readers of this blog, I suspect, but it's rich with enough details to make it clear the author, Alana Semuels, has done her homework.  One choice tidbit:  Sun employees are not allowed to show up to SL meetings as non-human avatars.

Three Skeptics Become Three Advocates

But here's the backstory that's just as interesting to me:  In 2007, Alana Semuels was also the author of two widely-cited LA Times stories that depicted Second Life as a disaster for corporations.  The first dubiously suggested companies were under attack by anti-globalization vigilantes; the second was an equally questionable report arguing that real world advertising in SL had utterly failed.  The latter piece was, in my opinion, among the top three articles which drove last year's media backlash.  (The other two from Wired Magazine and Forbes.)  Now from the same journalist comes a glowing story touting the cost-effectiveness and morale building power of working in the metaverse:

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Open Forum: What SL Subjects Should We Cover More?

This can be anything Second Life-related, from specific content, sites, events, news items, and Residents, to general themes and subjects.  Note I say "we", because this forum welcomes possible fashion topics for Iris, and upcoming events for Charlanna.  Post here in Comments, and I'll acknowledge the suggestions as I can.

What's Your SL Name-To-RL Name Google Search Ratio?

So here's a fun if disconcerting exercise:  Google your Second Life avatar's name, and be sure to put it in quotes.  Note the number of Results you get.  Now do the same with your real life name (also in quotes) and tally those Results, as well.  Which number is larger?  Marvelous Second Life blogger Kit Meredith did that recently, and though she's an IP lawyer in real life, discovered that far as Google is concerned, her avatar is more popular than her.  ("The really interesting results," says Kit, "are the ones where you find your name being dropped in discussions that you’re not a part of.") This is part of a larger trend, as Kit notes, with avatar identities infecting music social networks, Flickr, Twitter, and other Web 2.0 sites.  (Forseti Svarog points us to an analyst's unifying term for the phenomenon:  "Generation V".)  But somehow the effect seems most jarring, at least to me, when it shows up in the ultimate search engine.  Google being the world mind and all.   

As for me, Google's ratio of "Wagner James Au" to "Hamlet Au" results is roughly four to one.  But then, most search hits on my real name are related in some way to my SL identity, so I'd call that a wash.

How about you?  Take the Google challenge and post your ratio in Comments.

Update, 5/10:  Bumped.  Of the 19 readers who've posted the results of this experiment in Comments so far, 11 have Second Life avatar names which Google more than their real life names.

Update, 5/12:  Of 34 Residents now reporting, 20 say their avatars Google more often than them.

Do Residents Need Their Own Flag?

In my favorite scene from Seven Samurai, the villagers who've spent most the movie resolutely working together to defend themselves from outside attack, come undone with panic.  They're about to surrender, when Toshiro Mifune climbs to a high point and holds up the makeshift flag they've made to represent their village.  The peasants gradually quit their caviling and bickering as they look up at that tattered banner; their courage returns, their unity is restored.  That moment occurred to me when Laetizia Coronet sent word that she wants designs for a Second Life flag. 

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Three Second Life Bloggers, Three Second Life Sites

If you're looking for fun an interesting metaverse events to attend this weekend, you want to check out Lanna's List.  If you're looking for sites to explore and adventures to go on, here's three recently uncovered by Second Life bloggers: 

- Chesnut Rau enthuses over the Welsh Bay Gallery in a sim of the same name, offering "[T]he perfect combination of art, exploration, and not possible in real life relaxation."  (Pictured above left.)

- Eladrienne Laval loves Future City, a cyberpunk metropolis (above right) offering "lights and textures almost dizzying as they swirled around me..."  (Hotspur digs it too.)

- Jenn Hienrichs finds herself Beyond Imagination, headquarters for six SL developers who've created an intriguing adventure game called Zodiac Killer.  "It will be here you can pick up the rules," she writes, "and the teleport to... the killer's house. He has left you many clues in his house to the whereabouts of the deceased. Once collecting these clues you will have to find the bodies [as left] and claim your reward from the police!" 

Visit their blogs for more screenshots and location info.

When Will The Age Of Age Verification Begin?

dandellion Kimban is pondering a question that recently occurred to me, and Nicholaz Beresford, too:  "What Happened To The Age Verification?" Almost exactly a year ago (an epoch back, in metaverse time), the Lindens announced they were partnering with a company which would give landowners with Mature content the option to require visitors to verify they were indeed adults.  Maybe Ms. Kimban and Beresford and I missed the memo, but to my knowledge, nothing's been implemented or even announced since then.  Why?  She has a theory:

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Leila Lists The Fashion Of Virtual Desire

This is a thumbnail of an awesomely sexy image by blogging fashionista Leila Carroll, and it's absolutely not safe for work (unless, say, you work at Nerve.com.)  Leila created the couple's acrobatic love tango for her store, "! Meya !", billed as offering "Not your ordinary poses", an understatement to say the least.  Also interesting is how the picture's accompanying blog post lists all the fashion accessories her models are wearing.  She creates numerous images to model her poses, Leila explains to me, and "[I] started listing the fashion info because I was constantly being asked 'Ohhhhh where'd you get the shoes also if you don't mind me asking.'" 

