Ding, ding, ding, round number two

Lab Chat returns on January 21st – with Ebbe Linden (aka Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab) answering more of your questions!

Just to remind you, Lab Chat is the name of the new series that is aimed at providing Second Life users with the opportunity to have your questions put to Lab management and personnel.

The second episode of Lab Chat, recorded in front of a live audience and then broadcast on numerous streams including Second Life’s You Tube channel, AviewTV and SLArtist as well as being available in audio and written transcription.  Is being held at 10.30am SLT in the LEA Theater with seating available on LEA2, 3 and 4.

As with the first event, you are being invited to submit your questions via a Lab Chat forum thread. Questions to be asked will be selected by members of the Lab Chat production team. Those submitting selected questions will be invited to attend the recording of the session, and put their question directly to Ebbe in voice if they wish; otherwise questions will be asked the Lab Chat hosts, Saffia Widdershins and Jo Yardley.

How do you submit your questions?

You enter your questions on the special Linden Lab Forum which will be opened for questions shortly – LL will tell you when and where to go!

The questions to feature on the show will be chosen by the Lab Chat team (who are all residents). Don’t worry if your question isn’t chosen – as you may have a chance to ask it in the open session at the end (if there is time).

Those users whose questions are chosen will be invited to appear on the stage. They will be able to put their questions directly to Ebbe, in voice if they wish (or their questions will be read if they don’t use Voice/Skype).

The audience will be in the other three regions of the Theater. Voice relays mean that what is said will be audible on all four regions. There are also a set of text chat relays so that all text should be visible on all regions, and we have a team in the Theater who will be providing a voice-to-text service to let people know what is being said in voice. If there’s time, questions asked in text chat will also be put to Ebbe.

There will be a full transcription published later to accompany the video. Highlights will be broadcast on the Drax Radio Files show.

So get your questions in by Friday 15th January– and be at the show on the 21st.

Lab Chat Team: Draxtor Despres, Gentle Heron, LaPiscean Liberty, Marianne McCann, Elrik Merlin, Petlove Petshop, Inara Pey, Secret Rage, Aisling Sinclair, Arduenn Schwartzman, Lorin Tone, DevinVaughn, Saffia Widdershins, and Jo Yardley.

Link:

https://labchatsl.wordpress.com/

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Breaking News - The Lindens are finally ready to talk to you - Lacy Muircastle reporting

Over the years I have heard a constant whine from 'Joe Resident' about how inaccessible the Lindens are, how they don't care about the virtual platform they created or the residents that inhabit the space, how it's all just a money making racket.  

Now you have the opportunity to be heard, have your say, get some answers.

On Tuesday, November 10th, the Lab announced the launch of Lab Chat,  “an opportunity for you to ask Lindens your questions during a live taping that will be recorded and archived for everyone to view.”

The first Lab Chat will be Thursday, November 19th, at 10:30am SLT at the Linden Endowment for the Arts Theatre – with guest Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab.

Residents from the Lab Chat production team – Draxtor Despres, Gentle Heron, Elrik Merlin, Petlove Petshop, Inara Pey, Aisling Sinclair, Devin Vaughan, Saffia Widdershins, and Jo Yardley – who will pick questions to ask Ebbe from the forum thread  – so be sure to get your questions into the thread no later than Friday November 13th, 2015. Authors of selected questions will be invited to ask their question live at the in-world show. Time permitting – additional questions from the audience will be answered.

I am led to believe that if you are unable to attend the live show, a recording will be available shortly after the first Lab Chat wraps, so there is no reason to miss out.

Diarise November 19th at 10:30am SLT. Don’t forget to add your questions to the forum thread - be heard!!

All things being equal, it's hoped that Lab Chat will become a monthly series. As questions arise you will have the opportunity to put them to the Lindens by leaving them here --> forum thread  as noted in the Lab’s announcement.

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Post hoc, propter hoc - Lacy Muircastle reporting

The following article is my opinion and does not necessarily reflect the view of the publication. If anyone at Linden Lab deigns to read this article, I would like to make it very clear that I am an avid supporter of SL and the platform that Linden Lab provides, but that in my humble opinion you are doing yourselves a great disservice.

Whilst the quote may very well be true, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t at least try to please as many people as we can.

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SL 2.0 - FUD for thought (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt!) -- Gatz Inoue Martian reporting

SL 2.0 is coming

Someday soon we might log into our beloved virtual world and see something like this on the login screen of our viewer:

PRESS RELEASE - Linden Labs today announced that it will be shutting down the virtual world service known as Second Life.  This will mark the opening of Second Life 2.0, the company's new virtual world….

