misattributed quotes are almost as bad as predictions and statistics!

We used to have those in SL… when SL was tiny. There were places where “everybody would go” just because… they stood out. But there was a difference: SL was so tiny that information about those locations was immediately available to all users.

These days, we have far, far better content in SL — orders of magnitude better. But… we also have orders of magnitude more content, and information on that content… which is completely scattered around. There is a “long tail” on information about Second Life too: call it the meta-SL, information about SL itself. There was a time in my life where I could list, by heart, all sites and blogs worth visiting to keep in touch with all that goes on in SL. These days, they’re uncountable… and unsearchable, even on Google.

I agree that we had, for most of last year, a common reference for the “best content in SL” — Rezzable and the Greenies sim, which I think was visited by “everyone” in SL at least once. And we have a reference at what a community in SL should look like — Caledon. We also have a reference on the obligatory venue for business information — Metanomics (*wink*). But from there onwards… what are the references? What are the uberstories of SL? I have no idea, and the only thing I know is that everybody will disagree with what is relevant in SL (that might actually be good, in the sense that it means diversity, but it will make it hard to convey to a new user the experience of VW immersion).

Surprisingly, even Facebook got their uberstory: FarmVille

Ironically, Blue Mars might get Caledonia as their uberstory too… and who knows, perhaps Jon Himoff will do the same with Rezzable’s content Double-ironically, all these “new” VWs always have attracted SL residents as their early adopters I remember when 90% of everybody I met on Lively were… SL residents, and the SL room was the #2 room after Google’s own. During my early days in Blue Mars, I only met SL residents there — both in-world and on the forums. The irony is that it’s the SL residents that do the majority of non-SL platform promotion…

Oh yes, there is a lesson to be learned there, and I hope that at least LL learns that too

# “No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer—640K ought to be enough for anybody,” Bill Gates, Microsoft, 1981 10:43 PM Dec 30th, 2009 from Echofon

# Screw predictions…as computer scientist Alan Kay said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” 10:44 PM Dec 30th, 2009 from Echofon

ie: what desmond said

If Metaplace can work as a facebook application, then I really hope it does move to there…. I’m tired of Farmville getting more credit than it deserves.

Storage online is NOT Eternal. Media Content MUST be sold as its has since its been tied to tech in the last 60 years..– by its “desire” and tech bells and whistles.(COLOR TV- STEREO, 3DGLASSES)

NO uber stories,-
BECauSE LINDEN WANTS THEM ALL FOR THEMSELVES. They are not a network, not a tool, not an entity for a mass industry.

THEY- the singular tech run company- want it all. tools, jobs, projects, clients and customers.. enough said.

Metaplace failed again like many others becuase of such hubris. Now it may license tech/ sell tools- to “anyone” or compete with every other production house that services sales/creative ad agencies with prpriarety tech for a pepsi job online.

or of course put a director on your BOD to get a chance at a movie promotion in flash.;) while youre company has been asking OTHERS to invest in your 3d tech for year..;)…well again. not much news here.

AVATAR like most DIGITAL EFX driven FILMSor GAMES, will AGE HORRIBLY, and be all but unwatchable by any other than as nostaglia is a decade or two.

OR like LUCAS wars, or CBS TREK, itll have to be all redone and UPGRADED to whatever the latest visual tech is, all to be remarketed for no longtail investment.. but a REINVESTNMENT of FUTURE MILLIONS.. BEFORE it can be sold again.

why all the remakes, reedits, etc etc?… is this truly longtail? or just remarketing and refunding.

then again.
this culture stills prays to metaplaces and shiny planets that never even got out of beta. before they became obsolote taking all youre unpaid work and time with it.

leaders of a metaverese roadmap.?..indeed.

enjoy the show.

For the time, my assessment was about dead on the mark: here was company headed straight for financial problems, nothing seemed to work very well and the future looked bleak.

The common wisdom pretty much agreed with me, at the time. Anshe came along a year later, and two years after that she was on the cover of Business Week, a million dollars richer.

And more to the point: her success was no accident.

Question is this: what did tens of thousands of people not understand in 2004, that Anshe did?

* * * * *

Is there a call for something like Blue Mars? Well, that’s an open question. From where I stand, nearly half of Caledonia City is booked; as of this writing I think I have only three shops left unspoken for, downtown, and the homes are being prebooked steadily too.

Here’s another fun tidbit ~ the Blue Mars launch stoked interest on the Second Life side as well! This is not a zero sum game. The market potential for virtual worlds is *huge*.

(pretend I included lots of links to pundits and virtual market growth here ~ we’ve all read that stuff)

Like Pink Floyd said: no one tells you when to run, you might miss the starting gun

Someday I’ll have to read up on long tails.

But right now, making things happen is more important than tails to me. The only way to be at the wrong end of the tail, is to not do anything.

* * * * *

And with regard to Raph ~ he tried, and hat’s off to him for trying something new, even retro new. The fact that he tried is bigger than the endgame. All things end someday; some sooner, some later.

Raph’s had more success than most of us will ever see, before he even got started with Metaplace. So from those days forward it’s all been gravy.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulls a big win out his pocket again someday. There’s a lot of our future in his dreams, I am sure, to be revealed in the coming years.

Seeing Avatar in 3D Imax is the ultimate in a breathtaking, immersive, yet passive experience. It is also a rich metaphor pointing to the as yet untapped potential of virtual worlds like Second Life where immersion, engagement along with interactivity and co-creation can happen.

Create the most compelling Story Quest and/or ongoing and living mash-up…provide the idea, the initial architecture and the technological barriers to entry become irrelevant.

Story telling and stories are the killer ap. Second Life with all its hiccups is already a better platform than NBC was in the 1950’s. And yes Caledon is a brand and a “narrowcasting” hit…Technology does not change narrowcasting into broadcasting…stories do, that are universal, relatable, dramatic, and funny. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait till Cameron brings the long tail of the Na’vi to Second Life…We need our own iconic brands/stories and we will grow our own heads and tails.

http://gwynethllewelyn.net/2009/12/31/predictions-for-2010/

New viewer, mesh and MediaAPI coming – I’m expecting, however, that the viewer and MediaAPI will launch in February.

I’m holding fast to my belief that the Lab is trying to be more organized – that they focused on stability, then the first hour, then channels, the new viewer, mesh, shadows, etc…that they have their own road map, however vague it might seem, but that they really do believe they can hit the million mark in concurrency and are planning to be able to achieve that.

Something new will come along, but as I’ve posted elsewhere it will be because of ‘deeper innovation’ and not because someone came out with a new virtual WORLD but rather a new METAVERSE application….augmented reality + virtual world? Something with multiple avatars, automated avatars, data visualization….where someone realizes you can dispense with the common language of avatars and land and buildings and open new frontiers in what we think of as virtual worlds.