Privateer Space

With Christmas not far away it seems like a good time to take a break from the pursuit of worthy business sims in Second Life and have a bit of fun instead. My huge thanks go to my chum, Lem Skall, for suggesting I have a look at Privateer Space. This has to be one of the most beautifully rendered and absorbing sites I've seen in SL - and I would say now that you should stop reading at this point and just go and explore it for yourself.

Ah... you're still here? OK then...

When you search the Second Life Map for Privateer Space you could be forgiven for giving it a miss. It appears on the map as a brand new type 2 island, from the outset hiding its many little gems. Just ignore this new island camouflage and teleport across anyway. You will find yourself not on the surface of a barren sim, but rather in the dining and shopping zone of a deep space mining vessel. If you are familiar with Red Dwarf you will have some idea of what I mean. Beyond that I will not reveal much more to you, other than to say that the sim has multiple levels, and in at least one case, multiple zones in a level - so do explore. You can figure out how to get about easily enough.

To whet your appetite I have an unfeasibly large slideshow for your perusal:


I love the textures, the objects, the ideas and the humour of this sim. It seems to exist purely as an exercise in what is possible in SL. As Aley Arai, the sim's owner describes it in her profile: "I just got the sim, what do you want me to say? ok it's going to be developed into a huge super emersion silly sci-fi playland for everyone. a non commercial venture."

Oh... a rather more comprehensive (and amusing) walkthru' can be found here.

A Random Selection of Sites I Like

At the recent Sophrosyne's Salon I showed a slide containing a hotch-potch of some of the SL sites I like. When asked, I rather rashly agreed to produce a notecard. With Second Life currently down for maintenance, I thought I'd do the next best thing(?) and list them here. But first - here's the slide (click for a link):


The sites are:

Row 1:
Dunder Mifflin Offices (The Office)
Repares - Virtuool's Giant Head
Art Center - Xantherus and Rhizome
VMOA
EOLUS

Row 2:
Princeton
Rezzables - Black Swan
Suruga Bank
Tokyo Mainland
Dresden Gallery

Row 3:
Orange
Amazon Web Services
A well-known vodka...
Chichen Itza
Koelner Dom

Row 4:
Reflexive Architecture demo
Blue Pill - Belgian build company
9/11 Memorial by Liam
Vietnam Memorial - The Wall - by Meme Sciences
SLtk Pro

Row 5:
Kowloon
Vranken Diamant
San Franceso d'Assisi
Leo Burnett

The other sites I listed as favourites are:
Svarga
Spin Martin's assorted sites (though they have probably changed many times)
Rachelville
Eldorado
Icarus
Dogfight Island
The Far Away (aka The Wheatfield)

If you are so inclined, you should be able to track down all of these sites by searching this blog. Can't be bothered? I don't blame you. But who knows? It might while away a few minutes while you wait for SL to come back after maintenance - or you may prefer to leave it for those dull days after Christmas when, torpid and full of wine and turkey, you need something mindless to do.

The View from New New Alville

While a couple of posts are brewing, I thought I'd share with you a few snaps from my own little plot of Second Life - New New Alville. The guy in the floating chair is my RL and SL chum, Hiram Taurog, all togged up for a business meeting. I hope he won't mind when I say that his avatar bears an uncanny resemblance to his RL self.

I also thought that most of these Windlight pics came out pretty well, I hope you like them - at least 1 or 2 them - too.

Syncretia

Second Life sims exist for a multitude of purposes. Some are there to promote companies or specific products; some are private meeting areas; some are for educators; some are the playgrounds of role-players; some are shopping malls and some are simply residents' second homes. A very few are there "just because" - and one that might fit this category is Syncretia. The sim belongs to Elif Ayiter (Alpha Auer in Second Life) who, according to her website, is "an artist, designer and educator, specialising in the development of hybrid educational methodologies between art&design and computer science. Elif speaks fluent English and German along with her native tongue, Turkish."

As she explains on Flickr: "Syncretia is my island. It is the third island of an archipelago comprised of die Angewandte on the far west, the Synthetic University in the middle and Syncretia on the east. Both die Angewandte and Synth Uni are domains of my colleague Mosmax Hax, who actually teaches at both these institutions in RL. I intend to use Syncretia for research, education and personal creativity; as well as a building ground for friends to share with me..."

