SecondLife - How To Make Money In Second Life

The Future of Virtual Worlds is the theme for Second Life’s 6th Birthday Celebration this year, (June 23, 2009) and hundreds of Residents have applied for space to exhibit there. I’ve been watching the applications roll in, and there are a lot of awfully interesting ideas popping up, as well as a number of laugh-out-loud funny proposals that I can’t wait to see realized. Who said the future had to be dull?  I’d like to remind any slackers reading this that your time to apply for space officially closes on the 20th, so if you want to build at the event and haven’t filled out that form yet (http://tr.im/sl6bform) you’d better put it on your list of things to do! (if you’ve missed the conversation about the event thus far, you can still catch up by reading the wiki on the subject.)

^ More scenes from the developing event site….

I don’t know about you, but this particular theme is a favorite of mine, and something that I think about often, both in Second Life and Real Life. I’m pretty convinced that in… oh… about 4 years… we won’t even bother to refer to such things as “Virtual” Worlds any more. Much as the Nearly Mystical ARPANET became the regular old “Innertubes” in such short order, the amazingness of today’s VWs will soon seem ordinary. It will be that thing we all use everyday for communication, research, socializing, etc. (Duh!) But what a world it will allow us to access! Singularity, here we come.

Glenn Linden found this (short) video of my favorite Mad Inventor, Ray Kurzweil, where he describes his vision of the Future of Virtual Worlds, from a technological perspective. Check it out, and if you have your own favorite links on the subject, let the rest of us in on it. It would be useful to gather a repository of ideas like this, to help us get our Creative on. The SL6B Regions will be opening for building around June 2, and you don’t want to get caught with your creative juices still in a bottle in the fridge.

Here’s my personal biggest question about Virtual Worlds… when you can have anything you want in a virtual world, will Western Civilization’s desire for Real World Stuff decline? What will be the perceived value of… huge blingy handbags? Will anyone really care if you have a RL yacht so big you need two helipads on it? What will this do to our RL sense of how we present ourselves? Will Cartier go the way of General Motors? Will RL just become the search for food and shelter and…. well, you know? Hey, just wondering.

By the way, it’s not mandatory that you follow the theme to participate in the exhibiting… if you have another idea that just doesn’t fit it, go ahead and apply anyway, and we’ll see if we can fit you in. In the final analysis, it’s all just an excuse to build stuff and celebrate our achievements!

Gather your ideas on the discussion page…

Dusty

This just in from the fantabulous Resident Team that is making SL6B an event to remember. They’ve added up their no-shows and looked in the closets for unused space, and they’ve got a bit more land that they can parcel out. If you’d like to jump in at the last moment, read on!

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Dear Residents of Second Life,

Due to a large number of requests, we are re-opening applications for SL6B for 3 days. Starting now, you can submit a new proposal if your first was not accepted, or submit for the first time. Here are the rules for re-entry!

1: DO make your exhibit anything you like - AS LONG AS YOU ATTEMPT TO ADAPT IT TO THE THEME. We’re asking you to share with us your vision of the “Future Of Virtual Worlds” as you see it applied to you. If you make pet animals, that’s fantastic, stick an astronauts helmet on them! Explore the concept of animals in the future, have fun with it. Don’t be afraid to play the game. Use the theme as your springboard, make the future what you want it to be.

2. DO explain what you intend to exhibit in your application. Not asking for a three page proposal justifying the necessity of every prim you rezz, but tell us what your vision is. Use the text space you’ve got!  Don’t simply say “Content I’ve created…” what is the content? If you have trouble explaining in English, please supply links or slurls to examples of your work.

3. DON’T utilize the Exhibit Info space to tell us all about YOU and nothing about your exhibit or your intentions. Your Exhibit info is not your bio. While we’d love to hear your life story, there is a dedicated section for that. The Exhibit Information section is not that place… unless you’re exhibiting you and you alone as some form of Life art.

