The following press release was sent by PR Newswire on December 10, 2007.
Second Oasis, December 10, 2007 /PRNewswire/ – Beijing-based HiPiHi released a partially translated English beta version of it's strikingly beautiful HiPiHi world in November. Surfdaddy Orca grabs his virtual surfboard and spends a week as an “overseas visitor” looking for the perfect wave inside this foreign, yet friendly virtual world. Find out what it's like to be a newborn, make friends, buy land, and build things in virtual China.
Meanwhile Pollywog Gardenvale provides a sneak preview of her upcoming book for OnRez merchants in Second Life, while she and her alter ego appear on the cover of the San Diego Reader.
Read about it in the The Seventh Sun – News from the Virtual World, December edition, at: http://www.theseventhsun.com Chronicling the growing electronic frontier of virtual worlds, the Seventh Sun's virtual offices are currently located inside Second Life at Second Oasis (239, 154, 21).
Highlights this issue:
Investor Watch – HiPiHi, Novamente, and IMVU.
http://www.theseventhsun.com/1207_invWatch.htm
Federation of American Scientists – A comprehensive review of virtual worlds.
http://www.theseventhsun.com/1207_FAS.htm
HiPiHi World – A visit to virtual China.
http://www.theseventhsun.com/1207_hiPiHi.htm
CNN + SKY News = SUCCESS. Aspiring journalists find mentors at CNN and Sky News.
http://www.theseventhsun.com/1207_cnnSky.htm
Sky News: The hottest TV studio in Second Life — An interview with video editor Silvae Reuven.
http://www.theseventhsun.com/1207_skyNews.htm
Comparison Shopping – How much does it cost to sell virtual goods online?
http://www.theseventhsun.com/1207_compShop.htm
Sneak Preview: The Merchant's Guide to Shop OnRez – How to set up shop using OnRez.
http://www.theseventhsun.com/1207_shopOnRez.htm
Holiday Shopping – A festive pictorial of virtual holiday goods.
http://www.theseventhsun.com/1207_holiday.htm
IMVU: Instant Messaging with a 3D Viewer – A facebook for avatars.
http://www.theseventhsun.com/1207_imvu.htm
Virtual Information Project Update – 3D Mind Map work moves to Rockcliffe University Research Park.
http://www.theseventhsun.com/1207_vitUpdate.htm
Gigs' Corner – Taming the Linden Lab Beast with JIRA.
http://www.theseventhsun.com/1207_gigsCorner.htm
Publisher:
Pollywog Gardenvale
pollywog@pollywogpress.com
Managing Editor
Surfdaddy Orca
surfdaddy@pollywogpress.com
CONTACT: Greg Campbell
Avatar: Surfdaddy Orca
503.984.0168
surfdaddy1003@gmail.com
SOURCE: Pollywog Press
Monday, December 10, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
SceneCaster debuts hot new 3D-to-2D web product at DEMOfall ‘07 Conference
by Surfdaddy Orca
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - Building a furniture store or decorating a home in a 3D virtual world such as Second Life (SL) is a lot of fun, but it can take a while to learn how to get around, use the in-world graphics tools, buy land, build and decorate a virtual store or mall, and then advertise it.
SceneCaster, a Toronto-based company, today announced a revolutionary new solution for would-be 3D world creators: a browser plug-in that anyone can use to paint a 3D "scene" within minutes and export it to a social networking site such as Facebook or Flickr. SceneCaster bridges the gap between the virtual and real worlds and connects the online 3D experience to e-commerce sites such as eBay and Amazon and product catalogs from leading manufacturers and retailers.
Students, housewives, small business owners, creative professionals, and others can use drag-and-drop tools to create 3D spaces quickly. The tool is integrated with Google's 3D Warehouse, which includes a library of 3D models created in SketchUp – with just about anything you'd want to furnish your virtual scene. Start with an existing 3D model and drop it on your scene. Or, create your own model using SketchUp or another 3D graphics tool and drop it onto a SceneCaster scene.
Then things start to get interesting. The idea is that you can look at someone's virtual scene and click over to purchase the real item online. For example, if you like a virtual mattress in a particular scene, you can buy the actual mattress from one of SceneCaster's partners. Companies that have already partnered with SceneCaster include iStockphoto, Kohler, Oddcast, and others.
