China and Virtual Worlds - UOneNet

Quote from the ever-reliable Virtual World News:

Beijing-based virtual worlds developer UOneNet* plans to launch a new virtual world called “uWorld" in 1Q 2008, according to redlinechina.com. uWorld is a 3D virtual community that allows users to live, interact, and conduct business together. Users of uWorld will be able to purchase virtual real estate, start businesses, create social circles, and make and sell virtual items. Alpha testing for uWorld will begin in December 2007, says the article. The founder of UOneNet, Eric Ye, was a former software architect at IBM and has a masters degree in engineering from the University of Southern California (USC). The company has been focusing on building a reliable backend, including its own proprietary technology called UniG, which is being used to build uWorld, the article says. UOneNet plans to design the virtual world to appeal to Chinese users by adding more in-game tutorials and content creation tools. Currently, UOneNet is operating with a mixture of angel and venture funding and has 60 employees total, according to redlinechina.com.



* The UOneNet webpage has an "English" button - but this seems to do sweet FA. On the other hand, the uWorld website has a fair amount of English content.

Koldinghus - And Some Scandinavian Minimalism

After posting the entry about free Swedish lessons I thought I'd check out the area around the Swedish Institute, and came across the Kolding Danmark sim. As it was open, it seemed churlish not to drop in for a look.

The Koldinghus is "the last of the ancient royal castles on the peninsula of Jutland... [it has] had many functions ranging from fortress, royal residency, ruin, museum and the location of numerous wartime negotiations." It is now a museum, but you can find out more of its history here. It is built overlooking the town of Kolding. It is not abundantly clear whether this sim is built on behalf of the town (as the name implies), the castle (as the build to date implies), or both (as I suspect may be the case).

It is clear that the build is still in its early stages. The bulk of the castle is in place, but is yet to be furnished. Hence my remark about "Scandinavian minimalism" in the title of this piece. Outside there are large pieces of construction that can best be described as "work in progress," comprising large swathes of default "plywood." The build is clearly some way from completion so it would be wrong of me to comment. But that doesn't normally stop me! I have one observation, concerning the textures used on the castle. Basically, at the moment they seem over-stretched, resulting in a blurry effect. As it is not claiming to be ready, I will assume that this is temporary, to show the general effect. However, I hope before they open that they make the time to improve this texture. Aside from that, there is nothing else to say about the build at this time. Here are a few snaps for you:


The last picture shows you some of the work in progress.

Learn Yerself Swedish

On return from a jaunt into the Real World (for a change) I found an email waiting for me that I thought might interest you.

Is your level of attainment in Swedish about that of The Chef in The Muppets? Would you like to go beyond and maybe actually learn the language properly? Well courtesy of Sweden's virtual embassy in Second Life, you now have the opportunity.


Starting Tuesday, October 2nd, you can get free(!!!) Swedish lessons at the embassy, using voice chat technology and live video. No previous knowledge is required - which is a relief for anyone whose Swedish stretches no further than "bork bork bork." Lessons kick off at a cold-showering 7:00AM SLT (that 3:00PM UK or 4:00PM CET) in the Second House of Sweden auditorium, Swedish Institute sim

If you want to find out more follow this link.

Oh... and while I'm on a Swedish theme, you might be interested to know that IT firm Sogeti has added another (private) island to Second Life. In keeping with the theme it belongs to Sogeti Sweden.

Rene Caovilla

I'm not what you'd call a big footwear fan. Oh, I wear shoes, but I view them as a necessary evil - and hate the process of actually buying the damned things. So this posting may come as a bit of a surprise - since the star of the piece is Italian shoe and accessory designer, Rene Caovilla. Out on my rambles this evening I spotted the intriguingly-named: Caovilla Venice. To be fair, it was the "Venice" that attracted my attention - not the "Caovilla", which until now was not a word I was familiar with.

The island, as you will have surmised, belongs to Rene Caovilla. As well as fashion accessories, the Caovilla family has many business interests. For example, "he is the major shareholder of the Gazzettino daily newspaper and a member of the Voting Syndicate of the Banca Antonveneta, besides owning a large real-estate portfolio which includes the Fattoria di Mugnano...the next major step is the opening of the first own-brand boutique in Milan; a luxury salon in the heart of the town, at Via Bagutta 28, furnished with works of art, wall tapestries and architectural features from 18th century Venice." The company itself is now based just outside Venice.

The island brings together a number of Venice's most famous architectural masterpieces, including the Rialto bridge, the campanile in Piazza San Marco and the Doge's Palace. The showroom for Rene Caovilla sits in the middle of the island. There are a number of water taxis and gondola, but sadly they are not scripted, and so they sit there looking pretty - but are otherwise pretty useless. In fact, the same can be said for much of the island - it looks pretty, but it does not engage with you. As a 3D advertisement, it may be OK - I actually like the showroom building - but the island lacks spirit. It also seems to be missing the spirit of Venice itself. In place of the narrow, claustrophobic alleys and canals, with startlingly beautiful views at the least expected moments, this island has large open areas of green lawns, and enough sky to make even a mild agoraphobic nervous - most un-Venetian. There is also no concept of community here. As I said, it appears to be treating the space as a large 3D billboard. If this is their intention I think they will be disappointed in the traffic it will generate.

But enough of such carping - here's what it looks like:


The showroom - by day and by night:


Let me know what you think. Am I being too harsh? Have I missed something?

UPDATE 09-10-07: See comments, where the builder, Lupo Ellison, explains that the island is actually still under construction, and that plans are afoot to make it more typically Venetian. I plan to go back in a month or two, to see how it has evolved.

