http://blog.vrhacks.net Thought Exercises Tue, 08 Feb 2011 09:38:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.21 Topics on virtual, immersive, and augmented realities. Angela Angela angela.talamasca@gmail.com angela.talamasca@gmail.com (Angela) Thought Exercises http://vrhacks.net/podcasting.jpg http://blog.vrhacks.net http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=236 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=236#comments Tue, 18 Jan 2011 05:36:20 +0000 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=236 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?feed=rss2&p=236 5 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=231 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=231#comments Sat, 15 Jan 2011 04:30:13 +0000 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=231 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?feed=rss2&p=231 10 On January 14, 2011, Avatar Reality’s CEO, Jim Sink spoke with the Blue Mars community as a followup to his Avatar Reality Restructuring blog post. Today would be the last day at the fledgling company for Mr. Sink, along with 50% of the team. Avatar Reality CEO, Jim Sink meets with community to discuss company restructuring and say Good-Bye Angela 43:21 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=229 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=229#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:42:53 +0000 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=229 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?feed=rss2&p=229 4 It is of course, easy, to blame Kingdon for resident unrest and the recent RIF. After all, Kingdon, who was appointed CEO by the lab’s board of directors on April 22, 2008, has been summarily removed just a little over two years later. June 9th announcement of a 30% staffing cut (RIF), followed by a June 24th announcement that CEO, Mark Kingdon would be stepping down, founder and past CEO, Philip Rosedale will stand in as interim CEO, and CFO Bob Komin will be assuming the additional role of COO. A sigh of relief can almost be heard throughout second life, on forums and in blog posts, as second life residents and alumni alike anticipate the results from this shake-up. Hoping that Philip will revive his original vision of Second Life… a vibrant, "your world, your imagination" virtual landscape where some have made names for themselves, established virtual companies, and, in some sense, re-enacted, at a micro-scale, the heady days of the dot-bombs.

It is of course, easy, to blame Kingdon for resident unrest and the recent RIF. After all, Kingdon, who was appointed CEO by the lab’s board of directors on April 22, 2008, has been summarily removed just a little over two years later. Notwithstanding the fact that he certainly made his share of mistakes, missteps, and bad choices, startup CEO’s still tend to be little more than puppets . The question of course remains, "Who are the puppet masters?"
The metaphorical changing of the guards is all too common in the Bay area. During the dot-bomb days, executives changed companies so often, that they seemed to be engaged in a game of musical chairs. It was quite interesting watching and trying to predict who was going where next. Whether it was Sun MicrosystemsW, Oracle_CorporationW, GoogleW, YahooW, NetscapeW, or AOLW playing swap the executive, or other less-known companies changing out their executives for more well-known names from the Valley’s who’s who roster. Back then, media outlets such as cnetW, Wired http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=228 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=228#comments Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:02:01 +0000 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=228 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?feed=rss2&p=228 2 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=224 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=224#comments Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:32:02 +0000 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=224 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?feed=rss2&p=224 8 On April 8th, Linden Lab VP of Platform and Technology, Joe Linden (Joe Miller), Sent an email to the OpenSource Listserv, “Brown-bag meeting to continue dialog on TVPV next Tuesday (4/13)” inviting list members to join him in an informal “brown bag” t... 1st meeting with Joe Linden regarding Linden Lab's third party viewer policy Angela 34:17 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=221 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=221#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:08:37 +0000 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=221 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?feed=rss2&p=221 5 ... in a plastic world As long as we continue to place people in little stereotypical packages, nothing will change. Of course, in order to change, we have to truly think outside of a box that few will even admit they're in. Or, just perhaps our society is satisfied with portraying women as nothing more than "little barbie girls in a plastic world." Angela 8:19 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=218 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=218#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:46:49 +0000 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=218 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?feed=rss2&p=218 12 1st resident roundtable with Mark Kingndon Since this meeting was close to an hour long, and due to large file size, we are releasing audio only. This is the first Resident Round Table that M Linden promised in this blog post:<br /> <br /> http://bit.ly/MeetMLinden<br /> <br /> in response to resident comments regarding his question: "What do you envision for SL in 2010 and over the next decade?"<br /> <br /> http://bit.ly/MLinden2010feedback<br /> <br /> He promises more! So have your voice turned on and cameras ready!<br /> <br /> The text chat transcripts and this podcast can be found here: http://bit.ly/MLindenResidentRoundTable Angela 54:06 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=212 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=212#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:43:35 +0000 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=212 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?feed=rss2&p=212 1 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=205 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=205#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:45:34 +0000 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=205 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?feed=rss2&p=205 3 A little over a week ago, Linden Lab’s new “Communications Manager,” Wallace Linden, penned a blog post titled, “Will the real you please stand up.” The resulting firestorm that followed was not particularly surprising. After all, Will the real you please stand up.” The resulting firestorm that followed was not particularly surprising. After all, the title and the first paragraph told people all they needed to know: that the lab planned to move toward compulsory RL identities.



