you wanted more linden interviews and what are we going to present this week?
yes exactly: a conversation with a linden who enjoys quality tv shows like “macgyver”!
plus race-car driving sl pioneers….
….and of course karl krantz who is tirelessly educating vr youngsters about a little known [albeit vast] digital universe:
more reading material to deepen your knowledge below:
– leap motion give-away continues [here is your source material to find ye answer]
– brendan iribe from oculus rift wants to build the metaverse
![brendan iribe [why do valley ceos have to always wear hoodies?]](https://draxfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/screen-shot-2014-05-09-at-5-13-31-am.png)
– ll to reveal new starter avatars soon[ish]
![male mesh av [with or without facial expression?]](https://draxfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/starter.jpg)
– our guest karl krantz, organizer of the silicon valley virtual reality conference
![the sword of damocles [heavier than current ski goggles!]](https://draxfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/screen_shot_2013-06-06_at_11-34-51_am_1.png)
![please identify the linden on the right? [and win something!]](https://draxfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/not-enkidu.jpg)
– bill moyers on net neutrality
– fantasy faire is still going on in sl and YOU HAVE TO GO: NOW!
![ff 2014 [pic by ursula floresby]](https://draxfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ff.jpg)
– why do YOU stick around in sl? canary beck tries to get the answer in her salon series
– jo and i are in high fidelity but we can’t bleeping talk about anything so just read this instead [= philip about rl and vr] or also this [= authentication in hifi]
the drax files radio hour [with jo yardley] is a weekly production of basicdrax entertainment.
the show is supported by leap motion, sl go [by onlive], stitcher, botgirl’s identity circus, kahruvel design, vika creations, humanoid animations, escapades, botanical, death row designs, nantra, angel red cotoure, fallen gods incorporated, {what’s next} and landscapes unlimited!
music by bd.
special thanks to aleks altberg for providing the station id this week.
contact the show via skype draxfiles, avatar draxfiles or email radio@draxfiles.com.
the drax files radio hour 
Facebook/Oculus are not mentioning Second Life on purpose. They want to position themselves as the be all end all of pioneering this VR technology/experience to the general public who have no idea what Second Life is. They don’t want to dilute their message or risk consumers confusing them with Second Life. It’s up to Second Life and it’s community to get the word out about SL. Facebook Oculus have the benefit of building a new metaverse model from the ground up, as High Fidelity is doing (maybe working toward the same end?).
Second Life has a large established world with a successful economy and has been upgrading the experience, but they are constrained by legacy code/tech and having to evolve the experience on-the-fly. My hat is off to the Lindens for pulling this off for so long. As many have stated, no one has done anything like this on this scale before. But now, others are benefitting on this hindsight and are starting with a blank canvas with the latest tech at their disposal.
It will be very interesting. Maybe the world of Second Life with end up the digital equivalent of Stonehenge and Pompeii, with the remains of Nova Albion, Kissling and the Ahern Welcome area looked upon by future generations as the quaint distant origins of their ever-expanding universe. Still accessible, but more a museum-relic than a living, breathing world.
Great points especially about FB/OR strategy: even by referencing SL as something they want to improve upon they give SL PR. In re living/breathing: SL is living and it is breathing and the world is full of life. SL is as alive as my old pencil and my old piece of paper which I will not abandon as long as there are ideas flowing…flawed analogy yes because SL is also full of people and friends. Like Jo said: we must remain skeptical that the shiny new Metaverse Brendan is hinting at will hold the same creative promise as SL. So: let’s live in the present folks: it is UP TO US to spread the joy!
Great 2 comments above! Keep on keepin’ on — SL LIVES! Ü
Another constraint for the Lindens, as you have covered recently with some of your talk with Lindens, is our own user-created content inworld. The Lindens take a lot of care not to break existing user content that we have been uploading over the years. Not perfect, but pretty darn well. The popularity of SL for the past ten years has contributed to its difficulty to take advantage of the latest tech solutions.
…but this is precisely the MAGIC of SL [just like it is the magic of the world wide web]: theoretically at least endless diversity, only constrained by imagination. And this needs to be communicated outward more effectively. And we ALL can help this effort by flooding [loud and proud] that we are making stuff in SL = content, community, the world!
Another illustration of the Linden’s care of SL’s legacy, the forum archives at http://forums-archive.secondlife.com/-1/1.html
Wow, these are still around?! hehehe…I put my name in the Search field and saw all my old posts…Ü
The lack of recognition from current VR enthusiasts is part of the reason I created the ‘lost virtual world’ documentary. http://vimeo.com/84462032 . I think SL is seen as a third person mmo. In fact any videos showing second life are 3rd person, while The new VR demos concentrate on first person. Untill LL role out the oculus viewer , and untill content creators start building for first person and start producing visible evidence that rivals the kickstarter demos, they won’t make the connection between VR and SL. Seems stupid but, well, yeh it’s stupid
I love that video.
Have you uploaded it to youtube as well?
YT blocked it because of IP rights. It is on Drax channel..
Stupid YT!
SL will have its slice of the VR cake, once, oculus viewer is up to scratch and experience perms is released allowing us to create things like technolust and loading human. The advantage these unity demos have is their devs don’t have to guide users to the start of their experiences. Currently to get users from seeing a tweet of my oculus experience to actually playing it, they have to go through the set up account, download viewer, login in, learn controls, find my experience, accept various requests for permission for my experience to teleport and attach objects. Obviously I can’t expect SL to get to state like a unity game demo, where you download, open up and play. Or maybe I could if LL consider letting creators make branded viewers? I think the bigger ideas of SL future will become more obvious once experience permissions and it’s effect on what’s possible is revealed.
branded viewers, branded viewers, branded viewers!!!!! strengthen creators = strengthen world!!!!!
..calm down everyone…it’s just another ‘big talker’…..
Good point, Loki. Visual perspective telegraphs a lot and not always in an obvious manner.
Oh man Loki, totally: THAT is for sure the main reason why many of these young VR enthusiasts don’t get it – they think it is simply an MMO [with crappy content]….
Hi Drax & Jo, you are facilitating a valuable conversation about solving Second Life issues, and it sounds like your work is getting the attention of the Lab. And it was great to learn that Ebbe Altberg’s son has extensive experience in Second Life, and he has keen insights into SL’s problems. There are many people working to make SL a better experience for its users, but I believe the ‘Radio Hour’ is helping to guide Second Life’s evolution.
I think the tactic being used by Oculus/Facebook, eliminating the competition from the discussion, is widely used in the technology industry. Assuming that the Cloud Party engineers are still employed by Facebook, the company is collecting the resources to build a new generation virtual world.
Concerning a tutorial, I think it’s a big mistake to allow actual “new” users to bypass the steps. For example, I’m always surprised at how many people I used to meet who didn’t know how to “cam”. People who’d been around for years and didn’t take that little walk through Orientation Island where there’s the instructions on how to see what’s on the other side of a sign without moving. Learning to “cam” is not only more efficient, it enables users to avoid cluttering valuable screen space with a camera HUD. Jus sayin
I thought it was Yahoo! that purchased Cloud Party rather than FB, though they do employ some ex-Lindens. I am sure both Yahoo! and Google will have noticed the Occulus/Facebook VW announcement. While Google have been promoting adding the virtual to the real world, this may cause them to revisit VWs that they had given up on since closing There. This news is much bigger than High Fidelity, and will result in more VW development just as Occulus have caused lots of 3D headsets to be developed. Fun times ahead, but probably also threatening Second Life and freedom of creativity.
oh yes, how right you are about Yahoo. I had a memory malfunction.