4. DO make sure where it requests your name to put in the name of your Avatar - not your real name. We don’t need that info because as much as we like you, you’re not on our Christmas card list in real life. We cannot contact your virtual self with your real life name. We can’t drop you relevant notecards or send you an IM when the name does not exist in Second Life. By the way, if per chance you’re getting odd inventory offers on your real life avatar, see a doctor about that immediately.

5. DON’T offer to put up a stage and invite musicians to sing. We have music coordinators who have gone to great lengths and invested great amounts of time to create a musical schedule on three stages for 24 hours of the day for the entire 7 day duration. If we let everyone have a stage to invite their favorite performers to sing, your neighbor with the Octo-Alien frog on his 512 beside you would be shooting death rays from his eyes at you and your 40 friends who have lagged the region to a standstill, and used up the entire allotment of avatars for the region.

6. DON’T tell us that the only space that will accommodate your vision is a half a sim. While bigger is always better honey, unfortunately the reality of this event and the magnitude of participation doesn’t allow us the leisure of handing out full regions to anyone who asks - or anyone at all for that matter. We’ve tried to give you a diverse selection of plot sizes to accommodate as many ideas and installations as possible. Feel free to request the largest we have to offer, but make sure you justify the necessity! If you request a 2048 and your tell us your exhibit is simply “Cats.” Well, that might not be a guaranteed sell.

7. If you choose to disregard these suggestions because you have to have a replication of Ma and Pa Kettle’s cabin in the woods, I urge you to remember that a panel does review these applications and an application does not guarantee a parcel.

8. DO remember: This is ONLY a 3 day application extension in consideration of the many, many inquiries we’ve received. There will NOT be another. This is your last chance to participate. No further extensions will be made this year, there simply isn’t time. Rest assured we want you here!

Apply here: http://tr.im/sl6bform2

Applications will close for review on this date: Monday June 15, at 1pm SLT

— The SL6B Team

Tomorrow— June 23, 2009— marks 6 FULL years of Second Life. To celebrate 6, and our passage into year 7, your fellow Residents have been busy for months, planning a 20-Region party around the theme “The Future of Virtual Worlds”. Come by tomorrow after 10 am SLT, as they turn on the lights and throw open the doors. Philip Linden will start the event at 10 with a talk at the main stage. And the exhibitors have a lot to show you. See what they think the future will be like! They’ve created a burned-up meteor called Dallier’s Hope with hundreds of exhibits awaiting your exploration, from the hilarious to the deeply thought-provoking. http://tr.im/SL6Bexhibits

MACHINIMA: TOXIC MENGES

Over 400 events are planned as well: great music, panel discussions, demonstrations, tours, treasure hunts and more. http://tr.im/SL6Bevents

The party runs through June 30, with a closing speech by Philip on June 29 at 11 am SLT. Mankind Tracer, 2009 Resident Choice Award Winner, will kick off the exhibition on the 23rd. Internationally renowned band Space Junkie will close the event with a 2 hour concert.

We hope to see you pop in at one of the points below.

The Paradox Main Landing Point & Cloning Station

• http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20The%20Paradox126/127/194
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20The%20Paradox128/98/187
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20The%20Paradox104/128/188
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20The%20Paradox128/152/187
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20The%20Paradox151/128/188

If it’s too crowded there, here are some other good starting points:

• Cryo Information Station http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Cryo/14/207/42
• Titan Information Station, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Titan/128/247/41
• Volunteer Headquarters, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Uplink/98/25/23
• Main Stage http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Uplink/1/178/56
• Android Stage, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Android/127/127/29
• Futurist Stage, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Futurist/13/121/24
• Nexus Amphitheater  http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Hologram/198/105/40
• Linden Time Capsule, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Cryo/70/143/23
• Machinima Podism, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Callisto/123/133/32
• Observation Tower, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Nucleus/125/128/23
• SL6B Birthday Cake, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Integer/124/133/22
• The Last Rainmaker, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Polaris/126/84/23
• UFO Crash Site, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Uplink/148/142/21

For full Event details, visit the wiki: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SL6B

And the team has created a fun event blog: http://dalliershope.wordpress.com

Philip Linden will provide some closing remarks at the Second Life 6th Birthday celebration on June 29 at 11 am SLT with a speech from the SL6B main stage. There is limited seating available, so if you are unable to access the stage you have a couple other options.

