Help Wanted in Second Life

April 3, 2007

Sweden is setting up an embassy in Second Life and Sears and Best Buy have opened stores there, it should come as no surprise that recruiting companies are establishing employment offices there too.

Second Life is a social network where "residents" create likenesses (known as avatars), interact with one another, buy land, build homes, get jobs and shop in an ever-expanding virtual world. It's a make-believe world that does a very real $1 million a day in business among the 15,000 to 40,000 users who are online at any one time.

With a help-wanted classifieds section and hundreds of jobs on its job board, SLJobFinder.com, Second Life presents an enticing lure for recruiters who are willing to test the waters, just the way some have by communicating with gamers in such role-playing games as EverQuest and World of Warcraft.

This month, Semper International became the first real-world staffing company to open a Second Life employment office. A leading staffing agency for the graphic arts and printing industry, the Boston-based company is advertising for designers, animators, virtual-world builders and the like. For now, the jobs are in the real world; eventually the work might be for real companies that want a Second Life presence.

"You have to be creative," Semper COO Brian Regan says. That's why the company bought space, built an office in Second Life and accepts applications from Second Life residents. Another reason is that Regan is an avid online game player and thought opening an office in the virtual world would be a way to attract young talent to the print world, a "not sexy" industry in the digital age, he says.

Better known by its former name, PrintStaff, and before that, PressTemps, Semper provides temporary staff in creative, design, pre-press and printing services to job shops and large printing businesses that have short-term staffing needs. But, Regan says, as the baby boomers who occupy many of the administrative and craft positions retire, "that industry will be under duress."

"Getting young people interested [in print] is a challenge," he says. "Second Life is a place where a lot of these talented people are, so I thought it would be a good place for us to be."

Now, just a few weeks after Semper opened its virtual doors, Regan says he has received several applications, with one already a finalist for a real-world job.

Another entrant to Second Life recruiting is Jeff Worth, a contract recruiter for Advanced Micro Devices. He built Recruiter Zone, and while he and a colleague are the only two recruiters there right now, he has high hopes to turn the site into a sort of 24/7 job fair. "I am definitely looking for a community of recruiters—people who want to experiment and have fun," he adds. "This is not something that is going to generate a lot of results right now."

Still, he's had a few applicants for his AMD openings and gets a rush of job seekers whenever he advertises in Second Life classifieds with such pitches as "Looking for Mafia dons and cowboys."

"That's what appeals to the role-playing types," he adds.

IBM has a different approach. It has an extensive presence in Second Life, but much of it is off-limits to all but those the company invites. One of the public areas, however, is a flashy recruitment office that links out to IBM Canada's Internet recruitment site.

Last month, TMP Worldwide, a recruitment advertising agency that was once part of Monster Worldwide, said it would offer virtual job fairs on its invitation-only island for clients of the recruitment advertising agency.

—John Zappe

A day in Second Life

A day in Second Life is 4 hours long, with 3 hours of daytime and 1 hour of night. Many other quirks of the sun and moon: The sun orbits the SL world and travels faster during night, the moon is always full, there will not be an eclipse for many many Earth years (a year in SL is 10 days long).

Second Life Overview

Doctor Dobbs Portal

An excerpt from an article by Dana Moore and Raymond Budd:

What is so compelling about Second Life and other emergent virtual (nongame) worlds? In a 2006 interview, Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale explains that when entering Second Life, people's digital alter-egos (known as "avatars") can move around and do everything they do in the physical world, but without such bothers as the laws of physics. "When you are at Amazon.com [using current web technology], you are actually there with 10,000 concurrent other people, but you cannot see them or talk to them," Rosedale said. "At Second Life, everything you experience is inherently experienced with others." Think of what this would mean to a social site. Instead of posting entries and responses on slashdot.org or digg.com and then reading them from a web page or an RSS feed, imagine conversing in real time with actual peers on emerging stories from real Reuters or CNet news feeds. Imagine opening a storefront site for your next brilliant idea and having it literally be a storefront, where you could, in real time, interact with your user base and potential customers. Imagine a world in which you could multitask by first tending to personal activities from "home," turn attention to "work," then break for "lunch" in an RPG adventure or go to a virtual beach in the middle of the day.

