It’s The End Of The World As We Know It…

…and I don’t feel fine. A lot has been written about the introduction of voice to Second Life. Long-winded and well written articles by Gwyneth Llewelyn, terse gripes under Linden blogs, endless discussions in-world.

The disadvantages are clear. Having voice will mean exclusion of people with certain handicaps from Second Life and it will throw those with heavy accents in their English - those who write the language far better than they speak, and there are a lot of them - back into the confines of their own communities, which can be very limiting. It will mean the end of roleplay as we know it. Not only will we notice how many hot blondes have deep voices, but we will see how slick guys with supercool rap avatars have Finnish or Polish accents. Which is fine of course, but not very convincing.

To go to a club will mean to be immersed in music, just like in real life. That typical Second Life feature - talking and dancing and enjoying the music at the same time - will be gone. And that is a community building feature of very important proportions. In ‘my’ sim - Mariposa, where I have my main shop - we hold regular dances and it’s a very good way to get to know each other by talking and joking. Out loud, as it were, and not in IM.

Then there are meetings, Linden office hours, discussions. If done ‘in voice’, you’ll need someone to take minutes to have any result. And a rigid talking order, hitherto unknown to SL discussions. Gone with the jokes and the lightheartedness, the comic relief if you will.

Pretty soon the non-voice enabled avatars will meet resistance. Noone wants to wait for them to type their replies. They cannot take part in any fast going discussions anymore because they will invariably be late with their input. And perhaps there’ll be mistrust - what are you hiding behind those keystrokes? Are you really who you say you are?

So far, noone has convinced me of any advantage that the advent of voice might bring, other than the fact in itself. And so, when weighed against the many changes that it will bring - changes I don’t think are positive at all - the introduction of voice will prove to be much like the candy you give to your kid. It looks nice, it tastes nice, it keeps your kid happy but it is certainly not in any way good for it. And it will eventually turn it into an overweight, lazy layabout.

Lazy? No, make that laggy.

The Big Trip

Vehicles in Second Life are hampered not only by prim limits but also by property bounderies and sim crossings. Not many people undertake long journeys and why should you? Teleporting is faster. But sometimes the journey itself is the goal. My goal is to test the limits of vehicles in Second Life and to cross the mainland while doing so.

We all know Abbotts, Cubey Terra’s great airport on the western side of the mainland. Less known is the airport at Caldbeck on the eastern side of the mainland, right next to Ambleside and Linden Village. What is more appropriate than flying from airport to airport? My little chopper, the OH-6 Cayuse, was bought at Abbotts but originated at Phase5 in Caldbeck. Time to ‘take her home’, an epic journey of no less than seven and a half kilometers – just under five miles.

McJazz

I remember the first time I walked into Phat Cat’s Jazzy Blue Lounge. Having worked at one of the main jazz clubs here in Holland I was amazed at what I saw and heard. Ballroom dancing, slick music with a fleeting resemblance to actual jazz… quite an odd place. I could never bring myself to walk into my RL club in a ballroom dress!

The second time around I went there with a friend of mine and I had a lot to say about the Jamie Cullum type music they were playing there. At the club where I worked it was quite normal - we could be quite ruthless actually. But not at Phat Cat. Some sneering remarks later I found myself banned from the premises.

It was my first and only ban and I have since never been banned anywhere else. In a way I was proud of my ban; I got it only because I voiced my opinion. It felt a little rebellious. Those Americans (I presumed)… they don’t understand a thing about jazz or jazz clubs. And I never cared to try and get back in.

Phat Cat has expanded a lot since I was there last time. It’s on it’s own island now and includes a mall. It’s one of the most popular places in Second Life; fearfully laggy, insanely busy. Jazz here is still a fashion statement rather than a form of art. The avant garde of music, restyled into easily consumable tunes. It’s a bit like McDonald’s serving French cuisine.

And they lifted my ban! And so, yesterday, I got to walk around a bit in the grey goo. I changed into something more formal (a lovely business suit from Mischief - still no chance of getting me into a ballroom dress!) and managed to sit at the bar for ten minutes before I inevitably got redmapped. I saw Usagi Musashi for the first time, a girl I knew only from her regular comments on the Second Life blogs, and I wish I had been more mobile and quick so I could actually sit down with her to have a good talk. In any case, I managed to take a snapshot of me at the bar before being redmapped.

