Sunshine in the virtual world doesn't always mean the same in RL

It has been a while that I have written a blog post, but every day seems to have fewer hours.

I had a lot of things on my hand, not only in SL, but also in RL. This meant for me that I was not able to work on pictures, the way I would like to do. And certainly did not even think about blogging, for which I apologize to all (how few they may be) readers, who are or were anxious to read about new adventures or experiences.

The next couple of days will even be very crucial for my future in SL, as some decisions are about to be made, which can turn my virtual life upside down. This can be either way.

I have been inworld for two and a half years; I enjoyed it very much, learned a lot and could do my most favorite thing: taking and post processing pictures. So not all was in vain after all.

Companies are rising inworld, and people with professional skills are taking over from the amateurs. Magazines, galleries, clothing shops etc. are more and more based on real marketing strategies, with people who are doing the same jobs in RL, or at least related to it.

It will be more and more difficult to start a new business, without having the knowledge of running a business. This also means that other avatars, who are the co-workers, will have or get more stress to get their things done.

The virtual world is and will always be a hobby for me, but you will have to find the right balance between the two worlds, not that the virtual world will become that important, that your real life begins to suffer from it. Some friends have experienced it, and decided to take it easy on the virtual life, and to secure their RL. Everyone will have to decide for their own, how far they can go with “the game”.

It is not easy to start a company, these days, and become very well known in the virtual world, building an image, which speaks for itself, and having the right people at the steering wheel. But when these people decide to take a step down, it is a tragedy for the company. It can happen in RL too, but to replace worth full people in SL is not a sinecure.

Where in RL you can almost say that people are replaceable, but in SL you will have not the same insight and visibility on people as you have in RL.

Will I be doing the same activities in the future in SL, will I take it easier? All questions I can’t answer. I still like to work on pictures, as main activity, but I just don’t have the time to do so.

Things will be more clear in a couple of days, I hope.

Dream Beach

Ok, I don’t know if anyone still reads my blog, but I am going to try to write now and than about Looker Lumet, as I remember that was requested by some of my readers.

This blog started as information on what was happening on the grid, and not specifically about me. But, as I don’t have the time to surf around all the blogs anymore, I will inform you what is happening with Looker Lumet, about his activities and discoveries.

As you will probably know, after reading my previous posts, Looker Lumet had a very important gallery opening last weekend. Once a month a new SL artist has the opportunity to have an exhibition at the Avatrait gallery, which is not exactly unknown, as it exists for more than a year now, and also sells SL pictures in RL. In fact, Avatrait will be part of the exhibition in RL, in Florence, Italy, at the end of October, with some pictures of SL artists. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend the opening and meet Track Hax, the man behind Avatrait, as I have other obligations in RL.

But, back to the opening last Saturday, Looker can be very happy, looking back at the results. I only hope that this isn’t THE highlight of Looker Lumet’s career in SL, but only a starting point to more success.

The way to achieve that, is trying to make better art, better pictures, and become known by many other avatars, who did not hear about Looker until now.

And this future will all start at Bahia Beach, not only homeland of the “Dreamers” and thus mine too, but also the base of CYD Records and a gallery.

Almost daily, the “Open mic” stage is reserved for performances of SL music artists. For many of those, CYD Records is a welcome support to have their career a push forward.

And Looker Lumet happens to be the official photographer of CYD records…..:)

The gallery is also situated on this sim, right next to the building where I live. SL art, as well as RL art will find their way in this exhibition space. The intention is to have all the best artists in SL featuring on a monthly base. However, this still needs to be worked out. Rome was also not built in one day.;)

The combination of the gallery, the two stages, one at the gallery and one for the open mic, the beach, the different small “islands” makes this sim a beautiful home for dreamers. And that is why it is called: “Dream Beach”

Once upon a time...there was a bank in SL®

It is probably a disease. You get it from one person to another. Will it become a virus?
I have been following the story of the Whitfield-Hastings bank for quiet some time now, as I had some money invested before the bank was banned from Second Life. I still had some change money in there, and it seemed that I could even recover those few Lindens, but now the truth came out, and what I was thinking all along came out. It is like a fairy tale, but then with no happy ending. It does not matter to me, but some people have invested big money, and they will never see one Linden back.
Who is to blame? Linden Lab for sure, but as I said in the beginning, it is a disease, the way of communication, or the lack of communication, and after that….the lies.

The story about the banks is known to everyone, this story is probably not.

The Royal bank of SL was founded by Cristopher Whitfield, and was one of the best banks in SL, as they looked professional in what they did, the interests were good (too high, but that was adjusted after a while). All went well until the decision of LL to close all banks, and give them only a few weeks to comply with the new rules. All accounts were closed, no one could withdraw money from their accounts anymore, until everything was cleared. Some people were mad, others were patient. We waited…..

