Sunday, April 18th will see the Community Virtual Library celebrate its fifteenth anniversary with the opening of their new in-world library building and resource centre.
Founded in 2007, the Community Virtual Library (CVL) carries the tag line of “a real library in a virtual world”, and is affiliated with the American Library Association. As a library, it includes all of the facilities you might expect: the ability to select and read books on a wide range of subjects (courtesy of the Gutenberg project) and categorised as one would find in a physical world library; a reading room, resources to help with research, links to world literature presented by country / language that reflects the international nature of Second Life, and so on.
However, CVL is far more than just a virtual reproduction of a physical world library – it is a community hub offering opportunities and resources for learning, resource-sharing, and exploration. It offers facilities and presents opportunities for CVL members and affiliated groups to mount exhibitions and presentations and hold events and meetings. It also connects with library communities throughout Second Life, bringing together digital citizens with the information and resources they seek, and provides support to educators and educational organisations.
Community Virtual Library
CVL’s Full region provides a range of facilities operated directly by CVL and also by affiliated groups, offering a rich mix of literature and arts, and is a core member of the IRC 501(c)3 non-profit New Media Arts Inc. In addition to a presence in Second Life, CVL has also extended into various virtual worlds utilising OpenSimulator, including 3DWebWorldz, Avacon, CybaLOUNGE, and Kitely, either by establishing a dedicated facility within these worlds or by partnering with libraries already operating within them.
To mark CVL’s 15 years of operation and the opening of the new library building, there will be a special 2-hour event visitors and CVL members alike are invited to attend. Commencing at 12:00 noon SLT, on Sunday, April 18th, 2021, it will include opportunities to tour the new building and hear from staff and volunteers about CVL’s history and future plans.
United Artists of Second Life: London junkers – ιστορίες
If like me, you enjoy mythologies from around the world, then a visit to the United Artists of Second Life (UASL) is going to be well in order, because it is there that London Junkers is presenting ιστορίες a journey through a selection of stories from Greek mythology.
Commencing in a the great hall of what might be a temple where a statue of Ariadne in repose, ιστορίες takes the form – appropriately enough – of a journey through a labyrinth of tunnels and passages that connect halls of various sizes in which might be found scenes from the tales London has selected for inclusion within the exhibition.
United Artists of Second Life: London junkers – ιστορίες
Each story is given form through the use of mesh sculptures with additional props, some of which are interactive (touch Pandora’s box for example, whilst (Psyche is presented as a butterfly).
Further stories await explorers in the the tunnels as well; within them can be found the Minotaur, together with the Cyclops, Medusa, and a walk through the realm of Hades and Persephone.
Each story is marked by a small horse sculpture, located just before or just within the entrance to the chamber or tunnel containing it, Touching each of these will offer a note card on the tale. These are well-written and present their information succinctly so that does not overwhelm, whilst communicating the core of each myth.
Beyond the hall with Cupid and Psyche, visitors pass out of the labyrinth and onto the snowy slopes of Mount Olympus where a path winds up to the gods themselves: Artemis (rather appropriately, given the times), Athena and of course Zeus himself, who obligingly provides a teleport back to the start of the installation and the opportunity to explore other exhibitions within the UASL facilities.
When visiting ιστορίες be sure to have your environment set to Midday and that Advanced Lighting Model is enabled (Preferences → Graphics → check Advanced Lighting Model – there is no need to enable shadows as well).
United Artists of Second Life: London junkers – ιστορίες
The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, April 16th, 2021.
These meetings are generally held every other week. They are recorded by Pantera Północy, and her video of the meeting is embedded at the end of this report – my thanks to her for allowing me to do so – and it is used with a transcript of the chat log from the meeting and my own audio recording to produce these notes.
Maintenance RC viewer – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.18.557782, dated April 12.
Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.18.557797, dated April 7.
Project viewers:
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26.
Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22, 2019.
360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16, 2019.
General Viewer Notes
LMR 5 could now be set for promotion in the next week or so. No further active work is being carried out, and the current RC version has an “acceptable” crash rate.
Love Me Render 6 (LMR 6) is already in preparation with a further mix of fixes, including some that are EEP related (e.g. rendering the Moon with haze).
The current Maintenance RC viewer is also in good shape, and also have a further Maintenance RC rolling along behind it that is getting close to being ready for issuing.
The Legacy Profiles project viewer is now on hold pending the outcome of internal discussions related to it. These are related to whether or not there needs to be further UI changes within the viewer or changes made on the web side of things.
The Simplified Cache viewer has been overhauled, and should be re-appearing as an RC viewer very soon.
A viewer focused on correcting the problems of Apple notifications popping-up when trying to run the viewer on a Mac system is also getting close to appearing as a project viewer.
The “518” viewer (the Lab’s internal reference for an in-development viewer project) that has the UI updates specifically geared towards the new user experience changes LL have been working on is liable to be appearing “fairly Soon™”.
The recently announced changes to Linden dollar “buy” fees, together with the upcoming (at some point in the future) shift to Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) has apparently given ground to worries it could spell the end of third-party viewers, and an update on map tile generation were all mentioned during the meeting.
