Sculpties are a new building tool in SL. They resemble NURBS type shapes - it would be interesting to know how expensive they are in terms of rendering. Either way they will bring richer detail to SL.

http://www.kanae.net/secondlife/

These two tools allow you to rotate a path with a specific number of veritices - really cool. To texture a sculptie, first create the texture with a tool like this, save it as a .tga, create a prim (square for instance), then select under “Object” the “Building Block Type” drop down for “Sculpted”. Click on the (larger-than-usual) texture square to select the Sculptie .tga

The Times released their archives for free on the web! I came up with some interesting searches under “world wide wait”, a coinage that is attributed to them on the Internet and I believe has some relevance to where virtual worlds are today. I am also on the trial “free” plan for HighBeam Research, that gives unlimited browsing for free provided you cancel your credit card after a week.

Herewith some interesting quotations:

The problem is that for most Internet visitors, flipping through the pages of the World Wide Web is about as exciting as turning pages of a book or magazine once every 30 seconds or so. (Even some people with fast modems call it the World Wide Wait.) Some pages are fascinating, others are dreary, but nothing really happens on the pages. Browsing is a passive activity once the reader lands on a page.

Imagine, instead, a Web where each page is active and interactive, instead of static. A simple graphic image becomes an animation. A photograph becomes a video clip. Stock quotes and sports scores are updated on screen as the user watches.

-By PETER H. LEWIS, The New York Times,
Published: October 17, 1995

Sloth, the transgression of the slow moving and the unproductive, notorious as one of the Seven Deadly Sins, is alive on the Internet.

I like to read magazine articles while waiting for my next Internet event: 30 or 60 seconds to load a Web page or a minute to access a large news group. Any process that’s easily interruptable qualifies as an Interleavable Internet Activity (IIA). When the most recent command is done, I rouse myself and click on my next selection. Then it’s back to my alternate world for 15 seconds, 45 seconds or two minutes. A few seconds here, a minute there — they all add up.

-”Welcome to the World Wide Wait”, William Casey, The Washington Post, June 12, 1995

READ about the Internet, and thrill to the notion of a world wired at the speed of light, with all the information anyone could want just a mouse-click away. But actually use the cursed thing, and a more prosaic picture quickly emerges. Delay, break-downs and glacial transmissions are part of everyday Internet life. New users are amazed: surely this tepid data trickle is not the fabled “information superhighway”? Veterans shake their head wearily: the Internet has always been swamped, and as long at it doubles in size each year, it seems likely always to remain so.

True? That question-whether the Internet can grow out of stumbling adolescence and become as delay-free and reliable as the telephone network- ultimately comes down to one of economics.

-The Economist (US), October 19, 1996

In “Is this Man Cheating on his Wife”, Wall Street Journal Writer Alexandra Alter writes about virtual infidelity. The piece profiles a married Second Life resident and his virtual wife. I couldn’t help but be reminded of a passage in the book “The Victorian Intent” by Tom Standage. Standage cites an article published in “Western Electrician” published in 1891 called “Making Love by Telegraph”. A frustrated wire operator finds intimacy while “working the wires”. I’m not going to comment on moral obligation, Victorian mores, or domestic issues. Transformative technologies however bring about spirited debate on these subjects and bring people far apart together. As Standage writes on page 127, “..within a few months of the electric telegraph being opened to the public, it was being used for something even the most farsighted of telegraph advocates had never dared to imagine: to conduct an on-line wedding”

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

-Dimitri

A new group recently appeared on YouTube in order to promote and showcase artwork in SL.

The group description states: “Art and culture are thriving in Second Life. Much of the time a simple photo isn’t enough to capture the kinetic and performance elements of this virtual art.”

This group is an excellent opportunity to present much of the incredible work in Second Life, which is mostly not seen or simply not captured by the still imagery that makes up much of the collective view of Second Life. This group will hopefully give people a new window into SL.

Check out the group by clicking here.

Business week published an article today titled ‘The End Of Work As You Know It‘ where it was argued the concept of the workplace and the employer/laborer relationship are changing as a result of increased connectivity (virtual worlds, social networks et cetera). The article discusses the evolution of the workplace using a variety of anecdotes representing the forthcoming change.

