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The Archives
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01.07.08IBM on the Importance of Second Life IntegrationTrailing slightly in my reading, but a blog post in November from IBM hits on one of three important points that will, in my opinion, determine Second Life's success for 2008. Says the IBM blogger: A lot of virtual world advocates (no few of them my IBM colleagues!) consider virtual worlds to be the overarching technology. Where it is to interact with other technologies they are to be incorporated in the virtual world. I see it more open. That virtual worlds is as often an embedded technology as it is an embedding technology. My competition entry above embedded aspects of Second Life ...
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12.18.07The Impermanence of the Build: In Second Life, as in Life, Nothing Lasts ForeverA posting a few days ahead of layoffs at Electric Sheep had one of their bloggers commenting, wistfully, I'd say, about the impermanence of builds in Second Life. They write: There will likely be other experiments, projects, and buildings of ours that will no longer grace the terrain of SL; I know others have gone through this same experience — there are people who have more buildings/objects hiding in their inventory that they’ve created but which are no longer out on the grid than I’ve created in my entire time in SL — so it’s no surprise that others might find this ...
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12.06.07Architecture in Second Life: Analysis, the Geography of ImaginationWhile written in January, an in-depth review of architeture in Second Life picks up a recurring thought I've had over that the geography of Second Life has become increasingly narrowed to the results of the search facility, and wondering whether SL is missing what may be a criticial technological underpinning if it is to remain a progressive platform allowing the mapping of information in 3-dimensions. As they comment: Not to sound like a virtual Jane Jacobs, but by actively moving through these worlds we begin to understand the nuance of character of the different parts of the map and have a richer ...
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12.04.07Architecture Machima from ItalyNice piece of machima highlighting the EX.IT project, covered in some depth at the Arch. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkOnED0AxNs] EX.IT itself is a beautiful build. The video shows the sense of the detail and thought process behind perspective, scale, lighting. I'm hardly an expert at architecture or design, but one of the things that strikes me about the project is the sense of realism - and how FLAT realism often feels in virtual worlds. There's a Japanese sim does the same thing. Beautiful, realistic down to scratches and sounds. But somehow realism doesn't tug me the same way as a Svarga does. Doesn't quite stretch the imagination. ...
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10.31.07Reflexive Architecture: Virtual Worlds Redefine our Relationship to ObjectsI'm increasingly fascinated by the work that architects are doing in virtual worlds, Second Life in particular. Documented and discussed at The Arch I can only offer a naive outsider's view. I'm clueless as to how reflexive architecture, for example, helps to explore concepts of architecture as a discipline. However, my fascination with reflexive architecture connects to deepening (and confused) thoughts about objects, interaction, and "physical presence" in virtual worlds. As an extension of this fascination, our group has begun to explore concepts of landscape architecture and in particular metaphors of public gardens and their transportability into virtual worlds. Reflexive architecture ...
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10.18.07Brilliant Architecture Pushes Boundaries of Virtual World ThinkingI have been so deeply impressed by the work of Jon Brouchard and wanted to share his latest thinking on reflexive architecture. I'm often stunned by the sculptural quality of some of the SL builds, by houses that are so realistic you feel you can drink the cup of coffee on the living room table, or by recreations of a streetscape that allow you to instantly transport to New York, Paris, Italy - you name it. But its always seemed to me that the point of virtual worlds is their ability to expand our concepts of objects, social environments, information, interaction, and ...
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10.12.07IBM/Linden GoalsDetails on the goals of the IBM and Second Life partnership: - "Universal" Avatars: "Users could maintain the same "avatar" name, appearance and other important attributes (digital assets, identity certificates, and more) for multiple worlds." - Security-rich Transactions that allow users to exchange assets both more securely in individual virtual worlds, but also across multiple worlds. - Platform stability: As a part of this goal, IBM also announced that Kaneva would be standardizing across IBM servers. More generally the goal is to "accelerate user adoption, deliver faster response times for real-world interactions, and provide for high-volume business use." - Integration with existing Web ...
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09.23.07Temple Build the PrequelBefore I rebuilt it, the Temple sat in world, and I have to say I sure have fond memories. It was one of my first builds after abandoned attempts at crooked greenhouses and mis-textured chairs. There have been changes on my home turf since I started it some months ago, but the basic structure is still the same and the temple sits where it always has, with a view of the sunrise for morning meditation.
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09.22.07Temple BuildOne of the first things I built in Second Life was a temple. I had NO idea what being a prim hog was, and I was terrified that it would fall down. :P So, the beams and structure were made to withstand whatever tremors or attacks SL nature could throw at her. Recently added a back courtyard and little living area so that it might make a somewhat unique skybox for someone with a yen for Zen. Part of my house and builds set on Flickr.
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