Harper's Bizarre

Mad as Hell about SL

2010-08-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad..." ~ monologue from "Network"

I have had two very uncomfortable encounters yesterday with users in SL. One was with a "land owner" who owns 100s of sims apparently, unhappy about how LL has restructured their customer service.

Second was with a friend who had left a comment on the Second Life blogs, showing clear irritation about receiving a report from the moles, saying that LL was not putting its money to the right resources when Qarl has been let go.

People are mad about SL and it's running over into conversations, relationships, group chat, everywhere. All this anger and frustation is not what I log into SL for. Bleah.

People are pissed about search, the changes in XStreet, the 2.0 and 2.1 viewers (including Chris Pirillo, and honestly, what a fail that was because he got saddled with 2.1), the Lindex, and God knows what else. They are even pissed Philip won't be showing up at SLCC to address the angry mobs (though if he did, tons others would be pissed he spent the money to go). A lot of it is hyperbole, half-informed garbage, and general crankiness.

However, it's reached a fever pitch. Linden Lab needs to do something--it's clear. Linden Lab, your user base is mad and soon they won't take it anymore.

That being said, I want to point out that the user base is not the Board of Linden Lab. As I have *always* argued, Linden Lab is a private enterprise. They have a right to make the decisions they make, to review their financial reports and personnel, to allocate their resources as they choose. They don't have to answer to us as anything but the consumers we are.

Nevertheless, this is the thing, LL. We are the consumers.

And when WoW becomes more interesting to me than fighting with the myriad interface weirdnesses of 2.0, and watching movies on YouTube becomes more compelling to me than spending my Linden on prim toes, and Twitter becomes more effective for me to spread my message, and Facebook becomes more fun for me to diddle away my time on, and Skype gives me better voice, and my iPad has better graphics, chances are I will put my money and time towards those things. It's happening already ;)

Because all this anger is a real buzzkill.

When new users log into SL and hear current users complaining about SL or read the blogs or try to get help and get the excuse, "Well, it's SL," you really have to wonder how long they will stay.

There's a better way to wrap your heads around all this impatience and anger, Linden Lab. The people above, the people complaining, the big whiners (and God, they *are* whiners sometimes--I agree)--a lot of them are as good as shareholders. They have plowed a lot of time and personal skills and resources into this platform to aid in its development and to sell it others. This isn't like WoW where we pay a subscription and get what we pay for and no more and no less. Or like Twitter where we get what we pay (nothing) and get 140 characters. Or YouTube where we can no longer fulfill our need for pirated works. No, this is the world we make ourselves.

So, Philip, when you address those mobs at SLCC using SL (and man, better make sure that connection is rock solid before you start talking), you had better start addressing some questions like, what happened to customer service? And what are you going to do about meshes? And when will search be usable? And why do you persist in pursuing 2.0 when it's clearly a fail? And why is so damn hard to purchase Linden? And why did you let go of so many personnel so quickly when clearly so many loose ends have to be tied up? And when are we going to stop being the laughing stock of the rest of the web (or even worse, completely missing)?

I realize it's not easy to address a shareholder meeting where the shareholders are angry. But many before you have done it. Give us honest answers, explain what is going on with the Lab so people can make reasonable choices about their businesses, their investments, and their time. Tell us where you think you made the wrong turn and where we're going from here. Face it--it's not going to be Fast, Easy, or Fun. But it is what it is.

I don't have a solution for you, Philip, for the above problems. That's your job.

All I know is, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Letter to Blue Linden

2010-05-23T13:38:00.001-07:00

Tigerlily Koi, Delora Starbrook, and I had a discussion one day in the Designers in Seclusion group after I had received an advertisement which is normally sent to new players on SL. (I had created an alt for RFyre business.) We stormed Blue Linden's office hours to express our concerns. ("Stormed" is a heavy word. Our three little avatars showed up and brought up the topic. Blue asked us to send an email, which you read below.)

We agreed what was most alarming was the tacit approval Linden Lab gave to promoting free things to new players. As I had written in a blog last October, I think Linden Lab needs to do away with suggesting to new players that life in SL is free. It's a cultural cue (and yes, T Linden, there IS a culture in SL, just as corporations have cultures and groups have cultures) that imprints on players the moment they enter, and they chase after the "free" experience on everyone else's dime and time (including Linden Lab's).

Here is the ad in question, marked up as sent to Blue.

Dear Blue:

Thanks for letting us come to your office hours this afternoon and bring up our concerns about an ad we had seen that had been sent out to new users.

I am attaching the ad with mark ups so you can discuss the points made with whomever has to see it.

We are concerned with the ad as it discourages users in SL from believing that they have to pay for content in SL. We understand the reasoning behind it, but we believe it ultimately encourages a culture in which content is devalued rather than valued. We would rather see you teach new users how to register to purchase Linden right off the bat. We would rather see, if anything at all, a suggestion that “gifts,” rather than “freebies,” are available to new users.

Underlying all this is a general concern among most content creators about “freebies” in SL. We believe neither Linden Lab nor content creators in SL benefit from the “freebie culture” that has become so predominant. By talking about “freebies,” by making them a main focus on the first pages new users see, you are devaluing the work of content creators and ultimately, the value of Second Life.

Freebies are just that. They are content that is provided without exchange of the Linden currency to be put into people's inventories. We understand the prevailing argument about freebies—that for new users they allow them choice in defining their look and help teach them the mechanisms of customizing their avatar. For those first few days, it's a boon to Linden Lab to have freebies exist—they entice users into one of the experiences of Second Life that is so fun—the customization of one's visual and aural experience in world. They teach users that their Second Life is their own and push them to continue in world.

The problem we have is that some users never get past this point, and an ad like yours doesn't help. Content creators have seen a glut of “freebies” in-world and that has had direct economic impact on them. This causes downward pressure on content pricing and also forces creators to devote time to making items to give out for free just to entice customers to see their other content, hampering their ability to spend their time profitably. This kind of time expenditure for content creators can't last. Eventually, designers who were providing high-end content will flee to other opportunities and other worlds as downward pressure on the pricing of their content continues going on. Ultimately, you'll have a large portion of the creators that provide income and quality content for SL gone.

What that will mean for Linden Lab is a hit on your bottom line. Content creators who currently keep sims for selling their goods (and additional sims on which to do their building and work in-world) will stop being able to pay tiers. Free content creators will not buy sims because they have no income to purchase them and they will not exchange Linden because they have no income to exchange out. And no one will be exchanging money in because, well, everything is free! (Except for uploads, of course.)

We can't imagine the glut of free content is great for Linden Lab anyway. As individual inventories fill up with “free stuff”—a lot of it less than ideal—landmarks, useless textures, 20 colors of the same multi-prim piece, scripts, etc., your asset servers will fill up. While you want users to have choice, we are sure you don't want them to have their inventories up to 100,000 items of junk. Additionally, every click for a freebie is a click—and another tax on your system. Each transaction seems microscopic, but it has to add up. We also can't imagine you want the XStreetSL databases full of such things.

We, as content producers, all have experience with freebies. We tried using them to build interest and traffic for our businesses. Our metrics show us that they do not generate sales for us or for our associates. When we have given out freebies on our sim or at other sims, we have never seen an appreciable increase in sales during the giveaway or after. We see a spike in traffic but not in sales. However, we feel pressured to offer them in order to simply break through the noise of all the other items being offered. They take as much time to make as content on which we put a price but they give us little in return.

What we concluded is that the audience that typically looks for freebies is not the demographic that brings money into Second Life. If we are looking for a promotion for getting money-spending customers to see our products, this is not it.

Most importantly, our philosophy is that time spent producing content of the level that most residents enjoy is worth some compensation. We are real people spending substantial real time on content. Second Life has given us the opportunity to be compensated for our time and skills, and Linden Lab in turn receives a portion of that compensation every time we pay tier, move money in or out of the system, or upload textures. Offering “freebies” devalues those skills and time for us. It sets into the customer culture a belief that this work should be free. And it furthers the notion that replicating content and redistributing it (called “intellectual property theft” by some) is condonable. In the end, it will set into the minds of consumers the idea that what Linden Lab offers should also be free.

We realize that Linden Lab is a private enterprise; our success is yours and yours is ours. We also realize that the push for a “free” Internet is part of a greater culture that pervades the entire grid. Certainly Amazon.com, for example, offers free content. However, they don't offer it on their splash page nor do they offer it without a certain amount of diligent user awareness. We know that virtual goods is a multi-billion dollar industry with much more potential. Linden Lab has told us this. How would you deny us all this little piece of the pie? How would you cut yourselves off at the legs by letting your new users think life in Second Life is a no-cost proposition?

We want Linden Lab to succeed. We want you to retain new users. However, we want these to be spending users. Rethink your ads and your marketing approach. Consider what you're really selling and sell it well. Cut us all in on the deal so we can help make Linden Lab grow.

Sincerely,

Harper Beresford
Delora Starbrook
Tigerlily Koi
from Designers in Seclusion

P.S. A few days after this letter was sent, my account received another email with this graphic:

This is what we like to see!

Quick note: I do not think LL issued this ad because of my letter. However, Blue did email me that day to something more along the lines of, "Is this what you meant?" I do not attribute this ad to this letter. But I DO feel they heard.

Linking Content to Value.. How LL Might Do It

2009-10-01T14:34:00.000-07:00

First, I am going to link you all to my fashion blog, Harper's Passion for Virtual Fashion. I have been submitting a blog daily to that endeavor for ... 70 posts now.. Ay caramba!

However, I would like to feature a little blog here about being a content designer in SL. Raven, my wonderful boss at RFyre, receives countless notices, IMs, demands, etc., daily. She is incredibly patient with them and beyond generous with her time and resources. Most of them are polite and well meaning. Some are rude. And some are just plain old stupid.