SceneCaster is being characterized as marketing "glue" between 3D virtual worlds and the 2D web by no less than Sandy Kearney, Global Director, Emerging 3D Internet and Virtual Business at IBM. “SceneCaster is one tool in the 3D Internet landscape that helps make immersive, social media accessible to everyone,” said Sandra. “By providing an easy-to-use environment and a wide range of content, SceneCaster offers an exciting marketing opportunity for virtual environments.”
SL designers and content creators, for example, can create 3D objects using standard graphics tools, import them into SL, and drag-and-drop versions into a SceneCaster scene. This link between SL and the 2D web can help pave the way to SL sales through eBay and Amazon.
The link between virtual goods with real world goods will reach Internet users outside the "walled garden of 3D environments" says Mark Zohar, founder and CEO of SceneCaster. Rather than downloading special virtual world software clients, you can use a standard browser to create scenes.
SceneCaster's initial plug-in support for Internet Explorer and Firefox running Windows is expected to extended to the popular Macintosh Safari browser soon.
See http://www.scenecaster.com/
The semi-annual DEMO conference takes place in San Diego this week. Produced by Network World Events and Executive Forums, it focuses on emerging technologies and new products that are hand-selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace.
Visit http://www.demo.com/conferences/demofall07.php?
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - Building a furniture store or decorating a home in a 3D virtual world such as Second Life (SL) is a lot of fun, but it can take a while to learn how to get around, use the in-world graphics tools, buy land, build and decorate a virtual store or mall, and then advertise it.
SceneCaster, a Toronto-based company, today announced a revolutionary new solution for would-be 3D world creators: a browser plug-in that anyone can use to paint a 3D "scene" within minutes and export it to a social networking site such as Facebook or Flickr. SceneCaster bridges the gap between the virtual and real worlds and connects the online 3D experience to e-commerce sites such as eBay and Amazon and product catalogs from leading manufacturers and retailers.
Students, housewives, small business owners, creative professionals, and others can use drag-and-drop tools to create 3D spaces quickly. The tool is integrated with Google's 3D Warehouse, which includes a library of 3D models created in SketchUp – with just about anything you'd want to furnish your virtual scene. Start with an existing 3D model and drop it on your scene. Or, create your own model using SketchUp or another 3D graphics tool and drop it onto a SceneCaster scene.
Then things start to get interesting. The idea is that you can look at someone's virtual scene and click over to purchase the real item online. For example, if you like a virtual mattress in a particular scene, you can buy the actual mattress from one of SceneCaster's partners. Companies that have already partnered with SceneCaster include iStockphoto, Kohler, Oddcast, and others.
SceneCaster is being characterized as marketing "glue" between 3D virtual worlds and the 2D web by no less than Sandy Kearney, Global Director, Emerging 3D Internet and Virtual Business at IBM. “SceneCaster is one tool in the 3D Internet landscape that helps make immersive, social media accessible to everyone,” said Sandra. “By providing an easy-to-use environment and a wide range of content, SceneCaster offers an exciting marketing opportunity for virtual environments.”
SL designers and content creators, for example, can create 3D objects using standard graphics tools, import them into SL, and drag-and-drop versions into a SceneCaster scene. This link between SL and the 2D web can help pave the way to SL sales through eBay and Amazon.
The link between virtual goods with real world goods will reach Internet users outside the "walled garden of 3D environments" says Mark Zohar, founder and CEO of SceneCaster. Rather than downloading special virtual world software clients, you can use a standard browser to create scenes.
SceneCaster's initial plug-in support for Internet Explorer and Firefox running Windows is expected to extended to the popular Macintosh Safari browser soon.
See http://www.scenecaster.com/
The semi-annual DEMO conference takes place in San Diego this week. Produced by Network World Events and Executive Forums, it focuses on emerging technologies and new products that are hand-selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace.
Visit http://www.demo.com/conferences/demofall07.php?
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Fall Summit continues with keynotes on virtual world/geoverse fusion and Sun's new virtual worlds platform
by Surfdaddy Orca
DR DOBBS ISLAND - According to Dr. Dobb's Life 2.0 keynote speaker Wade Roush of xconomy.com, we are in the middle of a new three-to-five year cycle of innovation in virtual worlds development and integration that began with the introduction of Linden Lab's (LL) Second Life and the release of Google Earth. He predicts at the end of the cycle that we will see a completely new virtual worlds environment, most likely from a source other than LL or Google.
Wade, who provided a keynote address on Monday September 17th, wrote a seminal article on virtual worlds integration entitled "Second Earth" for July/August edition of MIT Technology Review in which he argues that the World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into what he calls "the World Wide Sim: an environment combining elements of Second Life and Google Earth."
