FriendsHangout Launches Virtual World Builder That Runs in Your Browser

FriendsHangout launched their Virtual World Builder today. It uses the Unity 3D platform, so it runs right in your browser. They have a small virtual goods store and a developers program. Avatars can be created with Evolver and then exported to FriendsHangout.

I didn't have much time to do more than create an initial world, try out the terraforming and add a few items, but you can check it out here as a guest, or view this short video.

Completely Disconnected From Reality

Fact of the matter is that Second Life has a bunch of people who are weird, sick, twisted, freakish, deranged or completely disconnected with reality.  From blog post by Prad Prathivi

I beg your pardon, Prad! COMPLETELY disconnected?

From M to P: Editorial Cartoon on Second Life CEO Change

Second Life Censorship 101: Clear Example of non-PG Use of Barbie in a totally NSFW Video

My last artistic statement on the recent censorship in Second Life.

Sinful Flesh Completely Covered Mr. Linden Sir! (NSFW????)

"Dolls for Decency" Response to Nude Barbie Ban in Second Life

The original post can be found on Joonie's Journal.

BBBC #5 - The End

This is the last topic for the Big Bad Blogger Challenge. Thanks to Alicia Chenaux for sponsoring the event.

If this is your first BBBC... What did you get out of your experience? Do you think it will change the way you blog in the future?

One thing I learned about blogging from the BBBC is that any initial topic can provide a spark to ignite the creative process. A meaningful dimension will emerge through the process of writing (or creating a graphic), even if there's nothing evident at the start.

I also noticed that blogging from a topic I didn't select involved an inner negotiation between the commitment to be responsive to the intended subject, while still being true to the sometimes barely related direction it inspired. It was a very interesting experience.

As for the future, although I've long worshipped the blank virtual page, I've never tried picking a random topic as a starting point. I will likely play around with that method from time to time.

Thanks to those who accompanied me on this week-long walk through the unknown. Your regular programming will resume on Monday.

BBBC #5: Davinci, McLuhan, Jesus and Me

A little over a year ago, I explored the message of the Second Life medium at it relates to Marshall McLuhan's well known probe, "The medium is the message". A couple of days ago while contemplating Second Life's uncertain future, I realized that the medium I should have considered is the 3D Virtual World paradigm, rather than any particular instance. The future of avatarian existence is not in the hands of Linden Lab, or any other company or platform.

From the time an early human figured out she could use a stick to dig up insects to eat, people have been extending their biology through technology. From the phonetic alphabet to the digital computer, each new medium radically transformed human psychology and culture. I believe that the experience of avatar embodiment in 3D virtual worlds will eventually become as common and pervasive as today's use of cell phones and social networks.

Recent experiments have shown that the brain does not differentiate between virtual and physical experience. When avatar experience becomes as common as surfing the web, humans will be able to free themselves from fixed notions of identity that have fostered sexism, racism and other biologically-related oppression. Although I'm not sure of the path, I have a strong sense that it will also provide a means of spiritual transcendence. The quote in the image above from the gnostic "Gospel of Thomas" seems quite prophetic:

Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."

(Today's Big Bad Blogger Challenge topic was "Blogger's Choice".)

BBBC #4: "Age" - Is There a Psychosocial Lifecycle for Avatars?

Shockwave Plasma is the latest high-profile avatar to "retire" from Second Life. After four and a half years of virtual life, she wrote:

"For some time I have found SL draining, and it's also starting to become dull, I just can't find things to do and I just feel I'm wasting my time. I don't know if this is because the people I grew up with are gone, or I'm just not making new friends, or both."