Suddenly, the sad news came that Cris had died in RL. That would mean that the bank was automatically bankrupt, no existence anymore, no funds…nothing.
Most members were sad to hear the news and expressed their condolences on the website. After a few days, a new avatar came in the picture, the RL brother of Cris, Steffen Bolton. He did not know anything about SL, but wanted to pay everyone out, as that would have been the wish of Cris. In no time he was able to learn about Second Life, bank business and other stuff. It was amazing to see, how someone was trying to please all the shareholders of the former bank. There was a little hope for the big investors that they would see their money again.
New contracts were made; all shareholders had to agree to a loss of 30% of their total amount, as a cost to the WHJ bank. What alternative did they have?
After the contracts were signed, they tried to sell their sims, to find some money to pay all accounts. There was an agreement with LL that Steffen could manage all business that was started by Cris, because this was unusual….an avatar died in RL, with a lot of assets in SL.

This was what we had to believe.

On Friday, June 13^th, what a date, there would be a statement from Steffen, because nobody knew what was happening, how long they had to wait for their money…….

The statement came…..a few days later.

“CLARIFICATION OF CRIS
Cris is very ill and not DEAD. It was certainly not a good idea to let him die in the real World
or in SL, but in the given situation it was the only idea we had to save the islands.
In retrospect, it turned out by the fact that it was no use.
The management knew about this situation, and I am not really happy about it, but the life of my brother
was more important than continuing the game here absurdly. He was no longer able to continue
the business and was so limited; he repeatedly has stayed for a longer time at hospital stays.
Until now, his health condition is critical, and he can hardly do his daily work.”

This announcement, what has happened in the past and what they were trying to achieve, felt like a bomb to all shareholders. Why did they play this comedy? Why didn’t they simply say that Cris was ill, and could no longer work at the bank…?

Is this story the only true one, or is this also a lie?
Although the website is shutting down after today, they still say that the shareholders will be paid.
It doesn’t matter to me, as I had only a few Lindens there, but there others, who are really depending on that money, and who were desperately waiting to see some of their money back.
Well, we knew it all along, before LL closed all the banks, but the way they communicated, seems very much like the Lindens would have done.
At the end of their statement, (I use the plural form as I think it is more than one avatar, or all are one and the same), they wrote: (this was translated from the German language by someone)

“IMPORTANT TO THE END

Responsibility:
The WHJ belonged to ALL shareholders, and not a single person.
The WHJ went bankrupt, and it has enriched NOBODY here, on the contrary,
the responsible persons are now broke in RL LIFE too.
The money flowed into the daily interests and the monthly costs.
Everyone who signed the WHJ has to share responsibility.
NOBODY is guilty, it was simply a failure

The remaining debt:
Even if none likes to hear, but after a bankruptcy, actually none is entitled to money.
Since this is not clearly regulated by LL in SL, we still obliged to repay all./..."

Will this be the end of the story? Will it continue? Will everyone be paid accordingly?

I don’t think there is much hope, but as they use to say; you can not live without hope.;)

Wishful thinking?

What is happening to us after being on the grid for such a long time? We are only 16 months old, but it seems an eternity. We have seen new friends coming in, and old ones quitting from the grid.
In the meanwhile avatars were having affairs, quarrels, discussions etc.. What we endured and experienced in those 16 months, we probably would never have seen in real life. If that is negative or positive is completely up to your own thought, but I think you will always learn something out of it. Also be aware of the fact that we are living in a virtual world. You don’t see people’s expressions on their faces, their body language, which is so important in real life, to understand each other.
That being said, I have realized that I am more and more being as much realistic as can be, and trying to perceive and analyze everything in their own perspective.
Recently I tried to explain to a friend of mine, that written words alone are not the best communicative tool. Written words can have a totally different meaning, when the reader interpreted them wrongly, and can be the start of an issue that can be blown out of its proportion.
Why are people sometimes disappointed in the virtual world? Why are they tired of explaining every time the same thing, and think not to be understood?
It is not always, but can be, the language. When you are communicating with someone who has a different mother language, that communication can cause a misinterpretation to one or another.
People are not always what they pretend to be. Sometimes they have a different gender, sometimes they are pretending to be totally different from what they appear to be.
And when finally the truth sees the daylight, one gets really upset and tries to mobilize the whole world and trying to make the other person look bad in the eyes of the rest of the world. In fact, that won’t help that person at all, but that is how we are, …..we, humans. All of us. You can blame someone in public, on blogs etc… but at the end… no one will feel better, on the contrary. But who is to blame? Just try to be reasonable and deal with the matter in a mature way.
There is still a future ahead of us, a bright future. A future we all can enjoy, together on the grid, with the different nationalities, different skills, different interests ……..
It is not if I am trying to preach some wisdom here, because, who am I to do that?
But I was thinking about the past period with all its negative and positive experiences, and to the future. What all this could mean for me in the near future in Sl®.
I am happy with who I am in SL®, with all the friends I have, with all the things I learn,
trying not to be involved in one or another issue, as my life is to precious and I still want to grow as a “would be artist”.
I have some ideas in which direction I will go, I have some contacts that will give me some perspectives in the near future, and I will blog about that too, when the time comes.
I can only wish and hope, that the people I know now, will be able to share these times with me and enjoy some pretty moments together, so that this totally new environment, because that is what SL is still to me, will be an experience which we won't forget easily.

