Milia 2007 - Second Life developments
April 25, 2007
Gary Hazlitt has posted on his blog some vignettes from his attendance at Mip TV / Milia 2007.
Gary’s posting contains some interesting insights on marketing in SL and future developments including some fascinating statements made by Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Second Nature, or The Jean-Claude Bradley Center for Open Notebook Science!
April 24, 2007
On the island Second Nature there is a science build called the Jean-Claude Bradley Center for Open Notebook Science, which is linked with Drexel University.
Dr Jean-Claude Bradley is a chemistry professor and coordinator of e-learning for the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University. Along with his highly skilled team (check out the credits sign next to the main door for a full listing), they have built a main island with two smaller bridge-linked ones and a gazebo over water that aims to provide visitors with information bays on chemistry, microbiology, the human genome and a number of other scientific areas.
The displays are interactive and 3D model based. Along with poster board displays, links to websites and notecard grabs covering exhibit models and processes, visitors can engage with the content of the displays in a way not often experienced in a classroom. My favourite in this regard was the Eukaryotic cell, created by SL resident Max Chatnoir, a teacher of genetics at a small private university in Texas.
Visitors can enter this cell and be treated to a feast of Mitochondria, Centrioles, Endoplasmic Reticulum and Lysosomes that surround and float past you. As Max said, “I love that cell. It’s sort of restful just to stand in there with the ATP…”
To find out what ATP actually is, like me you will have to visit and enter the cell.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Virtual drug use - a way to minimise harm?
April 23, 2007
The Drug Policy Alliance have posted an interested article on the role of virtual worlds like SL and drug use experimentation. Essentially, work is being done so that individuals can ‘experience’ a substance prior to taking it in real life. As the blog post mentions, how do you re-create the physiological and psychological effects of taking a substance? You don’t.
So although there may be some educational benefits, there’s also the risk of a substance’s effects being massively underestimated based on a virtual experience.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Light at the end of the tunnel for lag?
April 23, 2007
There are growing reports of Linden Labs opening up their servers to open source. New blog ‘LA 2nd Life’ run by Australian, DanteJones Laszlo, outlines nicely the upsides of non-Linden Labs owned servers.
Whether open sourcing solves some of the greater underlying architectural issues is debatable, at least in the short term. Aside from lag, the deal breaker for a lot of SL users is the inablity to have more than around 100 people on any one sim at one time. Solve that and SL will truly come into its own.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Hope Capital - the debate continues
April 22, 2007
Cyberland CEO Shaun Altman has responded in detail to some claims made by Hope Capital CEO LukeConnell Vandeverre during our interview on Friday evening.
Additionally, World Stock Exchange non-executive director, IntLibber Brautigan has waded into the debate backing the Hope Capital CEO and calling into question Altman’s motives and alleged the involvement of Anshe Chung.
SLOz has placed an enquiry via Anshe Chung’s website asking for confirmation of any shareholdings in regard to Hope Capital.
Our objective in covering this story is transparency given the centrality of stock exchanges in the financial life of any world. Virtual money or not, financial security in SL is worthy of ongoing scrutiny. We take no position on the character or motives of anyone, we just report events that occur.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Aussie population update - 8000 on the horizon
April 21, 2007
Meta Linden has provided an update on SL metrics. In the past month, Australia has had significant growth to 2.43% of the overall SL population:
1. As at 31st March there were 3,177,434 unique residents (up half a million on the previous month)
2. Ten percent of that is 317,743. (the ten percent rule is the rough guide on active users)
3. 2.43% of THAT is 7721.
As we stated last month, we expected the Telstra and ABC launches to have increased the aussie population significantly and that’s indeed occurred with a jump from 1.48% to 2.43%. The figure of 7721 is probably a little optimistic but the trend for Australians in SL is certainly one of growth. Our prediction for next month is continued growth but at a reduced rate as the BigPond influx gets well past its peak.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Aussie SL documentary on SBS
April 21, 2007
We’ve just found out that Aussie film-maker Shelley Matulick has made a documentary on a Melbourne-based couple living and loving in SL and it’s screening this evening on SBS TV at 7.30pm.
Popularity: 11% [?]
