"the richness of virtual worlds is increasingly an ecosystem of connections and content that bleeds from Web to world"
You've heard jokes about "empty islands" - and granted that is true for some in Second Life, while at the other end of the spectrum it's difficult to give a presentation with more than 30 people in attendance given the design of the SL system. And if Gartner's new report, Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2008 is right, we're in trough on the virtual worlds front.
But that doesn't seem to be bothering developers of separate worlds for everything from McDonald's to the more sophisticated offerings like webflock from the Electric Sheep.
Now comes Just Leap In a newcomer from Canada which, at first blush, sounds like none of the others and could beat Google's Lively in everything except name recognition. The first clue? You don't have to search through Google's annoying database-like setup of questions and answers to figure out how to move around. That alone makes Just Leap In worth a second look.
Obviously multitudes of people and organizations seem ready to leap in and ride a coming wave that follows a downturn in new technology, ways of working, or clamor about the latest shiny thing.
When it comes to virtual spaces, the question that naturally comes up is who will be THERE to interact with? Will Second Life and WOW be the places to be just because - in spite of glitches and things we wish were different - we can overlook the flaws because of what they allow us to do? Will they thrive, like twitter because that's where the people we know ARE?
Or do we care? Will it be something else that lures us to use a virtual space?
How about future virtual worlds as a conduit to interact with ideas, information, entertainment and things we create or bring in from elsewhere on the web?
As an option for education, presentations, networking and meeting with colleagues and friends from around the globe without conferences, travel, time and expense, it's my feeling that virtual worlds will continue to shine. And that's the least of the potential.
As if there isn't enough going on, my brain's moving at top warp trying to imagine the possibilities of ways in which new technology - especially those that foster community - will evolve in my lifetime.
The latest kickstart my brain got is an invitation fromRissa Maidstone to attend an Information Week event at World2worlds today, August 4, at 5:00 PM PDT/8:00 PM EST
The buz surrounds the students in Texas State’s new, fully accredited Digital Media certificate and associates degree program who can attend classes using Second Life as its primary delivery method.
Is this the future of education?
Will people from all over the world be able to earn degrees virtually?
Guests who will talk about this with us today are Chris Gibson, Vice President of Educational Technology and Janyth Ussery, Director of Web Education for Texas State College West Texas.
To attend, click http://slurl.com/secondlife/World2Worlds/132/188/35 and if you don’t have Second life already running you can download it. It’s always smart to get up to speed on how to walk and communicate before the event but now is as good time as any to learn!
Post Publication Note: This was first published in late November 2007 and one thing that I'm aware of that has changed since that date is that my island home and office were a BC - before cancer - thing.
After December 7 I was recovering from the shock of sudden diagnosis of invasive cancer, then surgery, and by spring 2008 the time and money seemed better directed towards other things than virtual land ownership. Although I hope to change that as I pick up energy and consulting work, right now there's not a place to visit me in Second Life
- - -
What can we do in Second Life?
I've put some ideas together below and also added them to a download text file that you can save for when you need it.
Or just enjoy reading about the highlights here. You'll find more shopping information in the download but the essentials are the same.
All these places are free to visit. And enjoy.
Remember however that businesses listed are trying to generate a - usually small - income for themselves. Since I believe in adding to the SL economy I also support spending some money - maybe $20 or so - to create an avatar that really does represent "you" in the virtual world,
Yes, you'll find plenty of people to give you lists of places you can get freebies.
And I'm not against freebies. But I think that if you want to show a serious interest in anything - including virtual worlds - investing a couple of dollars isn't too much to ask.You'd spend $20 on a videogame and almost that on a CD. So I encourage you to buy
Download thingstodo.txt was created in a simple notepad format that should be easily readable for most of you.
--------------------
HELP
You can always use a pointer or two. And although we may not be able to redo orientation, going through Help Island is an option, and what's dubed a "Public orientation" island can be helpful too
Public Orientation
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Orientation%20Island%20Public/100/171/33HELP Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Help%20Island%20Public/124/135/27
---------------
DO Something - Learn Something
***** You'll find Business and Networking Events with real world people who for the most part don't try to hide their identities and are -generally- who they say they are at: *****
Doctor Dobbs Island - holds Events every Tues at 8AM SLT & every Fri at 1PM SLT
Intel Conference Center - Drop by and see the boards for event listings & feel free to just walk around
Sun Microsystems - Pavillion
IBM - vast vast complex and some fun too!
Dell Island Complex - Conference Center & Lots more to wander around, get advice, and more
----------
Wearables - the stuff that gives you identity
Skin - yes I said skin. This is a great place to buy some that looks great on you
ETD - has a great bargain room - and nice hair and clothing besides that
They have great hair at Naughty but the lag is hellacious and most of the clientele look like hookers so be prepared
Continue reading "But What Do I Do When I GET to Second Life?" »
Chatting with Phillip at ooVoo yesterday I was telling him that my husband Bill was impresed with the technology and the people when he experienced ooVoo day with me in February - in fact so much so that he had already used ooVoo to hold a voice and video meeting involving participants in three of his offices.
