Ciaran Laval

September 29, 2015September 30, 2015

Second Life & Reddit Are Not The Hives Of Scum And Villainy Droids You’re Looking For

Whereas some people were disappointed about NASA’s Mars Announcement yesterday, I was bloody well excited :

New findings from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.

“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water — albeit briny — is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”

I mean ok, it’s not like Ripley’s Alien has been found but it’s exciting enough. Indeed I was so excited that I went looking for Martian artifacts in Second Life and popped along to Reddit to read an AMA (Ask Me Anything) between Reddit Users and NASA scientists.

Now if you’ve been paying attention to the news over the last few years you may be forgiven for thinking that Second Life and Reddit are wretched hives of scum and villainy where no decent person would set foot. However if you scratch beneath the surface you find two platforms with some bloody great content.

My first space port of call was Hanna’s Martian Colony, which is a user created area with a very good science fiction vibe. I then went to the SL Planetarium which is next to the international space flight museum and also has a section about exploration of Mars from previous missions.

However, alas, I realised that despite Second Life having shows such as Virtually Speaking Science and indeed, just Virtual Speaking (which is more about politics), the NASA scientists would not be coming to Second Life to talk. I’m not sure anywhere in Second Life would be large enough to house them. Therefore I had to go to Reddit, a place I’m not really that familiar with, other than reading that it’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

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September 29, 2015

Philip Rosedale Talks To Nautilus About Earth-Sized Virtual World And More

Dr. Kiki Sandofrd has posted a very interesting interview with High Fidelity CEO Philip Rosedale; The Man Who Created Second Life Thinks We Can Make an Earth-Sized Virtual World.

I found this a fascinating read and it exemplifies so very well how Philip has not lost his enthusiasm for virtual worlds, indeed he sounds more excited than ever about the concept. We’ll forgive Kiki for calling a company Linden Labs, this is such a common mistake that the URL Lindenlabs.com resolves to the correct website. The articles talks about how Second Life was once bigger than it is now and yet, as I’ve mentioned before, when people look to the future of virtual worlds, they can’t help but look back at Second Life and even grudgingly seem to admit, it’s not the giant flop that some paint it as.

When asked how virtual reality will change society, Philip answers :

If you look at Second Life today, as a sort of a terrarium for looking at that question, it already has. It demonstrates that we go after and exploit and enjoy the benefits of any increase in tools that enable our creativity and our commerce—and that our willingness to engage in business and in transactions with each other seems to be virtually boundless.

He says a lot more, he talks about how virtual worlds can cross boundaries and get people to talk with each other when those people would otherwise be enemies. I haven’t seen enough studies on this to have a firm opinion on it to be honest, but there is the common denominator factor. The issue is surely going to be that if virtual worlds grow as some predict, some of those common denominators will be removed.

However what’s this business about earth-sized virtual worlds, well Philip gets to that in the interview :

In a recent analysis that I did in thinking about this, I figured out that if we used all our computers—connected via broadband to the Internet—to make a virtual world, it would be as big as the landmass of Earth. You and I could go fly around in it, wander into some cave in Siberia that no one had ever been probably, write our names on the wall in there, and come back ten years later and the names would still be there.

Obviously, as soon as someone says something like that, the next question is likely to be whether virtual worlds could ever be the size of a galaxy. Indeed, that is pretty much the next question in the interview, but you will have to read the article on Nautilus to find out more.

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September 25, 2015

DJ Rockandroll Michigan Spins The Tunes In Second Life And Online

The Whidbey news and times have recently published an article about a Second Life DJ; A virtual party guy: Oak Harbor DJ touching the lives of others via online show. The article features Rich Vance, an online DJ with his own website, Briefcase Full of Rock and he also dabbles in Second Life as DJ Rockandroll Michigan.

The article has some confused ideas about how Second Life works :

Wearing a headset, he broadcasts over the Internet in real-time, making use of a site called Second Life, which lets computer-users chat, flirt, make song requests and even dance together — all virtually. Most participants live in the U.S., though some are in Europe.

Well they are in the right ballpark I guess, but it’s really the story of Rich Vance and his love of music that shines through. The article tells us that Rich is physically and mentally disabled but that he has a real passion for being a DJ and in Second Life, he gets to be that DJ.

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September 24, 2015

Celebrity Auction To Help Build More Classrooms For A School In Kenya To Be Held In Second Life This Weekend

Friday September 25th sees the start of a three day celebrity auction in Second Life with the aim to raise funds to help build more classrooms for a school in Kenya. I’m talking about the country of Kenya here, not a region in Second Life!

The celebrity auction is associated with an official charity, Feed a Smile, Live and Learn in Kenya. The charity has been active in Second Life since 2010 and was featured in episode 16 of The Drax Files : World Makers.

This weekend’s event is getting some support from other Second Life residents, most notably in the form of MadPea Games who have been blogging about this for some time. A recent blog post explains how the event has been gathering momentum as they announced; We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat! :

Since we released the video from the school in Kenya that we’re fundraising for we’ve had even more well known residents sign up to put themselves on the Auction Block for our star-studded Celebrity Auction. We even have 2 Lindens put their brave avatars forward for the challenge!

I’ll also embed the video at the end of this post.

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September 23, 2015

The Drax Files: World Makers Episode 32 – Jayjay Zifanwe From The University of Western Australia

With Machinima, you are getting a glimpse into the soul of the artist, they are not making this film so they can sell tickets at the movies. They are making this to show you who they are.

That’s the introduction from Jayjay Zifanwe of The University of Western Australia for the latest edition of the Drax Files World Makers series, which is sponsored by Linden Lab. Whereas Jayay is in the main subject of this episode we also see other machinima makers, who have been inspired by the projects the University of Western Australia run and who have gone on to other things in some cases due to that inspiration. At this point I should point out that Second Life, Linden Lab and The University of Western Australia have a lot to answer for, but I’ll come to that later.

Jayjay makes a good point about machinima, it’s a diverse industry because people are diverse and people make machinima. In some ways it could be argued that machinima is diverse because it’s more of an indie scene than mainstream cinema, therefore people will make machinima about subjects that backers would shy away from. There’s a power from an editiorial perspective that machinima can be relatively cheap to make. However, as machinima makers get more talented, get more ambitious and invest in more expensive machinima making techniques, their artistic freedom is likely to be challenged. However machinima is undoubtedly a diverse sphere at this moment in time.

Jayjay informs us that he has a budget with prize pool of over five hundred thousand Linden dollars, that’s around US$2,000. We can see an example of how this prize fund is used in the shape and form of UWA’s Pursue Impossible, which has prizes for artists and machinima makers :

The theme is “PURSUE IMPOSSIBLE.” Artists & filmmakers can interpret the theme as they see fit. What is your impossible? What is the impossible goal you have conquered, or that you have seen your loved ones or your heroes conquer? What are the things you once thought were impossible, but now are able to overcome? How do virtual worlds help you to visualize, create, and push the boundaries of possibility? What are the things which seem impossible now, which you think you will attempt to hunt down? What are the impossibilities of the mind? of the heart? of the soul? Is it the pursuit of the impossible that takes precedence? Or defeating it? You the artist… You the machinimatographer…You decide.

Pursue Impossible is still open, entries close at midnight SLT on October 31st, so if you’re interested you still have time to put something together.

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