"What? Another one??"
Just a quickie to let you know that I'm taking a week away from the Garden of Virtual Earthly Delights, and plunging back into RL 24/7. Mrs K and I are off on our travels, pottering around Mittel Europe this time. If you're in Cesky Krumlov over the coming weekend, look us up!
Otherwise back inworld in about a week.
Maybe it's the lure of the exotic East, but I am keen to explore the work being done in Asia on Second Life. If you are a regular reader you will know that I have reported in the past on a number of Japanese builds. So I make no excuses for ripping off this news report in its entirety from Daily Yomiuri Online, from 23rd July:
The efforts by Japanese firms to make their presence felt in the virtual world of the online game "Second Life" is expected to accelerate following the release of the Japanese version of the software on July 13.
Mitsukoshi, Ltd. established its virtual outlet in "Second Life" at 10 a.m. Thursday, becoming the first Japanese department store to do so. The outlet features the Echigo-ya Gofukuten kimono shop, the forerunner of Mitsukoshi, which was established in 1673. A robot clerk welcomes visitors. No items are sold in the virtual store, but traditional Japanese costumes such as happi coats, hats made from bamboo and paper fans are distributed for free to players. Mitsukoshi hopes for 120,000 visitors in the first year.
The company hopes the move online will enhance its brand, and encourage users to visit Mitsukoshi's regular Internet store. It believes its presence on "Second Life" could generate as much as 40 million yen in additional sales. A company spokesman said: "By boosting our contact with customers, we're looking forward to steering visitors toward our actual department stores as well as the shopping Web site."
The travel firm H.I.S. Co. provides a service allowing avatars to move instantly to various interesting locations in "Second Life" with one touch of a panel. The company also directs users to their travel booking Web site.
Keiji Mitsubuchi, a professor at the Graduate School of Digital Content that specializes on preparing students for careers in information technology, said, "Companies can earn a reputation for being strong in Internet services by appearing in 'Second Life.'"
TV stations that were once reluctant to utilize the Internet due to copyright concerns, have also begun entering the virtual world. Fuji TV has introduced nine characters in "Second Life" resembling real life teen idols who appear on one of its TV shows. The company hopes users will become more familiar with the program by staging events in the virtual world, such as the idols meeting fans and signing autographs.
TV Tokyo is hosting a summer festival in "Second Life" until Aug. 31. It created a townscape resembling a Japanese city from the 1950s and '60s, and will hold a fireworks display and Bon festival dance event.
Linden Lab began distributing the Japanese version of the game on July 13, with instructions displayed in Japanese. According to the company, there are 490,000 heavy users of the software globally as of June, who play the game for more than an hour each month. The number of heavy Japanese users are estimated at about 27,000, with the number rising from ninth overall by nationality in May to sixth in June. The number is expected to rise further in the future.
According to an estimate by Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd., there will likely be 50 million users of "Second Life" worldwide by the end of 2007, rising to 240 million by the end of 2008. The value of the virtual market is expected to grow from 135 billion yen in 2007 to 1.25 trillion yen in 2008, the company says.
However, Linden Lab. says the number of heavy users overall fell 2.5 percent in June from May.
Masayoshi Sakai, a visiting associate professor at Waseda University Graduate School, warns there are limits to the benefits companies can expect to reap with a "Second Life" presence. "There are many companies that can't accumulate visitors in 'Second Life,' so companies need to offer something that visitors can only experience in the virtual world," he said. "Otherwise there's no guarantee the companies will get the benefits they're hoping for."
I think the 50 million is a tad optimistic!
A few days back I posted an entry about Second Life being used as a visualisation and learning tool by DeSalles University, who have made a simulation of Dante's Inferno, replete with teacher and student notes. On a similar theme, I received an IM today from Lem Skall suggesting I check out U21 Global Campus. Ironically, this sim is right next door to the ne that houses my own little plot, New Alville, yet I had never sauntered across for a look, despite taking many long hikes around SL in search of something interesting.
But before looking at the sim, here's a bit of background: U21 Global is a joint venture between Universitas 21 (an international network of leading research-intensive universities) and Thomson Learning (a renowned information and software solutions provider).
Headquartered in Singapore, they deliver a range of management courses through elearning over the internet. They offer an MBA programme that has been awarded the prestigious European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) accreditation for teChnology-Enhanced Learning (CEL) - or so it tells me on the website - along with a number of other management-oriented courses. Given this background, their interest in Second Life comes as no surprise.
