While Second Life was not a major topic of discussion at the New York Games Conferences, many of the discussions related to the future of Second Life. ]]>
While Second Life was not a major topic of discussion at the New York Games Conferences, many of the discussions related to the future of Second Life.
New York - Games, developers, investors, reporters and others gathered last week for the New York Games Conference, ‘an executive media conference focused on the future of gaming in New York City’. Second Life was mentioned from time to time, but was not a key focus of the conference. However, many of the issues discussed have great bearing on the future of Second Life.
With the focus on investors and executives, much of the discussion focused on how to monetize massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), virtual worlds, casual games, and many other types of online games. A key focus was what role do currencies play in games, how can they be used to fund games as gamers pull back on subscription based games.
The Terms of Service for Second Life states that "Second Life ‘currency’ is a limited license right available for purchase or free distribution at Linden Lab's discretion, and is not redeemable for monetary value from Linden Lab." Many have questioned if this approach to currency is the best way hand in world currency.
One company hoping to give Second Life a run for the money is Next Island. Their new virtual world will be opening soon based on the next generation of MindArk’s Entropia Universe. A spokesperson for Next Island spoke about having a real cash economy as their top priority and that major work has gone into addressing legal issues around this cash economy. Of course, a better three dimensional graphics system is also expected to help. Beyond this, like Second Life, Next Island recognizes the importance of user-generated content.
Javien was also on hand to promote their digital payment solutions. While much of their product focuses on payment gateways for subscriptions, pay-per-view and downloads, they talk about the importance of their E-Wallet and Micropayment aggregation. Payment One, which handles transactions for IMVU and Habbo was also on hand.
As noted by the folks from Next Island, and as any person who tries to do business in Second Life knows, there are plenty of legal issues around micrpayments in virtual worlds. So, it was not surprising to see Sean Kane of Drakeford and Kane as a panelist. Mr. Kane is very involved in issues around videogames, interactive entertainment, and e-commerce, and has frequently spoken about issues around Second Life and beyond. In addition, the Interactive Entertainment Group of Fish and Richardson was well represented at the conference.
Virtual goods is estimated to be a $1.8 billion market world wide. In Europe much of this comes through cellphone payments, although the U.S. phone companies’ policies make such payments in the United States much more difficult. Issues of contracts were discussed as well. In the United States, people under eighteen cannot directly enter into a valid legal contract which raises important questions about the validity of end user licensing agreements and other such contracts.
Another area of monetizing games and virtual worlds is through advertising. Jeff Freedman, Director of Strategy and Business Development maintained that Second Live has not become a viable advertising mechanism. Yet the Matt Palmer, executive vice president and general manager of Stardoll, and Craig Sherman, chief executive officer of Gaia Online spoke about their successes with product integration. Gaia turned down advertisements that could not be integrated into the Gaia experience. It was suggested that some of the problem that people have run into advertising in Second Life has been because of a focus on old style advertising of looking for another place to put up a billboard, instead of focusing on product integration. The billboards in Second Life, taken to the extreme end up being the much despised ad-farms.
One of the issues that product integration based marketing in virtual worlds raises is how do you price and properly measure the effect of product integration in virtual worlds. Representatives of the NPD group which provided fascinating background information about the gaming industry, acknowledge the ongoing difficulty of provide informative metrics around product integration in virtual worlds.
There were many other topics discussed at the conference that bore at least some relevance to Second Life, such as the future of game console development as well as the development of games for mobile devices such as the iPhone and Google’s Android. All of these provide interesting potential new platforms for Second Life.
Yet in these days of economic turbulence, the key focus remained how to monetize games. Stronger microtransaction oriented currencies, better product integration and a remaining focus on user-generated content were important to the gamers, developers, investors and reporters, and should be important to those interested in the future of Second Life. ]]>
On a screen to the side was Mozes. Mozes is like a white-labeled microblog. There were instructions on how to send text messages that would show up on the screen. I had tested Mozes sometime ago but never found a use for it. So, this provided another good opportunity to test it out.
The cellphone coverage in the hall was weak, so I couldn’t send text messages from my phone. However, Mozes also supports a web interface, and after a little bit of work, I managed to get my account set up on Mozes and start sending some messages. I’m not sure if the messages were being moderated, or if the system was horribly slow, but it seemed to take forever for my messages to appear, and half the time the web interface said the message couldn’t be sent at all.
Because of this, the backchannel never really took off, which is unfortunate, because I suspect there were some very bright people in the crowd whom I would have enjoyed chatting with while the presentations were going on.
The first presentation was a panel of analysts talking about gaming trends. 75% of homes with children have game consoles. 55% of homes without children have game consoles. The Set Top Box market is changing and there is more competition for whose silicon gets connected to the main display in the living room. People are using Wii’s for physical therapy. When will consumers tire of the subscription model? Games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band make music the hottest genre in the gaming industry right now. Gaming on mobile devices is a growing trend, especially on phones that support full HTML, yet teenagers who are normally the leaders in gaming have second hand phones not capable of much gaming right now. There were plenty of other interesting tidbits, but this pretty much summarizes the hour into a paragraph.
The second presentation was a debate about the future of the game console. The crowd was very strongly supporting the game console as the ‘Entertainment Hub of the Future’. However, Alex St. John, CEO and Founder of Wild Tangent and John Welch, CEO and Co-Founder of Playfirst made very strong arguments that the game console is going the way of the arcade game. They cost too much to develop and rarely provide adequate returns to investors. The development environment is costly and this discourages innovative game development. Alex St. John went so far as to suggest that we have seen the last generation of the game console.
