Comments on: Second Life’s Killer App for Residents: Each Other

By: links for 2009-10-26 | Metaverse3d.com

links for 2009-10-26 | Metaverse3d.com — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:10:50 +0000

[...] Dusan Writer’s Metaverse » Second Life’s Killer App for Residents: Each Other [...]

By: Marcus Llewellyn

Marcus Llewellyn — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:18:37 +0000

What LL needs to solve is not the availability of user generated content, but the ability to rez and make use of it.

Ask anyone who has tried to decorate the house on their 1024m parcel how fast they run out of prims. Imagine how often they’ve seen the perfect dining room set, but realize that it won’t do because although it’s reasonably priced, they can’t even rez it. They lose, and the person selling it loses. LL loves to trot out those positive numbers, but 117 prims per 512m parcel is a pretty pathetic one.

I know Tom Hale was doing his job to win over some critics here, and it sounds like he did it well. But as a daily customer of SL, those numbers do little to cheer me up in light of the limitations that have have been in place for years, and have few if any resolutions on the horizon.

By: Prokofy Neva

Prokofy Neva — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:47:32 +0000

He forgot to tell the part about how virtual versions of things makes for a better world, beyond consumerism. I’m all for consumerism. I don’t turn up my nose at low culture and bling. But our Lindens have always been idealists who would say that they were, oh, helping the blind or “collaboration” or “innovation” or…something…when they talked about the virtual object stuff.

Not quite there yet.

By: Troy McConaghy

Troy McConaghy — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:33:24 +0000

Another aspect of social media is that it’s created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques, such as Internet-based tools. Most warehouses aren’t accessible or scalable in the way Second Life is.

Accessible: To access a warehouse, you have to go to the physical location of the warehouse, which is a lot less accessible than “you have to go anywhere with a power supply and a fast enough Internet connection (to access SL).”

Scalable: To expand a physical warehouse, you have to get materials, use time, energy, money and labor to build the new addition. You may also have to buy more real estate. To expand a similar SL-based project (e.g. a simulated art-exhibition warehouse), the costs are lower.

By: Tateru Nino

Tateru Nino — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:34:20 +0000

Much like a loft, a warehouse, a public park or a coffee shop.

The whole notion of “social media” largely revolves around a misunderstanding about the nature of what is “social” as well as of what is “media”

By: Troy McConaghy

Troy McConaghy — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:44:09 +0000

If you look up the Wikipedia article on “Social media,” you will get a definition, the history of the phrase, and a list of examples. Guess what? Second Life is in the list (and no, I didn’t put it there).

You shouldn’t be surprised. In SL, one can create media, share media with others, discuss it, create groups, and debate the merits of waffles while dancing in a forest.

By: Tateru Nino

Tateru Nino — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:58:07 +0000

Yes. That’s just (sadly) insulting, and would earn a face-slap or mass walk-out in most company I know.

By: Dusan

Dusan — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:44:12 +0000

Tateru – agreed…and I don’t think he actually said that, I was sort of putting words in his mouth, slightly sarcastically.

One thing that kind of bothers me is the geek vs. female thing…not sure why it didn’t occur to me before but he sort of implies “you may think we’re all geeks, but 50% of us are actually female” which implies that females are never geeks.

Ah well, I guess he made his larger point.

By: Tateru Nino

Tateru Nino — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:50:52 +0000

I think SL as “social media” is stretching the definition a bit far. If we *do* stretch it that far, then almost everything is technically social media within the compass.

By: radar

radar — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:45:40 +0000

Um. Maggie. They have no choice but to enforce copyrights and trademarks. You can’t just copy someone’s trademark in SL and think it’s ok. How hard is that to figure out?

The real issue is not that, the real issue is whether or not LL can keep original content created in-world from being stolen seven ways to Christmas so that it’s worth people trying to sell stuff, and so that the economy keeps going.

You go to OpenLife right now and you can see stolen stuff all over the grid. Stuff that was created in SL by someone other than whoever created it in OpenLife.