New World Notes

Bonnie Bots, Explained: Team Behind Controversial Second Life Data Tracker Respond to Feedback, Also Notes: We're Hardly the Only Ones Collecting Public Avatar Data

Last night I teleported to a cozy patio with a firepit on a tiny asteroid to talk with the team of Bonnie Bots, the little Second Life user data website causing enormous controversy across the Second Life community. Since the imbroglio flared up, they have updated the site's homepage with this disclosure:

 

Information about Second Life should be freely accessible by all. We intend to make previously obscured information available to all residents, enable open use of the information, and expand available toolsets to further content creation.  All information collected and made available is publicly accessible and is not, and never will be, utilized for any monetary gain. We support individual privacy and will never attempt to obtain information not contained within or relevant to Second Life.

 

"We understand there are people upset about us releasing our data publicly," as team spokesperson Skyler Pancake explains. "However, people need to understand there are individuals and groups collecting this data secretly. Anyone with a little effort can easily collect this information and include it in seemingly harmless objects. The concern shouldn't be over us releasing this information publicly but who else is privately maintaining such databases and not informing anyone."

 

As the team and I chatted on the asteroid, one of the Bonnie Bots itself primly sat in silence. They warned me to take a picture of her quickly, because she was programmed to go back on her rounds across the Second Life grid soon.

 

While the Bonnie Bots team has bore the brunt of this controversy, they wanted to make it clear that they are hardly the only people collecting data on Second Life users -- and how much is already publicly accessible for people to collect off them:

 

 

Visit TraveLover SL to Find Fun Places to Visit in Second Life

 

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

 

Recently a reader commented that she wished to see a travel blog. I thought that was a great idea and thought of TraveLover SL whose most recent post is Trekking Over the Amazing Amazon. TraveLover SL is an adventure blog by Nesca Fey [Feyonce.Resident.] Her posts are well-imagined travel adventures.

 

The Amazon has twelve sims to move about in. According to Nesca, this is the place to feel like the Tomb Raider. It sounds like great fun, you get a HUD at the beginning if you want to do the adventure but you are free to wander independently and take pictures. Her post is sprinkled with facts about the Amazon, the real place. 

 

Your helicopter dropoff to the Amazon River.

 

For more adventure, click here:

I Thought ChatGPT Was Impressive. But Then Someone Asked ChatGPT About a Topic I've Written Two Books On.

 

ChatGPT continues to generate incredible hype, buzz around Silicon Valley, and grand pronouncements that its soon going to replace writers and teachers, even accountants and lawyers.

 

But before you believe any of that, here's a simple test to try:

 

Ask ChatGPT about a specific subject that you know very well. And take a close look at the results.

 

I thought about that when Redditor "FLAPJACKU" asked ChatGPT a simple question: "What can Second Life do to improve its systems?"

 

The answer (see above) reminds me of that famous story about the amazing harpsichord-playing robot from the 19th century:

 

We Love These Second Life Images Inspired by Photographer Herb Ritts, Filmmaker John Waters & a Hipster Norman Rockwell

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Peuxswau’s picture may seem familiar to readers. That’s because she was inspired by one of the most famous photos taken by Herb Ritts, the Versace Veiled Dress shown in the lower left of the montage of his photos in this article about him. It’s also further down the page in a larger size. Peuxswau did a great job of offering homage without replicating him. 

For more “inspired by” pics click here:

BREAKING: Bonnie Bots Team Meets With Linden Lab, Promises Opt-Out & Masking Features for Second Life Users

Above: Patch Linden (speaking) with some of the Bonnie Bots dev team (photo courtesy Bonnie Belle)

 

Most everyone involved with Second Life has been avidly talking for days about BonnieBots, a new website tracking genuine Second Life activity, with many SLers enthusing over the depth and value of this data, and others alleging rampant privacy intrusions. (Examples in comments here, and also here.)