That's the promise that Second Life suggests. But there are several other reasons why it should be on your developer radar: Commerce is built into Second Life. It has a real economy fueled by a real currency. Although most of the goods and services in Second Life are virtual, the money is real, and the intellectual property you create is yours. Thus, the programming you do in this world is convertible to real revenue. Residents spent over $200 million in this virtual world in 2006. Every object in Second Life is there because a software developer created it. Currently, the SL incarnation of the metaverse is the open frontier, the wild west. No large players dominate the landscape; by mastering Linden Scripting Language, you are on even footing with any developer anywhere. Potential customers are loyal to the environment and experience. It is estimated that second world "residents" currently spend 40 hours a month in-world, a little more than 10 percent of the amount of time the average American spends watching TV per month. Consider the positive impact for your company of that level of exposure to potential consumers. Second Life is inherently a social experience rather than a game-playing environment. It has been estimated that slightly fewer than 50 percent of SL residents are female; this far exceeds female immersion in game-playing environments. Any web-based business that can attract genders equally holds tremendous promise. Your creations are potentially infinitely scalable. You can create shade changing sunglasses or dirigibles, and after you sell the first copy, you'll still have an infinite number left.

Read more:
http://www.ddj.com/dept/64bit/198800545

MSNBC: A guide to Second Life's space frontier

Showcasing 9 space related Second Life concepts:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17865952/?pg=1#space_slguide_070330

Faithful build a Second Life for religion online

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Now is the holy season for the world's Christians and Jews — on Earth and
in the parallel cyberuniverse, Second Life.

...Second Life was created by Linden Lab in San Francisco in 2003; its
founders imagined a social platform for an idealized online society.
Membership has soared to 5 million; it has established a thriving economy
and become a popular venue for politics and education.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2007-04-01-second-life-religion_N.htm

Second Life Voice - Public Beta !!!

How It Works In-World

When you are on a voice-enabled parcel, you can simply walk up to
another avatar and begin speaking in a normal voice (no need to shout!).

If your headset is correctly configured, you will see a voice
"intensity indicator" over your avatar. This indicates that your
voice is being sent to (and can be heard by) others on the parcel.
The voice intensity indicator will change color slightly and will
grow and shrink along with the natural volume patterns and
fluctuations of your voice.

If the indicator turns red, you're either speaking too loudly, the
microphone is too close to your mouth, or the volume control on your
microphone is turned up a little too far. Please make adjustments
until the voice indicator stays in the bright green range and only
seldom flickers to red.

When others speak, you will see their intensity indicators and hear
their voices as they will hear yours. Walk around someone who is
speaking to you to hear the voice move around in 3D, based on where
you are relative to that avatar. If you turn toward someone and move
closer, for example, their voice will be louder. If you speak while
walking around someone else, they too will hear your voice tracking
your position.

All the information and to download:
http://secondlife.com/community/bhear.php

NASA collaborates with rocket enthusiasts on real-world applications

By Alan Boyle
Science editor, MSNBC
Updated: 10:04 a.m. PT March 30, 2007
Is there such a thing as virtual vertigo? If so, that must have been
what I was feeling as I fell to Earth from the planet Pluto.

Yes, the synthetic world known as Second Life has things that are not
of this world, including floating launch pads, mini-planets, space
shuttles and an international space station. More is on the way:
environments that look and feel like the moon, for instance, or
simulated lava tubes that could help researchers build real-life
bases on the moon or Mars.