I guess that terrible lag is the curse of running the #1 location in Popular Places. As for the music… quality will never win popularity contests, so I should have known better than to expect to hear Coltrane, Mingus or even Miles.

Well… at least I get to show off my new hair

The Shocking Truth

Here is the German television’s report on child pornography in Second Life as reported on the official blog. I advise you all to watch this video in full - the sting is at the end. I warn you, the video contains blurred yet still rather graphic material. It is German spoken - even Robin (Linden) Harper is overdubbed. My translation of the text follows (I am a translator in Real Life). When I place text between square brackets [like this], it means I am not entirely sure of what is said. Please note that, while I have a good knowlegde of German, it is not part of my professional activities to translate it or indeed to translate into English.

Age Verification - Philip, Daniel and Robin speak

Tonight (this morning at 10 SLT) I was present at Robin Linden’s Office Hour where more Residents than usual gathered to talk to Robin about age verification. I have tried to plough through the chat log and lift out those questions and answers which touch upon my main concern - and I dare say the concern of most Europeans: handing over personal data to a company in the US. Typos are left as is (except for one of my own, hehe) in order to not over-edit the whole piece. Please note that a lot has been left out to present just what I think is the main issue.

A few more words about age verification

The post-9/11 world is characterized by increased security measures all around us. At the same time we see a continuing growth in the use and the power of automated systems for storage of personal data. These two facts combined have caused, and are continuing to cause, widespread concern about civil liberties. The ability to couple databases together to paint a picture of our daily lives, without us being aware of it, worries a lot of people. But what is even more worrisome is the fact that data storage has consistently proven to be unsafe.

Unfortunately the advent of the internet has seen an enormous growth in storage of potentially damaging personal information on many different locations. Merging these databases together is a very simple routine and results in a fairly complete picture of a person’s interests, sexual preference, habits, religion and political affiliation. One further simple step is to flag the database and pick out all the muslims or all the gays or anyone who registered to view mature content.

Let’s say that I would send my passport number to a third party via the web. This results in two bits of info arriving at the receiving end: my passport number and my IP address. This means that potentially all my internet behaviour can be directly coupled to my person. Sounds far-fetched? Read on.

During World War II resistance fighters here in Holland and in other countries attacked and destroyed public record offices to prevent the Nazi German occupiers from finding out which citizens were Jewish. After the war such info was not stored at all anymore. The first lesson is obvious: for the safety of all citizens the amount of private information stored anywhere should be kept to an absolute minimum. The second lesson is less obvious: the danger doesn’t have to come from neocons, Illuminati, the military-industrial complex, Homeland Security or whatever some conspiracy theorists try to tell you. Things happen fast in this world – what’s highly unlikely today can be an imminent threat tomorrow. You can wake up one day and find yourself under hostile occupation.

And this time around there is no public records office to attack.

Second Life comes of age?

Linden Lab has taken some extraordinary steps lately, but none so totally off-beat as described in their latest announcement. Our virtual environment, our evolution of the internet, our I-cannot-call-it-a-game is going to require you to deliver proof of age. And this time even your credit card is not going to be enough. All in the name of protecting children - which is, as I have said earlier, the parents’ responsibility anyway.

Now be aware that there is no law in the United States which says that you have to protect minors from mature content in online services. And right now a lot of companies are not even trying to do so. Using Selfseo I discovered that a lot of porn sites offering photos and videos of highly explicit nature without asking for any age verification - without even so much as a warning - have their servers in the United States. Mind you, these sites show explicit content depicting real human beings intead of avatars. I am almost tempted to prove this with a list of sites, but I’ll refrain from that for now. You all know where to find these sites anyway.

With all that real life mature content up for grabs on the internet, why would Linden Lab demand proof of age through highly sensitive personal data like passport numbers or social security numbers, without having a legal requirement to do so and indeed in clear violation of established privacy laws in lots of countries - or ‘some areas‘ in LL speak? What would make LL infinitely more vulnerable to lawsuits than www.firexdream.com? (there - I’ve done it. That’s a moderate one, by the way.) Or have they gone the Born Again way?

Our watchamacallit is, if you cut through the chase, a game. No game in the world requires me to hand over my most personal details, unless you want to consider airport security checks a game. You know, I’ve had friendly and nice encounters with Lindens like Torley and Robin, so I’d hate to tell them they need to get their heads out of their asses. But really… they do.