Read below:

Titled: EVENT SPONSORSHIP FROM SOMEONE'S NAME

Greetings, I own a multi-purpose adult entertainment venue & would very much like to have you sponsor one or more of our events. We would like to have you either send models or provide some of our employees with your fashions, that you are interested in showcasing. It would be fabulous if you could provide us with a prize of some sort, as we are HOUSE of RFYRE fans & are interested in promoting you in a very specific way. We already own & wear your clothing etc. & send others to you. Thank you for your time & consideration.

Sincerely,
Someone's Name
Owner~A Place~

We had a good laugh about this. So we wrote back (but didn't send):

Dear Someone:

We own a top of the line fashion line in SL. We would like to have you sponsor our continued existence and help Raven pay her tier and RL mortgage because to give you the kind of content you want, she does it full time. Please send models or send your friends over to shop at our store. We would love to showcase you. It would be fabulous too if you could provide us with a prize--something like buying more of our outfits. In fact, we think everyone in your club should purchase something. Then you could sponsor US by having a Best of RFyre contest.

We love your music and love to dance on your poseballs.

Sincerely,
House of RFyre

Then later I wrote this letter to Raven, just to push her over the edge:

Titled: *interesting* and *amazing* opportunity

(Insert Name Here) Raven Pennyfeather

I am writing because you are a very close personal friend of mine and I think you owe it to me and yourself to hear what I have to tell you and sell you because it's the best thing in Second Life. Not only will it *improve* your business but it will also create opportunities for you. Once you discover the synergies that are created, you will be amazed and wonder why you've never spoken to me before.

I will IM you at my earliest convenience because I am a busy man, selling this to so many successful people in SL like yourself. When I do, you will be *surprised* and *amazed* and will kick yourself for having never spoken to me before. It's very economical. For 10000L, leave it all to us. You will be astounded!

Here is a lm. Use it. I have no idea where it goes but it looks official.

(no parcel), Missing Sim (128, 128, 0)

Domogato MrRoboto
CEO of Synapse Enterprises, LLC

I passed the last letter to several friends. They all said, "Hmm.. who sent this and what is their service?" They DIDN'T laugh. I asked one why he didn't laugh, and he said, "I am so used to getting this stuff I thought it was another letter you received in your business...." He paused. "You mean it's not REAL?"

I am no longer surprised. There is a deep undercurrent in SL culture that denies the hard work of content creators. This weird sort of engagement comes from a number of different sources:

1. "SL is just a game." People still consider SL a game and therefore, try to play the game by exploiting everyone else to get their means achieved.

Some are doing this very well. A media conglomerate owner who can barely rez a prim has managed to purchase 4 sims, run a magazine, have a modeling agency, create a website, and, he recently said on his new SL TV show, make a RL living out of SL. He spends a lot of time making other people do things for him to create content. And he pays them nothing or next to nothing. Which leads to my next point....

2. "Content creation does not have value. However, my brilliant idea of how to assemble it does." Content creation--creating graphic art, building with prims, scripting, writing--none of them have value. However, deciding to make a club, assemble a bunch of people to create a magazine, renting land--those somehow all have value. Both have a sort of value. Graphic art would just sit around on prims if there weren't people pitching it. However, the business of making that art is still work. And at this point, it's more skilled and more difficult work.

3. "I can't afford to pay for this stuff." There is some weird mentality that says, "The computer I use that is good enough to handle Second Life, the broadband internet connection, the ISP, the electricity--none of that is free. However, I can't afford to pay for the entertainment that I find on the Internet nor for the content I expect you to provide to promote my fun and the fun of my patrons. Therefore, the time and skills you put into content creation SHOULD be free. And you should consider it a privilege I shone down on you."

Explain that one to me.

4. "I have no idea how it's really made. Therefore, it should be free." Marx once pointed out that we were separated from the means of production--we didn't understand how things were made--and this allowed us to buy into capitalism. (OMG, YES, I just said MARX.)

He had a point that still echoes today. Many in SL are disconnected from the means by which all this rich content comes to them. They don't understand that Adobe Photoshop CS4 costs $699, that Maya costs something I can't even find online because you have to go through a dealer, that Studio 3D Max, needed to be in Blue Mars, costs even MORE. This stuff takes skill, folks, and time. And for that, I have to pay someone a measly 2 bucks so I can feel gorgeous and beautiful and have fun with my friends? It's a BARGAIN!

It doesn't help that LL puts a "Freebie" area on each Orientation Island. Yeah, it teaches people how to dress themselves and teaches them how to "buy," but it doesn't really teach them about paying.

This is my proposal, and I hope Tom Hale (T Linden) sees this, because it was at Metanomics that he said retention in SL was based on first, making a friend, and second, investing money in your avatar. When newbies enter SL, give them 500L that shows in their account that they can use to BUY things but only in Orientation. Get rid of the "Freebie" area and call it the "Store." Allow them to shop at the Orientation Store. They can meet other new friends and mentors there and shop together. Once they leave Orientation Store, they lose whatever amount of Linden they had. And make sure the content they purchase is GOOD.

Explain to them in Orientation that SL can certainly be used for free; you can negotiate the whole world without spending a penny. However, if you want to dress up your avatar, have your own land, have a house, etc.--barring making it all yourself--you need to pay for it. And this is how you do it... and send them over immediately to sign up their credit card or PayPal.

This will somehow connect content to value, to cost, to real life money. Content creators built this world for you, residents--every darn beautiful pose ball you dance with, every stinkin' prim hair you put on your mesh head (over that skin someone drew). They should be able to make money from that. They SHOULD be able to "make bank."

DBC's JazzBaragge simulcast

2009-06-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

Several Wednesday afternoons, I have inevitably found myself dancing at the DBC sim with my friends Lunata, Bavid, Iono, Pippi and Bergie (and sometimes Jaynine). JfR Beaumont and Mady Schumann host a live show from Zurich, chattering in English, French, sometimes German (as I struggle to understand the French--ha!).

DBC, which is an online television/radio station out of Switzerland, hosts a live jazz session at JazzBaragge, a club in downtown Zurich, nearly every Wednesday night. The musicians who play are top notch (heard members of Earth, Wind and Fire once). We dance to videos projected from the club of the band in the club and likewise, video of US is projected into the club. DBC mixes this in an interesting way to be shown on their website (that is Bergie and Pippi on the front page). You feel like you are AT the club at an intimate club concert.

Today we listened to Marc Sway.. on his RL birthday! He was incredible. I mean.. REALLY incredible (and cute!).

And JfR did us the kind favor of bringing us to Cannes when he went to the Film Festival. Yes, Harper can say she attended the RL Cannes Film Festival, even if only in pixels.

I could go on and on. I am always so happy and have so much fun at DBC. Search for DBC in world and join the club. They are doing amazing work.

This is what I hope for with my Second Life. A bridge between RL and SL, the ability to travel around the world and feel you are in an intimate space with friends, to be in a place you never thought you would ever have the chance to see.

SL's Sixth Birthday

2009-06-22T12:50:00.001-07:00

Second Life is about to celebrate it's sixth birthday. During the festivities, we will be seeing what SL residents think the future of the virtual world will be. Undoubtedly we will see a lot of futuristic, glowy places, such as the Android Stage on the SL6B Android Stage.

However, this birthday is quite important to me, at least. My own RL son was born in March, the same year SL was born. (He's almost a charter member!) One of the most significant marks of his birth is that he managed to squeak out two days before President Bush declared war in Iraq. As I have watched him grow, I have marked the endurance of that war by seeing his progress. Through learning to walk, potty training, his first day of kindergarten, and his completion of Legos Star Wars (*sigh*), I have seen the growth of this beautiful child while my fellow citizens faced dangers unknown to me (and unnecessary to anyone it turns out) on the other side of the world.

This has relevance as we think about the birthday of Second Life. Philip Linden chose to launch Second Life during a time of great upheaval in our world. We had experienced 9-11 just two years before. We were and are witnessing our own world grappling with the agonies of a new war (and it involved more than just the US and Iraq--we have to acknowledge that), the fear of conflict, and the sinking of the world economy. And yet he, the Lindens, and the residents persist.

Probably it is a lot of hubris. We have to scoff at a group of people thinking they can make a new world. What did we think we are doing? Nation building? (Want to know what the folks at Linden Labs thought they were doing? Shameless plug here for a friend's book--read Thomas Malaby's Making Virtual Worlds--just released!)

I had a friend who asked me the other day, when you reach a goal, do you look ahead towards the next goal or do you look back and see where you have been? I said, look ahead, of course, because if I look back, I will just see all the things I could have done better. Second Life is choosing to look ahead, to see what the future of virtual worlds will hold (and, I will cynically say, picking the brains of residents for more visionary ideas of where to go).

Let me end this story about the conversation with my friend. He laughed and said, you need to look back and savor what you have accomplished. You deserve to acknowledge that. On this sixth birthday, let's acknowledge that our nation building worked out a lot better than Iraq. Second Life includes residents from all four corners of the globe, people with varying abilities (Virtual Ability), and people who love straight, gay, furry, and all sorts of ways. Despite all the drama, despite the lag, despite the lack of decent hair for men, it's pretty near utopia.

While we are walking through the 20 sims of exhibits at SL, let's take a moment to remember life without prim hair, without 25 groups, without 7 Seas and chickens, without 30,000+ sims, without sculpties and wings, without freedom from Ruth. Let's also a remember our world without Second Life. It would be pretty empty.

fashion bloggers--yea or nay?

2009-05-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

The business of blogging fashion is a complicated one. It needs to be acknowledged. Fashion bloggers are, for designers and content creators, their "press" and a peek into their customers' psyches. They are the "word of mouth" creators love to have with a wider spread audience. They provide an invaluable service to consumers on the grid, and the continued proliferance of them can only be of benefit to designers and to the further life of Second Life.

Fashion bloggers are also content creators themselves. LL has made it blessedly easy for us to examine our avatars and dress them and also *mostly* easy for us to take screen captures of our avatars (that latest camera "fix" in the RC stunk--good thing they fixed it). The screen captures they take and then edit, the text they write, the links they make--they are all content creation. Some fashion bloggers do exquisite montages of the creative content that they have purchased or have received with elaborate web formatting and links, many of them only with the compensation of future free content or the appreciation of their readers. In other words, these folks don't get paid for this and as anyone who knows me, I argue that people's skills and time have value.

I appreciate their efforts because I do the blog for House of RFyre, and it can be a considerable time expenditure and cost to style the avatar, find poses and locales, create the image in world and in other software, gather the links, and write a blog. I am fortunate because usually I have the content readily available and Raven makes the final images.

Callie Cline recently asked me to be officer of her fashion bloggers group, one she created to send appreciation to bloggers. I accepted because, frankly, I like Callie a lot. She has shown to me nothing but pure integrity in her dealings with me and others and an amazing savvy about marketing in Second Life. Several people I highly respect have spoken with great admiration of her as well.

So it's to her credit that I agreed to help her because, at the time, I was pretty neutral about bloggers and honestly, I was damn sick of SL. I was tired of being IM'd in the middle of my play time or build time with sometimes selfish requests from random people, I was tired of the drama between friends and others, and I was tired of the stinkin' rolling restarts. I was plain old sick of arguing with everyone. Callie coddled and encouraged me and turned me around.

I wrote a response to an entry by HawksRock Gunawan in a blog he shares with several others, one of whom had her own word to say about his post (heehee). The gist of it is, I am glad I participated and I will continue to participate. I have a new appreciation and thought process about what fashion bloggers are up to. Doesn't mean I love them all. Doesn't mean I think they all do a great job and that none of them need improvement (and will post in the future the notecard I was allowed to send to them with fashion blogging tips). Doesn't mean I am all sweet and am gonna cheerfully accept random IMs in the middle of the night. Just means I now "appreciate" better.

Below is my response to HawksRock, reprinted here because I don't think anyone read it there (not that anyone will read it here either). HawksRock was gracious enough to IM me and compliment me on my response.

I was one of the first Callie approached to help be an officer of the fashion bloggers group when she opened it. She had a simple idea–she would have a Bloggers Appreciation Week. She would hold a party for the bloggers at the end of the week on one of her sims (not the one with her store, thanks). She would send out some nice little things she made and ask others to do so as well. She really only had half an idea of the mechanisms going into it. However, her mandate was pretty simple–she just wanted to show the bloggers appreciation.
I was cynical about the whole enterprise but tempered my cynicism because, frankly, Callie is a nice lady who always comes at things with the best intentions, and after a pretty crappy week, I needed some cheerfulness. SL was really getting to me–I was sick of freebie hunters, lag, rolling restarts, drama, and all of it. To Callie’s credit, I argued with her about some fine points but she talked me out of them in the interest of being NICE to the BLOGGERS. Her message never waivered. Her intent was pure throughout.

After she started the ball rolling, she IM’d me the first day with reports about the participants. (Along the lines of “OMG, we have 50 in the group! Yay!” I am not kidding–she said this. Two hours later, “We have 87! OMG! I didn’t think anyone would join!” She did it in with her characteristic 20 page breaks–two to three words per line.) This thing really did snowball on her.

And yeah, she has some secret underlying ability to turn things into a good campaign. This is not deliberate–she just has it in her! Maybe it’s karmic. Send out to the world what you want back. Send out bile, you get it back. Callie sent out positivity. She got it back.

And yes, the officers put a LOT of time into this as did many other people, including the designers who offered items to the bloggers and Charlotte, who built the party space on Callie’s sim. Callie didn’t do this alone–she never claimed she did.

However, Callie herself sacrificed a lot of time to this–time that would have been otherwise spent on her business. If you have ever run a business in SL, you know time spent in world suddenly has great value. Cost it out–the many hours she dedicated to this group in the many ways she did (including defending it in comments in this blog) will never be recouped financially. She ain’t ever gonna get enough sales to cover that time.

Frankly, Hawks, if anyone should be holding Callie’s feet to the fire for claiming success “alone,” it should be people like me (or Shelly above). You don’t have to do it for me.

The thing is, though, I got what I needed–I saw a lot of bloggers having fun, I received lots of personal thanks, I saw lots of people being excited and creative in their blogs, I met a lot of cool people and learned some new things, and I had a pretty crappy week get turned around by Callie’s enthusiasm spreading through the group.

And Callie personally and publicly thanked me many times. Whether you or any other blogger heard it, I am not sure, but I am satisfied.

So I drank the kool-aid. I came out better for it.

RL Art in SL

2009-05-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

One of the residents on Avant Garde and one of my dearest friends in SL is KK Jewell, the editor of arcspace.com. KK has been an ardent proponent of bringing RL architecture to SL and taking SL architecture out to the rest of the world. She has written about Scope Cleaver, among others.

The fabulous thing about KK is she's the real deal. She knows architecture and architects. She also knows art and has many friends in the art world, including painter David Hockney. (Side note: one of the first sets of images I imported into SL for my own personal use were Hockney's paintings. I decorated my first house in SL with them. So of course, I almost died when I found out she knew him.) KK has always been generous with her knowledge, her stories, and her time and friendship. It's why I asked Raven to name a dress after her :)

A few weeks ago, KK passed me a photo of a "painting" that Hockney did on his iPhone and had sent to his close friends. It was amazing and we were both excited. KK rezzed a prim and put the painting on it and hung it in her home in Avant Garde and all the residents got the opportunity to view it and enjoy it. We didn't say much--it was a personal communication between her friend David and herself, and she was sharing the beauty with just a few close friends.

KK called last night with another of Hockney's iPhone paintings and sent me this photo.

We since found some articles about the Hockney iPhone paintings so we felt it was ok to make this public. (Read about them on the Sundance channel or below.)

British painter David Hockney revealed Thursday how he uses his iPhone to paint pictures, as a new exhibition of works he produced on his computer opened in London.

"I like to draw flowers by hand on the iPhone and send them out to friends so they get fresh flowers. And my flowers last! They never die!" he told the Evening Standard newspaper.

I am sure KK would be glad to share the beauty with others in SL. Knock on her door at our sim, Avant Garde or peek through the windows. She has a regular rotation of original wonderful art there. As do other residents on my other two sims. Will write more when I can.

Blogging about my sims...

2009-04-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Someone reminded me tonight that I have not blogged in a while. In part this is because I have been busy messing with my sims (Avant Garde, Vanguard and Iconoclast--by the way, does anyone need a place to live among silly intellectuals? I have a quarter left here....). I have also been blogging for some other blogs, mostly House of RFyre (shameless plug finished) and soon Nonna Hedges' Details.

Back to the sim thing. I have to say, the purchase of my sims was really an attempt to "engineer" a "living space" for some like minded adults. Kinda similar to a channel in IRC or a chat in AOL, I suppose, but with all the graphic fun inherent in it.

One of my newest residents said, "I can't believe how fun this sim is!" And I guess it is if you share our sense of humor and fun, which we all seem to.

At one time on Avant Garde, we would gather at a late hour (for me) and do the flamenco together, three or four of us. While I am in CST, one was in PST and one was in Europe, and she was just waking up, so she looked forward to her coffee and flamenco. We would discuss art, music and gossip about what was going on in SL. We were supremely happy.

Another time, another resident showed up with his dragon avatar and I dug a hole in the coast to accommodate him and his.. cookie.

Then there was the time a resident, moving to another of my sims, decided to blow up his residence REAL GOOD. As prims flew about, we crouched on a neighbor's roof and watched the carnage. When did setting physical become so fun?

A resident called one day to have me come see a house he wished to purchase and to meet one of the builders--the fantastic Fornicola Butuzova. I arrived and then called over the rest of the residents of the sim and we ended up having a party and laugh session with Forni and her business partner, Amo Lambeau. (Bah, lost the photo and it was good!)

Today I "decorated" a resident's garage with junk. Served him right. Who needs a GARAGE in SL? ;)

Recently, Mitch Wagner (I think I can "out" him), called me to show me his new avatar. I had to say I laughed because Mitch seemed so comfortable in it....

There is a point to this blog. It's hard for me to articulate tonight how communities are built in SL. Well, heck, people have written whole books about it.

What I know is there is a community here on my sims. We share a language of text and image, we laugh together, we commiserate, we enjoy the fruits of each other's creativity and work. We all find it very satisfying and we keep coming back for more.

I don't think we are unique either. I see pages and pages and pages of photos of people having fun with their avatars. I read quotes in picks. I hear stories. And I have been to SLCC (and hope to go again this year--seeya there).

Was this Philip's vision? What a grand one it was!

(Shakin' a resident down for tier. That's me with the eyes. ;))

Wishing I were in Berlin

2009-01-30T12:39:00.000-08:00

Right now, as we speak, Chrome Underwood (SL name) and Rob Steenhorst (RL name but he is in SL) are showing their art in another show sponsored by Vision Planer and his company. At the Austrian Embassy in Berlin RIGHT NOW as I write this, my friends Chrome, Rob, Vision, Jaynine, Lunata, and KK are sipping champagne, laughing, enjoying each other's company, enjoying the art, enjoying that whole special feeling of being where you are meant to be.

I wish I were there, my dear friends. I am so glad to know all of you. Please come home to Avant Garde and Vanguard soon :)

Charities in SL

2009-01-03T14:25:00.000-08:00

It's time for me to reveal to you all what I think about charitable requests in SL: I think the way they are handled sucks. Not the charities themselves--the requests and the way donations in SL are managed at present. I see many people--some of them treasured friends--collecting monies on behalf of charities. I know these friends are good for their word, but if you don't know them personally, how do you know?

To be honest, I suspect I have been scammed out of more Lindens giving to "charitable" causes than I have to anything else in SL. I ignore the emails from Nigerian princes asking for me to lend them money. How come I am supposed to walk into SL and watch my brain (and Lindens) go out the door? Not anymore.

I think you all kind of got a whiff of that last month when I posted RFyre's official statement about charities. I have come to solidify some of those thoughts based on the many charitable requests that have come across my virtual desk recently. The American Cancer Society has been very successful on SL, due in part to the incredible volunteer work of several individuals. Now everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon.

I have encountered "charitable" requests wherein a logo was used (easily ripped off the organization's website), a plea was made on behalf of someone's brother or dog or grandma, a personal avatar took the monies, content providers spent hours making one-of-a-kind things that sold for $5 USD when they were auctioned off, and events were staged that yielded less than my writing a check of $25 to the organization personally.

One special offender set up an "auction" for Relay for Life in SL wherein we put money in a box, but when our auction was exceeded, we did not get our bid returned to us. She could have said the item went to the highest donor. But no, she said it went to the highest bidder. And this was a high-profile SL personality (who always seems to have her hand out for one or another charitable thing--most of it amounting to keeping her sims open). I do not believe Relay for Life would have condoned how she went about her "auction"; however, she acted on behalf of them, using their kiosk and logo.

How come the content providers spend hours of time looking for others stealing their content have no problems handing over free content and time to potentially unscrupulous money handlers? Or even worse, bungling money handlers.

What it amounts to is this: I need to be assured that the monies being collected are being collected legitimately and sent legitimately. The onus is on the collector, not on me, to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they are handling the monies correctly.

In the "real world," non-profit organizations have to go through many iterations to prove this. We as donors should require the same accountability. A financial report should be presented. My alma maters do it for me every year. My charitable recipients do it. Those who ask us for money in SL should also be expected to do this. To pull out a .csv file and throw it in an Excel spreadsheet with a copy of a cashiers check or the receipt for the monies donated should not be hard to do. And it should not be a tax write-off for a recipient. In fact, if someone donates substantial monies for an auction here, I would expect them to get a receipt for THEIR write off.

What should be expected?

* Upon request, the address of the charitable organization can be provided and a means of contacting them so there is proof that they have approved of the charitable event and use of their logo for such.

* A separate avatar made solely for the purpose of gathering donations and accounting for those donations. The donations should NOT go to a private avatar.

* An accounting of the donated items that have been provided with an estimated value. This includes designs OR performances. This is so we ALL know that the content providers' time and efforts are being matched at least minimally with donated money.

* Information about how one can contact the organization for a receipt if the donation exceeds $25 USD.

I have yet to see a function operate like this. I honestly have not looked closely at the American Cancer Society thing, though people gathering money on behalf of Relay for Life have been, at times, suspicious. The closest I have seen was the Make-a-Wish promotion done at the Best of SL, run by RubyStarlight Writer. Ruby used a separate avatar for funds gathering (though she had a personal avatar gather money at the celebrity auction--tsk) and was able to prove that Make-a-Wish condoned her activities and had reviewed them. Am I *positive* that she will turn over all monies collected? No. But I am a lot more sure than if she hadn't done these things.

Finally, I wonder if it's ever been considered by anyone that if these charitable organizations are contacted for approval, they MIGHT have resources to help raise funds for them including better graphics, pre-written statements, photographs and web links? They might even *gasp* find Second Life interesting and send someone in to check it out.

We all complain about Linden Labs, their lack of professionalism, their lack of customer service, foresight, etc. Yet we don't demand the same of ourselves or our peers in Second Life in taking money from each other for charitable organizations.

In short, next time you have your hand out, expect me to ask questions. The next time someone else has their hand out, ask them questions. Let's bring Second Life back to the Real. You want my Real money, I think you should do it Really right.

SL Human Rights Festival (and a small gripe)

2008-12-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

I received this card a couple days ago out of the blue:

"The 60th Anniversay of the Declaration of Universal Rights is being celebrated by a huge festival in Second Life. More than 60 concerts mark the 60 years and the talents of 100 artists and musicians are part of the celebration. More than 30 sims reflect the 30 articles of the UN Convention.

The festival is the first time a themed programme of events on this scale in Second Life has aimed at raising real life issues. It draws on the talents of artists, musicians and campaigners from many different countries including Argentina, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. Some well know SL musicians are headlining the festival including:

AYDEN KRUH - CYLINDRIAN RUTABAGA - JAYNINE SCARBOROUGH - ZAPHOD THEAS - JUNIVERS STOCKHOLM - LONNIE NIGHTFIRE - RUSSELL EPONYM - NAPHTALI HAWKS - AYDEN KRUH - MAXIMILLION KLEENE - FREESTAR TAMMAS - LOUIS VOLARE LANDON - KOMUSO TOKUGAWA - THUMPER BOUCHER - RARA DESTINY - JANO RUNO - BLAIR BONDE - TJ OANONOUCHI - OHMY KIDD - MIA MAXSTED - VIENNA JAMES - KITZIE LANE - PILLOWFISH - VIRTUAL LIVE BAND etc etc

Artists whose work will be displayed include:

AURAKYO INSOO - ARTISTIDE DESPRES - AM RADIO - EERCHECK HICKS - ELFOD NEMETH - VELAZQUEZ BONETTO - UB YUFI - CHEEN PITNEY - FILTHY FLUNO- TOOTER CLAXTON - IZIKAEL NOVI - JOSINA BURGESS - THOTH JANTZEN - SALIANT INFINITY - NONNY WRITER - VALJEAN ANSAR etc etc

There will also be talks from Ghana, Switzerland, Poland and the UK, poetry slams and stand up comedy.

The UN Convention sets out the universal rights of all humanity. However as well as a celebration, the festival is also designed to raise rights that are breached - the right to free speech, a fair trial, shelter, rights of women and children to be free from violence etc.

The opening of the Festival includes a live interview from Paris with Draxtor Despres (Bernard Drax). He has just been awarded a Every Human has Rights Award for his machinima on the Guantanemo Bay build Gone Gitmo by Nonny Writer and Ping Rau explained " Virtual Gitmo is the prime example how an immersive environment, which has the power to collapse geographies and enable communcation in real time across cultural boundaries, can help people engage in important issues concerning human rights." He will be speaking about the award and plans to bring other awardees to the discussion at Angel's Nest at 8am SLT on 10 December. Then a concert by Jaynine Scarborough will launch the full programme of music with 12 concerts in the festival (including 3 at the Amnesty International sim) and other events around SL.

One of the leaders of the festival, musician Junivers Stockholm, has been appointed one of the musicians for the Amnesty International Small Places Tour (http://www.smallplacestour.info/site/). This is inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt's words "Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person... Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." This is the first time Second Life has been the venue for concerted citizen action to highlight human rights across the world.

Junivers and activists Any1 Gynoid and Medora Chevalier explained that they are really excited about the growth and power of the festival plans.

Junivers Stockholm said: "Wow, this is growing! Person to person, network to network - the connections grow and we'll build on them to back actions for humanity now and in the future."

Any1 Gynoid said: " We have an awesome array of SL's finest talents backing the festival. Everyone says yes, they want to stand up for human rights. This is going to be a festival to remember! Woot!"

Medora Chevalier said: "There is a new mood of optimism spreading around the world. We no longer need to be divided. We can act and campaign together, as humans caring about humans, sharing solutions, making change happen. The connections made in this world make ripples spread across the world to strengthen human rights."

There are a range of good causes in Second Life associated with the festival. These include Amnesty (featured on 10th), Uthango™ a social enterprise based in South Africa (featured on 11th), Keep Kids Safe/DrivebyAgony (featured on 13th), Peace Train/Twilight's Peace (featured 14th). Many others are featured in the sims visited for concerts or exhibitions during the festival.

The Festival started with an idea at discussions following Carp's the Rings Rock Opera, which raises social justice issues using music and drama. The performance of the Rings on 14th December at NMC Labs will be the last for some time as a break is planned. It has been featured on the popular SLTV programme Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe http://www.slcn.tv/tonight-live-paisley-beebe-3

Festival details are shown in the notecards below; on http://slhumanrightfestival.wordpress.com, on the Festival Travel HUD available at Angel's Nest http://slurl.com/secondlife/Angels%20Nest/128/103/23 and at many many other supporting sims throughout SL.

For more information contact by IM in Second Life Junivers Stockholm, Medora Chevalier or Any1 Gynoid"

Please check out this worthy and important set of events.

That being said, I want to make a small gripe. Had I not heard about this from my friend Jaynine, who is a center of a very large and interesting universe in Second Life, I would not have heard about this at all.

Announced at the opening event I attended today with 36 others (five or so of whom were being interviewed in voice in a rather disorganized chatter and another 10 of whom were organizers) was that there are 60 sims devoted to this event (as opposed to the 30 listed in the card). Holy cow! SIXTY sims!

Did someone not ask the Lindens to take note of this? Where is the promotion for this? I looked on the Second Life blogs, on the New World Notes, on SLNN, on the Herald--nothing. Looked at plurk. Checked twitter. Nothing. Facebook? Nada.

I am sorry to say, but the announcement poster leaves a lot to be desired, which is a shame since there are thousands of worthy graphic artists in SL. And the notecard? It desperately needed an editor.

I can guarantee you, more people know who Miss Virtual World 2009 is than know about this very worthy and ground-breaking event because there were people doing graphics, writing concisely, and promoting Mimmi Boa's ascendancy. Take a lesson from these silly fashionistas, all ye high-minded people. The world of commerce has a lot to teach you.

What irks me is that there was a lot of work put into this. I can only imagine how much time and effort went into creating content for 60 sims. I know some were already done and linked in, but a HUD was made to travel them. That alone is a lot of time. I am sick to think that all this time was spent for only a few hundred or thousand to view it when we are seeing concurrencies of 70,000 now. If no one is there to hear the tree fall, has it fallen?

This points out a huge gap, a difficult gap, in our Second Lives--getting the word out. It's not easy. But it also points out that half of what you need to do in Second Life is not just content production but also getting the word out. Keep it in mind.

