Second Life Absorption

Delightful topical contributions! Katt Linden volunteered us to participate in Second Life Bloggers Mix'n Match #1 as explained on Vint Falken's blog, which is already opening me up to some names and subjects I previously wasn't acquainted with. ArminasX Saiman has an update on the posts, and I've the glorious cheer of posting the posts we received by Uccello Poultry and Luna Jubilee!

I scribed a post titled “GENDERBENDER OMG!” which is on Alphonsus Peck's blog, a topic — “Gender Identity in SL: Living your SL as the opposite gender” — which was suggested by his wife, Princess Ivory of Her Royal Highness
I'll post a link to Katt's post, on “The power of llHttpRequest” suggested by Tiyuk Quellmalz's Second Life Adventures when that's up!

Enjoy!

Uccello Poultry – The Poultry Report

Thanx to Brandy Ramuson of Writing the Sonnet for suggesting this topic, “the ways the SL experience is affected by avatars connecting outside SL with sites like plurk and flickr”

Extending Your Virtual Life

For nearly two weeks I lived in a void, bereft of my trusty iMac, cut off from those I love in Second Life® (SL). Twice in that time I was able to access e-mail via the local library, but daily I cursed my mobile as it cannot access the 'net for e-mail, Twitter, or even text to e-mail. The experience made me think that if it weren't for those two visits to the library, i had no way to stay in contact with anyone I know in-world.

Clearly a second computer would be a solution, though the budget disagrees. An iPod Touch with Wi-Fi access to the 'net would work, but again the budget rears it's ugly head. With a nasty glare it also reminds me that I can't upgrade my mobile, either.

But let's say I did have another device, probably with too little “power” to access SL directly. Likely I could use an instant messaging service like Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger, both Instant Messaging programs you may have heard about. But everyone you want to communicate with needs to use the same service. Linden Labs® is devising it's own version called SLim, making it easy for residents to use IMs without an external service or the need to log into the virtual space to communicate with those in-world.

Whether it be SLim or another service, though, interaction still takes a step outside our virtual world and, like with in-world Voice, this makes me uncomfortable. Here's why: When residents use Voice, non-users such as my self are left out. Actually, I'm a limited user. In Real Life (iRL) I'm a mute. In-world Voice lets me hear others that use the feature but not respond except through chat. In my experience, Voice users gradually ignore chat and I eventually fall out of any conversation. I find much the same thing happens when I'm with a group of friends that all use MSN Messenger. We could be at a party or just hanging out and eventually the conversation drifts entirely into the other service. I wonder if SLim use will have the same results.

Maybe you can tell I don't find these external services terribly useful. I have a Twitter account but no one else that I know does. Makes me wonder about these stalkers people that 'follow' me. The people I follow on Plurk (account started 4 November) are at least familiar names, and I've actually spoken to one in-world. Not sure I know them well enough to actually want to 'follow' them in Plurk, but I'll try it for a while. Clearly I need to convince friends to use a service other than SL but so far I've had no luck.

Except for Flickr, but that's a bird from a different flock. The adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is proven via Flickr, seemingly the only (but not really the only) image sharing service. It is easy, fun, and free and is full of Second Life® users. I find it an easy way to keep track of friends I don't get to see often and for them to do the same, but it does require a bit of discipline. I'd have to look for when I last posted a picture to Flickr. I'm more likely to post a picture to my blog. EIther method is a cost effective means to share images (or video, with a service like YouTube). No need to spend L$10 for an upload then find a way to send it to several people. Just post it somewhere on the Interweb and send the URL to everyone that you think should see it.

Looking back it is clear to me that services such as Plurk or Flickr that work outside SL are both useful and useless, depending on who is using them. Of deeper meaning is that the actual use points to perceived limitations of SL

Plurk HUD
Ordinal Malaprop's Twitter HUD

Luna Jubilee – My Slife on the D List

Thanx to Teagan Blackthorne of SL Fashion Avengers for suggesting this topic, “A history of the birth and emergence of prim hair into Second Life as a thriving business and culture”.