 

This morning, it was Linden Lab's turn to talk: Patch Linden, VP of Product Operations, summoned Bonnie and her team* into Second Life itself for a fireside meeting.  After a reportedly pleasant chat, Bonnie tells me the site will be making some crucial changes:

 

We Love These Gorgeous & Charming Second Life Tributes to Lunar New Year & The Year of the Rabbit

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

I saw this gorgeous pic from Fiona Fei marking the Lunar New Year on Facebook and it inspired me to look around and see what else people were doing to note the holiday. If her name sounds familiar, it’s probably due to visiting one of her art installations on Flickr where you can step into a Chinese Ink Brush painting. To see more about her work, check out her portfolio.  

For more Lunar New Year celebration, click here:

Despite Widespread Tech Layoffs, Metaverse Platforms Currently Have 800+ Job Openings

With news that Microsoft is shutting down its VR metaverse platform AltspaceVR, along with widespread layoffs across most of the major tech companies, you might assume the Metaverse as an industry is also feeling the string.

Not so much.

On a quick tally of leading metaverse platforms in terms of active users, along with promising metaverse startups I've written about recently, I'm seeing nearly 800 current job openings at minimum. (And by the way, Microsoft and Minecraft developer Mojang still currently have 6 Minecraft-related job openings.) 

Here's links to these job openings available as of today, January 24, 2023:

Roblox, the market leader among metaverse platforms in terms of users, currently has 194 job openings.

Epic Games, developer of Fortnite/Fortnite Creative, currently has 368 job openings.

Rec Room, the most popular metaverse platform among Quest 2 users, currently has 45 job openings.

VRChat, the best next gen metaverse platform, currently has 19 job openings.

Naver Z, developer of mobile metaverse platform Zepeto, currently has 14 job openings.

Lockwood Publishing, the game studio behind Avakin Life, currently has 7 job openings.

Garena, the creator of Freefire, a Fortnite-like metaverse platform that's huge in Asia/South America, currently has 54 job openings.

There's also at least 150 job openings in promising startups featured by New World Notes, including:

You'll Never Believe How This Incredibly Detailed Second Life Image Was Shot

Click to expand -- all sizes on Zakk's Flickr here

 

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

 

I know I wrote about Zakk Bifrandt just a few weeks ago when I highlighted his circus pictures. But I cannot let this stunning photo go unremarked. He was inspired by Loreena McKennitt’s “Caravanserai” [to listen, click here] to create this picture in Second Life and that is what he did. 

 

For more on how he created this, and see the original raw screenshot, click on:

Who's Afraid of Second Life's Data Gathering Bonnie Bots? (Comment of the Week)

Above: A Bonnie bot, tirelessly on bot patrol

There's been lots of interesting conversation and debate spurred by my post on BonnieBots, the new website tracking genuine Second Life activity. While Bonnie's bots don't violate any Linden Lab policy that I'm aware of, the sheer amount of information that both her avatar and web-based bots are able to collect and surface on the site has generated much surprise and controversy (including in comments here).

Reader Kate Nova argues that much of the pushback is based on a very understandable distrust of surveillance provoked by very real abuses by the Internet giants:

I was surprised and disappointed to discover that there's so much hating on them. SL can be narrow and intolerant in so many ways. Ban Lines and Security Orbs make the idyllic SL mainland into an untraversable minefield of hate and GTFO-ness.

Obviously, I'm not the arbiter of anyone else's security and privacy concerns. If you feel that your parcel needs ban lines, or a 10-second security orb, or that the stuff in your profile is private info, it's not my call to dispute that. I kinda wish it were my call, because I think all of these diminish the SL experience, but SL or Physical World, it is, of course, not my call. And it shouldn't be, no matter how frustrated they make me.

Surveillance Capitalism as heavily practiced by Google & Facebook have rightly made everyone security and privacy conscious. Or paranoid. Ironically, if we ever do regulate this, it will be after Google & Facebook already have enough data to control us in perpetuity. Any future regulations will more likely serve to lock out competition and cement these giants in place. On this topic I recommend Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff and Zucked by Roger McNamee.

