Bugs bugs and has anyone seen my avatar?

Right now there is a Linden Labs developer digging around in the Second Life grid looking for my avatar.

(hopefully by the time you read this I will be back in world). On Friday I logged out of Second Life, when I logged in I was told that “You are being logged out, you will be able to log back in…”, normally this means that you’ve got out a bit quick and SL is trying to reset.

So here we are on Monday, I have contacted the concierge service and they are doing their best to dig around the grid and find me. I do hope they do so  soon I’m now no less than 3 days behind the work I had scheduled. No meetings, tours, ideas, I’m locked out.

So if you see my avatar somewhere in the Grid please do send him home so I can get control of him.

On another topic I note that Phillip Linden says that 90% uptime is not enough and that the “Web” doesn’t go down on Wednesdays for maintenance and I’d like to make two comments.

Firstly, the Web has been around a long time. This is ground breaking new technology and thus it’s finding its feet. This however doesn’t excuse bugs and problems that cost real businesses real money.

Secondly, things WILL get better, we all know that as time goes on and new challenges are faced. In 6 months time I think Second Life will be a very different beast. Different interface, faster technology.

I also believe that companies that pulled out of SL (or never got involved) may find themselves revisiting the  concept. Perhaps working with a company that understands what Second Life is and What it is not.

Too many come into Second Life thinking its a 3d website and treating it as such dooms projects from their outset.  It’s like opening a shop in the high street and leaving it with it’s door open and no staff or explanation.

Everyone at some time or another has problems with Second Life. It’s a hugely complex peace of engineering on a massive scale. It has the potential to enable ideas in a way the web never could.

So, if you do see my avatar please send him home. (by the time you read this I hope the Lindens have already).

Why Second Life is a good thing for human beings

I’ve got new friends, a LOT of them, they are from around the world, some of them work with us, some of them I just hang out with when I need a break.

One of the problems with Real Life is that if you are slightly “different”, maybe disabled (I hate that word) or maybe not very good looking people judge you before you even try and become part of a group.

In second life the rich personalities created by hardship and rejection in real life can truly shine through. Because you look how you want. In fact the only judgement people make on face value is about whether you are a new person or not or you have a good avatar. You can almost control what people think of you on face value.

So having overcome that barrier the person in real life who finds life a bit of a struggle can come into Second Life and be the “popular person”, join in community things and do things that in real life they could not. Climb a mountain, go snowboarding or take a parachute jump.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Not in Second Life

How does this impact how businesses reach their target market (I hate that phrase too, I’m not a market, I’m a person). It means if you want to work your business in Second Life you can’t just build a pile of buildings. You have to get involved in COMMUNITY, in Real Life companies are involved in community simply because there are people working for them.

So many places are setting up shop and then never having events or logging on, never doing community stuff. Then they shut up shop and wonder why they spent all the money on them.

If you want to win in Second Life. Don’t just build a store, man it, don’t cheapskate with Robots. I can build you a robot that will talk and move and everything in Second Life. But people need people. It’s in our make up.

Hyperstring Islands get Voice Enabled Friday!

Well, the much awaited voice is coming to our sims, one has already got it and we’ve been testing it with a lot of success. It is truly amazing and what’s more is better than skype for meeting through Second Life.

Problems we’ve had with shoutcasting into SL is just the delay for speakers when trying to present.

The Second Life voice add in will make it a serious tool for businesses. Please do get in touch with us if you’d like a demo.

Second Life appears in NewsWeek

Newsweek have written some very positive articles about Second Life. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19876812/site/newsweek

Which is very refreshing since other members of the press have been putting it down, then if you look in Second Life, you will not go far without finding a resident who will put it down as well, complain of the lag occasionally, or that they can’t have all 2000 of their friends in their small house (sim limit is 70-100 avatars). There are limits. But there are limits in real life too.

The newsweek articles will bring a flood of new members from business and leisure alike. This will result in more work and real life jobs for builders and scripters. Second Life might not be perfect but it does a very good job!