Just a few short months ago, I would nearly hold my breath upon logging into Secondlife (SL) waiting to see where my avatar's attached prims would be surprising not where I attached them last on avatar's body.

From Victoria Peterson
We are proud to announce the formation of a new Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL) Interest Group, the Second Life Interest Group (SLIG).

SLIG was formed by unanimous vote at the November CAL Board meeting. The purpose of the group is to:

Explore new ways of doing digital outreach, networking and public relations in order to promote Colorado and its libraries (including but not limited to academic, public, special, and school) on the virtual world of Second Life

Build a Colorado Association of Libraries presence on Second Life through a new virtual library that will represent the combined efforts of the aforementioned Colorado libraries and their library staff.

This new library, “the Sustainable Living Library” on the sim Emerald City, will represent best practices for living an ecologically conscious life. Through virtual workshops, conferences, and links to “green websites”, the community of Second Life as well as real life patrons will learn more about their environment and how to save it.

The “Sustainable Living Library” will make available to the community of Second Life the online public access catalogs of Colorado libraries associated with this new library and any programs or activities that promote Colorado, its libraries, or CAL.

The Mission Statement of the Sustainable Living Library:

The Sustainable Living Library of Second Life is committed to creating better and healthier lives for ourselves and our children through sustainable living practices. By developing workshops, exhibits and other resources, we strive to educate our visitors about green practices and other ways to sustain healthy lives and a healthy planet.

SLIG will be meeting soon in the virtual world of Second Life. Interest group members and all others are encouraged to attend this virtual meeting. In the meantime, if you’d like help opening a Second Life account and/or have any other related questions, please contact:

Victoria A. Petersen: petersen.victoria@gmail.com
Eileen Dumas: edumas8@gmail.com

Already In-World? Visit Emerald City and see its current development! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Emerald%20City/123/62/26

Further Reading:

Sustainable Living Library blog: http://sustainablelivinglibrary.blogspot.com/

Recent Press:

“Libraries go green @ Emerald City”, article in the national print and online magazine, RezLibris

http://www.rezlibris.com/librarianship

“Mancos PL Builds Green”, ALA Tech Source Blog Interview

http://tinyurl.com/ALAinterview

We are looking forward to seeing many of you in-world, and to work together in the creation of CAL’s Sustainable Living Library!

Cheers,

Plautia Corvale

Victoria A. Petersen
Technology Manager
Mancos Public Library
970.533.7569
skype: plautia.corvale
PO Box 158, Mancos, CO 81328
http://mancos.lib.co.us/

http://librarybuildingproject.blogspot.com/

http://sustainablelivinglibrary.blogspot.com/

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Linden Lab is pleased to announce results for the 3rd quarter of 2008.  The charts and details below indicate that Q3 was a very strong quarter in Second Life with significant growth in land, user hours and the inworld economy.   The inworld economy was unusually strong in September, with users spending 10% more per hour than the year to date average.  Inworld transactions in October declined to levels more consistent with the year to date averages.

October results indicate that we should expect land growth to slow in Q4 as Residents reconfigure their land holdings to accommodate the change in pricing and addition of the “Homestead” island type.

User Hours Top 100 Million During Q3.  In Q3, Residents spent 102.8 million hours in Second Life, up 8% from Q2 and 45% from the same quarter last year.  Peak concurrent users of 71,000 grew 7% over Q2 and approximately 31% over Q3 of last year.  In October user hours climbed to a record 37 million hours up 11.4% from the prior month.

Residents Own Nearly 2 Billion Square Meters of Land.  Land mass in Second Life grew 23% in Q3 to just under 2 billion square meters.  This is an increase of 124% year-over-year.  The surge in land growth is partially attributable to the launch of lower-priced Openspace regions earlier this year. October results indicate that we should expect land growth to slow in Q4 as Residents reconfigure their land holdings to accommodate the change in pricing and addition of the “Homestead” island type.  We expect to see some Residents consolidate their holdings to adjust to the new pricing and product types.