Another weekend in and out SL®

What was happening this weekend in Second life? I visited the show of Corbett Howard at the Avatrait gallery, but apparently everybody had trouble with a terrible lag. The fire works were like square grey boxes going up. I did not wait for the party, as I had seen enough grey persons at that time. I went back the day after, and could see Corbett's work much better. I even tried his pose at the streetlight. Don't hesitate to visit the gallery!!

LL also announced a totally new sim, Bay City, which I thought was worthwhile to visit and take some snapshots. But that was without thinking about those lagproblems, as I waited for almost half an hour and still not all the buildings were rezzed, unfortunately. So I need to try that once again.
This all meant that I was running out of pictures to post process. Not that I was in need of that urgently, as the weather was too nice to be busy behind my screen. Nevertheless I thought it was a good time to learn and try some things out.
As I told before on this, my main activities are not to surf to all the blogs anymore, as I did before, I just keep some in my RSS feed, but I try to find out new techniques in Photoshop.
And while exercising with tutorials next to me, starting over and over again, until I know what to do, and till the desired quality is almost reached, my skills are improving.
Little by little I am beginning to learn more possibilities in PS, like making your own brush, your own action. I am still an amateur, as I don't have enough time to explore and try it all, but we have the time, no stress, and still like doing it, trying to ignore the competition, but rather to learn from them.

Just a thought

Since the beginning of this year, I have tried to find interesting stories to write, news to cover, events to announce but apparently not with a lot of success due to several reasons. As you all know, my main thing is photography, so I will be focussing myself on that in the near future, and perhaps post from time to time some articles for those who are interested.
My blog will not dissappear, but I will not be blogging so often anymore.
I would like to thank all my visitors, who have supported me over the last year on this blog.
Just keep tuned, and who knows, that I will start again one day.

Frustrated virtual agencies are not that frustrated after all!

According a post of Reuters, virtual companies like the Electric Sheep company, are loosing interest in Second Life®, as "...new virtual world platforms coming online and Second Life® noticeably lacking in buzz for consumer-facing brands in the real world, some of the most well-known MDCs are publicly criticizing Linden Lab for shortcomings in technology and usability."

The Electric Sheep company has produced one of the most visible projects, as the CSI:NY-project.
According Reuters, the company encountered some difficulties due to a lack of native programming support, which made it difficult to bring new avatars into Second Life® already wearing themed clothes, nor was it possible to auto-enroll viewers in a CSI-themed group without special assistance from Linden Lab not generally available to developers.

“Second Life is just not at production level,” Giff Constable, the chief operating officer of Electric Sheep, would have said to Reuters. “You want to things to be bulletproof when you’re working with a global brand … I don’t know if we’d do it in Second Life the next time.”

On the contrary, Millions of Us, stated that they wouldn't hesitate to go into Second Life® again, despite its much publicized travails, but has his very loyal users, said Mat Small, who worked on Second Life® projects with Toyota, Intel and Cisco. But the growth right now is more youth-centric, like Habbo Hotel and Gaia.

In a reaction to this article in Reuters, Giff Constable said that they had indeed some difficulties with the CSI project, but that the numbers were good, and they still get 4,000 visitors a week coming to the experience even months after the October episode. Linden Lab® worked hard with the Electric Sheep company to make that launch as successful as it could be, and they appreciate that effort.

Although Constable did say that Second Life® still has a ways to go in terms of usability, accessibility, stability and performance, they have planned at least one project this year, but they are also focussing on Web-based technologies while Second Life® continues to make progress.

So, after all, not all the virtual agencies, are not that dissatisfied about Second Life® after all, but are not blind for the competition who makes their progress too.

It can only be a clear signal to Linden Lab®, that they know what their challenges are, if they were not already aware of that.

What would a company have to consider to invest in the virtual world?

“Pricing for new islands will drop from US$1675 to US$1000 before the month’s end, easing the entry into Second Life for some larger builds.
Linden’s primary source of income is a monthly charge to landowners called “tier,” and the increase in overall land volume can be expected to boost the company’s bottom line. Inflating the land supply comes at a price though, as new land both lowers the worth of existing customers’ assets and decreases Second Life’s population density…”(Reuters)

Oops, they did it again, as Winter also mentioned on her blog, the LoL (I will use the same acronym here) have once again spread a sudden announcement about the decreasing of the land prices, for being able to increase the land supply.