To watch on the web, head your browser to http://www.treet.tv/live.

You can also get a free Treet TV for your home from XStreet, or visit Treet’s Northpoint Studio in Second Life and pick one up there. Deed the TV to your land and away you go. The SL6B closing remarks will be on the Live channel.

There will also be some Treet TV monitors set up in SL6B Android and SL6B Futurist, and SB6B Hologram for your watching pleasure.

SL6B Main Stage:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Uplink/34/228/46

http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Void/231/224/46

http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Hologram/29/27/46

Overflow Locations: Android Stage, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Android/127/127/29

Futurist Stage, http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Futurist/13/121/24

Synchronity Amphitheater  http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Hologram/198/105/40

PLEASE NOTE: This is NOT your last chance to see SL6B. The gates will be open for another week for your exploration!

In this post:
—Second Life Birthday Survey Released
—Thanks to you all
—Some Event Statistics
—Teens Crash-Land New Region at SL6B

—Gates Remain Open til July 6th

— We have a short survey online where you can tell us what you thought of the Second Life 6th Birthday celebration. It’s only 10 questions, but it will really help us make things better next year. Your comments on a similar survey last year were very helpful as the Resident staff prepared for this year’s event, and we hope that those of you who made suggestions last year were pleased to see some of them implemented in 2009.

Please tell us what you thought here.

— Thanks so much everyone, for your amazing participation. Thanks especially to the Resident staff, who together put in a truly terrifying number of hours to organize this event. There were at least 50 of you. (I think I’m missing a few infrastructure builders— let me know if so.) And thanks also to all the exhibitor/builders without whom there would be no reason to celebrate! The Lab is proud to have been a partner, and pleased to be able to donate the land.

— First Week Event Statistics:

• Resident Staff: 50+
• Mentor/Greeters: 68
• Exhibitors: 300+
• People who helped build those exhibits: 899
• Futurist & Android Stage DJs: 103
• Main Stage Live Musicians: 100+
• Regions: 20 (plus one from the Teen Grid)
• Scheduled Events: 815
• Unscheduled Events: LOL
• Unique visitors: 17,712
• Hours spent: 23,662
• Countries represented: 140
• Advertising kiosks placed: 698
• Event Calendar page views: 23, 260
• People who caught Alien Gift Thieves: Only 94!
• Most Aliens caught by one person: 139

— If you haven’t yet noticed, the industrious people on the Teen Grid have sent an entire region across the age gap for our amusement. The Region is named (appropriately) SL6B Teen. It has appended itself to the side of the main event, and can be reached by a causeway from SL6B Polaris. It’s a lovely piece of work, and the Teens are undoubtedly the Future of Virtual Worlds. Come see how they are going to knock you off your pedestal, gramps.

— BUT WAIT!
It’s not over yet! The gates will remain open at the SL6B regions for your further exploration and reflection. If you haven’t managed to see it yet, do drop by The Paradox for a journey across “Dallier’s Hope”. The regions will remain open til around July 6th.    

http://burninglife.secondlife.com

MACHINIMA: LOKI ELIOT

October 17 - 25, 2009, the Burning Life festival will be coming to a dusty wind-swept void near you! Yes, It’s time to dig out your fake googles and dust mask, put on your most outrageous attire, and come virtual *camping* with thousands of your closest friends.

“What is this Burning Thing?” most of you new Residents are probably wondering. We’ll be explaining that, and talk about why we do it, then get to some nitty gritty details that you veterans are dying to know, like “when can I start building my camp/artwork!?”