The colonization of virtual outer space hints at the shape of things
to come, for NASA as well as less traditional players on the final
frontier. And along the way, the virtual-world pioneers are
encountering some of the same technical and bureaucratic challenges
they deal with in the real world.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17841125/

Wells Fargo in Second Life

As hinted at earlier this year, Wells Fargo has launched their own
private "Stagecoach Island" in the virtual world of Second Life. With
the help of Swivel Media, a so-called "experential" marketing agency,
Wells Fargo's Stagecoach Island aims to teach young adults how to
handle their finances, presumably by using Wells Fargo's financial
services. ...

http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/entry/

wells_fargo_buys_second_life_island/

VIA Design in SL

I found VIA Design in Second Life. These are serious, cutting edge
designers and they have their aim on SL. View their website here:

http://www.viadesign.com ... it may take you a moment to figure out how to navigate their site. They don't dish out pablum in the real world, so I can see why they are excited about this new metaverse of possibilities.

< click image below and read the text >

Second Life Breaks 5 Million Member Mark

--- March 27th, 2007 ---

Total Residents: 5,021,133

 Logged In Last 60 Days: 1,571,553

 Online Now: 26,040

 US$ Spent Last 24h: $1,606,176

 LindeX Activity Last 24h: $235,052

 (as of this morning)

--- March 5th, 2007 ---

Total Residents: 4,315,826

 US$ spent last 24 hours: $1,491,574

Membership up 705,307 in 22 days.

 > Avg. of 32,059 new 'residents' per day.

 > Avg. of 1,335 per hour.

 > Avg. of 22 per minute

That's 2 per minute less than the last post on March 12th.

Last I heard, the extremely popular "World of War Craft" has only about 6 million members... and it's a game.

Regina Spektor Listening Loft

Wow! Regina can be found on iTunes with 3 albums. Her listening loft
is complete with a reel-to-reel styled music player that let's you select songs to play. Designed by Aimeee Weber - nice job Aimee!

A Second Life Blog Quote

"Every human being is interested in two kinds of worlds: the Primary,
everyday world which he knows through his senses, and a Secondary
world or worlds which he not only can create in his imagination, but
which he cannot stop himself creating." W.H. Auden

http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2006/06/

getting_started.html

PA Consulting in Second Life

More about PA Consulting Group

PA Consulting Group is a leading management, systems and technology consulting firm. Operating worldwide in more than 35 countries, PA draws on the knowledge and experience of 3,000 people, whose skills extend from the initial generation of ideas, insights, solutions and new technology, all the way through to detailed implementation.

PA:

- is increasingly differentiated, by virtue of its independence and
focus on value-added consultancy
- has a unique set of competences to deliver on its promise of independence, value and trust
- has a commercial and employee ownership model which sets it apart
from most other consultancies.

Second Life Day Jobs

"By way of example, here are just a few in-world business occupations which Residents founded and currently run, and make part or all of their real life living from:"

advertiser	lottery operator
aerospace engineer	machinima set designer
architect	magazine
auto manufacturer	musician
bodyguard	nightclub owner
casino operator	party and wedding planner
custom animation creator	pet manufacturer
custom avatar designer	private detective
dancer	publicist
fashion designer	publisher
fine artist	real estate speculator
freelance scripter	special effects designer
game developer	tattooist
gamer	theme park developer
gunsmith	tour guide
hug maker	vacation resort owner
jewelry maker	writer
landscaper	XML coder

http://secondlife.com/whatis/businesses.php

"Book" Your Trip In The Metaverse

Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games

by Edward Castronova

Book Link

Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning

by Sasha A. Barab (Editor), Rob Kling (Editor), James Gray (Editor)

Book Link

Conquering Panic, Anxiety, and Phobias: Achieving Success through Virtual Reality and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Book Link

Virtual Teams: Projects, Protocols and Processes

Book Link

Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds-And How It Promises to Transform Society

Book Link

Starting a Second Life Business

Find out what entrepreneurial opportunities the virtual world of
Second Life has to offer.
By Laura Tiffany
January 09, 2007

A million dollars of virtual loot. It's a concept that's difficult to
wrap your head around, but in November, that's exactly what virtual
real-estate developer Anshe Chung accomplished in the 3D virtual
world Second Life, in which users live "second" lives as avatars.
When her entrepreneurial success story hit the press, it spread like
wildfire, leading many to ask: What exactly are the business
opportunities available in Second Life? Are people really turning
their love for Second Life into a full-time business?

http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/businessideas/

article172768.html

Second Life voice to launch by June

Written by By Adam Reuters
Friday, 02 March 2007

Linden Lab said on Tuesday it will launch integrated voice
capabilities within the next several months, including effects to
prevent a cacophony of overlapping voices.