As the negative news, about this particular virtual world, is dropping in daily, I was thinking how it would be interesting for companies to invest in this world as this is what it is all about for LoL.

By giving you an avatar and a sense of place, users don't just interact with the published data, as they do on the web, they are actually driven by the nature of the human mind to first, interact with each other. It’s a well established fact that in virtual worlds people observe the same social conventions of personal space as they do in their own cultures. Discussion between avatars is much more civil and subtly negotiated than discussion on chat rooms or bulletin board systems. People are programmed to react to people first, and react to them in specific ways.

Most success stories in SL® are based of, either, providing land (a place to socialize), clothes (something to talk about / an essential part of defining your personality for socializing), animations (critical for expressing ones self in a social context), or social objects. Non social objects (building tools and vehicles) are popular, but are either used by a small group of creators, or pretty much used only for novelty until the limits of the technology smacks the users in the head.

So as far as I can see, the challenge for real world brands is to do and to be focused on one of those categories. But knowing the medium and offering differentiated value alone will not be sufficient and successful; they will also need to know who they are dealing with: the audience.

When I look at it from a RL perspective view, I would say that the majority of residents in SL® are socializers, who are satisfied and successful in a text only environment, although we have voice, which is not so often used to socialize. So, the residents are more interested in a text based chat than going to a RL class, or visiting a bar, or doing a hundred real life social activities. They are looking for a real other life, because the virtual world offers them the freedom to reinvent themselves. But if they are dissatisfied with reality and the entire brand in it, there's no guarantee someone can offer them anything in virtuality. That is where the challenge is. However, there are just as many (if not many more) for whom their SL® is a more whole hearted rejection of the values of real life, as Furries and Goreans, who are extreme non conformists. It seems that most of these people who play with different avatars or different avatar are really adopting a second personal identity. This is not a case of roleplaying as it is usually couched, but more of a singular adoption of presentation which is not possible (or acceptable) in the real world, but often also linking that identity with their RL identity. If you do have a brand that can be made relevant to the avatar of how a person wishes to be, then it should have tremendous stickiness. If the Goth or Vampire community were offered quality clothing under a brand they can also purchase in RL I think you would start to see the synergy that folks are looking for.
I think a perfect example of good marketing is “Evian”, who is giving free skins all over the grid, which reflects to the advertising they spread about the perfect skin you will have by drinking the water.

Knowing the medium, knowing the audience and offering something unique would then be the basics for starting or bringing a brand in the virtual world. The only problem is that the folks trying to use these principles have no real, organic, 'lived' experience of SL®. They are trying to orient themselves based on a PR machine that does not understand itself or is actively trying to deceive or SL® residents who have some very specific technical skills and are trying to market them regardless of how relevant they are. It may simply be that when you honestly look at those three dictates that it may not be worth getting your brand into SL.

As conclusion, I think you may well say that it is not so obvious to start or to bring your brand now a day in a virtual environment, and to be successful in it. We have already seen companies who started once through the front door, disappearing quietly through the backdoor.

Although I keep saying that the virtual world is the future, not only the technology would have to improve, but also the communication to the RL, to make the virtual world appealing to world companies, who are willing to invest their money, their time, their employees, their popularity in something that is today, and we have to be honest, not worth to take in consideration, with all the latest news, hick ups, crashes and miscommunications we see.

The end of the Nicholaz viewer.

I have been using the Nicholaz viewer in the past, and was very pleased with it until the Windlight viewer cam out and I switched. But I know there are many bugs etc. fixed thanks to this viewer.
Due to the lack of interest to open sources, Nicholaz has thrown the towel.
He had still the courage to start all over again with the latest official viewer, but got no support in the past from our dearest Californian friends, and therefore took the decision to stop the development of the Nicholaz viewer, and with that, an important bug fixer.

"In technical terms, with the current state of the 2nd world, like daily outages on the server, new leaks in the viewer, other problems, it would be like starting all over and probably even worse because now the binary crash reporter is removed from the viewer (this was the tool which I used to locate 90% of the crashes I found)."

It is sad to see that even people who found it interesting enough in the past to spend time in development, to make this virtual world a better world, now have to realize that Linden Lab® does not care for those "free helpers".
They don't care about their customers (residents), they don't care about their open sources, what do they care about? Maybe it is time to look out for something else?

Reading a recent article in a Belgian online magazine "Knack", it appears that the youth is more interested in "myspace" and 'facebook" than in "Second Life®" and other virtual worlds. The more Facebook and your hundreds of friends present a real and for free interactivity, in which everyone is easily identifiable, the more clear it becomes that Second Life® remain anonymously and virtual. On Second Life®, which is not so popular in Belgium, according the magazine, you play less and hang around longer, without real identity or aim. The profiles on Facebook on the other hand, are easier identifiable.

