The Second Life media is undoubtedly one of the most respected elements in SL. Many fashion magazines and TV shows are circulated in-world. They provide information to SL residents on things like entertainment, art, business, and other subjects. Residents take advantage of in-world offerings after learning about it from various SL media outlets.

The MetaNetwork Media’s The Scene is one such outlet. It is a Second Life TV show launched just last June 17, 2008. The talk show is hip and proving to be a valuable addition to the Second Life media community. The program features people, places, events, fashion and lifestyle not just in the metaverse, but beyond virtual communities as well. It is hosted by one of SL’s celebrated resident, Ms. Isodora Fiddlesticks.

The show kicked off with a mini-concert and an interview with the RL/SL band Space Junky in their very own simulator. The group has recently been featured in CNN. Space Junky have been using SL as a means of extending their music to new fans.

If you want to catch the “Space Junky episode” of The Scene, please click here.

The birth of virtual worlds has indeed been one of technology’s greatest development. A lot of things are made possible by these communities. You can go as far as your mind can take you. But then, technology has no control over the imagination of people. It completely caters to all sorts of thoughts. And yes, that includes both good and bad ones.

These bad imaginations might be what caused Illinois congressman, Mark Kirk, to campaign for Second Life to be banned from schools and libraries. He pointed out that social networking sites and virtual communities are definite hot spots for online predators to offend children in-world. The lack of an age verification rule in SL was highly criticized by the US representative. He was adamant in supporting Rep. Micheal Fitzpatrick’s stalling Deleting Online Predator’s Act Bill in 2006, which was about preventing children from accessing social networking sites and chat rooms unless it is for school use and if they are under adult supervision.

It is well known for residents that SL is only for those 18 and above. And that there is actually a Second Life Teen Grid for those below 18. Young people don’t have to wait for the congress to ban Second Life from their schools or libraries to realize what they are getting into when they sign-up for online social networking groups or virtual worlds. After all, children nowadays are more well-informed because of the advancements of media. Therefore, they themselves should take careful precautions whenever they engage in social activities online or in-world.

For more on the “Banning of Second Life..” article, please click here.

Second Life has been a bridge to a lot of experiences all over the world. Some paralytic people have been able to move in SL. Normal people were able to understand how difficult life is for Schizophrenic patients. And the grid has also been used for Artificial Intelligence experiments as well. A lot of things were made possible by Virtual Worlds. But then, the list doesn’t stop there. As time goes on, a lot of people are starting to discover the opportunities virtual worlds can offer to different communities. And as these Metaverse environments continue to grow popular, the list of possibilities will keep on growing.

From paralytic to schizophrenic people and from scientific researches, regular academic activities and simple social gatherings, SL has been a home to various virtual activities. And it is yet to be a home to real life career seeking as well.

Canada’s Ontario Public Service (OPS) just recently announced that they will be hosting a Virtual Open House inside Second Life, it will basically be a 90-minute career informational session. Since early 2008, OPS has already been publicizing the activities they are holding inside the Interactive Career Recruitment island wherein users were given a chance to engage in interactive career experiences which included virtual firefighting to real world traffic analysis and more. Their objective in creating this interactive island is to encourage users to inquire for real world career positions, thus instilling in them the desire to check out possible job opportunities in Canada’s most populous province, Ontario.

Indeed virtual worlds are giving people more reasons to be in it. Job seeking used to be just browsing through ads in the newspapers or surfing the internet, but now, with Ontario’s example of an interactive career seeking island, people would be able to experience a whole new level, and probably a more promising form of job-searching.

To visit the Ontario Public Service Island in-world, please click here.

For more on the article of the upcoming OPS Virtual Open House, please click on the link here.

In the field of astronomy, the Victorian era’s most significant contribution was the Leviathan of Parsonstown. At the time, it was the largest telescope ever built in the world. William Parsons (3rd Earl of Rosse) built this telescope on the Birr Castle at Parsonstown in Ireland. The construction took over three years and consisted of a 72 inch mirror and a 17 meter tube. The telescope was suspended between two 15 meter high walls. Long after Lord Rosse built the instrument, many astronomers were still able to benefit from the telescope. However, upon the death of Laurence (4th Earl of Rosse and son of William), the telescope fell into disuse and disrepair.

Recently, the construction of the Leviathan in Second Life was commissioned by Troy McLuhan. He is one of the most prominent resident and recognized scientist in Second Life. He has studied in various science-related subjects including space exploration. Because he enjoys creating science-related environments and events in-world, it is natural for Troy to visualize the creation of the Leviathan of Parsonstown in the Space Island simulator. This replica in Second Life is faithful to the details of the original Leviathan telescope. Hence, visitors will be able to experience astronomy the way it is before the 20th century. A development team at Avatrian, six days and 2300 prims were dedicated to realize Troy’s vision. The Leviathan of Parsonstown will debut in Space Island on Sunday, June 29, 2008.

