SecondLife - How To Make Money In Second Life

The facts are that over the past four years, I’ve seen Second Life rise from an obscure project of a few dozen people to a worldwide brand with undeniable leadership in a new sector that we helped define.  We’ve built a profitable business with diverse revenue lines, broad interest from consumer to enterprise, hundreds of employees, half a billion hours of use annually, and great new leadership.  I believe that Second Life is in a better position than ever before to succeed in making virtual worlds part of everyday online life.  I’m happy to see that my path ends with the company in peak condition.

Of course, there’s no need for me to remind folks that tomorrow is the most happiest day of the year. That’s right, it’s the day when we get up with the sun after a sleepless night and, bursting with anticipation, run downstairs for the traditional Irish Breakfast. Then we run out, past the hedgerows and through the moors to work the mines, bursting with anticipation.  12 long hours later, now on the edge sanity from all the anticipation, the time has finally come. Oh joy of joys, it’s the hour of endless Arthurs and being very loud!

But perhaps you’re too far away to enjoy a real Irish mineshaft and aren’t currently in possession of one of those classic Gilroy Guiness posters (Haha…animals love Guiness too, go figure!)

Well then how about stopping by Dublin in SL where the grand day will be given it’s proper due?  Home to sundry shops, live streaming radio from the real life city, and a host of local SL musicians, Dublin is a well established community made up of fun loving people from all over the globe who don’t miss an opportunity to have a good time. But of course we’re talking about the big day, and they’ve been bursting with anticipation for weeks, so be sure to stop by and join in the legendary fun.  I’ll be there early, warmin’ a snug and a point.  Uh…that’s Irish for “multi-tasking on several important blog-related tasks”.

So don’t be a jibber. Getcher self boxed off and bring yer squids, is yer twist for the scoops.

For a full schedule of St. Pat’s week events CLICK HERE.

Note: The beautiful builds, active social scene, and just plain nice folks of the 3 Dublin Regions are deserving of more than this brief but timely reference so expect that Eureka will be back in the future for a more detailed look at specific locations and the local music scene. I just wanted to make sure you knew where you were expected to be in the morrow.

From its beginning, Second Life has been an open place where Residents can explore a wide variety of creative pursuits.  This has resulted in a vast amount of amazing content inworld, and has helped make Second Life the exceptional place it is.  It is very important to Linden Lab that we support and preserve this creativity and openness as our community continues to grow, and as the range of uses for Second Life widens.

At the same time, we must ensure that all Residents can enjoy the virtual world. In particular, it has become clear that some Residents are interested in pursuing certain “Adult” activities in Second Life that others would rather not casually encounter.  To address this, over the next few months, we will need to implement some changes around Adult content to ultimately give all Residents more control over their Second Life experiences.  We believe we can implement a better system than we have now for managing this content — one that is respectful of everyone’s personal preferences, yet does not detract from the creativity and passion that define Second Life.

The system we build will have three main features, which we will describe in great detail over the next few months.  First, it will provide a way to geographically separate Adult content and activities to a part of the “mainland” designed to accommodate these activities (Estate owners with Adult content on their land will be required to flag their content; they will not be required to move).  Second, it will filter search results, so that those who do not wish to see “Adult” results will not.  Third, it will require that those who access or see “Adult” content (whether on land or in search) have had their accounts verified – such as by a payment or age verification method.

The core goals of this initiative are to improve Second Life for everyone – by giving Residents more control over what they see, and by providing the best available method to make Adult content accessible only to those who ought to (and who desire to) access it.

We understand this may sound like a major change for some Residents, landowners and merchants.  However, we are committed to ensuring that all three of these features are implemented easily and efficiently, so merchants and other landowners will not be disadvantaged, and Residents’ freedom and creativity ultimately will not be impeded.

We also understand that this effort will hinge on manageable guidelines and definitions. Simply defining “Adult” content is not easy — its definition can vary across different geographic and personal boundaries.

During the next six weeks, we will seek input from many segments of the Second Life community.  We will introduce guidelines and define what “Adult” means, we will explain how to designate and “flag” this content, we will introduce the “Adult Continent,” and we will implement technical changes to make this process as efficient as we can.

The remainder of this post will address some of the questions regarding the anticipated changes and outline how you can participate in defining the new policy.  Once we’ve gotten your feedback, we’ll announce the new guidelines and next steps.  In the meantime, we’ll set up specific subject categories in the forums to allow you to submit your comments and ideas.

So now what?

We have four key guiding principles to work from, and we’d like you to consider them and share your thoughts:
1) We will create clear and consistent definitions of what constitutes adult content, in line with our Community Standards,
2) We will enable easy, reliable, and consistent ways to be able to access content by type - the goal being to ensure that Residents can choose what they want to see, purchase and experience.
3) We will implement effective Resident services and dialog to ensure that those who provide Adult goods or services can continue their activities without long-term disruption or loss of business.  
4) We will implement account verification systems that provide an additional level of assurance for providers of Adult content that only adults are able to access their content. Such a system might be tied, for instance, to a verified payment method like a credit card, a validation by our age verification provider, or another credible method of validation.

How can you participate?
Long term we now have some decisions to make about the experience that is Second Life.  We know we haven’t thought of everything, given the vast amount of individuality and expression that exists inworld. So we’re turning to you to help us see what we have missed, and to help us shape this change.  Receiving feedback from you is vital in regards to minimizing economic disruption and meeting as many of the diverse needs of our community as we can. So let’s discuss!