European Virtual Avatar Tax

In common with many European Second Lifers I received a bit of a shock last night when I received an email that purported to come from Linden Lab, claiming that henceforth any transactions* I have with them will be subject to VAT. For non-Europeans, this is not Virtual Avatar Tax, but Value Added Tax. The rate of this tax varies from country to country. In the UK it is 17.5%, while in Denmark I understand it is an eye-watering 25%. Naturally assuming some kind of scam I did my research, and found that, yes it really was from Linden.

I am not a premium account holder with my own land, so it may have only the most peripheral effect on me. But for those who run their own virtual businesses, or at least those not "VAT registered" (most people), it may seriously affect their competitiveness, since they will be paying Linden significantly more than their rivals for the raw materials of their trade - eg: land and accounts; costs they will need to pass on to their customers.

The sudden nature of the announcement, without prior warning and in an email posted when much of Europe would be asleep, was ill-considered and thoughtless. However, checking EU law it is clear that they should have been applying this tax since the beginning of Second Life, since it became a requirement in 2003. I trust there will be no effort to collect unpaid taxes.

If you try to weasel out of this by claiming to be from a non-EU country and are subsequently found out, then you will be barred (and possible tarred & feathered too). On the plus side, Linden $ exchanges between avatars are not subject to tax.

So I wonder what new wheezes will emerge to circumvent this? Using the Brazillian Kaizen Games registration site, perhaps? Or maybe an enterprising American soul will take a cut to act as a broker, registering accounts and buying land on behalf of tax-impoverished Europeans? I'm sure the free-spirited entrepreneurs of Second Life will dream up many innovative solutions to this curious conundrum.

* There was no mention of the LindeX - does anyone know what the score is with this??

UPDATE - 30/09/07:
Check out Prokofy's comment and my response. You might also be interested in seeing more of the directive - follow this link .

It contains the unambiguous: "radio and television broadcasting services and electronically supplied services provided from third countries to persons established in the Community or from the Community to recipients established in third countries should be taxed at the place of the recipient of the services."

Becker GPS

While the Great and the Good (no doubt with a leavening of the So-So) of Second Life scurry from meta-event to meta-event, to hang out and hang on to every word of the latest guru with New Insights into Virtual Worlds, I continue to potter along largely unperturbed and undisturbed. Yesterday I shared some ill-structured thoughts with you about the evolution of island archipelagos in Second Life - using the Plus supermarket chain by way of illustration.

Today I would like to introduce you to another new island in the German Archipelago: Becker GPS Lounge. It should come as no surprise that this is owned by Becker GPS, who specialise in Sat Nav and other in-car systems. Becker started life as a family company in the late forties in Karlsbad, in the Black Forest. It has grown over the past 50 years to become a leading supplier of car audio and guidance systems to major European manufacturers. They also offer a neat-looking portable media player.

According to their website: "30 Becker Traffic Assist Pro 7929 systems will be given away in the 'Becker GPS Lounge'... Becker has become the first mobile navigation system manufacturer to create its own island in the Second Life virtual world. " They have been giving away 1 a day since September 1st, so hurry on down - you have almost no time left to blag one! The opening of the island was timed to coincide with the IFA Berlin 2007 consumer electronics trade fair.

The island adopts an all-too-familiar tropical theme. There is a walkthrough tunnel with ads for Becker products, culminating in a short movie, a dance area, a meeting area and a seemingly pointless hub, surmounted by a huge, rotating Becker logo. In fact, looking at the map you will see that the island itself is in the shape of the logo. There is also a pathway along which you will find presentations on the history of the company. A transport "ball" can be summoned to carry you between the three main locations on the island: the history path, the hub and the main meeting area. A deep inlet acts as a harbour, where a number of 3rd party vendors sell their wares.

At the arrival point you will find the "win a 7929" stand, and a scoreboard listing the winners to date. Apparently each day's winner has been announced at a live, inworld event at 21:00CET each night.

The island seems to be intended as a simple promotional site, while the live announcement of winners hints at a longer term aim to host events. It is not particularly exceptional, being a fairly straightforward company build in Second Life. I just thought I'd mention it.

Map Thoughts plus Plus

The Second Life map is now getting quite bewildering. When I was a (virtual) lad, this time last year, I could actually find my way around the island archipelagos without too much difficulty. It may have been time-consuming, but it wasn't impossible. However, since then the population of Second Life has grown more than ten-fold, and the island count has grown five-fold. This huge increase in the number of islands has made it much more challenging to find islands of interest to me - in effect I'm looking for a needle in a much larger haystack.

One thing I have noticed is the development of island clusters. There have been multi-sim land masses for a considerable time (well, "considerable" in SL terms), and these have continued to grow, while new land masses have formed. Examples include New Media Consortium, Caledon and IBM. Newer land masses include Virtual Tokyo and Scilands. There have also been looser groupings of individual islands, but 12 months ago these tended to be sited close to the main build companies in SL, such as Millionsofus and Electric Sheep Company.

This year I have noticed the development of archipelagos of loosely associated islands. The first to come to my attention was the Developer Archipelago, that included Amazon Web Services, AMD Developers and IBM Rational Codestation. The one I want to touch on here is what I shall call the German Archilpego. Far out in the virtual ocean there is a loose collection of islands whose only common attribute is that they are owned by German companies. They were not all constructed by the same builder, nor are they organised together in any official or unofficial manner. However, as I thought about this, I realised how much sense it made. Proximity is not important for travelling in Second Life, due to the teleport system that will whisk you from one location to another, from one side of the grid to the other. However, proximity does play a part in community cohesion. If you are used to using the Map feature in Second Life, it becomes almost second nature to check out the islands near you when considering moving on. If those islands you can see also tie in with your culture or language you are probably more likely to give them a go. You may also be more likely to return in the future.

And that, I think, is the key. Companies need footfall, as it is one of the metrics they can use to justify their presence in Second Life. By forming loose archipelagos they maintain their independence and sim control, while there is nevertheless an increased probability of driving footfall, and at the same time encouraging return visits and the possible formation of virtual communities. Hence the German Archipelago (and yes... I'm sure this is not the only one).

