Second Life Insider http://www.secondlifeinsider.com Second Life Insider http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/feedlogo.gif Second Life Insider http://www.secondlifeinsider.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Stephen Fry lurks in Second Lifehttp://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/10/31/stephen-fry-lurks-in-second-life/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/10/31/stephen-fry-lurks-in-second-life/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/10/31/stephen-fry-lurks-in-second-life/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Stephen FryIf you're not sure who Stephen Fry is, can I direct your attention to his blog and his wikipedia page. He's a quite famous comedic and serious actor, appearing in Blackadder amongst other famous shows, and he's also famous for his erudition as the host of QI.

I've been a fan of his blog, which is relatively new, and his "blessays" and "blisertations" - his blog is not something to skim quickly, but is clever, fun, and interesting as well as blogging his life as an early adopter of technology - something dear to the hearts of many of us.

I have the thinnest of excuses for posting this. In his latest entry (also printed in the Guardian on Saturday) he admits to having a private existence in SL too. I'm not going to try to expose him further than this, but to say a public hello to him.
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]]>blogcelebritySecond-LifeStephen-FryEloise Pasteur2007-10-31T09:15:00+00:00Motorati claims to have sold "most expensive" cars in SL for non-profithttp://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/10/15/motorati-claims-to-have-sold-most-expensive-cars-in-sl-for-cha/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/10/15/motorati-claims-to-have-sold-most-expensive-cars-in-sl-for-cha/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/10/15/motorati-claims-to-have-sold-most-expensive-cars-in-sl-for-cha/#commentsFiled under: ,

On October 12th, Motorati put two SL replicas of real life vintage cars up for sale at the sum of 100,000L each. All proceeds would go to benefit the Electronic Frontier Foundation. After only two days, both vehicles sold! While I think this is wonderful, I can't help but feel it is overshadowed by their claim. They would have been fine saying that it was one of the most expensive.

Unfortunately this just isn't the case. When will companies learn to fact check before they make a claim like that? Not only is it not the most expensive, nor the second most, but it's also not the most expensive virtual car to benefit a non-profit. If they had comments enabled on their blog, someone might be able to inform them of their mistake.

As it happens, I know the anonymous owner of the actual titleholder. They purchased a limited edition Dominus Shadow during Relay For Life 2006 for a whopping 600,000L! I believe the runner up purchased their limited edition RFL 06 Dominus Shadow for around 400,000L. Congratulations to all of the lucky owners of these vehicles. Now if everyone would just ease up on the bigger, better, first, most ...
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]]>dominus-shadowelectronic-frontier-foundationmoo-moneymotoratimotorati-liferelay-for-liferflsecond-lifevintage-carsvirtual-fundraisingMoo Money2007-10-15T20:14:00+00:00SocialRank monitors our Sweet Second Lifehttp://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/10/02/socialrank-monitors-our-sweet-second-life/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/10/02/socialrank-monitors-our-sweet-second-life/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/10/02/socialrank-monitors-our-sweet-second-life/#commentsFiled under:

On October 1st, SocialRank introduced Sweet Second Life, which could be considered a Techmeme for the Second Life crowd. Once SocialRank decides on a niche to monitor, they invite a set number of bloggers from that niche to go about their business of blogging. From there, they manually identify the top stories, related blogs, and topics. After several weeks, a complex algorithm learns from the patterns and is able to spot the hottest news on it's own!

From what I can tell, it monitors the traffic to the blog entry, number of trackbacks, and comments at the very least. At that point, it recommends the 15 top posts of the moment, and the 15 blogs that showed the greatest increase in traffic for the day. Once it identifies the entry as a success, it sends a trackback to it, if possible.

Not only are they keeping viewers informed of the stats, but they're also gaining new viewers in the bloggers that check out the incoming link! I was even able to spot a few blogs that I'd never checked out before. It's brilliant!
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]]>bloggingmoo-moneysecond-lifesocialranksweet-second-lifetechmemetrackbackMoo Money2007-10-02T19:22:00+00:00SL Blogs: International Schools Islandhttp://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/21/sl-blogs-international-schools-island/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/21/sl-blogs-international-schools-island/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/21/sl-blogs-international-schools-island/#commentsFiled under:

The International Schools Island is being built to provide support for schools in Southeast Asia, but the blog built around it is devoted less to education than it is to keeping an ongoing record of the build itself, with all its challenges.