Some concern has been raised that Bonnie's bots also pull data from user profiles available in search, but Kate argues this is not the intrusion some say it is -- and that overall, the site is incredibly valuable:

Top 3 Posts Including A Plea (Likely Futile) to Stop Illustrating Metaverse Articles With People Gawking in VR

• New Website Tracks Genuine Second Life Activity, Filtering Out AFK Users & Traffic Bots
• Dear Media: Here’s Why It's Wrong To Illustrate Articles About The Metaverse With Pics Of People In VR
• This Artist Cleverly Creates Giant Cardboard Cutout Dioramas In Second Life & Shoots Completely Charming Photos In Them

New Website Tracks Genuine Second Life Activity, Filtering Out AFK Users & Traffic Bots

Most active sims in Second Life as of 1:30pm PT

BonnieBots is a new website tracking genuine Second Life activity, and the homepage is an incredibly useful guide for finding SL sims with real, active users -- as opposed to traffic bots used by many sim owners to artificially appear popular.

"The biggest complaint we hear is, 'I logged in and couldn't find anyone else,' or some variation of, 'Seemed abandoned'," as site owner Bonnie Belle explains. "The Destination Guide is worthless. Official traffic numbers just take you to 'AFK" places or worse'."

"We wanted to do better."

A developer in real life, Bonnie's solution is elegant: Create better bots. Hence the site's name.

Here's how:

Fashion Friday: Fantastic Sci-Fi/Fantasy Cosplay Styles by Hugh Thanasia

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Hugh Thanasia is another Flickr micro-blogger. He has the best name, though. I love his “Sentinel” post. It seems sort of like an undead cyborg or skeletal Doc Ock, but then it’s wearing boxing shorts.  Can you imagine boxing with someone with six arms? Can you imagine boxing if you had six arms? The outfit is from REKT, so you can pick it up in one jump. 

• Head: REKT - Undead Skull
• Neck: REKT - Undead Neck
• Body: REKT - M3K Suit
• Tentacles: REKT - Octo Mech Arms

For more, click here:

Watch: Isabelle & Me Chat About the Metaverse on Cloud's Edge

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who joined us, especially Erik and Rosie in fluff form! We talked about a Second Life avatar in the Vienna Opera House, Bryn Oh on Steam, and too many VR headsets in Metaverse stories. Plus viewer questions and topics that quickly get racy!

Today's Flickr Pick: Beautifully Sunbaked Scenes from Second Life's West

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Cathy Macpherson’s “Like dust in the wind” is so well-done, I nearly arrowed past it thinking it was from Midjourney or something like that. Then I saw the credit, that the boot came from the store Nutmeg in Second Life. I am astonished. Going by the rest of her stream, she does love the West. 

For more Western-themed pics, click here:

Dear Media: Here’s Why It's Wrong to Illustrate Articles About the Metaverse With Pics of People in VR

This new Time Magazine cover is so utterly wrong that it's a perfect example of a problem that's been festering for the last three years: Mainstream media stories about the Metaverse which are prominently (often exclusively) illustrated with images of people in VR headsets.

There's so many other interesting and original ways to illustrate a story about global leaders about to "Meet the Metaverse" at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But unless the point is to ridicule India's Prime Minister and others for being totally clueless about the Metaverse -- not only wearing HMDs, but highly outdated ones at that -- this is the exact wrong way to do that.

There's at three key reasons why:

The vast majority of people who use metaverse platforms do not access them through VR.

There's at least 520 million active users in platforms which fit the broad definition of a metaverse platform. The overwhelming majority do so through smartphones.  Only about 8-10 million of them do so primarily in VR, mostly in Rec Room and VRChat, and mostly through Meta's Quest 2. 

Which brings up an important corollary: With a total install base of about 20-25 million, most premium VR headset owners do not use a metaverse platform.

Wait, an editor might ask -- is there even a "definition of a metaverse platform"?

Yes, if you go by Snow Crash, the actual book which coined and painstakingly described it in great detail, and has been a direct reference for people who have been building something like it for the last three decades.