And so it goes...but for many of us the loss of Second Life isn’t simply the loss of a game like World of Warcraft, it is much more akin to a meteor hitting the earth and wiping out all life.  

The virtual world we inhabit is not called “Second Life” for nothing,  it is designed to be just that, a second life.  Many people here have families and activities that are just as important to them as any activity that a person might partake in with actual flesh and blood.  For some, Second Life provides a means to live a life that they would not otherwise be capable of enjoying due to disability or other hardship.  To everyone this deeply involved in Second Life, the potential loss of something that is such a central part of your first life causes anxiety and fear.

Linden Labs is aware of all these things,  a simple google search on “Second Life 2.0” returns quote after quote from Linden Labs going as far back as 2014:

“...The new Second Life will offer more robust tools for creators. Games, designs, goods, all the things that make the current incarnation of Second Life the go-to place for current users will be part of the new world….”

https://monaeberhardt.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/ebbe-altberg.png CEO Ebbe Altberg

CEO Ebbe Altberg

http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/06/24/linden-labs-building-new-second-life-scratch-woo-new-users/

“...Linden Lab is working on a next generation virtual world that will be in the spirit of Second Life, an open world where users have incredible power to create anything they can imagine and content creators are king.”

CEO Ebbe Altberg - https://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Linden-Lab-is-building-a-NEW-virtual-world/td-p/2753476

https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/in1WqvSDlbQLvTiM.medium, oculus rift

Oculus Rift and Second Life

One of the rumors that started a lot of furor toward the end of last year was the introduction of a viewer that supported Oculus Rift.  Oculus Rift is a virtual reality helmet designed to be owned by people and used in the home.  It will interface with a desktop computer and will allow people to bring themselves closer than ever to the virtual world they inhabit.   Many thought that you would be required to have a Rift as part of the usage of the new Second Life.  While you can find several statements indicating there will be compatibility with the VR helmet, there is also indication that the new Virtual World platform will support PCs and mobile devices right from the outset.  

Given that Linden Labs wants to support Oculus Rift from the outset but also wants to maintain the current user base, they would be foolish to cut off support for the PC which is the primary platform.  The rumors surrounding this were blown vastly out of proportion, if anything Second Life 2.0 will support more ways of accessing the service to allow a wider user base and a larger community.  “We want to support mobile from the beginning... Any content in the new platform will be good on Oculus and PC.”  --Ebbe Altberg http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2015/03/second-life-news-ebbe-altberg-sl-2.html)

From the Oculus Website:

“Today, we’re incredibly excited to announce that the Oculus Rift will be shipping to consumers in Q1 2016, with pre-orders later this year.”  

https://www.oculus.com/blog/first-look-at-the-rift-shipping-q1-2016/

It is interesting that the consumer Oculus Rift and SL 2.0 are both set to release in 2016,  working together it seems likely that Linden Labs and Oculus VR will be able to produce a result that is much larger than either one of them could produce on their own.  It also stands to reason that a release of the consumer version of the “Rift” would coincide with the release of a new virtual world platform so that Linden Labs could ride the wave of excitement surrounding VR.  Oculus VR is talking about a 200-400 dollar price point for the VR helmet,  which means that it will be within the price range of most people and hopefully not as cost prohibitive or as complicated to use as the present developer incarnation of Oculus Rift.

Given Linden Labs continued support of the present Second Life and their active development of Second Life 2.0 with plans toward compatibility with upcoming hardware it seems unlikely that the user base is going to be abandoned.  What is most likely is that SL 1.0 and SL 2.0 will both exist side by side for a time as people get used to the new platform and gradually shift over to it.  Any way you look at it, it is an exciting time to be a resident of Second Life.  There is so much on the horizon that promises to be far more than we could have imagined when this service came online 12 years ago.

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PRESS PASS MEDIA: 7th Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference- April 9th-12th 2014

7th Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference is very pleased to announce our opening keynote: Philip Rosedale, CEO of High Fidelity and creator of Second Life.
Ebbe Altberg, the new CEO of Second Life, will also present at the conference.






We have an incredible line-up of speakers, panels, workshops, sim demonstrations, poster presentations for four days April 9-12th

Daily updates at:
http://vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe-2014-calendar
http://vwbpe.org

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