At the moment the island of Syncretia appears to be at an early stage of development - and very much focused on personal creativity (in my view). I stumbled upon it while poring over the Second Life map, and am pleased I did. Even though it is not much further forward than initial terraforming and a small number of objects, I thought it was a lovely place and I like Elif's take on Second Life. Why put plants on the ground when they can float in the air? After all... they don't need nutrients to thrive in SL. Why not have a meeting place at the bottom of the sea? You are hardly likely to drown in SL. I hope to make many return visits to see how the island evolves, since its sensibilities are fairly in tune with my own.

To get a flavour of the place, here are my photos. Since blogger seems to have taken to enforcing downloads when clicking on pictures I thought I'd try something else - so here goes:



Well I like it :-) (Thanks to Xantherus for the viewer tip)

Al Moves House

I have been a bit quiet on the blogging front for a few days owing to a half-expected, but not too pleasant, piece of news that left me with some serious virtual house-hunting to do. For the last 8 months or so I have been renting a very nice, good-sized plot of land on the Intentional Growth sim, owned by a friend of mine. Unfortunately, for a variery of reasons she is having to effectively dispose of this quiet and tranquil island, and that means that I need to move on.

This has been a theoretical possibility for maybe a month - but last week it became a concrete fact. Now, I'm not really used to all this virtual land mullarkey, so I was at a bit of a loss to know what to do. I spoke to a few friends - issued an "all points bulletin" on Twitter, then started looking in earnest.

I had not appreciated just how complicated it can be to find the right deal. The "Land Sales" tab in the Second Life "Search" window provided me with hundreds of options. As I read through the lists I had to consider many criteria I had not really pondered before. Did I want themed? If so, what theme? Did I want lots of land but few prims? Or lots of prims on less land? Did I want pre-built or bare earth? Did I want to rent or buy? If I "bought" did I want the ability to re-sell later??

And for each interesting possibility, I had to teleport across to the land in question, see what the neighbourhood looked like and - most importantly - read and understand the covenant. For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, the covenant is provided by the landowner and basically tells you everything you can and can't do. Believe me, there can be huge differences between covenants - and this is often reflected in the price you pay.

So for example: Do you want to be able to build a skybox or platform? If so, are you happy with any altitude restrictions placed on you? Do you want to be able to terraform the land? Do you want to build a skyscraper? Or, indeed, have one on the plot next door to yours? Do you want to run scripted objects? If so, will they be sufficiently lightweight as to be permitted on the plot of land you are looking at? Sliding and rotating textures seem to be a particular bugbear - which is a pain for me, since I love 'em!

Then what about the purpose of the land? Do you want to run a business? If so, is it compatible with the covenant? Not a problem for me - but if you want a topless casino with camping chairs and money trees, then this could be a problem for you.

Negotiating this maze of possibilities while juggling the price and cost/square metre took me a few days. As with any commercial exercise, you are hoping to land The Perfect Deal, while suspecting that you could have done better. And the cost is another mini-minefield in itself. On the plus side, the many private land companies (like Anshe Chung) do not require you to hold a premium account - so that will save you 10USD a month. However, you should be aware that the price you pay comprises 2 elements: the "purchase price" and the tier (or monthly service charge/ground rent/whatever). Linden charge fixed amounts for these if you buy from them. However, each private vendor sets their own balance of the two. Some may opt for a low purchase price and a high tier per month, while for others it is the reverse. Even a single vendor may have multiple price bands depending on the type of land up for sale: low, normal or high prim, for example.

I know many of you live and breathe this stuff - but it was all new and a bit alien to me. It took me a few days before I finally found what (I think) I was after. It's a bit smaller than I had wanted, but it is a corner plot with sea on 2 sides, and waterways on the other 2; I can terraform it; the covenant is fair and sensible, but not too restrictive; the sim itself seems quiet and the price/tier is good value. (Or let me rephrase that: for buying something that does not really exist, it is good value!)

I am now moving in, having stripped out my old place. Here are a few pictures to remind me of where I'm moving from:


and where I'm moving to:

Virtuool

Perhaps you have already read about the Reperes giant head office, created by my friends at Virtuool.

