3D Immersion in SL

How close is 3D immersion in Second Life? Check out my latest article in the Metaverse Tribune for more details.

http://metaversetribune.com/2012/03/21/how-close-is-3d-immersion-in-sl/

Check out my latest article, Women, social-gaming, and virtual-spending: Implications for Second Life businesses published in the Metaverse Tribune.


"At the recent Social Media World Forum conference held in Santa Clara, California (9th-10th November, 2009), the digital marketing company, Q Interactive, presented the results of a study on how women use an engage in social media..."

Click to continue reading...

Lack of posts due to vicissitudes of real life

For almost two years I have been fairly active in the Second Life(R) virtual world, writing for different magazines, working with MBC and Life On Line, and keeping a blog or two. But in June 2009, something happened that caused my to put my Second Life existence on hold: my wife was diagnosed with renal cancer following a routine colonoscopy. This sort of reality tends to realign one's perspective on the virtual world.

I told a small number of my closest SL friends about this and their support was encouraging. All of them offered their best wishes and prayers, which puts paid to the notion that virtual friends can't be "real" friends.

Three months on and the real world is now settling down to some normality. Following the removal of an entire kidney and renal gland, my wife now shows no other evidence of cancerous cells and treatment, as such, is over. No chemo and no radiation because the cancer has been removed. She now sports a battle scar of 11 inches in length and aims to be back at work in a few weeks.

Once she's back, I will have some time to slide back into some level of virtual existence, starting with articles for SLentrepreneur, Prim Perfect, and perhaps the Metaverse Tribune. Steve Cropper has been great letting me maintain my news slot on Life On Line, and if time permits, I'd love to go back to the occasional "second fiddle" part on MBC News with Dousa Dragonash.

I'll be trying to add to the blog, but my focus will initially be on the media stuff. I also have a real life blog to maintain - and a job!

Thanks for hanging on in there, dear reader.

MBC News Show For April 17th Now Available

The mid-April Metaverse Broadcasting Company news show is now available. For the fashionistas, I'm wearing a sweater and shoes from Redgrave, along with trousers from Muism.



For those who really don't care about what I'm wearing, I'm curious why you are still reading my blog!

Sky News Closes Second Life Bureau

The Prophets of Doom can wallow in the demise of yet another major news corporation's exit from the Second Life(R) virtual world. Britain's Sky News has announced that it is formally closing down its SL island and moving to a "new 'Immersive Workspaces' platform in Second Life where employees meet to exchange ideas and do business."

News will still be delivered to these workspaces via "News Pods," a essential a screen with streaming video.



Obliquely reference the departure of other news providers, Sky News says that "life, even Second Life, and technology, move on. In Second Life, increasingly, the trend has moved away from corporate islands like the Sky Newsroom."

Virtual world Cassandras can eagerly point to this as being further evidence that "the end is nigh," whereas more sober commentators will simply point out that the economics of news reporting and delivery in Second Life is very different from real life, and spending lots of money to have virtual world analogs of real life newsrooms doesn't necessarily make any financial sense.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - Latest Edition

The latest edition of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research has just been released. This is Volume 2, number 1, and the theme is Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in Virtual Worlds. This edition is dedicated to exploring the breadth of designs, pedagogies and curricular innovations that are actually already being applied to teaching and learning in virtual worlds.

The next two editions will cover 3D Virtual Worlds for Health and Healthcare (May, 2009) and Virtual Worlds: Technology, Economy, and Standards (September, 2009). You've just missed the deadline for the September issue (me too!) but there is a Call for Papers for Volume 2, Number 4, Virtual Economies, Virtual Goods and Service Delivery in Virtual Worlds. The deadline for abstracts is 15 June 2009 and it will be published in November 2009.

Mmmh, maybe I could manage that one?

What's In A List? Well, Me Now!

