2 Second Life Windows

Two Second Life windows at the same time on the computer.

The trick is to use the -multiple modifier.
Just write: ["C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -multiple] in the
"target" windows of the short cut. (no need for the "[,]").

Magniv 2007 Awards

On Thursday March 29, 2007 -- as part of the Israeli Search Afeka competion which I hosted -- I had the opputunity to give 5 unique awards. Magniv 2007. Magniv is Hebrew is "Stolen" -- it is used like cool, fun, unique, hot etc.

The Magniv 2007 awards were given to:
1. Brainpop -- where you can learn about anything.
2. Yedda -- where you tap into the mind of people.
3. Zlango -- a new visual langauge that make all smile.
4. The Robot -- that use CGAL to solve 3D puzzle in Second Life.
5. GeoSim -- where real cities can be viewed in the Metaverse.

Really cool stuff, all with Israeli roots. :-)

The 2nd Conference of the Israeli Software Industry

With the slogan "Individualism - Collaboration - Shared Growth", Amos Maggor is doing it again:

Software 07, The Second Business Summit of the Israeli Software Industry, will be held on March 28, at the Avenue Convention & Events Center, Airport City. Initiated last year This is the core event of the Israeli Software industry that has gained the reputation of the leading network place for entrepreneurs. The event attracted attendance of 1500 last year of leading executives from the industry.

IAESI (Israel Association of Electronics and Software Industries, People & Computers Group and a group of CEOs from the leading Israeli Software companies have joined forces to create Software 07, the biggest networking event of the local software industry. Summit discussions will primarily address issues that could promote both growth and profitability of Israeli software manufacturers.

I will give a short talk as part of a panel run by Yaron Polak of Genesis fund... I will try to connect the emerging Metaverse with current and new businesses (if you have tips send them to me). For details in Hebrew see here.

Go2web2 Founder Now Works for AOL

My colleague blogger Orli Yakuel now works for AOL to find new and interesting technologies and sites. Well done to this young lady who have been working on this for more than a year.
See her blog at http://go2web2.blogspot.com/.

Orli has and is doing an amazing job covering new web 2.0 ideas.

Five Millions Users for Second Life

I have been so busy I could not write. But Bit Mazal Tov to Second life. I am looking forward to the end of the month excel with the real numbers. In any event 37,000 users at the same time. Looks like good progress.

Interview with Eric Schmidt in Stanford

CEO of Google sits calmly in Stanford and share it.
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, in an exclusive interview with iinnovate (www.iinnovatecast.com).


Part II

Adidas Store Review

www.spielarchitektur.de presents "architecture in second life - volume 1: adidas". So white... so clean. I love it.

Architecture in the Metaverse Machinima

Joint design is now possible. Include some nice tips and tricks.

A video showing how Crescendo Design has been using Second Life as a
professional tool in their real life practice. This video was sponsored by 'The
Arch' blog, www.archsl.wordpress.com and the 'RL Architects in Second Life' group. For more information, IM Keystone Bouchard in-world.

Banks in Second Life

Jim Bruene on March 10, 2007 9:59 AM wrote a short summary of banking situation in Secold Life. Key points:

• Sep. 2005: Wells Fargo is the first real-world bank with a presence in Second Life (SL)


• Dec. 2005: Wells Fargo leaves SL, moving its Stagecoach Island to a new platform (see previous coverage here)


• 7 Dec 2006: ABN Amro becomes first European bank in SL (press release here)


• 7 Jan 2007: BNP Paribas opens a small test area (post here)


• 7 Feb 2007: Swiss bank BCV opens its doors in SL (press release here)


• 21 Feb 2007: ING Bank launches website and blog to get users involved in building what it calls Our Virtual Holland


• 2 Mar 2007: Danish Saxo Bank announces plans to create trading platform in SL (Reuters article here)

The above picture is one bank effort... as the original post says:

But if you are going into SL, make sure you mirror the effort with a Web presence that lets the other 1 billion Internet users see what you are up to. And there is no one doing that better than ING, who's taken a Zen approach to its SL strategy. They've made the process of building a SL presence more important than the actual result. Their Web 2.0-inspired website ourvirtualholland.nl involves the community with blogs, suggestions, and an email list (see screenshot below).

