This is the tenth in a series of interviews that are being conducted with new residents, in order to gauge the effectiveness of the orientation process, and to gauge disparities between the preconceptions and the realities of Second Life. The questions may be tailored slightly for each interview; responses may be edited for purposes of clarity.
Tirellia Zenkova is a new friend of a friend in Second Life. Despite being so recently arrived in Second Life, Zenkova already feels that she has found a place in Second Life where she is comfortable and is among friends: unlike many people who enter Second Life, she arrived with a purpose in mind - to become a roleplayer in Saijo City. Having a goal in mind, and timely and helpful intervention during her earliest hours, kept Zenkova inworld long enough to start enjoying things.
This is the eighth in a series of largely demographic interviews that are conducted with established residents, to find out more about them and their involvement with Second Life, and to contrast the differences between their views and experiences and those of the newer residents. The questions may be tailored slightly for each interview; responses may be edited for purposes of clarity.
I've known Lienna for some time - life kind of threw us together in Second Life. She's a fascinating and engaging person. We'd spoken for some time before we actually met inworld and I took her skin shopping. Lienna writes for the excellent Pixel Pulse magazine, and has her own blog - which you may be warned, is not safe for work.
When I first heard about Twitter, I blew it off as a time-wasting site lacking functionality. Then I realized that it was the perfect opportunity to stay in contact with my many friends going to SXSW. For the first two days, Twitter could do no wrong. If I needed Redbull, I'd put out the SOS and receive a timely response as to where to get it. If I wanted to know where the hottest SXSW parties were, I'd consult with my Twitter.
By the following Monday, however, it had tapered off quite a bit, with many attendees going back to their day jobs. In the end, I really believe that it's only effective in large group settings, such as conferences. It enables people to let their friends know where they are without having to call in a noisy bar or restaurant. Otherwise, it's just another flashy website that we're forced to refresh throughout the day. If I want to read about your life, I'm going to want a summary, not a blow by blow.
Sometimes Twitter can take you by surprise, though ...
For those of you that had the chance to watch the AMAS Machinima Festival in November from Second Life, you may remember that there was a comedian that hosted the event. His name was Todd Levin and he couldn't help but joke about the rowdy Second Life audience. Whenever he mentioned anything remotely related to SL, we would cheer.
Imagine my surprise when he showed up to Fray Cafe! He was just as funny, although this time he shared a ***not-so-work-safe*** story about working at an adult video store. If you didn't get a chance to see his comedic stylings at the Fest, you might enjoy the introduction to his tale.
When his story was finished, Eric Rice called for a short break, which gave me a chance to speak with him at the bar. When I mentioned that I brought the "rowdy crowd", he was really nice and explained that we made the Festival fun. There you have it, Second Lifers. We're fun!
As Eric Rice tells it, Fray started out back in 1996 as a site where readers would tell true stories. Once a month, the site's creator, Derek Powazek, would design beautiful pages to go with the story. Since then, readers have held Fray Days in various parts of the world to join together and share their stories.
In 2001, Fray held their first Fray Cafe at SXSW. Attendees would have five minutes to share any kind of story, be it lighthearted or dealing with more serious subject matter. Eric Rice has been hosting the event at the Red Eye Fly since 2005 and he has many stories to tell. I captured his intro to share with all of you because it really gives insight into this special occasion.
On Saturday, Twitter was all the rage, even making it into panel jokes and discussions. If you needed something done, Twitter was the place to turn to. I think I received about 200 texts to my phone from just 15 friends. About mid-afternoon, I was getting tired and there wasn't a drop of Redbull in sight. A quick Tweet for help, and BarCampAustin came to the rescue. I was informed that not only did they have Redbull just a block over at Bourbon Rocks, but it was on them!
I arrived just in time to see Cube Linden taking the stage for his presentation about Second Life. During his speech, he mentioned flying penises, so Adri and I headed over to the sex shop about a block away. Once there, we purchased several inflatable phalluses to launch on stage. While in the restroom blowing them up, he ended his presentation. We were devastated, but not for long. We had plenty of drinking to do...
As brilliant plans don't always have a way of working out, I left for Austin quite late on the 9th. Not much was happening yet in the world of SXSW. Check-in took place from Noon to 8pm, but I was on a mission that could not be stopped. I was after the Nokia N800 tablet.
I arrived at 8:30pm after a two hour drive into Austin. I met up with BuhBuhCuh Fairchild and we immediately headed over to CompUSA to get the glorious device, which would later turn out to be downright awful. When we returned, it was time to party.
