Midday SLT on Tuesday May 20th marks the closing of applications for all aspects of participation in the SL11B Community Celebration.
If you want to be a part of things, be it as an exhibitor, performer, volunteer or as the host of an event or activity in the SL11BCC auditorium, and you’ve not already submitted your application, now is the time to do so. You can find the relevant forms on-line as follows:
Performers (for any of the event’s main stages) should apply here
Speakers and performance artists wishing to use the auditorium should apply here
Volunteers ready, will and able to help keep SL11BCC ticking along should apply here (training will be given!)
Exhibitors seeking a parcel of land on one of the 11 regions should apply here.
Pallina60 Loon offers a few words of advice and encouragement to all who are thinking about applying in any capacity.
Similarly, if you have any questions about participating in the event, you’ll likely find your answers in the SL11B Community Celebration website.
With applications set to close at midday SLT on Tuesday May 20th, here’s how the rest of the celebration’s timeline shapes up (all times, SLT):
Friday, May 30th, noon: Sims open for builders
Wednesday, June 18th, noon: Sims close to builders
Saturday, June 21st, noon: Press day
Sunday, June 22nd, noon SLT: SL11BCC opens!
Monday, June 23rd: Second Life’s Official 11th Birthday!
Sunday, June 29th: final day of celebrations
Monday, June 30th to Saturday, July 5th: Sims will remain open for viewing. No performances.
Sunday, July 6th to Tuesday, July 8th: Breakdown
Wednesday, July 9th: Sims go offline
A sneak peek at Pygar Bu’s SL11BCC auditorium build (by Vivena Resident)
As well as being available on the show’s website and on Stitcher, the show is also on YouTube, and it is to that recording (embedded at the end of this article) any timestamps given in the text refer.
The show starts with a brief discussion on ways to help journos better present Second Life, with Jo having uploaded images of her 1920s Berlin Project to Wikimedia and as a part of a Wikipedia page on the project.
Leo Sun, writing for Motley Fool, picked-up on one of Jo images, together with one from the Lab, which was used in an article reflecting upon on the Facebook / Oculus VR vision of a billion-user “MMO”, thus suggesting putting out information and (particularly) good quality images that are readily available for re-use, copyright-wise, may be a way of raising SL’s visibility.
Drax also promotes the forthcoming metaverse panel which will take place at the first Silicon Valley VR (SVVR) Conference and Expo, and which he will be moderating. The panel will feature Ebbe Altberg (Linden Lab), Philip Rosedale (High Fidelity), Stefano Corazza (Mixamo), Tony Parisi (Vizi), and will take place on Tuesday May 20th, who will be considering topics such as:
One global metaverse or many?
Identity and privacy
Virtual World Governance: democracies, the greek god model, or benevolent dictators
Intellectual property and legal jurisdictions
Avatar portability and standards
(l to r): Ebbe Altberg, Philip Rosedale, Stefano Corazza and Tony Parisi. Ready to answer questions on “Creating the VR Metaverse”
If you have a question you’d like to put to one, some or all of the panel, please leave it in the comments section at the end of this announcement.
The main thrust of the show however, is a look at the aforementioned Back to the Future of the Metaverse event, which took place on Thursday, May 15th, albeit it not without technical issues. An event organised by the Skefi’a online science/fiction magazine, led by Giulio Prisco (SL: giulioprisco), it was billed as a discussion of “the VR renaissance outlined in Back to the future in the Metaverse”, an essay by Mr. Prisco, published by Skefi’a on April 22nd.
On hand at the event were a number of speakers. Unfortunately, issues with SL meant things did not go as planned, and activities had to be hastily decamped to Google Hangouts, where only a subset of the participants were able to be involved in activities. Two of these were Philip Rosedale of SL and High Fidelity fame and Stephen Larson, CEO of MetaCell and a co-founder and the project coordinator for the OpenWorm open science project, both of whom feature in this podcast.
A full video of the event is available on YouTube, with Philip Rosedale initially speaking between the 0:07:00 mark and the 0:09:50 mark, prior to the move to Google Hangouts, with his presentation resuming at the 0:21:55 mark following the move. The Radio show’s coverage of his presentation starts at the 8:20 mark in the podcast, and begins at the point where things have been picked-up in Google Hangouts.