A private beta-test will begin next week ahead of a larger public
trial, with a formal launch by the end of June. Second Life users can
already use voice through third-party solutions such as Skype, but
Linden Lab said an integrated offering would offer "a richer, more
immersive virtual environment."

The new capabilities, provided by virtual world communications firm
Vivox, are intended to make it as easy as possible for users to
determine who is talking, and where. Using 3D audio technology from
DiamondWare, sound will come from the right or left stereo channel
depending on where the speaker is located, and voices beyond a
certain distance will not be audible. Indicators and animations will
also reflect when someone is talking, and how loudly.

"We wanted an integration that would allow you to discriminate
individual voices out of a large number of them," said Joe Miller,
Linden Lab vice president for platform and technology development, in
a phone interview. He said the calculations to provide voice services
take place on a separate server which should not contribute to lag or
additional system load.

Voice will be available on islands and parcels of land where the
owners choose to make it available, along with group conference calls
and one-to-one personal communication similar to Skype. Unlike the
rival virtual world There.com, which has long had an integrated voice
feature, Second Life will not offer lip synching.

"We decided not to do lip synching until the implementation could be
believable," Miller said.

Introducing voice could expose the broadening language gap in Second
Life, where more than half of users now speak a first language other
than English. Also, some in Second Life have argued that integrating
voice could break the "magic circle" that makes the world so
convincing, by pairing real voices with virtual avatars.

Miller said the company would eventually offer voice masking, so that
users can choose what they sound like. Vivox, which has already
launched several virtual phone booths within Second Life that can
call real-world numbers, has promoted the concept of "voice fonts"
that let users choose from a variety of vocal tones.

"There will be individuals who choose not to share their voice, we
understand that," Miller said. "The ability to design a voice for
your avatar that's intelligible, we will offer that. Today the
technology isn't there. You can sound like Darth Vader with a head
cold, but it's really just a toy."

http://www.2lifeblog.com/index.php?

option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=2

Spirit Rail Visits Second Life

I spent a number of hours learning the 3D design tools in Second Life. A friend of mine has two patents on a light rail system named "Spirit Rail" and, after having modeled it in Maya last year, I thought I would try modeling it in the virtual world. Now for scripting it to open doors and move down it's track! Can anyone say "virtual, interactive presentations in real time"? (Click the images to enlarge.)

A Virtual Visit To A Virtual Law Office

by DICK DAHL
March 9, 2007

By day, Ralph J. Strebel is a mild-mannered commercial litigator in
Mesa, Ariz. But at night, when he logs onto Second Life, he becomes
Blackstone Lancaster, intrepid righter of wrongs in a lawless virtual
land.

http://simchronicity.wordpress.com/2007/03/08/a-virtual-visit-to-a-

virtual-law-0ffice/

Essential Marketing Info for Second Life

http://simchronicity.wordpress.com/

"Second Life scammers and griefers, beware. RatePoint has your number
and it's somewhere between one and five.
On Monday, RatePoint plans to announce that it's extending its free
social rating service — used to rate and discuss Web sites, products,
and services online — to Linden Lab's virtual world, Second Life.

Just as RatePoint members share their ratings for books and videos,
residents of Second Life will be able share their opinions of people,
in the form of a one-start to five-star rating, provided the
appropriate extension is installed.

The goal is to establish which individuals are commerce-worthy, as
eBay attempts to do with its buyer and seller ratings."

