From Teen SLer Trifle Toshi comes this handy YouTube tutorial for streaming your webcam into Second Life, using the video streaming service Veodia. I'm not tech savvy enough to know if this is the most optimal method-- Toshi notes that the display is a bit laggy "but that might just be a computer thing"-- but it seems to work well enough. Perhaps as important, at 208 seconds, it looks easy enough for even me to try out.
Last July, an unassuming British girl named Katharine Berry created AjaxLife, Second Life's first Web-based viewer, beating several real world companies (as here and here) to that goal by many months. Her offhand innovation was widely blogged (as here, on Boing Boing), and it's not an exaggeration to say that what Katharine created substantially changed the entire Internet industry's perspective of Second Life as an online world, and a business. (My reasons for saying so here.) For all the Lindens' efforts back then, it was not chiefly them, but this 15 year old member of Teen Second Life, who kept the world relevant. (At a time when so many were apt to dismiss it, no less.) It's not surprising, then, that the Lindens recently flew her to San Francisco to attend a user feedback session, and also presented her with an Innovation Award honorable mention.
What is surprising, perhaps, is what Katharine Berry just announced on her blog: she's leaving Teen Second Life. Work on AjaxLife will continue, but she'll no longer be part of the world her software provides access to. "Linden Lab continues to neglect the Teen Grid," she wrote there, listing her reasons, "[and] I actually can’t afford the extra 17.5% due to VAT." (With no advance warning via anonymous e-mail, the Lindens recently imposed the EU's Value Added Tax on European Residents, sending economic and cultural shockwaves through the entire Second Life community.)
Her announcement was so surprising, the loss of her presence so staggering, I contacted Katharine to explain further. She replied in detail with a set of reasons that might also explain another mystery: the unbelievably low population of Teen Second Life, while other teen-centric online worlds are so huge.
"Since the list of problems probably makes little sense outside the Teen grid," Katharine Berry began, "I shall expand slightly on my points. With screenshots, because I like those." Katharine's illustrated essay (lightly edited by me) followed:
It's Katharine's world, we're just living in it. Debuted in early July, open sourced last week, Katherine Berry's AjaxLife Web interface for Second Life has already been updated yet again: now you can search for Residents, view a partial version of their user profile, and receive send [thanks, Miss K!] "arbitrary IMs". Go to Katharine's blog for more details, and access.
Sakura Mitra, 14, of Teen Second Life
Online worlds are phenomenally popular with teenagers. Here's the upper ranks, as of last month:
Habbo Hotel: 7,500,000 monthly active users
RuneScape: 5,000,000 monthly active users
Gaia Online: 2,000,000 monthly active users
And here's the lower end, based on the Lindens' most recent demographics:
Teen Second Life: 4,278 monthly active users
Why such a disparity? It can't be for lack of user enthusiasm or talent, as even a quick glance at NWN's recent teen avatar expo will attest. (There are still more entries from it, after the break.) Teen Second Life is even home to verifiable prodigies. Somehow, however, a year and a half after launch, all that creativity hasn't translated into a network effect of growing popularity, in comparison to far more restrictive worlds. To me, this is one of the most perplexing questions about Second Life today.
So I put it to my readers: where have all teens gone, and why?
Continue reading "OPEN FORUM: WHY SO FEW TEENS IN TEEN SECOND LIFE?" »
Now this is a new one: roleplaying as early 20th century plutocrats. Reallife Orca is a 15 year old member of Teen Second Life, and says he was inspired to create his avatar by "my friends, who always roleplay as ole chaps." He created the gray skin (the better to blend into black and white photographs of the era), "and created a tophat, monocle, and bubble pipe. I had a friend make a cane for me to crack at young whippersnappers."
Continue reading "ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: ORCA'S OLE CHAP (TSL)" »
Though gray and grizzled, Meyermagic Salome is actually a 14 year old member of Teen Second Life; over time, he customized everything about his avatar, but for the wings. "I did not create my avatar to reflect any specific traits of mine, or for any purpose," he tells me. Still, he was surprised to discover "that some of my own traits and ideals were carried over anyway." I was curious what he meant by that, and so naturally, I had to know more.
Continue reading "ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: MEYERMAGIC SALOME (TSL)" »
"I took this snapshot on my mini-island on the private island of Foobar Salad," Ming announces. "My avatar has generally morphed over time with the main inspiration to look nice to be around, and, at the same time, professional and able to do business... The jacket and glasses were made by me, because I couldn't find something exactly how I wanted it on the grid.
Ayeaka Reinsch, 16, offers her steely avatar "K9U.exe" for the Teen Avatar Expo.
"K9U.exe," she tells me, "is the product of a boredom-induced doodle at school during a lecture... In these screen captures, I am in Sand Box Island 4, roughly 500 meters into the air. I custom-built the surroundings for 'camera purposes.'"
Continue reading "ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: AYEAKA REINSCH (TSL)" »
Who said Teen Second Life was a vast wasteland? (Oh wait, they did.) This charming machinima from Cirr Marat shows another side of TSL, with a tour of his airborne station high above Foobar Salad island. I love Cirr's pride of ownership in Mainframe, with a personal logo and attention to detail throughout, with cool iris-ing doors, an ambient dream room, and more.
"I spend almost all of my time at my home in Tolkien, Dun Grey Dawning," Aesop Thatch writes from Teen Second Life. "The build is a rambling set of timber-framed buildings set into the side of a hill, and surrounded by a heavily forested area. I have friends that drop by often, and many newcomers find the build and spend some time here, to find some peace in the world or to learn about it. The build is idyllic, with paths running through the forests, soft piano music, and many little places for people to stop and just admire the view on a bench or rock."
And where in the world do you live? Take a look at the entire Window series for inspiration, read the details for submitting to NWN's World From My Window series, then send me a screenshot or video link of your SL home or favorite haunt.