Do I have a solution? Nope. This is what I struggle with every day for RFyre. However, I think the organizers could have done a lot more than they have.

So I am doing my small part. My five dear readers, please check it out. Poorly-syntaxed slurl listed above or in the blog you can kind of read about in the graphic (and which is misspelled in the notecard).

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T14:29:00.001-08:00

This just in. Eshi got her Green Card!

[14:15] Eshi Otawara: guess what i am holding in my hand?
[14:15] Eshi Otawara: :)
[14:16] Harper Beresford: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[14:16] Eshi Otawara: mhm
[14:16] Harper Beresford: Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[14:17] Harper Beresford: john's singing, "Eshi got her green card, Eshi got her green card.."

Eshi wanted me to add this:
[14:33] Eshi Otawara: i am really greatful to SL community for supportive words and for getting involved
[14:35] Eshi Otawara: i wish they'd still remain involved because this cause affects not just me but many other families. It is important and I hope that my struggle will teach a few how important it is that we all be involved in out government, no matter how we might sometimes feel that our voice doesn't make a difference- it DOES.

I blow up a nightclub owner and game maker

2008-11-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

I was busy today carefully patching up the big hole I made at RFyre when I got a call from my friend Jackson Vantelli. I put down the duct tape and prims I was using to try to patch it up and answered his IM. FYI, Jackson is the owner of Quarters nightclub, a rather fun place for dancing and gaming (though not my personal taste in music as I tend towards the less mainstream). He is also a supermodel, builder, publisher, and general SL extraordinaire. Jackson wanted to show me his new Blackjack table. I needed to get the hole fixed before Raven saw it, but I guessed I had time to see his new toy.

I tp'd in and Jackson offered me a seat at the table. When I went to take another, he said, "Oh no, sit here, Harper. Right next to me." He patted the seat. I was a little suspicious and narrowed my eyes. "Just want to look at those pretty green eyes, darlin'." Jackson is a notorious flirt. Somehow he gets away with it (and finds time to do it on top of all the other stuff he has going on in SL). I can't believe with all that he can survive in SL--women can be pretty vicious here. But he slides through.

I sat down and proceeded to get myself beat handily at Blackjack. Now, I know a lot of this is the luck of the draw, but the luck seemed to be falling on the side of the "dealer" and Jackson. I am glad the thing didn't take bets or I would have lost a bundle.

Then Jackson proceeded to explain to me that HE made the table, building, textures, and scripting. Now it all came clear. Jackson had to have coded that thing so he could win.

Well, all I could do was take out my own weapon--a sweet piece of candy. (You know what's coming next.)

"Candy, Jackson? Got an early batch of holiday humbugs." Jackson happily (and obliviously) took one.

I winced when, on the third crunch, Jackson blew. I guess this will be the last time you ask me to "hit you," hm, Jack?

An appeal regarding the Widow Penalty (do it for Eshi!)

2008-11-19T15:47:00.000-08:00

As you know, Eshi Otawara is still pending notification about her status in the US. While recent news has been positive for her, things are not as good for all widows of American citizens.

Brent Renison is a lawyer fighting the Widow Penalty in the US. Eshi contacted Brent a few months ago after listening to a podcast both Crap Mariner and I told her about, and he agreed to help her with her case. At the same time, Eshi met my friend Mike in SL. Mike also contacted Brent, and they put together a case for Eshi. Mike forwarded this letter to me and asked me to forward it on behalf of Eshi and the other widows who have been unfairly penalized because their American spouses died before they were able to get a fair hearing.

Please join us in assisting Brent and Eshi in this cause. Click through to the website, read about, consider if it is something you support, and contact your legislator.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: Brent Renison
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 3:30 PM
To: brent@ssad.org
Subject: 60 Minutes Exposes Widow Penalty - from Brent Renison

Hello,

I promised to let everyone know when I would appear on CBS 60 Minutes. The time has come. Barring unforeseen circumstances, Bob Simon, the most honored journalist in international reporting, will expose the “Widow Penalty” to the nation this Sunday night , November 23rd on CBS 60 Minutes.

America is deporting widows of American citizens automatically and without appeal when their spouse dies during bureaucratic processing of the green card application.

My sincerest desire is that, after watching the broadcast, Monday morning you will do something about this terrible practice. There are a number of ways you can help to end the widow penalty. The most important is to tell your elected officials that a change must occur in the abysmal way that we treat widows of American citizens. Whether you effect a change in the way the current or future Administration handles the cases, or push through a legislative amendment signed by the President, this practice must stop. Click on the box to find out how you can help.

Please be a part of that change on Monday morning, and please forward this email to just one person whom you trust to do the right thing. Forward to more than one person at a time, and accountability is lost – people will delete the email, just as you might delete mine.

Brent Renison

How Real is SL?

2008-11-12T20:35:00.000-08:00

This is a linkback to Zoe Connolly's blog, on which I was privileged to be a guest blogger :)

Zoe Connolly's blog

Second Life as an Exploration of Culture and Diversity

2008-11-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

I have the honor and privilege of having Young Geoffrion as the guest blogger for my blog, so kindly offered to me through Arminasx's and Vint Falken's Mix and Match challenge. So without further ado, I give you Young Geoffrion....

An explorer learns to tread carefully around marshy ground, and there is no landscape so littered with quagmires and fraught with hidden dangers as those of Culture and Diversity. Where does Culture begin and Personality end? Is Culture received by the individual or created? How is Diversity to be measured and characterised? And is Diversity a Good Thing?

Melting pot and multicultural communities have always struggled with such questions because the personal self-identity of its members is built on these shifting quicksands. We no longer have the luxury of living unquestioningly in the stone farmsteads built by our grandfathers, where most of our day is spent in the company of those who look and think and act like us. We live instead in busy cities teeming with strangers, foreigners, mixed classes and races, where personal roles and social ambitions jostle. A wilderness of diversity and culture sits at our doorstep and waits at our fingertips.

Second Life was created in such a community, sprung up in one the most culturally diverse cities in the world. Diversity is implicit in the promise of a world imagined and created by its residents, and promoted in its advertising. We are born to this Life as Ruth but immediately begin a search for our own identity.

However, the Second Life pursuit of personal self-identity reflects a Western preoccupation. Other cultures emphasize the relation between the self and others, by defining the interdependent self, often employing extended kinship terms. Such cultures tend to view conformity as a virtue and diversity as a selfish unwillingness to accept a role in the community, an indication of moral immaturity, or even a dangerous untrustworthiness. East Asian traditions, military and regimental cultures and religious communities generally eschew diversity as disruptive and dangerous. They offer clear roles for individuals who want them and find them useful; I have lived a large part of my life in such a culture, and my sense is that they are barely represented in Second Life.

Why explore diversity in the first place? Is Diversity beneficial for the individual and the social collective at large? It seems to me the answer depends on how individuals manage and integrate multiple social identities across culture, gender, class, or race, profession and ideology. In the United States, assimilation of immigrant cultures to the dominant American mainstream is encouraged, while in Canada and Europe one tends to see a public effort to maintain a separate identity or integrate multiple cultural identities. In other societies we see ethnic cultures marginalized. In Second Life, at least among English-speaking residents, no single dominant culture has emerged and identities are generally designed to be as distinct as possible.

Second Life celebrates play as a social dynamic. Though some come to work, the majority of residents are here to entertain themselves and their friends, and this too is a typically Western preoccupation. It could be argued that diversity is an advantage in a social environment designed for entertainment, but not in situations designed to accomplish other goals. Communication problems and relationship conflict hamper information exchange in diverse teams, and one way to reduce conflict is to emphasize the common identity of the team. On the other hand, homogenous teams may suffer from reduced group creativity and smaller skill sets by marginalizing or assimilating diversity.

Some avatars enjoy frequently changing appearances; I think most settle on a single appearance and experiment with a variety of roles within different groups. As Second Life permits us to participate in behaviors typical of identities other than our own, we learn to identify with multiple social groups and discover compatibilities between different cultures. This process unlocks knowledge and unleashes creativity. But whether it helps or hinders the pursuit of social goals is still unclear.

Second Life turns this morass into a playground, where diversity is a given and managing personal identity is a valued skill.

Business blunders in SL (or a treatise on requests for Raven's free time)

2008-11-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

I am not sure if you all are aware, but I am Business Manager for RFyre. For over a year, I have worked for Raven Pennyfeather and her small business on a part-time basis for a real life wage.

Over the year, Raven will tell you one of the things I have firmly impressed upon her is the value of her time in SL and out of it. For Raven, who derives her sole income from her business here, using her work time wisely is incredibly important.

As a relatively well-known content provider, Raven gets a slew of offers and solicitations from people in world. They can be anything from charity events to fashion shows to magazines to freebies wanted. She passes these on to me because, frankly, she's a nice lady. She would like us to at least acknowledge these solicitations. I am not so nice. I have no problem saying no.

Let me give you the bottom line on this one. Raven's time is money. She doesn't give it out for free nor should she. Nevertheless, countless people ask her on a daily basis to do so. And they do it unprofessionally, rudely, and rather foolishly. (I call all of this stuff "foolishness." Raven finds that hilarious.)

That being said, let me share some correspondence that I received today for our involvement in a magazine... or something... not sure what it is because the corresponder was not very articulate (and let say, at least this person bothered to notecard, which is more than most do):

Hello Raven, I am the Business Relations Manager of a new SL publication called XXX that showcases all SL talent/creators from SIM makers, fashion designers, prefab and furniture makers, photographers, and etc. We are currently reaching further and making the publication international being published in 6 different langauges amongst other projects to further showcase SL talent. Currently we are looking for sponsors/partners and the support from (name of comapny) would be wonderful. I have sent you a folder containing the current issue and information on the publication. hope to hear from you soon. :-)

Many thanks for you time

XXX

I am sure you can see I bolded "(name of comapny)." I did this because I laughed when I read it. I responded thus:

XXX:

Thank you for your interest in RFyre. At this time we don't have time budgeted to contribute to your magazine.