The sim, built by Luna Bliss, is still under construction but looks like it only needs a few bits and bobs before it is completed. Most of the island is taken up with their Metaphorical Garden, which can be explored on foot, or via an automated guided tour. I opted for the latter. I have to say that the hippy-dippy guide to educational method was lost on me - but you might get more from it. Here's a slice from the first of many, many notecards:
"Whenever we learn a psychological process occurs as we absorb new knowledge - a series of phases takes place. For example, there is the phase when learning something new is exciting, and there is a phase when we need to let go of old knowledge and embrace the new. There is also the case where we may have to combine new information with the 'old' to create new knowledge. The gardens on this island are designed to mirror these phases of learning, using metaphors of nature to reflect them (for example, the new knowledge phase is spring, and the letting go or the re-creation of old knowledge makes way for the eruption of new knowledge and is symbolized by a volcano). Constructivist learning (the way U21Global teaches) accesses these processes at a deep level and encourages the student of learning to be free to create their own meaning and knowledge, as opposed to the spoon-fed multiple-choice tests so common in many schools."
Luna has made extensive use of flowing texture scripts and particles to impart some movement and activity to the island. Here are some pictures that hopefully give you an idea:
There's something faintly reminiscent of the classic Svarga sim here, though that may only be due to the guided tour.
As well as the features shown here, there is an Information Area that is still waiting for completion, downloadable podcasts and other information resources, and a number of seating areas. There is a lot happening here, and a lot of neat scripting, but I left feeling a bit disappointed - though I can't quite figure out why. I suspect it is the look and feel, which seemed a tad too vivid for my tastes. Anyway, why not pop along and let me have your views?
You may recall that not so long ago I told you about the Princeton sim. Although it is not yet officially open, today it played host to an Interactive Art thingy (their words, not mine - though they could easily have been mine) - an audiovisual, immersive thingy by artist Douglas Story with soundscape by AldoManutio Abruzzo (with scripting by Desdemona Enfield). The work, entitled "Flowerball" is... well... ummm... it's... err... well, it's... a ball... yeah... containing flowers... kind of.
Probably best if I show you first, eh? You start off at this floating plinth, which displays the artworks you will get to know rather more intimately when you visit the Flowerball itself. Follow the instructions to rez a seat that will fly you down to the installation itself.
You start this part of your trip in what I will describe as a large ear-trumpet. Once you've found your way to the outside (it is sign-posted) you then fly across to the Flowerball itself.
Inside the Flowerball you get to fly about in this bizarre, constantly changing, flowerscape. Make sure you follow the audio setup instructions to get the full brain-melt effect:
And that's it really (or it was for me - due to a problem with the chair scripting we could not get back by "public transport" and had to resort to Hobson's Choice).
I scouted out the rest of the area and came across this building. Speaking with the charming Persis Trilling, I now understand that this is the new information centre, where all manner of RSS feeds, podcasts and vodcasts (sounds like a Russian space mission to me) will be made available. The architect is the ever-reliable Scope Cleaver.
Ah.. but what of the Art Installation thingy? Here's some salient quotes from the accompanying notecard:
The inspiration for FlowerBall came from the feeling that accompanies the best examples of my close-up floral photos: that of being inside the inner chamber of the flower. My first thought was to construct gigantic blossoms in Second Life, but I quickly found that my building skills were nowhere near being equal to the task. I then thought of my avatar sinking through layer upon layer composed of a series of concentric spheres, with the images changing on contact with each layer.
When I first spoke with Aldo about the music (he prefers the term ‘soundscape’) for this project, and told him there would be five layers in the ball, he started talking about pentatonic scales and John Cage. I didn’t understand much of what he said after that, but understood that “penta” has something to do with the number “five.” I also got that the result would be pretty cool….and that part was certainly right.
Apologies for leaving out stuff about the scripting - but apparently it's all clever stuff. If you really need to know, then get yourself down there and find out!
After my diverting trip to see Dante's Inferno I was at a bit of a loss for ideas on where to go in Second Life. Having missed the Things To Do (henceforth: T2D) group trip to the Q sim, I had a look at the map for the area and settled on the promisingly named "Future" sim.
