Web playgrounds for the Very Young

LOS ANGELES — Forget Second Life. The real virtual world gold rush centers on the grammar-school set.

Trying to duplicate the success of blockbuster Web sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz, children’s entertainment companies are greatly accelerating efforts to build virtual worlds for children. Media conglomerates in particular think these sites — part online role-playing game and part social scene — can deliver quick growth, help keep movie franchises alive and instill brand loyalty in a generation of new customers.

Second Life and other virtual worlds for grown-ups have enjoyed intense media attention in the last year but fallen far short of breathless expectations. The children’s versions are proving much more popular, to the dismay of some parents and child advocacy groups. Now the likes of the Walt Disney Company, which owns Club Penguin, are working at warp speed to pump out sister sites.

“Get ready for total inundation,” said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at the research firm eMarketer, who estimates that 20 million children will be members of a virtual world by 2011, up from 8.2 million today.

Worlds like Webkinz, where children care for stuffed animals that come to life, have become some of the Web’s fastest-growing businesses. More than six million unique visitors logged on to Webkinz in November, up 342 percent from November 2006, according to ComScore Media Metrix, a research firm.

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BUSINESS IN SECOND LIFE

‘Inside Out,’ our column about doing business outside of Japan chimes with our IT focus by considering the pros and cons of
business in the virtual community Second Life:

www.japaninc.com/mgz_nov-dec_2007_virtual-business

SECOND LIFE ARCHITECTURE AWARDS

In September this year Dr Melinda Rackham, ANAT’s Director and 3D world author and theorist, was invited to join a 6 member international Jury assessing the Annual Second Life Architecture & Design Competition, a first of its kind, held at the 2007 Ars Electronica Festival in Austria. The jury deliberated over the 126 submissions before a live audience at the Architekturforum Linz, while being simultaneously streamed into Second Life. Four outstanding projects, that took advantage of both the artistic and technical possibilities afforded by Second Life were selected as finalists, Tanja Meyle’s “Living Cloud”, DC Spensley’s “Full Immersion Hyperformalism”, Adam Nash’s “17 Unsung Songs” and Max Moswitzer’s “White Noise”. The selected projects were presented online where the public were invited to vote for their favourite. The winner, Tanja Meyle, was announced on October 25 and received a 1,000-euro grand prize. Dr Melinda Rackham will be contributing an article based on the -empyre- Second Life discussion to the upcoming book, an outcome of the competition, entitled “The Space Between People”.

http://www.sl-award.com/sl-award.php

Virtual Communities in Japan

Second Life have certainly had good coverage in Japan. All the major TV channels, newspapers and magazines have now run Second Life stories and according to Reuters, who have their own Second Life News Center, Japan has
slowly been creeping up the top ten user countries list. Another source lists them as high as third.

However, there appears to be a fair amount of competition on the horizon. In particular, there has lately been a lot of media hype about a homegrown competitor named named ‘Meet-me’–a virtual community tailored specially for Japan. Set up by digital marketing company Transcosmos Inc, this virtual community strongly resembles Tokyo and the sun rises and sets in real Toyko time. Transcosmos head Kunimasa Hamaoka has been frank about the differences between Meet-me and its more famous rival. He emphasises that the world of Second Life is too dangerous for Japanese culture and that their version has more of a ‘sense of safety,’ meaning that it will resemble
Disneyland rather than any harsher reality. Officially opening in December, ‘Meet-me’ will soon be ready complete with Christmas lights and of course, shopping cybermalls and entertainment districts. How long before Dentsu start to take an interest in them?

‘Meet-me’ is the the latest in a long line of Asian competitors to Second Life. Earlier this year Splume (www.splume.com) was launched in Japan, a virtual fantasy land that sets itself up as an environment that is much more user created than other applications and, SonyCorp’s virtual ‘Home’ will be launched next year. A similar programme has also been established in China named HiPiHi which might actually give Second Life a
run for its money: http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/005657.html

So, it seems like the virtual community scene is alive and kicking in Asia but, if living lives through avatars is going to be as big and common a development as the internet, it still has a long way to go. By 2011, one research firm predicts that 80% of the people using the internet will also have another life in a virtual world. This is hard to
imagine at the moment however, presumably such movements always are, and one would be forgiven for thinking that if Dentsu are taking something seriously, so should we.