Clearly, there is something to be said for open development platforms and I posed a question about the role of Linux as a potential gaming platform, which received no response.
The next panel was entitled ‘Get a (Virtual) Life – The Challenges and Opportunites for Monetizing Virtual Worlds and MMOGs’. This was a good overview panel, mapping out the space between MMOGs, Virtual Worlds and Avatar based sites. Monetization methods included subscription models, buying items using virtual microcurrencies, in world advertising and in world product integration. Differences between the U.S. markets, European markets and Asian markets were explored with some interesting discussions of the role of cellphone based payments in the European markets. Attorney Sean Kane, who gave a great presentation at Virtual Worlds New York, added valuable insights into some of the legal issues.
After all the recognized experts in the field of gaming spoke, Jacquie Lane of C&R research led a panel of the real experts. Eight teenagers spoke about their use of games. Jacquie asked questions ranging from what they do when they’re not gaming to which games the like best, how they find out about the games and how they pay for them. The top activity of these teenagers when they were not gaming was hanging with friends, followed by sports and music. There was a brief discussion about the social aspects of gaming and I wished that discussion could have been pursued further.
The final keynote of the day was from a iPhone game developer. He spoke about using OpenGL and OpenAL and I thought back to the panel about the future of the console and the role of open development platforms. The speaker claimed that the learning curve for iPhone development was very low. You could go to Apple’s website, download the development kit, upload your games at the iPhone Apps store and be on your way.
He explored the user interface, using the accelerometer as an input device with pros and cons of different methodologies. It almost makes me want to get an iPhone just to play with the development environment, although I do wonder how this will compare with Android development.
With the final presentation over, everyone moved upstairs for cocktails. I had a great discussion with folks from Games for Change, Stripes Gamer, Next Island and various payment providers for online gaming systems. Each of these discussions, as well as many of the panels probably deserve blog posts of their own, but this is supposed to be a summary post, so the details will have to wait.
All in all, the first day of the NY Games conferences failed to meet expectations. I expected a lot of suits talking about how to make a buck off of worlds they hadn’t visited. Instead, I found a lot of valuable information and I look forward to day two.
]]>On a screen to the side was Mozes. Mozes is like a white-labeled microblog. There were instructions on how to send text messages that would show up on the screen. I had tested Mozes sometime ago but never found a use for it. So, this provided another good opportunity to test it out.
The cellphone coverage in the hall was weak, so I couldn’t send text messages from my phone. However, Mozes also supports a web interface, and after a little bit of work, I managed to get my account set up on Mozes and start sending some messages. I’m not sure if the messages were being moderated, or if the system was horribly slow, but it seemed to take forever for my messages to appear, and half the time the web interface said the message couldn’t be sent at all.
Because of this, the backchannel never really took off, which is unfortunate, because I suspect there were some very bright people in the crowd whom I would have enjoyed chatting with while the presentations were going on.
The first presentation was a panel of analysts talking about gaming trends. 75% of homes with children have game consoles. 55% of homes without children have game consoles. The Set Top Box market is changing and there is more competition for whose silicon gets connected to the main display in the living room. People are using Wii’s for physical therapy. When will consumers tire of the subscription model? Games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band make music the hottest genre in the gaming industry right now. Gaming on mobile devices is a growing trend, especially on phones that support full HTML, yet teenagers who are normally the leaders in gaming have second hand phones not capable of much gaming right now. There were plenty of other interesting tidbits, but this pretty much summarizes the hour into a paragraph.
The second presentation was a debate about the future of the game console. The crowd was very strongly supporting the game console as the ‘Entertainment Hub of the Future’. However, Alex St. John, CEO and Founder of Wild Tangent and John Welch, CEO and Co-Founder of Playfirst made very strong arguments that the game console is going the way of the arcade game. They cost too much to develop and rarely provide adequate returns to investors. The development environment is costly and this discourages innovative game development. Alex St. John went so far as to suggest that we have seen the last generation of the game console.
Clearly, there is something to be said for open development platforms and I posed a question about the role of Linux as a potential gaming platform, which received no response.
The next panel was entitled ‘Get a (Virtual) Life – The Challenges and Opportunites for Monetizing Virtual Worlds and MMOGs’. This was a good overview panel, mapping out the space between MMOGs, Virtual Worlds and Avatar based sites. Monetization methods included subscription models, buying items using virtual microcurrencies, in world advertising and in world product integration. Differences between the U.S. markets, European markets and Asian markets were explored with some interesting discussions of the role of cellphone based payments in the European markets. Attorney Sean Kane, who gave a great presentation at Virtual Worlds New York, added valuable insights into some of the legal issues.
After all the recognized experts in the field of gaming spoke, Jacquie Lane of C&R research led a panel of the real experts. Eight teenagers spoke about their use of games. Jacquie asked questions ranging from what they do when they’re not gaming to which games the like best, how they find out about the games and how they pay for them. The top activity of these teenagers when they were not gaming was hanging with friends, followed by sports and music. There was a brief discussion about the social aspects of gaming and I wished that discussion could have been pursued further.
