Last week, well known virtual persona Botgirl Questi explained why she believes that Linden Lab is investing in new products “instead of” Second Life.  Botgirl’s argument, based on factors mentioned in an “employee” review, is that Second Life is built on ten year old technology that has inherent limitations. She believes that the virtual world market is stagnant; therefore it wouldn’t make good business sense to invest in reengineering the platform.  In conclusion, she asserts that we will still see tiny “incremental improvements to the client” or “small fixes for issues that don’t require a large investment,” but in a few years “a declining Second Life and an emerging OpenSim will tilt the balance and we’ll see a fast decline in both land ownership and active users.”

Fallacies

Before I can continue with the point of this post, I have to point out several fallacies in the disproportionately negative logic of this proposal:

1. Employee review
   Botgirl draws insight from what she refers to as an employee review, but this is simply a review made by an anonymous person.  We have no way of knowing if this person was ever actually a Linden Lab employee.  I would argue that with a large, active and vocal community like Second Life has, it may be more reasonable to conclude that this review was not made by an employee, but a frustrated user.  However, even if we were to assume that this review were by an actual former employee, if would still just be one factor in a big picture put forth by a disgruntled member of a large organization.
2. The virtual world market is stagnant
   This simply isn’t the case.  Just because giants like Google have focused on other current trends and haven’t publically tried to take on virtual worlds after failing at their first attempt does not mean the space is dead.  Although, I suppose this could depend on your definition of virtual worlds.  In the broad sense, many analysts have been talking about the increase in real time social environments and the rise in funding, like this recent $15 million dollar investment, only renewing interest in avatar-driven virtual spaces.  But even if you are referring to a more narrow definition of virtual worlds, Botgirl herself cites the “emerging” Opensim community and no one can argue the recent popularity of using Unity 3D based spaces.  In addition, investments like the $1 million dollars in funding that Language Lab received for education in Second Life demonstrate the power they’ve been shown to have.
3. Only tiny improvements to the client or small fixes
   All evidence points to the contrary and Botgirl has no way of knowing what Linden Lab is working on.  When I was participating in the Second Life closed beta for mesh support I heard so many users complaining that Linden Lab doesn’t listen to them, that the Lab never does anything to improve Second Life, that Second Life was dead, that mesh was never coming, etc.  I was so excited by what I was seeing that I wanted to scream it from the roof tops, but I couldn’t say a word.  Who knows what’s being developed now that we don’t know about, yet?
4. Emerging Opensim
   While I believe that certain platforms can be better suited for certain uses, there just isn’t clear evidence to support this.  Despite its misleading headline, a recent report shows that Opensim’s top grid is planning to purge as many as 50-60% of its regions due to inactivity.  Another report shows that Opensim has about 15,000 users, the same as it did in 2009.
5. New products instead of Second Life
   Botgirl’s theory overall explains why she believes the Lab is investing in new products *instead*  of Second Life, however, there is no evidence that Linden Lab is putting any less time, attention, or money into Second Life.  Linden Lab has already stated that it isn’t pulling employees from Second Life teams to explore and create these new products, they are hiring new additional ones.  They are also hiring new additional employees for Second Life itself.

Unproductive Gossip

The above fallacies are not why I wrote this post though.  On this week’s MetaReality Podcast I agreed with ex-Linden, Karl Stiefvater’s contention that these types of assertions are often unproductive.  I also happen to think they are dangerous.

Botgirl’s post is a false dilemma.  Her theory that because Linden Lab is also working on new products then Second Life must be unsavable and dying ignores numerous unknown factors and therefore leads us to an irrelevant conclusion.  In the end, it’s little more than unnecessary gossip.

The reason I find these types of posts so particularly offensive is they are full of black and white thinking, overgeneralizations and catastrophizing which only exploit the community’s emotions and trigger strong reactions from all sides.  It’s not only unproductive, it’s toxic. Yet we voraciously consume and spread it.   What’s even more concerning is that the more and more it gets repeated, the more it’s believed as truth or fact.

Accepting the Things We Cannot Change

The Dalai Lama has been quoted as saying:

“If there is a solution to a problem, there is no need to worry. And if there is no solution, there is no need to worry.”

There are so many more productive and important discussions that we can have to actually improve the future of virtual worlds.  It may be less titillating, but it’s definitely more fulfilling.  In the meantime, I’ll be in-world creating, experimenting, exploring, and enjoying the present virtual worlds.  No matter what any rumors say, they truly are an amazing experience.

.

Linden Lab has officially updated their Policy on Third Party Viewers connecting to Second Life by adding four new clauses.  This led to an explosive and dramatic public outcry from users that Linden Lab was trying to kill off third party viewers (TPVs) or kill off all sources of innovation so that people would be forced to use their viewer.

These changes were discussed with TPV developers at a viewer development meeting* with Oz Linden.  With so much misinformation being posted, I sat down to talk with a TPV developer in order to learn more about these changes, understand Linden Lab’s motives, and find how they will impact the Second Life community.

*Side note: recently an audio transcript of this meeting has started publically circulating, but it was explained to me that this transcript was meant to be a record for TPV developers only and was not intended for public consumption so I will respect the developer’s wishes by not posting it here.

Here’s what you need to know about the new changes:

Privacy Changes

The first three clauses added were in relation to privacy issues.

2.a.iii : You must not provide any feature that circumvents any privacy protection option made available through a Linden Lab viewer or any Second Life service.

The intention of this clause is clear.  As of this time, this clause only seems to directly impact features that display “true online status” (displays whether a user is online despite them having set the option to hide this in their preferences).  In the near future, Linden Lab will be breaking the (llRequestAgentData) function which will cause scripted features/objects to only show “true online status” if the script is owned by or created by the subject of the request. Otherwise, the request will return a false value.  The Lab is aware of other ways this function is being used and are taking those uses into consideration when resolving privacy concerns.   Online indicators will still work as long as the script is owned by or created by the subject whose status is being displayed.  This clause will not effect client side radar features or tools.

2.i : You must not display any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of any other Second Life user.

2.j : You must not include any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of the user in any messages sent to other viewers, except when explicitly elected by the user of your viewer.

