Second Life in 3600 seconds

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Second Life in 3600 seconds - Presentation Transcript

  1. Second Life in 3600 seconds or “My life in the bush of avatars”
  2. Second what?
    • 3-D virtual world
    • run by Linden Lab
    • ‘ proprietary’, but public commitment to open standards and OSS
    • populated by avatars, aka residents
    • a ‘metaverse’ (from the book: Snow Crash)
    www.secondlife.com
  3. So it’s just a game right?
    • can use SL to build games – including shoot ‘em ups
    • but such activities frowned on in public spaces
    • looks and feels like a gaming environment
    • but no purpose as such
      • use it to buy / sell, entertain, learn, collaborate, …
    • do not approach it simply as a game – you’ll be disappointed!
    image by J0@nn@ @ flickr.com
  4. Ain’t you got a first life mate?
  5. Joining SL
    • two steps
      • register
      • install client software
    • note technical requirements
  6. What does it cost?
    • basic accounts are free
    • need to pay monthly subscription ($10) to own land
    • land can be quite expensive
    • ‘ land use fees’ for owning more than smallest plot
  7. Naming / identity
    • every avatar has a name
    • chosen at registration
    • can’t be changed
    • though can have ‘Alt’s
    • mine is Art Fossett - not an anagram!
  8. Identity / appearance
    • on the Internet no one knows you’re a dog
    • in SL no one knows you’re a bloke
    • appearance can be changed instantly
    • wings and tails (‘furries’) seem oddly popular!
  9. Communication
    • chat
    • IM
    • group IM
    • IM <-> email
    • no in-built support for voice
    • promised soon
    • but residents have added Skype integration
  10. Getting around
    • walking
    • flying
    • teleporting
      • locally via scripted objects
      • longer distances via ‘landmarks’
    • in-world search engine
    • locations exposed to Web as SLURLs
  11. Virtual land
    • rent or buy
    • needed for permanent buildings
      • shops, galleries, universities
    • mainland areas
    • private islands (~$1000 for non-profits)
    • issues with ‘land barons’ buying up available land and selling for profit
  12. Building stuff
    • anyone can build
    • in sandboxes or on own land
    • objects made out of basic building blocks – prims (cubes, spheres, …)
    • prim limits usually apply
    • prims can be textured for realism – but uploading costs L$10
    • objects as HUDs
  13. Scripting
    • scripted objects
    • C++ like, event-driven language
    • move, change shape, etc.
    • interact via clicking, chat, sensing the env.
    • modify avatar behaviour
    • in-world physics engine
  14. Multimedia
    • limited integration of audio and video files
    • SL client has built-in support for Quicktime
    • can play anything that QT supports
    • pulled in from URL associated with land parcel
    • however, significant limitations currently
  15. SL and Web 2.0
    • scripting language can issue HTTP GET and POST requests
    • can integrate with Web 2.0 services
    • but significant limitations currently
    • no built-in HTML, XML or JSON parsers so need to parse externally
    • SLURLs can be bookmarked in del.icio.us
    • some good examples – Second Talk, SLoodle, SLtwitter, BlogHUD, RSS readers
  16. IPR
    • IPR on in-world objects rests with creator
    • e.g. rights to game designed in-world subsequently sold to Nintendo by its creator
    • however, objects essentially remain locked in-world
  17. Money
    • in-world currency
    • Linden dollar (L$)
    • $1 = ~L$280
    • fluctuates
    • but supply influenced by Linden Lab
    • currency market to buy and sell L$
  18. Commerce
    • many big brands in SL
    • hype => presence
    • some criticism from older residents that SL is becoming a ‘brandscape’
  19. Entertainment
    • hard to tell hype from reality
    • some experimental use of SL to host events and/or mirror RL events
    • e.g. BBC One Big Weekend
    • but significant problems with scalability
  20. Machinima
    • the use of SL to create movies
    • application in film studies and related areas
    • of interest because the techniques are the same but costs significantly lower
  21. Crime
    • not a significant issue (yet!)
    • some anti-social behaviour
    • some reports of people pretending to be shop owners when they are not
    • some reports of fraud around land sales
    • one major incident of hacking into SL databases
    image by ay1ene @ flickr.com
  22. Hype
    • SL very over-hyped
    • significant complaints that stats are misleading
    • i.e. worse than Web stats
    • LL have improved the way they report usage but…
    • SL also (inappropriately) touted as Web NG
  23. Demographics 0.61% China 0.88% Denmark 0.95% Sweden 1.29% Japan 1.29% Switzerland 1.48% Australia 1.93% Italy 2.63% Belgium 3.30% Canada 3.77% Brazil 3.83% Spain 6.55% Netherlands 8.08% United Kingdom 10.45% Germany 12.73% France 31.19% United States % Country 15   11.61% 45 + Average Age on Teen Grid   21.13% 35-44     38.88% 25-34     27.16% 18-24 33   1.23% 13-17 Average Age Adult Grid   % Age 58.93% 41.07% February   2007 58.89% 41.11% January   2007 58.58% 41.42% December   2006 57.86% 42.14% November   2006 57.35% 42.65% October   2006 56.24% 43.76% September   2006 M F      
  24. Time
    • SL runs on US West Coast time (GMT-8)
    • many events tend to run on that basis
    • SL tends to be empty during our working day
    • actually, SL tends to look empty, full-stop!
    • in-world daylight hours run on 4 hour cycle
  25. Gambling and porn
    • both exist… in abundance!
    • as with early Web, both areas quick to exploit the technology
    • indicative of flexibility?
    • causes problems because of load on ‘sims’
    • not possible to choose who your neighbours are!
  26. SL rules
    • code of conduct in public spaces
      • no griefing / hassling of other residents
      • no use of offensive language
      • no nudity
      • no public sex
    • no police as such
    • but breaches can be reported to Linden Lab
    • areas can be explicitly marked as ‘mature’ (or for gaming)
  27. Politics
    • RL politics surface in SL every so often – anti-war, anti-NF, …
    • SL politics also feature – pricing, land policies, IPR, open sourcing of SL software
  28. SL and learning
    • widespread interest in use of SL in education
    • explicitly encouraged by Linden Lab
    • not clear that people really know how to use SL yet
    • but some interesting examples of use
    • arts, social sciences, law, psychology, archaeology, languages, …
  29. Teen Second Life
    • note that SL is segregated
    • Teen SL (14-18) and SL (18+)
    • no cross-over allowed except in limited cases (e.g. teachers)
    • well enforced
    • presumably to prevent threat of legal action in US
  30. SL and research
    • even less clear what is possible here
    • but note that Nature Publishing have an island (‘Second Nature’)
    • speaking at our symposium in May
  31. SL in context
    • SL is one of many virtual worlds
    • there.com, World of Warcraft, Entropia Universe, Active Worlds, …
    • not clear that SL is the answer
    • SL client now released as open source
    • clear demand for server to made OSS also
    • some commitment to this by LL (partly because people are reverse-engineering the server anyway)
  32. Conclusions…
    • too much hype
    • no clear best-practice (or even much practice) around e-learning
    • high technical requirements
    • no voice integration
    • but… useful experimental environment
    • building and scripting environment very powerful
    • seems likely that 3-D virtual worlds of some kind will be part of the future
  33. Four examples…

+ Eduserv FoundationEduserv Foundation, 3 years ago

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