[8:56-most of the rest of the meeting] Object spamming: the issue of widespread IM-to-e-mail spamming by a range of in-world objects (e.g. scanners that record your avatar UUID and then send out IMs on “offers” and “sales”, regardless of whether or not you’ve joined a related group) is a topic that does get periodically raised within the Lab, but tends to get pushed to one side while other issues are dealt with. It is possible something might be done to mitigate the problem, but further time is needed to determine what and how.
There have been a series of announcements from the the Lab – formal and informal – that I’m catching up on.
Linden Dollar “Buy” Fee Change
The biggest – and the one formal announcement – is the notice that Linden Dollar “buy” fees are changing as from Thursday, April 22nd, 2021.
Currently, a flat fee of US $.149 is applied to all Linden Dollar purchases. From April 22nd this will be changing. As of that date:
A new 7.5% buy fee will be applied, based on the total value of the transaction purchase amount, up to a maximum of US $9.99 per purchase transaction.
The US $1.49 will become the minimum fee charged per purchase transaction.
Examples:
You purchase US $15 of Linden Dollars – 7.5% of 15 is $1.10 and less than US $1.49 – so the fee charged is US $1.49.
You purchase US $30 of Linden Dollars – 7.5% of 30 is $2.25 and greater than US $1.49, so the fee charged is US $2.25.
You purchase US $150 of Linden Dollars – 7.5 of 150 is US $11.25 and greater than US $9.99, so the fee charged is US $9.99.
Note that this new fee structure only applies to the purchase of Linden Dollars. Fees applied on the sale of L$ when cashing-out remain unchanged.
The reason for this changes has been given as helping to off-set costs involved in assorted service improvements. However, rather than repeat the entire official blog post here, please follow the link to read it in full, and should you be so minded, the lively forum discussion on the change can be found here.
Two-Factor Authentication and TPVs
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is a project the Lab is in the process of developing in order to improve access security across Second Life systems and services (and which gets a mention from Reed Linden in the above forum thread on increased Linden Dollar “buy” fees).
The future introduction of 2FA – and please note, there is currently no time frame for when this will happen – has prompted some to voice fears that it could “put an end” to third-party viewers.
However such fears / concerns are not justified.
Speaking at the Third-Party Viewer Development meeting on Friday, April 16th, both Vir Linden and Grumpity Linden, the Lab’s Vice President of Product commented on the matter:
Vir Linden:
We don’t know all the details about how 2FA is going to work, but we’re certainly not going to be disabling third-party viewers. That would be a large change.
Grumpity Linden:
That would be crazy and stupid. And while we may make mistakes here and there, on the whole they’re not crazy or stupid…
In general I would like to think that we have shown over many recent years that we’re committed to working closely with the TPV community to make sure that our changes are actually beneficial and incorporated and roll out in a predictable manner, and I intend for this to continue.
World Map Update
Also at the TPV Developer meeting, Grumpity supplied an update on the world Map tile generation situation:
I’m also going to do a thing that is an absolute taboo and I totally shouldn’t be doing; but we’re in the process of putting out updates to Map generation. So fingers crossed, [things will] get back to normal. It has turned out to be a much bigger effort than anyone had wanted it to be … we wouldn’t have chosen for this to be so hard.
For those wishing to hear the comments via the video recording of the meeting, they can be found at 6:05 through 8:01 in the video, with Grumpity’s Map tile generation comments coming first.
UPDATE 17th April
Alexa and April linden both confirmed the deployment of the new map tile generation software has been successful and is now working better than ever.
I could do this all day! Our Linden Devs & QA have been working so hard to bring maps back and fix map zoom levels! Thank you for all your hard work! #SecondLifepic.twitter.com/vrTVTnfth3
Hermosa Tierra, April 2021 – click any image for full size
A few days ago I received an invitation from Vally Lavender to pay a visit to her latest ValiumSL region build ahead of its official opening to the public at large.
Hermosa Tierra (Spanish for beautiful land) takes as its focus the lands of west Texas, as was the case for Vally’s previous design of MARFA (see: Deep in the heart of (west) Texas via Second Life). However, where MARFA drew on a actual place, Hermosa Tierra is born entirely out of Vally’s imagination, as she notes the the setting’s story:
Hermosa Tierra … is a fictional land on the West Texas border of Mexico and Texas (only separated by the Rio Grand River). It is loosely inspired by my impressions of the Big Bend National Park area, over 800,000 acres of desert, mountains, caverns, a vast and diverse range of flora, fauna and terrains. The area is also rich in Mexican and American, specifically Texan, cultures.
This is an atmospheric build, both in design and in the tragedy of the backstory of Veleta, an artist, and her rancher husband and soul mate, Jorge. On arrival, I’ll confess that I felt I’d landed a lot further west along the border between the United States and Mexico; the setting with its surround of high peaks and mesas immediately brought to mind thoughts of The High Chaparral television series and its iconic theme song; so much so that I half expected Manolito to gallop past me at the landing point as he rode towards the Hacienda-style ranch house.