For those who have been following High Fidelity and recent blog posts Mr. Rosedale has made, together with his presentations at events like the SVVR meet-up in March, and his VWBPE keynote, there is little of additional note in what he has to say in the roughly 12 minutes in which he speaks or in the Q&A session which follows. As well as re-treading some of the work High Fidelity are doing, and their approach to a distributed computing approach to virtual environments, he again re-states his belief in technology – and the removal of the keyboard and mouse – as being the single key required to unlock the doors to the mass adoption of virtual environments.
How High Fidelity will work – click for full size (courtesy of High Fidelity)
It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in Voice, brought to Second Life and Kitely by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library.
As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.
Sunday May 18th
10:00 PDT: CatNYP! at Kitely
“A feisty changling girl helps a changling boy return to the “real” New York City from the parallel fairy world where they were both raised. The New York Public Library’s automated catalogue, called CATNYP, is a real lion and a library page is literally an animated piece of paper that retrieves books.”
With Shandon Loring at Lighthouse Point in the Seanchai region on Kitely.
13:30: Tea-time at Baker Street: The Sign of Four Concludes
Tea-time at Baker Street sees Caledonia Skytower, Corwyn Allen and Kayden Oconnell open the pages of the second full-length novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, which was originally published under the title The Sign of the Four.
In 1888, Mary Morston come to Sherlock Holmes seeking his assistance in two matters. The first is with regards to her father. Having returned safely from India in 1878, Captain Arthur Morston had arranged to meet his daughter at the Langham Hotel, London – but he had vanished from the hotel prior to ber arrival, and no trace of his whereabouts has ever been discovered. The second relates to a series of pearls he has received, at the rate of one a year, every year, from 1882 onwards. The pearls started arriving after she had responded to a strange newspaper query inquiring for her, and the last one had come with a letter, indicating she had somehow been wronged, and asking to meet with her.
Holmes discovers that the pearls started arriving shortly after the death of Major Sholto, a colleague of Arthur Morston’s from the army in India, and he is certain there is a connection between the two – a connection which appears to involve an Indian fortress and the names of three Sikhs and a man by the name of Jonathan Small. Then the subject of a treasure and links between it and Arthur Morston, Major Sholto and Sholto’s sons are all revealed …
Find out more by joining Cale, Kayden and Corwyn.
Monday May 19th, 19:00: The Chromium Helmet Concludes
Gyro Muggins completes his reading of Theodore Sturgeon’s 1946 classic short story.
Tuesday May 20th, 19:00: More Good Poems
With Kayden Oconnell.
Wednesday May 14th, 19:00: Flora and Ulysses
Kate DiCamillo’s second novel to win a prestigious Newbery Award (the first being The Tales of Despereaux in 2004), is at its heart, a comic superhero tale.
“The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is the just the right person to step in and save him.
“What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry—and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart.”
Join Caladonia as she completes her reading of this lighthearted tale of eccentric, endearing characters, engaging illustrated by K. G Campbell.
Thursday May 15th
19:00: Scylla and Charybdis
From the pages of Greek mythology come Scylla and Charybdis, two immortal and irresistible monsters who beset the narrow waters (though to be the Straits of Messina) traversed by the hero Odysseus in his wanderings as described by Homer in his epic Odyssey. Scylla, a supernatural creature, with 12 feet and 6 heads on long, snaky necks, each head having a triple row of shark-like teeth, was once human in appearance, according to Ovid. Her transformation, he claimed within his Metamorphoses, was the result of jealousy and witchcraft on the part of Circe.
Credit: Bookpalace.com
Charybdis, on the opposite shore of the narrows, was said to lurk under a fig tree and drank down and belched forth the waters of the straits three times a day. The shipwrecked Odysseus barely escaped her clutches by clinging to a tree until the improvised raft that she swallowed floated to the surface again after many hours.
Join Shandon Loring as he takes us, as the saying goes, “between Scylla and Charydbis”.
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Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule. The featured charity for May-June is Habitat for Humanity: envisioning a world where everyone has a decent place to live.
Bay City celebrates its sixth anniversary on Sunday May 18th, and the Bay City community is marking the day with a another special time of festivities and fun to which everyone is invited!