Resident-to-Resident Transactions Top $100 Million.  Total Resident-to-Resident transactions, a measure of the gross domestic product in Second Life, grew 21% from the prior quarter to $102M – or just under $1.00 per user hour.  The Q3 total translates to an annualized rate of $408 million.  By breaking $100M for the first time since Q2 2007, the Second Life economy has now fully recovered from the restriction placed on games of chance in Second Life in mid-2007.

In August and September, Residents spent an average of $0.91 and $0.96 per user hour compared to a year-to-date average of $0.87 per user hour.  In October, however, spend per user hour was more in line with the YTD average.  As a result, the economy shrunk 11% from L$9.9 billion in September to L$8.8 billion in October.  The economy appears to have returned in November to the historical average rate of spend per user hour.

LindeX Grew 4.0%.  Volume on the LindeX, our virtual currency exchange where users can buy and sell our inworld micro-payment currency, grew 4.0% over Q2 to $28 million.  The amount of all the Linden Dollars in circulation grew 4.5% over Q2 to $5.5 billion Linden dollars or just over $20 million USD.  The exchange rate remained steady against the USD at 267 Linden Dollars to one USD.

LindeX volume remained flat at $9.1 million in October, up 28% from October of 2007.

*    *    *
Other highlights.

Over 357 auctions have closed in the new Nautilus region where property is selling at L$60 per meter or 12x the average cost of mainland property, indicating that some users have a high demand for a more structured experience.

Finally, premium subscriptions continued to decline in Q3, as they have nearly every month since we reduced the stipend we pay out to account holders.  The revenue we generate from premium subscriptions is largely offset by the stipends we pay out to these account holders, so this decline doesn’t have a material impact on our business.

An important point of clarification is warranted here because this figure is often misinterpreted.   Premium subscriptions are required to own mainland, but they are not required to own islands. Additionally, we have many premium subscribers who are not land owners.  As such, a decline in premium subscriptions does not mean we have a reduction in the number of land owners. Therefore it should not be used as a measure of the health of the land market, of the Second Life economy or the health of Linden Lab.  We are currently in the process of evaluating ways to make premium subscriptions more valuable to Residents and less dependent on Linden dollar stipends.

Please join Zee Linden today, November 12th, 2008, in discussion of this topic in the Second Life Forums.

SECOND LIFE, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Will the marketing of real world brands in Second Life find a second life?

Maybe. Nestea, a Coca-Cola brand, announced today it’s sponsoring Second Life’s “Junkyard Blues” venue.

Neither Nestea nor Junkyard Blues’ owners were available for immediate comment. But a visit to Junkyard Blues shows a “Sponsored by Nestea” banner over the main stage. Don’t try clicking on the banner though — it’s non-interactive.

The sponsorship, while modest, represents an affirmation of Second Life as a continued destination for real-world companies to market their goods. A recent survey by BusinessWeek ranked Coca-Cola as the most valuable brand in the world.

Nor does the choice by Coca-Cola of a Second Life blues venue seem coincidental. Last month, Second Life bluesman Von Johin signed a record deal in what’s believed to be the first virtual musician to break into the real-life mainstream.

Coca-Cola was among the companies that made a strong entrance into Second Life during the first wave of corporate marketing with a “virtual thirst” campaign. However in recent months, the company has stepped back its Second Life profile, taking the virtualthirst.com website offline.

Read more…

Filed under: Business models, Economy, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds

Since the announcement of Openspaces 3.0 product pricing for Second Life (and the subsequent update to a reduced specification Openspaces 4.0 product), Linden Lab has seen its virtual world shrink for the first time on record with a net loss of 24.05 million square metres (a little less than 6,000 acres).

That’s a net loss, so however many new simulators have been brought online since the beginning of the month, those gains have been canceled out by customers dumping land, and an additional 24 million square metres have been lost. During its Q2 2008 report, Linden Lab identified the (now deprecated) Openspaces 2.0 product as a primary growth driver.