+++

A newcomer to the Archipelago is Plus, whose island opened this week. Plus, is a supermarket chain, with extensive online shopping facilities. It is celebrating its 35th year of trading, and as part of this, has launched a presence in Second Life.

The island is modelled on the blue and orange company logo, making it unmistakable on the Map view. Around a central plaza, on which is emblazoned the company name, you will find a number of cabins. Some provide assorted goods - not free, but very cheap; others give you an overview of the company, and links to the Well Being parts of their website. Wandering around the island are little numbers (see below), which also feature on the website. Quite what they mean I don't know.

The whole place is designed to be like a 3D cartoon, and I think it carries it off admirably. Just watching the numbers wandering about, sitting playing games or simply sleeping was fun - I like the light touch here. The one negative I would make is the doors - they are just too narrow. They are not actually difficult to negotiate, but they are a bit tricky - and for a complete newcomer to Second Life could be a real headache.



There's also a closed room containing presents - but some judicious use of camera controls got this snap:


Other islands in the German Archipelago include: TUI and VOKS DAM, both of which I have featured in this blog in the past.

Princeton - On The Beach

I appear to make a habit of saying "this will be a short post" - and then banging on for ages. But not this time. Brevity is my watchword tonight! So here goes...

Earlier in the Summer I brought you a peek inside Princeton's new site in Second Life. I can now tell you the main site is officially open... though there are bits and pieces still to be finished. It now spans 7 sims, including this one: Alexander Beach.




The Alexander Beach island features a strange, complex, faintly fishy-shaped building, the latest bespoke creation of Scope Cleaver. It is intended for use by students, who can try their hand at building in the sandboxes supplied. There are also a couple of art installations, one whose name escapes me, and the one shown below: Liquid Light.



I confess I missed the launch party itself - I am notorious for this, I'm afraid. So my apologies to Persis, who kindly supplied me with an invitation.

Al Goes North of the Border

While cruising around the ever-growing number of university islands clusted around the New Media Consortium, I spotted two new UK universities: Sunderland and Edinburgh. The former seemed, from the map, to be very new, with little or no work done on it as yet. However, the University of Edinbugh not only looked to be more advanced, but also consisted of not 1 but 6 sims - a hefty investment. What is more, it was open to casual visitors, so I popped in for a look.

The build is very much in its infancy, as you can see from the pictures below. The most advanced building I found was the Informatics hall, but the School of Management is well on its way, too. There is also preliminary work on some famous Edinburgh landmarks such as the Scott Monument and the Nelson Monument.



Unlike many university builds in Second Life, which have been the work of a single department or faculty, the scale and breadth of this build encompasses many departments. The purpose of the build is difficult to ascertain due to its incomplete state and the variety of departments it is planned to feature. Certainly one aspect will be promotional, to provide information about the university and the city. However, given the size of the site, I would assume they are also planning to host educational events, perhaps even hosting regular seminars and lecture here.

I was talking recently to a friend who is struggling to hack through the politics and apathy at his own university. Having built an interesting site, with plenty of scope for informal meetings and networking, and sandboxes for those who'd like to try their hand at building, he's having real difficulties getting both staff and students to take an interest. I would therefore like to understand what has happened in Edinburgh's case. A 6-sim site is rather over-the-top for a "Field of Dreams": "build it and they will come."

So have staff and students bought into it? And if so, how was this achieved? If you know, then it would be great to hear from you.

UPDATE 24-9-07: Please check out the comments - two detailed replies from Edinburgh. Thanks for the enlightenment!

China and Virtual Worlds

If you are like me, then you probably have interests in virtual worlds beyond Second Life. So you might be interested to read this article, posted at the excellent Virtual Worlds News blog.

The gist is:
The China Recreation District (CRD), a joint government-private partnership based in Beijing, is to build a country-wide infrastructure to support the deployment of virtual worlds. As I have posted elsewhere in this blog, China is going through a massive ramp-up in its use of virtual worlds - and not just the familiar Entropia and HiPiHi worlds. There is apparently an aim to invite external virtual worlds to join the infrastructure. Anyone visiting Virtual Worlds'07 in San Jose will be able to find out more, as Chi Tai Robert Lai, Chief Scientist with the CRD, will be presenting at the forum.

The CRD describes itself as: "The home of the leading edge of television and digital entertainment in China... Formed in 2001 as Panorama Media and through consolidation offive companies and renamed CRD Co. Ltd, in 2006, CRD is one of the leading independent television and digital content companies in China."

I am sure this will raise a few questions, such as:

• What about Chinese government insularity, open access and the Great Firewall? Inviting in overseas companies may compromise their view of security - or it may actually make it easier to police.

• The creation of infrastructure seems a long way from the company's core competencies, although the extension of interactive media to include virtual worlds is a logical step. Why do they feel qualified and able to undertake such an enterprise? Or have I misinterpreted their intention?

• Who are they aiming at? The "social" virtual worlders or the "gamer" virtual worlders. Given China's strong bias towards the latter, is there a planned place for the social virtual worlds?

I look forward to reading more as this story unfolds. I would expect virtual world companies to be trampling over each other in the rush to get onboard and tap in to this huge and lucrative market. Incidentally, there is no mention of this on the company website.

Art Center

A bit of a lazy post tonight, mainly because it's rather late and I really should be in bed, rather than bashing out some words. However, in lieu of words, I have a host of pictures that I hope go some way to explaining why I love this site. Art Center is to be found on the Avignon sim, and is the creation of 2 New York artists - Annie Ok and Derek Lerner - in Second Life Xantherus Halberd and Rhizome Szydlowska

They have constructed a gallery across a number of levels, each given over to the work of a different artist, or group of artists. Both Annie and Derek have their own floors for showcasing their own work. Annie is famous(infamous?) for her amazing "travelogue" of Second Life under the guise of Destroy Television*, a tiny snippet of which can be viewed here. Other floors are used to showcase the work of other Real Life New York artists. The gallery spaces are sparsely minimalist, so as not to distract from the art works on display.

