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March 2008
The Archives
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03.31.08Virtual Worlds, and Why the Long Tail is (partly) WrongThere was an interesting discussion brewing about intellectual property, "copybot II" and content protection until the conversation suddenly veered off into protecting the blessed hand of Second Life® and I lost the trail of thought. I suppose it's a lot more important to worry about the value of the inSL logo, whether Linden Labs is Linden Lab or Linden's Labs or the Linden is a dollar or not. It all made me feel a little like Rumpole, worrying about "The World Who Must Be Obeyed" and blundering about while my raincoat trails through the mud as I try to crack ...
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03.30.08
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03.28.08Second Life(r) Development: Progress ReportMy own progress report is I still can't figure out how to get the registration mark so I give up. Sue me. In the meantime, a progress report on developments in the World that Must Be Obeyed (am feeling very Rumpole-like these days). Back in January I sifted through the various blogs and press interviews to come up with this schedule as promised by our friends in management: February: Lightweight Client Miller tells IW that the lightweight client will include text chat, instant messaging, and voice communications. Progress: Not achieved This Quarter: Mono Deployed “In another architecture change, Linden Lab is deploying Mono as a ...
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03.27.08Forbes Reports on ESL LearningIt's nice to see a mainstream business outfit like Forbes - home of the annual Forbes 500, and a business person's bible - give some column inches (is that the term for it on the Web? Or should it be "scroll depth?") to SL education. This also shows that education in SL may actually be gaining some traction in the business establishment. A co-leader of a school in Germany has set up "Second Life English" and since February, the site has had upwards of 75 visitors per day. The island is an ESL resource center for both students and teachers. "The richness ...
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03.27.08College Prof Turns to SLYou're a post-secondary English prof, and your students are bored stiff with the same old 500-750 word essay assignments. Not to mention, you are bored stiff teaching composition to freshmen. You toss around new ideas: group collaborations? Re-workings of classics of literature? Field trips? What does one do? Well, an enterprising professor at Macon State College in Georgia has decided to add some zing to his first-year composition class by having students write for SL. According to Dr. Gerard Lucas, "Second Life allows us to look at issues like identity, identity building, gender, sexuality and race. It brings all these ideas to ...
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03.26.08Shut Down the Blogs and Head for the ExitsFurther addendum: Am I the only one infuriated that Catherine Linden threw in her two cents only ONCE in the comments that followed the posting of this issue? These people need to take communication classes - preferably from Sidewinder Linden. Ignoring all other comments and the hundred that followed, Catherine instead responded only to Ciaran (kudos! woot!): "Hey Ciaran, in answer to your specific question about timing, we are actually providing plenty of time — 90 days — to get your questions answered and let the community start using the inSL logo. We anticipate there will be lots ...
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03.26.0860,000L Tribal Contest Ends SoonFor those interested in a chance to win 60,000L for the design of jewelry, the deadline approaches. :) This has been such a fun approach to collaboration and giving the amazing content developers a chance to shine. I've been really excited to see entries coming in, and just wanted to post a quick little reminder for those who may have missed the original post.
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03.26.08My New Business CardsSo I was thinking through adding the new inSL logo to my business cards. Then started playing through handing it out to one of my RL clients (is RL trademarked? Make note to check). (Handing card to prospective client) Client: Thanks. Hey, geez, that's cheeky. DW: Huh? Client: (Looking more closely). Oh, sorry, I thought that said inSLT. Dunno how I saw a "T" at the end of it. DW: (Awkward chuckle) Client: Um, what's it mean? DW: inSL? It means In Second Life. Client: In Second Life what? DW: Oh, it means our company is in Second Life. Well, not JUST in it. But sort of. Client: Second Life? It's ...
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03.26.08Gaming: The New Frontier of Art?There is no denying the astonishing creativity that goes into video game, MMORPGs, and virtual worlds. And over at The Guardian, the UK's cultural gatekeeper, Alastair Harper makes the case that some video games, at least, deserve a place on the shelf beside literature, music, and film: "As happened with comic books becoming graphic novels in the 80s, each year there are more developers willing to take risks with storylines, develop more complex moral situations and generally raise the bar so high that it's becoming plain ignorant for anyone interested in stories to ignore them." Harper cites Bioshock as a game that ...
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03.25.08An Interlude for AngelsThanks as always, Robbie.
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