Second Opinion Second Life people
SEPT | 2006
Back Issues
A newsletter for the friends and residents of Second Life
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Second Life Trailer


The best of show winner of the Second Annual Movie Trailer Contest is Second Life: Get One by Silver and Goldie Productions. Silver and Goldie Goodman are relative newcomers to Second Life and are currently building out an in-world machinima production on Studio Shores which they envision will become "the premier machinima production and resource center in SL, to serve RL clients." Watch the video here.

Developer Resource

Attention all Second Life Developers, we recently launched a new Solution Providers page! It provides quick access to some of the many resources available for those creating content and building businesses in Second Life.

In other Developer news, SLDevU was attended by 60 people at Fort Mason prior to SLCC. This event was a trial run, but based upon attendee feedback and requests from those who couldn't attend, we're looking at ways to make this content widely available to Second Life Residents in the near future.

The Teen Grid


How I Spent My Summer Vacation By Special Guest Author Ming Chen
TG Party

Join Resident Ming Chen as he relives his summer on the Teen Grid: "For most of society an important milestone in normal teenage development is the concept of the first job. My story begins here." Read more

Name Dropping


Given the new Group Tools released with Second Life 1.12 last week, we thought it would be appropriate to focus Name Dropping on a few Second Life groups doing great things.

name drop

MaHoRoba
A big thanks to the members of the group MaHoRoBa, a group of Japanese Residents who when they're not creating highly artistic objects within Second Life are also helping to welcome new Japanese Residents! They're also the group in charge of the Japanese-language Second Life Wiki - JP. Be sure to check out their in-world build on Shaka (pictured at right).

Sellers

Sellers Guild
A warm welcome to the Second Life Sellers Guild, an active group with the purpose of helping organize Second Life creators into an informal in-world "Better Business Bureau" and facilitate better communication. The group includes more than 250 passionate Second Life content creators and a bustling Group Forum. The group shares information and ideas and offers support to one another.

Know someone worth mentioning? Tell us!
Developer Focus


A Blueprint for Success: Architecture and Second Life

In the real world of Wisconsin, architect Jon Brouchoud and his team at Crescendo Design create custom homes and sell pre-designed plans for Springboard Homes. Their goal is to make energy efficient, 'green' design features more affordable. Jon and his team have found Second Life to be a great architectural tool. They use Second Life both within their company and among long-distance clients to create virtual designs and structures. Read more

 
Police Blotter


Disclosure!!

Ever had a conversation so interesting you just wanted to save it? Been tempted to reveal that neighbor A is really a guy and not a blonde bombshell? Think you need to be able to prove to your significant other later that he really did say you look fat in that avatar? Well even though you said it, and he replied, be careful before you click that copy button. Disclosure in Second Life is a tricky business, so be sure you know the guidelines before you post your ex-BFF's comments about her secret lover on your favorite billboard Read more

 
Tips and Tricks


Lateral Features for Better Second Living

tips

Second Life has many lateral features which aren't immediately apparent, even to long-time Residents. "Lateral" means something to the side, it might not be staring you directly in the eyes, but if you turn your head and look closer, it all becomes clear! Learn about some of Second Life's more interesting lateral features. Read more

As We See It


Blog Your Way to the Future

The recent forum change announcement caused the rise of a debate: can a blog replace a forum as a tool for community communication? Forum structure supports a many-to-many discussion style that is well-suited to a community founded around a specific and common topic. Sounds like Second Life, doesn't it? So why close some of the forums?

As groups get larger and larger, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage the community discussion. Some hypothesize that once a group exceeds 150 people, the quality of conversation starts to degenerate. In a forum context, this loss of quality means more moderation is needed to make sure questions get answered and disruptive or negative posting is minimized. A closer look at the Second Life forums suggests that the larger, general boards suffer from this problem. The smaller, more tightly focused sub-forums such as the content creation discussions tend to need a great deal less intervention to stay positive and on topic.

Blogs are a product of the Internet, which as we all know is essentially a publishing medium. Content is easy to update and keep current. Add in multiple authors and you now have the basis for a new type of discussion, with several people contributing information and ideas. The blog becomes communal through comments and trackbacks, where the dialog rests. Unlike the group discussions on the forums, blog discussions tend to be more bi-directional while remaining focused. It also has broader reach; hence the development of the word 'blogosphere', suggesting a wide circle of connected discussion. Imagine if all the Resident forums and blogs were connected to the Linden blog to further enrich the conversation!

We think it's time to test this idea of a Second Life blog community where many ideas can be proposed, many comments can be offered in response, and trackbacks spread the conversation about Second Life to more and more venues across the Web.

Agree? Disagree? Let us know - send us your Letter to the Editor - with your Second Life username - and we will publish a representative set in the next edition of The Second Opinion.

Your Letters


We received several thoughtful responses to our opinion piece: Welcome to the Free Press. A sample of the letters start here, don't forget to click through to read the whole text. Thank you for your responses!

New Press = Good
I think this new informative Democrat newspaper is going to be good, giving the community heads up of Second Life and important community functions, there is nothing better. I'm new to Second Life, but I want to start a couple of businesses and with the press outlet where can you go wrong? I'm behind it one-hundred percent.
- Teddy Ragowski, aspiring business owner

Serious Journalism Needed
I applaud the welcome you give to the principle of a free press. It will provide a further stimulus to life in SL. However, with the experience of the UK and Ireland in mind I feel that the principle may be sorely tested if SL management or investors find themselves the target of tabloid-type 'make it up' journalism ("Lindens in Drugs and Kinky Sex Binge - Grid Goes Down" etc. - cases involving outside, RL targets might be even more contentious). Unfortunately, it is this kind of extreme that decides whether a press is really free or not. Judging from its sober name The Democrat does not envisage using the tabloid approach.
- Paul Nash

Second Life Times
Just wanted to point out that the Second Life Times has launched an in-game newspaper available to residents. If you want more information, the papers are available at any of the locations listed here.
- Simon Lameth, CEO, Metaverse Media Corporation