Business – Ciaran Laval

May 14, 2011May 14, 2011

MEET THE “SEASONS OF HOPE” KITTYCATS

Relay For Life® of Second Life® is thrilled to announce that KittyCatS! has created a special RFL of SL ‘Seasons of Hope’ breedable KittyCatS! collection to benefit the American Cancer Society.

Looking adorable and cute, the special ‘Seasons of Hope’ themed kitties were presented at the Home Expo on Saturday May 14. They will be on sale right through to Relay weekend in July.

Callie Cline and Equinox Pinion of KittyCatS presented the new kitties on the Home Expo’s Main Stage at 12:30pm SLT on Saturday May 14, followed by a live music concert with Mankind Tracer.

This marks the first time that RFL of SL has joined in a partnership of this type and the RFL of SL committee looks forward to the KittyCatS’ presence at Relay team events, at the Home Expo, and at Relay weekend, right alongside the Linden Bears.

‘We’re really honored to have been asked to partner with RFL and to be a sponsor at the Home Expo’ says Callie Cline. ‘It’s very exciting for the pet and breedables community as a whole, as well.

‘Creating these cats was a really touching experience for me as I have had a lot of people in my life die from cancer and in making these cats I thought of them and how they had impacted my life. So in each of these cats is a bit of some pretty amazing people who truly were with me during many seasons of my life and given me a lot of hope.’

‘People love animals and they bring so much joy into the world. We hope our contribution will provide meaning and help RFL of SL with its goals’ says Equinox Pinion.

Home Expo coordinator, Nikki Mathieson said: ‘It’s exciting when talented, creative people come together to put their very best work out there for others to enjoy, while benefiting such an

: KittyCatS Seasons of Hope Dispenser

important cause.

‘KittyCatS! have grown quickly in popularity since their launch in February. I’m confident that the RFL of SL KittyCat will bring a diverse and new group of visitors to the Expo and help us to expand its reach to a larger variety of Second Lifers.’

Relay For Life of Second Life Event Chair MamaP Beerbaum added: ‘I cannot wait to get mine! Thank you so much Callie, Equinox and Dennis for partnering with us. I am so grateful to you for supporting our efforts in SL with such enthusiasm and generosity!’

This year marks the fourth anniversary of the Home Garden & Patio Expo benefiting Relay For Life of Second Life. The 2011 Expo opened on Friday, May 13 at noon and will remain open 24 hours each day until it closes on May 22 at 10pm SLT . This year’s Expo spans TEN Second Life sims, with over 100 exhibits, more entertainment and more ways to benefit Relay For Life, too!

For more information about KittyCatS! visit KittyCatS.biz

To find out all about this year’s Home & Garden Expo, visit http://slhomegardenpatioexpo.wordpress.com/

May 11, 2011May 11, 2011

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT — UrbanizeD

UrbanizeD Main Store — UrbanizeD Sponsor Spotlight

This is UrbanizeD’s second year at the SL Home & Garden Expo. Creator, Pitsch Parx, is grateful to have the chance to be part of this great initiative.

“This expo is THE best platform any designer could want for his work and coupled with the great cause it supports, it is BI winning!”

UrbanizeD was created on Valentines Day 2009, on the Deizha estate. A spur of the moment decision of Pitschs’ to take his RL, creative background and unleash it on SL. What started out as rental homes, quickly changed into landscaping and designing furniture. To bring the rentals up to the standard Pitsch had in mind he has had to continually keep learning to create that what SL had not previously offered. This evolution continues still, to this day. Every collection shows progress on all sides of the process – textures, animations, and shapes. Raising the bar is part of what UrbanizeD exceeds at. Twice a year an all new collection is used to display the creativity they want to share with the people of SL. Continue reading “SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT — UrbanizeD”

May 1, 2011May 1, 2011

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT — Pre Fabulous

*Pre Fabulous*

Pre Fabulous began in 2006 when Fornicola Butuzova and Amo Lambeau began creating buildings they sold, to earn spending money to support their shopping and partying habits in Second Life. Sale by sale their business grew until 2009 when they both decided that it was time to go full time and create homes, stores, and other buildings in Second Life for a living.

Pre Fabulous does not follow the “Features and Fashion” way of thinking about building in SL, they rather take a more narrative approach to serving the needs of Second Life residents. Their belief is that people come to Second Life to realize fantasies or express some other ideal of themselves. If they want to fall in love in a tropical paradise, be the toast of the Manhattan skyline, or the Lord of a mighty kingdom, whatever their dream maybe they need help.

Rather than chase trends, Forni and Amo, focused on helping Second Life players tell their story. They created buildings that have a reason for existing, buildings that convey an emotional connection to the story their customers want to tell. One of their core beliefs is “A house is made of bricks… A home is made of cracks”. It is the cracks that tell the story of a house that say something about why it is there, who lived there, of the experiences that were shared, between its walls. Continue reading “SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT — Pre Fabulous”

April 24, 2008January 12, 2014

A Message To Business: Don’t Ignore Second Life

I attended the best Robin Linden office hour for quite some time this week. The discussion largely centred around the trademark policy. However bigger issues were forthcoming such as the grid, be it the Second Life we know and love (no really we love it) or the bigger Second Life grid of which the Second Life world is just a part.

Personally I think Second Life should be the world, ran on Second Life technology but the grid, the bigger beast, the all encompassing umbrella, should be the Linden Lab grid. What’s in a name? Perception and perception is everything. Business whom have read horror stories of being griefed by flying penises in Second Life, can incorporate their own little universe under the umbrella name and avoid the dirt of being associated with Second Life. Continue reading “A Message To Business: Don’t Ignore Second Life”

March 19, 2008January 12, 2014

Lights Go Out, Walls Come Tumbling Down

An article in The Economist points out that walled gardens get to the stage where walls need to come tumbling down. Drawing parallels between the mid nineties and the internet boom and services such as Second Life and Facebook they point to how proprietary services such as AOL and Compuserve were swept aside.

If Second Life is going to dream the impossible dream then there’s no doubt about it, those walls are going to have to come tumbling down. Unlike World of Warcraft and Age Of Conan (please be good) Second Life aims to be all things to all men (and women Sarah). This isn’t just a hack and slash world. This is the ruthless cutting edge of future business transactions for generations to come, boldly going where no man has ever gone before …..ok that’s a bit extreme but you get the picture.

Second Life is trying to trailblaze its way to being a standard for virtual worlds, but you can’t do that with huge walls and guards at the city gates. When Robert Scoble was kicked off (and quickly reinstated because he’s Robert Scoble) Facebook for running a data portability tool people were quick to quote the TOS, privacy breaches and such like. However whereas Scoble was wrong to break the TOS, he was in some ways right to point out that data portability is a feature users need. Continue reading “Lights Go Out, Walls Come Tumbling Down”