Reading Radar

One of the things everyone keeps harping about (rightfully) is that interoperability of virtual worlds is going to be key moving forward, and something second life needs to be geared for in order to maintain success in the future.

Today LL kicked off their Open Grid Public Beta program to help virtual world developers get their virtual worlds interoperate with SL. At the moment, it’s teleport and login interoperability only, no assets or cash money will be able to make the quantum leap.

It’s based on the Open Grid Protocol, which, I guess if I were a virtual world developer, I’d know what the technical details meant. Or maybe if I just had an IQ north of 32.

It’s definitely interesting times, and the prospect of world hopping is very cool. Obviously for SL residents, the prospect of hopping in as a ruth somewhere will be less appealing than it might, and I suspect the problem of inventory, attachments, and money transferring over won’t be the easiest of issues to iron out, but it’ll happen eventually. There’s really no choice. Right now it’s a lot like saying we can only email other people using the same ISP, or call people on the same cell carrier. Fortunately, people are working on changing all that.

Sick again. I really, really couldn’t afford to stay home a second day but I woke up with chills and a clogged throat. I should have gone in to work and made everyone ill. Bastards.

I think today I’ll sleep, script, and be sick. I found the correct rss url to use for blip.tv feeds that gives the mp4 conversions on all files so even if the originals were in wmv or some other format, the itunes feed will let you play all of them in mp4 so they’ll play for anyone in-world. That solves my problem for getting a reliable in-world SLPN Video player set up. Thanks to Dedric and some of my own LSL and a little php modding, we can host the rss -> sss conversion on my server and not rely on third party players that have gone belly up in the past. I know I’ve said it before, but Dedric’s the guy you want for solutions to programming problems.

I just need to finish up the menu code and a couple minor things and I’ll be done. Yay. I got sidetracked with another project this week, but it’s going to be a fun one. It’s something Itazura and I will get going at some point.

That Wacky Particle Guy, Arminasx Saiman, is on the latest uploaded episode of Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe.

Good show! Arminasx is one of the more interesting content creators, IMO.

Johnny Ming (John Swords in RL) sent a reply to one of the posts about the Orange media event today, and that plus a little reflection made me want to post my response to him. I emailed him a copy so he’d get it personally as well. Thanks, John, for your input, and here are my thoughts in response.

Yes, you’re absolutely right that Secondcast was notable in that it was all people who were in it were all very active residents in second life. That showed in the passion you guys had in the topics you talked about. I remember hearing banter back and forth between your group over things and you could tell it was genuine and that you were residents of the place, not people who were podcasters who happened to be in SL as well. One thing I’d also point out is the humor many of you had and enjoyed bringing out in the podcast, lest anyone think I was taking your comments as arrogant. I don’t believe you are an arrogant person in the least. The very few times I’ve had occasion to come into contact with you, you’ve always been accessible, humble, and seemingly very easygoing. I like that in a high profile podcaster. I wish it were more common.

I was actually thinking about this tonight as I woke up (can I blame a cold for making me grumpy today?) and had to admit, in that context, some of us owe secondcast a nod as an inspiration for doing an SL related podcast done as SL residents. You were definitely the first real SL podcast I listened to, although IIRC, Goddess and Banana claimed to be the first, but since I wasn’t around when they started, I couldn’t tell you who came first. I never listened to them. But I did learn about SL from you guys as I started off my journey through this particular metaversion known as second life in 2006.

One thing I would like to stress in all my comments here is that I’m not mistaking myself as some important high-profile representation of the new crop of SL podcasters. While I am a current SL podcaster, let’s be honest here, I’m very small time in terms of listeners and certainly impact in SL. I’m not confused about my place in the world, and I hope I didn’t come across that way. I’ve never achieved anything on the level of anyone on the panel, to the best of my knowledge, and I’d like to acknowledge that fully.

So what bothered me particularly about the Orange media panel was not the credentials of anyone on the panel. It seemed on first blush that Orange was not grokking the current state of podcasting in SL, and that’s what bothered me. I interact regularly with a number of various podcasters who have current, apparently popular podcasts in SL that I think should have been included. I know we keep bring up the example of CC, and while he’s certainly a big name in podcasting I don’t really think he’s been a big name in SL podcasting. I know that whether you agree or not, you can understand the distinction, since your group WAS individuals who were residents first, from very early on.