See https://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18911/
Could this new environment potentially come from Sun Microsystems? Tuesday's keynote speaker, Chris Melissinos, raised this very real possibility. Chris, who is Chief Gaming Officer for Sun Microsystems (a position that has to be the envy of every member of a generation that grew up on video games), talked about a new open source Sun server environment called Project Dark Star that is platform agnostic, enterprise grade, and fault tolerant. The corresponding client, known as Project Wonderland, is a 3D scene manager for virtual worlds. It is built on built using Sun's Looking Glass Java-based technology for 3D desktop windowing and visualization Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
Both Project Wonderland and Project Looking Glass are downloadable today.
See https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/ and https://lg3d.dev.java.net/
Both Wade and Chris provided extensive food for thought in their voice presentations (streamed via a SHOUTcast chatbridge rather than using Linden voice technology). The chat streams after both presentations consisted of extensive, fascinating, multithreaded, and often humorous dialog with the audience.
Wade asserted that the next step in virtual worlds development will involve cross fertilization between platforms. He sees a fusion between geospacial applications like Google Earth and virtual worlds like Second Life and Sun Microsystems' new platform (among others). He predicts that Neal Stephenson's vision of a metaverse will arise from “a community-based, open source effort to make platforms interoperable.”
Chris' presentation, "Many Worlds, One Planet," continued this theme with his assertion that proprietary systems have caused a "fracture" in the emerging metaverse. He argued for the development of common standards across platforms that address some of the bigger impediments to more extensive use: scalability, security, and open source APIs. He concluded with the thought that it is "not the fidelity of content, but the fidelity of contact" that will ultimately make the metaverse compelling to hundreds of millions of future users. In other words, a platform that brings users together in compelling ways will ultimately win out over platform content.
In addition to these keynotes, the Life 2.0 Summit so far has included a workshop on sculpties, panel discussions on search technology and metrics, and presentations on wikitecture and OLIVE, a unique and powerful proprietary 3D platform now being used by military, police, and emergency personnel, among others.
The summit continues tomorrow, Thursday September 20th, with a keynote by Scott Ambler of IBM Rational on agile programming.
See http://www.life20.net/program.php for a complete program.
DR DOBBS ISLAND - According to Dr. Dobb's Life 2.0 keynote speaker Wade Roush of xconomy.com, we are in the middle of a new three-to-five year cycle of innovation in virtual worlds development and integration that began with the introduction of Linden Lab's (LL) Second Life and the release of Google Earth. He predicts at the end of the cycle that we will see a completely new virtual worlds environment, most likely from a source other than LL or Google.
Wade, who provided a keynote address on Monday September 17th, wrote a seminal article on virtual worlds integration entitled "Second Earth" for July/August edition of MIT Technology Review in which he argues that the World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into what he calls "the World Wide Sim: an environment combining elements of Second Life and Google Earth."
See https://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18911/
Could this new environment potentially come from Sun Microsystems? Tuesday's keynote speaker, Chris Melissinos, raised this very real possibility. Chris, who is Chief Gaming Officer for Sun Microsystems (a position that has to be the envy of every member of a generation that grew up on video games), talked about a new open source Sun server environment called Project Dark Star that is platform agnostic, enterprise grade, and fault tolerant. The corresponding client, known as Project Wonderland, is a 3D scene manager for virtual worlds. It is built on built using Sun's Looking Glass Java-based technology for 3D desktop windowing and visualization Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
Both Project Wonderland and Project Looking Glass are downloadable today.
See https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/ and https://lg3d.dev.java.net/
Both Wade and Chris provided extensive food for thought in their voice presentations (streamed via a SHOUTcast chatbridge rather than using Linden voice technology). The chat streams after both presentations consisted of extensive, fascinating, multithreaded, and often humorous dialog with the audience.
Wade asserted that the next step in virtual worlds development will involve cross fertilization between platforms. He sees a fusion between geospacial applications like Google Earth and virtual worlds like Second Life and Sun Microsystems' new platform (among others). He predicts that Neal Stephenson's vision of a metaverse will arise from “a community-based, open source effort to make platforms interoperable.”
Chris' presentation, "Many Worlds, One Planet," continued this theme with his assertion that proprietary systems have caused a "fracture" in the emerging metaverse. He argued for the development of common standards across platforms that address some of the bigger impediments to more extensive use: scalability, security, and open source APIs. He concluded with the thought that it is "not the fidelity of content, but the fidelity of contact" that will ultimately make the metaverse compelling to hundreds of millions of future users. In other words, a platform that brings users together in compelling ways will ultimately win out over platform content.