It is really impossible for me to describe this place. There are stranged buildings and pipeways all over the sim, at all altitudes. I could find no useful information (not that I really tried all that hard) and found the entire place somewhat disorienting... kinda like The Future, then! Perhaps if you are in that neck of the woods you might want to pop in and figure out what the heck it's all about. Anyway, I grabbed a few photos and moved on.
I was thinking of writing up something about the new KPN presence in Second Life, following up on the original post from ace scooper, VeeJay Burns, over at the Mindblizzard blog. However, no sooner had I arrived than I received an invitation to try out the Jello & Caffeinated Hot Tub experience.
I hotfooted it back to New Alville, my little place under the virtual Sun, and met up with a good friend, turned Jello enthusiast. After initial pleasantries, said friend gave me a lemon jello avatar, and then the surrealism started....
I have to say, my caffeinated hot tub does indeed acquire an extra something from the presence of fruit-laden jello! However, it is - as with so much else in (Second) Life - something to be practised in moderation.
Picking up on a couple of other posts, I thought I ought to have a look at the model of Dante's Inferno that has been constructed on the NMC 5 sim, part of the New Media Consortium. Besides, it's a while since I've been there so I wanted to see how the old place was getting on - the NMC, that is, not the Inferno.
As you would expect for a sim here, the purpose of the build is education. In fact there are large numbers of notecards to be picked up, providing a great deal of information about the Circles of Hell, but I won't bombard you with anything more than a few salient facts. Thinks: "there's probably a circle of Hell for bloggers who don't tell all the facts."
Here, then, is the most pertinent information concerning the build, gleaned from the first notecard I picked up. Students at DeSales University are reading Gloria Naylor's novel Linden Hills. The novel is based off the premise of Dante's Inferno, and, in the past, it has been difficult to teach the parallel structure because students are not familiar with the Inferno. Second Life offers the opportunity to build the inferno AND Linden Hills, and, as a result, helps students see the structure.
The build has been carried out by Eloise Pasteur (Eloise Pasteur Educational Designs). It takes you down through the various circles, each dedicated to a different kind of sinner. Teacher's notes are available as you go along. Students are encouraged to make their own suggestions, so dotted around each circle you will see some familiar faces. Each one will give you a notecard telling you who elected to place them there, and why. This has led to some amusing juxtapositions. For example, Jessica Simpson is in the same circle of Hell as Kim Jong-Il. At the deepest most evil level, the final destination for the treacherous, you will find Lindsay Lohan rubbing shoulders with Hitler and Stalin.
Linden Hills is not a book I know - or am ever likely to read, I suspect. But it does have a chunk of sim dedicated to it, which seems to comprise a small number of modern American houses. The main feature of note for me though is the dive-in dumpster. To quote its notecard: An innovative idea for a freebie giver or a camping tool. Go dumpster diving and invite your friends! Realistic trash diving animation included.
It is an interesting idea for a sim, with a great deal of information and a fair degree of interaction. But if you find the whole idea of going into Second Life a bit of a chore, you can always get information from the related website.
I had the curiously unpleasant experience of visiting Perfect Island today. The site, as you may gather from the pictures below, exists to promote the perfectSL HUD (heads Up Display), and ties in with this website.
Part of the island appears to have been hived off for private use, but the rest consists of a number of dancing and relaxation zones - perhaps intended as a good place to try out the HUD. My "unpleasantness" came in the form of the volcano, situated in the centre of the island. Now, OK... I suspect there was something I was supposed to pick up first, but I was cordially invited to drop in to the volcano to see what happened. In the event it seemed to behave like a giant trampoline - I bounced up and out and above the volcano, getting higher each time, until I seem to be summarily ejected, without reason, to the neighbouring sim. A subsequent return to the sim was even less fruitful, as I was catapulted to some ridiculous height. Being neither impressed nor that bothered, I simply TP'd home. I was thinking of not blogging it, but then thought "what the hell."
I did retrieve a notecard, that gave me the following info about the HUD:
The PerfectSL HUD contains a wealth of functions to help you in every aspect of your Second Life. Plus it is FREE!
It's a shame you missed this - I was exhausted after dancing for hours (well OK, more like 1 hour - but then I'm ancient) at my Swiss friend MeL Cromulent's new dance club, iDanze, last weekend. Unfortunately, MeL has only just been able to send me the information about it. I suppose that's what comes of spending 28 hours dancing. But hopefully you can avail yourself of the facilities for all your frug-a-go-go needs.