The intention of these clauses are also clear.  At this time, these clauses mainly seem to effect client/viewer tags (that publically display what viewer you are using).  Linden Lab became concerned about these tags after observing the common and widespread harassment of users (especially new uses) in relation to the viewer they were using.  Therefore, this feature will be broken grid-wide this coming Tuesday/Wednesday.

Shared Experience

The last clause added had to with the overall shared user experience.

2.k : You must not provide any feature that alters the shared experience of the virtual world in any way not provided by or accessible to users of the latest released Linden Lab viewer.

This is the clause drawing the biggest complaints.  Due to the broad scope of this clause it’s been widely misinterpreted as Linden Lab ending the TPV program once and for all.  However, in actuality, the intention of clause is nothing of the sort.  When talking to the TPV developers Oz Linden repeatedly went to great lengths to reassure them.  He explained that no one at Linden Lab wants to ban TPVs and that this clause is only in reaction to observed user confusion resulting from fragmented user experiences.  The Lab’s goal is for all users to equally be able to see and experience the same world.  Oz also doesn’t anticipate any dramatic actions as a result of the clause.  He stressed that it was not aimed at any specific current feature, nor does he have plans to take any enforcement actions based on any current feature of a TPV.  The clause will not effect features that change the way the world is “presented” (such as Exodus’ visual settings) or “controlled” (such as the way in which you move objects), but only changes to the world itself in such a way that the experience of users running other viewers (particularly the latest Linden Lab viewer) is fragmented in some way.  Oz also pointed out that this could have been enforced under the current policy, but that the Lab wanted to clarify it.

Intention set aside, many users still feel that this will kill innovative new features because the Lab now has executive control over all new features.  Oz Linden again repeatedly professed that the Lab is under new management who are very sincerely trying to do things differently.  They want to work with developers.  Oz recognized that the Lab historically has been bad about this and as a result has a bad reputation that needs to be fixed.  He pleaded with developers to try to work within the process and test this new system first, before judging.

Takeaways

Like many people, I too am skeptical based on the Lab’s own admitted past history.  However, I do believe things can change.  The Lab has no motivation to kill innovation, and would receive no true advantage by doing so.  On the flip side, as Oz pointed out to the TPV developers, the adoption rate of users running viewers capable of displaying mesh demonstrates that users will in fact upgrade when the features are sufficiently compiling.  In fact, I’m told that 1.23 based viewers now only account for 2.7% of user hours.  This dramatic change (that the Lab wanted for years now) as a result of mesh only provides them with further motivation to listen to the community, cooperate with developers, and foster innovation.  The big question is, will they?  Only time will tell, but so far, some developers seem to think that all signs point to yes.

.

Linden Lab has an extensive history of launching their marketing and advertising campaigns for Second Life to mixed reviews, and their most recent attempts have been no different.

Back in 2009, Linden Lab launched a new campaign on the Second Life website featuring the following ad:

At the time it was launched, I considered this ad to be a major upgrade from the stale, low quality past promotions and I was thrilled that it finally showcased a visually stunning Second Life experience, but others argued that the experience painted by this video was unrealistic and featured impossible instantaneous shopping experiences and interactions without gestures or animations.  Regardless, I have since then comfortably sent individuals who were completely unfamiliar with Second Life to the SecondLife.com website and/or shared this ad with them in order to give them a general view of SL.  That is until last week.

Last week, I noticed Linden Lab had started revamping the SecondLife.com website with new photos and ads.  Apparently, according to Sl.com, Second Life is about vampires.

To be fair, the website also showcases the new Linden Realms game and another female avatar, but the first thing you see is this vampire ad.

I didn’t complain when Linden Lab came out with it’s vampire based Google AdSense campaign as I’m sure it’s a popular theme and I wouldn’t even mind them using it as a secondary display on the webiste, but featuring it alone as the dominant first thing you see on SecondLife.com is sending a distorted and incorrect message about Second Life.

In addition, the image (as well as the other main images you can scroll through) is of poor quality.   Not only are the images not visually stunning, but they fall far short of what Second Life alone (without retouching) can achieve.  The images also feature avatars in stiff, rigid, and unnatural poses with blank stares that are too lifeless and dead for the vampire to pull off.   These images are not at all reflective of the potential of the Second Life platform (as-is) which is capable of producing brilliant, emotion evoking, photorealistic images with striking lighting, shadows, and depth of field, yet they are what potential users will first encounter.

Along with these new web images, Linden Lab has newly debuted the below machinima campaign.

This campaign is much closer to portraying a wider picture of SL, but it is still a far stretch from what Second Life is visually capable of producing.  However, while the biggest complaints about the video are that it misrepresents Second Life, the complaints refer again to things like the animated interactions and not the visual quality.

With Second Life constantly being compared graphically to popular games I would think that Linden Lab would want to show Second Life in the best light, right?

So then, why is Linden Lab underselling Second Life and why does the community want it to?

As my guests and I mentioned on last week’s MetaReality Podcast, many of the advertisements put out by the leading game developers (for games that Second Life is often compared to) aren’t exactly unretouched screen captures.

Take for example this “The Sims 3” ad below:

Last time I played “The Sims 3” it didn’t look anything like that.  The avatars weren’t nearly as realistic or cleanly modeled and I certainly don’t remember that street view.  Maybe it’s just that one ad.  Here’s another ad for “The Sims 3”:

Wow! In “The Sims 3,” I can “create EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED?”   It even, in a way, sounds like it could be an ad for Second Life even though it is much more limited and predefined than Second Life.

Maybe “The Sims” is a bad example.  At this point, everyone knows what “The Sims” is like, right?  Check out this ad for one of the hottest games this year, “Skyrim.”

Whoa, I knew Skyrim had amazing graphics, but real human actors and live action!  Why doesn’t my version of Skyrim look anything like this?

Advertising is an industry that has been built on selling a vision or dream rather than just a product.  While my “Sims 3” and “Skyrim” game play experiences weren’t really anything like their ads, I enjoyed them for what they were and generally understood that before purchasing them.  On the other hand, my Second Life experience may not be exactly like the ad because not everything is so easy or instantaneous, but I honestly find my Second Life experience to be better than its ad.

