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Today we are shining a spotlight on Hamlet Au, also known as Wagner James Au. Hamlet is a journalist that has been diligently reporting about Second Life for two decades on New World Notes, and has just released his latest book, Making a Metaverse That Matters!
Can you give us a brief overview of your background and how you got involved with virtual worlds, especially Second Life?
Back in 2003, I was a young San Francisco-based freelancer writing about games as an emerging cultural force for Wired and Salon. The PR firm of an oddly-named startup called Linden Lab invited me to see a new online game world they were creating. (Yes, Lindens called it a game back then!)After Philip had taken me on my first tour of Second Life, his head of marketing at the time, Robin Harper, suggested that I could write for them -- as a journalist embedded in their virtual world. My first avatar, Hamlet Linden, was born, as was my blog: New World Notes.
After I left Linden to write my first book, The Making of Second Life, I moved my avatar identity to Hamlet Au in a transfer ceremony. I’ve always worn a white suit, sort of my silly tribute to legendary “New Journalist” Tom Wolfe.
One of the very first Residents I interviewed was Catherine Omega, an amazing scripter who casually mentioned she was temporarily homeless in real life. So I quickly realized an amazing community was developing, and that it was the story of a lifetime. I’ve been writing about SL culture whenever I can ever since!
For instance, I recently interviewed BunnyGPT, one of the first SL bots wired up to ChatGPT.
I even still have an office space in Waterhead kept from my Linden days. Come visit! There’s an official shrine to Snow Crash there, approved by Neal Stephenson himself.
Your first book, The Making of Second Life, was published in 2008. How has Second Life evolved since then, and how did that evolution inspire your new book Making a Metaverse That Matters?
Second Life's visual quality and backend reliability have greatly improved since 2008 for sure, but to me, the most important evolution since then happened with everyone else: In the last five years or so, metaverse-type virtual worlds have finally become mainstream. And what’s exciting is that Second Life is not only still thriving, but is an important role model for these newer platforms. As I noted a while ago, Second Life creators make about as much money from the virtual world as Linden Lab itself. No other metaverse platform can say that!
The Making of Second Life (2008)So that’s what inspired me to write Making a Metaverse That Matters: I want to take all the lessons we’ve learned from Second Life over the last 20 years and apply them to new metaverse platforms so that we can finally realize the best and largest virtual world possible.
Making a Metaverse That Matters (2023)As someone who has worked for Linden Lab, what insights can you provide into the challenges and successes of maintaining and evolving a platform like Second Life?
The biggest and most amazing challenge is that the community is basically an equal collaborator with the actual company. This is both a blessing and a curse! When I was a Linden, the team would often stop work to marvel at the latest user-made project which included technical workarounds the engineers never anticipated -- and then realize that they couldn’t easily patch that workaround since doing that might break the user’s creation.With your blog New World Notes running for over 20 years, how have your thoughts and insights about virtual worlds changed? Can you share a particular event or moment that was a turning point for you?
During a conference where I was speaking about my first book, I randomly visited a virtual Bayou bar, where I saw an avatar playing blues guitar. His appearance was customized to look like a tall old Black man, which I assumed was just his roleplay character.
Mr. Bristol photo credit: Russ Roberts/Etherian KamabukoBut clicking on the user’s account, I realized that in real life he was Charles Bristol, an 87-year-old Bluesman and the grandson of once enslaved people who lived long enough to play live music in Second Life.
Wow, I thought to myself -- if people as amazing as that are in SL without me knowing, who else is in there? So I’ve never really left. Even if Second Life is not the largest virtual world, it’s definitely the most interesting and inspiring -- and the best role model for making the Metaverse.
Tell us about some of the Residents in Second Life that have left a lasting impression with their work in the virtual realm.
There are so many! But I’m very grateful to Cajsa Lilliehook for covering SL’s incredible Flickr community every week, and Sanny Yoshikawa for translating New World Notes to SL’s large Japanese user base. And to all my regular New World Notes readers!
I should also mention metaverse artist AM Radio, who is not as active in SL in recent years but still keeps his eye on the virtual world, and whose work has been so influential. I recently wrote about how his real life son is helping keep his art alive.
Where can people see your work? Please share links to your books, websites, and social media accounts.
New World Notes
Making a Metaverse That Matters
Facebook: Hamlet.Au
Twitter: @SLHamlet
Plurk: Hamlet_Au
Discord: WJA#3523
Thank you, Hamlet, for all your years of reporting the metaverse news! We especially enjoyed your recent article in The Atlantic: There Will Never Be Another Second Life. Catch Hamlet tomorrow on Reddit for a special AMA!
Each of our Spotlight posts features a different Resident to showcase the spectrum of experiences and personalities found in our virtual world. If you have created something inworld that you’re proud of, or have had a deeply meaningful experience that could brighten someone else’s day, please sign up! More info here: https://second.life/spotlight-signup- Read more...
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"Two decades ago — an eternity in “Internet Time” — a small group of people from a tiny, unknown start-up somewhere in San Francisco opened the doors to the public, showing off their latest software platform, after having spent several months in closed beta. That platform was nothing more and nothing less than what author Neil Stephenson called “the Metaverse”, two decades before." Read more on the blog.