A few weeks back, Second Life resident ArminasX Saiman published a list of blogs in his own Second Effects blog. The original list contained some errors and dead sites so, to his credit, he took on the Herculean task of trying to produce a rank-ordered listing . The criteria for a "live blog" are that;

* There must be at least one post within the last three months (dated within 2009)
* There must be visible Second Life content
* It must be a blog (and not a forum, flickr group, static website, ning community, etc.)
* It must not be closed or on hiatus

Aided and abetted by a team comprising of Amber Decuir, Thickbrick Sleaford, Peter Stindberg, Haley Salomon, Moggs Oceanlane, Quaintly Tuquiri, Radar Masukami, and Andrew M, Armin ended up with a huge list of blogs, which, it's safe to say, could not possibly be read in totality by any one person.

The semi-good news is that I have a scattered presence. The Alphaville Herald comes in at #14, SLentrepreneur Magazine has the #51 slot, and this very blog ranks 82nd. I could perhaps claim a hit with the #40 slot, Prim Perfect, but having only written one article for them so far, that might be pushing it a little.

SL on VL doesn't get a mention but then the "visible Second Life content" is not as high - it is designed to comment on all virtual worlds so mentions of SL can be sporadic.

All in all, this is not a bad showing. My aim has always been to freelance across a range of publications rather than focus my efforts on just one.

Now, what I really need is a venue where I can write some fashion stuff as the return of FreeLife Magazine appears to be somewhat delayed: In fact, I have not heard from the editors for weeks! I wonder what is happening?

Sex, Violence, Decapitation and Second Life?

The UK's Daily Mail newspaper reported the case of a man who reacted to his wife's online infidelity by cutting off her head rather than her internet account. According to the Mail;

"A jealous husband reportedly cut off his wife’s head after catching her messaging a man she had met online.

"Giuseppe Castro, 35, turned on Maria Pia Scuto, 41, after discovering her messaging her lover on the computer.

"He is alleged to have stabbed her in the neck with a kitchen knife, then used the blade to saw off her head in front of their 15-year-old son and his mother-in-law."

Whoah! Easy on the cappuccinos there, Giuseppe! Take a chill pill.

What is interesting is that the original story added the phrase "..in Second Life" to the first sentence. It was later removed in an act of journalistic revisionism. However, the "Second Life" element did continue in the Austrian Times but most reports seem to have stated that the virtual affair was via text and chat sites, not Second Life.

Oh, and ladies - be very careful if you have "sext friends." When Castro was interviewed, he told detectives: "She was always chatting with other men, I couldn’t take it any more."

See how easy it is to get your man mad? Maybe this time he WON'T just turn off the cell phone!a

Fashion Showcase: Lissa Maertens

Wicked in the Dunes was the title of the exciting show organized by the talented team at the Atlantis Modelling Agency. Held at Zatzai Asturias’ Artificial Isle sim, this was an opportunity to show the creative talent of designer Lissa Maertens, owner of the Cattiva e Cattivo clothing line. Lissa has been a part of the Second Life couture scene for less than two years but during that time established a range of fashions for both men and women, and also spent a period working alongside another well-known designer, Simone Stern.

The Mistress of Ceremonies was Qualsha Nordberg, dressed in one of Maerten’s outfits; the Simply Satin Formal, a figure-hugging gown in gold, along with a pair of similarly colored Simply Satin Pumps.

First up was model Sasha Blitz wearing a lingerie ensemble. The outfit featured the Peek-a-Boo Corset, a silk textured tops tied up the front with matching lace and prim flexi bow, along with some small double drawstring panties and black stockings. Sasha finished the outfit off with a pair of Black Cherry Stilettos.

Jaydei Benmergui modeled an eye-catching, jaw-dropping, and neckline-plunging dress; the Liquid Metal Formal gown in teal.

Jaydei Benmergui in the Liquid Metal Formal

The off-the-shoulder design is complemented by prim lace trim, and there’s also a translucent skirt element that drops to the floor when resting but swings seductively when moving. The dress is also a showpiece for Lissa’s technique of hand-painting her fabrics rather than use photo textures. This technique is used to great effect to provide shading to her creations.