Interesting for me - as a bit of a propellerhead and (so Tish tells me) "spimewrangler" - the club was able to handle over 35 people concurrently, even though it is on a mainland sim. In fact, across the whole launch party they accommodated 300 people. MeL and her partner in this venture, Norgan Torok (who also provides some of the dj'ing), took a professional approach to the launch, and actually carried out 2 pre-launch events to iron out any problems. One of these hosted 25 guests - not a bad load test.
To get the flavour, here's a few pictures.
MeL is on the right in the bottom-right picture.
Here's the actual launch information (albeit a bit late now):
In the land called Craggen [Maw], on old nuclear power station sat idle, its fuel rods burning away with nothing to power. Then along came iDanze, who found this power station and saw the potential to harness it's energy. We are proud to announce 12 DJ's spinning live for 28 hours in this refurbished power plant! This unique club is not to be missed and 28 hours live may just be a new sl record, come and help us set it! Breakbeat/Techno/Electronica by SL's best!
iDanze opening party
friday 13th July (PDT)
6pm - 8pm - STEED Schlesinger
8pm-10pm - 2ndthoughts
10pm - 12pm - mOx Hax
Saturday 14th July
midnight-3am - Infiner Morigi
3am - 6am - Konstrikt Boa
6am - 8am - Norgan Torok
8am - 10am - Doubledown Tandino (Baltimore)
10am - midday - Redrum
midday - 3pm - Frax Dae
3pm - 5pm - Compute Oh 5
pm - 6pm - Yuzienborn Janus
6-8pm - Altern8 McMillan
8pm - 10pm - Iionic
MeL kindly supplied the pictures as mine, quite frankly, were a bit crap.
BTW - I still have no idea what the heck a "spimewrangler" is. I just hope it's nice.
While many of the Things To Do group go off to explore the fascinations of Rezzable Greenies (which sounds like something you might find in a handkerchief) I have been squandering my time rummaging around yet another Japanese sim: Sonicmart, belonging to a company of the same name who sell DVDs and CDs online.
Most of the island is given over to the Manatee Beach Resort - a collection of rather plain 1-room beach-houses. However, dominating the island is the Wowow movie building. It is not exactly a cinema. Rather it is a building in 2 parts: the left-side is described as a "screening building", while the right-side is a "museum." However, the screening building, despite having a number of large screens, can only accommodate a small number of viewers. The "museum" on the other hand has a a number of smaller screening rooms - each with a number of seats. Most confusing - particularly as there is little sign of an actual museum.
Wowow looks to be another online DVD supplier - though my Japanese is probably letting me down - and they appear to be promoting an anime movie: Shiguri. By the look of it, an epic tale of blood, guts and big swords. Around the walls you can read brief outlines of the movie's main characters, and see sketches used in devising the storyboards. You can also pick up a free pair of nihon to - Japanese swords. There is supposed to be a freebie T-shirt too... but I could not get it to hand over the goods. A shame as I think it looks cool.
The movie (or Episode 1 to be more precise) is not showing yet - but there is a notice to say that screenings will start on Thursday, July 19th.
As for the actual buildings, they are plain and mundane, the textures lack any 3D feel and the site feels unconvincing - too "flat" to be realistic. But I will be back to see the movie - and hopefully grab a T-shirt!
Although it has been around for some time, I have come across surprisingly few virtual world blog references to the excellent Squawk utility., so I thought I should do my bit to rectify this situation.
In common with many SL'ers - and particularly SL bloggers - I find twitter an excellent tool for keeping in contact with people, picking up all manner of useful and/or amusing references. Twitter,a micro-blog in which you answer the question "What are you doing now?" in 140characters or less, been through a tough patch recently. A victim of its own success, it suffered a series of performance and availability issues as it struggled to cope with rapdily increasing volumes of messages. During this period a number of twitterers decamped to Jaiku, which offers similar capabilities. Latterly it has stabilised and many (including myself) have returned to the simple, basic interface of twitter.
Both of these tools have published interfaces, through which they have been integrated (mashed) with many other social network products. For example, I can track and update twitter from my Facebook account.
And this is where Squawk comes in. It delivers integration between these tools and that ultimate in social, collaborative network products - Second Life.