The ad can’t explain that when I’m in Second Life, I enjoy fashion and shopping even though it’s not instantaneous, and that even though I don’t really experience seamless animations I am so immersed in the moment that a *high-five* or *cheers* in chat feels the same.  The ad doesn’t quite portray the endless possibilities.. in my case, it doesn’t begin to cover the businesses I’ve built, the organizations I’ve helped, the issues I’ve brought awareness to, the once in a lifetime experiences I’ve had,  the friendships I’ve made, etc.  The ad doesn’t tell you that you too can discover the explainable magic of Second Life.

So I ask again:

Why is Linden Lab underselling Second Life and why does the community want it to?

.

This past weekend, August 12th-14th, marked the 7th Annual Second Life Community Convention (SLCC), which was held in Oakland, California this year and virtually in Second Life while being streamed over UStream.

I have to applaud Avacon, the conference’s organizers, as in my opinion this was the best the conference has been for virtual attendees.  The in-world SIMs were beautiful and well organized and the team made sure each of the 33 presentations were clearly streamed in-world and online.

In addition to the many community presentations, there were several Linden panels.

Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble gave a keynote address announcing:

• 16,000 people a day are signing up for and joining Second Life
• Linden Lab will be working on other new products in addition to Second Life.  Specifically they are working on other shared creativity tools/spaces, and addressing tablets and mobile markets as well.
• Linden Lab is focusing their current Second Life efforts on improving usability, lag, and service.
• Linden Lab is looking at several future new features including a Linden made curated area, ending the need for HUDs, improvements to UI/sidebar, more in-world creatitivy tools and more.
• Read more and watch Humble’s full keynote

Linden Lab’s product team announced several new ways they are trying to address community needs:

• the team created a prototype game in order to learn about building and better understand limitations and problems in order to work on solutions
• Linden Lab may develop a gamified new user experience
• the team has been focused on improving usability and engagement
• each member of the team is becoming a subject matter expert in order to understand and support those communities better
• Read more and watch the product team’s full presentation

Linden Lab’s mesh team addressed several key concerns:

• Meshes (and objects with a physics shape type) will use the newly introduced prim equivalent to measure impact and count against land prim capacity
• theft and IP concerns  are unlikely
• meshes offers several advantages over sculpted prims, but traditional prims are still an important part of Second Life
• Read more and watch the full mesh panel

Brett Atwood/Brett Linden presented on updates to the Destination Guide:

• the Destination Guide now has dynamic, time sensitive channels that feature hot events and locations as they are going on
• the Destination Guide is intelligently removing a location if it becomes too crowded
• the Destination Guide has an Linkshare affiliate program through which you can create a widget for your location and place it on your blog or website allowing you to earn money for visitors derived from your site
• the Destination Guide now appears on the front page of the new Second Life login screen
• the team monitors resident suggestions, blog activity, and social media for new locations
• they are looking for high quality locations with broad appeal, active communities, and unique locations
• in order for your Destination Guide submission to be approved you need to include a compelling and visually interesting screenshot and text that accurately describes your location
• your submission could also be denied if it is a duplicate, your location currently violates the SL Terms of Service, your snapshot contains promotional text over the image, or the text is incoherent or inaccurate
• Destination Guide entries are non-paid; they are not meant to be classified ads
• View the slides then watch Brett’s full presentation on the Destination Guide

The commerce team presented on economical and commercial concerns:

• the Lab has been focused on new users, registration, usability, service, performance, and growth to drive traffic and increase sales for merchants
• Q2 stats show positive growth in several areas
• Marketplace moving towards direct delivery
• users will receive purchases as a folder hierarchy directly in their inventory (without the need to unpack items)
• merchants will no longer need to use a magic box, but will simply have to drag their folders into an outbox
• users will receive notifications of deliveries and will not need to be online to accept them, they will be pushed into inventory
• eventually there will be guided warnings to aid new users (use this item right away, you need land for this item, etc)
• Linden Lab looking to expand the LindenX to additional countries/currencies to in to serve more and increase sales
• View the slides then watch the commerce team’s full presentation

Marc Viale/Viale Linden presented on social experiences and communities:

• the lab is moving away from Linden run events like “Kiss a Linden” towards “sustainable communities” like the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and LEA’s Month of Machinima
• community gateways have not disappeared and are highlighted in the Destination Guide
• Viale says Linden Lab respects privacy declaring “we don’t care what your parents named you, you can be whoever you want to be in Second Life”
• Watch Viale’s full presentation on social experiences and communities

For a closer look at the more funny and social aspects of the SLCC experience check out Draxtor’s footage from the event below:

The product team (John Laurence/Durian Linden, Sarah Kuehnle/ Esbee Linden and Michael Gesner/Gez Linden) announced at this year’s Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) that they have been building, exploring, and working on a prototype game in order to learn more and examine the current limits and problems that come up when creating in Second Life.

The game requires you to collect and place puzzle pieces in order to gain access to new areas.  While doing this you encounter box monsters and turrets that can “kill you” and send you back to the beginning of the games.

The team says the game uses point and click controls, but with the physical aspects of Second Life, they would like to examine click and drag in the future.  They also faced difficulties working in a “live environment” where for example a turret would be above on a platform, didn’t respect distance, and begin shooting at them and returning them to the beginning of the game while they were trying to work.  They also dealt with building complications where for example the buildings were originally more plain and they decided to add black outlines to give them more detail and then discovered they would have to change every texture on every face of every building by hand in order to update them.

This particular game is separate from the curated area that CEO Rod Humble spoke of, and is not currently part of any new user experience. Gez Linden addressed concerns about the game stating that the Lab does not plan on releasing the game, they just wanted to show users the work they are doing to learn more in order to better serve and address the communities needs.  Gez did however express that he thinks something like this game would be useful in acclimating new users to the Second Life platform:

“I do think that there is some value in creating an experience that is simpler, it’s more guided, it gives you prompts, it gives you almost quests or achievements, things that tell you what you need to be able to do to learn how to use Second Life, but I will completely agree with the fact that Second Life, itself, is not a game.  However, you can make some great games inside of Second Life, and you can use game mechanics, and game tutorials, and game systems to help people become more engaged and comfortable in Second Life.  So, we recognize that there are a number of different experiences that you can create in SL, we’re always in awe of the things that you’ve created, but we are trying to find a way to get people over that initial hurdle of using the software and taking our gaming experience to help get people over that.”