Another delicious piece of formal wear was worn by Maru Marquette – the black Gothique Formal Gown along with a pair of Onyx Steelettos.

Maru Marquette in the Gothique Formal Gown in black

Lissa’s attention to detail can be seen in the way that she includes a small crafted rose just under the cleavage and adds similar delicate roses to the hem of the full-length gloves that are included as part of the outfit. She follows through by adding this motif to the skirt element, which is narrow and shaded to maintain the sleek, tight look overall.

The Cattiva e Cattivo range also includes a business outfit for women. In the show, Jaydei wore the Strictly Business suit in a juicy merlot.

Jaydei in Strictly Business suit in merlot

There are shades of the 80’s with the primmy squared-off shoulders but overall the look is very classy. The pencil skirt ends just above the knees and the jacket comes in two lengths. The package also includes a prim turtle neck and dress blouse.

Model Cape Harbour took to the runway to show some of the menswear available. His casual outfit included the Winged Skull Hoodie in maroon along with a pair of dark blue jeans.

Cape Harbour in Winged Skull Hoodie in maroon

The hood is a prim attachment so you have the option to go without it. Once again, it’s worth noting the details – the scrunched deep creasing at the elbows; the shading of the pouch pocket; and the ribbing at the waist. Cape wore a pair of Rockstar Halfboots in Red Hot to match the color of the hoodie.

The Phillip is set consisting of a Brown Leather Jacket and other items. Modeled by Takeshi Kiama, the combination he used included a pair of Stompers Lace-up Boots, a Wife-beater Tee, gloves, beanie, and the Urban Ops Dungarees.

Takeshi Kiama in the Phillip

The show included over 20 different outfits, which is just a sample of the host of items available from Cattiva e Cattivo. Lissa’s new store is well worth the visit, and for those folks worried about price, although all her items are competitively priced, some of the packs are superb value. Her men’s suits are priced at $250 and contain lots of options AND can be used as a mix-and-match with other items.

The show was interesting, well run, and not too long – which is not a bad thing considering that many people find they have limited time. On this occasion, Atlantis’s CEO, Valerie McDunnough can be proud of her team, who not only put on an excellent show in 30 minutes but hung around afterward to let a poor writer take some pictures.

Information
Cattiva e Cattivo SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/OpenOcean/14/184/21

Cattiva e Cattivo on Xstreet: https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&MerchantID=83955

I Want My MTV(R) - or Not

My latest article in the Herald follows my trip into the world of Virtual MTV. Entitled, Pimpin' My Crib in Virtual MTV: Points for Friending and your Chicks for Free, it's a short piece that offers a glimpse into the latest version of MTV's attempts to gain a virtual world presence.

Check out my blog post at SL on VL, which includes a promo video.

Another SL Newspaper Folds

It looks like the Second Life News Network (SLNN) is officially dead. In December, I tried to contact the editor of SLNN, Garrett Bakalava, to find out why there had been no changes to the site since October 2008. By January, I still had no answers and couldn't get any reply from Bakalava.

Today I checked in on the site to find that it had been suspended.

SLNN joins a number of recently closed press outlets in Second Life, although this should NOT be seen as evidence for some sort of general decline of Second Life living. Running a newspaper or magazine in Second Life is labor intensive and requires lots of time. The real surprise is not that so many ventures fail but that so many succeed! In my recent interview with Professor of Journalism, Larry Mullen, he says that “There are a number of virtual magazines in SL – they come and go – but there are many new projects always starting.”

The comings-and-goings of SL-based media is part of the process of the evolving nature of 21st-century journalism. Says Mullen, "What has changed is that news and opinion have come down from the Ivory Tower. Now the average citizen can put his or her opinion out there for 100s or 1000s to see. All you need is access – and anyone can have access. Just head down to your local public library and log in."

