New World Notes

Mocap Suit-Powered, Real Steel-Style, Real Time Robot Control Created by VR Researchers

This is the latest, seriously cool innovation from Anton Bogdanovych (shaqq Korobase in SL), the University of Western Sydney VR researcher who developed software that connects a motion capture suit to a Second Life avatar. Using similar technology and working with other engineers, he's developed a mocap suit capable of controlling a physical robot in real time, pretty much like what we saw in last year's movie Real Steel. Watch, gape:

Of course, I had to ask Anton more -- how does the technology work, what hardware does it use, and what applications does he hope to use it for? Read on, read on:

G+: Growing Size, Weak Traffic (Even for Posts About G+!)

Google+ is purportedly growing in user size, but at least from this blog's perspective, I'm not seeing those numbers translate into traffic -- even for posts about Google+! For example, above is the social media traffic generated by my late January post about Google allowing some Google+ pseudonyms. The unexpected results:

3D Printing: Over-Hyped Like 3D Virtual Reality, or Not Hyped Enough?

I've been thinking a lot about 3D printing, like the kind that Henry "Seifert Surface" Segerman used to create his SL to RL Hilbert cube. One popular argument runs that 3D printing is going to transform the entire world and our very identity, while others argue it's over-hyped like 3D virtual reality once was. And the thing is, when I think about what 3D printing is good for, I say, "Fun doohickies like that Hilbert cube, 3D prototypes for industrial design, and, um... something something something." I draw a blank on many other practical applications. Which leads me to suspect 3D printing will become a useful niche for hackers and designers, but probably not much more.

I'm even more skeptical, when a 3D printing advocate argues that it'll become as big as 2D printing:

Who's Your Most Valuable Twitter Follower?

mvfapp.com is a fun, possibly ego-stroking Twitter widget that shows you your most valuable Twitter follower, i.e. the follower who in turn has the most Twitter followers. Mine (I'm @SLHamlet on Twitter) include the official SL Twitter account, legendary SF tech guy Scott "Laughing Squid" Beale, and the supremely awesome cellist Zoe Keating, who I once was lucky to meet at Foo Camp, and tell her about Second Life's arts and music scene. I'm also followed by Jenifer Lopez, but not the one you think, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

How about you? Share your MVFs in Comments!

Explore OpenSim & SL Regions on the Web & Convert Others for Web Use With Avatars Via the ArchTech Engine

Click here to visit several locations originally created in Second Life and OpenSim on your web browser. You don't need an SL/OS client to view them, and though they use Unity 3D to display, now you don't even need to download a Unity plug-in, because the latest version of Flash (standard to nearly all web browsers) has Unity's display code built in. This is the latest, nearly consumer-ready version of technology created by Tipodean, from ex-Linden Chris Collins, with the help of SL/RL architect Jon "Keystone" Brouchoud, which I wrote about earlier this month. Now the demo comes with a menu and many locations to select from. The one you're looking at above is a web-accessible version of NOAA, which was originally developed in Second Life for the US government branch. As I noted this week, OpenSim is not apparently growing its userbase. Unity, however, has been growing by leaps and bounds, with a user base in the tens of millions. So if OpenSim (and for that matter SL) wants to grow beyond the smaller market for client-based installs, something like what Tipodean is doing with Unity probably a fruitful way to go.

Related to this, Tipodean also just launched the Archtech Engine, which uses Unity to generate web-based 3D spaces with avatars -- and can do so with SL and OpenSim locations. Chris and Jon and I recently hung out in an early, military-themed demo, see below:

How to List Your Avatar Name Next to Your Real Name on Google+ (Which I Generally Recommend)

While it's now possible to have an avatar-only Google+ account (if you can convince Google your avatar is known enough to deserve one), you can also just list your avatar name alongside your real one. In your G+ profile, just click Edit Profile, select your name, then “More options", like so:

You can list your nickname in many ways, one being the way I do so above. Unless you're planning to absolutely maintain a Google+ account that's only relevant to your avatar and those who only know your avatar, I'd personally recommend listing it as a nickname alongside your real name. Doing so will give your Google+ account more credibility to both non-SL users and SLers who don't know your avatar, and give you leverage beyond whatever happens with Second Life the commercial entity. That's especially important to professional content creators and artists. As Beverly "Bettina Tizzy" Millson explains, "With artists, your name is everything. A pseudonym isn't a bad deal in real life for them. But limiting your persona to a virtual name in a walled garden (especially one that isn't growing) that can only be shared via still photos or machinima... it's a trap."