Hermosa Tierra, April 2021
However, west Texas this is, and of a time a lot later than the 1870s, as evidenced by the presence of two old pick-up trucks – although given one of these looks like it might date from the 1920s/1930s and the other the 1940s/1950s, we’re not really tied to a particular period of time, but can instead allow the story of Veleta and Jorge, and that of their great-great granddaughter, Vally, whisper to us a time it feels is best.
As one would expect from a region design by Vally, there is a lot to be discovered here. While a drought may well have led to the passing of the ranch – and of Jorge and Veleta – water has now returned to the land in the form of a fast flowing stream that bursts forth from a subterranean aquifer to the west, cutting its way northwards to vanish among the blocky mesa with their crowns of abode houses that stand guard over the land – perhaps reminders of the Pueblo way of life here.
Hermosa Tierra, April 2021This stream, narrow and fast, is a natural drawing point for wildlife and domesticated animals alike (or semi-domesticated, in the case of the longhorn cattle). Cattle and horses, deer and bear are all equally drawn to the water, whilst a hopeful heron awaits, statue-like, the fortuitous passing of a fish. Stepping stones span the water, pointing towards the hacienda by way of a trail bordered by lavender and wild grass.
That times have been hard here can be seen in the decrepit barn siding the track up to the ranch, while the walls of the latter, doubtless once pristine and white, are showing their age and have become the home to ivy and vines. However, the house, the courtyard before it and a second barn a short walk from the hacienda’s gates all show clear signs of renovation and re-purposing, whilst the coral has also been renewed and is once again in use.
Hermosa Tierra, April 2021
Those exploring the land will find a lot to appreciate, from the smaller hacienda in the north-west that offers itself as a bar and places to rest, to the aforementioned wildlife and the various places to sit and appreciate the view. Travel far enough, and visitors might find themselves in a sinuous canyon, watched over by wolves and goats, whilst within the sheer walls, the hard work of a palaeontologist can be admired – but remember, look, don’t touch! When exploring, those who enjoy horse riding in SL can also perhaps get more into the spirit of the region by pulling on a wearable horse and trotting around.
Hermosa Tierra, April 2021
Hermosa Tierra is ideal for photography, and I recommend using the local environment settings when doing to – they are the idea backdrop. in fact, art is very much a focus for this setting, again as Vally explains:
Art is all around at Hermosa Tierra in a small way. At the Hacienda La Veleta there will be rotating artists from the covers in Flickr group pool. Since that has not begun, we start with a ‘Memories of Marfa’ exhibit.
At the large barn we will rotate selected artists from my Empty Chair Gallery.
Thus, this is a setting that is to be very much savoured and appreciated – and it will be available for people to do so for a while; the demands of the physical world mean that Vally is taking a deserved break from the pressures of region design and building, and will instead (hopefully) be able to appreciate her work as much as those who visit it.
The Virtual Ability community in Second Life is hosting its tenth annual Mental Health Symposium on Friday, April 16th, 2021. The theme for this years even is Mental Health in Trying Times, focusing on mental health in the age of the pandemic.
The symposium will once again feature an international group of presenters offering a wide interpretation of the theme, based on their interests and academic backgrounds.
Virtual Ability Inc (VAI) and the Virtual Ability community hosts this annual Symposium to share information about mental health and mental disabilities with the general population. Within this cross-disability community are people who deal with a variety of mental health issues. So, not only is this an opportunity for community members to learn more about topics related to mental health from experts they probably would not have an opportunity to otherwise meet, it also allows the general public to attend a professional conference for free.
Sojourner Auditorium
The schedule is as follows (all times SLT):
07:00-08:00: Clara González Sanguino, Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) – the impact of Covid-19 on our mental health. A longitudinal study from the beginning of the pandemic to the return to the new normality in Spain.
08:30-09:30: Laura Ritchie, University of Chichester Conservatoire, UK, and Daniel P Cervone, University of Illinois, will share their research Projects pursued and abandoned: Pandemic reactions of care & coping.
10:00-11:00: Catherine Ettman, Boston University School of Medicine – the prevalence of depression symptoms in US adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
11:30-12:30: Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine, and students Evan Conaway and Sandy Wenger discuss their research on the impact of Second Life and Animal Crossing during the COVID pandemic.
13:00-14:00: Ryan Schultz, Sciences and Technology Library, University of Manitoba, Canada – Acedia During the Coronavirus Pandemic: A 5th-Century Term for a 21st-Century Problem.
14:30-14:30: Mark Czeisler, Monash University, Australia, Mental health, substance use, and suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic—disproportionately affected populations.
Sessions will also be available on the Virtual Ability You Tube channel.
Virtual Ability, Inc. is a non-profit corporation, chartered in the state of Colorado, USA. We are a non-profit tax exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. This means that for US citizens, contributions made are deductible as a charitable donation for federal income tax purposes.
For further information on the board of directors, please visit the Virtual Ability About Us page. If you wish to keep up with Virtual Ability news and updates when on the move, you can follow them on Twitter.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 