New World Notes

In Wake of Linden Lab Layoffs, Founder Acknowledges Company Overreach, Asks Second Life Users' "Forgiveness"

Second Life founder Philip Rosedale asked "to sort of beg everyone's forgiveness" for how Linden Lab has over-extended development of Second Life in the past, and for not adequately prioritizing work to improve it. That's how I read the crux of his speech at Second Life's 7th anniversary yesterday, speaking through his Philip Linden avatar, he of spiky hair and rainbow codpiece. Last October, Philip announced his role as Linden Lab's Chairman of the Board would be restricted to "outbound and media type things... talking about Second Life". Now, however, as he told Honour McMillan, he's "lately focusing on how I can help with product direction."

I believe this was Philip Rosedale's first public speech related to Second Life and Linden Lab since the June 9 game-changing news that the company was laying off 30% of its staff, and I think it's fair to say it contained many of the words that most Residents have been hoping to hear from a Linden Lab executive since then. In addition to acknowledging company overreach, Philip characterized the layoffs as an effort to keep SL's internal economy thriving, and the effort to serve enterprise and education users as "peripheral" to the more important task of fixing Second Life's essential shortcomings. These takeaways and more after the break:

Coming Soon to Second Life: Mesh Uploads in COLLADA (And Why That Matters)

Another mesh demo by Timmi Allen; not an avatar but an animated skeleton with mesh overlay

Remember that vividly realized alien playing Paganini I mentioned last week? Turns out there's much more backstory to that demo: The alien was actually created with a polygon mesh file made by a Resident developer who is part of Linden Lab's private Beta mesh program, working under a company non-disclosure agreement. However, last weekend there was a Linden announcement that the NDA had been lifted (at least temporarily), and now those private Beta developers are giving details:

• Import format will be Collada
• Collada allows rigging which means: Wearable clothing, entire avatar replacements that bend with animations
• Five submeshes for each object
• Four different Levels Of Detail
• One for collisions for Havok

Much more here. The biggest news is that the specific mesh file format is COLLADA, an industry standard that's compatible with Maya, 3D Studio Max, SketchUp, and Blender (among other major 3D creation platforms.) This will make Second Life content much more compatible with other 3D online worlds, games, and graphics (which may greatly encourage designers to try developing in SL.) COLLADA also means SL developers will have a means of legitimately backing up their content outside of Second Life, without running afoul of CopyBot controversies. For Second Life content consumers, this means more realism and detail to the content they enjoy -- including clothes, which will be easier to wear, and better fitting. As a source told me, COLLADA meshes will probably change Second Life content more than sculpties did.

When will SL developers get meshes to work with in Second Life proper? Last month, Linden Lab's former Chief Product Officer promised them this quarter. Would that were the case; they could not come soon enough.

Update, 12:30pm: I asked Linden Lab to confirm the COLLADA mesh details revealed by beta developers. And Linden PR rep Peter Gray replied: "We do not have any announcement or further info about mesh to share (or confirm) at this time."

Peter Greenaway, Acclaimed Filmmaker & Second Life User, Joins Protest Over Anti-Nudity Policies at SL Anniversary in Statement on Importance of Second Life as an Art Medium

SL7B protest photo by Marmaduke Arado

This week Second Life celebrates its seventh year of commercial operation, and as in previous years, world owner Linden Lab is holding an official anniversary party, known as SL7B. As was often the case during past anniversaries, this year there's some Resident controversy over how the company represents the culture of Second Life at the party. Much of the 2010 outrage centers around the metaverse art of Rose Borchovski, whose works contain abstract nudity. Because of this, her installation, "Susa Bubble", was summarily ejected by Linden Lab from the SL7B party grounds, which prohibits depictions of avatar nudity. Soon after, a number of sign-waving Resident protesters assembled on Rose's land, railing against "Thought Police" (as seen in the video below.)

This time, however, the protesters have a strong ally: Peter Greenaway, the acclaimed British director of The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover starring Helen Mirren, and The Pillow Book starring Ewan McGregor. Greenaway is a Second Life user himself, and has incorporated SL into some of his own art (see below), some of which he's done in collaboration with Rose Borchovski. Over the weekend, Rose has been passing around a notecard authored by Greenaway, a statement directed at Courtney Linden, the company staffer who helps manage SL7B.

Greenaway declines to give his Second Life avatar name for privacy reason, but I have confirmed with a close associate that he did indeed write it. Ironically, it contains one of the strongest endorsements by a world-renowned artist of Second Life as a powerful new medium:

"Whatever else you think you may be doing with Second Life," Peter Greenaway writes to Linden Lab, "you have created a very sophisticated tool that combines traditions of painting with cinema and the graphic arts in present tense terms that permits visual expression of language like never before. Do not underestimate what you have created..."