OpenSim Gaining Regions... But Not Gaining Many Users

OpenSim, the open source spinoff of Second Life, is gaining many new regions and grids, according to HyperGrid Business, but that only tells part of the story. As this happens, actual users of OpenSim seem to be shrinking. In 2009, the most popular OpenSim viewer had just under 10,000 monthly active users, with an estimate of 15,000 total OpenSim users overall. (A guess I confirmed then with one of OpenSim's top developers.) Now, HGB reports, OSGrid has "the most active users, at 3,280", and "Avination was the second most-active grid, with 3,266 active users." (Emphasis mine.) So it's very unlikely the total amount of OpenSim users exceeds 15,000, and more likely much under that number. We can't totally be sure, for as HyperGrid Business also notes, there's no central database counting OpenSim grids or active users. But the smart money is that since 2009, the number of people regularly involved with OpenSim is less, not more.

This lack of growth isn't a criticism of OpenSim per se, because clearly some people continue to find it useful. However, in relation to Second Life and the broader market for 3D-based virtual worlds, it's an important point to keep in mind. For example, when I noted that Bryn Oh's Second Life artwork had lost its patron, some suggested that she should move her creations to OpenSim. But doing so would drastically shrink her potential audience, not grow it. And because OpenSim doesn't have a virtual currency as viable as Linden Dollars, make it even more difficult for her to raise funds (and paying fans) to sustain her artwork.

OpenSim's lack of growth raises even more concern for Second Life itself:

Coliloquy Launches Dynamic Interactive Fiction E-book App

Coliloquy, a digital publisher of interactive fiction, just launched its app for Kindle with four novels this week, and since it's a new platform for online, user-collaborated content, I thought it worth noting here. A friend is working on the launch (thus I have some bias), so I got a sneak preview of the app a few weeks ago, and came away impressed. The basic idea, as I see it, is to create a new form of storytelling for the digital age that is more in line with how we tell and share stories online. A Coliloquy story can be adjusted dynamically from episode to episode, based on reader response, and the choices individual reader make within the story itself. (It has a "choose your path" feature akin to adventure games, among many other cool narrative tools.) I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of books and stories, and my guess is Coliloquy or something like it will be part of that next generation. Explore more here.

Protest Today Against SOPA & PIPA, Which Threaten SL

Today if you're to look up the user-generated service Second Life on Wikipedia, another user-generated service, you'll get the result above. That's because today, Wikipedia leads the protest against PIPA and SOPA, two bills which unduly threaten both Wikipedia and Second Life, and other user-generated services like them. (As the EFF confirmed to me last week.) If you're a US citizen, consider getting informed and contacting your representatives, to express your concerns. Click here for Wikipedia's page for help on doing just that.

Claiming Staff Bias, Ex-Linden Karl Stiefvater No Longer Helping Linden Integrate Alignment Tool into SL Viewer

Karl "Qarl" Stiefvater has declined to work any further with Linden Lab on incorporating the code to his useful alignment tool into the official SL viewer. This comes last week after the Linden vet donated the code; since then, Linden Lab engineer Charlie "Charlar" Hite rejected it as is, writing on the company's feature management JIRA site, "It does not work for non-mod permission objects... [and is] usable for purely prim-based builders under specific circumstances. It's less useful for building with non-cube prims, mesh, sculpties." While not necessarily rejecting Charlar's technical points, Karl believes the move reflects a personal animus Linden Lab staffers have against Karl, whose contract was ended by the company in 2010 under disagreeable circumstances.

"He's not 'wrong' to reject the code," Karl tells me now. "His claim that it doesn't work on no-mod objects - if true - needs to be addressed. But issues like these have been overlooked time and time again in the past - the Lindens like to completely rewrite contributions when they receive them. So that, and the (crazy) dismissal of its usefulness, AND the abrasive language - tells me I'm getting special treatment."

Karl goes on: