Last month I wrote about seeing the performance of The Wall in Second Life.
This is advance notice I got about the last performance coming up.
It’s awesome and worth getting up early if you need to to experience it.
Saturday 31st May 2pm SL time
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Havens%20Beach/224/25/701
Technorati Tags: pinkfloyd, secondlife
I was awake at 5am the other morning so I could go to a artistic performance in Second Life.
The performance was of Pink Floyd’s The Wall concert set to the original music from The Wall.
And it was spectacular. It is so popular we had to be there an hour before start to make sure we could get into the sim.
The group who put it together used particles, objects moving, photos and digital puppets all coreographed the the soundtrack to great effect by the CARP team.
During the performance the wall was slowly built until the climax at end when at the crowds shouting “Tear Down The Wall” saw the wall of bricks all tumble down at which point everyone was invited to go dance on the bricks.
It was at hat point you got to see just how big a stage it was. These bricks were huge.
Interestingly we were told to turn the music stream on beforehand and leave it on and not pause it or it would then be out of sync with the performance. It reminded me of just how much we a still at the infancy stage of the virtual world emergence - a sense of almost analog linear performance in a totally digital environment.
Brilliant stuff. See the slideshow on Flickr below.
Slideshow: http://flickr.com/photos/dnwallace/sets/72157604647772637/show/
Flickr set: http://flickr.com/photos/dnwallace/sets/72157604647772637/
Found this great slideshow of the event on the second arts blog:
Peace - Dave
I was awake at 3.30am to take part in the Second Life talk that’s part of this forum: (why do I do these things…)
Using Virtual Worlds and Emerging Technologies for People with Disabilities
This two-part, interactive event will take place in two locations online:
First, the live discussion in the virtual world of Second Life at 9am PST
The follow-up discussion will take place for the rest of the day, 10AM PST- 6PM PST, in TechSoup’s Accessible Technology & Public Computing forum at: <http://www.techsoup.org/go/accessibletechnology>
Event Schedule:9 AM PST in the Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater in Second Life.
Simon Stevens (aka Simon Walsh in Second Life) <http://www.simonstevens.com> will be speaking about his work in Second Life. Simon Walsh is chief executive of Enable Enterprises which manages the Wheelies nightclub for people with disabilities in Second Life and the Second Ability Second Life simulator. In real life, Simon has cerebral palsy and lives in Coventry, UK. He is a disability consultant and trainer working with many organizations large and small.
Simon will give a virtual talk via text chat in the Nonprofit Commons amphitheater, in the virtual world of Second Life
10AM PST- 6PM PST –the follow-on discussion will continue in an all-day, asynchronous (not-live) forum on TechSoup. This event will occur in a question and answer format in the TechSoup Accessible Technology & Public Computing forum <http://www.techsoup.org/go/accessibletechnology>
Online Event: Using Virtual Worlds and Emerging Technologies for People with Disabilities in this forum, Feb. 29th, all-day, asynchronous (not-live). No registration is needed; just show up here and post your questions!
Accessible Technology and Public Computing message board, TechSoup
Dave
UPDATE: The Producer of the show sent me the audio and I’ve snipped out music and commercials. You can listen here.
Just like Laurel, I was asked on the ABC Radio Tuesday night to talk about Second Life (SL).
Evidently the show was about online relationships, not just SL, but I didn’t know this beforehand, not that it worries me. Unlike Laurel, who got bombarded with the sex and Second Life questions that seem to titillate the main stream media, I tended to focused on what SL offers me in terms of adding to the fabric of my life, the creative expression and particularly how online social networks of any kind hold the potential to lessen the effects of social isolation for a variety of people.
Second Life, as a visually rich environment full of a diverse range of people can give an opportunity for equally rich social interaction. Just like the physical world….only a different geography.
Pixels are people too.
It was interesting to be in discussion with the twitter crowd, particular thanks to @mpesce, @nickhodge & @silkcharm, before, after and as the show was on air and get comments and encouragement from them - another group of social interactions.
The show was streamed live but I don’t think podcast. However I’ve been in touch with the Producer and have a disc with the whole show on its way to me. Will see if I can make it available.
Dave
I got an email about the Linux Conference being held in Melbourne later this month. There will be events also happening simultaneously in Second Life. The irc channel for the conference will be relayed in Second Life for participants to be able to take part via irc in world. See links with SLURL below.
Here’s the email:
Hello folks
The Linux Conference Australia will be running from 28 January to 2 February.