In Second Life, Squawk is represented as a bracelet object, worn on the left wrist (be default). Configuration is simply a matter of editing a builtin notecard, setting the relevant login parameters for Twitter, Jaiku and other similar tools. By default it uses chat channel 42, though again this can be overridden through the configuration notecard. You can also opt to include your location with your messages - though be aware that as this is displayed as part of your message, you need to keep any text fairly brief.
The basic Squawk is free... which will be a big attraction to the cost-conscious avatar. But you can opt to upgrade it, for a donation of 200L$, so that it displays tweets for people you are following. Download locations can be obtained from the Squawknest website.
My friend TerryAnn Antonelli has been making extensive use of Squawk for a while now. She usually sends out a squawk whenever she visits somewhere interesting in SL, and that, in turn, lets me build up a list of potential sites to visit by following her progress on Twitter.
As an RL/SL social networking tool, I would strongly recommend you give it a whirl.
I would like to thank my friends TerryAnn Antonelli and Deeeeep Witte for finally making me see the light.
If you want to track development of the product, you can do so through this blog. While you can view my twitter profile here.
UPDATE: Lisa Rein ponders: "I have no idea if squawk thing works yet. Trying to get to it! Seems to be working for others though." It works a treat for me! However the Squawknest website does seem a bit problematic. If you can't get a refererence there, try SL Exchange or follow this SLURL.
We've witnessed the arrival of a number of banks and financial institutions in Second Life, plus the departure of one - Wells Fargo having decamped to Active Worlds. At the tail-end of last year it was Dutch banks, but the last 3 months has seen the arrival of the French banks. I've been a bit slow off the mark picking up on this one - Credit Agricole.
Credit Agricole (please excuse the absence of accents!) is the largest banking group in France, and second largest in Europe, so their arrival in Second Life is hardly insignificant. As far as I can tell, they've been here since April 2007, but latterly they have expanded their presence, which now stands at 5 sims. As is usually the case with me, I stumbled upon the build by accident and went to have a look.
The main sim has 3 principal features:
I received an invitation last night from my chum Joshua Culdesac, of Virtuool, to come and have a quick look at their latest build. On arrival I struggled to find Joshua for a while, until I noticed a small bespectacled mouse waving a placard in my general direction.
Normally Joshua sports a dapper (and distinctly unthreatening) wolfman avatar. With the niceties sorted out, and the arrival of Joshua's business partner, the hubbahubbalicious Piper Pitney, we fell to talking about the site they have constructed. Situated on the Francophone Europe sim, the French charity La Ligue Contre Le Cancer have a small 4096sq mtr parcel of land.
The whole site makes strong use of the charity's "brand colours" of orange and blue. As usual with Virtuool builds it crams a lot of clever ideas into its petite space. For example, the walkways have invisible walls - briefly visible if you bump into them - that serve to prevent the n00b or the careless from walking off the side of the path. The level of information is high and the donation flower and yacht make amusing diversions.
We spoke about the plans for the site. Virtuool have been contracted by a marketing agency (un-named) to build the site, and have had liitle (if any) involvement in planning how it should be promoted and utilised. This is unfortunate, since they have a lot of knowledge and ideas about the use of Second Life, whereas the agency has no experience in SL at all. This does not sound like a recipe for success, but time will tell. Hopefully the agency and/or charity will make use of Virtuool - or acquire other Second Life marketing and promotions expertise - to advise them on how to exploit this presence.
After a quick sail, we were joined by Tara5 Oh, Eolus McMillan and Alanagh Recreant for a fascinating discussion about fund-raising for Alanagh's charity in South Africa. This allowed us to test the meeting zone in "discussion mode". But I will leave discussion of that for another day - though my guess is that ugotrade blog will beat me to it.
I have been a fan of the Capgemini CTO blog for a long time as it provides a frequently insightful view on the world of IT, and the strategic trends that are emerging. I have to confess that much of what's written goes straight over my head, but it's good to know that these things are being talked about... ummm... whatever they are. The blog is not the work of one individual. Rather it is a series of postings from Capgemini CTOs from around the world - and this makes for some dry amusement on occasion, when they fall out with each other. I also have something of a vested interest in their musings, since they are the MegaBrains for the company for which I work.
My personal interest is piqued whenever they stray onto Second Life, which both Andy Mulholland and Ron Tolido have done a number of times in the last 6 or 8 months. Andy, after a period of skepticism now sees merit in Second Life. Ron, on the other hand, remains stoutly skeptical... nay, negative about Second Life. I would particularly commend you to Ron's posts as he has a wonderfully dry wit - as dry as the Atacama Desert. This means that you get some entertaining sparks flying between the two, and if you are an SLer, or indeed an IT professional, you might find much to comment on within the blog.