When our youth is not interested anymore in the virtual world, what will the future bring us?

Looking back to the recent changes in Second Life®, 2008 may become the most important year in the history of this virtual world. When they won't support the open sources, as they did in the past by accepting code submissions, the more difficult it will become to gain new users, new residents, who are interested in looking for answers to a better virtual world.
I hope they will finally realize what is important and what isn't.
Making new rules will have no effect, when there are no players to follow those rules.

The future: Will the virtual world be indispensable as e-mail?

I was trying to find some info about the virtual world conference, and came across some interesting sites.
I was more looking for some reports about the two discussions I was referring to in my previous post.
First I started to check Cory Ondrejka's blog about "Virtual Worlds 2008". He was surprised to see how constrained the virtual world has become.
"Technology is just enabling us to take incredibly bold steps, to connect people in entirely new ways. From 3D camera technology to spatialized voice to novel interfaces to mobile to augmented reality, we should be ready to embark on the next exponential curve, building on everything learned from Second Life over the last 8 years."he said on his blog.
"...I know Linden is going to continue to be bold. I am shocked that none of the competition is."

Dusan Writer, who visited the "Virtual Worlds 2008" too, wrote a post about the discussion of how to make the brands work in the virtual world. Well, it is certainly all about advertising. Anthony Van Zyl, managing director of Simuality and Slippcat, a company with a "different view" on advertising, was one of the speakers.
"With the Slippcat system - all control is put in the hands of the user. The user (consumer) has no obligation to click on an object. They are not being forced to stare at ugly billboards, noisy television sets or any other form of push advertising. With Slippcat the user can choose to pull information from an object - and even then they can choose what degree of information they want from an object."wrote Anthony in a comment after reading Dusan's article.

Just as Cory, Anthony sees a lot of potential in the virtual world, and is even comparing it with the current use of e-mail. This means the virtual world would become a part of our RL. And that is exactly what I have always thought, and that is exactly why I am interested in the virtual world.

Not everyone seems to be on the same level, not everyone believes all the stories told on the conference.
Of course you will always have the pro's and contras, but nevertheless, these conferences will bring new thoughts to all important players in this market, and will eventually lead to a increasing popularity, better technology, and more stable virtual world. It is not about advertising alone, but it will all have it's impact in the development of the virtual world, on how it will be part of our lives in the future.
And the thought alone, that I was already there from the beginning, is really amazing.
I am glad to be there, as, looking back to my school days , when the pc was still not integrated, I did not had a clue, that the pc would be that important in our life.
Recently I heard from Winter about a parent, who's son was on the grid, and saying his dad would love to hear a Virtual Floyd concert, but did not even know how to put on the pc. Can you imagine that?
I surely can not imagine a world without pc, and within a couple of years, without a virtual world....

The curtain is falling....

As explained in my previous post also, many residents are confused by the latest Terms of Service by LL.
As Tateru Nino wrote in his blog : "....The Terms of Service change in that context gives the impression of being a veiled threat. It's more than that, though -- it commands you to give up your rights to nominative fair use where that use conflicts with Linden Lab's laundry list of legalese. Or else. This pulls the matter right out of the arena of trademark law, and back into contractual law, with enforcement by the governance team...."

To me, it looks quite clear, we all must object to that ToS, although you have probably agreed by signing in after monday, when the new ToS was integrated.

Some organisations already decided not to go on, under the current conditions.
Second Life ballet is one of them. The ballet, which is very well known by now, has been promoting SL since the beginning, is a non-profit organisation, and even had the occasional participation of Linden Labs employees.
The two leading people of the ballet, Espresso and Inarra Saarinen, decided for legal reasons that they cannot agree to the new Terms of Service for Second Life, and so will not log into the virtual world. That means no performances of the Second Life ballet for the moment.
You can read the full article on "Second Life Herald"

Other blogs, as the "Second Life Crew", a Belgian blog, is urgently looking for a new name. Any suggestions are welcome.;)

That is the result when you have lawyers, who are to decide the strategy, instead of marketeers.

"Clearly, the company needs better operational management. Clearly, the company needs experienced, professional management to make it run smoothly on all fronts, tactically and strategically. Clearly the company needs better systems to ensure stability and reliability of the Grid, a better resident experience, and improved development and deployment of server and client software."Arifi Saeed wrote in his latest blogpost, which was written before the trademark affair, and was in fact an article in which way Second Life can move with a new CEO, but is an interesting post to read, especially in these circumstances.;)

Clear your inventory items at work!