What follows is a chronicle of the day-by-day construction of the Leviathan of Parsonstown in Second Life:

Day 1: Measurements, dimensioning, and creation of framework for overall structure. To begin work on the telescope, the Avatrian team used a system of ascertaining unknown values based on known and existing ones. For instance, we knew from data, that the two walls that flanked the telescope were 15 meters high, and that the telescope tube itself was 17 meters tall. We also knew the diameter of the telescope, and thus was able to deduce the space between the walls. Using this, and using long distance images of the existing reconstructed telescope today (long distance means tendency for lesser perspective lines, and making the target object more isometric-looking), we were able to sketch overall dimensions for the walls.

Day 2: Primming of walls, ladders, platforms and other base structures. The bulk of the Leviathan construction was devoted to the traditional primming of the primary structures. The eastern and western walls were first constructed. After the dimensions and placements of the walls were confirmed, the supporting structures were added one by one. All the ladders and platforms were made of prims in order to show as much detail as possible. It is important to note that, at the start of the project, Avatrian was given considerable leeway in the amount of prims that can be used for the construction of the Leviathan. This gave the development crew more freedom to be intricate with the construction. At this stage of the construction, preliminary textures were also tested out on some of the dominant surfaces.

Day 3: Construction of Telescope Unit. This one part of the build took considerably longer (as a single component) because of the detailing we exerted to make it look and “feel” like a true Newtonian reflector. A Newtonian Reflector is a telescope that utilizes mirrors instead of lenses as the primary means of collecting light from a distant celestial body. Thus, we had to construct the telescope in a manner that logically shows the relationship between the primary mirror (main collector of light), housed in a rectangular box at the bottom end of the telescope tube, the secondary mirror (a flat mirror suspended in the middle of the scope via support vanes, that bounces the light from the primary mirror into the eyepiece hole), and the eyepiece slot at the side of the telescope. Although it doesn’t truly function as a true telescope, we believe that our construction is a faithful replica of how a large Newtonian Telescope such as the Leviathan, would function. As for the aesthetics, we used images of the restored telescope and sketches/diagrams of the original telescope for reference.

Day 4: Addition of mechanical devices (winches, pulleys, cranks, etc…). Finally, the detail work (including finalization of the wall and platform textures) on various metal mechanical devices (winches, pulleys, cranks etc.) was done on this day. Care was also taken to create shadowing and highlighting to give a more realistic effect on the installed devices. The chains, counterweights and ropes were also added on this day. Though not interactive and basically static, the intent of these details was to provide a “diorama-like” ambience into the build by careful detail-work.

Day 5: Client feedback on prototype. The telescope was ready by this day, and we contacted the client and asked him to identify some design or build errors we might have made–he spotted some which we corrected immediately. We also made minor adjustments to the prototype in order to enhance certain features. This includes the addition of position balls for certain areas of the structure. For example, an avatar can actually climb beside the large telescope and have a look through the eyepiece.

Day 6: Packaging and delivery to client. Prior to delivering the final product to the client, Avatrian did a quality assurance check on all the components. This includes making sure that all the major components are properly linked, applying naming standards to every object, adding descriptions and verifying that correct full permissions are set. After this, Avatrian used the Rez-Faux utility for packaging the complete structure. Rez-Faux allows the easy transfer of the large structure via a single packaged container. In addition, the client will be able to rez and set the location of the structure easily. Once this was done, the completed Leviathan of Parsonstown structure was delivered to Troy McLuhan.

References:

The Leviathan Telescope in Space Island, SL

Higher Resolution Images of the Project and Development Team

Troy’s blog about the Leviathan in SL

About Troy McLuhan

More information about Lord Rosse and the Leviathan

More about the Birr Castle

Linden Lab has announced the new set of default avatars for newbies. New residents will now be able to sport looks that they can be proud of. Top designers in Second Life all contributed to provide cutting-edge avatars for newbies. Different styles are made available to all types of people. So whether your vibe is laid back, formal, rebellious, or wacky, you’ll surely find an avatar to suit you.

To read the official Linden blog, please click here.

If you want to see the new default avatars, you can visit this link.

One of Second Life’s firsts — Online students of one of America’s Best Colleges, Drexel University Online, defended their thesis inside SL last June 5th. Six students made their marks in history by virtually participating in this ordinary school activity. Instead of feeling nervous about the new procedure, Shawn Brown (the first of the 6 students to defend) was more intrigued. This curiosity and excitement proved to be a lucky charm for all 6 were able to present and deliver well in the end.