Word on the street was that the place to go was The Blind Pig...
While staying with Spin Martin and his wife, Astrid Ophelia, there were four laptops needing access to the internet. Two used EVDO, but that left two that needed WiFi. The Hilton charged 9.95-12.95 per night for internet access. However, two machines cannot connect to the same WiFi in the room.
Also, you cannot charge more than one connection per night to your room fees. You must use a credit card for the secondary connection, and then it can take up to 30 minutes before both connections can be used at the same time.
Another issue that came up was bandwidth. While Spin was using Second Life, the connection was dropped and he was unable to restart it. After calling for help, he discovered that a tech monitoring the packets had disconnected him.
Will the Chicago Hilton do the same? Will we go through these issues when two to four people are sharing a room? I certainly hope that isn't the case.
South by Southwest, or SXSW for short, is rapidly approaching. Scheduled for March 9th-18th in Austin, Texas, it is an annual festival that celebrates music, movies, and web development. Attended by over 10,000 people from all over the world, it is a staple of Austin tourism. It is known for giving bands their big break and panelists major credibility.
There is a group in Second Life, appropriately named "SXSW'ers". If you are interested in attending and would like to hear about meetups, join that group. For now, I'm just askin' if you're going! Well ... are you?
Hot on the heels of the Kokomo we-don't-really-want-to-ban-photography pseudo-photography ban, comes the news the Anshe Chung has tried to force various websites to take down pictures of her being griefed during an interview. She DOES want to ban photography if it features anything she's made or owns, it seems. Here at Second Life insider we are nothing if not topical.
I am indebted to Spin Martin for the lead on the Reuters article which outlines the story, and then to various gleeful residents who note that Anshe and her husband have been foolish enough to mess with Boing Boing in the realm of IP and copyrights issues.
It seems that Anshe has decided that she owns not only the IP for the things that she produces, but can also control the use of photographs and film which feature those items. If Anshe thinks that she can censor pictures taken in her sims, I think she is about to find out how dirty it can get.
I have read a few blogs about Ben Folds appearance in SL, but didn't realise that there had been a veritable avalanche of musical entries to SL, until I read Eric Rice's blog. Eric, in his persona as Spin Martin, runs Slackstreet sim, and has a fund of knowledge about music in SL. He is generous with his time and attention to anyone hoping to break into music through SL, and is happy to allow me in my work as a mentor to tell people to contact him to talk about it.
This is a pretty special thing. He has a sound stage on Slackstreet, which is used by people who don't have their own plot or sim to perform on -- yet. He promises to blog what works and what doesn't in music in SL, and we will look forward to that.
Meanwhile, Giff from Electric Sheep has blogged the Ben Fold's gig, and it sounds like a riot. The sad thing is that only someone who has experienced the spontaneous craziness of this sort of event will understand what on earth you are talking about when you recount this. It sounds like a lot of the fun was visual, and caused by the idea that it was Ben Folds wielding the light sabre etc.
You can just imagine explaining it to your mum: "And then, and then he got out his light sabre...". Yeah, you definitely had to be there.
I think that the Linden Radio stream is due for a bit of a makeover -- but would plead that they should try not to let it get taken over by all the commercial musicians now flooding in.
This is the tenth in a series of interviews that are being conducted with new residents, in order to gauge the effectiveness of the orientation process, and to gauge disparities between the preconceptions and the realities of Second Life. The questions may be tailored slightly for each interview; responses may be edited for purposes of clarity.
This is the eighth in 
When I first heard about Twitter, I blew it off as a time-wasting site lacking functionality. Then I realized that it was the perfect opportunity to stay in contact with my many friends going to SXSW. For the first two days, Twitter could do no wrong. If I needed Redbull, I'd put out the SOS and receive a timely response as to where to get it. If I wanted to know where the hottest SXSW parties were, I'd consult with my Twitter.
As brilliant plans don't always have a way of working out, I left for Austin quite late on the 9th. Not much was happening yet in the world of SXSW. Check-in took place from Noon to 8pm, but I was on a mission that could not be stopped. I was after the Nokia N800 tablet.
While staying with Spin Martin and his wife, Astrid Ophelia, there were four laptops needing access to the internet. Two used EVDO, but that left two that needed WiFi. The Hilton charged 9.95-12.95 per night for internet access. However, two machines cannot connect to the same WiFi in the room. 