A month ago I posted an article about Ajaxlife, the web based viewer for Second Life. Back then there was the release 01.1, and I promised to keep an eye on it, which I have done.
Katharine now introduces Ajaxlife 0.3.0 with some remarkable new features.
Are you bored at your work, you don't really know how to make yourself useful? Now you can delete items from your inventory, clear your trash, rename items without logging in to Second Life. You can see some screenshots here.
Please don't tell your boss that I told you to clear your Second Life crap from behind your desk.;)
If you still want to check it out, you can do it here.
More and more it seems that this web based viewer can become valuable to some of us, as we sometimes have some moments that we have nothing to do (not me!!) and can use this time to check out and have our inventory up to date, without the need of downloading the Second Life viewer, when your not at home, and don't have Second Life installed on the PC you are working on.

About things....in Second life

You have probably noticed…my articles are not as frequently as they used to be. Well, the reason for that is that I am more active in RL lately, and I don’t find the time to go through all the different blogs to find interesting stuff to write about.

What I have been reading lately are more romantic related articles on different blogs, and although those articles are mostly personal, sometimes you will find some true stories about feelings in Second Life. On the other hand, you can read articles about new words, new meanings, like “polyamory”. It is ofcourse always interesting to find out about new directions, new terrains, where we did not even know about.
Well, we did already know, that for every action we do, new words are coming with it. Read all about it on Cyndy Kesey’s blog.

Some of us are or were going through difficult times in SL relationships, and found it necessary to tell the whole world about their feelings and experiences, but when all good things come to an end, those feelings remain on the internet. They are only aware of this after a while, but then realize that they had perhaps better not wrote these articles on their blog.

It is always risky to write on your blog like you would do in a diary. The diary remains secret, as long as you want to, the blog…..is public domain, and will remain on the net for always, even if you delete your blog, as pieces will always stay somewhere between this byte and the other.

Finally, Zippora wrote an article , related to all the above ones, but being rational, although realizing that she is walking on the edge, but still knowing that RL is more important and SL is more living in our brains and minds.
As long as you don’t loose that perspective, there is nothing wrong, I think.

What is frightened is a story, which I missed on television, about a mother of four, married, living in the States, being for 18 hours a day on the grid, and now leaving her husband and kids, for her virtual love in the UK. I did not see the program, but can only imagine how the husband , and certainly the children, must feel.
But as we already know, only the bad things are worth a program on television, that is why I deliberately missed it.

I apologize for this article, as it is again about romantic stuff in SL, and everybody is writing about these things already, but I still am intrigued by reading which different experiences we all have in the virtual world, and which conclusions we are about to take.

I always try to give an objective look on the different subjects on this blog, but will keep the really personal things to myself, besides experiences or events of course, as I believe it does not belong here on my blog.

My friends in SL are able to read sometimes between the lines, which I think is more than enough…;))

Will Second Life change?

Is Second Life changing? Do we have to fear for our cozy situation? Or is it for the best?Are we now going to see the real progress in virtual world?

All these questions can be asked after the step down of CEO Philip Rosedale. Linden Lab will now look for a new CEO with more operational and management expertise. And I think it is all for the best being of Second Life. It will come out much stronger and more functional with a new CEO. Not that Philip did a bad job, not at all…..but it is a normal step for a founder of a company like SL to step down at a certain point, taking over the chairmanship of the Linden board, and leave the daily work to more operations-focused craftsmen.

We have seen it coming, didn’t we? After Cory Ondrejka left the company, we all knew something was happening. The step down of Philip Rosedale as CEO is typical for technology start-ups and the search can begin for a more operations-focused CEO.

Philip Linden will not leave the company, let that be clear. He will be full-time on Second Life working on product development and strategy.

As I already wrote in previous articles, 2008 is becoming very, very important to Second Life. Things are changing, decisions are being made, and the search for a new CEO has begun.
It will not be easy to find a replacement for Philip.

“Legally, the board hires and fires CEOs,” Mitch Kapor, former chairman of the board, said in an interview to Reuters “Process-wise, this is going to have be someone Philip is incredibly enthusiastic about".

Second Life will never be the same again, but it is too early to say in which direction it will go, as the competition is also very much alive. But after we have seen what happened to the virtual world in 2007, I must admit that this step down, does not necessarily means that Second Life is going down the drain, on the contrary, it can and will come out stronger than before, as long as they find in time the right CEO.

The artist's shit

I have been asked to write for a new upcoming SL magazine, and was thinking about what I should write. It is obvious that my interest is not really in scripting, building but more in Art. Art related in SL, whether this is RL Art or SL Art, whether this is Art or not.
There was lately a lot of fuzz going on about the term SL Art, but this is not the place, nor the time to discuss this issue. I would rather talk about whether and where Art is to be found inworld.
My friend Raul Crimson, wrote an interesting piece about art, and if we can say that art exists in SL.
He took a really good example out of RL, “Merda d’Artista”, with other words, the Artist’s shit. Not that I would buy such art, but that is not to the point.

