Recently in Second Life Category

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Yesterday I received a call from a Straits Times journalist who told me briefly about Tang’s plans to launch a virtual store in Second Life, and asked for my thoughts on this. I learnt that homegrown company First Meta was behind this initiative. I applaud them for being proactive in generating interest in Second Life, and Tangs for daring to explore a medium that is newer than the Internet and hasn’t become mainstream yet.

The questions that came to my mind were:

Why now? Interest in Second Life probably reached its zenith one or two years ago. The friends I used to meet regularly are no longer on Second Life. We’ve gone back to browser-based or simpler chat platforms. Tangs already appeals to its customer base via traditional media, partnerships with real-life credit cards. And it already has a website. Singaporeans are much more likely to visit Tangs because of their traditional media advertising, than through Second Life. Then again, better late than never I suppose, if you want to explore a new channel.

Is it to make money? If that’s the purpose, I don’t think it will be sustainable. You don’t sell virtual dresses for very much money, and there are lots of other stores in Second Life to compete with. However I was told the virtual store was to be used for branding purposes. As a Second Life fan my impression of Tangs could go up a little because I like innovative and adventurous companies. However I’m already pretty favourable towards Tangs as I’ve been a member for years, and I was planning a visit before Christmas anyway, with or without a virtual store.

How can it be sustainable? I was told the virtual goods would only come from the women’s department, and that there’d be new designs added (but how regularly?). It would be interesting to see if there’s anything I’d be willing to spend my load of Linden$ on. However, my avatar already has a lot of clothes and accessories, many of which were given for free, so there’s a lot of inertia for me to buy anything new. Nothing goes out of fashion so much in Second Life as in real life, because you can be as quirky and retro as you want to be.

Doing a funnel analysis:

How many active users are there in Second Life today?

Of those, how many are Singaporeans, Malaysians, tourists or expats who’ve known of Tangs / have visited it before?

Of those, how many know of the forthcoming Tangs virtual store?

Of those, how many will visit the virtual store?

Of those, how many will gain a better impression of Tangs? (if that is the objective)

Thanks anyway to CHH for the prominent quote.

Excerpts to give you more info on what’s happening:

When the virtual Tangs opens in March next year, visitors will be able to buy clothes, hairdos and different looks for their characters, said Tangs assistant vice-president of marketing and communications Lin Pei Hua.

Shoppers can expect to see items from Tangs’ ‘signature lines…but with a tinge of fantasy’, in line with players’ desire for a ‘larger-than-life’ appearance for their online personas.

Users can pay for their purchases in Linden dollars, the game’s currency, or via a virtual credit card. Credit card bills are paid monthly in Linden dollars, which can be converted into real money.

More floors, ‘stocked with usable and desirable items by well-known Second Life designers’, will be added over time, said First Meta co-founder Aileen Sim.

First Meta, which operates Second Life’s credit card system, is helping Tangs to create the store and find tenants.

My quote:

REPEAT VISITORS?

‘I visited Adidas and Dell in Second Life, those were big budget, well- made stores, but I did everything I wanted to do there on my first visit. The second time I went back, nothing had changed, and I haven’t gone back since. This (sustainability) will be Tangs’ challenge - give me a reason to go back and spend.’

Second Life user Vanessa Tan

I paid a visit to INSEAD in Second Life. It is cool that my business school has a campus there and is using it for real lessons. This is because we are an international school, with campuses in Europe (France), Asia (Singapore), with alliances in China (Tsinghua) and a centre in Abu Dhabi, along with the exchange programme in the US (Wharton). Thus, classes and projects may be conducted in different continents. Second Life is a great medium to facilitate such collaborations.

Unlike my previous attempt last year to visit the Campus, my Avatar didn’t bounce off an invisible wall. This time I managed to join the INSEAD group and accessed the entire island without a hitch. Here are some of the better photos:

The main classroom.

Sitting on a carpet, hovering above the beach.

I had an intelligible conversation with the INSEAD chatbot, which I mistook for a real Avatar initially! He managed to understand that I was going to INSEAD, and congratulated me. See our dialogue at the bottom left corner:

What a pretty discussion area! This was in the lush garden outside the building.

Last but not least (except in terms of the amount of clothes), check out my INSEAD bikini! You can windsurf, surf, float, tread water, lounge about on deckchairs… now if only we had a Mediterranean island all to ourselves! (I say it’s Mediterranean because the waters are so blue)

As mentioned earlier, I was stuck in Second Life limbo after cancelling my credit card details as I didn’t want to continue being a premium member. However they locked me out of Second Life entirely, saying I had to pay them the renewal fee, which I had opted to pay annually.

I couldn’t even downgrade my account until I entered my card details which would result in an automatic payment - which I didn’t want!

So I wrote in. I have to commend Linden Labs for the quick reply to my query, but this situation sounds silly. Read this (I have [deleted] some parts due to privacy issues):

Hello Vantan,

Thankyou for contacting Linden Lab support regarding the issue of wanting to downgrade your account.

I will be able to help you downgrade your account to a basic account but this is not going prevent you having to pay the your annual fee.

Due to our policy, you will still have to pay the $72 because you did not cancel premium membership before your account fees were due.

I am sorry if this causes any inconvenience but it is company policy.

[Security verification questions deleted]

If you can provide me with the above information then I can downgrade your account for you.

If you have any further questions you can contact myself or one of my colleagues.

Regards, [name deleted] Linden Lab support

So this is a warning to the rest of you on paid accounts who are also thinking of downgrading to Basic membership - remember to downgrade your account before cancelling your credit card details!

At this rate I might as well renew my membership for one year! What the heck. I’ll just get lots of Linden pocket money.

I just tried logging into Second Life, after a hiatus due to laptop problems and being too busy… only to be told that my account has been disabled! Grr.

What happened: After joining Second Life, I upgraded to a paid account (annual fee US$72) as I wanted to get Linden pocket money and toyed with the idea of buying my own piece of land. I never had the time nor inclination to learn about advanced building, so that didn’t happen. The novelty’s worn off. So I cancelled my credit card details to avoid being charged again this year. However, Linden Labs tried to charge me. As they no longer had my credit card details, they put US$72 on my tab, suspending my account until I pay up!

I logged on to Secondlife.com to fix things. I realised I should have asked for a downgrade rather than just deleting my credit card details - but I thought either way it would’ve worked. But now when I click the ‘Downgrade my account’ link, I get pointed back to the page that says my account is disabled and I must enter my credit card info. When I proceed, I am told that entering my credit card info will lead to a transaction payment. It comes full circle. Bah!

I just sent a note to the Support department. I hope they’ll help me out, even though I’ll no longer be a paying customer. If they can’t fix it and I have to pay, it will leave a sour taste in my virtual and real mouth and rest assured you’ll all get to hear about it!

When I signed up for State of Play as a member of the press (“blogger”), I didn’t expect to be invited to interview the CEO of There.com, an up-and-coming virtual world. Previously I had heard of There.com before but spent most of my time in Second Life.

That fact probably didn’t go down too well with Michael Wilson but he laughed it off. He must have heard this many times before. Over dinner, I set out to learn if There.com had a unique position in this increasingly crowded realm of virtual worlds.

Tried out another virtual world just now - There.com.

It felt easier to install than Second Life, and there didn’t seem to be as great a lag either.

However the target audience is teens, and very obviously so. If you like the way the Sims look, you may like There. However, if you already play the Sims Online, why would you move over to There?

Also, the graphics are cheerful, but not that hot. I guess there must be a payoff. If you want things to load fast, don’t expect beautiful rendering. Overall I still like Second Life more, even though the user interface is much more intimidating. There.com gave me the impression that things were under simplified and under control.

While it’s free to be There, there’s also premium membership at the rate of US$9.95 per month. Would the target audience be willing to fork out that amount? I can imagine they’d rather spend it on an iTunes album, if they’re not downloading stuff illegally.

I’m also curious as to how many Singaporean youngsters are aware of There. I know some are in Second Life but most probably prefer MMORPG like DOTA. That’s what my boy cousins are raving about whenever they meet.

Maybe There.com’s CEO can tell me more when I meet him at State of Play today.

ps. I don’t like how we have to use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox to access There.com services.

I finally re-installed Second Life on my laptop's new hard disk, and caught up on lots of SL notifications. As I handle the new media aspects of our HIV/AIDS campaigns, I was interested to hear that a Sexual Health sim had been constructed by the University of Plymouth. So I checked it out.

No, there's no porn here. Porn's getting banned in Second Life now, hip hip hurray. In fact things are pretty clean over here in the University of Plymouth's educational campus. I've seen some sensible health messages incorporated into various objects. At the time there was nobody but me around, which was fine because my Avatar was feeling shy today.

Check out the university's SL blog as well for updates.

Technorati Tags: Second Life, sexualhealth

Just to keep track of the buzz building up ahead of State of Play, these are the people I'd like to meet / am scheduled to meet:

Joshua Fouts, Director of the Center for Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California. View his State of Play profile. I visited USC in Second Life last year and thought it was cool. Now I get to meet one of the people behind it - even cooler. Thanks Wilson for the linkup!

Michael Wilson, CEO of Makena Technologies/There.com, a virtual world for teens. Right up my alley, that combination of virtual worlds and youth, though I'm primarily a Second Lifer. If there are any questions you'd like me to ask, send them to me via a comment or if you want more privacy, the Contact me page.

Iam Lamont, colleague of Sarah, a fellow Tan whom I met at SXSW 2007. He too will be speaking at the conference. See profile page.

Ted Tagami, VP of Millionsofus. If you're an active Second Lifer you most probably have heard of these guys, because they organise pretty happening virtual events. We somehow got onto each other's Twitter radar during SXSW 2007 but have not met in person yet. He just dropped me a note via Facebook to let me know he's speaking at this conference. Here's his profile page.

Awesome. If you're going to State of Play, either as a speaker or an attendee, do drop me a note. I'd love to meet up with you in Real Life.

After Alvin's prestigious appearance on page 2 of Saturday's Straits Times, our nation's most established newspaper, you would think that our virtual Lion City (here's my self-built slurl for those who have yet to visit it) would be a spanking representation of Singapore life.

Imagine to my surprise when I logged on, landed at 'Suntec City', and discovered a wild dance party ensuing next door!

[Watch out for a video which will be added to this post soon. I'm uploading it right now! You have to see our dance moves and hear the music to get an idea of how crazy this was.]

Singaporean Second Lifers were dancing about with cows attached to their bodies. I heard a lot of 'Moo' sounds. Hardcore Ah-Beng disco music was playing.

Alvin, you have some explaining to do! :P

I asked what was the significance of the Cow, but nobody answered me. I suggested it could be because Singaporeans like to 'Cow Peh, Cow Moo' (a phrase which sounds like 'complaining' in Hokkien).

Anyway, because I am Singaporean, I obediently conformed when a few people gave me a copy of the Cow and told me to join them. The Cow and I became one, and I learnt that I too could either make a 'Moo' sound, dance about or do other things which sounded less exciting.

Jee, as you can see, decided to do many more exciting things like pole dance. Later on, he swigged Tiger Beer (what else! Our national alcoholic beverage) and staggered around the dance floor.

Somebody gave me a bottle of Jack Daniel's, which I swigged, while still dancing with my cow. It made my Avatar go under the table - actually, under the floor!

After a while the music broke off, due to some streaming problems. So we all sat around the coffee tables and stoned, until someone got a bit of music back on!

It was just madness, people. But it helped us bond, ahem, in more ways than one.

BTW, when's our next meetup? :)

Technorati Tags: Second+Life, Singapore, Lion+City

I met Cory Ondrejka, CTO of Linden Labs, the guys behind Second Life. He was entertaining and frank, although I really had no technical questions to ask, so I just listened on.

The key points from his talk: Linden Labs is serious about getting good people from Singapore to join them. First on the list are developers. The job opening was advertised; several hundred Singaporeans applied, a handful were interviewed and some apparently made the cut.

Cory also talked about project managers and programme managers and acknowledged the efforts of Linden Labs' local partner, the Idea Factory, who hosted this event. Thanks guys.

Some of us also introduced ourselves. Turns out there were a fair number of educators present. The common theme seemed to be that there were lots of ideas, some funding, but not enough developers!

What was most fun to me was getting together again with the rest of the SL Singapore gang and posing for silly photos, which will no doubt appear on Kevin's blog soon. [Update: Check out Kevin's post, with a pic of me 'Editing Appearance' in real life.]

I'll see some of you at Nexus this Saturday, I suppose!

Technorati Tags: Second Life, Linden Labs

I was invited to beta test the new Voice feature in Second Life. Instead of just tapping away on your keyboard and hearing, um, tappity sounds, you can actually hear the voices of the people you're chatting with.

I took screen shots of other members of the New Media Consortium group. Voice chat was working, but buggy. The more Avatars joined the group, the more often we got disconnected - or so I suspect.

We had all downloaded a new version of Second Life software with this additional voice chat feature. Then we went to to Preferences and clicked on the 'Voice Chat' tab. I was told to first disable voice chat, apply changes, then enable it and apply changes. Whenever we got disconnected from voice chat, we had to go back to Preferences and do it all over again. It worked but I kept getting cut off after a couple of minutes.

On the seven occasions that I did hear voice chats, though, it was clear. The Avatars who are talking at the moment have an 'audio' graphic above their heads. I managed to speak five times. Each time, that green audio squiggle would appear above my Avatar's head. Other Avatars replied that they could hear me. Cool!

You have the option of selecting different buttons like SHIFT, ALT, middle mouse button to activate your voice chat. The selected button can also be used, walkie-talkie style so you only push it when you wish to speak. Most Avatars in my group chose to leave their microphones on perpetually, so you could hear their computer whirring away.

One problem with voice chat is that it doesn't always give a clear indication as to who's talking, when in a large group where several Avatars are speaking at the same time. At least when you chat via typing, your Avatar name is displayed next to your chat.

The other problem with voice chat is ... we're not used to it, so after the triumphant cries of "I can hear you now!" we often had long period of silence. A few Avatars noted this awkward situation. We had voice chat - now what do we say?

We had a more 'human' moment involving group laughter, when several Avatars were laughing out loud the same time. That was nice. We need more of those moments.

Some Avatars noted that proximity seemed to affect the audibility of voice chat. So we huddled together to hear each other more clearly.

In the end, most of us reverted to "type-chatting" (for want of a better phrase) because it was more stable. One Avatar got his/her kid to talk to us instead, which was cute.

In time, with improved software stability and bandwidth, which areas in Second Life could voice chat overtake type-chat? I'd say karaoke lounges and any other area where people are required to sing or make speeches. But I think it would suck if you had to take transcripts of meetings where everyone was using voice chat at the same time.

Towards the end of our gathering, I met someone who's organising the State of Play conference. The new working date is 18 Aug 2007. I showed him the SL Singapore blog, so maybe he'll drop us a line there when things are more firmed up.

Technorati Tags: Second Life, voice, VoIP

Voice over IP trials in Second Life will begin in March, reports CNet. The beta stage will be free for all users. That's about where the good news ends, because you may need lots of money to continue using it thereafter, notes 21talks.

VoIP is a great thing to have, though I wonder about time lag, which may vary depending on your network. Also, Second Life has a more international outreach compared to other chat programs which are usually confined to more closed groups of contacts. I wonder if I will be able to make out other people's accents, and likewise for them. Typing also gives you time to think. You won't stutter in text chat and you can always edit what you've just written, before hitting the Submit button.

Still, having VoIP creates many more possibilities for all sorts of activities in Second Life - from lectures to live performances and debates, and even ... virtual sex with sound effects!?

Technorati Tags: Second+Life, VoIP

For the first time, I met a whole lot of Singaporean Second Lifers in real life. The local branch of Idea Factory (Nicholas and Eng Kiat) organised this gathering and it was nice to see people I've known online, via Second Life (SL) itself or also through their blogs.

I arrived late due to work commitments so I figured that everyone else had already introduced themselves. Announcing my real life name, I sat down at the next available chair and listened in on the discussion. Then I started to play my own little guessing game, identifying people from their Avatars.

Rinaz was the first person I identified. The guy next to her was Benjamin. I haven't met him in SL but have seen his emails in our common mailing list and have also read his blog. Then I realised the guy next to him was Alvin, our SL Singapore group leader. I knew the folks sitting behind me as well, particularly Ivan ;-)

Together we had a brainstorming session, coming up with ideas for our next real-life gathering, which could possibly involve Cory Ondrejka, Chief Technology Officer of Linden Labs. He may be returning in March and June (not confirmed). I hope I can meet him after I come back from my SXSW conference in mid-March. Things could be moving pretty fast in Singapore soon. Watch out for Linden Lab job ads here. Hopefully we'll have a workshop or Barcamp where we can learn from each other.

One thing we all agreed on, was that scripting could not be ... scripted. In the sense that things shouldn't be too contrived but should be allowed to develop naturally. That was one common theme throughout our discussion.

Nicholas suggested that at our next real life meetup, we could look like our Avatars. I turned to Ivan and said, "You need lots of blue paint." Sorry, couldn't resist that. If we did have to dress like our Avatars, I would need to dye my hair blonde, get a boob upgrade (by transferring the fat from my hips and thighs and tummy to my chest), and grow several inches taller.

After the discussion ended, many went off for supper together. A few of us had other plans, including myself... In any case, I bet there'll be several other blog posts on this soon.

Technorati Tags: Second+Life, Linden+Labs, Idea+Factory

There will be a real-life Second Life Singapore meetup this coming Monday evening. Limited places available. For more information, log into Second Life. If you're a member of the SL Singapore group you should have received a message on this.

Around the same time, the New Media Consortium will be conducting a media arts symposium.

While chilling out at Thinc Cafe in Second Life (SL), I had the privilege of meeting the creator of the isle, as well as his team members. Turns out that Thinc is a real-life ad agency in Singapore. They're part of the ICG group.

We all hung around the beach for a long chat. I checked out their website and learnt that they work near me. So we can actually meet for lunch one day. Now how's that for building a real community ;-)

After a while, they invited me to a shooting range. As a first-timer, I kept out of their way! They seemed to have a lot of fun. I'd want to try it myself but wasn't feeling particularly violent at the time.

View all my Flickr pics tagged Thinc Cafe for an idea of what I did with the advertising folks.

Technorati Tags: Second+Life, Thinc

This announcement just came in:

The team behind the virtual version of U2, will be putting up 2 full-length concerts at the Dragon Moon Arena on Sat, 10 Feb at 11 a.m. SLT (Second Life Time) and Sun, 11 Feb at 4 p.m. SLT.

Second Life Time is equivalent to San Francisco time. Use a time zone calculator and see if you can make it. 11am SLT would be 3am Singapore time! Sun 11 Feb 4pm would be 8am Singapore time, which may be more feasible for us.

Technorati Tags: U2, Second Life

We had our 2nd Second Life (SL) gathering this evening at 7pm. At the time, in real life, I was watching the final minutes of the Australian Open men's finals, as Roger the Federer Express was making a meal out of Speedy Gonzalez (who was tiring from all that dashing about).

So I logged into SL a bit late. Rinaz was already there with a few other Singaporeans. Alvin (our group leader) hadn't arrived yet so Rinaz kept us all entertained with guessing games. The first Avatar to give the correct answer would win L$1 from her. Better than sitting at a money tree!

Then I had to dash off for a real life birthday party. When I got back at 11pm, Chiling and a few other Singaporeans were still around! We hovered in mid-air beside Chiling's Yacht and chatted with each other. I met a Singaporean who is male in real life, but has a female avatar because he accidentally clicked on the wrong gender when he first joined SL. His wife doesn't mind as she gets to dress him up in nice virtual clothes. I was thinking, 'ooh! role play'!

We then retired to Chilin's Yacht and lounged about. By accident, Evixfel and I looked like we were a couple! This is because the script on the ground which we lay on, programmed our Avatars to sit together in a lovey-dovey manner. Well I certainly didn't mind have a young man 10 years my junior acting as an escort in Second Life. However, Chilin and I did not appreciate Evixfel calling us both "Auntie"!

In the end, like good "Aunties" we told Evixfel to stop playing SL and study for his forthcoming exam instead. At that point, someone from the virtual United Nations group instant-messaged me to meet up and discuss big plans. So I excused myself and teleported to the discussion area. There is potential for a huge development in SL. I will mention this in a separate blog post later.

For those who missed it, read up about our First Second Life meetup.

Technorati Tags: Second Life, Singapore

Sweden is opening an embassy in Second Life. However, as Second Life Insider reports, this is not meant to be a haven for Swedish citizens in the virtual world. Instead it is meant to promote tourism in Sweden. This makes it probably the first country to set up a virtual presence in Second Life.

Technorati Tags: Second Life

I decided to pop by Second Life a couple nights ago before my bedtime. One of my virtual friends was online as well. She messaged me, we teleported to meet each other, and she took me shopping in Second Life!

Some of you know that I hate shopping, unless it's related to gadgets, books and music. I dislike shopping for clothes. Also, I don't believe in colouring my hair (in real life).

However, after viewing a gazillion possible new hairstyles and colours, and going to another huge virtual store that sold lots of trendy clothes, I succumbed and gave my Avatar a makeover.

The old me:

The new me:

So I'm like, officially blonde now. Forgive me if I start behaving differently. Ooh! And I coloured my nails too.

I'm contemplating buying an Asian skin that matches my own complexion, as well as darker hair. Then I can make my Avatar look like the real me. But the skin I wanted was over L$2000 which will eat into my virtual savings. I'm told there are cheaper skins around, so I will hang on to my Linden dollars and keep on looking.

Technorati Tags: Second Life, makeover

Kelly from IBM Australia read my recent blog post on IBM doing exciting things with the Australian Open, by building a virtual Rod Laver Arena and feeding ball data to it in real time. She offered to take me on a tour of her project (the Arena is currently open to invited guests only).

Well, I couldn't have asked for more! Just to be safe, I checked if I could blog about this and post photos. I promised to behave myself ;-) Anyway, in the next few days more mainstream media will be covering this, as well as other bloggers. For now, this is a semi-exclusive on vantan.org!

At an agreed time, I logged into Second Life and got in touch with K. She was most patient as she waited for everything to rezz (Second Life speak for loading all 3D objects) on my network. Finally, when I could see the buildings, walls, pavements and signposts, she began the tour.

I picked up some freebies at the shop - tennis racket, balls, ball holder, an Australian Open t-shirt which I wore immediately, and a 'Tennis Ball Pet' who can follow me everywhere I go. He's cute and later on in my photos you'll see him tagging along behind me. He's much more endearing than the Microsoft paper clip.

I entered the Arena and made my Avatar play scripted tennis with Kelly's partner and team-mate, Chris. Imagine during the actual Australian Open (as IBM had done previously with Wimbledon) - if you can actually see the game through the eyes of your favourite tennis player!

Speaking of which, here is a video taken by someone else who was also playing virtual tennis.

After a never-ending game of tennis, I was taken up to the roof top. You can either fly right through it, or shout Open Sesame! Close Sesame! The roof listens to your commands and it is a nice touch.

We visited other areas but not every section of the real Arena has been built yet. The giant scoreboard will be updated in real time, just like how the scores are instantly updated on TV. However, I commented that most people would rather watch the live matches on TV. This kind of feature would attract those who want to get more in-depth analysis of certain matches or players.

This area was designed to look like a giant tennis ball. Nice, eh? See the difference when you get a personal virtual tour guide who actually developed the place. All these nice little touches you may not have noticed if you explored things on your own. I managed to watch the video but again, experienced lag time initially.

Finally, I learnt that these statues were created by a newbie. Here's a shot of me with my Tennis Ball Pet. Alas, after this I exited Second Life, forgetting to take my Pet. It sent me a few desperate-sounding messages, which were converted into emails since I was offline by then. Finally, it said that as I had not rescued it, it would self-destruct. Its last words to me were 'Goodbye cruel world'. I feel so bad about it! I just have no ball sense... I am not good at carrying balls... I was not on the ball... Oh, forget it.

I wish IBM all the best in their Second Life developments. So far I feel there is a certain depth to their involvement with this virtual world; even as a preview it was bug-free and everything looked like a replica of the original stadium.

Points to note from this tour:

Good publicity can be started by a few pro-active employees. These employees can be empowered by being allowed to talk to people and tell personal anecdotes about how they developed their project, thus enhancing the (potential) customer experience.

A progressive blogging policy lets employees, who are in a sense company evangelists, promote projects and convey the genuine enthusiasm and expertise that is often lost in a press release or annual report. But first, you must have employees who have that enthusiasm and also the knowledge and maturity to do the right thing when communicating to members of the public, the press and customers.

Technorati Tags: IBM, Second Life, Australian Open

IBM will be doing something groundbreaking by simulating real-life matches at the Australian Open. The Age reports:

Over the duration of the two week tournament, data will be fed from games in the real Rod Laver Arena into the unreal one, nano seconds after happens.

The feed will come from game-tracking technologies such as the line-calling system HawkEye, PointTracker which plots shots and ball trajectories and Speed Serve which clocks the players' serves.

Computers then crunch the numbers to recreate the positioning of the ball inside the virtual stadium. And avatars, 3-D characters representing the players, can simulate strokes made by Roger Federer or Alicia Molik - or whoever is playing at the time.

Technorati Tags: Australian Open, IBM, Second Life

A Feminist blog draws attention to the presence of role-playing rape services which can be procured in Second Life:

...while the idea of rape fantasies in general is certainly disturbing to me, I'm even more troubled that it's even offered by Second Life as an option, as if this is one of a range of activities to make your virtual life more "real."

The fact is, whether we like it or not, porn is real and after studying Gender issues in my final year in law school, I'm aware that the debate as to whether porn and other forms of commercialised sex is enslaving or 'empowering' women will never end. Heck, in this day and age, why limit it to women, since we now have TV shows featuring liberated women writing columns about sexual escapades with men. Why even narrow it down to heterosexual sex (and the list goes on).

But now we've moved beyond what's legal, to something which should never be allowed - rape. Which leads to yet another debate as to whether we should allow would-be rapists 'let out' their unhealthy desires only in a virtual arena so that they wouldn't do it in real life.

Of course this is a much weaker argument and the right answer should be a resounding NO, but we shouldn't stop there. When fantasies start to involve violence and an intention to hurt and degrade someone else, the person engaging in this fantasy should seek counselling.

Fortunately there is at least one counselling service in Second Life, and mental health discussion groups - but you'd wonder if the patrons of this virtual rape service would bother to seek help. We can pray.

Thanks to HH from Straits Times Digital Life for drawing my attention to the link. More reader comments on this issue, over at Gawker.

Technorati Tags: Second Life, virtual worlds, rape, rapelay,

This is a (rich) builder's dream come true: Autodesk has come to Second Life! The 3D design software company has an island for real-life attendees of Autodesk University.

I kind of tried Autocad as a student many years ago and managed to conjure up some feeble-looking shape. Ironically, I've progressed much further in Second Life - which isn't saying much, considering all I've built is furniture and Mr Blue here has been building guitars by the gallon.

It is a progressive move by Autodesk. However, what I did not like was that Autodesk Island is not open to the general public, just like IBM. It was impossible to locate using the search function in Second Life, and I couldn't find the 'Autodesk University' group either, as described in their blog post.

I guess they want to let only registered Autodesk users in first, and maybe in time, when they're comfortable enough they'll open it up to the rest of us. Then Second Life won't be just an instructional medium but also a marketing tool. Think about it - this would let us learn about what the software can build in Second Life. We can't do any harm in there... I promise! Everything would be PRIM and proper, though I suspect there may be an overload. Heh heh.

Note: I am not really sure whether you can export your models into Second Life. That would be so cool. However, architectural firms could use Second Life to let clients preview what their buildings may look like. Heck, you can even chat to your client in another country when you're in Second Life. Just imagine...

Client: (walks up the stairs) The staircase is a bit too narrow. My Avatar's the same height as me.

Architect: OK, noted. (places an object on the stairs to remind him that it needs to be amended)

Client: And the bathroom ... I don't like the colour. And the tiles.

Architect: OK, how about this or this instead? (swaps textures) Your interior designer told me he has these materials in RL. We scanned them in so it should look pretty much the same.

Client: Yes, that's better. Moving on to the bedroom...

Other Autodesk sites and blogs by architects: Virtual Suburbia blog, ArchSL which has a machinima podcast about the topic (now how abstract is that?!).

Technorati Tags: Second Life, Autodesk, learning environments

Got this post via Kevin.

I'd like to add a few more. You know you're spending too much time in Second Life when:

1. You feel you're actually NOT spending enough time in Second Life
2. You start to believe that the world is really filled with beautiful people
3. You start calling other Second Life players by their Second Life names (I do that!)
4. It's OK to skip dinner in real life, because your Avatar just consumed a load of cheese, champagne and oysters
5. You lapse into acronyms and expect others to understand when you say 'RL' and 'SL'
6. You wish you could just teleport yourself from one meeting to another, thus saving yourself minutes of valuable time
7. You wish that you could burn your own calories by making your Avatar dance or run all night
8. You start writing posts like this.

Any more to add? Post a comment.

Technorati Tags: Second Life