Second Life in 3600 seconds

Second Life in 3600 seconds or “My life in the bush of avatars”

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

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

Ain’t you got a first life mate?

Joining SL
two steps
register
install client software
note technical requirements

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

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!

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!

Communication
chat
IM
group IM
IM <-> email
no in-built support for voice
promised soon
but residents have added Skype integration

Getting around
walking
flying
teleporting
locally via scripted objects
longer distances via ‘landmarks’
in-world search engine
locations exposed to Web as SLURLs

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

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

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

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

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

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

Money
in-world currency
Linden dollar (L$)
$1 = ~L$280
fluctuates
but supply influenced by Linden Lab
currency market to buy and sell L$

Commerce
many big brands in SL
hype => presence
some criticism from older residents that SL is becoming a ‘brandscape’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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)

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

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, …

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

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

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)

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

Four examples…

http://virtualworldwatch.net	68
http://www.slideshare.net	27
http://ayl08e.blogspot.com	25
http://virtualenvironmentvideos.blogspot.com	23
http://ioc.xtec.cat	15
http://www.ciberespiral.net	12
http://thegridlive.com	9
http://comunaudiov.blogspot.com	8
http://ciberespiral.net	7
http://localhost	5
http://zsuzsannaliliom.wordpress.com	4
http://mlaurabargas.blogspot.com	3
http://bitsecondlife.blogspot.com	3
http://www.inherentvice.net	3
http://slkangan.wikispaces.com	2
http://publicasity.pbwiki.com	2
http://claudiaceraso.pbwiki.com	2
http://moodle.pkamk.fi	2
http://www.filescon.com	2
http://www.ayl08e.blogspot.com	2
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu	1
http://www.ayl08e.blogspot.de	1
http://www.lmodules.com	1
https://hofstra.blackboard.com	1
http://demo.apostrophenow.com	1
http://health.medicbd.com	1
http://72.14.235.104	1
http://natyuken.slideshow.com	1
http://memmansl.wordpress.com	1
http://slrank.com	1
http://www.ceparra.catholic.edu.au	1
http://sliteracia.blogspot.com	1
http://www.bernd-schmitz.net	1
http://www.netvibes.com	1
http://mymidiblog.blogspot.com	1
http://secondlifetutorials.blogspot.com	1
http://cccti.blackboard.com	1
http://wildfire.gigya.com	1
http://www.filestube.com	1
http://phobos.xtec.net	1
http://secondlifeofjaakkoz.ning.com	1
http://digitalsecondlife.wordpress.com	1

Second Life in 3600 seconds

by Eduserv Foundation on Mar 31, 2007

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Second Life in 3600 seconds — Presentation Transcript