New World Notes

On the Second day of Christmas, Timeless gave to me...

... a flying angel pig with gossamer wings.  With on-board pilot controls, and an embedded backflip animation, when you put your pig in reverse.  Also comes with waving animation, so you can greet your angel pig-loving public, as you pass.  Thanks, Timeless Prototype!  How did you guess?

Listening to the Guvnah: Desmong Shang Explains Caledon

He began by creating and selling virtual antiques from a time that never existed, graduated to creating and selling virtual tulips in a (surprisingly successful) attempt to recreate Tulip Mania in Second Life, then went on to launch an empire of his own.  Drawing thousands of visits weekly, the Victorian steampunk-themed Independent State of Caledon is, as I reported recently, one of Second Life's most popular communities, thanks in great part to its founder and benevolent ruler, Desmond "the Guvnah" Shang.  He was recently interviewed in-world by InformationWeek's Ziggy Figaro, and it makes for great weekend listening.  Radio Riel has the audio file here. 

(Hat tip: Zoe Connolly's SL Blogosphere.)

Tracking Concurrency

Frans Charming of SLOG has started tracking daily in-world concurrency rates for Second Life, displaying them in handily legible hour-by-hour charts.  The low point (now 30K or thereabouts) is usually around Midnight SLT, with the peak is always between 2-3pm (currently reaching between 50-58K.)  See them all here.

Governing Extropia: A New City State Rises

At Virtually Blind, metaverse lawyer and legal analyst Benjamin Noble brings word of Extropia, a new SL city state created to look like a sci-fi future utopia, and promising a self-governed “haven for creative expression – in architecture, social relations, sexuality, artistic and technological media.”  Elections for public officials (including judges) begin in January-- read more about this promising experiment in virtual self-governance here.  Hopefully it doesn't go the way of Neualtenburg-- or for that matter, Bioshock.  Image credit: Virtually Blind.

Eight More Facts From One More SL Blogger (Updated)

Urbane Milanese author and Second Life Resident Frank Koolhaas responds to my tag with eight facts of his own, talking James Bond, virtual tourism, and more.  That makes five who've taken the tag-- still AWOL are illustrated blogger Seraphine Khorona, steampunk blogger Eladrienne Laval, and IBM blogger Jaymin Carthage.  Get cracking with facts, people!

Update, 7:50pm: In Comments, SL blogger Otenth Paderborn notes that Eladrienne (left) did in fact post eight salients a few weeks ago, and they're doozies: on being a real world model, partying with Pinhead, pissing off Spike Lee, and more.

Crossing the Chasm: Thoughts on Second Life's Plateau Phase from Electric Sheep's COO

This week, top metaverse developer Electric Sheep Company unexpectedly laid off a third of its staff, including NWN contributor Rik Riel.  Forseti Svarog, the company's Chief Operating Officer, has a thoughtful post on their blog, offering observations related to the cutbacks.  I described Second Life's current period as a plateau phase, while Forseti describes it as a chasm between early adopters and mass adoption:

If we assume that Linden Lab can solve the back-end architectural and stability problems, and that ESC can solve some of the front-end usability and landing path problems, then one primary question is how long will this chasm be? ...Disruptive technologies do not become mass-market ready overnight. That neither means that they are useless and doomed to failure, nor that their success is guaranteed.

If I read him right, he thinks web-based virtual worlds will be the training wheels for Second Life, especially for the kids who are currently enjoying them now, and as they reach adulthood, begin looking for a richer experience to graduate into.  That may be.  But maybe the real challenge is we're not just talking about one chasm.   

The Ethics of WindLight (Updated)

Can computer graphics divide a community by class and culture?  After some foot dragging, New World Notes is now upgrading to the WindLight-enabled version of Second Life, currently in pre-release.  Here I am in Naturum (SLURL teleport at this link) a gorgeous island designed for outdoor recreation that looks even moreso, when seen through the lens of the atmospheric lighting and rendering system.  My reluctance to upgrade was mainly from journalistic ethics: since WindLight isn't yet part of the official viewer, it displays a non-standard version of Second Life that isn't "real", so to speak.  So if I were to report an SL-based story with real world implications, like the strike on IBM's Second Life campus, taking screenshots of the protest in WindLight would artificially make it seem more dramatic than it actually was.  (To me that seems as questionable as a real world news organization adding Photoshop effects to enhance a battle scene.)

Then there's a deeper question which NWN arts correspondent Amalthea Blanc suggested to me recently:

New World Tableau: olmia Tenk in Pera Vista

olmia took this seemingly mundane Christmas tableau in Pera Vista, but it comes with several twists.  Miss Tenk for example, is actually pictured here, but you need to squint to spot her-- she's the exotic plant next to the snowman.

"The Wollemi pine bulb avatars posing under a Xmas tree is interesting," she says, "because the Wollemi pine is being promoted as a good Xmas trees this time of the year."

But that's only the start, because she was in Pera Vista (working with the island's owner Mozy Pera) to shoot machinima that will ultimately go into a series of videos that will comprise her Master of Fine Art's thesis.   

"Currently filming the first machinima around the grid in SL but I anticipate all five machinima will make up a storyboard for the 'Olmia' script," she explains. 

Her script is here, an ambitious story that begins in the Jurassic era and ends in 1994.  She recently uploaded some absolutely gorgeous test footage from the first part, depicting olmia the plant fearlessly wandering a dinosaur's graveyard.  I can't wait to see the finished movie.

Credit for her avatar after the break-- along with details for submitting your own New World Tableau.

Second Life Events: Rik's Picks for December 20-23

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

I know that it isn't very fair of me to profile a concert that is only allowing twenty avatars to attend, but this is too cool for me NOT to mention. On Friday, December 21, at 11AM PST, alt-folk musician Grace McDunnough performs a special engagement of her show "Musimmersion" that was reported on by this site last month. Click the image to watch a video clip of her show, which uses scripted environments synched to her lyrics that enhance the audience's experience of her music. The concert is unfortunately limited to 20 avatars to reduce lag during Grace's show.  So pre-register fast with Fandango Milena if you want to attend. After the show, Grace will talk about her motivations and inspirations, and take questions from the audience. Part of the Orange Arts Festival at Orange 1 (click here to teleport.)

Also Coming Up This Week: A femdom charity bazaar, Elizabethan Christmas rituals, Tim Wu talks about keeping the net neutral, electronica in the redzone, a circle of playwrights, Uruguayan jazz, meditating your cares away, and of course several holiday parties.  All those festivities and more after the jump...

Midweek Open Forum: Post announcements, opinions here

Been a busy, eventful few weeks-- what's on your mind?  If you're in the States, for example, Second Life is being featured tonight on the Discovery Channel.  Cory Linden, of course, has the best quotes.  (And the most arched eyebrows.)