Today, one Second Life Linden Dollar is equivalent to 0.434 yen.
(http://secondlife.reuters.com/)

Peter Harris

Victoria Gets a Virtual Second Life

The Brumby Government is the first government in Australia to test online virtual worlds as a communication platform, with Information and Communication Technology Minister Theo Theophanous launching a research project in the popular virtual world, Second Life.

http://www.mmv.vic.gov.au/NewsVictoriaGetsAVirtualSecondLife

2nd Life Melbourne Laneways project

Uploaded on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD61k55U914 shows the investment being made by VIC Multimedia and features SLCN’s very own Starr Sonic – Keren Flavell – on the Melbourne laneways project. Originally aired on Stateline – ABC.

EXTENDING HUMAN LIFE ON ‘SECOND LIFE’

PROSPECTS FOR EXTENDING HUMAN LIFE ON ‘SECOND LIFE’

One of Australia’s leading nutritionists has hosted an event in Australia’s first virtual science seminar.

CSIRO’s Dr Peter Clifton launched the organisation’s foray into the virtual world of inter-active discussion and debate when he gave a presentation on the prospects for extending human longevity in the online environment, ‘Second Life’.

Second Life is a collection of 3D communities that is growing rapidly in popularity, where the content is created by its users who can do anything or be anything they want to be. Unlike the rest of the internet, members can interact in a similar way they do in the real world. They can see other people and talk to them, but without the usual physical limitations.

The event was hosted on ‘ABC Island’ – a space created in Second Life by the ABC. CSIRO’s General Manager of Communication, Dr John Curran, said the experiment represents an exciting new partnership between the two organisations.

“CSIRO has a long history of commitment to innovation and the ABC was an early adopter of this new medium so this venture was a natural fit for us”, he said. “We are not certain where these virtual reality platforms are heading but there’s no doubt they represent a significant point on the road to the future ‘three dimensional internet’.”

Dr Clifton has given thousands of presentations on health and nutrition during his career but nothing quite like this one. ‘In-world’ as it is known, he is identified as ‘Scientist Pedrone Obolensky’, which is an ‘avatar’, or virtual representation of himself.

He said his preparation for the seminar was – ‘Anti-ageing and the prospect for human life extension’ – had not been without its challenges. “It feels odd not to have real world contact with the audience where I can instantly react to feedback from body language and other subtle signals and change tack if necessary,” he said.

Dr Clifton’s talk was the first in a series being presented on Second Life by CSIRO scientists in September on Monday evenings including; radio astronomer Dr George Hobbs, roboticist Dr Gautam Tendulkar and engineer Dr James Bradfield-Moody.

Further Information:
Visit the ‘ABC Island’ on Second Life at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ABC%20Island/130/137/43
New event September 17th http://www.csiro.au/events/SecondlifeTendulkar.html

DOUBLE VISION IN SECOND LIFE

ANAT is providing the opportunity for a young and emerging artist working with distributed, portable, online, wearable, gaming, mobile and emerging platforms to undertake a three-month mentorship with an established mentor of their choice.

The mentorship recipient for 2007:

Julian Stadon (Perth) will be mentored by Professors Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, internationally renowned media artists working in the field of interactive computer installation and at the University of Art and Design in Linz, Austria where they head the Department for Interface Culture at the Institute for Media.

Throughout the mentorship Julian will work on developing interactive augmented reality constructs, created within Second Life, to appear 3D when viewed through a head mounted display unit in a gallery environment. Second Life will extend into the physical realm and the viewer will immerse themselves in these fused spaces through interaction with them.

Julian’s practice investigates the spatial and formal differentiations between digital and physical environments, utilising virtual and augmented spaces, in conjunction with natural phenomena to question notions of identity within these spaces. He has recently completed a Master of Electronic Arts at Curtin University of Technology, Perth and
has exhibited extensively since 2002.

Julian comments, “utilising the Augmented Reality Tool Kit, I aim to insert certain coded shapes that, when viewed through head mounted displays trigger 3D modelled objects to appear as if physically present. These objects will situate themselves in a whole new space, as augmented virtuality”.

http://www.anat.org.au

Being in Second Life

1.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Being in Second Life -on empyre Augu From: Melinda
Rackham

Message
1.The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Being in Second Life -on empyre Augu
Posted by: “Melinda Rackham” melinda@anat.org.au melt22003
Tue Jul 24, 2007 3:21 am (PST)

Join us at -empyre- http://www.subtle.net/empyre in August 2007 for:

*The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Being in Second Life*
when hostess Melinda Rackham is joined by special guests:
Annabeth Robinson, Patrick Lichty, Stephan Doesinger, Dr Ricardo Peach
Christy Dena, Kathy Cleland, Adam Nash and Dr Fabio Zambetta

