New World Notes

Meme Challenge: If Facebook's Like Vodka Cranberry, What Drink Is Second Life Like, and Why?

A dude named Patrick Moberg has some fun comparing drinks and drugs to various Web 2.0 systems. Facebook's like a vodka cranberry, as we see here, and Digg's more like a bong, because it's full of "Sensationalist political and religious talk," but "Plans of overthrowing mass media fall prey to collective laziness." Second Life isn't included, so I figure we should help Mr. Moberg with the heavy lifting. What drink is SL like, and why? Bonus challenge: No comparing Second Life to LSD or mushrooms, that's too easy. Image credit: Patrick Moberg. Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan.

Are the Lindens Planning a Cloud-Based Second Life?

When the Lindens introduced their behind-the-firewall, Second Life Enterprise solution, many scratched their heads at the high $50,000 starting price, which will surely limit its market. But taking a hint from Linden CPO Tom Hale, architect Jeanricard Broek thinks the Lindens have a longer term strategy in mind here: Introducing the next version of Second Life, which will be cloud-based, like the upcoming technology recently announced by nNvidia. "Just think," says Broek:

No viewer required, full IP protection, Natal ready. Remember Lotus & Mitch Kapor failed to lead with a GUI for 123 and Microsoft ate them alive. I don't think the lesson went unlearned.

I'd note that a cloud-based metaverse was recently suggested to me by OnLive's CEO. As Steve Perlman put it to me, "You could design the next Second Life on this!" So even if the Lindens aren't working on it, as Monsieur Ricard put it, "someone else will."

How To Make Second Life Truly Mass Market, Part 3: Linden Dollar Prepaid Cards Sold at Retail

I noticed this display in my local drugstore chain the other day, a whole section devoted to prepaid debit cards for all manner of goods and services -- international calling minutes, iTunes downloads, Amazon purchases, and so on. You're bound to see still more of these display racks in retail stores over the holidays, as they make an ideal last-minute gift. Looking closer, I noticed roughly a third of the entire rack were prepaid cards for virtual currencies, for videogame consoles, social games, and some of the major virtual worlds and MMOs, including the largest web-based title, Habbo:

One virtual currency selection is painfully missing, of course: Linden Dollars. While Second Life almost certainly has some of the highest average revenue per user rates of any freemium virtual world, the payment process (via credit card, for the most part) still remains frustrating at best. A prepaid retail card would make it generally easier to buy Linden Dollars, while fostering mainstream adoption in several ways:

• Organic Promotion: The mere existence of a Linden Dollar prepaid card in retail stores would turn Second Life into "impulse buy".
• Market Adaption: As with Habbo, most of the large virtual worlds and MMOs popular with kids have a prepaid card offering. A Linden Dollar card would align Second Life with their buying habits as they turn 18.
• Boost Conversion: Most people give up on Second Life within the first few hours of installation. A prepaid card instantly acts as a conversion incentive, nudging them past the painful learning curve with the reassurance that they're entering a new place with spending money in hand.

These would be the likely immediate effects of a retail card. The likely medium term consequence is also a good one: by adding more consumers into the Second Life economy, the best content creators will have a reason to build and expand their business beyond the existing market, which counts about 465,000 or so, a number that hasn't substantially grown in the last couple years. (It was 300,000 in 2007.)

If you live in Southeast Asia, you actually can buy pre-paid cards for Linden Dollars. A small Singapore company called First Meta recently introduced this service. Perhaps not coincidentally, the nations with the biggest spenders of Linden Dollars are (proportionally speaking) Hong Kong and Malaysia, where First Meta cards are sold. But with the majority of Second Life spenders in the US and EU, real growth awaits the appearance of those cards in your local Target.

Part Three of a series, introduced here, to explain why mass market adoption is so important. Part One: "Deep Integration With Facebook", Part Two: "Point-and-Click Avatar Movement"

Five Favorite New World Notes Posts From Last Week

• Are popular, bruised-up female avatar skins misogynist, or making a feminist point? Be sure to read the fascinating conversation in Comments.
• Second Life pricing policies seem to be sorely hampered by formulating them within Second Life itself.
• Readers offer Thanksgiving weekend thanks to Residents who make Second Life worthwhile.
• Willow Caldera clues in on the ambient live keyboard stylings of Torben Asp.
• Five ways the BBC's latest Second Life article fails.