Phillip said that some new goodies will soon be released that may make these conferences even better, and I passed this on to Bill who, though not the IT guy in the firm, feels that his department can be served by some new looks at the way they approach communication across multiple states and different offices.
This conversation came to mind later when I was catching up with virtual worlds expert and futurist Tao Takashi's blog (mr topf in Second Life)
In talking with Jeanette Gibson, Director of New Media Communications at Cisco they cover options for interacting with employees around the world
Jeanette: ... In Second Life for example, I can meet with teams in Europe and feel more connected to them.
mrtopf: How does that compare to e.g. video conferencing, phone conferences etc.?
Jeanette: I’d say that Second Life is better than a phone call or webcast. You get the sense of physical proximity. But it’s not as good as our Telepresence technology that is virtual meetings, you can see the real person. With globalisation this is so critical, having many ways to reach people.mrtopf: Telepresence though is a bit too expensive for many right now but it looks impressive.
Jeanette: yes, it’s for large businesses now, companies that have many branch offices and need to connect, it’s $100,000 -$300,000. But someday we’ll have telepresence in our homes.
You know, I'm not the tech guru here so I have to ask about the difference between the video conferencing via computer that ooVoo does and the teleconferencing that Jeanette and Tao are talking about. Sounds like one primary difference is lots of dollar signs.
Beyond the dollar signs people have fun meeting in Second Life and also via ooVoo - will video conferencing ever be the same?
And ooVoo is putting their dollar signs in a pretty important place, donating to the frozen Pea Fund, which counts for something as far as building community.
In the end, with ooVoo, as with Second Life, the fun is in the process of participation- no matter where we chose to have the conversation. The most important thing is to take part.
With SHOWTIME’s The L Word® signing up as a first customer, The Electric Sheep Company today announced WebFlock™, a new private-label virtual world application for individual clients wanting "improved online social interaction, media consumption and multi-player casual game-play" for their followers.
The Sheep created
and has staffed the wildly popular "L Word in Second
Life" online space since 2007 and although the virtual experience
won rave reviews and brought significant fan participation there
remained the inherent Second Life - ahem - challenges.
Second Life can be a hard platform to master for the un-geek crowd and that was a barrier to entry that the Sheep thought they could solve with WebFlock. Apparently Showtime shared the faith they can do so with this web-based application that runs on Flash which is already installed on 98% of the world’s Web browsers.
As
the Sheep put it "Mainstream users are reluctant to download software,
whether desktop applications or custom browser plug-ins." Thus basing
WebFlock on Flash - something already resident on most computers - makes for
smooth of entry, at least in theory.
The look of the WebFlock application is sleek and sophisticated and includes chat filtering and muting to screen out the rabble. Avatars and 3D spaces can be unique to each client as can
interactivity such as casual games.
In short, WebFlock is an option for companies wanting a private branding for their customer base and afraid of the geek factor and sometimes misunderstanding press that Second Life brings.
Their
timing might be good or bad, coming on the heels of the announcement of
a new virtual world called Lively, created by Google and which has
opened to a less than warm welcome by some, and optimism by others. Google's first boos came from Mac and Linux users whose systems do not run Lively, period.
In my book Lively is cartoonish and juvenile in contrast with the very adult sophistication of WebFlock, but to compare them head to head is like comparing apples and oranges and not fair to either.
Look for both to get more of my attention however as I continue to contend that the future of the 3-d web will play a big part in all our connectivity in the future.
In my work with Cornell's Metanomics last year through the now defunct
Metaversed (now changed it's stripes with a Zebra incarnation which is not so uncommon in Second Life) it was easy to see the glitches that presented themselves
when mixed reality presentations happened - or didn't happen.
As time went on, with participation in events at Doctor Dobb's Island, particularly hosted by Mitch Wagner in his Ziggy Figaro incarnation, then Metaverse events based at Stanford including fascinating evenings hosted by smart and personable Henrik Bennetsen, one including Jamais Cascio, one the authors of the Metaverse Roadmap, the glitches got less pronounced at each meeting but still one had to be prepared for the technology to just fall apart at any time.
Oh sure it usually came back online eventually but we've learned that
not everything in Mixed Reality can be scheduled. And all we can count
on is that there WILL be some sort of glitch at some point.
But looking back through Beth Kanter's Blog where she recalls a mixed reality event in 2006 I'm reminded that in these things we are really pioneers and have to see ourselves as that, accepting the challenges as opportunities.
Beth says:
"Second Life requires a significant time investment to appreciate the potential. A time investment of more than a few hours .... And, it helps to be guided or you will ask what's the point? As Jeska Linden, Community Manager, for Linden Labs, said in her recent interview with me, "This isn't for all nonprofits."