In addition to these keynotes, the Life 2.0 Summit so far has included a workshop on sculpties, panel discussions on search technology and metrics, and presentations on wikitecture and OLIVE, a unique and powerful proprietary 3D platform now being used by military, police, and emergency personnel, among others.
The summit continues tomorrow, Thursday September 20th, with a keynote by Scott Ambler of IBM Rational on agile programming.
See http://www.life20.net/program.php for a complete program.
Live from Metaversed Island and Cornell University: Metanomics 101
by Surfdaddy Orca
METAVERSED -- On Monday September 17th, 78 avatars converged on Metaversed Island’s conferencing facilities to listen to Cornell University Professor Robert Bloomfield outline some of the key economic issues surrounding virtual worlds and the emerging metaverse. Metanomics 101 is the brainchild of Professor Bloomfield (avatar Beyers Sellers) and Nick Wilson (avatar 57 Miles) of metaversed.com It is a partnership between metaversed.com and the Cornell Johnson School of Management.
Metanomics 101 was streamed live by SLCN.tv (over 140+ streams according to metaversed.com) and broadcast by Craigster Hax for a live audience at SAP.
Beyers Sellers defines metanomics as "the economics of the metaverse." This includes not just Second Life (SL), but other virtual environments (such as World of Warcraft, Entropia, and Gaia), social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and conferencing services such as Skype. He suggested that such environments will become increasing integrated.
In laying a framework for discussion, Beyer Sellers distinguishes between two distinct economic philosophies:
Immersionists lead a parallel second life and look in-world. In Second Life, this includes Goreans, Elves, Pirates, Cowboys, and other role playing groups that are "immersed" in their separate virtual realities.
Augmentationists look at how the real world responds to virtual worlds. This includes developers, technologists, and business people looking at issues such as product development, branding, and product placement in virtual worlds.
See http://slcreativity.org/wiki/index.php?title=Augmentation_vs_Immersion
Sellers also talked briefly about "experimentalists," not necessarily distinct from immersionists or augmentationists, who attempt to model economic behavior in the laboratory (for example, insider trading or the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002). Whereas immersionists and augmentationists are "doing it" in situ, experimentalists are attempting to model it in the laboratory.
The notion of metanomics is not without its skeptics and critics. Prokofy Neva, in a fascinating post on the metaversed site, raises a series of questions on the relevance of discussing the Second Life economy and the possible consequences of the impending "cataclysm" of Linden Lab's promise to provide open source server code within the next year:
http://metaversed.com/prokofy-neva/blog/17-sep-2007/questions-metanomists
Clearly, Metanomics a timely series. Beyers Sellers and 57 Miles have created a needed forum for what promises to be lively debate and a marketplace for ideas about the metaverse. Future speakers include Sandra Kearney, IBM’s Global Director for 3D Internet (3Di) and Virtual Business.
See http://metanomics.metaversed.com/ for up-to-date posts on the series.
METAVERSED -- On Monday September 17th, 78 avatars converged on Metaversed Island’s conferencing facilities to listen to Cornell University Professor Robert Bloomfield outline some of the key economic issues surrounding virtual worlds and the emerging metaverse. Metanomics 101 is the brainchild of Professor Bloomfield (avatar Beyers Sellers) and Nick Wilson (avatar 57 Miles) of metaversed.com It is a partnership between metaversed.com and the Cornell Johnson School of Management.
Metanomics 101 was streamed live by SLCN.tv (over 140+ streams according to metaversed.com) and broadcast by Craigster Hax for a live audience at SAP.
Beyers Sellers defines metanomics as "the economics of the metaverse." This includes not just Second Life (SL), but other virtual environments (such as World of Warcraft, Entropia, and Gaia), social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and conferencing services such as Skype. He suggested that such environments will become increasing integrated.
In laying a framework for discussion, Beyer Sellers distinguishes between two distinct economic philosophies:
Immersionists lead a parallel second life and look in-world. In Second Life, this includes Goreans, Elves, Pirates, Cowboys, and other role playing groups that are "immersed" in their separate virtual realities.
Augmentationists look at how the real world responds to virtual worlds. This includes developers, technologists, and business people looking at issues such as product development, branding, and product placement in virtual worlds.
