The Last Ditch

Blogs in Virtual Worlds

I first became seriously involved in Second Life for blogging purposes. Hence my SL avatar's name; "LastDitch Writer". But while our Blogpower Awards Ceremony was a qualified success in bringing in bloggers,  there has been little scope to bring blogs themselves into the Metaverse. The latest SL software, however, has limited capabilities to feature web pages in-world (as opposed to mere links to the conventional web).

Here is yesterday's post at The Last Ditch on the screen of my avatar's in-world MacBook Pro. That is no imported screen-shot. It will change automatically as my blog updates. Given that you can only have one webpage at a time per plot of land owned and that hyperlinks (which are rather the point of the internet) don't function yet, this is all rather limited at present. Still, it's fun to be in at the beginning.

Personally, although it's easy to mock at the moment, I think SL (or something like it) is the future shape of the internet. Shopping online will make much more sense when you can "handle" your purchases in 3D, try them on for size on a true-to-scale photo-realistic avatar and so forth. Significantly, SL is the only online community where the majority of users are female. Many seem to spend much of their SL time shopping. It's a short step from buying clothes for your avatar to buying clothes for yourself (although most are going to have to be a little more honest about their avatar's shape if it comes to that!)

All other kinds of online interaction make more sense if they can be conducted in a natural human way. Although everyone there looks young (except me - I have made serious efforts to resemble my RL self) there are a lot of mature adults in SL. Most of my friends there are my age or older. Once you can move around and communicate with text or voice, there is nothing else you need to learn. How true is that of most online activity? At any rate, if we old fogeys can cope with it, anyone can.

One of the steadiest learners in SL history must be JMB of Nobody Important. She caught the tail end of the festivities last year and has occasionally returned. A friend and I gave her some tuition a couple of days ago and sent her off to explore. I hear she may be reporting her adventures and I await her post with interest.

PS: JMB's SL post is here.

Association Of Rocket Mavericks

Link: Association Of Rocket Mavericks.

The presenter here is Steve Jurvetson, the venture capitalist who brought us hotmail.com. I have to agree with the quote from Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, on the Mavericks website. "In terms of sheer coolness, few things beat rocketry." What Freud would have made of it all is another matter.

Frappr Maps

This is  new site to me, but it looks useful. You can make maps and locate people or places on them for information. Then you can embed them in your blog. This example is of members of Second Life who have decided to identify themselves and their Real Life location. I am sure my more tech minded readers can think of better uses. I am pondering whether to create a Blogpower members map for the Blogpower Express. Any other suggested uses?

   

Doris Lessing warns of 'inanities' of internet

Link: Doris Lessing warns of inanities of internet - Telegraph.

She might as well complain of the inanities of paper. The medium is not, however clever-clever it might have been to say so, the message. That I may now find from my laptop, that which it would have taken me months and many libraries to research, will not cease to amaze me until I die. Yet already it is utterly banal to my children. Yes, I may find porn on the internet. That, I can also find in WH Smith. Yes, I can find inane, poorly-written literature. That, I can find in Waterstones or in a public library. The internet is neutral. Its content can be bad or good. I love and collect books, but they are no more intrinsically superior to words on a screen than was monks' calligraphy on parchment to the printed word.

What a shame that Lessing should have used the platform afforded to her by her Nobel Prize to say something so utterly stupid.

Remembrance Day

Link: The Royal British Legion - Media Centre - Latest News - Remembrance - "Garden of Remembrance" established in virtual world.

If you are not able to attend a remembrance service in real life, why not attend the one to be held at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month (GMT) in Second Life? Congratulations to the Royal British Legion for being up to the technological minute. I am having trouble with the broadband connection at my English house, but will try to be there in the person of my SL Avatar, LastDitch Writer.

h/t Free Jersey

Second Life

It may be the future of the internet; a more natural way for people to interact online. For the time being, it's merely a weird alternative universe with six million virtual inhabitants. At times, to be frank, it seems to be populated mainly with sex-crazed teenagers and people trying to sell them pornography.

SL (as it is known) introduces the puzzling concept of virtual sex. Subscribers control their "avatars" (the figures who represent them in SL) in their various contortions. Frankly I can't see the point, but it seems that many can.

After a complaint from a German TV station, the owners of SL have recently ejected a man in his 50's and a woman in her 20's for causing their avatars to indulge in virtual paedophilia. I should have thought it better the sick chap in question gets his kicks digitally, with the aid of a consenting adult, than in real life (or "RL" as it is known in SL).

Germany's legal system is so advanced, apparently, that his virtual actions may have been criminal. O tempora, o mores.

Idiotically, an accountancy watchdog in Britain is calling for regulation, warning that SL could provide a venue for money laundering and other nefarious activity. On the more positive side, a British law firm has just opened an SL office. Sweden is opening an embassy. Mercedes, Toyota and BMW all have showrooms. Some tech companies even hold shareholder meetings there.

If you have a "second life" of your own feel free to look me up. My SL name is "LastDitch Writer" and my house is a dinky chalet proudy flying the cross of St George. Here are eight words I never expected to write. Look out for the Tardis on my lawn.