Grid Review Episode 2 - This Land is My Land...

In this Grid episode we hear about the end of first-land program, Club Egret (celebrated jazz guitarist George Golla and the sultry sounds of acclaimed Australian singer Leonie Smith), and mandatory orientation for noobs.

The Grid is One of the places where you can get quick review of the current state of Second Life.

About The Grid Review
The Grid Review’s goal is to deliver the best Second Life news machinima, from the serious to the irreverant. The Grid Review is released weekly on Wednesdays. We cover a wide variety of topics across Building & Architecture, Business & Economy, Editorial/Opinion, Entertainment, Fashion, Policy & Governance, Social Trends, and even Tips and How-to's. The Grid Review is jointly sponsored by Edelman and The Electric Sheep Company.
About Edelman
Edelman is the world’s largest independent public relations firm, with 2,200 employees in 46 offices worldwide. The firm was named PRWeek’s Large Agency of the Year for 2006. Advertising Age named Edelman as the best PR firm in its 2005 “Best Agencies” issue, while PRWeek awarded the firm its “Editor’s Choice” distinction at the start of 2006. Edelman was also named 2006 Large Agency of the Year and 2005 International Agency of the Year by The Holmes Group.
About The Electric Sheep Company
The Electric Sheep Company employs the largest fully dedicated, full-time staff to creating 3D virtual world experiences for real world companies. We provide a unique combination of expertise in virtual world strategy, interactive experience design, branding, interactive sponsorship and advertising, software development, and 3D art and scripting within Second Life.
We have implemented some of the most widely acclaimed projects within Second Life. Since inception, The Electric Sheep Company has worked with Edelman, Major League Baseball, NBC, Nissan, Reuters, Sony/BMG, Starwood Hotels, Viacom, Yahoo and multiple other media and consumer goods properties

HiPiHi: a Chinese version of the Metaverse

In this 7-min Video we see a first look of at which purports to be a Chinese version of Second Life." Key points of the text can be seen here.

HiPiHi (pronounced “high-pee-high”) literally translates to “The World Exists Because Of You.”
(Quite similar to Second Life’s official slogan, “Your World. Your Imagination”.)- Has been in development since 2005, only going into Beta now.- As with Second Life, includes 3D user-creation tools, purports to allow users to retain retain property rights over their creations, and includes an in-world currency.- Includes two discrete products: HiPiHi World, and HiPiHi Home, a private space for users in which they can invite their friends. Lee points out the similarity in this regard to South Korea’s CyWorld, the extraordinarily popular apartment-based online world/social network which boasts 18 million users.

Metaverse Labs: The Robot in the Maze

As part of the 2007 Course: Software Workshop - Motion Planning in Virtual Environments we are connecting robots that can solve a maze.

This course by Prof. Dan Halperin, Dr. Yesha Sivan, and Alon Shalita use Second Life as a simulation grounds for motion planning.

PlayStation 3 'Home', a second life away from home

Will Greenwald of crave.cnet is reporting here about Sony Play station new "Home":

Home is essentially a cross between Second Life and Nintendo's Mii avatars. PS3 users will get their own customizable avatars and virtual homes with which they can go online, chat with and host friends, find players for online gaming, buy and show off clothing and decorations, accumulate game trophies, and other social gaming activities.
The service itself will be free, but clothing, furniture, and other Home toys will be sold through microtransactions. Home looks like it could be what PS3 owners have been waiting for: A coherent online service that lets users communicate with each other. On paper, it sounds pretty sweet. It takes the personalizing of Nintendo's Miis and the connectivity and sense of accomplishment of Microsoft's Xbox Live gamer tags and achievements and ambitiously mixes them with aspects of Second Life. Home seems like a deep, complex system that could be very fun.

The linking of classic gaming with Metaverse may enhance both worlds.