Please contact us in three months to fill us in on what you have been able to do with the magazine and we can then reconsider participation.

Thanks for asking for our participation.

Raven Pennyfeather
Empress of RFyre
CEO (name of comapny)

Harper Beresford
Duchess of RFyre
CMO (name of comapny)

She IM'd me back and thanked me. I don't think she read below the first "no." I took the time to read her thing!

Regarding charities, I think it is time we all start asking about the charities asking donations of us. I know Relay for Life has been extremely successful and I fully trust that monies made in Second Life go to the American Cancer Society, which is a fine organization. However, there are many other "charities" and fund-raising things that go on in SL which have no documentation.

Therefore, I have written a policy for RFyre which I am sharing on this blog. You are all welcome to cut and paste and put (name of comapny) in it.

RFyre's Policy Regarding Charities

We are frequently asked to donate time, content, and/or money to charities in Second Life from various people. While we are sympathetic to many causes, in most cases, we feel that money is better given directly to these causes rather than solicited on Second Life.

However, we are always willing to consider any unique possibility for supporting charities in SL if they are viable and if our efforts will be effective.

To best persuade us to participate or donate to any charity event in SL, we need the following information:

1. Avatar name who will be handling the funds
2. Real life name of that avatar
3. Charity name, website and address
4. Means of contacting the charity to insure that the avatar's representation in SL for their charity has been cleared

Thanks for asking for our participation.

Raven Pennyfeather
Empress of RFyre
CEO House of RFyre

Harper Beresford
Duchess of RFyre
CMO House of RFyre

We also get requests for freebies to be offered in hunts on sims where we have satellite stores, for charity hunts, etc. When I was a newbie, freebies were a valuable way for me to learn how to shop, how to dress myself, and what a broad variety of looks can be achieved in SL. They were great--when I got them from Free Dove.

However, there are people who actively seek freebies on SL and blog about this. We have offered freebies. Hundreds of avatars stream in, jam up our store, and stream out. We found no spike in sales. In fact, Raven has packaged a 250L GC in some freebies and never had takers.

There has been a lot of discussion among content providers about this. I spoke to one content person who had a treasure hunt at her sim on Halloween weekend and marked everything 10L to 140L. She convinced me that this was fair and would still draw traffic--but the kind of traffic she wants--people who bring money into the economy and spend it. She had a terrific idea.

So again, feel free to cut and paste, putting your (name of comapny) in it.

RFyre's Policy Regarding "Freebies"

Our policy regarding freebies or "gifts" is that we are very reluctant to provide them. Therefore, if you are receiving this notecard, our answer to you is no, we are sorry--we can not participate.

While we appreciate the traffic that "freebies" can build, our metrics show us that they do not generate sales for us or for our associates. When we have given out freebies on our sim or at other sims, we have never seen an appreciable increase in sales during the giveaway or after. We see a spike in traffic but not in sales.

We can only conclude that the audience that typically looks for freebies is not the demographic that brings money into Second Life. If we are looking for a promotion for getting money-spending customers to see our products, this is not it.

Additionally, our philosophy is that time spent producing content of the level that RFyre provides is worth some compensation. We are RL people spending substantial RL time on this content. Second Life has given us the opportunity to be compensated for our time and skills. Offering freebies devalues those skills and time for us and other creators. It sets into the economy a belief that this work should be free. In other words, it's devalued if we devalue it by offering it freely.

That being said, we have adopted a policy of offering deeply discounted items to potential customers. If an avatar can come up with 50L, that is more than enough to purchase our promotional item. We will gladly set out a promotional item at 50L to supplement your promotions.

Thanks for asking for our participation.

Raven Pennyfeather
Empress of RFyre
CEO House of RFyre

Harper Beresford
Duchess of RFyre
CMO House of RFyre

Let it be said, finally, that we love our customers. We want to be good to them. There is nothing more gratifying to Raven than to hear a customer express their love of her art or tell her a story about how much her creations mean to them. We do offer special promotions, and Raven passes out free outfits rather freely (I know this because she gave me one the day we first met, more than a year ago, for no other reason than she was just a very nice woman.)

OpenSpaces has been addressed

2008-11-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

So it's true. The truth is as simple as expected. Linden Labs rushed a product to market, found out it didn't work, and lost money on it, which had to end. They have heard complaints and HAVE reacted.

Occam's Razor, Hanlon's Razor. Whatever you want to call it. M Linden has responded.

"We wanted to get this product to market quickly. Openspaces was wildly popular.... Since land-owners co-habitate on CPUs, if one owner adds an ocean and one builds a carnival, the shared CPU gets overloaded. The ocean-loving Resident who followed the original intent suffers and we are called in to resolve the conflict. Second Life is much too large to do that."

In other words, Joe rented to sploder-lovers, got his residents on his butt, called Concierge OR filed a lot of tickets and cost Linden Labs a lot of money, just as I suspected. Unfortunately, the ocean-lovers who never filed a ticket and sailed along peacefully got smacked for Joe's or Joe's resident's ignorance and Linden's not-so-great product offering.

Linden Labs' mistake forced them to do something that NO BUSINESS wants to do--raise prices. Linden makes more money if everyone is happy--why would they intentionally piss off their customers? There is no conspiracy.

Linden Labs has come up with a compromise--a week and a day after their announcement. I can bet there were a LOT of meetings about this one but it appears they read the blogs. People will still complain, but M Linden says, "We believe this is fair." I agree.

On another note, "Go Obama Go!"

The First Hour

2008-11-03T11:32:00.001-08:00

Well, Linden Labs giveth and Linden Labs taketh away. I think Linden Labs has taken a right step in the direction of new user experience by deciding to hook up with Big Spaceship to tweak that new user experience. Does this mean we will have newbies who hook into this space, bring in Linden$ and content and make this a better place to be? I am hoping so. We need some good news.

As a Second Life Mentor, I have been frustrated with the questions people ask--not just "how do I fly," but also "where do I get my free land?" (Apparently that little offer is still out there...) Perhaps Big Spaceship is up to this task. It remains to be seen. Prolly just a few guys out of Brooklyn with a slick webpage. Hope they can pull it off.

Good luck!

I encourage all of you to throw your comments about that First Hour on my blog or on LL's blog. Hopefully those guys are reading this and learning something....

The Openspaces Debacle... my take

2008-11-01T18:34:00.000-07:00

I have listened in Concierge chat, read a lot of blogs and comments to the original blog from Jack Linden, and discussed this whole debacle about the Openspaces with several people. I have my take on it.

I am not sure about these statements about conspiracy regarding the manipulation of "land" prices, the naysayers predicting financial peril of Linden Labs (they have to make $50 more per person quick), or the doomsayers saying Philip is dying so they need to devote processor capacity to his life-sustaining machinery (OK, I didn't hear that last one but I am sure it's out there). If the folks at Linden Labs were clever enough to start a conspiracy, we would have more stability, more groups, and fewer bugs because they would be smart enough to fix those too.

Consider this to be a sort of Occam's Razor--all other things being equal, the simplest answer is the best. I believe that Jack Linden is entirely telling the truth about their problems with Openspaces. The description of their resource allocations (4 open sims per core in a quad core PC) is true, and I believe that people have "misused" the openspaces--simply because they can.

I put "misused" in quotes because I believe Linden Labs poorly managed customer expectations about these sims' performance. They should have driven into their Concierge customers' heads that these were the Yugo of sims and never allowed them to believe they were still going to be driving Tauruses when they moved to them. I also believe they should have limited the opening of these sims with clear instructions to the comsumers about what they should expect and been CLEAR and detailed about what "light residential" meant, over and over and over and then some more.

I believe, as a result, that they bought themselves a customer service nightmare with these Openspaces, and that is what this price increase is all about. I am envisioning this scenario: sim owner Joe is accustomed to access to personal Concierge phone service and calls whenever his regular sims are not working. Now he has Openspaces. He has just lost his butt on the land prices because of the change in regular sim entry costs, so he thinks this is another means of making money. He rents an Openspace to every Ruth and Philip who has $100 a month and a dream of having their own sim. They move in, put down butterfly rezzers and sparkly things and sploders and have parties every night at peak hours with 40 avatars. They have never owned a whole sim and now they can! They don't get fps, physics, any of that. They just know they wanted to have fun on their own little sim, maybe run a little business or start up a club. So they get a ton of lag and unreliability and the other three poor saps also sharing that core get stuck too.

Joe's residents IM him constantly about performance. In Joe's mind, he doesn't delineate between the sims he pays $295 a month for and the sims he pays $75 a month for. All he cares is that LL's sims aren't performing to his expectations. He calls up Concierge. The Linden on the other end goes patiently through a set of diagnostics and then explains for the 10th time that day the truth about Openspaces, which is they are not meant to hold 80 avatars or 120 scripts or whatever. The call takes 30 minutes and Linden Labs uses up half the tier the made on that sim right there in that phone call. The customer hangs up, mad that Linden's idea of "light residential" and his idea don't coincide. The Linden hangs up, and they are down half the tier they got on that sim this month.

What it amounts to is that Linden Labs put out a product that is unprofitable and not working for them. They are raising the price. That's business. It was bad business and now they are righting it--the best way they can. They are giving two months notice. They were honest about their error. They are saying they are reading people's suggestions, struggling for some compromise (and I really think they are because they can see people are unhappy). And they will suffer for this when some customers flee and find alternative virtual spaces.

That's my take on this. Linden Labs screwed up. Occam's Razor. That simple.

Eshi's Second Rez Day

2008-10-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time. My sweet baby Eshi is two years old!*

Please help celebrate this auspicious occasion in a build Eshi created on my sim, Avant Garde, Saturday, November 1, 2-4 pm slt. We will be soothed by the techno tunes of Azrael Hax, and there will also be a special surprise for Eshi.