Worlds.com Threatens to Sue Linden Lab

The saga of Worlds.com and the "Patent for the Worlds" continues. According to a press release from their patent attorneys at General Patent Corporation, Worlds.com's CEO, Thom Kidrin, has said that following their being awarded a third patent, he intends to sue Linden Lab, Activision, and ANYONE who has a virtual world.

As I mentioned at the end of 2008, Worlds.com have gone after NCsoft, a Korean company that owns the City of Heroes online game. Worlds.com claim that own patents to the concept of virtual worlds and that they want to be reimbursed via a licensing fee (for "licensing fee" read "shakedown).

In reply to an article in Alley Insider, I offered the following comments:

"Thom Kidrin is playing a risky game called "Bet The Company." If he wins, he takes all; if he loses, he may as well close the doors. And a quick peek at Yahoo Finance shows that the bet may not be a bad one considering the downward trend of the share price of Worlds.com.

"The discovery of "prior art" is certainly going to messy - but then again the patent attorneys employed by Worlds.com will presumably be quite happy to keep taking the check until this first case against NCSoft is resolved. And if this takes years, Kidrin can only hope his falling share prices provide enough cash to feed the ravenous hunger of the patent trolls.

"Only yesterday, General Patent Corporation, the company representing Worlds.com's patent interests, announced that a third patent has been awarded to their client "is a continuation of U.S. Patent No. 7,181,690 issued to Worlds.com in 2007 and bearing the same title."

The Neal Stephenson novel, "Snow Crash," is frequently cited as a precursor to the Metaverse and, as such, could be considered "prior art." In his Alley Insider piece, Eric Krangel proposes that the novel cannot be used as prior. However, that's not strictly true.

In reference to prior art, it would be legitimate to use "Snow Crash" insofar as any public document can be cited as such. In fact, the more public, the worse it is for the patent filer! The issue is how specifically the descriptions used in "Snow Crash" match up against the claims of the patent. A patent claim is typically made up of hundreds of single "claims,:" any of which can be challenged. The job of the patent attorney establishing a patent is to word the claims in such a way that they are NOT the same as public documents.

You do this by making very specific claims, which may seem ludicrously pedantic in the reading e.g. "The device of claim 9, wherein said key display means displays said plurality of selectable words with corresponding sequential numerical values" (one line from a 33-page patent that I own), and by being so specific you can prove "novelty" against any others.

So if a patent attorney thought that there was sufficient specificity in "Snow Crash" that matched a current patent, then it could be used as prior art. I have to say that I don't recall "Snow Crash" containing a description of how a virtual world works - it just assumes it and uses it as a backdrop to the story. Matching a sentence or paragraph of the novel to the Worlds.com patent could be tricky!

What is far more likely is for the defense attorneys to track down actual patents that possibly infringe on the Worlds.com set: Using a registered patent as prior art is much more powerful than using "Snow Crash" or Shakespeare - "Oh brave new world that has such people in it!"

More on the Second Life "Deathwatch"

Yet another blogger has thrown his hat in the ring and jumped on the bandwagon of predicting the end of the Second Life virtual experience. Thanks to Goggle Alerts - a very useful way for tracking news on virtual life - I found an article entitled So Long Second Life on a blog called HighTalk; Conversations on Media, PR & the Social Web.

Now, I admit I don't know George Snell, the principal of Highland Communications and owner of the blog, and I have no reason to suspect he has any axe to grind in relation to Second Life. But my issue is, as before, that certain singular events in Second Life have become almost iconically symbolic of impending disaster, when in truth, these are just isolated events amongst many other comings-and-goings in the virtual world.

George does make an interesting point about the nature of social networks. He says that in relation to the "failure" of Second Life that "...what really happened is Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Turns out people - mainstream people - don’t want the commitment and the oddity of a Second Life to partake in the Internet."

