New World Notes

OPEN FORUM: THE YEAR THAT WAS

What were the milestones of your Second Life in 2006-- as a Resident, as a community member, as a creator, or as someone in the metaverse?  Post and discuss here, and after the New Year, I'll highlight the best Comments in an update.

THE YEAR IN NWN: THE BUSINESS OF SECOND LIFE

Highlights in SL-based business for the year, as featured here:

"Yes Logo" - April 2006: the logo of a major corporate brand appears in Second Life with the company's explicit approval.

"Going Pro in SL" - May 2006: Aimee Weber offers insights into the efforts which brought her numerous real world clients.

"Avatars on Avatar-Based Marketing" - June 2006:  Stemming from a groundbreaking Harvard Business Review article, marketers and entrepeneurs sit down and discuss the future of sell in SL.

"The Mixed Success of Mixed Reality" - October 2006: After numerous corporate-sponsored sites and projects are launched in Second Life, a question emerges:  Why are Residents mostly ignoring them?

"Need 4 Nissan?" - How a kid in the midwest managed to create a more popular car site in Second Life than the SL island sponsored by a major international car conglomerate.

"Not the First Time" - Moral:  Corporations which come into Second Life don't offend Residents; corporations which come into Second Life claiming to be great innovators (but aren't) do.

"Mixed Reality Mondays" - A compendium of news on real companies and organizations putting down pegs in the Metaverse.

THE YEAR IN NWN: TRACKING NUMBERS

From Tateru's "Hacking Up a Storm"

Second Life saw an explosion in new Residents through 2006-- or to be more exact in retrospect, an explosion in people who created new Residents accounts, even though nearly all bid adieu to the world after their first and only visit-- and it was hard not to be caught up in the giddiness of such geometric growth.  It was only when NWN demographitrix Tateru Nino wrote a blockbuster November story which revealed the modest retention numbers, did the sobering reality fully set in.  My own response reflecting that, and the excessive backlash, is here at GigaGamez.  Other highlights in demographic coverage, many of them from the indispensable Tateru:

"The City of Second Life" - The cities where Second Life is most popular.  (With results likely to surprise.)

"200K" -  April 2006:  The world goes from 100K to 200,000 registered accounts in under 4 months.

"Quarter Million, Plus Change" - 250,000 accounts by June 2006-- and some of the first signs of skepticism arrive in the Comments section.

"Finding Fur" - Finally, a metric for a furry census.

"The Meaning of a Million" - Tateru Nino's thoughtful paen to a small world and a culture swallowed by waves of immigrants.

"Hacking up a Storm" - A cracker attempts to breach SL security-- and Tateru notices a strange phenomenon, as a result.

"The Trouble with Two Million" - Tateru's classic expose on how much was lost in the rush to gain so few.

THE TRUTH OF 20K (Updated)

Last January, Cory Linden predicted it would happen by the end of the year.  With just two days to spare, it came to pass: peak Second Life concurrency reached 20,000 in 2006. 

Other Cory Linden predictions for 2006 that have also verifiably panned out: "Apple's share of the PC market will double to 5%" (Check), "A Second Life resident will begin selling a service for exporting SL items to a Fab Lab... in order to create them in the real world" (Check), and, "A Virtual Research Foundation, based in a virtual world or MMO, will be created to gather games and virtual world research, create research standards, and provide funding to researchers" (Check, kinda sorta), and, "A winning candidate in the 2006 US Congressional elections will have campaigned in an MMO or virtual world" (Close, but no cigar.)

Update, 6:52pm Hawaii time: 

In Comments, Cory himself notes another prophesy of his ten which manifested.  That's an astounding 50% accuracy so far, and a few others may still be confirmed.  Longtime Residents know that Cory Linden often visits the world as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, however, so I suspect some mystic counsel at work (FSM be praised).

Update, 7:21pm Hawaii time:  Of course, it's also worth noting that the 20K concurrency came at great cost.  And just as surely, Tateru Nino has a post with a title that says it all.

THE YEAR IN NWN: MARVELS, WONDERS, AND FANTASTIC DEVICES

Strolling the universe of user-created coolness: a year of inspiring builds, innovative hacks, and playthings of all kinds.  A personal selection from many more.