In honor of her creativity, we are asking you all to dress up in your best Halloween costumes to suit the spooky environment she built. (Recycle the ones from the night before--we don't care.)

Allow me to mention that this party is being sponsored in party by Straylight/Botanical and the very generous Kriss Lehmann, who put the trees into Eshi's hands so she could make the beautiful build you will see. Thank you, Kriss! (Hug a tree--buy one from Kriss and wrap your arms around it.)

If you had not received this invite, blame me. I flipped this one out and probably missed scads of people. It's an open invite. Come celebrate with us and come crash my sim. (I wanna see what happens when that happens.. I am so excited!)

*Everyone is asking me what the invite says. Eshi made it but I can read it: "Some day I am going to grow up and spend endless hours in front of a super advanced Commodore 64 and I will make all kinds of otherwise non existing stuff, and I will also be a boy sometimes, and I will be Asian and I will have robot friends."

I fly in space with Asterix

2008-10-27T21:11:00.001-07:00

My old pal Asterix called tonight. When Asterix calls, I know I am in for an adventure. He is my one friend who owns every plane, boat, and it so happens, rocket ship on SL.

[20:53] Asterix Whiteberry: i have this theory
[20:53] Asterix Whiteberry: that sl is round
[20:53] Asterix Whiteberry: everybody tells me its flat
[20:53] Asterix Whiteberry: but i say thats just because we're used to seeing it on maps
[20:54] Asterix Whiteberry: so, i thought i'd try for orbit tonight
[20:54] Asterix Whiteberry: but i need a witness
[20:54] Asterix Whiteberry: wanna come along?
[20:54] Asterix Whiteberry: another personal first?
[20:54] You: sure ~Smiles~
[20:54] Harper Beresford gulps
[20:54] Asterix Whiteberry: you know what it is to do this kind of thing with me
[20:54] Asterix Whiteberry: and how it coiuld end
[20:55] Asterix Whiteberry: i wouldn't ask just anybody to go along on this trip

He rezzed it. It was not pretty.

I had to gulp down my fear (and vanity) and climb in....

[20:59] You: do we get astronaut food in here?
[20:59] You: i heard it sucks
[20:59] Asterix Whiteberry: yeah
[20:59] Asterix Whiteberry: it does
[20:59] Asterix Whiteberry: gotta take it thru a straw
[20:59] You: do i have to pee in a bucket?
[20:59] Asterix Whiteberry: or it gets all over the place
[20:59] You: i mean
[20:59] You: a bottle?
[20:59] Asterix Whiteberry: thru a tube
[20:59] Asterix Whiteberry: in a bottle
[20:59] You: ack
[20:59] Asterix Whiteberry: you need to pee?
[20:59] Asterix Whiteberry: gads
[20:59] You: well
[21:00] Asterix Whiteberry: we shoulda taken care of that before
[21:00] You: come to think of it...

You can see where this is going....

OK, yeah.. space! The final frontier!

[21:01] Asterix Whiteberry: see
[21:01] Asterix Whiteberry: sl is round
[21:01] Asterix Whiteberry: what'd i tell you
[21:01] You: it IS!
[21:01] You: dayum
[21:01] Asterix Whiteberry: thats how they get so much packed in

(I prefer to differ. There are simply not enough prims for me.)

Being that Asterix knows me well, he interrupted the flight to comment on my outfit.

[21:03] Asterix Whiteberry: that's a great spacesuit you're wearing
[21:03] Asterix Whiteberry: just perfect for orbiting
[21:03] You: you like it, hm?
[21:03] You: bax coen boots.. only the essentials
[21:03] Asterix Whiteberry: i have on my topsiders
[21:03] You: as always
[21:03] Asterix Whiteberry: never go sailing without them

[21:06] Object whispers: 5 minutes before the end of the power.
[21:06] Asterix Whiteberry: uh oh
[21:06] You: OMG
[21:06] You: what?
[21:06] Asterix Whiteberry: power only good for five more minutes
[21:06] You: oh shit, i didn't want to die like this
[21:06] Asterix Whiteberry: yeah
[21:06] Asterix Whiteberry: they'd never find us up here
[21:06] You: having to pee up in outer space
[21:07] Asterix Whiteberry: lemme tell you we're way out
[21:07] Asterix Whiteberry: i have a space station
[21:07] Asterix Whiteberry: up here
[21:07] Asterix Whiteberry: somewhere
[21:07] Asterix Whiteberry: you can pee there
[21:07] You: thanks
[21:07] Asterix Whiteberry: if i can find it
[21:07] You: i hope we make it
[21:07] Asterix Whiteberry: in the next five minutes
[21:07] Asterix Whiteberry: geez
[21:07] You: feel any pressure?
[21:07] You: i sure do
[21:07] Asterix Whiteberry: why does this always happen to us

(Cuz I always agree to go on these cockamamie trips with you when everyone else is sane enough not to do it?)

Asterix, being Asterix, decided to take the quick way out. Sometimes that's a quick tp. Sometimes it's a nose dive. This time...

[21:08] Asterix Whiteberry: if we give out of power we'll take the fast trip down
[21:09] Asterix Whiteberry: hell
[21:09] Asterix Whiteberry: lets just go for an emergency landing
[21:09] Asterix Whiteberry: game?
[21:09] Asterix Whiteberry: hang on
[21:09] Object whispers: LANDING PROCEDURE ACTIVATED!
[21:09] Object whispers: LEAVING ORBIT!
[21:09] You: eeee!
[21:09] Asterix Whiteberry: whoooooaaaa
[21:09] Asterix Whiteberry: hell
[21:09] Asterix Whiteberry: fire
[21:09] Asterix Whiteberry: damn
[21:10] Asterix Whiteberry: you hanging in?
[21:10] You: yes
[21:10] You: eeeee!

(Howzat for blowing someone's head off. Didn't think I would get that in here, didya?)

[21:11] Asterix Whiteberry: i think i peed my pants
[21:11] Asterix Whiteberry: how bout you
[21:11] You: no i held it
[21:11] You: you said i had to
[21:11] Asterix Whiteberry: yeah i guess i did, didn't i

We landed in the ocean in a ball of smoke. I made it and my Bax Coens made it!

5 X Real 55 X SL

2008-10-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

Shameless Plug right up front: PLEASE come to the opening of the art show at TowerVisions Bethanienturm TODAY, October 3 at 3 p.m., featuring the smooth sounds of DJ Todd Action and the photography of Harper Beresford (SL), the painting of Vindi Vindaloo (SL)/Vinya Cameron (RL), the RL photography of Parker Noriega (SL), the paintings of Mario Dalpra (RL), and the photography of Gundrun Senger (RL). Meet Harper (me), Vindi and Gundrun in SL. Vision will be giving tours of his "vision" (see below). End of Shameless Plug.

For those of you who did not read the last post in my blog, I was in Berlin. I was there for a party for DU Diedrichs--an architecture firm in Berlin--in which I was one of the featured artists for their firm's celebration. Over 200 architects, clients, and artists from Berlin came to see the renovation of the Berlin Economic Ministry building, which DU Diedrichs had orchestrated, enjoy hors d'oeuvres and see one of my pieces as well as the painting of Vindi Vindaloo (SL)/Vinya Cameron (RL) (yes, Vindi Vindaloo, the famed fashion designer!), the RL photography of Parker Noriega (SL), the paintings of Mario Dalpra (RL), and the photography of Gundrun Senger (RL). We had a wonderful time.

I have to say, when I visited Berlin, Vision was an excellent host--he took me to some fabulous restaurants, drove me to see some great places in Berlin, and even invited me to his personal home to meet his family. He also, as I said before, took me to see the real Bethanienturm.

This is the story about Bethanienturm: Vision Planer is a noted architect in Berlin in RL. He purchased the church as seen in photos at Plush Avenue South and also seen on his website. Vision had the idea of turning this grand church into a living or office space in the heart of Berlin. After reading an article about Second Life, he saw the perfect opportunity to "envision" his idea.

So I saw the church and I saw the sights and I ate well in Berlin. The chocolate in Germany is, by the way, delicious, as are the Haribo gummy bears (as Vision's daughter will confirm).

I needed to return the favor. Well, you know what's coming.... I felt it was my DUTY to offer Vision a piece of MY candy. He is such a nice (and gullible) man. He has done nothing wrong--he bought the shoes I suggested, got an AO, let me build him a fireplace. He just.. you know.. needs a little Harper treatment.

So I offered him a humbug...

He said it tasted "fine." (He always says "fine"--it's a German thing.) He is a kind and gentle man.

So come meet Vision today, at the show. (Another Shameless Plug.)

Blog 2 About Why Second Life People Are Wonderful

2008-09-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

I am in Berlin. For any of you that hadn't heard about this, I was invited by Vision Planer and his architecture firm to show a piece of art at one of their firm's parties.

Here is the piece, at the Berlin Economic Ministry, which was a renovation that Vision's firm did for the German government. I have to say, the building is amazing--but many things are in Berlin. The cool part is, I know the architect! (Vision)

The most amazing thing are the SL friends I now have in Berlin. They have been accomodating, generous (!), kind and wonderful. I was in Tampa all over, among "my people."

There I was again, among "strangers," but they weren't. Goldie LeSueur--what a doll. He "saved" me from sitting in my room, took me out for a great lunch, sped me through the Berlin streets (he likes speed like I do--heehee), and made me feel really welcome.

I met Vindi Vindaloo in real life (and oh gosh, what a beautiful and amazing presence she has). Yes, the one who does the amazing clothes--her! She is a great painter, and she has an incredible personal story about SL in her life. I met Parker Noriega, a very talented photographer.