In addition to working on the game, the product team explained LL has been focused on two main areas:

1. Usability

• rez times (including avatars appearing as a cloud and prioritization of rezzing)
• avatar customization
• basic/advanced modes
• sidebar of Viewer 2
• direct delivery from the marketplace
• inventory management

2. Engagement

• mesh support  (the mesh team also presented updates at SLCC)
• creating and selling
• NPC (non-player characters)
• web profiles, interests, groups

The team also pointed out that to further understand and support the community each member of the team has an area which the are subject matter experts:

• Art – Durian Linden
• Gaming & Breedables – Gez Linden
• Roleplaying – Esbee Linden
• Adult - Charlar Linden
• Education – Geo Linden
• Music - Nya Linden
• Fashion - Cassandra Linden

View their the full panel presentation below

What do you think of the work the product team is doing to better address the communities needs?

-

There has been quite some noise in the Euro blogosphere about the latest European Parliament project, Citzalia.  Citzalia is a new virtual world and social networking forum developed for the EU assembly by the European Service Network (ESN) to boost citizens’ understanding of how the EU works.

Participants can create an avatar, interact, network, debate topical issues, propose and vote on legislation, etc.  EU officials hope the game will provide a platform for debate and discussion of the issues that have been, are or can be addressed by the European Parliament.

Ahmed ElAmin, Citzalia project editor at ESN, stated that goal of the project is “to get EU citizens debating and talking about [European law] and get people to participate on the issues the [European] Parliament debates. ElAmin maintains that there will be no censorship in Citzalia, but acknowledged that there is a “huge risk that misinformation could be fed in”.  To address this, current Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and European officials will be on hand to guide users through the procedures and provide background information.   The officials will “correct” mistakes about the EU only. ElAmin says “they won’t be editing for views, but having these people in can sort of correct things.”

That sounds pretty good, right?  Wrong. Meet Citzalia.

While the concept of Citzalia may have sounded good on paper, the demonstration leaves something to be desired (to say the least).  It’s not just the graphics either.  Many Euro-bloggers, including prominent Brussels blogger Jon Worth, have expressed concerns about the whole project.  “I really fear this is going to become a virtual ghost European Parliament with high costs and very few users,” Worth says.

I have to say I share his concerns.  With the initial cost of the project being quoted around  €275,000 ( about $350,000 USD) I can’t help, but feel the ESN got it wrong with Citzalia.  In fact, I feel the project would be much better suited in a virtual environment like Second Life.

Not only could Second Life provide an “experimental” project like Citzalia a much needed audience with over 200,000 active EU Residents in SL (according to July 2010 metrics), but for a fraction of the cost.   Second Life also already has an large and active government community of international agencies working together, sharing ideas, and exploring possibilities for education, collaboration, and outreach in virtual spaces.

Eric Hackathorn (Hackshaven Harford in SL), virtual worlds program manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has been lauded as the first person to establish a virtual government presence on Second Life in 2005 and he’s been active in virtual worlds ever since.  His work in SL provides people with the ability to learn about and communicate with NOAA in a two-way conversation, behind the corporate firewall.  Hackathorn sees the growing government community in SL as an asset. “It helps that we’re all neighbors.” he said. “We get more leverage out of doing things collectively than individually.”

I think Citzalia was a missed opportunity for the ESN and the EU as well as for Second Life.   Citzalia is currently accepting beta users before it goes live later this year. Time will tell.

In addition to Linden Lab’s official viewer, users can access the virtual world of Second Life through a number of customized third party viewers.  This has created much debate throughout the Second Life community as to whether these third party viewers are safe to use.

While Linden Lab does provide a Viewer Directory that highlights viewers that have self-certified their compliance with the Lab’s Policy on Third Party Viewers (TPV), they have also stated that it is the responsibility of the user to take reasonable precautions, before installing or using a third-party viewer as it is the user (as well as the developer) who is accountable for all risks, expenses, and actions while using a third party viewer.

While these rules and risks apply to all third party viewers, the Emerald viewer has been surrounded in far more controversy and concern than all the viewers put together.  However, it is also believed to be the most popular third party viewer.  While we don’t know for sure the number of users who access Second Life using the Emerald Viewer, most estimates place the figures around 20-30% of all users.

Emerald Controversies

For those who are unfamiliar, the controversy around Emerald begins with the actions of a number of the developers behind the viewer.

Initial apprehension stemmed from the fact that several of the developers were well known griefers and had previous accounts permanently banned from Second Life.  These concern were then followed by a slew of others such as:

• privacy concerns
• reports that developers were data mining and had compiled a database of avatar names, IP addresses, and geo-location information for SL users
• controversy over Onyx and the Client Detection System (CDS)

In addition, last week,  (now former) Emerald developer LordGregGreg published a sharp-tongued post questioning Emerald’s integrity and the moral compass of it’s developers, citing issues such hidden code “that braodcasted your viewers title bar and executable path in a obfuscated manner” and stating ”To the people who have took my word on emerald’s credibility, I apologize deeply for my claims.”

Denial of Service and the TPV

As if that wasn’t enough over the weekend news came to light that Emerald lead developer Fractured Crystal, committed a crime by launching a distributed denial of service attack (DDOS) and used the computers, bandwidth, and (blind faith) trust of every Emerald user to do so.

Emerald PR representative Arabella Steadham denied the attack stating that is was just a prank or “shenanigans” as she called it.

“This idea was to target a blog owned by a creator of a malicious viewer, and boast of the traffic Emerald has captured. The method for doing this was to add links to the Emerald log in page linked to said blog. Each time anyone logged in, our page loaded up and also the other page loaded up – simply to show off our volume of traffic.