Last night my wolf friend Joshua Culdesac contacted me to let me know that Virtuool, in effect a 2-person company, have now taken the plunge and acquired their own island in Second Life: Celestial Isle. I went along to see what my chum has been up to - as he's always got something interesting tucked up his sleeve, or in his inventory.

The first thing he showed me was his kitchen planner. This is a logical extension of the graphics facilities offered by specialist RL kitchen planners. In short order, Virtuool can construct your dream kitchen for you, using supplied plans. You can then walk through and check out its suitability, with adjustments possible in real time to address any shortcomings or problems with the plan. The intention is to offer the facility for use by RL kitchen planners, but of course it can also be used to design your ideal SL kitchen.

Next on the tour was the low-prim house. The house clocks in a 70 prims - perhaps not ultra-low, but nonetheless useful for the many SLers with tiny plots of land. As with most Virtuool builds it is also heavily scripted. It offers secure door access, privacy and visitor logging, but the most interesting scripting is in the teleport that allows you to move from one floor to another. This has been designed to minimise the prim count and eliminate the need for the transport to be unlinked from the rest of the house. However, you need to Joshua to explain how it works! Virtuool have also been designing a basic shop structure, for sale to budding SL entrepreneurs.

Also on the island you will find the opposite end of the housing market - an ultra-high prim house. This is not as bizarre as it may seem. The house has been designed and built using architectural plans for a US East Coast property company and, like the kitchen, is intended to offer virtual walk-throughs for prospective buyers of the RL house. Therefore, it needs to be as good a simulation as possible (right down to the micro-detailing on the front-door keyhole!). Joshua is also planning to produce a low-prim version for sale to SL house buyers.

The last main feature at ground level is the showroom, showcasing a number of the objects that Virtuool have built in the last few months. A new line is the Surprise Luggage, a range of suit-cases and valises that, when opened, reveal something unusual and amusing. For reasons best known to them, Virtuool have also been working on a range of spoof doctor's equipment. I can particularly recommend the thermometer!

Virtuool's main development area is a gigantic hangar, floating high above the island., where even the high-prim house is dwarfed. It was here that Joshua showed me the last of his gizmos - and one which I think could have a lot of uses. It is a set of presentation tablets, with one master (used by the lecturer or presenter) and a number of slave tablets. As slides are loaded into the master tablet, they are automatically displayed on the slave tablets. Once the sequence has been loaded, the slides are in effect buffered, so performance is optimised. What I found intriguing was that the slave tablets could be up to 100 metres from the master - giving the option to replicate a presentation across a number of slave displays set within a circle of 100 metres radius. Very useful for large-scale presentations, as well as smaller lecture venues.

I know Joshua is taking a calculated gamble with his move into building in Second Life, and I wish him and his colleague, Piper, all success. I like their "take" on things - there's usually something fun and quirky in their builds that makes you (a) smile and (b) wonder how they did it. OK... and sometimes (c), why did they do it?!

For more information contact Joshua Culdesac via IM or use the contact details on the website.

In Search of Gold

During my recent trip to Sprint Center I noticed a curious building, looking like a cross between a ziggurat and a favela, on a adjacent island. My curiosity got the better of me and so, having hoovered up the info at Sprint, I flew over for a closer look.

The island is called Eldorado, and is dedicated to Latin American culture. The "ziggurat/favela" is hollow, and floats above a plinth, at the heart of which lies a set of video screens, showing short movies from across Latin America. As the supplied notecard put it: "journey through the pyramid and enjoy all the treasures of the Hispanic culture. View some Latin American aspirations and realities in these awarded shorts, created by the emerging film talent from México, Perú and Argentina. Brought exclusively to you by Cinema Tropical and The Vidal Partnership."

Outside, in the luhs tropical gardens, you will find a number of sculptures. The inspiration comes from the “Ruta de la Amistad”, the world’s largest corridor of sculptures in a public space, where artists of the five continents created 19 imaginative art pieces for the “Mexico 68” Cultural Olympics. (Unfortunately, I have not been able to track down a website that gives much information about the original sculptures)

I was particularly taken with the pyramid textures, which were worth the trip on their own. Hopefully the proximity to Sprint Center will encourage the curious to make the short hop and find out more.