It isn’t presently clear how long this downward trend will last. So far, those net losses amount to just 2.8% of the total Openspaces 2.0 product that are actually out there on the Second Life grid. Many owners, however, have said that they intend to hang on to their void simulators for as long as possible, and dump them just before the jump to Openspaces 4.0 (or Homesteads 1.0) becomes mandatory. It remains to be seen if the Lab can shake off the chill and push those figures up in the latter half of the month.

Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively’s Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Chilly policy reception causes exceptional Second Life shrinkage originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In my Build It And They Will Shop series, I looked at stores with entertaining shopping environments unlike anything in real life. The products and the environment ar
1000
e different things, though they’re sometimes thematically linked. HappyMood is something different. The environment is largely made up of the product.

Now, you could say that about any place that sells trees, but they tend to be pretty sterile places — well tended gardens, if you will. Not so with HappyMood. It’s a storybook-like dome where reality has been shifted a few degrees toward the cute. The only way I can describe it is that everything gives you the feeling of being in a softly painted illustration from a classic children’s story. Wind in the Willows, or… nothing else comes to mind at the moment.

Most of the products are there for you to see and touch and try, like these beautifully detailed rocking horses. As befits a place like this, they also sell a version for tines.

Wander around a bit and you’ll find some freebie t-shirts. There’s no sign telling you about them, you just run into them. They’re just part of the woodwork, as it were, like the beautiful interior surface of the dome. It gives you the impression of being in a glowing sunrise, all the time. The scroll-work and stars in the sky just add to the effect.

Pictures don’t quite do the giant rabbits justice. The ears wiggle, the eyes blink, the noses sniff. I just hope that a giant doesn’t get the idea to use them for a pregnancy test.

The top of the dome really shows off the trees (but you can see them better in the sky garden). Mainly, though, it’s a great place to wander.

At the top of the dome you’ll find a welcoming little area to hang out. I’ve often found people here, just sitting and chatting and enjoying the view. Once I ran into a couple getting, ummm… amorous, but they quickly shifted to IM. I left them to their fun. It’s a lovely environment, but I’m not so sure I find it romantic.

Sometimes you’ll find surprising little details. This little island seems to serve no purpose except to look cute (and have these little rabbits peek out of you). That’s the essence of the Build It And They Will Shop experience. So, of course, I had to buy one of thos
6a0
e rocking horses…

http://slurl.com/secondlife/HappyMood/84/155/31

In my Build It And They Will Shop series, I looked at stores with entertaining shopping environments unlike anything in real life. The products and the environment ar
b50
e different things, though they’re sometimes thematically linked. HappyMood is something different. The environment is largely made up of the product.

Now, you could say that about any place that sells trees, but they tend to be pretty sterile places — well tended gardens, if you will. Not so with HappyMood. It’s a storybook-like dome where reality has been shifted a few degrees toward the cute. The only way I can describe it is that everything gives you the feeling of being in a softly painted illustration from a classic children’s story. Wind in the Willows, or… nothing else comes to mind at the moment.

Most of the products are there for you to see and touch and try, like these beautifully detailed rocking horses. As befits a place like this, they also sell a version for tines.

Wander around a bit and you’ll find some freebie t-shirts. There’s no sign telling you about them, you just run into them. They’re just part of the woodwork, as it were, like the beautiful interior surface of the dome. It gives you the impression of being in a glowing sunrise, all the time. The scroll-work and stars in the sky just add to the effect.

Pictures don’t quite do the giant rabbits justice. The ears wiggle, the eyes blink, the noses sniff. I just hope that a giant doesn’t get the idea to use them for a pregnancy test.

The top of the dome really shows off the trees (but you can see them better in the sky garden). Mainly, though, it’s a great
5a8
place to wander.

At the top of the dome you’ll find a welcoming little area to hang out. I’ve often found people here, just sitting and chatting and enjoying the view. Once I ran into a couple getting, ummm… amorous, but they quickly shifted to IM. I left them to their fun. It’s a lovely environment, but I’m not so sure I find it romantic.

