New World Notes

Virtual Breasts Raise $2821 To Fight Real Breast Cancer

The Boobie-Thon is a silly name for an awesome enterprise: a Web 2.0-powered movement to raise money for fighting breast cancer.  For inspiration, the site encourages you to submit and/or view topless photos.  Expanding that concept into the metaverse, steampunk mistress Eva Bellambi launched a Boobie Ball earlier this month, daring guests' to dance topless, and definitely donate Linden Dollars for converting into US$ for the Boobie-Thon. When the ball was over and all the donations were tallied, they came out to nearly USD$3000.  Still more impressive, that SL donation to the Boobie-Thon was nearly a third of the fundraiser's general total of $9300. 

Not bad for virtual breasts.  And despite all the current conflict, it's yet another reminder of Second Life's transformative potential as a unified and communal world.  Pictured: Hypatia Calisto and Ms. Bellambi, courtesy of the latter.

Halloween Costumes Supercharged At Crimson Shadows

Crimson Shadows is the foreboding castle lair of New World Notes' partner Rezzable, largely the creation of legendary SL builder Jimmy Thompson; it's also the site of a great fashion expo happening now, perfect for last-minute Halloween costume shopping with an exotic, innovative twist-- like this White Shadow dress, at left, and this traditional Chinese "hopping vampire" avatar, at right.  I'm biased of course, but I think it's worth a pre-Hallow's Eve visit, if only for the atmospherics.  (Direct SLURL teleport to Crimson Shadows at this link.)

Openspace Or OpenSim? Linden Land Price Hikes Provoke Registration Spike In Open Source Alternative

24 hours after Jack Linden announced the highly contentious price hikes of the company's Openspace regions, reports Bettina Tizzy, "800 new registered users signed up on the Openlife Grid.  That's up to 16 times the average 24 hour sign-up rate." Openlife is an in-beta metaverse derived from OpenSim, the open source spinoff of Second Life. Among those 800 was Ms. Tizzy herself, depicted here in Openlife avatar form.  Bettina is the renowned founder of Not Possible In Real Life, a large and highly influential Second Life arts group.

New World Notes' coverage of the Openspace pricing turmoil is here; our related user survey is here.  (Image: npirl.blogspot.com.)

What's The Most Precious Item You've Seen In Second Life?

This is Scarlet Red prefab home created by Scarlet Creative, on sale for L$15000 (about $57,  at current Linden Dollar-to-US Dollar exchange rates.) It was suggested by Balthasar Bookmite and Hant Boucher  in  New World Notes' Open Forum search for SL's most precious item, as determined by its beauty, price, and other variables.

What's your nomination for SL's most precious item? Go to the Open Forum, read the criteria, and post your suggestions.  (Image from Scarlet's listing on OnRez.)

Open Survey On The Lindens' Openspace Price Hike

Online Surveys & Market Research

Context and conversation here.

Image credit:  Vidal Tripsa, from her Flickr stream.

Lost In The Void: Unexpected Virtual Land Price Hike Leads To Anti-Linden Protest, Self-Immolation

As I write this, several dozen Residents are encamped outside the entrance of the Linden Estate Services office, most waving protest signs, some engulfed in flames.  It's part of a larger backlash against last night's announcement that the Lindens will significantly increase the land use fees of "Openspace" regions (or in Resident vernacular, void sim), from USD$75 to USD$125 a month, starting next January.  Designated by the Lindens for "light use", Openspace regions, as the name suggests, were intended to emphasize open landscapes and water bodies, with little or no homes or other objects.  Instead, land manager Jack Linden claims, these regions "are being used about twice as much as  we expected." Hence the price increase.

To give this a real world analogy, imagine that the Lindens were the US government, and they sold off large portions of Federal parkland to citizens at bargain prices, with the understanding that the private landowners would preserve their estate in more or less the condition they bought it.  In response, there's an unexpected demand for this land, while many existing owners begin converting much of their pristine land to real estate.  So the government suddenly increases the cost of new parcels, while greatly raising the property taxes on previously purchased regions.

If that happened, Washington D.C. would probably be overrun by protesters, too.  Especially if it happened now, during the height of global economic uncertainty and recession.

Reaction across the metaverse blogosophere has been thorough and generaly heated.  Here's a sample:

Lanna's List: SL Scavenger Hunts For Halloween

Charlanna Beresford’s ongoing coverage of upcoming SL events…

If you're at all like me, you find the scores of Halloween scavenger hunts heavenly but are often bedeviled by finding all of the goodies!  There are a few big ones with lots of great items, festive builds, and all-around Halloween fun.  Here's four notable ones:

Koinup Launches Avatar Art Contest Judged By Bettina Tizzy, Hamlet, And The Editor of Italian Architecture Digest

Here's the latest contest from Koinup, the virtual world social network (and NWN partner): turn your avatar into a work of art, either by post-processing a portrait screenshot to look like a painting, or converting your very avatar into an artform.  I'll be judging, along with Bettina Tizzy, art maven of NPIRL, and Mario Gerosa, editor of Italian Architectural Digest and curator of the Virtual Renaissance Exhibition in Florence. Winners will be featured at Museo del Metaverso, an Italian arts organization.  Submission deadline is December 3rd-- here's the guidelines, and here's the stream for the latest entries.

For Sale: A Second Life Island Paradise Called Obama

One recent day in Second Life, I was researching the state of real world politics in the metaverse, and quite by accident, stumbled on a private island called Obama.  Verdant and mountainous, the land of Obama is peaceful and untrammeled, and by its own sales description, everything is allowed without restrictions.  It is lorded over by a tall and regal black woman.   Who as it happens, is actually a virtual land manager from Vienna, Austria.

At first when I ask, Su Brando is cagey about whether she named Obama island after the American Senator of the same name, the one who happens to be running for President of the United States.

"If i did," she initially replies, "would it be a problem?" 

I tell her I don't think so, because after all, "Obama" is a relatively common name.  (Why, there's even a Japanese fishing village called that, too.)  Plus, I note, were the Senator even to know there was a virtual island that bore his name, he probably has other more pressing concerns to contend with.

The World Bank Returns To Second Life This Week (Updated)

Above left is Dahlia Kharg, the avatar of Dahlia Khalifa, spokesperson for The World Bank, the incredibly powerful (and to some, controversial) financial institution dedicated to supporting developing nations' economies. (That's Ms. Khalifa above right, logging into SL from her office.)  Last year the Bank presented findings from their Doing Business report on global regulations.  "It turned out to be a rewarding effort," the Bank's Ramin Aliyev tells me.  "Some 700 Residents from 100+ countries visited the Doing Business presentation venue in Second Life. Another 1,000 tuned in to [the] live audio broadcast of the event." 

"When Ramin first told me about his idea to launch our annual report on SL last year," Khalifa tells me by e-mail, "I didn't even know what he was talking about (my shame). However, as I learned more and actually went through the launch event last year, I came to realize the potential power of SL and other such mediums... namely, it is a great equalizer and a powerful outreach tool. Doing business goes on global roadshows every year after our annual report release which takes us to countries all over the world. These events typically attract up to 100 attendees. With SL, we were able to reach 1,700 all at once. This year we hope to exceed that, and I think we will."