I propose there is a fundamental underlying issue at work here that is simply old-fashioned capitalism at its best: All these social networks are competing for a finite resource - time. They are competing for my spare time, your spare time, everyone's spare time. All of us have limits on how much time we can spend doing things. It's measurable: 24 hours per day, excluding sleep.

And even if you don't sleep, you still only have those 24 hours to chop into pieces. The more social networks you take part in, the less time you can spend in each. This is not rocket science nor some "profound insight" - it's just basic math.

As the number of ways to spend virtual time increases, the more competitive these activities become. I took stock of my own "social network" outlets and here they are in their glory:

Second Life
Twitter
SL on SL blog
SL on VL blog
SL on RL blog
Second Life bloggers blog
Life On Line TV show and blog
Facebook
LinkedIn
MyMetaverse blog
OpenWork Wiki

Add to this that I also write for SLentrepreneur Magazine, FreeLife Magazine, The Alphaville Herald, and other magazines on a freelance basis, and you can see how the "free time competition" works.

What's more frightening is that I believe I have fewer of these time-stealers than many other people. I know folks who also plurk, flickr, yelp, ning, and habbo. Add to this a MySpace page linked to your YouTube posts and I'm beginning to suspect the tragic state of the world economy is because no-one is actually getting the time to do any real work!

Lack of time, not necessarily lack of interest, is an important factor in why folks stop using any social network.

Second Life Stagnant? Mmmh, How So?

In an article entitled Mathew Kumar on Why Virtual Worlds Miss the Mark, the writer, Natalie Caron notes that Kumar "...mentions that the Second Life user base is growing stagnant and even dwindling now, proving its weak long-term potential."

Kumar is apparently one of "Canada’s most renowned games journalists" so you have to think he does his homework. Well, coincidentally, as I was doing my homework for an upcoming article on IP and virtual worlds, I came across a posting dated February 1st, 2007, at the Law.com site. While giving some background information in Second Life, the author, John Bringardner says "More than 2.5 million people have visited Second Life, with 15,000-20,000 playing at any given time."

15,000-20,000 at a time? I have been tracking the concurrency rates informally for the past month and it hasn't been below 50,000 and is not unusually over 70,000. If tripling your numbers over two years is "stagnant," then either Canadians use a different dictionary from the rest of the world or Kumar is a little off target. Perhaps even - gulp - wrong!

There is no shortage of virtual world "experts" who pontificate at events, and I believe some of them might even have been inside a virtual world once or twice, but I can't be sure. Anyone who spend even a few hours on the internet googling Linden Lab and Second Life will, once they get past all the stories of perversion, sexual deviancy, and doom-saying, find that there has been growth in the company, growth in the population (of SL), and growth in investments.

Kumar, in what is either an effort to play at being "controversial" or a show of arrogant ignorance, concludes by condemning all virtual worlds to the flames. Says Caron, "So what is the future of virtual world games according to Mathew Kumar? Perhaps none at all. Mathew Kumar urges game developers to stick to real games as the virtual world genre’s failures and inherent flaws are bound to doom it."

I wonder if Kumar has a tattoo on his ass that says "insert own head here."

What, what? I'm just saying...

MBC's "Zero Hour" Preview - Spot the Siggy!

Robustus Hax of MBC TV is in production with a new show called Zero Hour. When he asked for extras to stand around in a field, I was pretty sure that this was the sort of job I could excel at - standing in a field. So I slipped on my new outfit from Cattiva e Cattivo (product placement in Second Life, folks!) and TPed over to the set.

So here is the teaser-trailer now available at MBC's site and on Blip TV. The devilishly hunky blue-eyed, blond-haired Adonis is me. The voice, however, is not. I have been dubbed, possibly because union rules state that a speaking part has to be paid. Or not.



I think I was a little late for the Oscar nomination this time around, but next year I'm hoping to be stumbling down the red carpet with Angelina Jolie on my left and a bottle of cognac on my right.

