New World Notes

As Fifty Linden Fridays Launches Its 12th Anniversary Party, Its Founder Tells Me How an Internet Meme Led to One of Second Life’s Largest Groups

Barb photo by Catalina Staheli, edited by Kreao Kujisawa

Click here to join the 12th year anniversary of Fifty Linden Fridays, one of Second Life’s largest in-world groups. Expect a massive crowd, however, because with 52,530 active members, roughly 1 in 10 of SL’s entire user base is a member of FLF. 

Founded and still managed by an SLer named OMGWTF Barbecue -- or just “Barb” to those who know her -- this celebration is quite a culmination for a young woman who, back in 2006, joined Second Life simply to have some rude fun. 

Hence her notably wacky avatar name:

Tomorrow: Whiskey Monday Premieres a New Mixed Reality Art Series, Plus Her Series Turning Tweets Into Second Life Images!

Click here at 1pm SLT tomorrow (Saturday July 24) for a special event in the G.B.T.H. gallery featuring acclaimed SL-based artist Whiskey Monday. Whiskey herself will be there to help unveil a new series of her works with a cool mixed reality twist -- alongside a classic series with a cross-platform hook.

For the "In Other Wor(L)ds" show, Whiskey tells me, "I decided to show a series of images along with their direct inspiration: scanned pages from my RL journals. The visitor can see the SL image (In Other Worlds) in the traditional art-on-the-wall gallery showing, but if you click and hold on the image, an overlay of my RL journal (In Other Words) appears.

"These are small notebooks I've carried around with me for years, where I jot down ideas, thoughts, quotes, words and phrases - just text that I want to refer back to later. It feels both empowering and very vulnerable to show them. But I feel like showing the journal pages with the SL images they inspired helps to give more context. It gives the images just a bit more fullness. I'm really excited by the final form of the show. I'm proud of it."

Looks marvelous. G.B.T.H. is also showing all 40 images from her classic "My Tweets as Pictures" series, which as the title suggests, are Second Life images she created based on tweets she made. Here's one, a smashingly retro image matched to her Dorothy Parker-esque wit:

Next Breakroom Talks: Aerospace Engineer Discusses Coping Strategies for Isolated Astronauts on a Virtual Version of Mars - RSVP Now!

RSVP here for the next Breakroom Talks virtual world session from Sine Wave Entertainment (a sponsoring partner to this blog), which will take place on the lonely landscape of Mars, and feature Dr. Jeevan Perera, a seasoned aerospace engineer who's led risk management for the International Space Station, Orion Spacecraft, and other space missions. His experience working with astronauts in the vast and lonely void of space gives him a unique perspective on something many of us have experienced to a lesser degree while quarantined during the pandemic:

Is Aufwie Set to Be Second Life's Next Break-Out Pop Star?

Auwfie is a twentysomething singer who performs his own music in Second Life three times a week and, for my money, is destined to become SL's next break-out crossover pop star. With a distinctive, richly textured voice backed by a soundscape of vibey hooks (listen above and below), his style sits somewhere between, say, Radiohead and Ariel Pink.

Known as Aufwie Mysterious in SL, he's performing next tomorrow in-world at 5pm PT, at a venue called Industry -- click here to teleport, and join his Discord here for show news.  

Auwfie has actually been visiting SL on and off for over 10 years. "I started performing for people in hangouts just for the laughs, never really took it with proper seriousness," he tells me.

But the coming of COVID changed all that:

Second Life Community Launch Huge Event to Help LGBTQI People Persecuted in Real Life

Click here tomorrow at 12:30pm PT for SeraPride, a fundraising event with all Linden Dollar proceeds converted into US$ to benefit Rainbow Railroad, a non-profit which helps LGBTQI people escape persecution in real life.  Help on the SL sim of Seraphim, Second Life's most popular fashion blog, top brands like Blueberry are donating items/matching funds, while major performers including Skye Galaxy are performing. I just took a sneak peek and the place looks super spectacular.

All the details here, including a spreadsheet which transparently tracks all donations in real time. 

Video below to get you psyched for the party!