This was not a DDoS. This was a poor attempt at boasting that failed miserably. Once we discovered this, these links were deleted and the dev concerned was disciplined.

The entire Emerald Team offers it’s sincere apologies for concern, panic, worry, mistrust and disappointment felt by our users because of this. I can most strongly assure you that this will not happen again.”

As news spread on Twitter under the hashtag #EmeraldGate, Linden Lab began to take notice.  The Security Technical Lead for Lab, Brian McGroarty (aka Soft Linden) responded by stating:

“’Crosslinking’ drops the context of hiding gibberish requests to a critic’s website in a hidden frame that will never be revealed to the user. This isn’t a mere hyperlink to another page or naively stealing someone else’s image hosting.

My read (but I’m no lawyer) is that this looks like 2.d.iii of http://secondlife.com/corporate/tpv.php and we’re already having that discussion. If anyone can come up with specific reasons why this might have had legitimate reason to be there, or how this one could be yet another oversight or mistake, that would be helpful. I sure haven’t heard any to date.”

The TPV policy section referred to states:

“d. iii. You must not launch Denial of Service (“DoS”) attacks, engage in griefing, or distribute other functionality that Linden Lab considers harmful or disruptive to Second Life or the Second Life community.”

Some time later, the Emerald Viewer was silently removed from the viewer directory by Linden Lab.

Eventually Fractured Crystal admitted the DDOS, removed himself from the project,  and transferred control of the project and the web server to Arabella Steadham.

A New Emerald

New owner Arabella Steadham and Emerald Quality Assurance officer Jessica Lyons appeared on the Tonight Show with Paisley Beebe to discuss the entire cluster of events as well as to announce that the Emerald team had undergone a massive restructuring and would be applying again to the viewer directory.

Today the new Emerald site went live.

Trust Issues

While the appearance on Tonight Live was reassuring to some users, many are still questioning  whether the Emerald team can be trusted.

As of this date, the Emerald viewer has not be re-included in the viewer directory, despite the fact that it advertises the listing on the About page of the new site.

Is the Emerald Viewer compliant with the Second Life Terms of Service? Yes, Emerald is compliant with the ToS, the Community Standards, and the Third Party Viewer Policy. We are also listed in Linden Lab’s Viewer Directory.

In addition, while it was announced that the development team was restructured the new site’s team list includes previously scandal-plagued members Skills Hax and Lonely Bluebird (aka Phox).

New owner Arabella Steadham has now also come into question.  During her appearance on Tonight Live she told host Paisley Beebe that she did not lie when she called the DDOS a prank.  She states that she herself was lied to about the attack.  Her lack of technical knowledge has led many to question how she can ensure Emerald’s integrity.  Ms. Beebe also asked her if she would now be accountable to users by providing real world contact information.  She declined stating that she was accountable to Linden Lab and “they know who she is”.

In fact all that Arabella Steadham could offer Emerald users was her apology and her word.

But is that enough?

Project Snowstorm

Third Party Viewers aren’t the only ones who receive criticism.  While users of official Second Life viewer have no concerns about security, privacy, or ethics, they do have trust issues.  Many users anxiously waited for the new elusive Viewer 2 while Linden Lab worked on it behind closed doors.  When it debuted many were not only disappointed, but annoyed by the changes.  In fact, it was these changes that led many to download a third party viewer.

At this year’s Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) Linden Lab announced several significant changes including Project Snowstorm.  Project Snowstorm hopes not only to improve the viewer, but CEO Philip Rosedale says that the Lab wants to “win back the lead”, and have the best viewer overall.  With Emerald users wary of the Emerald viewer, Linden Lab is positioned to do just that, but first they will also have to regain user’s trust.

Project Snowstorm is prepared to begin rebuilding that trust by promising transparency and allowing users to participate in the process.  It sounds like a good plan, but many users are still skeptical that the Lab will follow through with what they say.

Rebuilding

It seems like both Emerald and Linden Lab have a lot of work to do if they want to gain back their users trust.

My suggestions:

1. “Acta, non verba”  - I borrowed this phrase from Crap Mariner who applied it to both Emerald and Linden Lab.  Declaring trust does not create trust. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do that counts.  If you want your users to trust you, show them by your actions.  You are what you do.
2. Lead the debate, don’t hide from it – In our new culture of social media, we now have the ability to identify and address potential crises as they surface.  Users are listening to what you have to say and are eager to hear your response.  Defensive posture implies that you have something to hide.  However, when you are silent, others can create the truths about you.
3. Be Accountable – Trustworthy messages must come from a trustworthy source. Say what you mean and mean what you say.  If you were wrong, or made a mistake, admit it.  Give users a way to communicate.  Robert Scoble is the perfect example of this. Here’s a guy who is an internet celebrity, worked at Microsoft, has just as many haters as followers, and was willing to put his cell phone number on his website.

Update 2:20pm - This afternoon at I received an email from Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale that informed Second Life users of the denial-of-service attack and that Emerald had been removed from the viewer directory.  Philip explained that the Lab takes take privacy, safety, and security very seriously and work to protect it.  You can read the for email on (which has been posted on the official blog as well) here.  I applaud Linden Lab for their action throughout this manner.

As users the ball is back in our court.

Who do you trust more?

Can you trust Emerald again?

Are you willing to trust the avatar Arabella Steadham?

Has Project Snowstorm met your expectations?  Have you participated?

The 6th annual Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) took place in Boston this past weekend.  It was an exciting weekend packed full of Linden Lab announcements as well as a plethora of resident-led discussions and presentations.

The theme that resonated throughout the Linden Lab keynotes was Fast, Easy, Fun which are also their new strategic goals.   While a vast wealth of information was delivered at SLCC, there were 5 announcements in particular that that I think will bring forth some  significant changes to Second Life.

1. Mesh Support

Mesh support  was actually first announced at last year’s SLCC by Linden Lab’s (now former) Chief Product Officer, Tom Hale.  After the recent layoffs of several key Linden Lab employees including Hale himself, there has been much speculation as to the status of mesh support.  Linden Lab Founder and CEO Philip Rosedale (aka Philip Linden) cleared this up in his keynote address when he candidly declared,. “We are going to ship mesh.”  He also stated that we can expect Mesh to go into Open Beta before the end of the year.