The reason why I bring up this article, besides its obvious relevance, is because it brings forth an interesting and divisive point at the end of the article–questioning what “technology’s ultimate impact on workers” will be.

In discussing virtual worlds, while asserting my belief in it becoming an essential tool of the future, I often get bombarded with the generic concern that the entrance of virtual worlds marks the end of true social interaction and the ultimatum of superficiality.

In tandem, Business Week raises two pertinent questions:

1) Will this be a new world of empowered individuals encased in a bubble of time-saving technologies?

2) Or will it be a brave new world of virtual sweatshops, where all but a tech-savvy few are relegated to an always-on world in which keystrokes, contacts, and purchases are tracked and fed into the faceless corporate maw?

And their response:

“It’s safe to say we’ll see some of both. But perhaps we can comfort ourselves by realizing that, while technology will change the nature of work, it can’t change human nature. “All of these technologies,” says Charles Grantham, executive producer of the research group Work Design Collaborative, “aren’t going to be a substitute for face-to-face interaction.”"

Business week tackled this point well. Human nature is human nature. The rise of virtual environments and other collaborative and social metaverses are not meant to replace human interaction, but simply augment it (at least for now). This is the underlying supposition of progress.

Click here to read Business Week’s article

The Old Masters Picture Gallery in Dresden, Germany has established a virtual presence in Second Life, as Wired Magazine reported earlier today. The real gallery in Dresden was founded nearly 300 years ago, boasting a 37,700 square feet space in a 150-year-old building.

Dresden’s virtual presence marks the first official move of a RL museum to the virtual world. As Wired reported, “virtual versions of other collections (most famously “Second Louvre,” which has no official ties to the Paris museum) have [also] popped up.”

Dresden’s virtual reproduction has been recreated with immense accuracy and detail. As Wired reported, “the grounds outside, have been recreated, down to the trash cans and fountains in the courtyard and ceiling moldings, staircases and furniture within.”

Dresden’s Second Life build is a must see! The Gallery houses 750 paintings of The Old Masters, spanning 500 years of European art.

Executed by This Second Marketing LLC., a series of avatars were recruited and paid real world wages to act as virtual “Buzz Agents” for the new IMAX Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

The Hollywood Reporter presented a story earlier this week on the success of this campaign, and noted that it was a marketers dream come true.

Greg Foster, chairman and president of Imax Filmed Entertainment, said, “Reaching 15,000 people in exactly the demographic you’re shooting over seven days is sort of hitting the marketing bonanza.”

As the Hollywood Reporter noted, “the campaign logged 25,189 individual Imax brand interactions when including all conversations with Second Life avatars, many of which occurred on more than one occasion.”

Click here to read Hollywood Reporter’s article.

A podcast from the Chronicle of Higher Education was released today called An Anthropologist Goes Native In a Virtual World, where Tom Boellstorff, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California at Irvine, discusses his research in Second Life. He is in the process of releasing a book on his work.

[Professor Boellstroff’s Avatar]

The interview explores Professor Boellstroff’s engagements in Second Life along with his thoughts on Virtual Worlds. Professor Boellstroff’s discussion on getting to know a person or avatar is quite fascinating, where he explores how in the real world one gets to know a person outside in, while in the virtual world, they get to know them inside out. He explains how in Second Life there is no pre-judging, where you don’t know if the person is a man or women, 80 or 20 years old, their ethnicity or religion—you are only meeting their avatar, which gives you superior access to a persons intimate self.

Listen to the podcast by clicking here.

As reported by domain-B.com, IBM India is planning to create an immersive interface, where real life movements and actions would translate into virtual world operations.

IBM’s project comes out of an internship program for students at technical and business schools, who will work at IBM India Software Lab.

As reported by domain-B, Benjamin Chodroff of case Western Reserve University, who came up with idea, states: “The interface will allow users in the virtual world to experience objects in the real world through a new and exciting rich immersive environment. The new idea has many applications and will enhance both the virtual world and the real world with rich connectivity and on-demand-access from any part of the globe.”

This also coincides with IBM’s new energy project, called ‘Project Big Green,” where they plan to take on energy conservation initiatives.

Read domain-B’s full report by clicking here.