The latest mention of Second Life comes from Ron in a post entitled "iPhone launched in Second Life." OK, it's not really about Second Life, but you might want to take a look anyway.
OK... I know this is something of a non-post,. In truth, I'm just trying to improve their Technorati rating (by 1) . Admittedly it has improved a bit of late, but still manages to languish - even the rambling, messy blog you are reading now has a higher rating. Next post will be a proper, pukka SL post though. :-)
I've been somewhat preoccupied in recent days, with lots of deep discussions going off in all directions. This is all good fun, but it does mean that my poor blog has been feeling left out in the cold. So last night, after wrestling for most of the evening with a stubbornly intransigent laptop that shows all the signs of being totally FUBAR'd, I donned my virtual walking boots and set off into the big, wide metaverse of Second Life to look for something new. After the usual false starts I finally alighted upon the island TV21. This sim seemingly belongs to a German company of the same name. TV21 is a television production company that seems to specialise in interview and current affairs shows for local TV stations.
The island itself looks quite new, and not fully complete. At least, that is my assumption, as it is still somewhat sparsely furnished. On arrival I found a giant game of Tetris, which seems to be the only interactive feature on the island, aside from a couple of weblinks. Next to this was a rotating box, advertising a number of jobs (LSL programmer, SL architect and 3D designer) at Bokowsky + Laymann, "Marketing in Computer mediated Environments." This company, as with many others like it, have extended their marketing offers into Second Life, and have a website specifically aimed at companies looking to acquire a presence in the virtual world. Joining the dots, I assume that the TV21 sim has been built by Bokowsky + Laymann. Here endeth the Sherlock Holmes part of the post.
The island is set out in a tropical style and comprises 4 straightforward office buildings, offering meeting spaces of varying sizes, including a room that kept telling me it was for staff only, but (a) allowed me in and (b) did not kick me out. There is also a tiki bar, for those wanting a less formal meeting. An extensive system of teleports will take you around the various locations on the island. There is little information available, hence my conclusion that the build, though nearing completion, still has a way to go. 
The quality of the build is, in my view, so-so. There is a fairly attractive water feature,
but aside from that the build is unexceptional. It has a corporate look to it, lacking in wit and imagination; there is nothing there (yet) to capture the imagination. I accept (or hope!) that it is too early to tell whether the island will acquire more character as its launch approaches. I can only hope so (having the Tetris is at least an indication that there may be more to come).
Aware that I've been slacking in my aim of locating the less well-known parts of SL, I went for a ramble this evening and turned up Villa Adrianna, a sim that seems to bear only a passing resemblance to Emperor Hadrian's villa of the same name at Tivoli, near Rome.
It has been constructed by the enigmatically named WereTomato (contactable at WereTomato@gmail.com) who describe themselves thus: "WereTomato operates in 3D platforms, [such] as SecondLife where we build fresh new islands for big clients, but we also offer single parcels to smaller clients. Our goal is to provide high quality. Our team is composed of Architects involved in professional and academic career in their Real Life; we have expertise in Architecture, Interior Design, Industrial Design and Urban Planning. " I think you get the gist.
In describing the Villa Adrianna sim they say: "The Sim design is focused on [a] theoretical basis you can read on [the] lumesarch web site . Villa Adriana is not just a reproduction of the famous roman imperial palace by Adriano (Hadrian) but a critical interpretation of its spaces. "
I think I need to break away from the EuroEnglish of the WereTomato prose at this point, and try to interpret their description of the main aims of the island. The main aims are to provide:
I'm getting worried... I am now spending most of my blogging efforts surfacing other people's news and views, and failing in my self-appointed mission to travel the less-frequented places of Second Life in search of new, tasty tidbits to present for your delectation. And this post is no exception.
First up, I have had a mail from text100 to advise me of a new sim opening this week. Since Text100 are experts in getting the message out, I shall not plagiarise but simply quote (pretty much) verbatim:
What does success look like in this emerging “World of Virtual Work?” What are the opportunities, what are the risks? And what are the rules of engagement for employers, employees, entrepreneurs, customers and job seekers?