While some might argue that was not his intent, anyone who has taken writing 101 knows that both the title and the first paragraph of any writing sets the tone of what is to follow.
Wallace started out by quoting the founder of Friendster, who decided to “clean out Fake profiles.” That, in conjunction with the title, said it all: that the lab would consider anyone who did not provide an RL identity, to be fake. The discussion that followed pretty much went downhill from there. His whole post, of course, had not a thing to do with the issue of RL versus avatar names.
On Friday, M Linden bailed Wallace out of the blog maelstrom by announcing the acquisition of a new company, “Enemy Unknown” who hosts the avatar-centric web site, “Avatars United.” Mark’s post was received quite well until people learned that there was no means for SL residents to protect their SL identity from being spoofed. The first response was to go grab your avie name before someone else did until people realized that the site allowed duplicate names within “worlds” as well. Still, the rush brought the site to its knees.
By Saturday evening, we had lost a well-respected and loved long-time resident from the steampunk community, Ordinal Malaprop. Exclusive of the loss of technical expertise and amazing builds this individual brought to second life, they also decided to shut down their blog, which chronicled their journey in the second life landscape.
On Sunday morning, Ordinal, posted a blog post explaining their decision. Since that time, they are considering keeping their blog open. By Sunday evening, the excitement over the new acquisition had all but died down, and various people began spamming group invites.
By Monday, as unrest among residents grew, another blog post was made. This time by Blue Linden regarding the closing of the SL vbulletin forums. His post didn’t really say much, outside of noting that the old forums would be shuttered on February 9th, and that the new forums, what some are calling blogrums due to the blog-ish layout, would be managed by Jive.
Yoz Linden then began a thread, laying out the alleged technical reason for the decision, while noting they “chose Jive as a software partner for several reasons.” Although Yoz did not raise the OpenID issue in the thread introduction, they had noted so in a jira post earlier that day.
The resulting firestorm broke out once more. This time, with comments fielded by Blue, Yoz, and Lexie Linden,]]> Angela 6:01 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=200 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=200#comments Sat, 02 Jan 2010 07:55:12 +0000 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?p=200 http://blog.vrhacks.net/?feed=rss2&p=200 6 Where will Second Life and Blue Mars go in 2010
Prokofy Neva has some interesting predictions. I pretty much agree with all but #7, and to quote, “The Lindens will not only make an application for the i-Phone, which is “where it’s at”, they will get into the Augmented Reality business.” While I can see the lab trying to do that, I don’t see them as being successful.
Interestingly, or perhaps not so, people are all a twitter about augmented reality and the possibility of SL being acquired. If the latter occurs, say bye-bye to second life as you knew it.
Prokofy Neva opines they’ll be bought out in phases, with IBM the likely candidate, and the lab becoming content creators. Eddie Haskell listed a number of potential candidates including IBM, Microsoft, Sony, Facebook, and Google. And James Au seems to think that Microsoft is a possible candidate due to their Project Natal.
I personally see Microsoft as an unlikely candidate “because” of their Project Natal. After all, graphics-wise and interactive-wise, Project Natal is heads above second life. Google is a maybe, primarily because of the Silicon Valley connection. I don’t see Sony hopping aboard for the same reasons I don’t see Microsoft hopping aboard. And facebook already has their social games that are not only lightweight but highly adaptable.
And that leaves IBM. I am still somewhat skeptical, but if IBM were to purchase SL, I would expect them to dismantle it and create it anew as an education platform and corp offering. Possibly, even open sourcing the server code to augment their opensim project. And then show-casing a “new and improved” second life with a different fee schedule, content rules, etc.
Now, if they don’t sell, I could see them continuing their ramp up attempt to make SL look more attractive to the general public, and thereby more marketable for something like an IPO. Though, honestly, at the rate they’re going, I do think they missed the IPO boat. Timing is, after all, everything.
Then again, since our economy is starting on the upslope, all of that could change. However, as more and more people return to work, there will certainly be a decline in concurrent users. Not just for places like SL, but across the metaverse. And herein lies the key or danger (take your pick) to SL’s longevity.
As people return to work and have more spending money, they’ll be picking up computers that can support systems, such as Blue Mars. They will also be more demanding and less forgiving. As for SL? They really need to figure out what they truly want to be when they grow up. Either that, or continue the path they’ve been on over the past year. A path that clearly shows ambivalence as well as one that involves alienating their core user base.
As for other predictions?
I highly doubt the lab will have mesh fully functional by the end of the year. Simply because such would not only require a major server overhaul, but they’d really have to junk the client as well. Though, I suspect they’ll simply add more crap code on top of what they already have. Sorry, I’ve read their client code folks. And it’s full of redundancies, multiple levels of unnecessary and complex inheritance...]]> Angela 9:03