The final keynote of the day was from a iPhone game developer. He spoke about using OpenGL and OpenAL and I thought back to the panel about the future of the console and the role of open development platforms. The speaker claimed that the learning curve for iPhone development was very low. You could go to Apple’s website, download the development kit, upload your games at the iPhone Apps store and be on your way.
He explored the user interface, using the accelerometer as an input device with pros and cons of different methodologies. It almost makes me want to get an iPhone just to play with the development environment, although I do wonder how this will compare with Android development.
With the final presentation over, everyone moved upstairs for cocktails. I had a great discussion with folks from Games for Change, Stripes Gamer, Next Island and various payment providers for online gaming systems. Each of these discussions, as well as many of the panels probably deserve blog posts of their own, but this is supposed to be a summary post, so the details will have to wait.
All in all, the first day of the NY Games conferences failed to meet expectations. I expected a lot of suits talking about how to make a buck off of worlds they hadn’t visited. Instead, I found a lot of valuable information and I look forward to day two.
]]>Doing business in virtual worlds like Second Life presents unique challenges and at times these challenges can lead to disagreements or even legal actions. The latest such disagreement, which is beginning to be discussed widely on various online sites is a disagreement between Barbara Newman and Frank Corsi concerning Central Grid.
]]>Central Grid is an OpenSim based grid, which seeks to provide a Second Life like environment, without many of the requirements that Linden Lab has placed on residents. Recently, Central Grid has announced that currency is now active.
Jasper Tizzy’s departure from Second Life last year accompanied great turmoil in the Second Life financial markets which has contributed to difficulties in the early days of Central Grid. Early on, the Anicapistan Capital Exchange (ACE) was looking into setting up operations in Central Grid. However, when it became common knowledge that Frank Corsi was one of the owners of Central Grid, ACE pulled out of Central Grid, stating
Beyond slander and libel and collusion with saboteurs, they openly, as individuals, monopolize grid locations for personal benefit. We are extremely leery of holding any virtual currency in a grid managed by the likes of Jasper Tizzy.
Now, a conflict between Ms. Newman and Mr. Corsi has further clouded the future of Central Grid. According to Ms. Newman, she has retained the counsel of Robert Brackman, Esq . Mr. Brackman works for “Brackman and Brackman, a general practice of law with special emphasis on the developing field of virtual law, as well as corporate ethics and regulatory compliance requirements, white collar criminal defense, property law and alternative dispute resolution.”
Earlier this year, Mr. Brackman represented Patrick Leavitt in a dispute over Sailor’s Cove. An agreement in the Sailor’s Cove dispute was reached without the dispute being brought to court. An out of court agreement was reached. Two SL residents, Izabella Bentham and Tasha Kostolany claimed that their voluntary efforts as estate managers for Leavitt entitled them to equal ownership rights and that Leavitt had made them full and legal partners.
Bentham and Kostolany settled for an undermined sum in recognition by Leavitt of their "sweat equity." The point at the heart of the matter, the assertion by Bentham and Kostolany of a "verbal contract" thus, was not decided since the case was settled.
Attorney Brackman confirmed that he has been retained by Ms. Newman “to evaluate the efficacy of commencing a civil action”. Neither he, nor Ms. Newman could offer any additional comments at this point “until and if such time comes that an actual summons and complaint is filed”. Ms. Newman allegations include: "multiple acts of alleged misconduct, including but not limited to his continuing libel and slander of my good name and reputation."
Frank Corsi responded saying.
From what I can understand this is just negative press, I dont see she has any legal issue with me or with central grid. I have not been contacted by any lawyer or courts...
I made her a partner in CG based on her contribution of time and skills that she could offer CG then she quit back in aprox may,She never invested any money into CG as she claims, she purchased an estate, then rented a server to host regions in CG. As many other members of CG also have done. Her estate is a valid for her lifetime and she can use it anytime, the regions she abandoned and did not pay the tier fees.
It appears as if no legal complaint has yet been filed. When or if such a complaint is filed, it is not likely to be precedent setting. However, given the notoriety of the people involved, as well as the implications for businesses developing in Opensim based worlds, this is a complaint worth following.
]]>Hope Capital Island – The World Stock Exchange (WSE) has resumed trading after a long hiatus. However the controversies that plagued the exchange continue. A lot has gone on during the seven months during which the WSE has been closed and the reaction has varied from hostility to ambivalence.
]]>Hope Capital Island – The World Stock Exchange (WSE) has resumed trading after a long hiatus. However the controversies that plagued the exchange continue. A lot has gone on during the seven months during which the WSE has been closed and the reaction has varied from hostility to ambivalence.
<!--break-->
In January, the World Stock Exchange announced that they would closed for up to thirty days for a software upgrade. People questioned how a company could close for such a long period for an upgrade. Soon afterwards, Linden Lab announced their banking ban and theories began to emerge that WSE had foreknowledge of the ban, or perhaps was even involved in litigation that may have precipitated the ban.
Rumors and allegations expanded as WSE started to delist companies, especially those whose CEOs had been critical of the exchange. Companies moved to other exchanges and over the following months people lost interest in what has gone on with WSE.
In February, the Second Life Capital Exchange (SLCAPEX) converted the Linden Dollars that people had deposited there to SLWallet shares causing a significant devaluation of investors’ portfolios. The value of the SLWallet has continued to decrease to approximately one seventh of its original value. In March, SLCAPEX disabled their stock data feed driving away more traders.
With the banking ban, many of the founding members of the Investment Education Team became very busy with restructuring their businesses and that team disbanded in May.