Now I've posted recently about the Cannery SLart expo, and under the (slightly disingenuous?) strapline of "I know what I like" concluded that most of the so-called artwork at the Cannery was little more than mediocre poster art. Like I say, not an objective judgement - just my own view. The works on display in the Art Center are, to my mind at least, the real McCoy. I don't claim to like them all, but I do recognise what I think of as "art" when I see it.

That said, I have to confess the current exhibition of photos left me rather cold.... or indeed, reaching for my trusty SLR. I didn't engage with them at all, thinking they lacked wit, warmth or insight. But maybe that's just me - you should go along and decide for yourselves.

Outside is a sculpture garden with some nice pieces by Annie and Derek. As this is a shared sim, they have blocked out "visual interference" from neighbouring plots by erecting high walls around the garden. However, from the outside these are transparent, and are also "phantom", which means that they do not act as physical a barrier, and do not mar their neighbours' view.

* I'd give you a link - but I'm getting mysql errors when I try to load the page. Now fixed

The floor guide:


The Sculpture Garden:



Inside the galleries:


Representative samples of the artwork:


UPDATE 21-09-07:
Fixed a typo or 2 and added a SLURL. Also, if you want more information on the amazing Destroy Television 10-day excursion across Second Life then have a read of Ugotrade's megapost!

The link is now fixed to Destroy Television.

Zero Linden's Plans For Second Life

Basically, for those interested in the scaling of Second Life, you really ought to read this - a chat log with Zero Linden captured by the blog: Dizzy Banjo - Soundtracking Virtual Worlds. This builds out upon the planned opening up of the server code, with the whole kit and caboodle going open source.

Quick headlines:

• Linden are not just talking about the sim limits we have now - they are talking truly epic scale: "to evolve the SL architecture into something that is internet wide."
• Transition to "SL2.0" (gah!) is being designed to be as seamless as possible.
• Now for the numbers: 60Million regions; 2Billion avatar accounts; maybe 50M to 100M on-line... though admittedly hypothetical
  
• And "on-line might mean something more lightweight in the future"

There is also some discussion of the richness or "thickness" of the functionality and capability on offer. If I read it right, provided your server follows and implements all the protocols correclyt, you could boost it to super-performance (demanding equally suped-up PCs), but Linden don't plan to follow this route themselves.

This is the first time I've seen the numbers they are toying with. I knew they were ambitious, but this is quite breath-taking!

Sadly, the discussion does not deal with issues of identity management and storage. But I daresay that is to come.

Virtual Vietnam War Memorial Due November

This originally appeared at 3pointd:

Recently I posted about one of several sites in the virtual world of Second Life commemorating those who died in the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. It brought home to me how an immersive 3D environment can be used as a powerful visualisation tool, providing focus for contemplation.

Shortly after writing this piece I was contacted by Second Life resident, Evian Argus (in Real Life Robert Egan of Meme Science), to tell me about another memorial. Timed to open in November to coincide with the 25th anniversary of its original dedication, Meme Science are building a replica of the Vietnam War Memorial, commonly known as The Wall, in Second Life. The Wall lists all 58, 253 US service personnel killed or missing in the Vietnam war.

Discussions about the project first started with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund around May, 2007, with contracts being finalised towards the end of August. The island will open to the public in early November, with a formal unveiling on the actual anniversary, the 13th of November. The plan is locate the island adjacent to the existing Capitol Hill islands, reflecting their location in the real world. The island will feature all 3 components of the memorial: The Wall; the Three Soldiers statue and the Vietnam Women’s Memorial. Information and name search facilities are planned, along with the option to leave virtual items (supplied by Meme) at The Wall.

The purpose is to provide a contemplative space for remembering the U.S. servicemen and women who died in Vietnam. It will be tied into a website that will offer name search facilities, research resources and more. The full list of features remains to be finalised. Evian was at pains to point out that the aim of the island is not political, it is simply to honour those who had given their lives and provide an education resource for those wishing to find out more, with tours, seminars and other events.

To quote their press release:

“We feel privileged to be selected as the firm that will build a replica of the Vietnam Veteran’s War Memorial Wall in the Second Life metaverse.” said Robert Egan, president of Meme Science. “It will be a welcome challenge to virtually recreate the complex architectural design structure originally devised by Maya Ying Li. Our goal is to try to capture some of the experience and heart felt emotions that can only be felt by visiting the real life Memorial Wall in Washington DC, while at the same time bringing attention and honor to those Vietnam Veterans that died giving service to our country on this the 25th anniversary of the Wall’s dedication.”

At the moment there is nothing to see, so I cannot comment on the construction, but it will be interesting to see if it manages to match the power of the sites constructed to remember the dead of 911. That is certainly the intention.

Images courtesy of Meme Science.

Nissan X-Trail

Japanese motor company Nissan have had a presence in Second Life for quite some time, but while exploring the area near Mitsukoshi (see previous post), I found a relatively new site: Nissan X-Trail. You have to be a member of their group (which I'm not) to access all the features of the site but at least I was able to grab a quick view:
T

There is a corresponding website (in Japanese, naturally), but aside from news and a SLURL this does not have much content. From a bit of searching it seems that the site opened sometime in mid-August, 2007. It is styled as a snowboarding track, with the car itself featured on a plinth at the bottom of the downhill section. I'm not sure, but it is possible you may be able to rez a vehicle to negotiate a frozen track that goes around the sim. Clearly the aim is tie the brand to cool, sexy "extreme sports - an extension in Second Life of the X-Trail Jam and similar sponsored events held last year and this. Indeed, an ad from last year's event in the Tokyo Dome can be seen in the picture on the left.