1/ “In May 1961, Manzoni collected his own feces in 90 numbered cans, which contain 30 grams of feces each. He labeled them as '100% pure artist's shit' in Italian, English, French, and German, and sold them for the price of their weight in gold. Their current estimated value stands at approximately EUR30,500 (US$25,000–35,000). On May 23 2007, an exemplar has been sold for EUR124,000 at Sotheby's.^{[1]” (from wikipedia)}

Another example:

2/ “The readymades of Marcel Duchamp are ordinary manufactured objects that he selected and modified, as an antidote to what he called "retinal art". By simply choosing the object (or objects) and repositioning or joining, and titling and signing it, the object became art. It was the the least amount of interaction between artist and art, the most extreme form of minimalism, and at least in abstract idealism, the precursor to punk. (from wikipedia)

So, the real questions are, does art exists in SL and, are there artists in SL?
I think the answers to these questions are more a personal answer than a general, common well thought answer by any writer of an article. I think you can say that if Art sells, it is supposed to be art, and the person who made it is an artist.
I have seen a lot of things in SL, that is called art, but is nothing more than a picture with a beautiful background. I have seen photographs, which are wonderful photoshopped into a piece of art, which is not even called art.
Are people, who have the skills of post processing artists, and other are not?
I think those people will have an advantage to make some beautiful works, and will have more chances that their post processing is called art. But I am convinced, that people, who does not have those skills, can also be artists.
I also think that contests of SL are not relative to call what is art and what not.
Art is something that you make of it. When you think a piece is beautiful enough to put in your living room, and you would pay money for that, if it is RL or SL, that would be art.
Don’t ask me for a definition of art, you can do so much better. You, the avatar, the person, can define art much better than anybody else, as art is what you see as art.

But, that is ofcourse, just my two pence.

There are definitely artists in Sl, and there is certainly art in SL…..

And that is where my articles in that magazine would be about.

SL Educators have a new resource!

Okay, it might not be the latest news, but interesting enough to mention it here.
There is now a SLED blog for Second Life Educators. It seems that this community has grown over 4.700 members.
The blog, announced on the official blog, will feature and highlight EDU-oriented events, tools, bright ideas, awesome groups and locations, expert opinions, pointers to tutorials and papers, and insider views on life in Teen Second Life.
The Lindens have asked a RL university instructor to edit the blog, so we can expect some high educational information to be posted.
The first article I stumbled upon was about a bright idea, coming out of the new feature of the SL candidate viewer.
Torley made a video tutorial about how to play movies, webpages and more. Watch it here.
Now, you would also have the ability to view multiple images without having to pay for and upload each image. This would give us more capabilities for showing our images, without having to pay 10L$ for every single picture that we need to upload, but with the only exception that you would show them in a presentation, which would be nice and money saving for students, teachers etc. for showing reports or so. You can read it here.
But the good thing is, that we constantly see progress in the development of our precious Second Life

Back on track

One week, one whole week did it get me...... I did not know that it could take so long. And still I am not 100%, but enough is enough, I will not give in on it, it has to go away now. Yes, I had the flu over these past days. And when I thought it was over, the next morning it started all over again. I hope now that the worst is over and that I can move on again.
I noticed that several of my colleague bloggers have visited my first exhibition, and not only that, they told about it even on their blogs! Great! Thank you Winter, Tym and Joonie!
And now I know how reporters are. They ask you for an interview, they ask you for pictures, and what gets to be published....not much, and a sentence that is totally out of its context. But....I am in it, in the newest edition of "The Avastar"nr.64.


So, really, I don't have much to tell you, as I did not do any research for a couple of days, but I sure hope that I can be back in business from now on.

Dinosaurs extincted in Second Life

I was witness of a great spectacle on the Liberty Sim last Thursday!
The Dino's were going to be extincted, and was announced in all Rezzable media. So, I had to be there, but there was a small problem...I could not get there.
I visited instead the Toxic Garden, which is a great place, but did not really visited it yet, because there was something bigger going on at the moment.

Once out in the garden, I tried to move my camera over the trees to the neighbor sim, where the dinosaurs had a wonderful life, until now. They had to be eliminated in a way: meteor showers, acid rain a colored space mothership crashing between the skeletons.
Nothing seen something like it in Second Life before.


It was great to experience that my camera could go as far as that sim. I could even make close ups of the avatars who were watching the event from the different stake outs.
Unfortunately I arrived a little bit late, and before I realized what was going on, and set up my camera for all those different things, although it was repeated several times, the show was over.
It was not easy to move the camera as I wanted, not everything was rezzed in time to take the shots, but I managed to make some wonderful memorable pictures from an already milestone in the history of Second Life.
More of my pictures can be seen on the flickr stream or also on the Rezzable flickr stream.