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In Da Club (Business): The Economics Of SL Nightclubs

How much does it cost to open a successful SL nightclub?  In a three part series, Second Life business owner ArminasX Saiman calculates the expenses, and estimates the L$ equivalent could run as high as $1000 a month.  A steep investment, yes, but Saiman suggests a strategy that'll cut those costs in half.  It's a nice primer for beginning virtual entrepreneurs who assume they'll need to spend as lavishly as they would if they'd started an atom-based club. Part One is here, Part Two here, Part Three here.

Whose Avatar Is It Anyway? (Drew Carey's, That's Who)

So there I was today watering the fifty foot marijuana plant on my office deck, when beloved libertarian funnyman Drew Carey flew by, then began waving a microphone in front of me.  You may spot him too, because Reason.tv's travel show is touring the metaverse, and Carey's the host.  Broadcast info to come soon.

New World Tableau: Truthseeker Young's Extropian Harvest

Last month we glimpsed Truthseeker in his life support tank; here he is out in the open, a gentlemen farmer in an unknown future. Or as he puts it, "Gettin' ready to harvest thuh SPACE-WEED!!!  The plasma-fence is fer keepin' out muh THEEVIN neighbors..."

See the full New World Tableau series here.  Want to send me a Tableau of your own?  Submission guidelines after the break.

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Lanna's List for May 8-14: NASA, Ol' Blue Eyes, Dr. Who Author, and more...

Charlanna Beresford’s weekly round-up of upcoming SL events…

As part of its 50^th anniversary, NASA is hosting a mixed reality forum to discuss its future; NASA Deputy Director Shana Dale (SL Xena Dahl) is going to present by avatar in Second Life while being simulcast physically on NASA TV on Wednesday, May 14 at 8:30 AM.  It's part of a series of NASA outreach events to discuss the role of space exploration in advancing science, engineering, technology, education and the economy. The program builds on NASA’s robust collaborative efforts in virtual worlds and features a preview of NASA's Constellation Program. In Extropia Core (click here to teleport)

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Speaking In Oz: Two Machinima-Based Second Life Talk Shows From Australia

I recently did two SL-based talk show appearances to chat up my book, both coincidentally hosted by Australian Residents.  I talk Resident frustrations with Lindens (and vice versa), a 3D pot plant carnival, and more with the lovely and talented Paisley Beebe of SLCN.TV's Tonight Live-- watch it here.  Shortly before that, the gregarious Angelico Babii had me on Metaverse-tv.com's Late Show, talking virtual political campaigns, the birth of the metaverse, and beyond. Watch that one here.  (By the way, the story I tell Angelico about the kidnapped monkey, the timorous terrorists, and Baccara Rhodes' summer cottage in the war zone is here.)  Both great hosts, asking smart questions, in quality productions worth a full watch; I'm fascinated by the devotion to creating a TV-like setting.  Interestingly enough, though the interviews were conducted in voice, neither host used the Second Life VOIP client, preferring Skype instead. (Lip animations were added in post-production.)

New World "Nighthawks": Hopper's Classic Made Immersive

Hamlet serves late-night joe to Pavig Lok, Tuna Oddfellow, Shava Suntzu

One day, a Resident with the implausible name Tezcatlipoca Bisiani was talking mid-20th century art-- specifically Edward Hopper's masterpiece, "Nighthawks". A builder friend was wondering if the coffee shop counter was shaped like a triangle, or a rectangle, for starters.  On a visit to Manhattan, Bisiani tried to find the Greenwich Village cafe Hopper used as a model, but it's long since been demolished. 

His solution was to recreate it in Second Life. "It turns out," Bisiani tells me, "it's not obvious. I thought I settled it by building it as a triangle, but then I saw a version built as a [real life] stage set with a completely different construction, providing the same general position of things with a different viewpoint."  Probably because Hopper plays with perspective, and making a 3D translation is bound to expose that illusion-- click the above pic, for a side-by-side comparison. 

The next challenge was finding the decaying tones that Hopper used to evoke his lonely city.

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Academic Survey on Television Convergence With SL

Does your Second Life activity integrate elements derived from your TV watching?  A PhD student with the Resident name JoDa Imako is researching the intersection of television and virtual worlds, and because there's so much of that going on in Second Life-- like BSG47 pictured here, an entire sim devoted to roleplaying in the world of Battlestar Galactica-- she contacted me, and offered to share the results.  It's a 10 minute anonymous survey and there's a chance to win a $50 gift certificate from Amazon.  Go here to take it.

New World Newsfeed: USC Offers L$100,000/Month Stipends For Public Good Second Life Projects

Recent dispatches from the outside world...