Written by Shamblesguru Voom and Takeme Homewood, it's a refreshing look into the process of creating something from nothing. The Island itself won't open until later this year, and it's not clear exactly what sort of support this island will offer to Southeast Islanders, but presumably that will become more clear as time goes on. Be sure to check out the Education Project Asia podcast while you're visiting this blog!

(Thanks, Chris!)
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]]>education-project-asia-podcastinternational-schools-islandsecond-lifeshamblesguru-voomsoutheast-asiatakeme-homewoodAkela Talamasca2007-09-21T08:38:00+00:00Credit Where Credit is Duehttp://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/06/credit-where-credit-is-due/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/06/credit-where-credit-is-due/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/06/credit-where-credit-is-due/#commentsFiled under: , , ,



There's an interesting post by Forseti Svarog over at SLOG regarding Linden Lab's habit of using resident IP for promotional purposes without attribution. Long story short, Linden Lab used Forseti's iVillage fashion show video, but not only did they fail to credit him, they literally edited the video to remove the existing credits!!

I actually had a conference call with Catherine Smith and former LL Marketing director David Fleck about this very issue about a year ago. At the time the problem was a series of Linden Lab press releases that not only failed to credit the residents responsible for the projects, but were easily misinterpreted as crediting Linden Lab for these projects!

The call was largely futile and consisted of Fleck feigning confused astonishment over my request that they credit residents. So, I think it's safe to say that Linden Lab's position on this issue is quite fixed and not likely to change out of respect for the artist. But to be fair, we must remember that according to the Second Life TOS, which we all agreed upon, Linden Lab is allowed to use any IP created in Second Life for promotional purposes. Section 3.2 says:

"... you understand and agree that by submitting your Content to any area of the service, you automatically grant (and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant) to Linden Lab: (a) a royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license..."

But content creators may not be completely without leverage. The tricky part is in the wording "by submitting your Content to any area of the service." Machinima consists of various elements, many of which are produced outside of Second Life and at no time are submitted to any area of service. An original soundtrack or voiceover work, for example, is composed and recorded outside of Second Life and is the exclusive property of the artist. The act of mixing these elements into a movie with Second Life footage does NOT give Linden Lab any rights over those elements.

This tactic could give artists some leverage in compelling Linden Lab to credit them. If your uncredited work appears as a Second Life promotional, you can file or threaten to file a DMCA complaint, not about the video, but about the music and voice. Not that you would want to be a grinch about the whole thing! Your only request is that they give credit where credit is due. That's fair.

Be creative about marrying those elements for which Linden Lab has claimed rights with external elements they have no right to at all. If you have a trademark, watermark the movie with it. Include original art in cut-scenes. Or, like many real life television and movies, place the credits over the action in the opening or ending sequence. Linden Lab may endeavor to cut, blur or dub out these elements, but the idea is to make it so difficult that they give up and let you take credit for your work.

Of course, I hate to think of our community becoming a broiling mosh pit of legal strong-arm tactics. All this could be avoided with a super-quick IM to the artist asking for permission, and about 20 characters of text giving credit to that creator.

This shouldn't be such a torturous act. In fact, it should feel like the right thing to do.
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]]>DMCAforseti svarogForsetiSvarogMachinimaslogAimee Weber2007-09-06T14:30:00+00:00SL Blogs: The Superior Inner Core!http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/05/sl-blogs-the-superior-inner-core/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/05/sl-blogs-the-superior-inner-core/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/05/sl-blogs-the-superior-inner-core/#commentsFiled under:

Gwyneth Llewelyn, she of the prodigious brain, has provided a link to a mystical source of prognostications: the Superior Inner Core! While entries here are somewhat sparse, it's an ongoing concern, despite the chunks of time between posts. From the site: "Once Upon A Time we had the Feted Inner Core. Their origins are also shrouded in the Mysts of Time. They reigned supreme at the Time of Immersionism.