Neal Stephenson’s Metaverse reigns supreme. One of it’s current
incarnations- the multi-user virtual universe Second Life claims a
population of 8 million avatars. SL is embraced by many as an innovative and
safe fantasy scape – enabling play, creativity, education, companionship,
love and lust. It is reviled by some as a cesspit of antisocial isolationist
addictive behavior; and SL is dismissed by others as simply an over-inflated
hype driven commercial venture expounding the values of property acquisition
and commodity exchange. Whatever your perspective, SL is serious business
with an exchange rate which fluctuates against the $US and an estimated
Second Life avatar electricity consumption equivalent to the average citizen
of Brazil. In this seemingly infinitely expandable universe aesthetic
endeavors, creative constructions and artistic performances are enacted
daily.

—> Annabeth Robinson (UK) is a Second Life Artist focusing on interactive
and sound driven projects, Metaverse consultant and Sim builder, Lecturer -
Design for Digital Media at Leeds College of Art and Design. aka AngryBeth
Shortbread http://www.annamorphic.co.uk

—> Patrick Lichty (US) is a technologically- based conceptual artist,
writer,independent curator, co-founder of the Second Life based performance
art group, Second Front, animator for the The Yes Men, and Executive Editor
of Intelligent Agent Magazine. http://www.voyd.com/voyd/

—> Stephan Doesinger (Austria) is a conceptual artist and architect. His
second book “Learning from Sim City,” will be published in September. He
initiated Bastard Spaces the 1st Annual Architecture and Design Competition
in SL to be announced at Ars Elctronica. aka Doesi Beck
http://www.doesinger.com/ http://www.sl-award.com

—> Dr Ricardo Peach (AU) is the Program Manager for the Inter-Arts Office
at the Australia Council for the Arts, which is funding a SL residency. Born
in Volksrust, Mpumalanga in 1968, he and his family migrated to Perth,
Australia in 1980. aka Ricardo Paravane

http://www.ozco.gov.au/grants/grants_new_ media_arts/ second_life_artist_residency/

—> Christy Dena (AU) is researching changes to art and entertainment in
the age of cross-media production for her PhD at the University of Sydney.
Dena works as an industry strategist, mentor, educator and journalist. aka
Lythe Witte http://www.christydena.com/
http://www.lythewitte.net/

—> Dr Fabio Zambetta (AU) lectures at School of Computer Science and
Information Technology at RMIT University Melbourne and researcher in the
area of 3D embodied conversational agents, 3D virtual environments, and
interactive storytelling. aka Fabio Forcella
http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu. au/~fabio/projects/

—> Kathy Cleland (AU) is a writer, curator and lecturer in the Digital
Cultures Program at The University of Sydney and is currently completing her
PhD investigating avatars, digital portraiture and representations of the
self in virtual environments. aka Bella Bouchard

—> Adam Nash (AU) is a media artist, composer, programmer, performer and
writer who works in networked real-time 3D spaces, exploring them as live
audiovisual performance spaces. His work has been presented at SIGGRAPH,
ISEA, and the Venice Biennale. aka Adam Ramona http://yamanakanash.net/

—> Dr Melinda Rackham (AU) is the Executive Director of ANAT -
Australia’s peak body for artists working with emerging technologies. Her
Ph.D. explored the nature and construction of avatars and multi-user Virtual
Reality Spaces. aka Marina Regina http://www.subtle.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Join us at -empyre-
http://www.subtle.net/empyre

World Internet Project meeting

http://www.worldinternetproject.net/

Second Life on the agenda at World Internet Project meeting

The online virtual world Second Life is attracting significant interest from business and service industry sectors throughout the world according to Mandy Salomon, Senior Researcher at the Smart Internet Cooperative Research Centre at Swinburne.

“Big name brands such as IBM, Dell, ING, Telstra, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation have entered this immersive environment,” she said.

“This virtual world is emerging as a test bed for new ideas, where real world prototypes can be released at low cost, with direct feedback from users significantly enriching the design process and leading to innovative or unexpected results.

“The process is enhanced by the nature of its residents who, typically, are techno-savvy, playful and demonstrate a high receptivity to new ideas.”

Ms Salomon will discuss doing business in Second Life at the first meeting in Australia of international researchers involved in the World Internet Project from 10-12 July, which examines the cultural, political and social impact of the Internet .

She will look at the local Australian scene and indicate key opportunities and threats for businesses to consider.

The World Internet project is a continuing, comparative study of Net uptake and use around the world, involving universities in 28 countries.

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