Second Life for Lawyers

How can lawyers inject a little more life to the practice of law? By
getting a life, or more accurately, a Second Life. As Stephanie
Francis Ward reports in this detailed article, Fantasy Life, Real
Law, (March 2007), lawyers are joining the virtual community Second
Life, creating new laws, serving as judges, marketing to clients and
even meeting legal celebrities, like 7th Circuit Judge Richard
Posner, who even autographed virtual copies of his most recent book.

http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2007/03/get_a_lifea_sec.html

Weather Channel To Launch In Second Life

by David Goetzl, Monday, Mar 12, 2007 7:30 AM ET

THE WEATHER CHANNEL HAS BECOME the latest marketer to jump on the
Second Life bandwagon by launching a virtual headquarters in the 3D
online universe. Known as "Weather Island," it will offer an extreme
sports park, in line with the theme of new show "Epic Conditions." It
will also serve as an avenue to debut show episodes and other footage.

The Second Life initiative looks to serve as both a promotional and
possibly ad sales vehicle. The new "Epic Conditions" series aims to
give viewers a front-row seat as extreme athletes take on challenging
conditions. It has a limited run on-air this month, and moves to the
lineup full-time this fall. An eponymous broadband channel is already
up. Second Life has 4.5 million users. The Weather Channel inclusion
allows them an interactive experience to "become" an extreme athlete
by skiing Mount Epic and mountain-biking the Moab Desert.

Coming soon: A "big wave" surfing simulator. Weather Island will
offer episode premieres--as will the broadband channel on the
weatherchannel.com site--before their on-air debuts. "With Second
Life, we're hopeful we can expose our brand in an original and
meaningful way," says Debora Wilson, president, The Weather Channel
Companies. "We also see Second Life as a potential advertising
platform for brands currently partnering with us." Keeping with
consumer hunger for social networking, Weather Island offers the
chance to engage with other visitors, simulate activities and gather
information about the real-world spots where the extreme sports are
played out.

Second Life Membership Up Last 7 Days

Membership up 242,836 in the last 7 days.

 -> averaging 34,690 per day.

 -> averaging 1,445 per hour.

 -> averaging 24 per minute.

--- March 5th, 2007 ---

Total Residents: 4,315,826

US$ spent last 24 hours: $1,491,574

--- March 12th, 2007 ---

Total Residents: 4,558,662

US$ spent last 24 hours: $1,769,653

Marketing & Promotions in Second Life

Welcome to The SL Agency – Your Brand's Guide to Marketing in Second
Life

The SL Agency offers in–world Event Marketing and Virtual Brand
Promotion with Real–World event tie–ins

http://www.theslagency.com/?gclid=CJPu5-Pe7YoCFRs_ggodIBnsqA

Second Life Hotel Project - aloft

"In September, Starwood Hotels became the first company in history to open a new hotel brand inside of a virtual world. Prior to opening to the public in 2008, aloft hotels now offers a sneak preview inside of Second Life. As we continue to develop our virtual aloft hotel, this weblog will track the progress of the hotel, giving you an in depth insiders view."

aloft website

http://www.virtualaloft.com/

Time Lapse of construction:

http://www.virtualaloft.com/2006/09/time_lapse_video.php#trackbacks

Business Week info on the hotel:

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/aug2006/id20060823_925270.htm?chan=innovation_branding_branding

Millions of Us Design Firm in San Francisco

For a relatively small investment—the Scion campaign was designed by San Francisco-based firm Millions of Us, which typically charges in the low six figures for Second Life projects—Toyota will be able to position itself online as a pop culture-savvy brand.

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2006/id20061030_869611.htm?chan=search

Glimpse Inside a Metaverse: The Virtual World of Second Life - Google Video

See link for long presentation from founders of SL talking to Google.

VERY INFORMATIVE

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5182759758975402950

SL Land Sizes compared to Tucson

Second Life land sizes compared to Tucson.

An Island is 65,536 meters squared. Islands are $1,675.00 with a
monthly recurring [server] fee of $150. A mainland's region monthly
fee is $195.

Island Info: http://secondlife.com/community/land-islands.php
(Mainland) Land Auctions: http://secondlife.com/auctions/

Links above may require logging in to the site...

