Metaversatility :: Blog

Bit of a last minute decision, but have received some great responses and a nice little writeup in the Second Life Insider. Just minutes after putting this on the events calendar, people started teleporting into the studio. Hopefully this means a big turnout for our first attempt at a blended reality radio show.

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In Limbo (KRTU 91.7 FM San Antonio), hosted by Matt Daly (Bliargh Dada)

Monday, 2.26.07, 8pm SLT: A.M. Architect

Metaversatility Island: KRTU Studios

progressive electronica styles from Nu Jazz to Lounge and Hip-Hop, we will play their original material, as well as a selection of similar electronica from our favorite artists. Our avatars will be broadcasting from the KRTU complex on MetaversatilityThis week, downtempo electronica duo A.M. Architect sit in limbo at the KRTU studios. Bringing a great mixture of island. Come sit in and participate in an evening of discussion, interview, and great electronic music.
Dancing welcome, requests encouraged!
A.M. Architect: http://www.myspace.com/amarchitect

In Limbo: http://www.boogaloogames.net/bliargh/inlimbo.html

Both the San Antonio Limelight concert and SLTX Austin meetup were great successes, and very enjoyable for all involved. Photos & Screenshots are streaming in from the attendees and ourselves, and can be found here. Video & Audio from the shows will be posted soon, but in the meantime, a cover story from the San Antonio Current:

Click to enlarge

NEWS RELEASE

Contact:
Jennifer Hutchins
Waggener Edstrom Worldwide
(802) 989-0417
jhutchins@waggeneredstrom.com

Adrienne Haik
Metaversatility
(210) 683-1166
adri@metaversatility.com

AMD Opens Developer Pavilion to Promote Collaboration and Innovation in Second Life and Beyond - Contestants face off to win an AMD powered Dell Dimension System -

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Feb. 16, 2007 - AMD (NYSE: AMD) today opened the AMD Dev Central Pavilion on AMD Dev Central Island located within the Second Life (SL) metaverse, to extend its Developer Outreach program into a virtual space for meetings, lectures, training courses and networking opportunities for developers. To celebrate the launch of the pavilion, AMD will host a three-month treasure hunt contest with interactive Linden scripting language (LSL) and open source programming challenges.

Developers who successfully complete the challenges in the Pavilion will be entered into a prize drawing for a Dell Dimension E521 system, powered by an AMD dual-core Athlon(tm) 64 X2 processor, 4GB DDR2 SDRAM, 320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive, 20 inch widescreen digital flat panel monitor, and more. “The Second Life metaverse is a gathering place for both new and established developers,” said Paul Nolte, AMD project manager and contributing builder for the AMD Developer Central Second Life Pavilion. “Through the interactive virtual experience at the pavilion, we hope to provide developers with an outlet to learn and grow, such as helping them to optimize native code for multi-threaded applications. Additionally, the treasure hunt and future developer challenges provide a creative outlet for developers to express their unique abilities.”

AMD Dev Central Island is located within the Second Life Developer Archipelago, a series of interconnected islands dedicated to the SL developer community at large. The AMD Dev Central Pavilion includes the AMD Auditorium, a formal place for “tech chat-style” events and the AMD Display Hall, a virtual exhibition hall featuring interactive booths, scripted banners, informal gathering places and streaming videos. In addition, the SL presence serves as a complementary extension of AMD’s Developer Central site (http://developer.amd.com/). “As a developer, I am excited by the way Second Life invites ordinary users to try their hands at computer coding, while also providing an outlet for experienced programmers,” explained Adrienne Haik, co-founder of Metaversatility, the virtual world development company that designed key elements of the AMD Dev Central Island. “We are impressed by AMD’s commitment to serving the needs of the SL community.” The first event at the AMD Dev Central Pavilion will take place Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007, at 1 p.m. Second Life Time (PST). Prominent members of the SL Open Source movement will speak about the challenges and
opportunities presented by an Open Second Life.

About AMD
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics, and consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice, and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide. For more information visit www.amd.com.

About Metaversatility
Metaversatility, Inc is a metaverse development studio focused on smart strategies for organizations and companies entering the virtual world market. With more than twenty years of combined experience in virtual world development, research, and community growth, Metaversatility is firmly grounded in the realities of virtual reality. For more information visit www.metaversatility.com

About Second Life
Second Life (SL) is an Internet-based virtual world developed by Linden Lab. Serviced through a downloadable client program, SL enables users to interact with one another through avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Currently, the Second Life (www.secondlife.com ) online community has of over two million participants.

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AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Opteron and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

This material is based on an email I wrote to a pair of MBA students who were preparing to interview me for their marketing class. I am working on adapting it for broader use for business people who are interested in learning about Second Life. It combines in-world resources and experience with Web reading to attempt to deliver a fairly accurate picture of SL in a relatively short amount of time.

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Second Life. Is it a game? Is it a bold new market? Is it all hype? Is it the next internet? These are important questions to have answers to when considering bringing a business in to the virtual world of Second Life. It is important to understand the broader context of the world that will exist around your company and brand. Before deciding on a presence, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the environment. This can be a daunting idea– the world is hugely diverse, constantly changing, and home to around thirty thousand people at any given time. The important thing is to take things one step at a time.
There is a technical barrier to entry, so the first thing to determine is if your computer will run Second Life. The system requirements are posted on Second Life’s hompage.
Signing up for Second Life is free and requires only very basic information. From the registration page, you will choose your Second Life name. Your SL name is the only permanent part of your avatar, so choose carefully. You can choose anything for your first name, but last names in Second Life are provided so you can pick from a list. The rest of the information is fairly rudimentary, you will need to provide your birthdate and a valid email address. You are then given the opportunity to provide payment information, which will allow you to purchase L$ for use in world. This is a useful, but not necessary step.
Once you get in to SL, you’ll be placed on an orientation island to learn how to walk, talk, and deal with objects in SL. Don’t spend too much time on avatar customization as most people use resident-created skins, shapes, clothing, hair, etc to customize avatars, which aren’t available at orientation. After you teleport to the mainland, you will probably be at a welcome area or info hub. Think of this like a bus station. There will be some information as to how to get around, but there will also be unsavory types hanging around trying to take advantage of newcomers. To outfit your avatar, I recommend going to the GNUbie store (which you can find by searching places for ‘GNUbie’) and picking up some free stuff. Finally, I recommend spending some time at newbie-friendly locations like the New Citizen’s Plaza or the Shelter in Exile to meet and interact with friendly and helpful residents.

All of this will take quite some time, so set aside an afternoon or evening, if you can fit it into your schedule. Really all that is necessary to meet us in world is to sign up for an account and get through the basic orientation, but if you have time to explore a bit it will really give you a much better idea of what SL is, what it isn’t, and how it is used.

It also may be helpful to do some reading on Second Life from a resident’s perspective. Some popular news and opinion blogs and magazines are:

New World Notes (general interest and news blog)
Second Life Insider (general interest and lifestyle blog)
The Second Life Herald (tabloid newspaper)
SLNN.com (news portal)
SecondStyle (fashion magazine and blog)
SL Business Magazine (business magazine and blog)
The Metaverse Messenger (SL newspaper)

I also recommend checking out the media section of Metaversatility’s website.