Alas, that time is no more. The Dawn of The Age of Augmentism is upon us. And this time, a New Mystical Order emerges - the most powerful Superior Inner Core.'

Well, clearly, Nostradamus has nothing on Gwyneth! Go check out the site and provide your comments!

(Thanks, Gwyneth!)
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]]>augmentismfeted inner coregwyneth llewelynimmersionismnew mystical ordernostradamussecond lifeSecondLifesuperior inner coreAkela Talamasca2007-09-05T07:02:00+00:00Iris Ophelia on Tonight Livehttp://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/08/22/iris-ophelia-on-tonight-live/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/08/22/iris-ophelia-on-tonight-live/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/08/22/iris-ophelia-on-tonight-live/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Iris Ophelia, Fashion Writer, Talented Photographer, and Sweetheart Extraordinaire, was recently interviewed live on in-world interview program Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe. In it, she's as adorable as I know her to be (full disclosure: she's a friend), and converses on a range of subjects including fashion, blogging, and her photography.

Don't mind the voice lag; the interview was done over Skype, with Iris in Canada and Paisley in Australia. It's an all-too-brief glimpse into the mind of someone I wish I could spend more time with. Enjoy!
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]]>australiacanadairis ophelianew world notespaisley beebesecond lifeSecondLifeskypetonight liveAkela Talamasca2007-08-22T02:49:00+00:00SL Blogs: MODA Fashion SLhttp://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/08/15/sl-blogs-moda-fashion-sl/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/08/15/sl-blogs-moda-fashion-sl/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/08/15/sl-blogs-moda-fashion-sl/#commentsFiled under: ,

I have to say that, being a wolfie, I'm not big into clothing. However, I understand that fashion is a huge industry in SL, with a ton of followers and a concomitant ton of blogs devoted to the concept. Now, some would say that as a non-wearer of clothes, I'm exactly the wrong person to do any sort of review of a fashion blog. This may be true. However, I think everyone deserves recognition, even niche blogs that don't cater to every visitor, so here it is: MODA Fashion SL.

Hosted by Licentious Maladay, MODA Fashion SL features a nifty in-blog promotional commercial in the upper left-hand corner. From the site: 'What are fashion models wearing? Get their fashion tips, favorite designers and hot new looks! This blog focuses on what's new in SL Fashion. We are looking for the hard to find stuff, those treasures that come by chance, the little touches that change OK into gorgeous! We are also looking for your fashion tips, so leave LOTS of comments.'

Thanks, Licentious, for the tip, and I welcome similar tips from all of you, whatever your blog's focus!
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]]>blogclothinglicentious maladayMODA fashion SLsecond lifeSecondLifeAkela Talamasca2007-08-15T01:18:00+00:00SL Blogs: Ritzy Blisshttp://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/07/29/sl-blogs-ritzy-bliss/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/07/29/sl-blogs-ritzy-bliss/http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/07/29/sl-blogs-ritzy-bliss/#commentsFiled under:

This is the inaugural post for the new SL Blogs category, wherein I (and my crack team of bloggers) will give some notice and pageviews to notable blogs about SL. First up: Ritzy Bliss, a blog about, of all things, dining in SL.

I have to hand it to Andrea Funley, apparently the author of this blog: it can't be easy finding ways to talk about a sense that has no equivalent in SL, which is to say, taste. Actually, include smell in there too, and why not touch while you're at it. These three senses combine to create a distinctive experience when dining, and SL includes none of them. Regardless, the blog itself is as tasty as the places and dishes it purports to cover.

Quick question: Do any of you go out to eat in SL? What was your experience like; would you do it again?

(Thanks, Fanley!)
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]]>andrea funleydiningdishesritzy blisssecond lifeSecondLifesensessmelltastetouchAkela Talamasca2007-07-29T02:11:00+00:00