Linden Lab Gets "F" From Better Business Bureau

A tweet from Tizzers alerted me to a report from the San Francisco Better Business Bureau that gives Linden Lab an "F" rating. According to the report, LL has received 43 complaints in the past three years; 25 of them were closed in the past 12 months, ten were administratively closed by the BBB, and 2 went unaddressed.

However, what I really liked was the following quote from Angela Gunn of Betanews:

"It should in fairness be noted that Linden, which turns ten this year, is a corporate entity responsible for managing the underpinning economic system and technology for a virtual space utilized by people who desperately want to believe that they are 'living' in a 'land' of crypto-anarcho-democracy where people can turn into bunnies. In other words, they've got a lot of people who like to complain about how Second Life works, and experienced observers suspect the stats reflect that to some extent."

Here is how the complaints broke down:


1 regarding Issue Not Defined

1 regarding Advertising Issues
BBB Definition: Advertising Issues - Claims alleging print or electronic media advertised claims or practices misrepresent the service or product offer.

• Advertisement misrepresented a service (1)

13 regarding Billing or Collection Issues
BBB Definition: Billing or Collection Issues - Claim alleging billing errors, unauthorized charges, or questionable collection practices.

• Failure to correct billing errors (3)
• Improper collection practices (2)
• None of the Above - Credit, Billing or Collection Complaint Issue (2)
• Unauthorized bank debits (1)
• Unauthorized credit card charges (5)

4 regarding Contract Issues
BBB Definition: Contract Issues - Claim of alleged failure to honor contract or agreement, work performed without authorization, or invalid contract.

• Failure to honor a contract or agreement (2)
• None of the Above - Contract Complaint Issue (2)

12 regarding Customer Service Issues
BBB Definition: Service Issues - Claims of alleged delay in completing service, failure to provide promised service, inferior quality of provided service, or damaged merchandise as a result of delivery service.

BBB Definition: Customer Service Issues - Claims alleging unsatisfactory customer service, including personnel's failure to provide assistance in a timely manner, failure to address or respond to customer dissatisfaction, unavailability for customer support, and/or inappropriate behavior or attitude exhibited by company staff.

• Failure to provide promised assistance or support for products or services (2)
• Failure to respond to phone calls or written requests for assistance or support (3)
• Inappropriate behavior by customer service personnel (4)
• None of the Above - Customer Service Complaint Issue (3)

1 regarding Delivery Issues
BBB Definition: Delivery Issues - Claims alleging delayed delivery of ordered merchandise.

• Non-delivery of products (1)

1 regarding Product Issues
BBB Definition: Product Issues - Claim alleging a product does not meet the expectations of the complainant, including defective merchandise.

• Product Quality Complaint Issue (1)

3 regarding Refund or Exchange Issues
BBB Definition: Refund or Exchange Issues - Claim of alleged failure to honor company policy or verbal commitment to provide refunds, exchanges, or credit for products or services.

• Failure to honor refund, exchange or credit policies (2)
• Refund or Exchange Complaint Issue (1)

4 regarding Sales Practice Issues
BBB Definition: Sales Practice Issues - Claims of alleged sales presentations made in person or by telephone that contain misrepresentations of the product or service, high pressure sales practices, failure to disclose key conditions of the offer, and verbal representations not consistent with written contractual terms or agreements.

• Sales Complaint Issue (1)
  
• Sales presentation not consistent with the written agreement (1)
  
• Sales presentation used dishonest sales practices (2)
  

3 regarding Service Issues
BBB Definition: Service Issues - Claims of alleged delay in completing service, failure to provide promised service, inferior quality of provided service, or damaged merchandise as a result of delivery service.

• Failure to honor service estimate or agreement (1)
• Improper of inferior service (2)

Clearly Billing/Collection and Customer Service issues account for the largest proportion of problems. Specific examples are not shown but 25 such complaints in total over a three-year period is not as terrible as it looks.