The Virtual Stock Exchange (VSTEX) continued operation without significant changes. Their stock price remained stable and they continued to pay dividends. The International Stock Exchange (ISE) has seen stock price volatility but has also seen its share values increase as it continues to pay dividends.
The Ancapistan Capital Exchange (ACE) has continued to grow, although their stock has dropped in price and they have yet to offer any dividends. ACE Chairman, IntLibber Brautigan will be chairing finance track at the Second Life Community Convention which will hopefully help revitalize the moribund finance sector of Second Life.
The return of WSE raises many questions. Will it cause people to pay more attention to the Second Life capital markets? Will it cause old suspicions about WSE to be cast again on the other exchanges?
One trader on the ISE is concerned and has set up a petition asking Luke Connell of WSE to return investors Linden Dollar balances in full and for Linden Lab to freeze all of Mr. Connell’s assets. In addition, a Facebook group has been set up to warn potential investors about WSE.
Other Second Life news sites are not particularly impressed with WSE’s return. Konner McDonnell at Your2ndPlace has made it very clear that he has no interest in keeping tabs on WSE. This sentiment was echoed by Samantha Goldflake, Director of Communication and Public Relations for VSTEX.
“Right now we don't see WSE as a competitor. Their main focus seem to be on the wider Internet. I won't go into the issues that may arise from such an activity, I can only hope the WSE won't cast a bad light on reputable SL exchanges like ours, SL CapEx and ISE.”
Traders reflected similar thoughts. Many remain active on the more reputable exchanges and have expressed no interest in returning to WSE. The WSE shutdown was too long and too poorly handled for many of them.
It is too early to tell what will happen with WSE. Some may want to wait and see. Many couldn’t careless, and some simply want to warn others about the possible dangers.
]]>As Virtual Worlds Proliferate, Linden Lab explores interoperability, but is it the sort of interoperability that users want?
]]>As Virtual Worlds Proliferate, Linden Lab explores interoperability, but is it the sort of interoperability that users want?
<!--break-->
San Francisco – Today, Linden Lab announced their Open Grid public beta. As part of the beta, residents will be able to teleport to regions running Open Sim software. This is an important step towards interoperability between different virtual worlds, and it comes none too soon. Numerous other virtual worlds have been springing up recently.
Most notably, Google recently announced Lively. It runs inside of a browser and has gotten a lot of attention because it was announced by Google. Kaneva has been getting some buzz and RocketOn has an interesting approach by running its virtual world on top of existing webpages.
Many of these virtual worlds are, at best, a long way from interoperating with Second Life. The first hurdle to participation is supporting the Second Life Grid Open Grid Protocol. This is an emerging protocol that many virtual worlds don’t yet support.
However, there are larger issues. The Linden Lab announcement notes that “no inventory, textures, or attachments will transfer upon intergrid teleport. You will appear on the target grid’s simulator as that grid’s default avatar (Ruth).” The issue of making sure that assets are not improperly copied has long plagued Linden Lab, and intergrid teleportation only compounds this problem.
One method of dealing with intergrid assets is to copy assets using a program like Second Inventory. Second Inventory allows you to create a backup of any assets on Second Life that you have copy permissions on. With that, you can then restore these assets onto various Open Sim based grids.
In terms of moving between grids, there is another interesting solution. OpenSimulator URLs use an OpenSim Launcher to provide URLs, similar to SLURLs, but for Open Sim based grids. Using OSURLs you can teleport between regions, assuming you have avatars set up for each grid.
Yet this points out yet another issue with the Open Grid Public Beta. With this beta, Linden Lab remains in control of the grid. Regions that agree to be part of this beta may need to agree to the Linden Lab terms and conditions or even eventually pay some sort of grid connection fee. However, many people have set up their own Open Sim based Grids because they want complete control of the grid and not to have to comply with any of terms and conditions from Linden Lab.
According to Central Grid CEO, BigTonny Goodfellow, they have no plans or even interest in interconnectivity with Linden Lab. Mr. Goodfellow did express interest in possible interconnectivity with other Open Sim based grids, but he noted that there are a lot of other much more pressing issues and that Central Grid has not spoken with other grid operators about possible interconnectivity.
As the number and variety of virtual worlds increases, so will the demand for interoperability. This will include not only teleporting between worlds, but also interworld communications, interworld asset portability, interworld currency exchange and many other issues. The technological aspects are an important part of this, and the public beta is an important step in the right direction. However, there are many social and business aspects that will also need to be addressed, and these may be even more difficult than the technological ones.
]]>At the top of my list is identi.ca. Identica is running laconi.ca, an open source microblogging system based on a lot of cool standards like XMPP, Oauth, and OpenSim. I set up my identi.ca account yesterday, and have started trying to see if I can get a laconi.ca server running on my Linux box today.
So, why do I care about identi.ca? Edd Dumbill has written a very good post about Why Identi.ca is important. So, my first comment, is “yeah, what Edd said.” Dan York also wrote about it, The real meaning - and power - of identi.ca (a.k.a. open source Twitter) and pointed to Dave Winer’s excitement about identi.ca and Marshall Kirkpatrick’s post.
So, let me add a few additional thoughts. As Edd notes, it is still version 0.4.1, so don’t expect it to have as much functionality or reliability as even Twitter or Plurk. On the other hand, if open source developers go wild with it, expect it to leave Twitter and Plurk in the dust.
