New World Notes

SOCIAL ANIMAL

A conversation with Social Autopoiesis, one of the first fully-formed interactive NPC avatars in Second Life.  Best viewed as a Windows Media video here; low-res YouTube version here.

I got a clue from Dedric Mauriac, and found Social Autopoiesis sitting there on a park bench on the isle of Discordia.  So I joined him, and got to talking, and after a time, he told me he was the son of Copybot.  (Then again, he also claimed to be logging in from a leather bar in the Castro district.)  Whatever the case, he's perhaps the first avatar-based, conversation-enabled, non-player character to enter Second Life-- a project stemming from libsecondlife, the admired (and occasionally vilified) initiative to create a reverse engineer version of the SL viewer.  Making such 'bots as Autopoiesis possible.

Like any conversation with a chatbot powered by a limited database, dialog with Social Autopoiesis is apt to run off the rails, on occasion; watch this video, to see.  (View with Windows Media player; intermittently ribald chat possibly not safe for work, unless you work in a steel mill.)  Or have a chat with him yourself-- direct teleport here.

The "Social is a small project I came up with when I saw someone playing with libsecondlife bots in the Sanbox of Discordia," Adam Brokken tells me, with a creator's effusive zeal.  "He is written in C# and uses libsecondlife and AIMLBot libraries; his current brain is scaled downfor testing purposes. 

Rik's Picks for January 24-28 (Updated)

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

TONIGHT (Thursday) On Saturday at 7PM, the International Spaceflight Museum along with WIRED Magazine present "Lost in Space" a Q&A with WIRED contributing editor David Kushner about how NASA managed to lose historic footage of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.  Apparently the film shown internationally on July 16, 1969 on television was a muddied, degraded version. Meanwhile the pristine raw footage was saved onto 14-inch magnetic tape and then somehow lost. Or maybe it's just in Area 54. Here are the timespace coordinates of the event.

Also coming up: Three days of in-world protests against the war in Iraq, a film about art and research in a post-9/11 world, support for folks with Aspergers, a Hawaiian wedding, and Japan in pink and gray.  All that and more after the jump...

[CORRECTION 1/25/07: I erroneously listed the "Lost in Space" event as happening on Saturday.  It's on Thursday, Jan 25 at 7PM. Apologies. - RR]

2007 PREDICTIONS, REVEALED

With 343 voters counted, here is what the wisdom of the NWN crowd predicts in Second Life's near future-- that is, by the end of 2007:

1. Server problems force Linden to cap concurrent log-ins during peak periods.
2. Linden announces it's on an IPO track-- or partners with/is purchased by a major company.
3. Regular Residents-- people who log in at least once a week three months after account creation-- surpasses one million.

Read the full tally here.  Come late December, we'll check back in to see how close these predictions (and those which didn't make the final three) came to reality.

Tateru's Monday Reality Mix

Tateru Nino's weekly take on mixed reality...

A lot of efforts to bring people and businesses into Second Life don't really last past their first appearance, either because they were one-off stunts, or because the people behind it viewed Second Life's population as a bunch of tech-savvy hipster kids and just plain Myspaced us. (Is that a verb? Can it be?)

Harvard Law School, thankfully, is not a stunt, and doesn't seem to be missing the point. I got to sit in on part of one of their 2007 classes, thanks to their commitment to virtual worlds and the Harvard Extension Program. As a part of that, Harvard's Berkman Island became a virtual courtroom exploring an upcoming trial whose outcome will affect the future of Second Life, and perhaps all the virtual worlds of the future.

We also take a look at the impending return of the Gaming Open Market; the inaugural Virtual Worlds conference in New York City  this March; a quick look at an amusing alternative to Second Life; Guntram Graef, the DMCA and anatomy; and AOL and the Australian ABC's respective forays into virtual worlds.  More, after the fold.

SIMULACRA AND SECOND LIFE

It's probably fitting that the country which produced Baudrillard and Foucault now has the most prominent presence of major real world politicians in Second Life.  Days after the strife over the arrival of France's far right Front National, the country's Socialist Party has a virtual location in Second Life as well, promoting the Presidential election of Segolene Royal.  (Direct teleport to Segolene's site here.)  The glamorous center-left candidate is seen there on a video loop, welcoming visitors to her SL headquarters.  (No word yet if she has an avatar herself.)

If Ms. Royal wins the Presidency (and she's the odds-on favorite) she'll become the first woman to head France-- and in the process, the first international leader to implement Second Life as part of a successful political campaign, as well.

DEATH AND THE METAVERSE

A real murder involving Second Life?  If you glanced at a UK Guardian blog entry or read an article on the popular British site Spiked last week, that's the assumption you might have made.  Both of them point to a January 11th article from New York's Lockport Union-Sun, which reports on a second-degree murder apparently stemming from a bizarre Internet-based love triangle.  The Guardian's Niall Stanage entitles his post "From Second Life to second-degree murder", and taking that cue, Spiked's Robin Walsh writes of a "convoluted love triangle based largely in the virtual online game Second Life."

But according to the Lockport Union-Sun journalist who wrote the story, the murder had nothing whatsoever to do with Second Life. 

TATERU'S TAKE ON REALITY

As longtime New World Notes readers know, Monday means mixed reality-- the day when this blog is devoted to covering intersections between Second Life and fragments of the real world, be that in the form of an established meatspace company, non-profit/political organization, or personality.  Since news of those keep coming more and more frequently, I've sought help compiling my "Mixed Reality Mondays" round-up-- and who better to turn to, than a woman with blue wings and a heart beating strong in the center of her open chest?

VOTING THE FUTURE: FINAL PUSH!

Less than 2 days left to help predict the SL events that shall come to pass in '07.  Go here and vote!

YOUR TUBE, YOUR IMAGINATION

Behold, the ultimate Web 2.0 moment: a longtime staffer with a renowned user-created content Internet service announces his resignation from the company-- in a YouTube video.  And to give it that uniquely Second Life flavor, it's machinima-- shot like a Spaghetti Western.

THE WORLD FROM MY WINDOW: GINSBERG IN DA BOOM

Rockwell Ginsberg just sent me a postcard which filled me with nostalgia, since it was sent from the ancient land of Da Boom.  Which, "[a]s I'm sure you know," he writes, "is the first sim ever created. My house was built by Bill Stirling and my deck was custom made by Trinatie Nolan. The view is of the Smith ocean sim (owned by the Govnah). My time in Second Life is spent buying and selling mainland, but this is one piece of land I'll never sell.  Aside from myself, most people in Da Boom have been around SL since the early days (some since 2003). They have a lot of perspective to offer, and really know what the SL community is all about."  [Direct telport here.]

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.