Not much more to say about it really. I will leave the analysis to Nic, over at Kzero!

Mitsukoshi

Well, well... It seems I'm back in Japanese sim territory again. I read about the arrival of this sim a couple of months back, but had entirely forgotten to check it out until I stumbled on it by accident last night. The sim? Mitsukoshi.

To borrow from a description I found at lastminute.com: "Mitsukoshi is the oldest department store in Japan. It is now a vast emporium, but started its life as a kimono outlet in 1673, known as Echigoya. Gradually, the store's stock grew to include daily necessities and gifts. By the 1960s Mitsukoshi had grown up into the best-stocked and most prestigious department store in Asia, with the most polite and helpful staff, earning the title "The Harrods of Tokyo". It's still a great place to buy kimonos too." There is a chain of shops not just in Japan, but across the world - and now in the virtual world of Second Life, too.

The island is effectively in 2 levels. The ground level looks like a recreation of their roots back in the 17th century. A large store in traditional Japanese style, where you can pick up free kimonos and hats, set amid a number of smaller stalls. At the back of the sim, opposite your arrival point, is a lift (or teleport if you'd rather travel quickly) that will take you up to the second level. High above the sim is an ultra-modern (nay, hyper-modern) Mitsukoshi store, comprising a set of pods - one per department. if you don't fancy the return trip by lift or teleport you can instead opt to glide down, by rezzing a paraglider at the far end of any of the department pods.




I rather like this sim - especially the recreation of 17th Century Edo - and the freebie kimonos and hapi are finely detailed. However, I am struggling to see how they can hit their supposed target of 120,000 visitors spending 40million (real) Yen in the first year. The site serves as a portal to their website, where you can part with real money, rather than muck about with L$. Fine - but I think they are being way too ambitious. I'm not sure how they plan to measure traffic driven to their website from Second Life, but I'm sure some e-commerce whizz can tell me.

Oh.. on my researches I found this rather fine post about this sim too.

Capgemini France - An Update

A while back I reported that the French arm of global IT consulting company, Capgemini, had held a 3-day recruitment fair in Second Life. It seems that this first delve into the virtual world has given them an appetite for more. They have now taken up residence in part of an island called The Blast Machine , owned by a company of the same name, who have already done a great deal of work with Capgemini in interactive media.

The principal building is identical to that used for the recruitment fair. The only difference I can see is that the classy Scope Cleaver tables and chairs have now been moved into the new building. Outside, there is a "landing pad" for teleporting visitors and a small outdoor seating area.



The building is OK, professional rather than stunning, with slideshows and other information on prominent display. Personally, I find the degree of branding rather over-the-top, working on the assertion that "sometimes less is more." But it is certainly unmistakeable!

Looking ahead, it is not apparent what Capgemini are planning for this site. It is currently tucked out of the way, presumably awaiting a re-think on its usage. It seems to lack facilities for locking it down for private meetings, and the surroundings are not that conducive to informal get-togethers, or creating a workable community. If I had to guess (and believe me, it is a guess) I would expect the site to host occasional public events, and possibly rely on "the long tail" to provide a relatively low-level but long-term connection between visitors and the company. As with so much else in Second Life, the future will tell.

My First SL Safari

Just a short post tonight, to log the fact that this evening I held the inaugural Second Life Safari / Walkabout / Expedition [delete as appropriate] for a select band of colleagues. As a first attempt I think it went pretty well. We kept the number of attendees constrained (though a tad more constrained than I'd hoped) to test out the approach. Getting feedback to help refine and reshape the safari is high on my agenda. In terms familiar to readers of this blog, this first foray was thus a "soft launch" - not widely trailed, and targeted at elicitiing feedback to see what would work and what would need re-work.

I think the overall approach seemed sound. I sent out a slide deck in advance, giving some basic information for starters, and then supplied attendees with a notecard containing the landmarks we would be visiting. They were also all co-opted into a group set up for the purpose, so we could group IM if anyone got separated or there was a need to chat confidentially within the group.

So far, so good. Unfortunately, in the style of "This little piggy...", we experienced a fair degree of attrition during the safari! The "first little piggy" had trouble with his laptop; the "second little piggy" went AWOL; the "third little piggy" was in a different timezone and had to retire for the night. But despite all this, the remaining little pigges managed to reach the final stop at Rezzable Greenies.

I look forward to receiving the feedback, and acting on the responses (where appropriate!). The next run is on Tuesday... after which we will "pause and asssess."

Fancy a Danish? Virtual Copenhagen

This post was originally posted at 3pointd - but reprinted here with extra pictures.

2007 has seen a trend (dare I say “meme”? No, perhaps not) for real world cities to be replicated in the virtual world of Second Life. This trend has been particularly prevalent in Northern/Central Europe - with Germany and The Netherlands vying for the most virtual cities. Today, while passing by the World Trade Center Memorial again, I espied an island called »CPH«, and finding it open, went to have a look. It seems that the trend has moved North a tad, as this is virtual Copenhagen. But is it “wunderbar, wunderbar?”



There are many reasons why a city might want to establish a presence in Second Life. The context for Copenhagen’s build can be found in the related website, where you will find an English-language PDF file:

How can Copenhagen evolve into an international top rank knowledge city? A city, seething with innovation and enterprise. A city that is a magnet for students and knowledge workers worldwide. These are the questions we have worked on in the Think Tank for Internationalisation and Business Development. The Think Tank was set up by the City of Copenhagen in May 2006, under the initiative of Lord Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard. The result is nine concrete proposals spanning from a new hotel concept for researchers and knowledge workers to transforming Copenhagen into one huge exhibition of groundbreaking technology.