In celebration of the launch of the company’s island in Second Life, Manpower, a world leader in employment services, will host a virtual panel discussion this Thursday to explore these important issues. Several prominent Second Life avatars who are active in the virtual business community will address the many open questions on the “World of Virtual Work.”
When: Thursday, July 12, at 3 pm Eastern/12 pm Pacific Time
Where: Manpower sim
There's a lot more - but that gives you the salient facts, I think.
I picked the following out of the email today - better late than never...
Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe is the first weekly-televised talk show, broadcast live from (in?) Second Life.
The Show is up, running and in full production as it launched its first show on Sunday June 24, 2007. The show will air Sundays at 6pm (PST,SLT) from the Northpoint Studio of the Second Life Cable Network in Second Life. A Star Studded launch party will follow the official launch of the show on July 8, 2007.
The host, Paisley Beebe, is a well known Australian jazz vocalist in Second Life and Radio announcer in Sydney Australia that is hosting a show that will feature guest from all walks of life, as well as a performances and interviews by a featured musical artists. The first show featured Jeffronius Batra from Amazon Web Services, http://www.jeffbarr.com, Heath Elvehjem a Second Life Musician/Pianist, http://www.heathvercher.com/, and Natalia Basait a dress designer of amazingly Glamorous Gowns, http://defleur.blogspot.com/.
Up-coming guests will include Second Life celebrities and representatives of real life companies who are creating a presence in Second Life as well as human-interest stories. The show will be produced live in Second Life and broadcast across the Internet via the Second Life Cable Network and viewable later as a vidcast at: http://www.slcn.tv . SLCN.TV were responsible for the recent groundbreaking Second Life televising of the Bruce Willis interview about "Die Hard" and also the "Transformers" Movie Trailer release broadcast.
Before I went off on my recent city break to Tokyo, I was chatting with my good friend (and, coincidentally, my SL landlady), Ludo Merit. During the course of the conversation, she asked me whether I had heard of a think tank called EOLUS(I hadn't) and would I like to get in touch to find out more (I would). She put me in contact with Eolus McMillan, who invited me over to the EOLUS ONE island for a chat. I came away from the chat with my head buzzing with all manner of stuff that would take a while for me to inwardly digest. As a sizeable chunk of the discussion was about the convergence of Second Life (and Virtual Worlds generally) with making "a Better Planet", and recognising that I would not have time to blog it, I got in touch with Tara5 Oh (Tish Shute of the excellent Ugotrade blog) to see if she would pick up the cudgels on this one. I was certain this would be of huge interest to her, and so it proved - check out her giga-post here.
Normally, I'd give you a rundown on the island, its features and its raison d'etre. However, I think Tish has already covered that more than adequately - as has VeeJay Burns at Mindblizzard. My main reason for this post is to talk about what I derived from the EOLUS session(s) - plural, because I also spent an hour or two there today. Before that though, here is the EOLUS conceptual architecture - not quite Zachman, but it works!
EOLUS as Think Tank
Perhaps the key philosophical driver for Eolus is to act as a think tank where creative minds can get together and explore how to apply Second Life as a vehicle for achieving a Better Planet. Some of this comes from the pioneering work being done by Implenia (one of the RL companies in the "EOLUS consortium") in the use of technology to improve building efficiency. But already ideas have been streaming in for using SL as a visualisation tool - for example: to illustrate solar water disinfection.
EOLUS as RL-SL Integration Solution
The think tank is a great idea, but is not unique within Second Life, which teems with forums and think tanks. However, where it wins out is in taking the visionary ideas from the think tank into practical implementation. There are already a number of integration points between SL and non-SL applications. However, the majority of these exist as "proofs of concept" and are aimed at improving personal communications between SL and internet-based applications. EOLUS takes the idea much further - into integration with large-scale business applications like SAP, the world-leading Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. In this model, Second Life acts as a sophisticated 3D user interface (UI) that is able to display data from the back-end systems (eg: SAP) in ways that cannot be done with other UIs, employing the 3D environment to its full effect. By extension, Second Life can also accept commands or instructions that can be fed through to the back-end systems.
Let's consider an example: order processing. With EOLUS you can view and select items for purchase within Second Life. When you come to actaully request the items, an order is sent from Second Life to the SAP application, which returns an order reference. Thereafter, you can track your order's status from within Second Life, which gets the information in real time from the back-end SAP system. In effect, this is like using Second Life as a particularly powerful form of web browser.