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And just a quick "thank you" to Adri at Metaversality for the invite to last night's " KRTU Jazz for the Metaverse." KRTU , on 91.7 FM, provides jazz for San Antonio from Trinity University. Here's Adri grooving to Ella Fitzgerald:

It seemed to become a bloggers and twitterers convention - as often seems to happen to me these days! Unfortunately, I had to bow out early - the time difference between UK and Texas took its toll in the end - but not before I added some new SL friends and Twitter chumz.

Ambling in slthere.com

On entering SL tonight I was greeted by a number of announcements, but what really got my attention was an IM from Okilele Pinkenba.

"Hi Aleister, we are developing a Web site about SL places and people and created a card about the Ambling blog. Can you please check it in slThere.com (just enter "Ambling" as keyword) and contact us in case a rectification is needed. A short note about slThere in your blog should certainly help us a lot. Thanks. Oki and the slThere team."

I immediately hot-footed it over to slThere.com to have a look-see - followed the cunningly coded instructions, and was very flattered by what I read there. So big thanks for that Oki (there will be a "Please be my chum" request in your inbox when you log in). slThere.com publicises events, people, groups and places across a wide range of categories - including blogs. Pop along if you've got a favourite you would like to mention.

Okilele asked for a pointer from here. Well, how could I refuse?

Groups in Second Life - My Dilemma

After a curious incident in the night time of Second Life, I have decided to seek your input on a matter of concern to me.

When asked to explain Second Life (as I frequently am) my explanation usually involves rambling references to social interaction, ad hoc networks and collaboration. In support of this, I cite the existence of groups in SL as a mechanism for building "communities of interest". However, now I come to think about it, most of the groups I know are somewhat moribund, with little communication taking place between the members, and thus little in the way of shared community.

This was brought home to me last night. I belong to a number of groups in SL, as most residents do, and being a helpful soul, I responded when someone in one of these groups raised a RFI. As a general rule, such responses lead to a brief flurry of exchanges before people leave the session - me included. However, last night the exchanges built up into a debate (of sorts). Personally, bearing in mind my statements above, I think this is a healthy use of groups. I was therefore disappointed when the owner of the group cordially invited those debating to take the conversation elsewhere.

This has left me thinking. If the sole purpose of a group is to provide a "push channel" for the owners then I feel it is an opportunity lost. Some will argue that group conversation constitutes "noise" that prevents the owner disseminating information on the channel. But this is nonsense. I receive plenty of group announcements that keep me informed of group news - and these do not require the use of the IM channel.

Groups, in my view, should be proactive and participatory - not reactive and passive. If you don't wish to participate (as is often the case with me) then it is easy to leave the session. I accept that large numbers of unfettered debates might prove troublesome to follow - but this leads to a natural limiter: if you can't follow the debate you can abandon it or take it elsewhere, into a new group.

It looks, for now, like my hoped-for "communities of interest" may not fit the SL model after all. So should I simply abandon all my groups (aside from those that grant special access), as being just marketing push channels? Or go the other way, and create a new "Talking Nonsense" group, where anyone can join and interact with anyone and everyone else?

All reasonable views gratefully received...

UPDATE: I agree with A.Nonymous that it'd be good to have more than 25 groups. Also, the option to suppress "noise" would be most welcome.

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As part of the discussion in question was about identity in virtual environments, I thought I would share this piece of brilliance with you, a presentation on "Identity2.0": http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/

Chronovampirism and Social Collaboration

As regular readers will know, I may spend much of my time as a lone traveller in Secondlife, seeking out the as-yet undisclosed or undiscovered, but I also enjoy the social networking side of my second life. I've banged on about networks and collaboration on many occasions in this blog, but I've been thinking recently about the "dark side of collaboration", including the underworld of time vampires: "chronovampirism". [ I've checked Google - and it looks like I've coined myself a new term ]

The Daddy of social interaction, the “gold standard”, is face-to-face (f2f) contact. As this has always been part of the human experience, I have chosen not to look at the “time vampires” who can consume so much of one’s waking/working hours in f2f meandering chatter. Besides, most of us would probably confess to sucking other people’s time on occasion – I know I do.