1. Copenhagen Campus is designed to attract international students and make Copenhagen a World-class university town.

2. The Welcome Shop is an international citizens service centre, where guest researchers, knowledge workers and students find everything they need to establish themselves in Copenhagen. Anything, from information about Copenhagen and Danish legislation to help with finding a job, accommodation and childcare.

3. A Knowledge Hotel is an accommodation service for international guest researchers and knowledge workers. It provides a place to live and a social network that will make you want to return to the city or settle down permanently.

4. The Potential Exchange is a place where people with unexploited potential come closer to the labour market. This could be a taxi driver with an engineering degree or a corner shop owner who is actually a trained doctor.

5. Smart Stars is a talent program for primary school pupils. The program will help pupils with poor odds and provide the talented ones with new challenges. The youngsters will learn that smart stars shine brighter.

6. Copenhagen has the potential to attract many more international firms. The Carlsberg district is one of the areas that have the largest potential. It could become an international power centre, housing the regional headquarters of large firms from Denmark and abroad.

7. Copenhagen’s urban spaces should be transformed into opportunity spaces, where there is room for creativity, diversity and enterprise. The key is collaboration between residents, those who use the city, developers, students and artists.

8. Copenhagen Solutions transforms Copenhagen’s urban spaces into a showroom of the best Danish technology and social solutions. An international magnet where one can see and experience the future.

9. Copenhagen Venture is an ambitious entrepreneur collaboration between the universities and the commercial sector. It aims at making Copenhagen a city seething with enterprise and new ideas.

These 9 concrete proposals are re-played here for the benefit of visitors, with many links to relevant pages of the website. The centrepiece of the island is Rådhuspladsen, or City Hall Square, and it is here that visitors first arrive. Teleports enable you to get to the various parts of the island where 3D visualisations of the 9 proposals can be found. The majority of the buildings on the island appear to be faithful reproductions of those to be found in the real city, including the City Hall (shown above). I know this can lead to endless debate about the merits or otherwise of trying to model real world buildings in Second Life. Personally, if there is a point and it is well done, then that is fine.

Here's the selection of teleports and a couple of the visualisations:


The quality of the texturing and rendering of these buildings is very good - but for the most part they do lack a certain something: access. Aside from a school room (representing “Smart Stars”) I could not find any traditional buildings that I could actually enter. They seem to exist purely to provide a 3D backdrop for the presentation of the 9 proposals. I don’t see the aim as being to build any form of online community, although that may be planned for later. However, the use of Second Life both as a creative visualisation medium and as a promotional platform is well executed and interesting to see.

Of course, the real challenge is not is Second Life, but whether Copenhagen can achieve its objectives in the real world.

Tuning in to TV Station

My last post, about the WTC Memorial, I hope shows that Second Life can be a place for serious contemplation, and not just a playground or a giant advertising hoarding. But now I want to get back to my more usual themes, and look at another company build in Second Life. I have mentioned this sim - TVStation - in an earlier post, when it was still inaccessible. However, although still incomplete, it is now open to the ramblers of Second Life, so I thought I should have a look around.

TVStation is another Japanese site, built by the team from Webstar. And a curate's egg of a place it is too. You arrive in front of a nicely constructed model of the island, with embedded teleports to take you to the main locations, which include:

• A cafe where you can watch the multi-channel SLnews.tv
• The main office and studio block
• A walk-thru machinima course (in English and Japanese)
• The TV broadcasting tower

Of these, the dominant feature is the TV tower. This rises to a staggering 2000 metres above sea level. No mean achievement, given the difficulties of construction above 760metres or so. Fortunately there are teleports to get you up and down the tower - otherwise it takes simply ages! The other main feature is the office and studio block. This looks to be still under construction, but you are able to visit several studios - ranging from kids' tv to newsrooms. I didn't have time to try out the machinima course, so cannot comment on its virtues (or otherwise).

The map:


The office and tower:


The studios:


So what's so curate's egg-ish about it? On the plus side, there is a lot of content here, and the build is competent and professional. However, as with its sister webstar sim, the actual construction seems flat, dull and lifeless. The rendering of the studios, for example, seems crude and "blocky" when compared to, say, Sky News. It feels very much like a construction by a company still trying to find its way in Second Life. It is missing many of the tricks of the trade (sophisticated textures, and lighting effects) that make a place interesting. Perhaps this is a reflection of the incompleteness of the build, but given that the webstar sim has the same issues, I am thinking this is more a matter of creative judgement. Each to their own, I suppose.

I will update this post with a SLURL for the sim later. But in the meantime - use the search facility offered by the Second Life "map".
UPDATE: Here's the SLURL I promised.

9/11 - World Trade Center Memorial

Please check out my full post on this at 3pointD.
Also, Rik Riel has added a fine, thoughtful post on this in his excellent The Click Heard Round The World blog.

Liam Kanno of the V3 Group has built a moving and poignant tribute to those who died in the massacres of September 11th. It makes no political statements, no vacuous words about the war on terror, no soundbites about justice, strength and fortitude. It strips all of that noise away, to remember the lives lost on that terrible day.



I know the photos are a bit crap, but that's what comes of rushing.
Here's a SLURL for the World Trade Center site.

Oh... and a big, big thank-you to Xantherus for telling me about this site.

anyMOTION

I've been meaning to post this entry for a few weeks now, but have not really been sure how to go about it. The sim in question belongs to German company, anyMOTION. Specialising in 3D graphics and multimedia, it was a logical extension for them to move into Second Life, where they have been active as a build company since around the start of the year (I think). Their major work to date has been the complex of islands built for Mercedes-Benz, and used to launch their C-Class saloon earlier this year. They have also built electronic music club Trash Palace, which is sited on their public sim.

