First UCC SL To Attend General Synod In RL

First United Church Of Christ

I’ve blogged about places of worship in virtual worlds before, for example looking at the challenges of virtual worship for places such as The Anglican Cathedral on Epiphany Island in Second Life and looking at Giulio Prisco’s more unconventional views on types of religion in virtual worlds. The latter also looked briefly at the tongue in cheek First Church Of Rosedale.

One observation on worship in a virtual world such as Second Life is that for a place that is considered in many quarters a den of iniquity, it does quite well when it comes to a religious presence. This is exemplified well by The First United Church of Christ And Conference Centre.

However more to the point, what struck me recently was the news that First UCC SL will be at Booth 834 at the General Synod in Cleveland Ohio. The General Synod runs from June 26th-30th.

First UCC Notices

The mission of First UCC SL is :

First United Church of Christ and Conference Center is founded and exists to be the voice of Progressive Christianity in virtual universes. We live out the United Church of Christ notion of extravagant welcome by providing for all who desire a place to worship and who seek a community of love and acceptance.

We are proud to be a part of the world’s fastest growing LGBT-welcoming church movement, the Open and Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ.

So this is quite a progressive outlook in many ways.

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Linden Lab Launch The “What Second Life Means to Me” Video Share Project

Linden Lab have launched an interesting project : The “What Second Life Means to Me” Video Share Project. The blog post announcing the project states :

We’ve been having a lot of fun with no end in sight to the good times – but you can’t turn 12 without a little pride and reflection. Second Life has been going strong for a dozen wonderful years and there’s a ton of things happening to celebrate. You’ll see more to come here in the Featured News Blog – but we wanted to stop and ask – “What is the meaning of Second Life?” To you – that is! This question may sound daunting – but the truth is, tapping into what makes “SL” so special to us as individuals and communities is a really amazing exercise in retrospection and self-discovery. This is your world – so what does it mean to you?

Whether you just got started, have been onboard for the full dozen years, or fall somewhere in between – we’d love to see a glimpse of your story in the “What Second Life Means to Me” video project. You don’t have to be a master of machinima to participate.

Linden Lab have a couple of suggestions as to what sort of software can be used for the project :

You can use something like Camtasia or Fraps to make some great stuff relatively quickly, and both have free or trial versions. Or, you can film yourself talking directly to your web or digital camera and telling your story. This doesn’t have to be a strictly inworld project – because we understand that Second Life impacts our offline lives as well.

I’ll add to that list and suggest people might want to give Open Broadcaster Software a whirl, which is free and open source. I’ve used this software myself for trying the art of recording virtual world videos.

As for how to share your videos, that’s explained in the blog post :

From a few seconds to a few minutes – just kick it off with this – “In Second Life, my name is …” and share your story from there! Once you have something set – share it! Upload it to YouTube and embed it on this forum thread. Together, we’ll watch the thread for new stories over the coming weeks – it should be awesome. If you prefer to express yourself in writing – share what Second Life means to you with a reply to the thread.

Now to give you a flavour of what you may want to submit, the blog post includes six videos, however they are all short, at around 90 seconds each, but they do manage to pack quite a punch.

Standing On A Fence With Xiola Linden

Xiola Linden is first up, explaining how she came to Second Life from a popular journalling site. I used to blog on a popular journalling site in the early 2000’s, indeed I still have an account or two on one.

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LindeX To Be Only Authorised Place To Purchase Linden Dollars

Linden Lab have announced that they are Concluding the Authorized L$ Reseller Pilot Program :

In 2013, we introduced a pilot program for Authorized Linden Dollar (L$) Resellers. This pilot program was designed to give Second Life Residents additional options for purchasing Linden Dollars, particularly for those based outside the US.

Since then, we have expanded the payment options for Second Life users, and today, you can easily purchase L$ in more countries than ever before, using a credit card, PayPal, or Skrill, which supports a wide range of payment methods. We’ve found that these options support the vast majority of Second Life users, and we have therefore made the business decision to close the Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller pilot program.

We are contacting program participants directly to detail the next steps for them, and they will have approximately six weeks to sell off their L$ inventory.

As of August 1, 2015, the Authorized L$ Reseller pilot program will be closed, and the LindeX will be the only authorized place to purchase L$.

What this means is, if you have been purchasing Linden Dollars from companies other than Linden Lab, you will not be allowed to do so from August 1st 2015.

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YouTube Gaming – An App And Website For Streaming Games Set To Launch This Summer

YouTube have announced that they will enter the live streaming arena this summer with YouTube Gaming. The announcement states :

YouTube Gaming is built to be all about your favorite games and gamers, with more videos than anywhere else. From “Asteroids” to “Zelda,” more than 25,000 games will each have their own page, a single place for all the best videos and live streams about that title. You’ll also find channels from a wide array of game publishers and YouTube creators.

The blog post also states :

Live streams bring the gaming community closer together, so we’ve put them front-and-center on the YouTube Gaming homepage. And in the coming weeks, we’ll launch an improved live experience that makes it simpler to broadcast your gameplay to YouTube. On top of existing features like high frame rate streaming at 60fps, DVR, and automatically converting your stream into a YouTube video, we’re redesigning our system so that you no longer need to schedule a live event ahead of time. We’re also creating single link you can share for all your streams.

So this site will have over 25,000 titles, will allow live streaming, but will it allow Second Life? Before people say “Second Life is not a game“, pause to see how Second Life content is currently categorised on YouTube.

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A Visit To The French Countryside Of Flux Sur Mer In Second Life

Flux Sur Mer

Continuing with the French theme, Sur La Mer in French means on the sea .. I think! I took French a long long time ago. What I can very confidently say is that the French countryside region of Flux Sur Mer in Second Life is both on the sea and absolutely stunning.

Bridge Over Calm Water

The parcel description informs us :

Flux Sur Mer is a detailed and artistically developed French country estate/ full sim, stunningly brought to life by creator and designer Nic Bour (nicbor resident), along with custom mesh designer Imoken Neox.

Stunningly brought to life by the creators is not an understatement.

Countryside

This is a region that has a lot of depth and is a joy to explore.

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