Education in Second Life.

I was talking to my friend, Dan Yapungku, the professor, yesterday and asking him how the presentation of Second Life went in his class a week ago.
Apart for having the well known SL issue’s, just when it does not is suppose to happen, and when everything was checked in front, it was okay, he said.
It seems that everyone was thinking (is thinking) that Second Life is a too much invest of time for being interesting. I acknowledged it by saying that we are spending too much time on Second Life, but that I was very happy by the things I have learned through the past year.
So, he said, it was no waste of time, but worth the investment.
He even suggested teaching mine and his wife, to have more comprehension about our “waste of time” in Second Life.;)

There are several universities all over the world present in SL, and even teaching in SL, so do you really think it is a waste of time?
From a study in Holland, it is even proofed that virtual surroundings can be a valuable
supplement on education. They continue to experiment with this project, by giving the teachers guidelines how to implement the presence of a virtual world into their educational program.

Again, we see a perfect adaptation of the technical progress in our society, being implemented in our daily life.

From one side we see companies having the virtual world as a medium for their employees, having meetings inworld etc..., and from the other side we see universities teaching students through the virtual environment.

What do you think, is being present, playing around in Second Life useful to you or is it a waste of time? Do you improve your skills of building, scripting or something else?

Are you happy with your second life? Or is it the same old crap as in RL?

What is your opinion about the virtual world?

Looker Lumet's first experiences in SL

For over a year I am on the grid now, and was looking back to the first experiences, how I felt that time, when I logged in.

I remember reading an article in the newspaper about Second Life, and thought that it would be interesting to see with my own eyes what you could do in a virtual environment. As I am never too old to learn, I was convinced that this Second Life, could be something more than just a game, because gaming is not directly my thing.
I still remember logging in on a spot, not at all like it is now, but it was something like a hill. I looked around, figuring out what to do next. I saw some other avatars doing exactly the same, although I could not know whether they all were newbies too.
In the bar, below on my screen, I saw a button “Fly”, and I had to try that out, because the place was getting a bit overpopulated. I flew over that hill, flying further away, finding it a tremendous experience, until I could not fly any further. I was clicking my arrows, but my avatar did not move at all, and then……..yes indeed……I crashed. That was the first time that I logged in, and could not realize at that time, that the future would be exactly the same.;))
The second time I logged in, right behind the first one, I entered a different place, an orientation island, a place where a lot of people were moving, and I remember meeting a German woman, who was telling me pieces of what I could do on the grid. Unfortunately, in the middle of our conversation, she was tp’d by a friend, and she left. And there I was, all by myself, missed the introduction of Second Life, nobody to help me, as I knew nobody and remembered a blog, where there was a URL mentioned.The URL was a Belgian place ,where some avatars gathered once and a while and talked about all good and bad things on SL. It was on that spot that I was told about all the beautiful things you could do in SL, and how to do it. There were two female avatars who helped me coming through my first days, Tzeetje Grot and Deidre Flamand, the owner of the place. I still have them both in my friend list, and see them coming on line, from time to time. But more than “Hello” is not being said anymore, unfortunately.
After some days I discovered the “Humo Park”, a place created by a Belgian magazine “Humo”, and this place would become my spot to log in and out every day for a long time, as there was always someone to talk too. That was also the beginning of the group “Doornroosje”, where most of the members were visitors of the “Humo Park”.
The story about “Doornroosje” is already known, through some previous articles posted here in the past.
From being a member of “Doornroosje”, I was introduced to another Belgian, Coolz0r Courier, and I could not know by then, that he would become very important to me in the near future.
I was used to go camping for my first Lindens, and did that right after work, or during the weekends.
One day, I was with Coolz0r, owner of the Strawberry beach, and Flok, and by meaning of a little game and some joking, he gave me my first “big” Lindens. To him it were probably just a few Lindens, to me it was if I was suddenly rich. He never knew that those Lindens were really my first steps to a more comfortable life on SL. I could participate in sploder games and increase my savings. I never would have to camp anymore, w00t!!
Coolz0r changed his beach to another SIM, and that is also where my home is now located for more than 6 months.
From the friends at “Doornroosje”, only a few are left, and we see each other from time to time.
Where, at that time, I was more in contact with Belgian friends, my relationships are now more international orientated, and that is also why I started a blog in the English language, back in May. And I never regretted that…;)
The most peculiar thing that has happened to me in SL, is that I met Freggeltje Food for the first time on that Belgian place, which I mentioned I this article. She instantly offered her friendship, which I accepted. We only met once, that must have been in February or March 2007, until last August, where she asked me to do a photoshoot.

And from that time……well, that is a whole different story…;))