I spent a long time at the sim, chatting with Mark Lambertz (avatar: Mkyschnitzel Campbell) of anyMOTION about their work, and in particular about the (then) forthcoming SLCC'07 Germany event that was to be held in Dusseldorf, of which they were both a sponsor and organiser. However, even as I was typing up a post the following day, I received a mail from Mark advising me that the event had been cancelled. He was understandably disappointed (OK, too mild a word!) about it, having invested a great deal of time and effort, and presumably a not-inconsiderable sum in setting it up. In fact, as you will see below, the anyMOTION sim has (had?) a tower constructed specifically to tie in with the event. In preparing this post I checked out the SLCC'07 website, which informed me (thank you Babelfish) that the event was cancelled due to lack of sales - which is probably what most of you were expecting to read. Better luck in 2008!

As for the sim, it consists of a number of small islands, each with its own theme. The biggest of these is the C-Class farm, where mercs and yaks happily graze on a broad expanse of rich grass.
There's also a client meeting area and the aforementioned tower. High above, at around 240 metres, is the Trash Palace, which seemed to be well attended while I was there. This uses some great, scuzzy textures to lend a nice, rusty, rundown look to the establishment, which also serves as an art gallery. Higher still are a couple of giant mushrooms - one based on standard prims and the other, more recent one, using mega-sized sculpted prims. These are intended as chillout zones.


Here's the tower, which includes some nice shadow-effects:

A neighbouring sim is set aside for private company use - meetings, builds etc.

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Just to lighten my mood a tad, here's a piccy of one of my own little constructions in SL.
Well it amused me making it:

The specs are animated... but I haven't got around to using FRAPS to record them yet.

UPDATE: A friend has pointed out that the above image could be misinterpreted as showing something rather ruder than I had seen! Can I therefore urge you to click on it, to see the bigger picture?

Travelling to TUI

Originally posted at 3pointD - now with extra piccies...!

When many residents of the virtual world of Second Life had taken themselves off on a short break to Chicago for Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) 2007, I had to settle for a virtual holiday instead. Courtesy of German travel company, TUI, I went rafting, scuba-diving, and exploring wrecked pirate ships at their virtual beach resort in Second Life.

The TUI AG group is perhaps the largest holiday tour operator in the world, and includes brands such as Thomson in the UK. This Second Life presence, spanning 4 islands, is intended to advertise their German tour operations. These are classed under 3 major “sub-brands” which are reflected in the names of their islands. TUI Schöne Ferien (classic seaside holidays), TUI Weltentdecker (city breaks and circular trips) and TUI Premium (high-end holidays).

You actually arrive in the islands at the airport on »Tui Island«, stepping off the inbound TUIfly.com jet and making your way to the entrance plaza. Here you can pick up those all-essential holiday freebies, like swimwear, scuba gear and surf boards, before heading out into the island complex. The site is manned currently for around 4 hours a day. There is also a treasure hunt for those so inclined, but as that doesn’t include me, I have no idea of what’s involved or what you stand to win.

As I’ve already mentioned there are a number of things to keep you entertained. As well as the soggy sports alluded to above, you can try your hand at golf (on the tiny driving range) or visit the temple, with its vaguely pre-Columbian American imagery. There is a firework display every half hour and a thalassotherapy centre. As you might expect, there are also many meeting and dance areas, and throughout there are links to relevant pages on the TUI website. And this is only scratching the surface of the activities available.



It will interesting to see how this island complex is received. Aside from its role as a 3D advertising hoarding, I assume it is also an experiment to explore what a future 3D internet site might offer. There is much here to amuse and engage people, but right now it feels like it is missing something. The site has been open about a month, but as yet there is no sign of a schedule of events. Also, the majority (if not all) of the activities are individual, not group, pursuits. With such a large site at their disposal I think that TUI and their virtual world consultants are missing an opportunity to encourage a community. However, it is early days and the site is still finding its feet. There is a group, the “TUI Island Club”, that will be used to advise of events once a schedule has been worked out.

The whole complex has been designed and constructed by Blue Sky Media, based in Hanover. You can watch their ad for the build on YouTube.

Al's Curiosity - Is It Forbidden?

Just a quick post tonight. I came across this sim - Oriental Island - and being a sucker for all things Asian (with the possible exception of fried or grilled weird things, sold in the night markets of Beijing - see piccies below) I thought I should take a gander.

Not much to say really. It appears to be a reworking of the Forbidden City in Beijing - or at least part of it. The reason I decided to blog the sim is that illustrates what a large-scale construction looks like mid-build. As you may be able to see, the bulk of the structure is taking shape in terms of prim constructs, but very little of it coloured or textured at this stage. There are small areas where relevant textures have been trialled, but little more than that.

As the construction is taking up the entire sim it is hard to determine its use. It would not appear to be appropriate for either shops or private land parcels, and it does not appear to relate to any specific company or organisation. I believe IBM are planning on opening up their Forbidden City build sometime, which has been around (somewhere in SL) for around a year now, as far as I know. But this isn't it. The sim is owned by the group Oriental Pearl, but beyond that I can glean next to nothing. Can anyone advise me further??

Here's the Real Life Forbidden City - and streetmarket. Yummy!

SL-Newspaper.com Press Release

FYI: I just received this press release - and I see no reason for not passing it along...

*** START PRESS RELEASE ***

SL-Newspaper.com opens 10th location in Secondlife

One of the best read newspapers in Secondlife® has opened their 10th location on Publishing Island. The new publishing Sim is next to the already famous Book Island. In an old Tudor-style building you will find a relaxing atmosphere to read your newspaper and have a chat with many of the other publishers who own shops on publishing island.

On the second floor a meeting room can be found where press-clubs and other social meetings find a place. The complete location is open to the public and has a wonderfull bar and sitting area completely in style.

Above the bar you will find a Landmark-giver which can supply all of the other 9 SL-Newspaper-locations.