Metaverse Labs: New mini Island added

Dera KIT, CEO of Metaverse Labs is happy to annouce the expantion of the lab.

Here, he "fly" over the lab at gazing at beutiful sunset of the 21st bay. /me Ahhh....

IMVU: The other Metaverse

People talk a lot about Second Life as the paragon Metaverse. Well, below the hype-curve a small -- and very smart company -- is developing their vision of the Metaverse. Welcome IMVU.

It took me few days to figure this out... but it is one of those things that grabs you. IMVU looks like a chat program -- but it is MUCH MORE. To learn more about IMVU see quick tour.

My bottom line: IMVU way of handling developers; credits; social web pages, anc peer networking. WOW. I see the future (or a future).

Second Life Beta Test Voice

Source from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnswords/413117721/

Second life is about to incorporate voice -- actually 3D voice (as I reported earlier in the post from Mitch Kapor). Now it is Beta. For a full POD cast about this see RezNation.

Here is what Mark Barrett who tested the Beta version says :

While transparent to the user, voice is run through a separate voice server with technology from Vivox, who really know what they’re doing. The experience is great. Last night we had a blast flying around while singing the Flight of the Valkyries.
The sound was clear and the positional sound makes it easy to pick out individuals in a crowd, even when many (15+) residents are talking at the same time! This is because you are “hearing” with your camera, so by alt+zooming around you can change which avatar you want to focus your attention on. We also observed that we’d naturally start forming circles, so everybody can see and hear each other and also make out where someone is talking from.

(See full post here)

Here's a summary of my notes (+ some reflection)

• 3D Sound is interesting "the x,y,z of people is tracked 10 times a second."
• It will be controlled also by parcel (so you can make your home private not allowing peepers to listen to you).
• There will be group voice chat. (15+ people?).
• Interesting core partnership with Vivox (they probably plan to make money like skype from other phone services -- I have an account with them).
• No lip sync yet.
• Due in April (hummm probably later. -- get the main grid working).

Last:

I am not sure I like Voice for role playing. But for collaboration, teaching, and actual work.. nice addition. Most people that use voice today have alternatives like Skype or Google Talk but the immediacy and 3D-ness are nice.

Web 3.0 or Metaverse

Web 2.0 hype was high last year. Now the hyper monster wants its share ... and the new candidate is web 3.0. I hear a lot about it. See for example in this Businsess Week message.

It is especially exciting cause one could talk about web 3d.0 and you have a gimmick inside the hype. Amazing.

But I would stay with Metaverse. For two reasons. First the Metaverse has an history behind it namely some research, terms and work. Second, because the Metaverse is NOT yet another Internet. To think about the Metaverse as the next Internet will be to miss the entire point. (I admit I often compare the Internet and the Metaverse).

Anshe Chung scores venture capital funding

One of the major player in the Metaverse, Anshe Chung Studios is reported to get funding from a German based VC. The exact amount was not disclosed. All my VC friends should note, according to http://secondlife.reuters.com/:

Media investors are betting that the services surrounding virtual worlds like Second Life may be as profitable as companies such as Linden Lab that run the worlds themselves. At least one other metaverse services firm will announce a major investment within the next month, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
Wuhan, China-based Anshe Chung Studios, whose eponymous founder claims to have accumulated more than US$1 million worth of Second Life assets, has branched out to other virtual worlds including IMVU, There.com and Entropia.
“Our business is based more and more on people and talent and less and less on a certain platform,” said Guni Greenstein (Guni Graef in the real world), who is the husband and business partner of Anshe Chung (Ailin Graef) in a Second Life interview.

See full item here.

New domain: www.dryesha.com

I have installed a new domain (www.dryesha.com); I had people (and myself) forget the url; change blogspot to blogpost. So... I did it. In face, I got the trio: .com, .org, and .net. -- currently .net and .org forward automatically to .com. It should take few days for all the name server to be updates. I hope that all works well. If there are issues I will report.

Note: any problem -- please report to me.