Burning Life is a festival of community, art and fire in the virtual world of Second Life. It was first held in 2003 when the Second Life grid was still in it’s infancy, and it’s inspired by the real life Art, Fire and Community festival known globally as Burning Man. Both Burning Man and Second Life began in San Francisco, California. But they have a lot more in common than their birthplace….

Some History:
In 1999, a dreamy guy from San Francisco decided to go explore this Burning Man thing he’d been hearing about. Into his car, he tossed a tent, water and everything else he needed to survive, then he drove 300 miles out to the Nevada high desert. He arrived at a featureless, 40-square miles of cracked mud, ringed by distant mountains. Hot. It was terribly hot. Except when the sun went down. Then it was just plain cold. The Black Rock Desert is an ancient dry lake bed. “The Playa”, geologists called it; harsh, foreign, unforgiving and so shockingly barren that it *begs* to be your empty canvas. A strange encampment had been erected there, ringed around a 40-foot tall anthropomorphic wooden statue destined to be burned the last night. What the Dreamer found there— a huge group of people, self organized into a city, collaboratively creating a different reality— tweaked the direction of the project he was working on back in San Francisco, and filled his head with ideas about the nature of reality, creativity, identity and community. He worked some of these ideas into the very fabric of his project “Linden World”, which you and I now know as Second Life. That Dreamer was our founder Philip Linden.

Fast forward to 2003. Numerous Linden Lab employees were regulars at Burning Man, but by 2003 they were too busy getting Second Life out the door to visit the real life Playa. So Phoenix Linden approached the Burning Man organization for permission to build a tribute to the real event in Second Life. With permission duly granted, the Lindens built a Man statue much like the real thing, and “burned” it in-world. Which seems like ancient history ;-). 2009 marks Burning Life’s 7th year here in Second Life.

Our Inspiration:
What happens at the real life Burning Man is quite phenomenal. This real-world city of 50,000, built entirely by its citizens, is 100 miles from the nearest source of supplies. Yet it has roads, street signs, an FAA-approved airport, a power grid, a hospital, huge public plazas, street lights, processions, rituals and spectacles. It has fabulous fashions, ridiculous situations and artworks so raw they are literally dangerous. “No Spectators” is a common meme and in fact, passive consumption of amusement is pretty difficult in a Survival Camping environment such as this. You must bring with you everything you need to survive, since nothing is for sale and exchange of money is forbidden in Black Rock City. Water, shelter, food— the hot tub, the 3-storey duck-shaped nightclub you designed, the fabulous sequined cocktail dress, the personal flame thrower— you need to bring it all with you! And people do. Many camps roll onto the playa with fully loaded 16-wheelers and hundreds of camp-mates anxious to get to work building their vision.

BUT - It’s all temporary. At the end of a week, much of the artwork is burned, and every last last speck of what was brought there is taken away again, down to the last sequin, Leaving No Trace of the city that was just there. When the winter rains come, even the footprints will vanish. Til next year….

Why we do Burning Life:
For the same reason people do Burning Man. To learn and grow. And to form a community that values creative learning and growing. The temporal nature of it is vital to having immediate and unmediated experience, and the DIY aesthetic meshes perfectly with Second Life’s riot of user-created content. When Philip Linden put the tools of creation into the hands of Residents, he set up the same level playing field that energizes Burning Man. Everyone contributes. Nobody is special, and everyone is a star!

So get involved. It doesn’t even matter how much you know about Second Life. If you are not a great builder– this is the place to experiment and learn from others. If you don’t know anyone in Second Life yet— you will. If you are a veteran of Second Life and you crave a little good-old-fashioned creative chaos, come on out. Burning Life ‘09 will be exactly what each of us put into it.

Participate! You can start by taking a look at the newly published list of volunteer staff opportunities on the Burning Life web site, http://burninglife.secondlife.com. The Burning Life Team, a fabulous and talented group of people, still has some you-shaped holes in it.

Next Blog Installment: A description of exactly how we do it, and how you can participate….