NEO-Japan Now Open: Twice-Yearly Tribute to Great Japanese Content Creators in Second Life Inspired by Anime & Cyberpunk

Click here to teleport to NEO-Japan, a twice-yearly shopping and explorational event featuring some of the best Japanese SL content creators inspired by sci-fi anime and cyberpunk classics ranging from Blade Runner to the Second Life-based city Insilico. Here's the official homepage of the event, which is a bit difficult to navigate but has copious inspirational images and links. While the event showcases content by Japan artists, my Japanese language correspondent Sanny Yoshikawa tells me attendance is about 80% international and includes English translation -- and is always packed with visitors from around the world. Indeed I just stopped by and even on a weekday afternoon, the landing point is fairly bustling with avatars.

The extravaganza kicked off last Saturday and runs until April 18; the adventure starts here.

Tomorrow, Noon-2pm PT: Talk 3D Audio With Philip Rosedale, Brianna Wu, Jane McGonigal & Other Game Industry Luminaries in Both Club House & High Fidelity

Two related events to set your schedule for tomorrow via High Fidelity's e-mail list:

 [Discussing 3D audio with] High Fidelity's CEO Philip Rosedale, Brianna Wu, Jane McGonigal, Dean Takahashi, Nicole Lazzaro, James Powell, and others in the gaming industry.. We'll be live in Clubhouse from 12-1p Pacific, and then head over to High Fidelity's Spatial Audio demo space [pictured above] from 1-2p Pacific. Come and share your POV, bring questions, or just drop-in to listen.

High Fidelity's Ashleigh Harris tells me their 3D space has a maximum capacity of 90 people, so try and get there early. I'm hoping to attend as well! 

This Thursday at 3pm PT: Stream Sinespace from a Web Browser to Discuss Building Truly Massive Virtual Worlds With Adam Frisby & Adam Goodrich of Procedural Worlds

Update 3/11: Time has been changed to 3pm PT based on this announcement.

This coming Thursday at 4pm PT, Sinespace is hosting an in-world fireside chat with co-founder Adam Frisby and Adam Goodrich, founder of Procedural Worlds, creator of the powerful Unity terrain tool Gaia, which can be used in Sinespace to build massive, highly detailed worlds -- see video below. 

Sinespace (a proud media partner to New World Notes!) is holding the event on their World Stream technology, which enables you to stream the 3D virtual world from a Chrome browser on any computer, even low-end laptops. I’ll post the link right before the scheduled time, which you can just click to enter the virtual world. If you want a reminder, follow me on Twitter or join the Sinespace Discord.

There will be a Q&A session during the chat, so get your questions about creating and scaling huge virtual worlds ready. After that, the team is planning to take a tour of Archipelago, the new Sinespace vehicle sim region that’s 20 square miles large and built, in part, with Gaia.

Up to now, by the way, World Streaming has only been available in Breakroom, Sinespace’s virtual world for live events and conferences. So this Thursday‘s event is the first open invitation to try out this technology directly in Sinespace.

This Weekend in Sinespace: Fashion, Fun & Poker on the Creative Community’s New Discovery Island

Starting tomorrow (February 27) at 9am PT, the community of Sinespace (a media partner to this blog) are unveiling Discovery Island with a grand opening festival. Hosted by Mimi Marie, it’s a weekend of fun events (schedule below) featuring many of the best creators and designers working on the platform, and prize giveaways worth up to 10,000 in Gold.

To join the festivities, simply launch Sinespace, search Discovery Island in Explore, and teleport to the action. 

Mimi tells me she plans to host regular events on the island:

10+ Years Later, NPR Science Friday's Fan Community in Second Life Keeps Listening to Live Broadcasts -- Here's How to Join Them

If you enjoyed Science Friday's recent great story on the life and death and rebirth of the NPR show's SL fan listening community, the good news is that you, dear reader, can still join them too: Click here to join Science Friday: The Next Generation.

After a decade plus of existence, the group still boasts 85 SLers and is led by Beragon Betts (who's also on Twitter by the same name). 

Every Friday at 11am STL / Pacific time, the group gathers in-world to collectively listen and comment to the live Science Friday broadcast.

"Anyone can join who is well-behaved," Betts tells me. Well-behaved being key, because as you'll hear from the Science Friday segment, the group has occasionally been inundated by anti-science trolls. But maybe that's less of a problem, seeing as lately the anti-science trolls are more active on social media, than Second Life. 

Betts advice for new members: