Second Lifers in real life

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.
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