Complaints to the Better Business Bureau are not vetted and the BBB does not adjudicate on the truth or validity of a complaint. All the BBB do is to forward the complaint to the company and ask for a response to the customer along with a copy to them. They do not judge the "correctness" of a response - only that a response is made. It may well be that the response is "there is no evidence to show that this actually happened to the person making the complain" and no action is taken. However, if there is a failure to post such a response, then the BBB will mark that as a failure.

If the BBB forwarded ten complaints about a company, all of which were false, and the company - knowing they were false - simply chose to drop them in the trash, the BBB would issue an "F" against them. The rating simply reflects response to the complaints but says nothing about the substance of them.

Oh, and a business that never receives complaints is either lying or in receivership.

MBC Interview Airs

Last Thursday I did an interview with Melvie Pawpaw, a real life associate professor at Kent State University. Melvie teaches a class on assistive technology and uses Kent State University island in Second Life to augment her classes. Melvie was actually very laid back about the whole thing and interviewed well. The latest edition of MBC News features the interview.


As a side bar, in order to visit the sim, I had to have permission to join the Kent State group. Two days after the interview, I was unceremoniously booted out. So much for my short tenure at Kent State.

Still, there has to be some kudos attached to my being ejected from a seat of higher learning. Makes me feel sort of radical. Sort of.

A Blog to Read: Second Life Shrink

One of the reasons I suspect my blog is not wildly popular - other than it being generally crap - is that I don't indulge too much in the "you link me your blog and I'll link you mine" thing. Some blogs seem to have blog rolls that are longer than the contents of the blogs themselves. Apparently, if you make lots of these links between blogs, you can fool the search engines into thinking you are important and noteworthy, regardless of what you write.

My list, therefore, of folks to read is rather small. Miniscule. Tiny. So when I say that I am adding Second Life Shrink to my list of recommended reads it's because I think it's worth reading. The blogs are wide in scope and tend to be analytical from a psychological perspective - well duh, it's called Second Life Shrink!

But after reading on and off for some months, I thought it was time for me to add it as a link. The good news is that I haven't been paid, bribed, or offered sex to do this; it's simply that sharing good stuff is always a good idea.

Too Much Information

To keep me current with the latest news, views, and gossip on Second Life and Virtual Worlds, I use Google Alerts. This is a cool feature that Google offers that allows you to track posts on any topic you want. I have three phrases I track: Second Life, Virtual World, and Sigmund Leominster. Yes, I admit that the latter has more to do with my narcissistic tendencies but on balance it isn't an issue because unsurprisingly there are less postings on "Sigmund Leominster" than Mickey Mouse has fingers on his left hand.


The problem is that even excluding the self-absorbed referent, I can get up to 70 posts in a day that show up in my Google alerts widget. That is an incredible number to sift through. Some can be ignored straight out - "Mac Classic Gets Second Life As Fishbowl" would show up as a headline but it has nothing to do with what I'm interested in.

If I then don't check for a couple of days, the list gets huge. There is, quite literally, too much information.

So I use another handy-dandy tool; a Firefox plug-in called "Read It Later." This puts a little check mark in my address window and if I go to a page with a story that looks interesting, I click on the check mark. This gets added to my "Read It Later" list. The list then appears under a button in my toolbar, where I can then re-read them at a later stage.


And speaking of add-ins, there is another one I find very useful called "Clipmarks." That is similar but allows you to snag large pieces of text from a site.


These two add-ins at least give me a fighting chance at winnowing though the haystack of news to find the kernals of wheat that I can use to bake stories.

Shill or Scribbler: Where Are My Ethics?

It's late on Tuesday and I have just made myself a huge pot of tea. PG Tips, to be precise - a blend of Indian leaves that is popular in the UK but outrageously expensive in the US. I guess that's just the price I have to pay for being an ex-pat who wants to use imports.