Another example is in housing energy management. EOLUS can show you a house that has been modelled in Second Life. Data from various sensors in the corresponding Real Life house can be displayed in a readily understandable visual format in the Second Life model. Controls can be set on the model which are passed back to feedback devices in the Real Life house. Such controls could include thermostat settings, air-con settings and so forth. It is then a simple matter to replicate the model as many times as required to handle the energy management of an entire estate.
EOLUS as Virtual Operations Centre (VOC)
The housing energy management is a simple example of a virtual operations centre. However, far more complex operations centres can be constructed. In fact, pretty much any application or system (or set of applications or systems) that provides control information could be managed through a virtual operations centre. The visualisation of this information will depend on context - but Second Life provides a rich palette of options. One could model something akin to a RL operations centre (basically, walls of graphs, and alert lamps), but virtually any form of 2D or 3D visualisation that simplifies the system management could be constructed.
But why is this such a big deal? Two answers: first, this approach can be delivered at a fraction of the cost of a RL operations centre; second, as it is in a virtual world, accessible from across the globe, it can be manned around the clock at a fraction of the cost of a manned RL operations centre.
One point to bear in mind - this is not (yet) appropriate for mission-critical operations, as Second Life cannot yet provide the levels of availability needed for such operations. However, there are many scenaros in which a VOC could deliver improved management over other (more costly) solutions - indeed, scenarious in which a RL centre would not be feasible due to cost.
EOLUS as Enabling Technology
Concepts like the VOC rely on the ability to pass information between SL and non-SL applications. To this end, EOLUS have devised the Virtual Worlds Communication Interface (VWCI) - a combination of hardware and software that sits between SL and non-SL, and provides a common interface between them. There is actually a lot more to this than meets the eye, and I am awaiting more information from EOLUS about this. However, suffice it to say, this is an essential component for getting information in and out of Second Life.
While trawling comments posted to this blog while I've been away I was drawn to an entry from SuezanneC Baskerville, who has been a Second Lifer since December 2003, but who is also an explorer in other virtual worlds - most notably, HiPiHi. Rather than leave it in comments, I thought I would bring its content to your attention, gentle reader.
If you are interested in this new Chinese virtual world, Sue provides a helpful blog that contains views and tips for English-speakers struggling to manage the Mandarin-only interface.
She has also set up a wiki so that people can pool their knowledge of HiPiHi and a Google group, to allow English-speakers to share experiences and information.
If you want more info on HiPiHi, you can grab this powerpoint, which gives you a good background. If this has encouraged you to try and register for the Beta, then go here. I don't know if registration is still possible, but there can be no harm in giving it a go. Please note the warning about Gmail accounts, though.
(FYI: Sue goes by the name SuezanneCB in HiPiHi.)
Phew... just flew in from Narita, via Paris to face a mound of emails. I have no idea what time-zone I feel I'm in at the moment. Seemingly it's 5:25AM in Tokyo, so I've been up for around 24 hours and counting.
First off, for Euro-SLers, you might want to put this one in your diaries:
We would like to invite you to the Second Life conference *slconference 2007* taking place in Berlin from September 16 – 18, 2007. The conference will cover the following topics: Business & Marketing, Education, Art, Design & Scripting, Community & Citizenship. Detailed information about the conference topics and the schedule is available on http://www.slconference.eu
If you are interested in attending the conference, please register on-line:
http://www.slconference.eu
We may draw your attention to our special offer, the “Early Bird” fee. It is valid until July 20, 2007. If you would like to participate in the conference as a session or a workshop speaker, please submit a proposal here: http://www.slconference.eu/i
Next:
I'd like to congratulate my chums at Virtuool (nice new web page, guys) who won the Les Halles renovation concept competition- which I first mentioned on 3pointD . For more details see: http://reperes-secondlife.com/jardin_halle_concurrent.asp. I have a pile of pictures of this somewhere, but frankly I'm too tired to dig them out at the moment.
Finally:
A bit late, but check out Ugotrade for an article on Eolus, which I believe marks a huge leap forward in the practical use of Second Life as an integrated presentation layer for back-end (non-SL) applications. I hope to write up more on this from a techie standpoint over the next few days, when hopefully I can convert my IT Consultantspeak into something a bit more readily understandable by folks who don't normally converse using this particular form of bullpoop.