"The Lost Gardens of Apollo" - Creating the ultimate romantic isle (with three ministers on retainer to perform virtual weddings.)

"Growing Your Own" - Or, Artificial Life meets Cheech and Chong.

"The Art of Tech War" - Creating a first-person real-time strategy game from the ground up.

"God Game" - Creating a self-contained artificial ecosystem from the top down.

THE YEAR IN NWN: CREATING CONFLICT

From "The Skin You're In"

The fights we bring with us, the conflicts we build here: select stories of social strife from New World Notes in 2006:

"The Skin You're In" - One day, a white woman transforms her avatar into a beautiful African-American-- and begins to see the world (both of them) differently. 

"Unimpeachable Offense" -  What happened when a man tried to rattle Second Life with a political protest and/or griefer scheme.  (This entry could almost fit in the "Epochal Shifts" category, because it inadvertantly demonstrated how large the world has grown-- and how much a sense of Second Life being a single community had been attenuated, in the intervening months.)

"Guarding Darfur" - Superheroes and griefers battle over the information site of a real genocide.

Update, 12/28:  Nearly forgot another milestone in social conflict:  "Trademarking Utopia", the story of an experiment in metaverse democracy which ended in a DMCA suit.

ALL SIMS CONSIDERED

I made a brief appearance on yesterday's "All Things Considered" from National Public Radio, in a story appropriately titled:  "Visiting the 'Second Life' World: Virtual Hype?"  (Yes, NPR has joined that particular debate, following Clay Shirky in casting deep skepticism on the "two million Residents" meme that the media is usually complicit in.  But not this time.)  Nicely reported by Laura Sydell, the segment actually devotes most of its coverage to Judge Posner's recent in-world appearance, and his Honor himself arrives to offer some trenchant thoughts on the importance of online worlds.  Last year's NWN book club guest Thomas P.M. Barnett also shows up to praise the longtail power of his own appearance in-world.  (Forseti Svarog of The Electric Sheep is on hand, too.)  Taken together, it almost plays like an audio version of my GigaGamez essay on the hype and hope around Second Life. 

Also, the raccoon.   Fittingly, the raccoon lawyer shows up first.  Listen to it all here.

Rik's Picks for December 27-31

Rik Riel's weekly round-up of upcoming SL events...

As we close out an eventful year in Second Life, I have been reflecting on the tremendous amount of creativity and energy it took to organize the hundreds of concerts, fashion shows, art openings, lectures, classes, and so much more, just over the past couple of months that I've been covering events for New World Notes.  It has been a pleasure attending a tiny fraction of these happenings -- and more importantly meeting so many cool residents along the way. Thanks to all of you who sent along event information to me or who answered my last minute questions.

Speaking of cool events, at 4PM from December 27-30, Khemical Stonecutter is organizing Kwanzaa Celebrations on each day of the African-oriented festival to honor the principles of Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) and Nia (purpose). Head over to Johu (202,23) to join the festivities.

Also upcoming this week: fundraisers for the Christian Children's Fund and the ASPCA, poetry writing, scrapbooking, and holiday blues, country and folk for your listening pleasure.

(All times in SLT, "Second Life Time"-- i.e., Pacific Standard)

THE YEAR IN NWN: SECOND LIFE MACHINIMA

Here's my personal selection of SL machinima covered in New World Notes over the year past-- and not, I'd hasten to add, a "Best of SL Machinima 2006", because there were numerous standout videos that I wasn't able to mention.  I'd love to see an annual Oscars of Second Life machinima, but until then, here's my own nominations-- all of them in their own way using the medium to create new, groundbreaking, perfectly-executed mini-masterpieces.

... IT'S MY PRIM IN A BOX

Continuing the fine Second Life tradition of instantly repurposing Web-driven pop culture into something far stranger, machinima goddess Moo Money went looking for that special Christmas gift YouTubed last week from "Saturday Night Live".  Not finding it in-world, she went and got Chet Neurocam to build her an attachable one.  And after I tracked her down, we YouTubed a video of our own--  except in our version, Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg are played by an androgynous Ms. Moo and an anatomically correct penguin.  (Video probably not safe for work, unless you work in a urologist's office.)