To me, there are is a very interesting parallel between Second Life and OpenSim and Twitter and Laconi.ca. The new open source version is getting kicked around and has great potential. For that matter, OpenSim and Laconi.ca are both kicking around using XMPP as part of their interaction. Hmm. OpenSim and Laconi.ca integration. That could be cool. As an aside, I have been getting emails about connecting old MOOs to Twitter, but that’s a different subject.
So, I’ve started installing laconi.ca on my Linux box. I’ve hit a few snags. It needs a Validate.php file, which I can’t find. I know that Evan is swamped, so maybe I’ll bug him later.
Laconi.ca also uses OpenID. I’ve been running OpenID for Drupal on my blog for a while. It hasn’t been too reliable, but I’m running an old version of Drupal. Between the desire for a more robust OpenID for Drupal, the desire to add Disque to Drupal and a bunch of other things, it is probably time to upgrade Orient Lodge to a newer version of Drupal. Maybe I’ll tackle that.
One thing that is still coming in Drupal is support for OAuth. Laconi.ca uses OAuth. Hmm. At some point, I want to tie my Drupal sites to my OpenSim sites and my Laconi.ca sites. That ought to be fun.
Meanwhile, also on my technology play list is twine.com and SecondBrain.
So, I’ll complete a few tasks around the house, check to see if identi.ca is stable after the latest upgrade and then start a fun day of recreational hacking.
]]>At the top of my list is identi.ca. Identica is running laconi.ca, an open source microblogging system based on a lot of cool standards like XMPP, Oauth, and OpenSim. I set up my identi.ca account yesterday, and have started trying to see if I can get a laconi.ca server running on my Linux box today.
So, why do I care about identi.ca? Edd Dumbill has written a very good post about Why Identi.ca is important. So, my first comment, is “yeah, what Edd said.” Dan York also wrote about it, The real meaning - and power - of identi.ca (a.k.a. open source Twitter) and pointed to Dave Winer’s excitement about identi.ca and Marshall Kirkpatrick’s post.
So, let me add a few additional thoughts. As Edd notes, it is still version 0.4.1, so don’t expect it to have as much functionality or reliability as even Twitter or Plurk. On the other hand, if open source developers go wild with it, expect it to leave Twitter and Plurk in the dust.
To me, there are is a very interesting parallel between Second Life and OpenSim and Twitter and Laconi.ca. The new open source version is getting kicked around and has great potential. For that matter, OpenSim and Laconi.ca are both kicking around using XMPP as part of their interaction. Hmm. OpenSim and Laconi.ca integration. That could be cool. As an aside, I have been getting emails about connecting old MOOs to Twitter, but that’s a different subject.
So, I’ve started installing laconi.ca on my Linux box. I’ve hit a few snags. It needs a Validate.php file, which I can’t find. I know that Evan is swamped, so maybe I’ll bug him later.
Laconi.ca also uses OpenID. I’ve been running OpenID for Drupal on my blog for a while. It hasn’t been too reliable, but I’m running an old version of Drupal. Between the desire for a more robust OpenID for Drupal, the desire to add Disque to Drupal and a bunch of other things, it is probably time to upgrade Orient Lodge to a newer version of Drupal. Maybe I’ll tackle that.
One thing that is still coming in Drupal is support for OAuth. Laconi.ca uses OAuth. Hmm. At some point, I want to tie my Drupal sites to my OpenSim sites and my Laconi.ca sites. That ought to be fun.
Meanwhile, also on my technology play list is twine.com and SecondBrain.
So, I’ll complete a few tasks around the house, check to see if identi.ca is stable after the latest upgrade and then start a fun day of recreational hacking.
<!--break-->
Today is Firefox 3 day. Starting at 1 PM EDT, people will be able to download the official version of Firefox 3. I downloaded the final release candidate and have run it a little bit. So far, there isn’t much that I’ve seen as improvements. The one feature that I like best is a ‘most viewed’ tab. Things I don’t like: You need to be running at least Windows 2000. It won’t run on my main machine which is still Windows NT. Yeah, I know, I should upgrade, but Windows NT has been good enough for me for years.
Things I’m trying to get used to: With Firefox 2, you have these little arrows next to your back and forward buttons so you can skip back, or forward, several pages. In Firefox 3, they’ve combined this into one button. There is a little circle next to the page showing where you are. A little more compressed; mixed feelings about it. Likewise, the dropdown list of recently visited sites is now split onto two lines; the title on the top and the link below it. I’m still used to the old way of displaying the list with the URL on the left and the title on the right. I prefer the older format. Perhaps there is a way of tweaking Firefox 3 to look more like Firefox 2.
Recently, the Associated Press sent takedown orders to a blog for quoting brief passages of AP articles. They requested the removal of six blog posts and one comment for quoting passages from AP stories ranging from 33 to 79 words. At the core of this is a battle over what constitutes Fair Use. The AP positions borders on asserting that no use of AP content is fair. First off, this is really stupid on the APs part. They should be encouraging people to link to their content. Instead, they have discouraged people from linking to their content. The UnAssociated Press is calling for a boycott of all AP stories. People are urging others to stop Digging article from the Associated Press and any other activities that might drive traffic to AP stories. Major hat tip to Liza Sabater for her coverage of this at Culture Kitchen. For more information on this, start off with Netroots' bloggers boycott of Associated Press is working.