"The Kiss" by Rose Borchovski, courtesy The Metaverse Journal

After the break, Greenaway's full statement, words from Rose Borchovski, and Linden Lab's response to both. For the record, I personally believe some of the protest rhetoric (even from Greenaway) is overwrought; after all, it's entirely permissible to stage artwork with nudity in much of Second Life. However, by not including a Mature-rated area in SL7B, the Lindens do open themselves up to these kind of protests, and charges that the anniversary event doesn't welcome the full breadth of SL creativity and free expression to a party that's supposed to celebrate it.

Last Chance to Visit Greenies in Second Life This Week

Greenies, the classic Second Life location that puts your avatar in a 1950's living room invaded by thumb-sized aliens to insanely delightful effect, is leaving Second Life this week. (The last official event is set for this Wednesday.) Greenies will still exist online, but Rezzable, the British studio that created it (and a former sponsoring partner of this blog) is permanently moving it to their own OpenSim grid. Here's what Greenies looked like when I wrote about in 2007, and it's striking to see how well it's held up:

Many alien easter eggs have been added since then, and believe me, if you haven't visited it yet or in a long while, you absolutely should before it goes away. Direct SLurl teleport link to Greenies here.

Last Week in New World Notes (& Another Wild Week It Was)

The Linden Lab layoff news and analysis/opinion of same:

• Analysis: What Went Wrong With Linden Lab? (With Linden CEO Mark Kingdon's response)
• Linden Lab Confirms, Chief Product Officer Tom Hale Gone From the Company
• Open Forum: What Are You Doing With *Your* Supply and Demand of Linden Dollars?
• Survey Results: Linden Layoffs Overwhelmingly Make New World Notes Readers Pessimistic About Second Life's Future

And some reasons why Second Life's worth writing about:

• Live Nude Avatars! Highlights from Cao Fei's Interactive Exploration of Avatar Identity, Self Construction, Bare Butts
• Wednesday Machinima: Second Life Cyberpunk From a Studio in Prague
• Eshi Returns to Second Life Making Metaverse Fashion Worthy of Gaga (and Going Gaga)
• Coming Soon: An Alien Who Plays Paganini on Violin

And what's Second Life founder Philip Rosedale doing during all this? Inspiring one of my favorite post titles, that's what:

• Philip Rosedale of LoveMachine Digs that Digg Digs LoveMachine of Philip Rosedale

Weekend Open Forum: What About the Metaverse is On Your Mind?

The floor, it is yours...

NWN in Japanese: Linden Labが認めた:私達は、WEBからアクセスできるセカンドライフビューワーを開発している（WEB上にSLを作るわけではない）

No.セカンドライフは、YoVilleやHabboのようなウェブベースの仮想世界になるわけではない。30％の従業員の解雇を発表したLindenLabのプレスリリースによれば、彼らは「ソフトウェアをダウンロードする必要のない、ブラウザベースの仮想世界体験」を開発している。

Open Forum: What Are Your Favorite Posts in the Second Life Big Bad Blogging Challenge, and Why?

Earlier this month, bloggerista supreme Miss Alicia Chenaux launched her annual Big Bad Blogger Challenge (better known as The BBBC), in which she tosses out a number of topics to dozens of bloggers (Second Life and real world), and invites them to post about them. Here's all her challenges, which ask such provocative questions as:

• If there was someone you could trade places with for one day in Second Life, who would it be and why? Bonus points if you find this person and snap a picture with them!
• Is your avatar more or less your current biological age? Do you portray a younger avatar, or older? Why is this?

I've already read a number of good posts on those subjects and more, though I'm sure I'm missing many. I'd like to link to some today and next week, so please help: What are your BBBC favorites, and why? Post URLs and explanations in Comments, and yes, if you were part of the BBBC yourself, you can plug your own (or slyly get a friend to do so.)

A Blog in Search of Second Life Bots

The Bot Zone is a Second Life blog devoted to tracking down SL bots created to game Linden traffic metrics or attract visitors with their green dots and simulated presence. Despite being officially banned by Linden Lab, they still exist, often in blatant forms, like a store where you can apparently purchase bots as a "Traffic Injection". Created by a New World Notes reader known only as "Little Lost Linden", The Bot Zone culminates the anonymous Residents' obsession with exposing unauthorized bots. Part of me wonders if doing so will only make bot creators more inventive, giving their bots some basic AI features to seem more and more human. But then, that'd be kinda cool too.

In Praise of the Emerald Second Life Viewer

The Emerald Viewer is probably the most popular third party Second Life viewer by far, acclaimed for its performance and added features, but occasionally it generates some controversy. On her own blog, NWN event writer Ms. Chestnut Rau has a fairly thorough look at the ruckus, and why, in the end, the Emerald is worth using. Sample:

There are upwards of 85,000 daily users of the Emerald Viewer. [sic!] With that kind of heavy usage I am pretty sure if there was any credible evidence to suggest the viewer is doing nefarious things I would have found out about it in my hours and hours of research. I found none.

Much more here.