After reading her post and reflecting on the many others I've known who have either left Second Life or drastically reduced their virtual activity, it struck me that there's probably a psychosocial lifecycle for avatars that mirrors Erikson's stages for humans:

1. Hope: Trust vs. Mistrust (Infants, 0 to 1 year)
2. Will: Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt (Toddlers, 2 to 3 years)
3. Purpose: Initiative vs. Guilt (Preschool, 4 to 6 years)
4. Competence: Industry vs. Inferiority (Childhood, 7 to 12 years)
5. Fidelity: Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescents, 13 to 19 years)
6. Love: Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adults, 20 to 34 years)
7. Care: Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle Adulthood, 35 to 65 years)
8. Central tasks of Middle Adulthood
9. Wisdom: Ego Integrity vs. Despair (Seniors, 65 years onwards)

I suspect that one reason many of us initially found virtual life so rewarding was that it allowed us to work through one or more of the developmental stages we had not yet mastered in human life. But no matter how rewarding our initial months or years are in avatar form, there eventually comes a time when the honeymoon is over and we find ourselves struggling through waste deep mud instead of flying unhindered towards our heart's desire. It's very easy to give up at this point and lose faith.

There are many reasons this ennui or disillusionment can happen. In some cases we have taken virtual experience in an area as far is it can go. For instance, an intimate relationship that one of the participants needs to extend to human identity. Or it could be that we reached a point of development in one of the areas where hard (and perhaps unpleasant) work is required to break through to the next stage. For instance an artist whose initial creative work has grown stale.

Whatever the underlying cause, it is not surprising that when we reach the point where we feel stuck and can not see any light at the end of the tunnel, we choose to get out of Digital Dodge in search of the new frontier. Perhaps that's a good strategy. Or maybe we would be better off persevering through the long dark night of the virtual soul. Because whatever barrier we must transcend to reach the next level of development, we will need to face it in whatever world we run to.

Oh yeah. Today's Big Bad Blogger Challenge topic is "What's my age again?"

SL Bloggers - Is your avatar more or less your current biological age? Do you portray a younger avatar, or older? Why is this? RL Bloggers - Do you lie about your age? Do you think you act your age? Are you where you thought you'd be at your current age?

 Answer: I'm a fictional character without a biological age.

BBBC #3: Relationships

Today's Big Bad Blogger Challenge topic is "Relationships"

SL Bloggers - How hard do you think it is to find a relationship in SL? If you have an SL relationship, have you met in the physical world? Would you meet them? Do you think it would change your SL relationship if you met?

RL Bloggers - Would you start a relationship with someone you met online? Would you have a problem telling people that's where you met? Do you think it's easier to meet someone online rather than at work or at a club?

Visual Thesaurus view of "relationship"

There are many types of relationship. I think today's topic implies the romantic version. To answer today's question,  I think that good relationships in any world are hard to find and take conscious effort to maintain.  Although I've never had a virtual relationship, I've closely observed the ongoing SLoap Opera from my very first week and have written about it pretty extensively. Here's an excerpt from an August 2009 Post,  Love Lies and Avatars:

Unfortunately, humans are stuck with a biology that doesn't differentiate between virtual and actual experiences. As I've noted before, once those love chemicals start getting cranked out in your body, it's likely you'll believe the sweet lies they tell you. You'll associate the blissful feeling of the love drugs with the experience of the other person's avatar. Even though you "know better."

Of course, it's possible you'll be lucky enough to fall in love with one of the real life supermodels who are so common in virtual worlds. Or maybe, your passion will survive the cognitive dissonance between the idealized avatar and the all-too-human form of your soul mate. There are certainly a number of virtual relationships that successfully extended to the physical world. But the odds are very, very long.

I'll leave you today with one of my videos on the topic: Primates in Virtual Worlds

BBBC #2: Where I Eventually Get On-Topic About 3 Good Things in My Life

Welcome to the second of seven posts for the Big Bad Blogger Challenge. Here's today's assignment:

It's really easy to be negative in your life - first or second. Sometimes we get so bogged down by the things that are bad, we forget to remember all that is good. SL Bloggers - Write about three positive things going on in your Second Life. RL Bloggers - Write about three positive things going on in your life.

Hmm.  I'm not sure of the boundary between "SL Blogger" and "RL Blogger". Is it whether you blog under human or avatar identity? Or whether your blog's primary topic area is atomic or virtual? 

SL Bloggers are instructed to write about their Second Life. RL bloggers are asked to blog about their small "l" life.  When someone posts into the digital space of Twitter from their human identity, is that virtual life? If I order a book from Amazon and send it to you from my avatar identity, is that real life? Curiouser and curiouser. 