Location SL-URL : http://slurl.com/secondlife/Publishing%20Island/62/222/36
Location news : http://www.sl-newspaper.com
Hits information : SL-Newspaper.com has an average of 10.000 non-unique hits daily

*** END PRESS RELEASE ***

A Scientific Approach to Orientation

If you are a frequent visitor to the virtual world of Second Life you may have taken in the well-known NOAA island of Meteora and/or NASA's Spaceport Alpha. Both are impressive scientific sims. However, more recently these sites have been subsumed into a whole cluster of scientific sims - 34 of the beggars at the last count. Many of these are still under construction, but are nevertheless open to the gawping public.

Broadly speaking there are 3 principal areas: Space and Spaceflight; Healthcare and a Giant Globe, along with a number of specialist areas, such as Nanotechnology. This cluster is far too big to tackle all in one go, so I won't even attempt it. I already have a mass of pictures of the Healthcare sims, which have been built for the (British) National Health Service, under the umbrella of the Second Health project.. However, I've not been able to assemble all the supporting information on these (Davee: I didn't get your email!) and without this, the prospect of putting a post together is somewhat daunting. Besides, my friend Tish, over at Ugotrade, has already done the definitive post.

Instead, I will return to my recurring theme of recent weeks: orientation. Sitting at the heart of this mega-cluster is the Scilands sim. Its purpose is to provide orientation for new, science-minded residents of Second Life. If it was me, I'd probably have called it Boffinland - but maybe that's too open to misinterpretation. Anyhoo... newcomers can join Second Life at the Scilands registration website and be whisked, courtesy of the Registration API, to the Scilands sim to commence their orientation. This is another "5 and out" (ie: 5 quick lessons and out into the wide virtual world), but with some differences. First, there are several diversions along the way, including insect illustrations and a telescope that will display various celestial objects. You can also acquire a freebie T-shirt, in the lesson dealing with inventory.


Once our newcomer has completed the 5 basic lessons s/he will find a set of information posts - 9 of 'em I think - that provide more detailed information on specific topics. There is also a map and explanation of the Scilands cluster, and teleports to a number of useful locations. This approach seems like a good compromise between the need for brevity (5 basic lessons) and the fact that brevity will inevitably lead to a loss of important content. Oh.... shhhh.. don' t mention it, but there's also a sandbox here - so budding builders can take a crack at object creation and manipulation.

The cluster itself is well worth the trip, even for seasoned SL veterans. Even though it is still far from complete, there is more than enough there to while away a significant amount of time.

Al's Trip to Mancunia

Today I took a break from virtual exploration to go in to Manchester with Mrs K to see a movie, The Bourne Ultimatum, followed by a bite to eat. We both thoroughly enjoyed the movie, which we saw at the Printworks - which has its virtual equivalent in Second Life here. Maybe this planted a seed in my mind, because on returning home and logging in to Second Life, I quickly found another Manchester sim, Mancunia.

The sim belongs to BJL, a Manchester-based advertising company. It is a pretty faithful simulation of the area of Manchester where their offices are located. As they explain it in their notecard: "BJL is an independent advertising agency based in Manchester, England. We like working in Manchester so much we created an Island and called it Mancunia, so you can explore and see a slice of the City from the comfort of your computer."

Their offices are actually in a fine old building, Sunlight House, on Quay Street, which is about half a mile from the Printworks mentioned earlier. I know this area of the city fairly well, indeed Mrs K used to work in the ugly office block recreated on this sim, and pictured below. Unlike the real world location, BJL have chosen to put their offices on the roof of the building, open to the skies. Given the city's unenviable reputation for inclement weather, this is something you would never contemplate in real life!

As well as their own offices, they have recreated an entire chunk of the city - all the buildings shown below actually exist, though I would have been happy to see a bit more traffic, as the junction of Deansgate and Quay Street is often gridlocked! FYI: Mrs K used to work on the second floor of the office block in the middle picture - but that was many, many years ago!

It is hard to know what they plan to do with the sim. As a simulation of this area of Manchester it is good fun, and nicely rendered - but...

It lacks any engagement with the visitor. There seems little scope for meeting places or events, at least in its current construction, and is arguably a flamboyant waste of a sim, if the only practical areas are the roof-top office and another office, buried deep in Sunlight House, accessible by teleport.

On the plus side, at least it is another British company in Second Life - a rarity in itself. There seems to be a marked reluctance by British companies to come in to Second Life, in sharp contrast to the large numbers of German, French and (especially) Dutch companies who have planted their corporate flags in SL over the last year or so.

Oh... a bit more info on Sunlight House, courtesy of another notecard: "Russian-born Joe Sunlight was the Manchester-based pioneering architect and at one time one of the city's wealthiest citizens. Born into a Jewish family on the 2nd January 1890, his family fled from Russia and settled in Manchester around 1902. Joe was to become a prolific architect, having designed 1000 houses in the Prestwich district alone. His greatest landmark is the 14 storey Sunlight House, Manchester's first high rise office block as well as its tallest building when it was erected in the depressed 1930s. It was also very forward looking with its high speed lifts and its unique vacuum cleaning system which was designed to keep its 3000 windows dust-free. Sunlight planned an even taller building on the adjacent plot in Gartside Street, next to the Opera House, some 40 storeys high, inspired by a visit he had made to Chicago, but the local planning authority's short sightedness caused the plan to be rejected, and a car park, regrettably, now stands on the site. An inveterate gambler and racehorse owner he was reputed to spend around £1 million a year on horse racing. Later, he became a Liberal Member of Parliament, had the distinction of being Manchester's biggest taxpayer and when he died, in 1979 left a (then) fortune of nearly £6 million."

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And finally, back on The Bourne Ultimatum... Does this, in any way, explain the cluster of 4 orientation zones ("MDStyle Orientation") that appear to be replicas of an adjacent sim: Project Blackbriar. If this seems like gibberish, then you probably haven't seen the movie. Just curious, since I am unable to access any of the 5 sims in question - even though the map shows them to be in use.