I am more concerned about the plethora of new-fangled (ie: anything invented after about 1850!) mechanisms that now clamour for my time. I am far from being the most “connected” person in the World, yet here is a list of the electro-social tools I use during the course of an average day (some are professional, some personal):

• company email
• company IM
• Skype IM (work address)
• Skype IM (home address)
• Client site email
• Twitter
• personal email x 2
• Mobile/cellphone talk
• Mobile/cellphone SMS text
• Fixed line telephone
• Teleconferences
• Video-conferences (fortunately relatively rare)
• Second Life chat
• Second Life IM

To this I would add “push” social tools I contribute to:

• My company personal blog
• Slambling blog (that you are reading now)
• 3pointd blog
• plus comments on postings on many, many other blogs.

And just to add a little more spice to this heady mix, much of this is glued together by my Google Homepage, that keeps me informed when there’s something that might need my attention, or that might pique my interest.

Each of these tools on its own is innocuous enough. But taken en masse they represent a major onslaught on my time - the flipside of the upbeat, can-do message of “networks & collaboration”.

OK... much of this is self-inflicted, and to be fair I can (and do) take steps to remedy the situation when it looks like it is getting out of hand. I just find it interesting that I have slipped by small increments ("a blog here... an IM service there... I can handle it") to a position where such collaborative tools now consume a large part of my everyday activity. It makes for a longer but more satisfying "working day" - but I do wonder where my breaking point might be: "Go on... subscribe to just one more blog aggregator. And one more virtual world won't do any harm, will it?"

Finally Taking the Plunge

After much "ummm-ing" and "errrrr-ing" I have finally got myself a place in the virtual Sun. All I need to do now is figure out what in the name of [insert deity here] I should do with it!

It's a balmy, breezy corner of a tier-5 sim... a gentle slope leads down to the shoreline.... though there is no beach to speak of, as the land dips suddenly into the clear blue waters. I took possession late Saturday night, and spent a chunk of Sunday moving in. All expense has been spared in my liberal use of freebies, with palm trees fringeing the shoreline, while on the higher ground I have some sturdy cypress trees sheltering a little temple. This was something I built a few months ago, using a variety of public and less well-known sandboxes. It's good to give it a permanent home. For a house I've opted for one of the many freebie beach houses, built on stilts, reaching out over the sea. Aside from that, I think the only extravagance has been a 36-prim telescope, that is just too cool to leave out.

I've constructed some pathways, lit with mini-glowballs, and a micro-volcano, for a touch of geological glamour. I raided Yadni's for a bunch of free furniture, but couldn't really find what I wanted. So I made some simple chairs, that are now arranged around a fire pit, overlooking the sea.

I've also unpacked some of my (so-called) arty pieces, to enliven the place. Over time I expect the site to fill with more of these... but I'm trying to maintain a harmonious balance of content and open spaces. My landlady has requested that no building be greater than 35ft in height - and I'm completely happy with this constraint (it's OK to build what I want above cloud level). At the moment my nearest neighbours are on the other side of the island, but I'm sure the intervening land will fill soon enough. As long as everyone conforms to the minimal standards, then this should be a really nice island.

After some consideration, I have decided that my aims for this land are threefold:
1. It gives me a place in SL to experiment with scripting;
2. It gives me a place to build and display my array of widgets and arty wotnots;
3. It provides me with a place to meet friends and colleagues.

And now, I suppose I ought to critique the build. In terms of its current aims, the build seems reasonably successful. However, some of the space could and should be put to better use. There is a general lack of information available, no permanent greeter and a paucity of cutting-edge web2.0 integration features. However, this is tempered by the fact that it represents only about 8 or 10 hours work, and it does seem well-balanced. Recent visitors have all offered congratulations and praised the nature of the build --- but then, they're hardly going to say negative things, are they?

The experience to date has already proved instructive:

• Although I have known intellectually that it is possible to blend bought/free items and self-built components quickly and easily, it is nevertheless surprising to find just how fast this can be done when you have the opportunity to do it.
• As with anything else in Life, being clueless to begin with tends to mean a poor outcome at the end, but it is easy enough to tweak as you go - something that is costly and time-consuming in RL.
• It is easy to overdo it - it is important to step back, "pause and assess", before ploughing into the next thing.
• It is easy to get hung up on detail. If it isn't working, step away and do something else instead. It will still be waiting for you when you get back.