I was relieved to hear this, as I have been very vocal in regards to how critical I think mesh support is to the future of Second Life.  Not only does it allow developers an unparalleled level of control, but it could also decrease lag and increase overall performance.

2. New Users Directly to Content

Instead of the orientation experience current users had, new users will be sent directly to the content that they are interested in.  For example, if someone was interested in live music, they could click a link and be sent directly to a show and the orientation process would then be shifted.

Philip himself admits that this is a gamble, but he thinks it’s a good one.  I agree that in theory this could be very successful.  By sending new users directly to content, they have the opportunity to find the  communities and content that interests and engages them, therefore making it more likely that they will stay, explore, and return. How this feature is implemented though, will make all the difference.

3. Display Names

Currently we all use avatar names that we created by entering a first name and choosing a last name from an available list.  This is very different from most current platforms and while cute, it is simply no longer acceptable to limit avatars in this fashion.  With the addition of display names, new users will no longer have to chose from a list of last names.  They will be able to define their own user names and display names.  For us current users, our avatar names will become our user names and we will be able to define our display names.  This feature is currently slated for release in the next few days!

I still have a lot of questions about display names, but I am thrilled at the prospect of them.  They will allow users like myself to easily link their avatar to their real world persona while also allowing users who wish to remain anonymous the ability to do so.

4. Closing of the Teen Grid

Not all the announcements were happily received.  This announcement in particular has upset many educators who have worked hard to establish opportunities on the Teen Grid.  Unfortunately for those involved, the Teen Grid will be closing.  However, users that are 16 or 17 years of age, will be transfer to the main Second Life grid.

While I can understand the hurt and frustration of the educators and community leaders involved, I also understand that tough decisions had to be made.  I’m hopefully that Linden Lab and the educators involved can come to some agreement to make space and certain content available to younger users, but that is certainly a daunting task that must not be taken lightly.  Philip himself said that he would like to work with them to find a way for the younger teens to have a place on the main grid.

5. New Development Methodologies

The Lab is changing the way they develop things.  Instead of spending large amounts of time working on a project, they are switching to short release cycles and implementing the use of an auto-updater.  This will allow Linden Lab the ability to quickly implement changes and present the community with the opportunity to provide essential feedback along the way.   The Lab currently has about 15 scrum teams working on different areas of development.  During this weekend we were introduced to one of the teams focusing on improving the Second Life Viewer aka the Snowstorm Team.  Project Snowstorm hopes to improve the performance, reliability, and ease of use of the Second Life Viewer while rapidly releasing new improved “development” viewers as often as bi-weekly. The best part is they plan to be completely open about the whole process.  Each day, the Snowstorm team will meet in Second Life for an open Daily Scrum, where each team member will give a short status update. The status updates will also be published on the Wiki and the team will be blogging as well.  They will also be looking to the open source community and welcoming them to contribute to the viewer development.

Philip outlined upcoming fixes to several bugs including fixes to group chat and region crossings.  He also stated that they plan to make SL twice as fast on start up and improve the crash rate.  In addition they are also working on having more avatars per region,  and reducing lag issues by implementing controls on avatar complexity.   He promised that these fixes and others would soon be outlined in a official published roadmap.

These change are quite radical compared to some the recent methods of the Lab, and I am looking forward to this new level of transparency and accountability.  The lab is not only welcoming feedback and new ideas, they encourage and asking for them.  They have asked though that these ideas be well thought out and constructive.  Several months ago, I wrote about how much of the Second Life community had adopted a sort of culture of complaining.  I suggested ways that the community could bring forth their complaints in a more constructive manner, and proposed that by doing so, they would have a better chance of being heard.  That time is now.  Assuming the Lab honors their part of the deal, the ball is now in our court.

Philip’s Keynote

Project Snowstorm Keynote

What did you think of the SLCC announcements?

As the Second Life 7th Birthday is winding down, I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite exhibits from the week.  Even though the celebrations are ending tonight, the SIMs themselves will be open until July 3 (11:59 pm SLT), so if you haven’t had a chance to explore everything.. now is the time, before all these wonderful exhibits disappear forever!  While all the exhibits were special, here are some of the ones I most enjoyed.

1. LEA – Bryn Oh

   

   Well known Second Life artist Bryn Oh created a captivating installation on behalf of the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA).  The interactive exhibit takes you on a whimsical journey as you climb the enchanted staircase that appears before you.  The inspiring exhibit was also beautifully captured by well known machinimagrapher Chantal Harvey.

   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL7B%20Contradiction/168/250/22

2. Timeline – Raven Haalan and GM Nikolaidis

   

   This amazing collaboration from two of SL’s best is sure to touch you.  At first glance, the installation appears to be an equatorial sundial, and 12-hour clock.  However, as you interact with the exhibit, you will find that each number (hour) corresponds with a compelling timeline of life events and stories.  Not to mention the free gift, is one you won’t want to miss.

   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL7B%20Enigma/93/37/23

3. Bodied words – pallina60 Loon

   

   This passionate installation draws you in with its intense visual appeal, but captures you with its adorable letter animations that allow you the chance to pose as a letter or a number so you can spell anything you want.

   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL7B%20Absurdity/51/137/22

4. Without You – Kerupa Flow

   

   One of the most underrated displays, this exhibit simply has to be explored. From beginning to end it places you in the middle of some the most visually stunning 3D illusions, that can be interpreted in different ways just by changing your viewpoint and exploring the installation further. As if that wasn’t enough, Kerupa aims right for your heart with her written note explaining how her work is nothing without you, because it’s how we all interact with it and what we get from it that “uncovers its soul.”

   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL7B%20Absurdity/64/222/22

5. dream on! – caLLie cLine

   

   This touching display of caLLie’s dreams (not to mention some classic SL history) will have you examining your own SL dreams as you fly around and explore this oversized yet stylized ‘Alice in Wonderland’ feeling installation.