See http://slcreativity.org/wiki/index.php?title=Augmentation_vs_Immersion
Sellers also talked briefly about "experimentalists," not necessarily distinct from immersionists or augmentationists, who attempt to model economic behavior in the laboratory (for example, insider trading or the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002). Whereas immersionists and augmentationists are "doing it" in situ, experimentalists are attempting to model it in the laboratory.
The notion of metanomics is not without its skeptics and critics. Prokofy Neva, in a fascinating post on the metaversed site, raises a series of questions on the relevance of discussing the Second Life economy and the possible consequences of the impending "cataclysm" of Linden Lab's promise to provide open source server code within the next year:
http://metaversed.com/prokofy-neva/blog/17-sep-2007/questions-metanomists
Clearly, Metanomics a timely series. Beyers Sellers and 57 Miles have created a needed forum for what promises to be lively debate and a marketplace for ideas about the metaverse. Future speakers include Sandra Kearney, IBM’s Global Director for 3D Internet (3Di) and Virtual Business.
See http://metanomics.metaversed.com/ for up-to-date posts on the series.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Dr. Dobb's Life 2.0 Fall Summit kicks off with Linden scripting boot camp
by Surfdaddy Orca
The Saturday program at Dobbs Amphitheater included lectures on Linden Scripting Language (LSL) basics by MikeG1 Schumann and Vyrnox Ming, followed by a Q&A orientation session for newbies led by John and Rissa Maidstone. Video of the first day is available at youTube http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PollywogPress
MikeG1's excellent presentations covered how to start from scratch to create a first "Hello Avatar" program and then discussed the event-driven programming model, "Events happen, bits of your code react."
Vyrnox's scripting virtuosity and knowledge of data types, lists, and memory was hampered by a lack of course materials due to last minute preparation, but nevertheless comprehensive. "Second Life's LSL supports eight native data types, Floats, Integers, Keys, Quaternion/Rotations, Vectors and Strings" said Vyrnox. He proceeded to provide code examples and discuss the dos and don'ts of lists and memory management.
Dr. Dobb's Life 2.0 Fall Summit continues through September 21st with a full schedule of events, lectures, panel discussions that promises to provide developers, technical marketing, and business people with the latest information on emerging virtual worlds technology. A complete schedule is available at http://www.life20.net/program.php
DR DOBBS ISLAND - The sleepy Saturday morning crowd gathered at 8am SLT around the large IBM and Sun Microsystems signs at Godel, Escher Beach Club to munch on virtual pancakes, fruit, and mixed berry trifle parfait. The group of avatars, much larger than last Spring, mostly bantered in text chat with a few choosing to use voice headsets.
John Zhaoying took the stage midway through the “networking breakfast” to welcome the participants and announce the exciting lineup for the Fall Dr. Dobb's Life 2.0 Summit. "We'll be talking about the opensource grid and extensions to SL, clients and bots," said John, "about metrics and analytics... maybe most exciting, we'll be talking about '3D metaverse platforms that aren't SL' -- looking at some of the other worlds and world-building options out there."
John Zhaoying took the stage midway through the “networking breakfast” to welcome the participants and announce the exciting lineup for the Fall Dr. Dobb's Life 2.0 Summit. "We'll be talking about the opensource grid and extensions to SL, clients and bots," said John, "about metrics and analytics... maybe most exciting, we'll be talking about '3D metaverse platforms that aren't SL' -- looking at some of the other worlds and world-building options out there."
The Saturday program at Dobbs Amphitheater included lectures on Linden Scripting Language (LSL) basics by MikeG1 Schumann and Vyrnox Ming, followed by a Q&A orientation session for newbies led by John and Rissa Maidstone. Video of the first day is available at youTube http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PollywogPress
MikeG1's excellent presentations covered how to start from scratch to create a first "Hello Avatar" program and then discussed the event-driven programming model, "Events happen, bits of your code react."
Vyrnox's scripting virtuosity and knowledge of data types, lists, and memory was hampered by a lack of course materials due to last minute preparation, but nevertheless comprehensive. "Second Life's LSL supports eight native data types, Floats, Integers, Keys, Quaternion/Rotations, Vectors and Strings" said Vyrnox. He proceeded to provide code examples and discuss the dos and don'ts of lists and memory management.
Dr. Dobb's Life 2.0 Fall Summit continues through September 21st with a full schedule of events, lectures, panel discussions that promises to provide developers, technical marketing, and business people with the latest information on emerging virtual worlds technology. A complete schedule is available at http://www.life20.net/program.php
As John concluded on Saturday morning, "From David Levin, CEO of United Business Media, Steve Weitzner, CEO of CMP Technology -- from the staffs of Dr. Dobbs and the Software Group (many of whom are sneaking around as I speak) ... a big welcome to everyone! I hope you enjoy the show!"