Weekend Machinima: Creative Anarchy Still Reigns In Second Life's Public Sandboxes

As documented by a machinamist named nickiname Munro, here's some non-stop free build anarchy in Goguen, one of Second Life's original public sandboxes. Includes possible lewdness and highly liberal interpretations of the fair use doctrine:

Want to see how crazy Goguen can be? Go look for yourself: Direct SLurl teleport to Goguen at this link. Hat tip: SL Update.

NWN in Japanese:Philip Rosedaleの新会社は、リンデンLove Machineの新版を作っている--オリジナル開発者のCory Ondrejkaが意見を述べる

  彼の新会社のブログに載っているように、最近、Philip Rosedaleは色々と言われていたことについて認めた：彼の会社の手始めは、リンデンのインターナルシステムであるLove Machine、賞賛の言葉をスタッフみんなに広げ、積み上げていくシステムの新版を作ることだ。

Thanksgiving Weekend Open Forum: Who In Second Life Are You Thankful For?

Who are the creators, the volunteers, the leaders, the innovators, the artists and musicians, the catalysts, the educators, the thinkers, the lovers, the explorers, the comedians, the iconoclasts, the entrepeneurs, the joy bringers, and everyone else that makes Second Life worthwhile? Share them in Comments, and I'll highlight as many as I can.

Chestnut's Choices: Royal Opera House London Mixed Reality Performace Art, Alice's Restaurant Masacree Live, "The Nutcracker" Ballet Live on Stage and Other Exciting Events

Chestnut Rau’s weekly round-up of upcoming SL events…

On Friday 11/27 and again on Saturday 11/28 at 1:15pm you are invited to a most unusual live mixed reality  performance, "The Second Death of Saspar Helenale" This show takes place in SL and onstage at the Royal Opera House, London. Caspar Helendale invites you to attend his death; a funeral service held simultaneously in the real and virtual worlds. He has been exploring mortality since he was first created, and in his last twenty minutes of existence he will share his thoughts with collected mourners. He will be accompanied by his widow-to-be, Trixiebelle Landar, whose requiem will be performed live and streamed back into the virtual world over the course of the service. Via live onstage musicians and a giant projection screen, the theatre audience will join SL residents to reflect and mourn, as the real and virtual worlds collide at the point where Caspar’s light is forever extinguished…

You may join the funeral service in SL at in a mausoleum, pictured above, constructed specially for the event by SL architectural guru Keystone Bouchard. There is a capacity of 40 avatars for each service. To book your place, please IM Drifter Rhode in advance (stating which day you'd like to attend). Or, at the Royal Opera House in London.  Go here  for further details. 

Also after the break: 16 Days of Activism to Stop Violence Against Women, Classical Music Thanksgiving, Alizarin Goldflake Immersive Art Installation and more

Bettina Tizzy Joins New World Notes To Write Homages of Great Second Life Artists!

On Thanksgiving, an announcement to give thanks for: I'm very proud to announce that Bettina Tizzy, the Second Life art maven who recently discontinued her influential blog, will be writing a regular series on this blog, tentatively called "Bettina's Homage".

"I will be paying a monthly tribute to the greatest artists," she tells me. "Of course, I'll always be looking for great new artists, too!" Look for her first post here very soon, and if you know of new creators she should give her attention to, please suggest them in Comments. Meantime, be sure to follow her lovely mini-blog, A Digital Shoebox, for snack-sized selections of great creativity in SL and worlds beyond.

Willow's Playlist: Ambient Keyboard with Torben Asp - Think Kraftwerk Meets Mozart

Exclusive to NWN, Willow Caldera covers SL's burgeoning live music scene

On those happy days when there's nothing pressing to be done and the idle time stretches ahead, you need musical accompaniment that's as chilled out as you are. Torben Asp, quite fortunately, is on hand to provide a soundtrack to the laziest of days; his own personal brand of self-composed ambient keyboard is mellow enough to slow the most stressed of heartbeats.   

This video was shot by Sound'r at The Forest and features the original song (and my personal favourite), "Senses".

"In 1998 I bought the first music software for the PC and then things started moving with composing and presenting my stuff on different websites," says Torben. "Suddenly I could express everything I wanted to through my music... and today, well, it is a great pleasure to be composing and through SL I can get immediate feedback. 'Stay or Go?' I always ask the audience when I have presented a new composition... they most kindly say 'Stay!' every time."

Torben has been a Second Life resident for almost three years, performing live for two of those after Jess Oranos overheard him playing his music to test a Shoutcast stream and cajoled him into presenting it at an open mic night.