Which takes us to the next point:

This Artist Cleverly Creates Giant Cardboard Cutout Dioramas in Second Life & Shoots Completely Charming Photos in Them

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Giovanni Gata’s photostream is one that will make you laugh at least once and smile several times. I mean, look at “Racing into Love.” The background makes me think of primary school and pictures made out of cut out construction paper and Elmer’s Glue. The simple joy of riding a bike recklessly downhill, wind in your hair, and a sense of peril to add the slightest tinge of jeopardy and heighten your senses. Nelson Street, a block from my sister’s house, aptly nicknamed the nutcracker for its steep incline and the sharp, hard bounce at the end of the hill with jeopardy provided by a cross street perilously close. It was fun because it was dangerous. This captures that joy in jeopardy that all children love. 

For more in this spirit of fun, click here:

About Those Rumors of Roblox Coming to Quest This Year...

Since it keeps coming up, I should mention the recent single source rumor that Roblox is coming to Meta Quest this year. This one:

Editor Alex Heath launched The Verge’s Command Line paid subscription newsletter last week with a mention of “hearing that Roblox is planning to come to Quest in the back half of this year.” That timing could line up with release of Quest 3 and what’s expected to be a major jump in on-board graphics power, though there’s no indications either way precisely which Quest headsets could see support for Roblox.

That's certainly possible. And from writing my book, my impression is yes, Roblox is working on some kind of VR support in the future. But that doesn't necessarily mean this year, and I see more signs that that won't happen in 2023, at least not in some mass market launch:

Three Impressive & Incredibly Photographed Locations to Visit in Second Life

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

The 50 Shades of Seren is a lush photostream.  Take this untitled photo from Echo Mountain. It almost feels like a painting. I even wondered before I clicked whether it was shot in Second Life or not, but sure enough it was and Seren even provides a SLurl. [To teleport, click here]

While I am more drawn to her landscapes, all her photos are well-done and appealing. As she explains, “The most important thing is this. I capture images that make me feel something, that is what is so enjoyable about this for me. Some of my photos may not make any sense to those viewing them, but in my mind, they all have some kind of connection to a least a very little part of me.”

For more fabulous places to visit, click here:

Readings: Why The Fight for Real World Racial Equality is Just as Crucial in the Metaverse

It's a common misconception that virtual worlds are a safe escape from our offline prejudices. This is sometimes true but often not the case. In fact, the anonymous nature of metaverse platforms and other virtual worlds can make expressions of racism worse - especially when avatars are based around a realistic human model. Our best hope is being aware of that reality, and preparing for it.

Here's some New World Notes readings on theme:

Top 3 Posts: Acclaimed Second Life Artist Expands to Steam, Metaverse Platform Usage Grows to 520 MAU+, and a Warning to Students About ChatGPT... from ChatGPT

• Second Life Artist Exports Her Latest Experience To Unreal & Steam -- Here's What Bryn Oh Learned Along The Way!
• Professors Warn Students About Cheating With ChatGPT With Stern Warning… Created By ChatGPT
• Metaverse Platform Usage Grows To 520M MAU -- Q1 2023 Metaversed Chart

Fashion Friday: Fantasy Roleplay Style Suggestions from a Flickr Microblogger

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

"A." is a Flickr microblogger who revels in roleplay. “A Heart Made of Yarn” is a gorgeous picture. I love the feeling of one thing on top of another on top of another. The woman’s face lies there as though in a dream. That arm covering, the staff, and the amazing background seem like something out of a fairy tale. 

• From Cerridwen's Cauldron
• Orb Slime- Variation 1 (No Spores)
• Twinkle Ivy - Tree/Columne Patch
• Twinkle Ivy - Large Patch
• Mythspire Arch Small Scales- White
• Prism Type 4- Small Scales/ Mythspire Edition
• Gorgon Lilly Set- Fatpack
• NightFire Aloe Set
• From Arkivet + /Vae Victis\ ::
• Nix Solis Staff

For more, click here: 

Second Life Artist Exports Her Latest Experience to Unreal & Steam -- Here's What Bryn Oh Learned Along the Way!