The Education Mini-conference will be held over Sunday 27 January(live only)
and Monday 28 January (live and online)Feel free to
* check out the Secondlife facet of the education event.
Timetable and information about how to log on to
http://miniconf.mel8ourne.org/wiki/index.php?title=Educatio n
Feel free to come along to a single session or to stay longer.
You will be able to participate using the Second Life text chat.* invite Melbournites to the Open Day
The Open Day will be 12-4pm Saturday 2 February(live)* forward this to other folks who may be interested in participating online.
Thanks to Kerry Johnson for a recording device and
Dave Wallace for Second Life suggestions.
==============================
From the conference wiki, locations in Second Life:
Thanks to Ash Qin and Artex Panther for help with the irc bridge on irc.quickfox.net
This venue is open and has the irc bridge enabled currently.
This venue is open bridge is not enabled.
This venue will be open on 28 January IRC bridge is enabled.
Saw Cam from TPN was in SL. Thought I’d have a go at making a T-Shirt for SL TPN supporters.
So here’s my alter-ego wearing it.
It’s my first try so a bit frayed along the edges. Still, if you’re in SL, go grab yourself one from this SLURL
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sobaeksan/67/1/65/
Dave
Okay, time we put this Facebook thing to the test.
I’m trying to sell my waterfront land in Second Life so have just listed it on Facebook Marketplace. Let’s see the famed power of this ’social network’.
Funny how I couldn’t list it in $Linden. 
I’ve been sitting on this thought for ages. I have to get it out.
I’m of the opinion that what’s stopping Second Life (SL) moving from the ‘game realm‘ to the ‘useful business platform realm‘ is a four letter word - TEXT
Simply put, SL needs to integrate text in-world.
The only talk for ages has been about voice integration. Fair enough. Voice could help. But really, those who care to can already partake in a voice experience while being ‘present’ in SL - it’s called Skype, or Yahoo Voice or any other existing voip platform. Many, many people already use voice over IM while interacting with virtual avatars in-world. I’ve done it. And here’s a thought. What effect on grid stability will integrating voice have.
Back to text - words. Currently the only way to get words into SL that aren’t transient (like twitter), and to stay there as part of the landscape, is to put them on an image and upload the image as a texture. Any changes means a new texture, another upload. Besides that cumbersome process, providing a way for others to interact with text in-world is hopeless. And in fact it’s not interacting with text, it’s interacting with images of text. Even a simple in-world guest book is a save card, open card, edit card, save card, copy card process.
For any of the businesses investing money into a presence in SL to be anything but a ‘presence’ will take easy interaction and collaboration. And the historical base to real business has been, and I think will continue to be, the written word.
Yes, there’s a lot of two-way interaction between in-world and the web. Certainly the membrane that exists in that space is a semi-permeable one. I’ve done my fair share of punching holes in that membrane. But as an individual interacting in SL I have found the lack of easily putting words into the fabric of SL a hurdle. I can only imagine that business has found it similarly a problem to moving forward in engaging the waiting, ‘captive‘, 3D population existing in-world in a meaningful way.
It was the web, and particularly hypertext that blew the internet open. Imagine a web browser in SL that works like a browser and you can write to and others can walk up and contribute to as well, or even just read it - while others look on. It’s that kind of thing I mean.
Bring hypertext to SL. The flexibility and power of links - links that link to each other in-world, not just in->out or slurls that link out->in.
To make the Second Life experience a truly immersive one, immerse hypertext.
Dave
Technorati Tags: second life, sl, hypertext, business
My exploits in Second Life have been picked up on in an article on eurekastreet.com.au.
From the article titled “Flying with disability in Second Life”
Australian David Wallace, a quadriplegic who works as an IT coordinator at the South Australian Disability Information and Resource Centre in Adelaide has also found an outlet for his artistic side in Second Life. He recently held an exhibition of his Second Life art at the building that Illinois-based Bradley University have established on Information Island.
The article is well written by Margaret Cassidy, go take a look….
Thanks to a comment from a reader, Janet, for the heads-up.
Dave
Punching more holes in the semi-permeable membrane, along the road to the singularity, Second Life has Contextual Advertising.
“A ContextAds board listens to the conversations of those avatars around it, displaying advertisements when certain keywords are mentioned. Advertisers can bid on keywords, with their account only being charged when their ads are actually shown. Avatars can click on advertisements of interest to them, and can be offered a website, or a teleport to an in-world location.”
[contextads via adverlab via twitter of jj]
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