In a similarly stupid move, EntreCard is asking bloggers to write for them, offering between 700 and 2000 EntreCard credits for reviews of other blogs. Depending on how much they actually pay, and the exchange rate of EntreCard credits, that works out to be between around $2.50 to $15 per blog post. For bloggers that do most of their writing for free, that is a major improvement, and is near the low end of the range that people get paid for writing articles about Second Life. Yet EntreCard, unlike other sites, will not permit republishing of the article on the writers own blog. They express concern about Google not liking duplicate content.
My understanding is that Google doesn’t like the same content with hundreds of links repeated over hundreds of websites in an effort to boost page rank, and that an article reposted on another site or two isn’t what Google is penalizing. If people can come up with details about Google penalizing a site for regular cross posting, please let me know.
As a segue from grumpy to hopeful, let me comment on the Second Life birthday celebration. It starts June 23rd. There was a lot of stuff floating around about how the birthday celebration would not allow adults whose avatars are in the shape of children from participating. Linden Lab changed its position and Dusan Writer wrote a post entitled Linden Regroups and the Kids Are In. I had really wanted to write a detailed post about this, but time has slipped away. Perhaps I can write a post about the celebration.
The Network Culture Project at USC’s Annenberg School for Communications has a different approach to promoting community involvement in Second Life. They are having a Community Challenge contest. They have announced five finalists, with voting through the 30th. My first choice is clearly The Ability Commons. I am good friends with the folks behind The Ability Commons and hold their work in the highest regard. I haven’t voted yet, because I need to look more closely at the other finalists to determine my second and third choices. If you are in Second Life, please check out this project and the five finalists and then enter your vote.
As a final more hopeful post, I want to highligh Help Save Serena. I mentioned the effort in passing in my wandering around EntreCard sites on Bloomsday, but I didn’t have the link to the Help Save Serena blog.
There are plenty of other things that I need to write about, but I have too many other non-writing tasks to accomplish, so this will have to suffice for right now.
]]>Today is Firefox 3 day. Starting at 1 PM EDT, people will be able to download the official version of Firefox 3. I downloaded the final release candidate and have run it a little bit. So far, there isn’t much that I’ve seen as improvements. The one feature that I like best is a ‘most viewed’ tab. Things I don’t like: You need to be running at least Windows 2000. It won’t run on my main machine which is still Windows NT. Yeah, I know, I should upgrade, but Windows NT has been good enough for me for years.
Things I’m trying to get used to: With Firefox 2, you have these little arrows next to your back and forward buttons so you can skip back, or forward, several pages. In Firefox 3, they’ve combined this into one button. There is a little circle next to the page showing where you are. A little more compressed; mixed feelings about it. Likewise, the dropdown list of recently visited sites is now split onto two lines; the title on the top and the link below it. I’m still used to the old way of displaying the list with the URL on the left and the title on the right. I prefer the older format. Perhaps there is a way of tweaking Firefox 3 to look more like Firefox 2.
Recently, the Associated Press sent takedown orders to a blog for quoting brief passages of AP articles. They requested the removal of six blog posts and one comment for quoting passages from AP stories ranging from 33 to 79 words. At the core of this is a battle over what constitutes Fair Use. The AP positions borders on asserting that no use of AP content is fair. First off, this is really stupid on the APs part. They should be encouraging people to link to their content. Instead, they have discouraged people from linking to their content. The UnAssociated Press is calling for a boycott of all AP stories. People are urging others to stop Digging article from the Associated Press and any other activities that might drive traffic to AP stories. Major hat tip to Liza Sabater for her coverage of this at Culture Kitchen. For more information on this, start off with Netroots' bloggers boycott of Associated Press is working.
In a similarly stupid move, EntreCard is asking bloggers to write for them, offering between 700 and 2000 EntreCard credits for reviews of other blogs. Depending on how much they actually pay, and the exchange rate of EntreCard credits, that works out to be between around $2.50 to $15 per blog post. For bloggers that do most of their writing for free, that is a major improvement, and is near the low end of the range that people get paid for writing articles about Second Life. Yet EntreCard, unlike other sites, will not permit republishing of the article on the writers own blog. They express concern about Google not liking duplicate content.
My understanding is that Google doesn’t like the same content with hundreds of links repeated over hundreds of websites in an effort to boost page rank, and that an article reposted on another site or two isn’t what Google is penalizing. If people can come up with details about Google penalizing a site for regular cross posting, please let me know.
As a segue from grumpy to hopeful, let me comment on the Second Life birthday celebration. It starts June 23rd. There was a lot of stuff floating around about how the birthday celebration would not allow adults whose avatars are in the shape of children from participating. Linden Lab changed its position and Dusan Writer wrote a post entitled Linden Regroups and the Kids Are In. I had really wanted to write a detailed post about this, but time has slipped away. Perhaps I can write a post about the celebration.
The Network Culture Project at USC’s Annenberg School for Communications has a different approach to promoting community involvement in Second Life. They are having a Community Challenge contest. They have announced five finalists, with voting through the 30th. My first choice is clearly The Ability Commons. I am good friends with the folks behind The Ability Commons and hold their work in the highest regard. I haven’t voted yet, because I need to look more closely at the other finalists to determine my second and third choices. If you are in Second Life, please check out this project and the five finalists and then enter your vote.