   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL7B%20Enigma/39/103/22

6. Burning Life – Raven Haalan

   

   This exhibit will have you feeling nostalgic for last year’s Burning Life with its display of memorable photographs. It will also pump you up for this year’s theme “Metropolis – Civilization in the Desert” and provide you all the info you will need about the event and how to get involved!

   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL7B%20Contrary/11/91/22/

7. Doodle Lace – Eshi Otawara

   

   Inspired by former Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon’s doodle art, Eshi Otawara created this gorgeous feminine floral sculpture that is also a dress.

   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL7B%20Miraculous/39/219/22

8. BOSL & CO – Patch Thibaud

   

   This magnificent tower hovers over the entire celebration area and is worth taking a peek at with its glowing, moving pieces.  Update: Patch contacted me and let me know that he intended the tower to be viewed at night.  He also sent some photos of it at night and it was quite stunning.  Keep this in mind when visiting the tower!

   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL7B%20Contradiction/247/153/22

I would also like to take the opportunity to invite you to visit our exhibit

The Second Life Whole is Greater Than the Sum of its Parts

Our interactive installation exhibits the theme of “Unexpected Collaborations” with a visual representation demonstrating how the different communities in SL are not just amazing on their own, but are improved and enhanced by existing within the Second Life metaverse.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL7B%20Enigma/95/232/22

What was your favorite exhibit?

The Second Life 7th Birthday celebration kicked off this morning with an address from Linden Lab founder, SL creator, and current Chairman of the Board – Philip Rosedale (aka Philip Linden).  In his opening speech, Philip made several key points (emphasis added):

1.  Philip Has No Regrets

I sat and thought about this 7th year of operation — you know, for me, it is, of course more than 10 years… I would say that those 10 years have been an incredibly hard. They’ve had incredible moments of frustration. But they’ve also been incredibly rewarding and inspiring and I wouldn’t take back any of it or even do anything differently… I think what we’ve achieved here is a magnificent accomplishment together — all of us, the Lindens, the Residents, the Lindens that aren’t with us anymore — we’ve all worked together to build something just incredible. And I wouldn’t even take any chance at anything that might mess it up, it’s unbelievable what we’ve achieved.

2.  Linden Lab Has Only Good Intentions

We have tried, as a company — because we’ve been so excited about virtual reality, about what we’ve already accomplished together, what we’ve seen everyone do, what we’ve seen you guys do — it’s been so exciting that we have tried to fix it all at once.. it’s all done out of enthusiasm, it’s done out of excitement, it’s done out of love for the world. And everything and everyone that’s in it. But I think the challenge we’ve had is that over and over again, we’ve been this small, smallish company trying to work on something that is just unbelievably complicated and figuring out how to restrict and serialize and sequence and prioritize all of these different pieces has been a huge problem.

3.  Keeping Second Life Safe is Top Priority

We sadly reduced the size of the company by about a third — by about 100 people a week ago, and that’s a big deal and a huge change… We’re never going to — as a company — risk the world and the businesses and the livelihoods of the thousands of people who make money working here by growing too quickly ahead of profits. By doing the difficult process of restructuring the company and making layoffs, we’ll return ourselves to solid, very solid levels of profitability.  We’re safe, the world is safe.

4.  Linden Lab is Getting Back To Basics (aka SL is a medieval city)

Second Life is this wonderful, beautiful city — once you’re in it and you’re having this amazing immersive experience, you’re just totally blown away by it. But the city itself is surrounded by huge walls and a moat. It’s like a medieval city. To actually get into it you have to invest an enormous amount of time and energy getting across that moat, and over the walls, and into this amazing new world of people inside that are waiting inside. And I think that in our excitement about the success of Second Life — in its amazing initial growth and the amazing things that you guys have done and that we’ve done together — we were getting ahead of ourselves a bit as a company and this is what we really talked about in this restructuring. We were building these sort of rickety — we were in many cases building these bridges and scaffoldings that sought to get different types of people across that moat and over those walls, whether we’re talking about international Residents, or the community welcome areas, or enterprise or education users — we’ve been sort of building these little, thin bridges that try and quickly get everybody kind of over that wall and into Second Life. And of course, you can understand why we’d do that, because it’s just so fantastic an experience once we can get people there.

But I think what we have to do — what I know is the kind of thinking that’s informing our planning process going forward — is ask whether instead we can stop doing those many, many peripheral, highly usage-specific things to get people in here — and instead just take a step back, look at the basic problems that we are all faced by, and by fixing them, fill the moat. Tear down the walls. Stop trying to build over them. We have a product here that can deliver an unbelievable experience to everyone if we simply make the basic pieces of that experience work. Whether we’re talking about how many people can stand together in a meeting like this, or how to put clothes on, or manage your inventory, or build basic objects in-world, or how voice works, how parcel media works, live music — all of these basic features are things that are amazing experiences when you can have them, but they’re not easy enough yet. They’re not — they just in many cases don’t completely work, and we — it’s so easy to get ahead of ourselves as a company and forget that. So going back to those basics and just trying to make this thing work for all of us is what you can expect to see from us next.

5. Second Life is Not For Sale

Dousa Dragonash: Is there any truth in the rumour that Second Life is preparing to be bought?

Philip Linden: Dousa…. nope.

I was relieved and delighted to hear Philip’s plan for Second Life.  His positions were very similar to what I speculated in the first episode of Metareality.  I think the Lab is focused in the right direction, and it is good to see Philip is still involved.  I look forward to seeing “the walls break down.”

You can download or read Philip’s speech in it’s entirety here.

*Special thanks to Torley Linden for this recording/transcript.*

Today is Day 5 of the Big Bad Blogger Challenge 2010.

Today’s Topic: Blogger’s Choice

I keep reading people saying that they aren’t being listened to.  They feel like their voice isn’t heard.  They argue Linden Lab are too worried about new users, or business, or education, or (fill in some group here).  They claim the long time users are being ignored and the things that really need to change, are staying the same.

I am not Linden Lab, but I take time every day to read and explore the life pulse of Second Life.  I am open to hearing anyone’s opinion.  Yet, I honestly can tell you that I have no idea what changes people are referring to or what they want to see… and it’s not because I’m not listening.