Click image below to enlarge:

Perfect Alpha Channels - SL

http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLTutSet.html

Possibilities

For Walt Disney Co.'s (DIS ) movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Bovington's firm worked with the media agency Carat Group to develop a marketing campaign.

Using Second Life to create 3D models of the android character Marvin for posters, CD-ROMs, and a Web site, they placed the character in various poses to see what designs worked best -- all in 20 minutes instead of the two weeks typically required to build physical models.

Overall, Rivers Run Red saved up to $175,000 last year using Second Life to eliminate expensive modeling services and travel.

Business Week:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982007.htm

Crayon - Virtual Company

"We're virtual, in the sense that our primary presence as a company is the three-dimensional online digital world of Second Life where we will conduct our business, our presentations, our brainstorms and our pitches."

http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/10/22/its-time-to-unveil-crayon/

Second Life - Dell Computer

And while there are some substantial challenges still for companies that are doing business in Second Life, the number of brick and mortar businesses opening storefronts made of ones and zeros is on a steady uptick. If you order a computer from Dell you can even select "Second Life" as your country, and use the virtual world as the place where you interact with the company and build your computer to spec.

http://www.guidewireconnection.com/archive/2007/01/28/a-second-look-at-second-life

This will get your noodle.

from a post in Wired Magazine News:

This will get your noodle.

When Second Life intigrates the Firefox Browser on Textures and my
Avatar Plays World of War Craft on his TV and I am getting Money on E-bay for the items I aquire in World of War Craft and downstairs
people are buying my designs and a client walks in that wants me to
build him a Stadium but I tell him to come back tomorrow because
downstairs out my virtual window a Band I like in a country 3000
miles away is playing and at Home i'm talking with my family, then I
hit the controls in my Second Life Home that work the oven in my real
life home to cook dinner, turn on the porch lights and transfer my
Lindens and Paypal Cash to my Bank Account to pay my bills so I can
shut off the computer and be done for the day at 5:00 PM after
logging in at Noon spend some time with the kids and later make love
to my wife on a weekday because neither of us is exhausted or
stressed over money...

Am I
A: Working in a Virtual environment on my own schedule
B: Playing a Video game
C: Spending time with my kids
D: Attending a concert
E: Cooking Dinner
F: Creating quality time during the week for my spouse
G: Looking for Morpheus and Trinity

> author uknown
> link missing

Second Life - Developers: Resource Matrix

http://secondlife.com/developers/resources/matrix.php

Education Example

I was roaming around IBM - went offshore of one of their facilities..
so I don't know if this bldg. is IBM's ... but it's a great example
of virtual education. In this case, VearthLabs would either
be hired by someone who has a grant (or private funding) to recreate
a facility that they tend offer as whole or part of an entire
experience, or our company could apply for such funding (maybe even
create a desire to attract investors to a non-profit cause) to create
it... in either case, it wouldn't get built for anything less than
our cost to create and publish it in SL. Interesting to note, people
that work for non-profits aren't always poor.

Danish Bank to Offer Real-World Services in SL

Reuters' Adam Pasick has the news that just such a thing is coming: "Denmark's Saxo Bank plans to offer Second Life residents the ability to manage their real-life financial portfolios from within the virtual world, and may eventually create a market to trade the Linden dollar against real-world currencies," he writes. It's still in an early stage, but it sounds like Saxo will allow people to access their real-world trading accounts from within Second Life, and perhaps eventually give them the option to receive a portion of trading profits in Linden dollars.

http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/03/02/danish-bank-moves-to-offer-trading-in-second-life/

Design tools to get a Second Life online?

From an article in Blogs.business2.com

"Last week I got a fresh sense of the business potential for Second Life, the immersive 3D world created and maintained by San Francisco-based Linden Lab. But my epiphany didn't come while talking to the Linden Lab folks. Rather, I was chatting with Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk (ADSK).

...