As a final more hopeful post, I want to highligh Help Save Serena. I mentioned the effort in passing in my wandering around EntreCard sites on Bloomsday, but I didn’t have the link to the Help Save Serena blog.
There are plenty of other things that I need to write about, but I have too many other non-writing tasks to accomplish, so this will have to suffice for right now.
<!--break-->
Here are pages I've recently bookmarked with ma.gnolia:
Here are pages I've recently bookmarked with ma.gnolia:
View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia
<!--break-->
]]>
Pathfinder Linden Remembers The Sojourner, originally uploaded by Aldon.
So, what do you wear to a memorial service in Second Life? This morning is the memorial service for The Sojourner. If I were attending in real life, I would find the solemnest suit I can find. Yet this is Second Life. When I appear in human shape, it is a very simple avatar, with simple clothing, blue jeans and a T-shirt.
I ran into this situation sometime ago, when I went to a pajama party in Second Life. Not having any good pajamas for the pajama party, I chose to go as a small black cat. I was agile, running around the party, dragging a pillow behind me and knocking over guest after guest. Being low to the ground, it was hard for the other guests to stop me and there were numerous cries about that damned cat.
One person that I tripped up numerous times that evening was Gentle Heron. Afterwards, she approached me and said that she hoped I didn’t take all of the complaints personally. To her, it was all part of some sorely needed relief. I appreciated her concern and explained that it was all part of the fun for me as well, and if I thought people were genuinely upset, I would have changed back to human form.
Gentle spoke a little bit about this group she was part of, The Heron Society. She explained that people in the group were having a difficult time. A friend had recently committed suicide and everyone was busy supporting one another. The pajama party with the fun of a cat running around knocking people over, was just the sort of outlet she needed.
Gentle and I became fast friends after this, and from her, I learned a lot about the caring community in Second Life. There are many people struggling with many disabilities and Second Life is a place for them to gather and find support, friendship, and the chance to dance, fly, swim, or simply chase a cat around at a pajama party.
One of the people Gentle introduced me to was The Sojourner. Soj, as she was called her many friends had survived multiple strokes. She gathered with others to help them deal with their own struggles and helped build an important community called Dreams.
When I spoke about the memorial service, Gentle thought that coming as a cat would be appropriate. After all, the ability to come as you are and be accepted is so important in caring communities.
Nonetheless, I arrived at the memorial service in my human shape. I saw Gentle sitting on a bench and I though of her need for comfort, and I know how comforting it is to pat a cat. I looked at women in elegant black dresses, and I decided that it would be best to be at the memorial service for Soj as a black cat. As we waited for the service to begin, people handed out red armbands entitled “Wearing my heart on my sleeve for Soj”. I added this to my outfit.
The memorial service started off with Grace McDunnough, who chose a human shape and an elegant black dress, singing a wonderful song. Then Pathfinder Linden spoke about how he met The Sojourner many years ago and how they worked together to form the Dreams community. I’m not sure exactly how I would describe Pathfinder’s outfit other than to say it was only vaguely humanoid.
After Pathfinder, many other people added comments about how wonderful Soj was and about how much she brought to the community of people in Second Life, and perhaps that gives us a clue into what to wear to a memorial service in Second Life.
Wear your heart on your sleeve, show the people around you how much you care. Bring a little of the compassion that Soj brought to Second Life. Bring it to the memorial service, and then bring it with you beyond Second Life. Don’t worry about what you look like, what you’re wearing, or what sort of disabilities might hinder you. Instead focus on being a caring person, the way Soj was, and the way so many of the friends she has touched are.
]]>So, what do you wear to a memorial service in Second Life? This morning is the memorial service for The Sojourner. If I were attending in real life, I would find the solemnest suit I can find. Yet this is Second Life. When I appear in human shape, it is a very simple avatar, with simple clothing, blue jeans and a T-shirt.
I ran into this situation sometime ago, when I went to a pajama party in Second Life. Not having any good pajamas for the pajama party, I chose to go as a small black cat. I was agile, running around the party, dragging a pillow behind me and knocking over guest after guest. Being low to the ground, it was hard for the other guests to stop me and there were numerous cries about that damned cat.
One person that I tripped up numerous times that evening was Gentle Heron. Afterwards, she approached me and said that she hoped I didn’t take all of the complaints personally. To her, it was all part of some sorely needed relief. I appreciated her concern and explained that it was all part of the fun for me as well, and if I thought people were genuinely upset, I would have changed back to human form.
Gentle spoke a little bit about this group she was part of, The Heron Society. She explained that people in the group were having a difficult time. A friend had recently committed suicide and everyone was busy supporting one another. The pajama party with the fun of a cat running around knocking people over, was just the sort of outlet she needed.
Gentle and I became fast friends after this, and from her, I learned a lot about the caring community in Second Life. There are many people struggling with many disabilities and Second Life is a place for them to gather and find support, friendship, and the chance to dance, fly, swim, or simply chase a cat around at a pajama party.
One of the people Gentle introduced me to was The Sojourner. Soj, as she was called her many friends had survived multiple strokes. She gathered with others to help them deal with their own struggles and helped build an important community called Dreams.
When I spoke about the memorial service, Gentle thought that coming as a cat would be appropriate. After all, the ability to come as you are and be accepted is so important in caring communities.