Activities will kick-off at noon SLT with a parade lineup at the bandshell in Bay City – Harwich. At 12:30 SLT, the parade will make its way down Route 66, and proceed to the Bay City Fairgrounds in the North Channel region.
A live concert will kick off at 13:30 SLT at the Fairgrounds, featuring Christov Kohnke, Ultraviolet Alter, and Winston Ackland. Bay City’s own GoSpeed Racer of KONA Stream will be providing music leading into the event.
All Residents of the Second Life grid are invited to participate. Posters, banners, parade float bases, and other goods are available at the Bay City Community Centre, in the Daley Bay region, for those who wish to be a part of the parade, and a viewing area is provided. The music event is also open to all who wish to attend.
“What is KONA Stream? It is my personal station I run from my home. I play mainstream pop and rock music from the 60s, 70s, & 80s along with soundtracks, novelty songs, mash-ups and light sprinkling of country. My current library has 13,000+ tracks in it!”
Christov Kohnke
“Hi, I love to sing and play the guitar. I play pop music of all styles from all ages. I play in real life and find playing in SL a lot of fun. I love to play lead guitar too so don’t be surprised if you hear me soloing over myself using a looping device that I use to record myself in the moment and then play over that. I pride myself in all of my playing be live and in the moment versus pre-recorded in any way.”
Winston Ackland
In real life, Winston’s career spans two decades, and you may have heard his cover of Lithium in the movie Marley and Me, while his version of Psycho Killer was featured in Oliver Stone’s Savages.
An accomplished song-writer, he loves playing before audiences in Second Life, where he performs a mix of solid original songs and what he calls ” offbeat covers” so that he can present “a musical party with old friends you haven’t met yet.”
Ultraviolet Alter
Musician and artist Ultraviolet Alter is known throughout Second life both her distinctive musical compositions and for her numerous collaborations with other SL artists. she has participated in many events across Second Life.
Special Dedication
Bay City’s 6th anniversary is dedicated to the memory of Bay City and Second Life resident, Ever Dreamscape, who passed away recently in real life.
Ever had been an enthusiastic and active member of the Bay City community since she first came to Bay City in 2011. She was editor of the Bay City Post, and played a part in helping to organise many of the community’s events, including these 6th anniversary celebrations, prior to her passing.
About Bay City and the Bay City Alliance
Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest Bay city group, and home to most Residents of Bay City.
The World Goth Fair (WGF) started in Second Life on Thursday May 15th, and will run through until Sunday June 1st, 2014.
Over 80 merchants from across Second Life are participating in the fair, which is being held across three regions: Cursed (Adult), Sium (Moderate), and Port Seraphine (Moderate).
While showcasing some of the top designers in Second Life who supply the goth market, the primary aim of the event is to raise funds for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, a UK-based charity that was founded in the wake of the brutal murder of Sophie Lancaster, a young woman who was killed for being a goth.
To provide educational group-works that will challenge the prejudice and intolerance towards people from alternative subcultures.
To campaign to have the UK Hate Crime legislation extended to include people from “alternative subcultures” or “Lifestyle and Dress”
As well as supporting the Foundation, the WGF is also officially sanctioned by the organisers of World Goth Day, which this year will be marked on Thursday May 22nd.
The three areas of the fair have been individually designed by Fox Nacht (Sium), Lokii Violet (Cursed) and Nephilaine Protaganist (Port Seraphine), and features it own unique look and atmosphere. As well as the stores, gacha, and other attractions, the fair will also feature live entertainment throughout its run – keep an eye on the WGF blog for notices of performances and sets as well as to keep abreast of all the news of the fair.
Update May 21st: This maintenance window has been postponed.
On May 15th, Linden Lab gave warning that there will be a period of scheduled maintenance on Thursday May 22nd which will see log-ins suspended for around one hour, from approximately 07:00 SLT.
[Posted 2:15 PM PDT, 15 May 2014] The Second Life Service will be closed for logins for approximately one hour on Thursday, 22 May beginning at 7am PDT.
Residents in world will not be logged out, but will experience loss of supporting services such as search and inventory. New logins will not be accepted, and Residents in world should not attempt to transfer or manipulate L$ or valuable (no-copy) assets until the ALL CLEAR is given.
As always, if the scope or the schedule of the work changes, we will update this post.
Please bear the above in mind, and keep an eye on the Grid Status Page for updates on this announcement,
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 