World's First Live Orchestral Concert in a Virtual Philharmonic Hall
by Surfdaddy Orca
COOKIE - John, Paul, George, and Ringo would be fascinated to see their hometown orchestra, the Liverpool Philharmonic, perform live in a virtual hall in Second Life (SL). On Friday September 14th, principal conductor Vasily Petrenko conducted Ravel's Sheherazade and Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances via a video feed into a virtual concert hall on an island called Liverpool Phil 2.
This historic event was the first-ever broadcast of a symphony to a virtual world. It was carried live by the Second Life Cable Network (SLCN).
Unlike most SL venues, the concert did not include avatars playing virtual instruments, but was a provided as a stream of real-life musicians to a virtual concert hall. The performance, broadcast to 100 avatars inside the new virtual concert hall, included world premieres by Merseyside-born composers Kenneth Hesketh and John McCabe. For those SL residents not lucky enough to get tickets to the concert hall, Thinkerer Melville at Cookie provided a live stream.
The performance was followed by a visit to the virtual Grand Foyer Bar in SL, where Petrenko, Hesketh and soloist Kate Royal answered questions about the performance.
Unfortunately, we will never get to see the real Beatles perform in a virtual concert hall. But perhaps one day we might get to hear Sir Paul McCartney perform one of his symphonic compositions with the Liverpool Philharmonic and streamed into Second Life.
COOKIE - John, Paul, George, and Ringo would be fascinated to see their hometown orchestra, the Liverpool Philharmonic, perform live in a virtual hall in Second Life (SL). On Friday September 14th, principal conductor Vasily Petrenko conducted Ravel's Sheherazade and Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances via a video feed into a virtual concert hall on an island called Liverpool Phil 2.
This historic event was the first-ever broadcast of a symphony to a virtual world. It was carried live by the Second Life Cable Network (SLCN).
Unlike most SL venues, the concert did not include avatars playing virtual instruments, but was a provided as a stream of real-life musicians to a virtual concert hall. The performance, broadcast to 100 avatars inside the new virtual concert hall, included world premieres by Merseyside-born composers Kenneth Hesketh and John McCabe. For those SL residents not lucky enough to get tickets to the concert hall, Thinkerer Melville at Cookie provided a live stream.
The performance was followed by a visit to the virtual Grand Foyer Bar in SL, where Petrenko, Hesketh and soloist Kate Royal answered questions about the performance.
Unfortunately, we will never get to see the real Beatles perform in a virtual concert hall. But perhaps one day we might get to hear Sir Paul McCartney perform one of his symphonic compositions with the Liverpool Philharmonic and streamed into Second Life.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
The Independent State of Caledon: Interview with Desmond Shang
by Dreamingen Writer
A fascinating interview with Second Life entrepreneur Desmond Shang explores the emergence of government and legal systems in virtual worlds, focusing on what Wikipedia refers to as a "micronation," theVictorian-themed land parcels (or "sims" for simulators) of the independentnation of Caledon.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
A fascinating interview with Second Life entrepreneur Desmond Shang explores the emergence of government and legal systems in virtual worlds, focusing on what Wikipedia refers to as a "micronation," theVictorian-themed land parcels (or "sims" for simulators) of the independentnation of Caledon.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
Chase bank denies Visa purchase of L$ -- Claims Second Life is gambling site.
The purchase of Linden dollars (L$), the currency of Second Life, requires the use of a valid credit card.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
Second Life Community Convention -- Furries, pirates, and entrepreneurs.
A colorful and record crowd attended the Chicago SLCC.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
The Habitat Trust for Wildlife
Interview with SongbirdClone Writer. How one woman's campaign to save mature habitat is making a difference with educational simulations that replicate endangered habitats.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
Creativity in Second Life -- Take the Thinkerer Challenge.
Take the Thinkerer Challenge and come up with a creative concept that has real-world connections.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
California Dreamin' at Diegoland
The California Heritage Project. The California Ballet Company, the California Heritage Project, and SecondLife's "Diegoland" join forces to honor San Diego's culturally diverse history.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
The Search is on! Meta Mart's metaHUD v4.1
Linden Lab, the creator ofSecond Life, would do well to take a look at the features provided by this third-party search attachment or "HUD" (Heads Up Display).