The pot is actually a Starbucks mug that I picked up in the city of Taichung in Taiwan. I like it because it can hold a significant amount of liquid and it seems exotic.

And I typically use the big mug when I want to write anything at length because tea seems to help me focus on the job in hand. Whether it does so on a biochemical level I can't be sure, but psychologically at least, it's a mild stimulant.

But I digress. The pot is just a distraction from the real topic, which is whether I see myself as a scribbler or a shill.

I like the word scribbler. My good friend and companion, the Oxford English Dictionary, tells me that a scribbler is "one who scribbles or writes hastily or carelessly; hence a petty author; a writer without worth." Terrible as that may sound, the word is also used as an informal synonym for a journalist. It also suggests a "jobbing writer," the type of penman who writes day in and day out just to make a living.

That's my aim in Second Life. That and achieving Slebrity status along with pots of money. I currently make a second living by writing for hire. This is closer in definition to the word scrivener, succinctly defined as "a professional penman; a scribe, copyist; a clerk, secretary, amanuensis."

As a professional, being paid for your work is perfectly legitimate. And by work, I mean articles. But how do I justify being paid for review pieces? At what point do I become a shill, "an accomplice of a hawker, gambler, or swindler who acts as an enthusiastic customer to entice others"

I'm half way through my tea so I'm ready to list what I will and won't do.

1. As a freelancer, I can write about anything that takes my fancy. I can take as long as I like, use as many words as I like, and praise or offend anyone I want. Once the article is done, I can sell to the highest bidder. This is simple capitalism: I have a product - the article - and there is a buyer who wants is - an editor.

2. As a staffer, I may get assigned a topic for which I then get paid. If my article is too effusive or shows bias, it is the job of the editor to determine whether it is fit to be published or not.

3. As a copy writer, an individual can ask me to write advertising copy for a product. My role is as a marketer, whose task is to promote items for a fee.

What I have to avoid are situations where I get paid for copy but then try to pass it off as objective journalism. The key to making sure this happens is to use transparency.

Let's look at two examples. The first is my recent article on Alphamale for FreeLife Magazine. I wrote the text after spending lots of money on clothes there because I liked them. I wanted to showcase Alphamale products not because Yelmer Pfeffer was paying me to do it but because I genuinely appreciate the couture. I then send off the finished article plus pictures to the editors at FreeLife, who then pay me in Lindens.

In this situation, I don't feel like a shill being paid for the article. The designer wasn't paying me but a third-party organization that produces a lifestyle magazine.

The second is an overview of a Second Life singer that appeared in the SL Enquirer and Metaverse Tribune. I was asked to write this as advertising copy by Tammy Toll, the owner of Toll Entertainment, and she then used it to give to the SL press. I was paid by Tammy openly so had no qualms.

Where I do feel a little uncomfortable is that some folks may read that article and not know it is essentially advertising. It's awkward in that my writing is a product that someone can buy, but it then becomes there product and can do with it as they wish.

It's gray for me at this point. And it's hard to cast more light because I wrote the review honestly and only said what was true for me: I do like the singer and I do think it is worth folks buying her CD. But how I feel is probably not relevent in relation to the the process of writing ad copy for hire.

I try to be truthful, independent, and invite people to check my sources. I am not above advocacy journalism - the Op-Ed or Editorial - and try to acknowledge my biases, knowing full well that I, and everyone else, have them. I try not to write for free because that leads to a devaluing of the art of writing, and leads to the tragedy of folks "playing" at being writers and the publication of terrible articles. In the longer term, this also leads to a shabby, unprofessional, Second Life press that becomes little more than an excuse to sell advertising copy.

I'm constantly looking for balance. So far, I earn enough to pay for my Second Life and even "export" cash into my first. I write pretty much what I want so this makes my virtual experiences pleasant. I also get to talk to lots of interesting residents who all have stories to tell, and my job is simply to help them tell them.

Scribbler or shill? I hope the former, but maybe someone out there disagrees.