Sometimes you’ll find surprising little details. This little island seems to serve no purpose except to look cute (and have these little rabbits peek out of you). That’s the essence of the Build It And They Will Shop experience. So, of course, I had to buy one of those rocking horses…

http://slurl.com/secondlife/HappyMood/84/155/31

In my Build It And They Will Shop series, I looked at stores with entertaining shopping environments unlike anything in real life. The products and the environment are
5a8
different things, though they’re sometimes thematically linked. HappyMood is something different. The environment is largely made up of the product.

Now, you could say that about any place that sells trees, but they tend to be pretty sterile places — well tended gardens, if you will. Not so with HappyMood. It’s a storybook-like dome where reality has been shifted a few degrees toward the cute. The only way I can describe it is that everything gives you the feeling of being in a softly painted illustration from a classic children’s story. Wind in the Willows, or… nothing else comes to mind at the moment.

Most of the products are there for you to see and touch and try, like these beautifully detailed rocking horses. As befits a place like this, they also sell a version for tines.

Wander around a bit and you’ll find some freebie t-shirts. There’s no sign telling you about them, you just run into them. They’re just part of the woodwork, as it were, like the beautiful interior surface of the dome. It gives you the impression of being in a glowing sunrise, all the time. The scroll-work and stars in the sky just add to the effect.

Pictures don’t quite do the giant rabbits justice. The ears wiggle, the eyes blink, the noses sniff. I just hope that a giant doesn’t get the idea to use them for a pregnancy test.

The top of the dome really shows off the trees (but you can see them better in the sky garden). Mainly, though, it’s a great pl
b50
ace to wander.

At the top of the dome you’ll find a welcoming little area to hang out. I’ve often found people here, just sitting and chatting and enjoying the view. Once I ran into a couple getting, ummm… amorous, but they quickly shifted to IM. I left them to their fun. It’s a lovely environment, but I’m not so sure I find it romantic.

Sometimes you’ll find surprising little details. This little island seems to serve no purpose except to look cute (and have these little rabbits peek out of you). That’s the essence of the Build It And They Will Shop experience. So, of course, I had to buy one of those rocking horses…

http://slurl.com/secondlife/HappyMood/84/155/31

Filed under: News items, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds

You could be forgiven for having forgotten about the Linden Prize already, given that it’s been four months since it was announced by Mitch Kapor. Nevertheless, we weren’t entirely surprised to see Linden Lab reannounce it, this time with some actual details, terms and conditions.

The fundamentals of the prize seem to remain unchanged. It is US$10,000 worth of Linden Dollars for (as Kapor put it) ‘superlative achievement exemplifying the mission “elevating the human condition” through using Second Life.’

The terms and conditions now make eligibility somewhat more precise.

Continue reading Linden Prize reannounced

Linden Prize reannounced originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Someone can be “lazy” at some things which are considered to be low-importance or altogether unnecessary, while saving energy and feeling motivated to accomplish other tasks. It's a popular misconception that to call someone “lazy” assumes they generally can't be bothered to do stuff. Shades of Gladwell, I'm more inclined to believe that character traits are context-specific.

by deadoll

For example, when someone's vegging on the couch, the last thing they want is their brain to be wracked with how to change the channel. Little steps add up too: a click here and a push there quickly becomes a painful, overall drag once it's repeated often enough. I've found my mind winces in anticipatory pain anytime I'm not automating something that could, and should be.

I was happy to see the frank responses of being too lazy to use SLURLs. It can be hard for some to admit because you don't want to sound like a social slouch, but earnesty shows where your priorities lie and how you hope for a smoother path. Similar to how many great inventions were supposedly borne to reduce work. Why bother if you can avoid it altogether?

Books on the market emphasizing the lazy way to success are popular (just search Amazon). These texts often talk about how zoning out and being like a cat (which is to say, stretching out sleeping a lot) is fundamental to creativity and insight. There's an inherent danger of separating these messages from their contexts — e.g., if you get a great idea while power-napping, you'll likely need a great deal of energy to actually get it done — so blanket extremism isn't the way to go.

Speaking of blanket, I'm too lazy to write the rest

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Ftorley.com%2Fin-lazy-we-must’;
addthis_title = ‘In+lazy+we+must’;
addthis_pub = ”;

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