To read more on the article, please feel free to click here.

Indeed Virtual Worlds has come a long way from being just a game, now people are starting to appreciate the possibilities and opportunities it is opening up to businesses all over the globe. Virtual communities recognizes no boundaries to the imagination. Thus encouraging students to be more creative in their ordinary school projects. They would then learn to appreciate the power and beauty of technology. Children will soon see virtual worlds as a fun way of learning instead of just a simple video game.

Newbies undergo a lot of pressure in improving the look of their avatars upon joining the Second Life community. After all, these are the virtual representations of themselves. But before they actually learn the ropes in improving their avatars, they go through a lot of endless shame and embarrassment. All residents and users of SL shouldn’t have to go through that — newbie or not. Default avatars should be created in a way wherein newbies would be given the ample time to learn how to customize their virtual representations without any pressure. Beginner’s avatars should be cool, presentable, and inspiring at the same time.

In response to this newbie dilemma, Torley Linden is conducting a casual and tentative survey on possible appearances for the default avatars.

From a range of different looks, Avatrian chose 2 male avatars and 2 female avatars as top choices.

Avatrian chose the Cartoon Box Robot because we think that a lot of people would be able to identify themselves with this look. The robot depicts such a carefree and happy personality that you couldn’t help but smile. For those who will constantly need to be unique and different from others, this avatar will be perfect. Plus the look is fresh, inspiring, and the composition is simple but very catchy.

The Cool Musician is another top choice for Avatrian because of the hip vibe it exudes. A lot of artists come to Second Life with the goal of extending and sharing their eye for art to everyone. For them to be able to do this, they need avatars that would mildly represent their goal. And what best to embody them in the metaverse community than a trendy and fashionable musician?

Who can forget the Glamorous Star? We could never overlook this everyday diva. Every woman has her own passion and sexiness inside of her but very few are able to identify themselves with it. So for women who wish to bring both beauty and elegance into the virtual world , they would undoubtedly make this avatar one of their top choices.

The Girl-Next-Door is everyone’s best friend. Her outgoing and friendly personality makes her very approachable and warm. Everything about her exemplifies comfort: from her pretty face to the color of her dress. A lot of people would be able to see themselves sporting this avatar because it will help them make good friends inside the SL community. Though it has this “too ordinary look”, it still represents majority of the RL population in a very tasteful way.

If you wish to take the survey and pick out your own choices as well, please click here.

For the full Torley Linden article about the survey, please feel free to click here.

This month’s issue of Wired magazine has an interesting Second Life statistic in the Mr. Know-It-All column. Here’s the precise excerpt:

“According to Julian Bleecker, cofounder of design think tank the Near Future Laboratory, the average Second Life avatar requires 1,248 kilowatt hours of electricity to “exist” for a year — 153 kWh for the servers and 1,095 kWh for your PC. In terms of carbon emissions, that’s roughly the equivalent of driving 1,800 miles in a BMW 750Li”

- Greenwash Thy Avatar, Mr. Know-It-All, Wired Magazine, June 2008

As a frequent Second Life user, my first reaction was a bit of shock. Am I really harming Mother Earth by simply logging in to Second Life 4 to 10 hours a day? Shame and guilt starts to creep in. When this amount of energy is multiplied over the ~60,000 concurrent users of Second Life at any given time, the environmental impact starts to look significant. However, after more thought, I was quick to realize that the amount of energy is only wasted if that time was instead spent doing something away from my computer. When not using SL, I will probably be doing some client/server related computer work instead. Computers and the internet are just pervasive everyday tools for most people nowadays. Hence, the culprit is not Second Life (or any application for that matter), it is really more of the machine. Unfortunately, the article does not offer much suggestion on alternative laptops and PCs that are relatively greener.

Thousands of people from all around the world are suffering from severe paralysis. And though, they live, they don’t have a life. Most of these people lose hope and they refuse to undergo rehabilitation. They are angry and sad at the situation that they have been thrust into. They suddenly get the urge just to stop living.

Just recently, a 30-years paralyzed man from Tokyo discovered that Second Life was the new best friend that he needed to pull him out of his unmoving world. The man could barely bend his fingers due to a progressive muscle disease, but through the use of his brain waves and his imagination, he was able to walk in the streets of SL without any difficulty at all.

To read more on the Paralyzed Man article, please click here.

Indeed virtual worlds are fast becoming popular in the times today. Some has even predicted that for the next few years, about a billion people will already be into the metaverse environment. This maybe for the purpose that virtual worlds provide an escape from reality. But for paralytic people, these worlds are giving them the hope and chance of being able to live a normal life once again.