No kidding. It's not for all people period, not just organizations. Putting in the time to learn the technology is tough unless you see the payout at the end.
And
it's tough to see the payout when you can't get your 
hair on straight
and continue to walk into walls.
Beth points out accurately that what we're doing "is experimentation to understand the possibilities and potential of virtual worlds as an educational, instructional, therapeutic, marketing, and/or collaboration medium."
When she wrote her piece there were 320 individuals on the Second World Education list and 20 universities that had built virtual campuses and were offering educational activities in world. At this date, two years later that list has grown exponentially.
Once the initial hurdle of learning the system is overcome it's not that much effort to work in an immersive 3-d environment IF one takes as a given that there will be glitches. So Jeska is so right when she says this is not for everyone.
If we have the ability to think of ourselves as explorers, we may be half way to winning the battle of being able successfully teach, hold seminars, run group meetings, and provide services in Second Life that are helpful to people in their physical lives.
That's my hope at least. To provide a meaningful way to help others and be of service while doing what I can with the rest of the life I've been given.
The 3-d web and Virtual Worlds are - I contend - the future of communication and a big part of community as we connect with wider and wider diverse groups of people. But there are glitches.
If truth be told there's more than one glitch.
The Disney folks have discovered that.
Or should have.
The Wall Street Journal sums the situation up neatly when it points out that "For Walt Disney Co., the task of opening a virtual version of Disneyland on the Web was relatively easy. Closing it, though, is proving to be quite a bit more difficult, thanks to the wrath of obsessive fans of Disney's theme parks."
It started with the launch, in 2005, of the free online game Virtual Magic Kingdom, based on the design and feel of the real world Disneyland park.
Fans wanting to visit Tomorrowland or princesses in catles were able to do just that in virtual reality through avatars they created. Plus the Kingdom gave visitors - or did until tomorrow - lots of opportunity to interact with others who share an interest in Disney and online virtual reality games.Players, participants, or those who WSJ calls "Disney's notoriously obsessive fans" were quickly hooked and Disney bragged that over a million avatars had been created.
Continue reading "Real People Feel Pained as Virtual Drawbridge Goes Up" »
If you've just happened across this blog and are wondering, Yes, I'm that Susan Reynolds.
Fighting cancer is my main priority these days so I don't work on this blog as much as I'd like to, But you can follow me on twitter,at Boobs on Ice where the day to day about my cancer experience is, at Second Chances, primarily about virtual worlds, or find all my content that's posted on the web aggregated at soup.io
Finding things to do besides dancing the night away in Second Life isn't that hard to do, but sometimes it takes a little time to figure it all out. What if you just want to go to an event, sit down and learn something about how it all works?
Ah - enter my own small sampling of Second Life events listed in the 30 boxes calendar on the side-bar of this blog. It reminds me what I'm doing as well but pretend I set this up just for you.
Sometimes just being able to whip over here to the blog, click on the calendar & find some people who you can identify with and have a discussion with is a fun thing to do. However my event schedule's probably not the place to find a disco night in Second Life.Just be warned I'm a little tame.
There's some variety though, so you could meet some interesting folks. Most of my Second Life friends are people who are very clear abut who they are in the everyday world too..
SO how do you get more than just the list you see in the column on the side of the page and pictured here?
If you click on the center of the box you'll get a page with more detailed listing of what's happening in my part of the SL world - sometimes more - sometimes less - depending on how much I know and how much time I have to add it
Please note: I don't make all the things I do public but I do include things that I do or that I think would be helpful or interesting, from a Victorian Salon to a geek talk at Cisco to a party for bloggers.
One thing that always bugs me is seeing something listed in a blog etc and finding NO info about it other than a name and some numbers.
"Sim xyz 12/34/45" is just not going to do it for me. Why Second Life folks don't like to give us links in order to get us to attend events I don't know
It's hard enough to find places in SL without having to type numbers in tiny boxes, So I've tried to include a link that you can use to teleport to where the event is being held - if I'm able to find one.
Sometimes you might find the calendar has broken links but I try to make a tinyrul when possible. If it's broken try highlighting the SLURL and pasting in your browser window.
I hope this helps you find something interesting happening soon, and that you give Second Life a try. For more Second Life related information check in at my notes and links tumblog: Second Chances and here in the Artsy Asylum Blog under the category: 2nd Life / Metaverse
Matthew Stein: When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance and Planetary Survival
Women, Work, and Autoimmune Disease
Great information for those with any illness
Susan Piver: How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life
Opening Your Heart to Confidence, Intimacy, and Joy
Lawrence Wright: The Looming Tower
A sweeping history explaining the roots of Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
Rod Beckstrom - Ori Brafman: The Starfish and the Spider
The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
Recent Comments