We’ll meet in the forums, and we’ll reach out directly to several constituents as well as to the thought leaders who will undoubtedly emerge here.  What comes from this process will not be perfect, but it will be better for our coming together to make the plan happen.

After several weeks of these discussions, we’ll announce our detailed plan, including the timeline and process for separating Adult content geographically and in search results, and for account verification.

There’s obviously a lot to discuss, and so rather than having one long comment thread here, we’re opening discussions in the forums (see below). Please join us there after reviewing the Adult-Oriented Content Controls FAQ and the Maturity Ratings FAQ for additional insights regarding the difference between Mature and Adult; anticipated impact, and other details not covered in this post.

Forum Discussions:

Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Motivations and Goals

Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Definitions

Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Account Verification for Accessing Adult Content

Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Filtering Adult Content in Search and Classifieds

Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Geographical Separation of Adult Content

Thanks!

With the economy in its current state, travel options are definitely limited for many of us. Heck, I’ve even been forced to curtail my regular Saturday drive down to the Fun Castle.  But I thought we could make the most of our travel budget with a trip to an amazing Second Life re-creation of a unique real life destination.  As an old art student with an appreciation for Realism in both painting and Second Life, the Dresden Old Masters Gallery is a dream vacation I could actually afford to take!  I had known about the Dresden sim for a while, but had never found the time to visit, so I was pretty happy to finally make the trip and see if any of that stuff I learned in art history survived the rest of the college experience.

   A beautiful and faithful recreation of the real life Dresden Gallery

Upon my arrival I meet a small group of friendly folks new to Second Life who are talking about the real Dresden Gallery. Tabea-Marie shared her stories and some stunning snaps while I took consolation in the fact that although I won’t be visiting anytime soon, the Second Life version is a gorgeous build and, I’m assured, a fully complete representation of the original’s priceless collection.

Famous the world over, the Dresden collection includes a large number of important works by old masters such as Rembrandt, El Greco, Rubens and one of my personal faves, Albrecht Dürer.  For those of you who worry that you don’t know enough about art to enjoy yourself, despair not!  You’ll find that you’re familiar with many of the famous pieces in this renowned collection.  Take Raphael’s Sistine Madonna for example…routinely removed from their context, you’ll instantly recognize this pair of bored cherubs who almost seem bemused by all the attention that baby Jesus kid gets.

Simply taking in the lush and diverse imagery refreshes a tired soul and refills the creative well so it’s the perfect antidote for a long week.  While you’re at it, click the acoustic guides for key paintings to learn a bit about their history or simply click the paintings themselves for a notecard of basic info.  And if you’re looking to brighten up your SL home, these masterworks are all for sale so you can buy as many as you’d like (try doing THAT in real life) and support the Gallery.  And really…nothing says class like a painting of the Assumption!

   Blue ponders flying baby heads

So in the end, there’s no doubt about it, this has been time well spent.  Meeting nice folks from around the world and sharing stories, exploring a beautiful build, finding inspiration in myth and metaphor, marveling at legendary technique, and learning a bit of history.  If not a substitute for, then at the very least, the Dresden Gallery in SL is the perfect companion to your art text and a fantastic SL road trip.

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Meta Makeover - Dresden

   Greetings everyone!

A hearty welcome to our new blog network.  There is so much going at Linden Lab and in the Second Life community, we wanted to be able to encourage people to post and share but do it in a way that is easily navigated by our readers.  Hence, the new blog structure with different channels for different topics.  Hope you like it.

I’ve introduced myself and posted before on the Secondlife.com blog so you know me already.  But our comms team thought it might be fun to share “…a day in the life of…” starting with a day in the life of M Linden.

There is no typical M Linden day but they generally go something like this:

• Get up before the sun, grab a coffee and scan email, read SL news and blogs, the NY Times and the WSJ. I call this “Mark time.”  Like Blue, I am not a morning person
• Go to the gym for a workout then walk to the office (this is when I get my mind ready for the day)
• Catch up with my two pod mates — Catherine (PR) and Philip (Chairman) who sit on either side of me, share a laugh, move their stuff back onto their desks which is always overflowing on to mine (I am the neatest of the three in our pod) then get to work
• Peruse our very extensive metrics dashboard to see how the company is doing (with literally hundreds of measures for everything you can imagine from Resident satisfaction to registrations in last hour to frame-rate-per-second) for 10-15 minutes
• Have 1:1 meetings with leaders of the big projects underway in the Lab (most recent was Judy on localization of the Second Life experience for international markets)
• If its a Monday or Wednesday, I usually lead our executive meeting where we talk about the opportunities and challenges of the day. If it’s a Friday, I give a “state of the company” talk at our Friday Lunch here in the Battery Lab
• Review some work done by one of the teams — maybe a new design for the Land store, or a UI improvement we are planning
• Hit the snack store at 3PM with everyone else
• Have a press interview (most recent was the BBC) on exciting things happening in Second Life
• Attend inworld meetings with service providers, partners, press, research firms but before I do I usually have to respond to inworld messages and forward comment cards on to folks in the Lab who can help

That’s it in a nutshell.  Enjoy the blog!