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
Second Life Virtual Economy Key Metrics
Data reveals drop in Premium Accounts. Meanwhile, the number of free accounts has dramatically increased along with the overall population.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September 2007
Economics: Gambling velocity or, "How I learned to stop worrying and love the FUD"
Correspondent Gigs Taggart ruminates on economic Fear, Uncertainty, andDoubt resulting from the recent ban on gambling.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September, 2007
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September, 2007
Police Blotter: Gambling now leading TOS violation
Second Life residents receive a 14-day suspension for gambling in Second Life.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September, 2007
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, September, 2007
PR Newswire: The Emergence of Virtual Micronations
The following press release was sent by PR Newswire on September 5, 2007.
Full story:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-05-2007/0004656449&EDATE=
Full story:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-05-2007/0004656449&EDATE=
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
PR Newswire: Special Edition of The Seventh Sun: News from the Virtual World, July/August 2007 issue
The following press release was sent by PR Newswire on August 1, 2007.
Full story:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news/index_mail.shtml?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-01-2007/0004636691&EDATE=Gambling banned in Second Life
All bets are off in Second Life gambling ban
by Surfdaddy Orca
Want to play a little poker, bet a pool to win a sweepstakes, or try a little slots or blackjack? Well, you’d better fly to Las Vegas or find the nearest Native American casino—because you’ll no longer be able to gamble at the SS Galaxy, Queen of the Sagittarian Sea, or any of the other hundreds of gambling establishments that used to blanket the landscape of Second Life (SL).
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
by Surfdaddy Orca
Want to play a little poker, bet a pool to win a sweepstakes, or try a little slots or blackjack? Well, you’d better fly to Las Vegas or find the nearest Native American casino—because you’ll no longer be able to gamble at the SS Galaxy, Queen of the Sagittarian Sea, or any of the other hundreds of gambling establishments that used to blanket the landscape of Second Life (SL).
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Island Scam
Con man tricks six people into buying one island
by Pollywog Gardenvale and Gigs Taggart
Over the long 4th of July weekend, con man “Juggernaut Stoklitsky” used the delay in island transfers to trick six buyers into purchasing the same island. Although the first purchase was legitimate and the island was eventually delivered to the buyer, the other five were not so lucky.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
by Pollywog Gardenvale and Gigs Taggart
Over the long 4th of July weekend, con man “Juggernaut Stoklitsky” used the delay in island transfers to trick six buyers into purchasing the same island. Although the first purchase was legitimate and the island was eventually delivered to the buyer, the other five were not so lucky.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Crossing global political boundaries
MacArthur Foundation in Second Life
by Surfdaddy Orca
Imagine a world without travel visas—you can instantly teleport to a location where English may or may not be spoken. Or where a French, Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese speaker might suddenly appear at your door. Fantasy, you say? Such a place exists today. It is the virtual world of Second Life (SL).
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
by Surfdaddy Orca
Imagine a world without travel visas—you can instantly teleport to a location where English may or may not be spoken. Or where a French, Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese speaker might suddenly appear at your door. Fantasy, you say? Such a place exists today. It is the virtual world of Second Life (SL).
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Honorable Land Dealers Association
“Where reputation and fair dealing are as important as making a fast buck”
by Pollywog Gardenvale
Earlier this year, Sarah Nerd invited all the decent land dealers she knew to join her newly formed group, The Honorable Land Dealers Association. Although there are only nine members so far, (including JR Uknown who recently fell victim to the island scam) she has since opened membership to the public. Each member of the group is obligated to conduct business with integrity and receives the title, “Honorable Dealer.”
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
by Pollywog Gardenvale
Earlier this year, Sarah Nerd invited all the decent land dealers she knew to join her newly formed group, The Honorable Land Dealers Association. Although there are only nine members so far, (including JR Uknown who recently fell victim to the island scam) she has since opened membership to the public. Each member of the group is obligated to conduct business with integrity and receives the title, “Honorable Dealer.”
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Happy Birthday Governor Linden
by Surfdaddy Orca
Happy Birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday Mr. President (er, Governor Linden!)
Happy birthday to you
So sang a sultry Marilyn Monroe as President Kennedy celebrated his forty-fifth birthday on May 19, 1962 at Madison Square Garden. More than 15,000 people attended along with numerous celebrities.
Marilyn was present in spirit at 12pm SLT on Saturday, June 23, 2007 when thousands of avatars attempted to converge on the Second Life 4th Birthday (SL4B) birthday extravaganza kickoff.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Happy Birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday Mr. President (er, Governor Linden!)