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We’re opening a small set of sandboxes for testing in preparation of introducing GLTF PBR content to the main grid. Please note, these regions are experimental – any content created or modified on these regions and then used in regions that are not materials enabled may exhibit undefined behavior and become permanently damaged. Such content should not be offered on Second Life's Marketplace until future notice. In order to view PBR materials you must use the GLTF Material Import Project Viewer.
As we roll out GLTF PBR materials in the coming weeks, expect a patchwork of support for material assets across the grid. A quick way to tell if the region you’re on is materials enabled is to check if “Build->Upload->Material…” is enabled:
On materials enabled regions, this option will be available and allows for the import of PBR materials from GLTF assets. Only materials are imported at this time –you must still import meshes via COLLADA. Future work will add support for GLTF scenes and models, but you can start building with GLTF PBR materials today.
Currently support is limited to a handful of regions that have been carefully selected. If you want to experiment with materials in a sandbox setting visit one of the following regions:
Download the Viewer here
For more technical input, please file a Jira- Second Life Viewer Team
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Today's Second Life pic of the day by Trouble Dethly is the cover of "Coming Out Stories" a heartfelt mini-publication that brings together personal narratives of Second Life Residents who've courageously shared their journeys to self-discovery. Happy Pride! 🌈
For a chance to have your image featured as the Second Life pic of the day, submit your work to the Official Second Life Flickr Group.
For a chance to be featured in our #SLFeature Instagram stories, follow and tag us on Instagram.Connect with Second Life on Social Media.
Signup for the Second Life Weekly Email Newsletter.- Read more...
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The Concierge and Land User Group meeting is a monthly, public meeting for discussion and education on Second Life, useful to both Mainland Residents and Estate owners.
Topics include any issues relating to Customer Relations/Support or concerning Land in general (mainland, islands, Linden Homes, estates, auctions, etc.).
Join Wendi, Vix, and members of the Land team, on Wednesday at 12pm PT at Linden Estate Services. All are welcome.
Keep up to date with all of our user group meetings on our wiki and public calendar.
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Happy Friday everyone! Spring is in the air and it’s time to sweep out some clutter to make room for new things to bloom. We’ve had many of you give us feedback on absentee store owners who don’t offer sales support for their products. You also told us about older products or spam that is creating clutter. In the past, there have been clean-ups of the marketplace to address these concerns that yielded a very positive response. Keeping all this in mind we will be making the following changes:
- If the Merchant hasn’t logged in in two years *and* a specific product hasn’t sold in 1 year (03/01/2022), the product will be unlisted.
- If the Merchant hasn’t logged in in two years *and* the store hasn’t sold anything in 1 year, their store will be disabled.
- This means that if a product has sold within the past year or has not sold but the seller has logged in within the last two years, that product listing will remain available on the marketplace. If a store has products, which have sold within the past year, it will remain enabled.
We are confident that a more lean selection of products and search results will benefit the shoppers as well as active creators on the SL Marketplace. Happy Shopping!
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Hi Everybody!
I would like to introduce a new member of the Linden Support team, Boxy 5000.
Boxy 5000 is a virtual assistant/support bot trainee.
But wait, wasn’t there already a chatbot who answered questions for premium users? Indeed there was! Boxy 3000 was the earlier model of the trainee chatbot.
We are learning from some design flaws and moving forward with a more advanced bot. Boxy 3000 has been re-invented and given an extra 2000!
But wait a second time! Won’t this bring about the machine apocalypse? Not just yet–Boxy 5000 is more advanced and learns as they go but Skynet is still a few upgrades away.
The upgraded bot will be a 24/7 support option for both premium and non-premium residents! (Previously only available for premium customers.)
Boxy will have the ability to answer commonly asked questions, keep you up to date on current issues, help with ticket submission and in some cases handle a support request.
Boxy has uses for all residents, from early adopters to fresh new faces.
For new and more casual residents Boxy is available to help them find the support they need.
For our seasoned veterans Boxy can offer support options for some specific requests. Specifically, Boxy will be able to submit an abuse report on your behalf and in some cases help with the restart of a region!
Boxy will continue to learn as we go. Boxy might not have all the answers currently, but we will continue to review questions posed and help the bot to better answer your support queries.
We realize that a chat bot is not a substitute for a customer support representative, and this bot is not meant to be. It is however meant to help when we are unavailable or may be experiencing higher call volumes.For premium residents Boxy will only be the first point of contact before being passed to a support representative during office hours. Utilize Boxy to help better explain your issue once you are transferred to a support representative. Outside of office hours Boxy can help or create a ticket for when we are back in the office.
The ability to get an answer to your question or to get your issue resolved without having to wait until our Support Lindens are available is Boxy’s primary directive.
Anyone interested in saying hello to Boxy can access it by logging into our support portal. The Boxy 5000 chat widget should appear in the bottom right hand corner of your screen.
Boxy 5000, it’s advanced…
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