Having said that, I enjoyed the panel a lot once you steered it to the future. I think you’re a person who will be involved in exploring the evolving forms of podcasting as things continue to change, and I’m looking forward to subscribing to your upcoming podcast, The Shack.

Most of all, I’d like to say thank you for being a good sport about all this and for doing a good job listening to the chat at the event today and being fully engaged with the audience. That’s greatly appreciated.

Ok, aside from going over the past too much, and at times being kind of monopolized by two people, I actually enjoyed the Orange thing. Not because I think it was the best panel for talking about podcasting in SL. But once John steered the conversation towards the future of podcast media, it got a lot more enjoyable.

I picked on the event and the panel a little, and that’s probably not 100% fair. Let’s be honest - I’m a podcaster of little note, and small following, and each of the people up there has achieved more than I probably ever will in media. So fair enough. But all that aside, John did do a pretty good job. I think Stuart could have been given more questions but then again he knows more about the other panelists, and it’s not easy to not go to what you know.

What I am looking forward to from him is is upcoming podcast, “The Shack,” which will apparently be about various virtual worlds and some of the key players. It’s good for SL types to get outside their SL-centricity sometimes because, just like fiber trumps dsl, something better will surely come along at some point. LL and SL will have to work hard not to get moved aside before long. The advantage is the content creation and the wide range of communities, but anyone in SL should pay attention to other worlds, and things like OpenSim.

I’m looking forward to hearing this one.

Johnny Ming just said that he thinks that they covered all the pioneering stuff and while there’s still stuff to talk about, they covered the momentous stuff.

EVERY generation thinks that after they step aside and let others come in. EVERY generation thinks they covered the important stuff.

Secondcast did cover some interesting stuff. And I have respect for Johnny. But this statement just seems absurd. Technology will ALWAYS be changing in SL and there’s always going to be things that the people of the time feel are momentous, whether they really are or not.

Henry Ford probably thought he covered all the important aspects of automobiles too.

On Orange Island they are doing a show about old timers. And stuart!! he’s no old timer! Yay.

Anyway, a podcast panel with only one active SL podcaster.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Orange%20Island/204/208/22

Listening to two of them talk about how they are marketers. Yawn. Torrid says she’s got no credentials compared to them, but don’t worry Torrid. Anything’s better and more interesting than a marketer.

Between Sougent and I, we made a decent (partially used) 6-pack. He made the plastic “ring” thingy and I made the cans. Yay, beer.

Actually these will be props for an upcoming project, believe it or not. If you’re gonna get involved in a project, make sure that project involves beer. That’s all I’m gonna say.

I mentioned meeting Matthaios Brandenburg on PI a couple days ago. He’s starting a blog of his own at http://virtualunreality.wordpress.com. He’s hoping readers will help bring ideas and help kickstart the conversation there. I just said “the conversation.” I really hate when the web 2.0 marketers talk about “the conversation.” There is no THE conversation, there’s lots of conversations.

Anyway.. check it out. He’s a nice guy with an eye towards finding out exactly how the metaversion known as SL can be used in his journey through teh intarweb. What I like is that he’s questioning why everything has to be so RL based instead of more unreality based. I like that in an avatar.

Ok, I finally got around to going over to Nowhereville and seeing if the remains of the SLPN building got swept up properly. The dumpsters were gone and the construction workers were gone, no more catcalls to Crap Mariner’s avatar, sadly. But happily, I got to see Keeme and Nika’s house. She’s done a great job on it. Even if that cat still needs to die.

It’s kind of close to the water, but hey. If a tsunami comes, we’re all toast anyway.

The clocktower looms in the background, proclaiming victory over… I don’t know. What’s it proclaiming victory over?

It makes a nice window view.

There’s always something burning on the stove. I think maybe Keeme’s been cooking in here. Is that the fish flavor dripping out?

As for Keeme’s rant about not having any space on the last DaR, what’s he talking about? Look.. his very own lil sharky.

The night view towards Edloe is nice. Made me shed a tear or two, but that was only because that stupid CAT was clawing its way up my leg again.

Nice job, Nika. Maybe we could hire you to decorate a movie lounge on PI for movie nights? Just an idea Itazura tossed out… Maybe we’ll make it happen.