Author: Ciaran Laval

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Do Google Get Social?

There have been accusations that Google don’t get social for quite a while now, with the advent of Google + it appears that maybe they do. However there’s evidence that they struggle with some aspects of social and this is exemplified via the recent TechCrunch interview with two of the guys behind Google +, which you can view on a post by Botgirl Questi.

One point where I get concerned is when one of the google guys talks about people not using video for contacting friends, it’s a pain in the arse is why people don’t do it, it’s not intuitive, it takes time to arrange, it takes more time to do and even though he touches upon these points, it’s his surprise that so many people don’t do it that’s concerning.

However Google + is about trying to find new and innovative ways for people to communicate in the real world by the sounds of it, Alexander Graham Bell isn’t going to be too concerned for quite a while I’d imagine.

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Mesh Moves Closer, Master Account Doesn’t

As reported by Inara Pey, you can now find your mesh upload status in your account details on the official Second Life page for your account. Unless you have the right payment info status and have taken the quiz (the link for which you will find on your account information) you won’t be able to upload mesh.

There is also an official mesh update blog post explaining what will be happening during the next stage of testing mesh, as it stands it will only be available on certain sims (they were looking for volunteers) and anything uploaded has the potential to break, so don’t go making anything permanent just yet.

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Google Plus In Land Of Confusion

The Google + issues rumble on for those with pseudonyms, there have been some interesting blog posts (and comments) from Prok, Marx Dudek and Hamlet Au. Marx Dudek’s post is interesting regarding verifying their account to google by using a mobile phone, when Marx hadn’t supplied them with a mobile phone number. I didn’t have to provide a mobile phone number when I signed up for Gmail either.

Prok and Hamlet both have links to a google plus discussion, with Prok linking to a post by Andrew Bunner, a google engineer, calling for people to report fake profiles. Whatever the intent of Andrew’s post was, the reality is that it will have meant people reporting avatar profiles, the intent may well have been to report business profiles, but that doesn’t seem to have been how the post was received.

Hamlet’s post links to the same post by Andrew Bunner but suggests he’s saying if your name doesn’t look fake, you’re hardly likely to be flagged. Andrew Bunner is an engineer, not a policy maker, so that may explain some of the confusion but the bigger confusion really comes from Google’s odd attitude. This really goes back to February when Alma Whitten, director of privacy posted a blog post under the title: The Freedom To Be Who You Want To Be …. this is where their stance on Google Plus and real names really gets confusing.

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Relay For Life in Second Life Smashes Previous Records

I’ll probably blog about the Google Plus nonsense later, but food for thought for those who feel you can’t social network without using real names, this year’s relay for life has so far raised 74,622,658 Linden dollars, that comes out at around USD$371,670, the figures aren’t finalised yet but you can follow them on the official relay for life in Second Life site.

This smashes last year’s total of USD$222,804 and also smashes the previous record total from 2009 of USD$274,000.  This brings the total amount of money raised for Relay For Life smashing through the One Million US Dollar mark since people started raising money for relay for life in Second Life back in 2004.

The figures from previous years and the history of relay for life in Second Life can be found on the wiki.

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RFL 2011 – About The Track

Whereas Linden Lab won’t give me a press pass, other people rather foolishly will! Therefore I have had a sneak peek at the Relay For Life sims, with the opening ceremony tomorrow and Linden Lab advertising this worthy cause it’s a good time to take a look at the track and the events in general. Jezebel Bailey is currently writing a blog about the general info so we’ll see who blogs first!

Now the best place to start is the welcome centre and I say this because there is so much going on, to get there inworld follow this SLURL:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/RELAY%20FOR%20LIFE/97/136/22

I decided to take a look at the track, if you’re wondering what that is, here are the rules of the road:

*** The Track – Rules of the Road ***

The track is the circulatory system of our relay experience. It is both a means to get from cool place to cool place and the main focus of many relayer’s participation as they dedicate their time to walking laps and honoring those that survive and those they have lost.  Please remember these things as we ask for the following rules to be adhered to:

1)  The track is one way. Please follow the arrows as you make your way around the track.

2)  There are two lanes, please stay to the right if you are moving at a normal walk speed to allow faster traffic to pass on the left.

3) If you need to go AFK or stop to chat with someone along the way, please move off the track to avoid being run into.

4) No Vehicles.  This is to minimize the  phsyics effect on the regions and the frustration by walkers of being hit by a vehicle.

5) NO “pets” that are not worn attachments (dogs, cats, whatever that follow you or have random motion).

6)  HAVE FUN!!!

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