Someone once said, ““If you don’t create change, change will create you.”

I wanted to give everyone an opportunity to SPECIFICALLY express themselves.

OPEN FORUM:

What changes specifically do you think Linden Lab needs to make?  What specifically do you want to see in Second Life?  What areas do you think the Lab should be focusing their time on?

How are you creating the change you want to see?

Today is Day 4 of the Big Bad Blogger Challenge 2010.

Today’s Topic: Age

Age (along with many of the other confines of the physical world such as race, religion, sex, etc.) becomes a very interesting topic when examined in virtual space.  Where does our physical age end and our virtual age begin?  How do we even define our virtual age?  Is our virtual age, the age we “act” in world?  How old our avatar appears to look? How about the age since our avatar first rezzed into the space?

It seems that to define virtual age we have to look at several dimensions:

1. Physical Age

2. Mental Age

3. Apparent Age (look)

4. Rendered Age

In virtual space, where we can be any age (not to mention have/create/be anything we can imagine) what age do you want to be?

Second Life creator Philip Rosedale once described SL as “The Sum of All Dreams.”  He then went on to joke that based on SL, the average of all dreams is Malibu.  I guess that might fit with my perception of how old most avatars look – too young for their age.  I rarely every see a wrinkled, aged avatar.  No judgments though when you consider that in Second Life, most of us do feel like we are dreaming, or imagining into fruition the dreams of our childhood.  The virtual space is like an evolution of consciousness, which itself is just in its infancy.   So why then should we emotionally feel any different when we are exploring this new world, than we once did with the physical world when we are a child?  Through our virtual eyes, this virtual space can be new and magical.

In fact, I challenge you to really watch a child.  Watch them explore and examine.  Everything is so engaging, so funny, so stimulating, so gratifying.  They focus so intently like nothing else around them matters. They live in the moment.  This new virtual space can also be a similar experience.

Many of us as adults lose this stimulating curiosity, and become paralyzed by our urge to over analyze everything. Virtual worlds provide us with the opportunity to transcend the constraints of the physical world (including age) and manifest the dreams of our infinite self.   The journey is only as confined as you are.

Today is Day 3 of the Big Bad Blogger Challenge 2010.

Today’s Topic: Relationships

The desire to feel connected is a basic human instinct.  This doesn’t change when we log into a virtual world.  Most users don’t go to virtual spaces just to defy gravity. They’re there for the people. They don’t come back day after day just to spend their time with mere casual acquaintances, either. They often form real relationships with real emotional attachments.  Those that call these relationships (friendships or more) unreal or fantasy ignore the impact they have.  The bonds or connections that are formed don’t begin when you log on and they don’t end when you log out.

This was recently reinforced when 30% of Linden Lab employees were somewhat suddenly laid off.  The Second Life community genuinely mourned the loss of these people that most had never actually met face to face.  The support was instant, unconditional, and real.

The part that bothers me though, is not people questioning how real these friendships or relationships are.  It’s that almost every time the media or “News” mentions Second Life and relationships it’s to tell the story of some affair or stalker turned killer who was found with his virtual lover’s head in a box.  Call me crazy, but while the internet may be full of weirdoes and future serial killers, it is also full of amazing, good natured, and engaging people.  It allows us to defy space and time and meet others from around the world who challenge us, inspire us, and form passionate communities around the things that we care about.

Unfortunately there will probably always be some sensational story about virtual relationships (at least for now).  People will be people.  There are good ones and there are… not so good ones.  I, however, will continue to form real friendships, and conduct real business in these virtual spaces until they develop some new technology where we can defy physics in real time, that or until they find my head in box.  I’M JUST JOKING! Relax!

Today is Day 2 of the Big Bad Blogger Challenge 2010.

Today’s Topic:  Being Positive

It’s easy to get discouraged.  There are a lot of negative people.  Those people can really bring you down.. if you let them.  However, if you make it a practice to intentionally find the positive things in your life, you will realize that those people don’t have much power when you don’t give it to them.

As for me, I’m a pretty positive person.  I consider it one of the keys to the modest success I’ve had.  Positive thinking has changed my life.  It’s helped me to turn problems into opportunities.

In fact, just recently I:

1. Signed several new accounts to Sand Castle Studios.  Our team came up with some amazing proposals, and I can’t wait for you to experience the finished projects.

2. Had the opportunity to give an amazing talk on Creating Immersive Experiences at the University of Delaware, the school from which I graduated.  I always love talking about virtual worlds, but there is something special about speaking some place that feels like home.

3.  Started a podcast (after some encouragement from the team at Rezzed.tv).  The feedback has been so positive and several people even told me they have begun reading a book I mentioned on the show.

These are just a few recent examples of how positive thinking has contributed to my happiness and success.  It’s not just me either.  Studies have shown over and over again that positive thinking actually has real and measurable effects.

So why is everyone so negative?

When I recently examined this topic, I found that not only Second Life users, but also social media users have a habit of complaining in response to the smallest changes.  I asked if people complained because they were afraid of change. Eshi Otawara commented and suggested that “the way users complain about changes is closely connected to the general education of the majority of humans today.”    However, I suspected that we focus on the negative because it’s easy, it’s what we’ve been taught,  and in a way, it feels good… it soothes us.. it protects us.

Tonight, Nika Dreamscape hit home for me, when she suggested another reason:

We react so strongly and complain so loudly because we care so deeply. Most of us have invested so much of ourselves into this platform. When the road gets rocky, we hurt. It’s natural.

I get that.  I hurt too sometimes, and it is because I care.  However, I also choose to make a positive out of a negative, for the same reason (because I care).  That doesn’t mean that I’m not practical, but when I set my mind on the positive things, I make positive actions, which lead to positive outcomes.

Here are 3 small changes you can make today:

1.  See bad things as a a stepping stone to something else.. a blessing in disguise.

2.  Realize that anything is a possible, instead of dwelling on why it’s not.

3.  Love and be thankful for what you already have.

What do you think?  How do you keep yourself thinking positively?