Nonetheless, I arrived at the memorial service in my human shape. I saw Gentle sitting on a bench and I though of her need for comfort, and I know how comforting it is to pat a cat. I looked at women in elegant black dresses, and I decided that it would be best to be at the memorial service for Soj as a black cat. As we waited for the service to begin, people handed out red armbands entitled “Wearing my heart on my sleeve for Soj”. I added this to my outfit.
The memorial service started off with Grace McDunnough, who chose a human shape and an elegant black dress, singing a wonderful song. Then Pathfinder Linden spoke about how he met The Sojourner many years ago and how they worked together to form the Dreams community. I’m not sure exactly how I would describe Pathfinder’s outfit other than to say it was only vaguely humanoid.
After Pathfinder, many other people added comments about how wonderful Soj was and about how much she brought to the community of people in Second Life, and perhaps that gives us a clue into what to wear to a memorial service in Second Life.
Wear your heart on your sleeve, show the people around you how much you care. Bring a little of the compassion that Soj brought to Second Life. Bring it to the memorial service, and then bring it with you beyond Second Life. Don’t worry about what you look like, what you’re wearing, or what sort of disabilities might hinder you. Instead focus on being a caring person, the way Soj was, and the way so many of the friends she has touched are.
<!--break-->
]]>I deleted the spam with only a minimal glance to make sure nothing fell into the spam box by mistake. I scanned the unread emails and found around 500 that I moved off into folders which I might read someday if I ever have time. For all practical purposes, I’ve deleted them. Then I glanced through the remaining emails to see if there were any of particular importance. If I’ve missed yours, I apologize, please be patient.
The one email that particularly caught me attention was simply titled, “The Sojourner”. Soj, as she was called, has been a key part of the fabric of Second Life for nearly four years. She was part of Brigadoon, an early support community in Second Life. The first time that I recall meeting her was last February as she worked on bringing together support groups in a health care coalition.
In subsequent meetings, she spoke about her own struggles recovering from three different strokes. She spoke about how important Second Life was as a community for stroke victims. As I opened the email, I wondered what great new adventure Soj was setting off on now.
The answer struck me with grief. From the The Tribute to The Sojourner, A True Second Life Heroine, 8/18/2004-5/25/2008, I learned of her passing.
I immediately logged into Second Life and went to the memorial that has been built for her there. Along the pathway, there are all kinds of monuments to her work. At the center is a large area covered with candles. There are so many, so close together that the effect is overwhelming. It takes a special effort to read the candles.
Candles for The Sojourner, originally uploaded by Aldon.
I wandered around reading the inscriptions floating above one candle after another. People talked, should we move the candles and spread them out? Yet it was felt that it was more appropriate that the effect be overwhelming. The contributions that Soj has made to Second Life and to so many people here was overwhelming, as is the grief of so many people that loved her deeply.
I took a picture of the candles in a special way that captured to chaos of the text. I wandered from candle to candle copying down the texts. I saved much of it on the Wiki and others have checked candles and added additional texts.
I only knew Soj for a very short time and the words that I can share pale in comparison. There are many great tributes to Soj and a couple jump out at me.
From your first day in SL when we met
You had a Dream
I am glad i could help you get it started
so long ago in a place called Brigadoon
You will be missed here.
-- Coos YellowknifeOne Short Sleepe past, we wake eternally,
and death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
-- John Donne.Soj, you got your second set of wings! Godspeed.
Rest In Peace, The Sojourner
]]>I deleted the spam with only a minimal glance to make sure nothing fell into the spam box by mistake. I scanned the unread emails and found around 500 that I moved off into folders which I might read someday if I ever have time. For all practical purposes, I’ve deleted them. Then I glanced through the remaining emails to see if there were any of particular importance. If I’ve missed yours, I apologize, please be patient.
The one email that particularly caught me attention was simply titled, “The Sojourner”. Soj, as she was called, has been a key part of the fabric of Second Life for nearly four years. She was part of Brigadoon, an early support community in Second Life. The first time that I recall meeting her was last February as she worked on bringing together support groups in a health care coalition.
In subsequent meetings, she spoke about her own struggles recovering from three different strokes. She spoke about how important Second Life was as a community for stroke victims. As I opened the email, I wondered what great new adventure Soj was setting off on now.
The answer struck me with grief. From the The Tribute to The Sojourner, A True Second Life Heroine, 8/18/2004-5/25/2008, I learned of her passing.
I immediately logged into Second Life and went to the memorial that has been built for her there. Along the pathway, there are all kinds of monuments to her work. At the center is a large area covered with candles. There are so many, so close together that the effect is overwhelming. It takes a special effort to read the candles.
I wandered around reading the inscriptions floating above one candle after another. People talked, should we move the candles and spread them out? Yet it was felt that it was more appropriate that the effect be overwhelming. The contributions that Soj has made to Second Life and to so many people here was overwhelming, as is the grief of so many people that loved her deeply.
I took a picture of the candles in a special way that captured to chaos of the text. I wandered from candle to candle copying down the texts. I saved much of it on the Wiki and others have checked candles and added additional texts.
I only knew Soj for a very short time and the words that I can share pale in comparison. There are many great tributes to Soj and a couple jump out at me.
From your first day in SL when we met
You had a Dream
I am glad i could help you get it started
so long ago in a place called Brigadoon
You will be missed here.
-- Coos YellowknifeOne Short Sleepe past, we wake eternally,
and death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
-- John Donne.Soj, you got your second set of wings! Godspeed.
Rest In Peace, The Sojourner
<!--break-->
]]>