Happy birthday to you
So sang a sultry Marilyn Monroe as President Kennedy celebrated his forty-fifth birthday on May 19, 1962 at Madison Square Garden. More than 15,000 people attended along with numerous celebrities.
Marilyn was present in spirit at 12pm SLT on Saturday, June 23, 2007 when thousands of avatars attempted to converge on the Second Life 4th Birthday (SL4B) birthday extravaganza kickoff.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Voice comes to Second Life
“Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you!”
by Surfdaddy Orca
The words “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you!” were first uttered into a telephone in Boston, Massachusetts on March 10, 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant Thomas Watson.
The phone was made of a wooden stand, a funnel, a cup of acid, and copper wire, which transmitted his voice to Mr. Watson listening in on a receiver in another room.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
by Surfdaddy Orca
The words “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you!” were first uttered into a telephone in Boston, Massachusetts on March 10, 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant Thomas Watson.
The phone was made of a wooden stand, a funnel, a cup of acid, and copper wire, which transmitted his voice to Mr. Watson listening in on a receiver in another room.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Finding out about stuff: SecondView and SLBrowser
by Surfdaddy Orca
As reported in the June edition of The Seventh Sun, programmer extra-ordinaire Felix Wakmann is the creator of the in-world RSS feed reader, SecondView. Felix released Version 1.24 of the Viewer and HUD this past month along with an upgraded Smark, suitably renamed SLBrowser.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
As reported in the June edition of The Seventh Sun, programmer extra-ordinaire Felix Wakmann is the creator of the in-world RSS feed reader, SecondView. Felix released Version 1.24 of the Viewer and HUD this past month along with an upgraded Smark, suitably renamed SLBrowser.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Second Life Publishing Museum
by Pollywog Gardenvale
Second Life is full of book lovers, but there is one category that stands apart from the rest. Take this simple quiz to see if you qualify:
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Second Life is full of book lovers, but there is one category that stands apart from the rest. Take this simple quiz to see if you qualify:
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Who ya gonna call? GlobetrekkerBog Lane, The Travel Man
by Surfdaddy Orca
Yes, travel seekers, you too can visit the rich and famous at Palm Beach, Paris, New York,or Los Angeles. No need to call Robin Leach, though. In Second Life (SL), GlobetrekkerBob Lane is your man.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Yes, travel seekers, you too can visit the rich and famous at Palm Beach, Paris, New York,or Los Angeles. No need to call Robin Leach, though. In Second Life (SL), GlobetrekkerBob Lane is your man.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, July/August 2007
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Dr. Dobbs Life 2.0
In the May and June issues of The Seventh Sun, Surfdaddy Orca provided indepth coverage of the recent Dr. Dobb’s Life 2.0 Summit that was held inside Second Life from April 28-May4, 2007.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, May/June 2007
Part I: Dr. Dobb’s Life 2.0 - Philip Linden headlines developers’ conferences
Part II: Dr. Dobb’s Life 2.0 - The Developers
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, May/June 2007
Part I: Dr. Dobb’s Life 2.0 - Philip Linden headlines developers’ conferences
Part II: Dr. Dobb’s Life 2.0 - The Developers
PR Newswire Kiosks: The inside scoop
PR Newswire is using interactive kiosks to gather and dispense news from the virtual world. The kiosks can be found at Midnight City, Dr. Dobb’s Island, the campaign headquarters for Mike Gravel, and most recently, at The Seventh Sun Plaza.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, June 2007
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, June 2007
Bragg v. Linden et all. A virtual property dispute
In October 2006, atttorney Marc Bragg brought suit against the corporation, Linden Research, and also against Philip Rosedale as an individual. In the ten-count complaint filed in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the plaintiff claimed to have been “induced into ‘investing’ in and purchasing virtual property by Linden and Rosedale, which was later confiscated without compensation.
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, June 2007
Court rules against Linden: Terms of Service deemed “substantially unconsionable and unenforceable”
Analysis: A virtual property dispute
For the full article, see: The Seventh Sun, June 2007
Court rules against Linden: Terms of Service deemed “substantially unconsionable and unenforceable”
Analysis: A virtual property dispute
About Us
The Seventh Sun is a monthly publication that explores the issues, technologies, and culture that are shaping the emerging community of Second Life. The inworld edition of the paper is published monthly and is available from newsstands throughout Second Life.
Pollywog Gardenvale, Publisher
Surfdaddy Orca, Editor in Chief
Pollywog Gardenvale, Publisher
Surfdaddy Orca, Editor in Chief
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