Above: Lobby Cam in Steam/Unreal. See below for the SL version

Lobby Cam by Bryn Oh is a free new game experience on Steam, and like the name suggests, it's actually created by famed Second Life artist Bryn Oh. Since publishing it to Steam last Friday, it's garnered 7,2000 downloads -- quite a lot, for an indie developer on the platform, and a bit better than the visits her experiences get in Second Life. (Which range from 300-1000 a day, she tells me.)  

Steam only publishes games, so Bryn added a mini quest, but also decided to keep it free to play: "There are things such as a HUD for the letters you find and you can pick up and inspect some models on tables, lots of little things," she tells me. "I was able to monetize it but I chose to make it free. I figure people can support me on my Patreon if they like what I do."  

This is a really exciting move. I'm a huge advocate of Second Life creators expanding to other platforms so they can build their audience and market. It's also very cool to see her SL creation transformed to Unreal. (Compare and contrast the pics in this post.)

"Most of the changes involve aesthetics," she tell me. "Unreal Engine is a really powerful tool where you can spend lots of time on the minute details ranging from how shadows should bounce off an object to creating dozens of layers of ground textures."

While Unreal's graphics are incredibly powerful, her Second Life version has an innovative feature that couldn't make the transition to Steam (possible spoiler ahead):

 

Roblox Launches Creator Hub This Week, Rumored Quest Support This Year

First the news, then my commentary:

On the Creator Hub:

Roblox is officially completing its rollout of the Creator Hub, a new hub that gives developers more tools and centralizes things like documentation and a developer forum into one place. Making the information easier to find seems like it could be quite helpful for developers, and that has an important aftereffect for Roblox, too: Roblox makes its money by taking a cut of what its developers earn, so it’s incentivized to make things better for the creators on its platform.

Intrance, co-creator of the popular Roblox game "Starving Artist" (more on that soon) is impressed so far: "I'd say the most noticeable improvements are the faster loading times and user interface. The addition of verified users helped with filtering out lower quality assets. They've also implemented lots of new analytics dashboards displaying all kinds of stats including retention, engagement, and monetization."

On the rumored Quest support:

Today's SL Flickr Pick: Maloe Vansant is a Long Time Favorite for Imaginative Images

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Maloe Vansant’s photostream has been a favorite for close to fifteen years. I assumed I had written about her in the seven-plus years I have been writing this column, but what a huge oversight on my part. I have not. She is now doing a small series of pictures of women wearing veils. See here, here, here, and here. I love the richness of this pic. The sharp detail of the light and the statue. We can see the face through the veil to her vivid and striking face. I love that Maloe adds a bit of red by placing a flower on the papers. 

For more extraordinary pictures, click here:

Professors Warn Students About Cheating With ChatGPT With Stern Warning… Created by ChatGPT

You've probably heard about students using ChatGPT to cheat on their essay writing work, and it's something developer Catherine Winters knows about first-hand from colleagues at a local university.

"[They are] freaked out because of ChatGPT -- it looks like there was a lot of cheating the last couple weeks of last term," she tells me. "So they've banned it, added the use of it (and anything the prof doesn't allow) to be academic misconduct, etc."

Catherine came up with an even better solution: Asked ChatGPT to create the ultimate warning against students using ChatGPT. (See above.)

"I know at least two of them have since put that in their syllabi as warnings that they know what ChatGPT is," Catherine tells me. "Which is doubly hilarious." (Educators, the full anti-ChatGPT text is below, for your own copy/pasting needs.)

 

This, plus news of an AI programmed to detect AI, is starting to remind me of the artificial intelligence arms race in Philip K. Dick's classic short story "Second Variety": The AIs on opposing sides kill off most the actual humans in the war, keep on fighting against each other... and then set to work creating new AIs programmed to appear human enough to fool the enemy AI. 

 

So could students could train ChatGPT to generate answers that are designed to disguise their origins as coming from ChatGPT?