Henry Jenkins, the well-known Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, has posted a nice (and rather long) synopsis of the marketing side of Second Life called “Experimenting with Brands in Second Life” (Link) which I’ve just read. Of course I once again find myself pointing out in comments that the issues extend beyond intangible media into the realm of tangible product. Not quite yet, but soon there will be compelling examples. How that might come to pass is, of course, often on my mind and behind much of what I write here.

Anyway, it’s a fun read. Felt to me like a trip down memory lane. I’ve not really given it much thought, but Second Life has grown quite a lot since I got involved just a year and a half ago. It’s actually a bit awe-inspiring to imagine millions of people across the globe simultaneously logged into a single, connected 3D virtual space where they can create 3D objects, write code and basically do many things one might do in front of a computer. I expect that will happen in the near future. Maybe it’ll be SL; maybe it’ll be another virtual world system. Either way, I’ll be there I guess. It’s just too interesting to not follow the evolution of this technology.

Here’s an interesting effort: going from PowerPoint 2D to Second Life 3D (Link). I know next to nothing about PowerPoint; I’m surprised you can even draw lines in it.

Seems strange to think of PowerPoint as a CAD tool, doesn’t it?

Occurs to me that you could go from PowerPoint to solid geometry and from there to manufacturing.

Strange is good.

{Image Copyright © 2006 Dave Braines}

Ilya Vedrashko posts over on his Brands in Games blog (Link) that he’s defended his thesis and his paper is available for review (Link). I’ve not yet read it, but I will find time for it. It should be an informative read. Currently a PDF but an upgrade patch is forthcoming.

If the open source community is actually being provided for by 1% of the crowd, then the organizers behind the Jahshaka real-time editing community have more than their fair share. I’ve mentioned Jahshaka before when the community was voting on designs for the application’s interface (reLink), and now they’re voting on startup screens (Link). How can this application not be a success with such excellent community support?

This gets me to thinking. When I stop to consider all the different open source projects of which I’m aware, there are usually only one or two exceptional efforts per category. For example, if I were to say “open source 3D”, most 3D people would answer “Blender“. If I were to say “open source 2D imaging”, most people would answer “Gimp“.
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Yesterday I happened across an unfortunate thread on the soon-to-be-closed Second Life forum (Link) that called out what appear to be real life threats on another, SL-related forum (I won’t be posting links and you should understand why after you read more). Here is one threat posted under a thread titled “Kill Kill Dies Bitch!”:

Did MadmaG go to any SLCC’s? I am going to the next one and if I see her I am whooping her ass if I don’t shoot her first!

Anyone else wanna take a “stab” at her while I hold her down?

Read it ….
BITCH!

For those who are unaware, the “SLCC” is a real world event and has gotten sufficiently large to attract media attention. Here’s another implied threat posted by another user (maybe) as a poll titled “How to rape MadamG Zagato?”

How would you prefer to rape her or see her raped?
Take the poll then discuss.

I’d rather not post the options available.
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