Brought to you by the nice people at…

Do you want to walk around with what looks like a mouldy French bread floating above your carefully selected hair? At RatePoint they think you eventually will. After a long ad campaign on pages like New World Notes, RatePoint has started an offensive in the live music scene in Second Life.

RatePoint should replace the now defunct SL rating system. It apparently comes with a HUD and from what I’ve seen, it needs some coaching to work right. Mind you, I didn’t try it. I was attracted by the musicians they hire. We were treated to the sympathetic Dexter Ihnen, who is more than your average guy-with-guitar. Great voice, good songs, funky sound, charming Ozzie accent – if you ask me he shouldn’t have touched The Long and Winding Road as some gems are best left untouched, but to be fair it wasn’t a copy of the original, which is a plus in my book, and it wasn’t bad either. And he had a good rapport with the audience as well.

Tonight we saw Louis Volare, a jazz pianist and singer from New York. I know it’s hard to muster up a full band or even a trio for an SL performance, but for someone as passionate about jazz as myself, a rhythm box just doesn’t cut it. A solo performance with piano would have been so much better. He has a nice voice, but he doesn’t do a lot with it. The whole thing was rather flat, without making use of the enormous (and daunting) liberty a jazz musician has. And so I left before the show was over.

There’s a nice atmosphere at RatePoint Island if you don’t mind that everyone including the performing artist will at regular intervals tell you what a great system RatePoint is. They’re doing great - or so they say – with nearly 2000 registrations in one and a half month. If you ask me that’s not too hot and I didn’t see many people with that green bar hopping around, but ok. I guess everyone came for the music, just like me.

They assured me they did it all ‘for people who just love music’. Yep… and I can sell you Chadrick Linden’s Cottage by the Lake if you believe that one. The bottom line is RatePoint; they practically beg you to sign up. Despite all that the live concerts are well worth a visit. One of those bread sellers really seems to know a thing or two about music – sure, Volare wasn’t at all to my taste, but it was nevertheless a professional gig. So go there, ignore the talk about RatePoint, sit back and enjoy the music, the people and the evening.

Dexter Ihnen at RatePoint Island, May 2nd, 2007

The Open Letter: more knee jerking

It was on New World Notes that the Project Open Letter caught my attention. An interesting move and one that is long overdue. VOIP? Render Glow? Water with real waves? What about basic performance issues facing SL Residents on a daily basis?

Still, I’ll sign it when hell freezes over, as I already wrote under Hamlet’s blog post. Because whenever performance issues are discussed, ‘unverifieds’ are discussed as well, and usually the idea is that limiting their capabilities is the cure for all ills.

The Open Letter is no exception and kicks off straightaway: “Sensible inventory limits (on non-verified accounts only), combined with better management tools and ways to protect our inventory ourselves would help to mitigate the problem as well.” I am not convinced that it will. What’s more, I am not at all convinced that there are no other and perhaps more sensible ways to cut down on inventory.

Last month I cleaned out my inventory and got it back to about 3750 items. Somehow, this past month, it crawled back up to almost 4000 now. Did I buy 250 items? No. Did I create 250 items? No. But I get flooded with note cards and greeting cards (who needs those?), and what I trash does not disappear at all unless I empty the trashbin every once in a while. I’d love to see it empty on logout.
I don’t need your notecard every time I enter your sim or shop. I don’t need to add you to my Friends list and get a greeting card. I don’t need to carry my trash around like a bag lady. I don’t need to delete something in-world (say, in a sandbox) only to find it back in Trash, along with other unspecified prims called Object. I don’t need to keep the empty box my purchases came in.

Maybe some things can be made to reside temporarily in my inventory. Maybe there is a way to separate inventory into a carry-along part and a fixed part with stuff you don’t need all the time. Maybe some types of inventory can automatically be added to a prim instead of a folder. And maybe there are just too many freebies to be had out there. Boxes full of stuff the newbie won’t need but takes anyway, unaware if he or she might still need it some day.

There are a million ways a creative thinker can come up with to control ever-growing inventories, but the writers of the Open Letter go with the knee-jerk reaction of limiting unverifieds. That will only happen over my dead avatar.

UPDATE: My name is on the list of signatories. I would like to know how it got there. I did not sign the letter.