Second Life and the Public Good: A Community Challenge

Introduced yesterday by former Linden CTO Cory Ondrejka and judged by Rik Riel (along with Howard Rheingold and the American Cancer Society's Randall Moss), the USC Network Culture Project is seeking SL-related proposals that create projects which advocate "conservation, human rights and international justice, global peace and security, reproductive health, digital media and learning, or juvenile justice."  Up to three finalists will get L$100,000 a month and land for three months to realize that vision.  There are information sessions on May 12th and 14th; proposals are due June 1st.  Go here to get all the details.

Ophelia's Gaze: A Beginner's Guide to SL Fashion

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

It’s easy to talk about fashion in Second Life with Residents, but how do you explain what’s happening in-world to the uninitiated from the real life fashion industry?  I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the Fashion Institute of Technology's "Teaching and Learning in Four Dimensions" conference in Manhattan for exactly that reason.  [Nice reports of Iris' talk here and here. - WJA] 

But what kind of style correspondent if I let the information end there?  So I’ve expanded my presentation into this article-- a beginner’s guide to Second Life’s fashion industry, with renowned brands like ETD, Fleur, and BareRose as examples, plus tips for real world designers interested in learning from metaverse fashionistas.

Overview of the SL Fashion Scene

So what’s being worn in Second Life, and why?  SL fashion mirrors real life in many respects. In the past two years, we’ve seen surges in SL paralleling real trends like babydoll tops, nautical themes, and even vintage high-waisted pants and pencil skirts. There are exceptions though; many trends in SL are popular because they’re so difficult to create in reality. A good example of this is the feline neko culture (below). While it draws on elements of Japanese cosplay, it is very much a trend apart from reality. Likewise the steampunk and cyberpunk aesthetics (above) have flourished in Second Life, driven strongly by a desire for style that real world fashion is unable to produce with the same level of level.

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Alien Where: Moody Machinima From Sagitar Spengler

This lovely SL machinima by Sagittar Spengler starts like a traditional sci-fi movie, then gradually segues into a dreamy and melancholy paean to loneliness.  Excellent use of Foley sound effects and a track by Enigma, merged to gorgeously composed photography. 

I first spotted it, by the way, on the SL machinima Twitter feed recently launched by Geuis Dassin, a nice resource for finding the latest machinima. 

Open Forum: What Upcoming Events Should Lanna List?

Charlanna Beresford's compiling her next calendar of upcoming metaverse events this week, so here's your last chance to suggest items for her to include.  Post them in Comments, following the guidelines below, or contact her directly.

SUBMITTING EVENTS FOR COVERAGE IN New World Notes

Every Thursday morning, NWN highlights events for the upcoming weekend into next Wednesday...

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New World Tableau: Brigitte Kungler in Chakryn Forest

Brigitte is a leafy avatar wandering through the moonbeams cast through Chakryn Forest, among the metaverse's most cherished settings. (This is actually a still from an upcoming machinima music video she's editing now.)  See the full New World Tableau series here.  Want to send me a Tableau of your own?  Submission guidelines after the break.

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How Much Is Linden Lab Making From Second Life, Anyway?

For a rough guess, how's somewhere in the range of $40-50 million this year sound?  During a recent broadcast of the Metanomics show, company CFO Zee Linden (John Zdanowski) made an impromptu appearance (part one here, part two here) to refute downbeat analyzes of Linden Lab's financial prospects by insisting that the situation "is far from dire", describing the Lindens as profitable.  (A claim often made by outgoing CEO Philip Rosedale and many of his staff.)

But how profitable?  The company is privately held, and thus under no obligation to publish its earnings.  But the thing is, Linden is transparent enough with its core revenue sources on its Economic Stats page, its usage stats, and its pricing guidelines to make an educated guess.  (And I stress this is just a guess based on known variables.)  I welcome corrections and amendments, but here's where that very broad $40-50 mill calculation comes from:

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Mitch Kapor On The Future Of 3D Interfaces

When Mitch Kapor unveiled the hands-free 3D camera-driven user-interface, the blogosphere buzzed.  Now Tara5 Oh of UgoTrade has a long follow-up interview with Mitch covering that topic and all it relates to (the future of the 3D worlds, the Internet at large, etc.)  Among the highlights:  Kapor intends to open source the code featured in the demo, and expects the technology to be available to consumers by Christmas 2009.  Read it all here.

Web 2.0 Rules: Almost 1000 "Second Life" Flickr Groups

I'm endlessly fascinated by the way Second Life Residents extend their in-world communities out and into Web 2.0 sites.  There are so many fans and promulgators of SL-based music, for example, they recently took over a popular music social network.  There are also roughly 200-650 blogs devoted to SL, depending on how you count them.  Inspired by a post from Jean Ricard, I recently looked up the number of sites devoted to Second Life screenshots on Flickr. Jean found 1,749, but using a more stringent