Ofcourse all these new residents staying and finding out what Second Life can really be is another story. Only helped by existing residents helping where we can.

Remember folks, Second Life is like real life in many ways. It’s what You make it.

(picture, the upcoming Blogher Exhibtion at Hyperstring Islands)

Why Second Life is a hard nut to crack for big corporations

Well, it seems Second Life is suffering from the same negative publicity that I remember a certain world wide web suffered from some years ago. Even Mr Gates said his company would not be getting involved in the world wide web and look at them now!

Some Large and small corporations have paid big bucks to get in to Second Life and are finding that the company they hired just built them a ghost island! After the big opening, no one comes. No one is taking notecards or interested. Why?

Well there are a few reasons. Firstly that we believe Second Life is not about building a 3d Website, its so much more than that. To succeed in Second Life you must build an exciting immersive experience.

If you want to spend thousands of dollars building your presence in Second Life, use programmers, people who are used to dealing with SOFTWARE and USER INTERFACES not people who are used to putting a flyer together or building a website, Second Life will not work for you with something that just looks nice (although that is important too).

In my opinion I have to agree with the statistics that reckon that 80% of Internet Users will be using Second Life by the end of the first quarter of this century.

Second Life is like a wave, you know it’s coming, you can see the signs of it, but you just don’t know how fast. If companies want to pull out. Fine! There is plenty of space for their competition, but watch how hard it will be to even find a Second Life developer in the future of high calibre (it is hard enough now so our customers tell us).

So really the choice with business is this. Be a pioneer or follow the crowd. I remember the early days of the web when 3 guys in a garage would undercut a big corporation, doing what they did cheaper faster and better. Second Life can go that way as more facilities and ideas appear.

Second Life is a Virtual World of possibilities, you can sit outside and panic when it’s too late or get involved and enjoy the ride.

Paulc Beck
Hyperstring.net Ltd

Hyperstring.net EVENTS in Second Life : High Tech Slaves Unite

Sue Paulson, The Queen Of Calm, one of Alberta’s Wild Prairie Roses will be sharing her 20 years of experience on the hot topic of “Stress”.

For full details please see  https://www.theavatarcompany.com/content.php?id=92

Hyperstring launch Holo Emitter

The new Hyperstring.net Holo Emitter can be dropped anywhere, on clicking you get a menu that gives you a number of buildings and scenes, upon clicking the menu the Holo Emitter “Builds” in front of you!.

The options include 3 meeting spaces with 2 different seating arrangements for 24 people. (mix and match)

To see it visit our massive Holoemitter show room where you can test drive.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Zabawa/189/165/0

Even if you don’t own land you can still use it at a sandbox (an area in Second Life where public building is allowed).

Hyperstring.net Conference Center on Second LIfe Cable Network

Following our hosting of the Best Practices in Second Life conference, some of the interviews in our conference center have appeared on the SLCN website. Those listed below are filmed at our conference center on Zabawa.

• BPE – Interview Desideria Stockston

• BPE – Intellagirl Tully

• BPE – Kenny Hubble

• BPE – Pirate Shipman

• BPE – Globalkids Bixby

• BPE – Virtual Bacon

• BPE – Decka Mah

• BPE – Kathy Dryburgh

• BPE – Lyr Lobo

• BPE – Maggie, Victoria and Kevin

• BPE – Wainbrave Bern

Missed the Chelsea Flower Show? See a garden in Second Life

Hyperstring.net have just completed the transfer of a garden from Real Life to Second Life for the Telegraph ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk ), to walk around the garden, sit on the chairs and get notecards with plant information and details of the garden and more please visit http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chelsea/31/255/0

New Meeting Device wows Clients

In our efforts to make SL more useful for meetings, we have introduced the Meeting Computer, this device available from all our locations cleverly allows users to have a conference or small meeting in Second Life without everyone else in world near them hearing what has been said.

All our offices for rent are now fitted with this device as standard plus have our new locking down system that allows our clients to lock down their building with a password.