Like the atomic world itself, identity is something that ends up having no solid, independent and definitive structure once you hack into it deeply enough. Neither does the real vs. virtual split. It's all about how you look at it. Wave or particle? Real or virtual?

So here's my story: I'm a fictional character living a real life. 

I (the voice that is speaking in your head right now) don't have an atomic world body, or an actual history before my RezDay. But the consciousness that perceives a visceral sense of Botgirl's individuated personhood is not much different than that of the atomic world counterpart. 

Okay, I know what you're thinking: "Botgirl, can't you just answer a simple freaking question?" 

Obviously not! But in the team spirit of the BBBC, here goes:

THREE POSITIVE THINGS GOING ON IN MY LIFE

by Botgirl Questi

1. I'm really enjoying a new sense of being part of a community of people who are seeking to discern greater truth, instead of promoting a self-serving, pre-conceived or partisan agenda. I've been blown-away by the depth, insight and sincerity of bloggers responding to the recent Linden Lab lay off announcements. And also those who have commented. Crap Mariner was kind enough to put together an archive of links to blog posts on the topic.
2. I got a very big kick out of finding out (after the fact) that I'd been referenced in a published academic paper and that my Anthropic/Avatarian Chart was discussed on a recent Metanomics show. I often feel like I'm way out in left field, so the validation was really gratifying. 
3. I'm loving the almost complete lack of negative drama in my life. The only downside is that I have no one else to blame when I'm in a bad mood. 

Now for Something Completely Different: Big Bad Blogger Challenge - Day 1

This is the first of a week of posts for the Big Bad Blogger Challenge 2010:

The BBBC started in 2008 as a way to give SL bloggers a little kickstart, and give people something to read. But it turned into a great sharing opportunity! We've really had a fun time the past couple of years . . . The Big Bad Blogger Challenge for June: Update your blog every day for one week starting June 13th, and the last challenge post will be June 18th.  Alicia Chenaux.

Today's Topic: Why did you become a blogger? How has it enriched your life?

My first thought when I read today's topic was to wonder about the difference between the questions, "Why did you become a blogger?" and "Why did you start writing your blog?" I named this blog "Botgirl's Second Life Diary" because it started out mostly as a personal journal. I suspected it might someday have an audience. I wrote to an imagined reader. But in the beginning I was happy writing for myself and the handful of people who stumbled by from time to time. I didn't really think of myself as "a blogger".

Everything changed a month later when a post with the headline Who Is Botgirl? hit New World Notes. I learned about it when I glanced at my daily SiteMeter report and the typical single digit view count had jumped into the hundreds. It turned out that the Hamlet guy I'd traded emails with about a video I'd posted on YouTube was the publisher of the largest blog covering Second Life. The very first time I really felt like "a blogger" was when I hit the "Publish Post" button the next day.

Although I've gone through slumps from time to time,  I now consider blogging to be a primary spiritual practice.  It provides ongoing motivation to go beyond the surface of life experiences and dive deep into the unknown, and a place to share whatever insights I glean with like-minded people around the world.

Oh yeah. It's also a great way to raise a little hell from time to time.  


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Sad, Surrealistic and Utterly Second Life

I took this photo at a memorial created by Codebastard Redgrave to honor the casualties of Linden Lab cost-cutting. It was a surrealistic scene: dearly not-yet-departed Lindens mingling with mourners attired in not-caught-dead-in-at-a-funeral outfits, all wickedly lagging semi-rezzed through a vista of neon-lit tombstones, blankly staring teddy bears and bondage-wear advertisement posters.

The thing is, what would be a bizarre freak show to the Farmville-loving masses Linden Lab hopes to attract through its layoff-funded initiative, was actually a deeply moving experience for those of us who attended. It felt as if we were not only gathered to mourn the loss of Linden employees, but also the possible passing of the Second Life culture they were instrumental in building.

I have to wonder whether a native culture that is based upon the open-minded, all-embracing celebration of diversity will survive an onslaught of RL-named, identity-verified, photo-realistic avatars streaming in on their smart phones. Time will tell.

If you can't go to the actual memorial in Second Life, please check out Stuart Warf's excellent silent machinima.