Bass says lately, much of Autodesk's business is helping to create "digital prototypes" – virtual versions of products and environments that let customers feel like they're trying out the real thing."

http://blogs.business2.com/utilitybelt/2007/01/design_tools_to.html

Linden Lab will be adding voice capabilities to the Second Life Grid.

The voice capabilities will enable Second Life Residents to speak to each other if they wish, in addition to the current Instant Messaging and chat functions. Linden Lab anticipates that voice will be particularly valuable to Resident groups such as educators, non-profits and businesses, who might use Second Life as a collaborative tool for learning and training.

Linden Lab is the leading company in its field to offer integrated communication capabilities with 3D "proximity-based" voice communication. It uses spatial awareness, taking distance and direction into account, for a more realistic "in-world" voice experience. When speaking, Residents' avatars will become animated according to the intensity of speech volume.

A private beta program on a test-grid for 1,000 users will be launched next week, before a Grid-wide beta trial, which will give current Second Life Residents the opportunity to explore the benefits of voice-enabled communication. A formal launch is scheduled for Q2, 2007.

http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/6178

Linden Lab To Open Source Second Life Software

Linden Lab To Open Source Second Life Software

Creator of Leading 3D Virtual World Releases Source Code To Viewer Software

San Francisco, CA – January 8, 2007 – Linden Lab®, creator of 3D virtual world Second Life® (www.secondlife.com), is releasing the code of its Viewer application to the open source software development community. Developers can now access the source code to the Second Life end-user software in order to make modifications, enhancements and to add new features. The move marks Linden Lab's continued commitment to building the Second Life Grid as an open, extensible platform for development, rather than a closed proprietary system.

The Second Life Viewer is used by subscribers or 'Residents' to access the virtual world's Grid. Freely-downloadable from the Second Life website, the Viewer software enables Residents to control their in-world avatars, interact with each other via Instant Message, create content, buy and sell objects, access multimedia content and to navigate around the virtual environment. The source code for the sophisticated client software will now be made available to developers who wish to extend and enhance its functionality.

http://lindenlab.com/press/releases/01_08_07

Second Life and RedBull

Augie was telling me about this:

There are Red Bull chicks walking around Second Life ... asking
people if they would like to try a drink... accepting it would cause
the Second Life character (you) to spaz out like it was drunk/feeling
the effect of the drink.

The Red Bull chick gets $2 Linden dollars for doing it - for every
drink she hands out...

Current Exchange Rate: L$266 : US$1

$2 Linden = almost a penny $US

but as we all know, that figure will go up as people are trained,
people that are good at getting the message out can show a history of
doing so, etc. etc.

Wired News: Second Life's Must-Have Stuff

Second Life residents are spending $7 million a month on digital goods and services. If you're wondering what people do in a world with no levels, no score, no set challenges or quests, perhaps a clue may be found in some of the 15 terabytes of user-created content being bought and sold within the virtual world.

List of must-haves:

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/1,71965-0.html

Games in Education

Two quotes from a short documentary from the Orange County Department
of Education:

"Computer and video games also show a great deal of potential as teaching and learning tools. They can provide a context for learning,
opportunities for inquiry, and frameworks for collaboration. They are also deeply motivating and engaging for today's students. More importantly, players are learning difficult to teach 21st century skills such as adaptability, self direction, risk taking, interactive communication, prioritizing, planning and managing for results.
There's little doubt that a good deal of incidental learning is
taking place when students play these games, but the question is how
we can harness this powerful new medium for intentional learning in
formal education."

"I think that what we're looking at is a technology which allows
people to drill deep into the subject matter, to explore choice and
consequence to play with complex variables, to simulate real-world
processes, to create peer-to-peer teaching teaching opportunities, to
create immersive and highly motivated mode of learning... and all of
that, I think, is enormously valuable in the context of K-12 classroom."

Video can be found here:
http://www.seriousgames.org/index2.html

Second Life Photos on Flickr.com

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=second%20life&w=78768492%40N00

Virtual Real Estate - USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2004-06-03-virtual-

realty_x.htm