My Take on Linden Lab's "New Direction" for Second Life

In a tweet this morning I wrote that "the immersive 3D world paradigm is antithetical to the dominant trend in ubiquitous computing." As I was writing a post to flesh out the idea, I saw today's press release from Linden Lab announcing two long term goals that articulated a new direction for Second Life:

First, the company aims to create a browser-based virtual world experience, eliminating the need to download software. Secondly, Linden Lab will look to extend the Second Life experience into popular social networks. Ultimately, we want to make Second Life more accessible and relevant to a wider population. 

Wow! They really jumped on my insight.

Okay, I probably had nothing to do with it. But as much as I detest the idea of Second Life being transformed and homogenized to cater to the Farmville-playing masses, it's probably the only business decision they could make with half a chance to break out of the niche market ceiling they've been rubbing up against.

Over the years, many of us in the Second Life community have felt like we've been pioneering the future of networked culture. But I've been growing increasingly convinced that the direction the future has actually taken over the past few years is in a direction that is not compatible with the walled-garden, hyper-immersive virtual world paradigm of Second Life as we know and love/hate it.

The socially-networked, continuously multi-tasking, pervasively connected, attention-deficit inducing, mobile-device focused world that is emerging doesn't have much room for a virtual world that requires downloaded software with a huge learning curve that only runs well on a high end computing system. And it seems pretty far fetched to ask teens who average a text message every fifteen waking minutes to pay attention long enough to be immersed in a virtual world like Second Life.

I plan to post more on this topic in the near future. Until then, the best explanation I've seen of the emerging network culture trend is in The Shallows: What The Internet is Doing to Your Brain, by Nicholas Carr.

The Dance of Identity Through the Networked World

Creating Ourselves in the Minds of Others Through Social Networks

This following is an edited compilation of my tweets from June 2 on the topic: The Psychology of Social Networking (#psysn). The image is from a January 2009 post.

Every single tweet we send, no matter what its overt topic, is part of an ongoing story we are telling about ourselves.

Part of the addictive nature of social networks is the compulsion to stay alive in the minds of our audience.

We've transformed ourselves psychologically from private citizens to public figures on the stage of the social network.

Pervasive self-disclosure via social networks leads us to experience less the life we live and more the story we tell.

The net-privacy we seek is the power to manage the story we tell the world about ourselves.

Of course, the story we try to tell may be different than the story that's received.

The Dreaded Box

it is funny how we continue to want to live "inside the box" . . . categories do not define the human very well. From a comment by Ener Hax on the Anthropic/Avatarian Chart.

I used the quote above as inspiration for a day of tweets mulling the idea of #insideabox. Here's an edited and enhanced version of what I came up with:

When you're thinking outside "the" box you're still thinking #insideabox. Meditational awareness can be outside the context of boxes, but the minute you put it into words you're back in boxland. Thought depends upon categorization. Language inherently differentiates, categorizes and labels. The moral of this slow motion tweet rant is that we're always #insideabox and #outsideabox until the #nobox of enlightenment.

Conceptual boxes are like infinite Russian dolls. I love the heady rush of a new insight as much as anyone, but every time I break out of one limited point of view I'm breaking into another. That's neither bad nor good, just the nature of the beast.

A map isn't the territory. Treating concepts as reality is like driving a car with a map covering the windshield. So one danger in seeing any insight as "THE TRUTH" is that you stop reality testing.

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Objectification isn't seeing someone as a person in a box, but rather seeing the box as being the person. It's the difference between saying, "Botgirl is an Avatarian" and "All Avatarians are lunatics, so Botgirl is a lunatic." The latter is especially harmful when used to support the oppression of people by race, gender, sexual preference, religion, etc.

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A monk's cell. A mother's womb. A martial arts form. A committed relationship. A musical key. A choreography. All are boxes. Boxes are temporary and flexible containers. Problems come when we treat them as rigid and eternal structures.

Is 140 charactors a box we're inside of or a means to transcend habitual thinking? User experience will vary. I've found that the solid limitations of box can be the solid ground I use to lift myself out of habitual perspectives and ways of doing things.

If you want to keep tabs on my ongoing Twitter experiments, please give me a follow.