I met Jaynine Scaborough and Lunata Lupino, two of the friendliest and loveliest ladies one could ever meet. They became friends on SL but found out they lived very close to each other and became RL friends. And now they are MY friends. (And let me say, Jaynine is so generous and friendly and down-to-earth and Lunata has the BEST laugh--this sort of snorting giggle that is infectious--we laughed so much!) They took me to this tiny little intimate bar behind a little gallery in West Berlin--I mean, completely hidden away. It was marvelous.

So we were all at this party--lots of dark suits, architects, government people. And then a table of us SL people, giggling and talking about rezzing and textures and gestures. Vindi told me a great personal story about how SL has changed her life. Goldie showed the head minister how SL works (one of those dark suits). And Vision went from group to group, beaming.

Vision--his name suits him perfectly. Look at the photos of the TowerVisions Bethanienturm from SL I took. Now check THIS out:

This is a story about SL that needs to be told. I will not say much about it as it is Vision's story. But Vision took me into this church and we went up several flights of winding stairs (one of which was cracked from the bombing, which he showed me AFTER we came down). He wanted to open the door to let us into the bell tower, but it was stuck. You have never seen a man so bummed when he could not get it open.

Vision and I met and fell into friendship instantly and easily. We spent today visiting the Crematorium and the nearby grave yard. Then we went to the Jewish Museum from Libeskind. I am a museum officianado--I studied some of it in college. This was an exceptional museum. And Vision and I spent many hours together very easily--it was comfortable and engaging. We talked about many things as friends, and I am just sad he lives on the other side of the world because I could see our families enjoying a lot of time together.

I can't tell you what a wonderful experience it is meeting people you have spoken to in SL. It's amazing to see what is in their heads online but also to meet them in person, face to face.

All of us geeks are enthusiasts about Second Life--we love our pose balls and dances and clothes and builds and gestures. But there is something so much more nuanced about it--something much more transformative and social and connective for many of us.

OK, I am off to breakfast now. In Berlin!!!

The Tale of Stroker's Travelling Pants

2008-09-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

Stroker, the wonderful host of the Strokerz Ball, hosted the party wearing a leather harness, leather chaps and black horns through the entire party. He was a sight to behold.

Notice has been given to me that he had somehow misplaced his leather chaps and horns at the Marriott, and no one could find him to return them to him. So the leather chaps are going on a trip--hopefully a trip around the world.

The first photo will be posted showing none other than Ms. Raven Pennyfeather showing the pertinent evidence (the chaps) before they "walked." When I receive a copy of the photo or a link, I will post it here.

A gentleman from the Netherlands has packed them in his luggage and will be taking them with him overseas. It is hoped they will make it to Australia before they find their way back home and snuggly on Stroker's bottom.

Things I learned at SLCC 2008--it's all about the Love

2008-09-09T02:52:00.000-07:00

Let me note first, this is written under the influence of narcotics. That being said....

I went to SLCC this weekend. To any "normal" person, that means nothing. To many SL residents, it means that I rallied myself and got on a plane to face a large group of people I have only known as idealized cartoons. The very obvious things I learned in no particular order:

1. There is a wide variety of people who engage in Second Life, across ages, genders (and I mean more than two), races, economic status, and country of origin. I was truly amazed by the variety pf people at the conference--from nice soccer moms to young geeks, from serious businessmen to wild and crazy girls who want to have fun. Our one shared identifier is a deep abiding love for our virtual worlds, our virtual selves, and our virtual communities.

And boy oh boy, we're talking Love with a capital L. I have been accused of being "addicted." There were people at the conference who had their laptops open 24/7. There were people whose speech was riddled with "rez" and "tp" and "crash." There were people who wore tails to reflect their furriness (you know who you are, Hydra).

It was amazing to see a nice middle-aged mother in her practical shoes talking animatedly to a thin short young man with a streak of pink in his hair and piercings along his ear. Or to see two straight-looking businessmen talking very animatedly with a short woman wearing faux wings and glittery eye makeup. Or in my case, a very ordinary middle-aged woman in the company of three handsome gentlemen, being treated like a queen (thank you, Xavier, Blaze and Gellan).

2. A corollary to that is that the people who organized this convention were incredible: Crucial Armitage, Nexeus Fatale, Rhiannon Chatnoir, Fleep Tuque, Misty Rhodes, and I know others I missed. They worked their butts off, no compensation, little glory. That includes the many volunteers

Which brings me back to this Love thing. These folks Love SL and the people in it. They were unremittingly enthusiastic, hard working, resourceful, cheerful, fun--amazing people who did it for the Love of SL and its residents. (Obviously nuts, all of them!)

3. None of us look like our avatars. I was not expecting that--I am not that naive and God knows I don't look like my avatar. Some people looked *better* (Eshi, Nexeus, Bevan, Filthy, Arminasx, Xavier among them--am I violating a confidentiality rule by disclosing that these people are RL hawt?). It was wonderful seeing the RL people who dwell in the avatars. I will never see their names and think about them the same way.

4. We all have two names. I spent the entire weekend responding to "Harper." My family would have thought that was weird. But Raven is only Raven to me. I wonder what it means to name oneself. In doing so, are we taking control of our lives, both in SL and in RL, and remaking our lives in something we can envision? I think so. I think it empowers us to place our lives in this fantasy world and then let some of it bleed over into our real lives.

By the way, one can pronounce Arminasx's name, somehow. I would say, "Arminaa..." and mumble the ending.

5. The Lindens are people too. Up until now, I never really associated with Lindens in world, despite the FIC label that was thrown at me. This is due, in part, to the fact that I figured they are busy people who don't have time to chat with residents. I came to understand, however, part of their job is chatting with residents. They are recipients of our energy, ideas, enthusiasm and they channel that into their work. They are also very smart and thoughtful people who have discussed what we discuss ad nauseum and are thinking of beyond a lot of what we address.

And let me note that they are just as frustrated with the problems SL has as the residents are. They are working hard on fixing this stuff and work on it tirelessly. (All I can think of is Prospero Linden, who just did a play on SL in his off time, telling me he interrupted his day and missed a number of presentations to go in a conference room and log on to help them fix problems this weekend--it's not his job but he did it anyway.)

They are as much in Love with SL as we are. Think--the vast majority of them have alts wherein they "play" online--building, performing (in Prospero's case), dancing, creating. They spend all day working in SL and then playing at night. They are bigger freaks than we are! ;)

They are also really nice folks, as diverse and funky as the population they serve. The Internet was once the domain of white geek boys--no more!

6. The friendships we made in SL are REAL. I think we all suspect it when we are in world, but it never becomes tangibly clear until we are face to face with the human who operates our friend's avatar. I have spent each and every day since Raven and I met talking to her. We talk in voice, in type, in email. Few people get as much contact with me as she does. And when we met, we fell right into place. I stayed at her beautiful home, and it was like being with family. I was completely comfortable.

Meeting Eshi was also a huge event for me. She is also like a sister to me. In fact, someone commented that we looked like sisters. She is the beautiful, vibrant, intelligent woman I knew she was. I wanted to take her home with me.

Meeting Xavier, Blaze, and Gellan was also huge. I cried when Xavier left the night he went back to his hotel. I wanted to take them all home with me. I wanted to wrap them up, take them home, and feed them waffles.

And meeting people like Teagan Linden, Arminasx, Tuna Oddfellow, Mia Linden, Georgianna Blackburn, Beyers Sellers and Bevan Whitfield, Hydra Shaftoe... it was amazing!

7. Having a toothache during SLCC sucks. Well this is a caveat. I didn't get to post about such a rich experience as Arminasx had as I was in dire pain from a toothache. I got off the plane from Tampa and within an hour and a half, I was in my dentist's chair, being poked and drilled as he started a root canal on me. I was miserable most of the weekend because of it, and yet I am still glad I went and I did have a lot of fun!

Please note this entire blog was written under the influence of heavy pain killers so I am not as eloquent as usual. I could riff about having two (or more) names for a whole blog if not drugged up. In fact, I could write a whole paper. Of course, I may simply be tripping right now. Who knows?

I blow up a supermodel!

2008-08-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

As you all know, I work for RFyre. I am generally NOT in the business of shameless plugs for RFyre, but today, I am going to.

Two reasons: first, we are having our first ever Treasure Hunt on the Isle this weekend, starting Friday at 1 p.m. slt and ending Sunday at 6 p.m. slt. PLEASE come. Raven is offering Mastrius and Twisted Swiss for FREE (in pieces scattered throughout the Isle) and several other goodies. We're having a party too. Aw, just show up because I am working hard on this!

Second, we have had the most gorgeous man on SL join our team: Jonny Tobias. (I think all the men I know in SL are gorgeous, but Jonny was voted Best of SL Top Male Model by Best of SL Magazine, so it's a much more "objective" statement.)

This is Jonny. Now, we ALL look pretty in SL. However, Jonny earned his title for more than having a pretty avatar. He's the real deal. He's a sweetheart both outside and inside and very good at what he does. He's a really valuable addition to our family.

That being said, I had to treat Jonny to a little candy cuz I think he's so sweet. (*wink*wink*) I dressed up like an angel, of course.

And I offered Jonny a sweet humbug (suckah!)

Blew his top hat right off. Poor guy. He is having to learn about life the Harper way.

Me for President!

2008-08-25T15:48:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Tab Scott brought his candidacy to my attention today (courtesy of Bill Daul of NextNOW). He suggested this could be an "Open systems approach to politics":

Tab Scott for President

Well, I guess I am going to vote for him.

If I don't vote for myself first.

I blow up another artist.... almost

2008-08-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

I met Chrome Underwood a while ago. He was at an exhibit for Stella Costello. He had a sort of newbie freshness about him: the dirty biker hair that I swear originated on Dirk Talamasca's head, the gray shiny newbie system shoes, the cute little waddle. We had a pleasant discussion--he had fine newbie manners--we friended, and then we didn't talk much after that. Who knows why? I think I crashed at some point, which put a wrench in the whole discussion. (I vaguely remember being bumped by someone's overly large avatar while we followed Stella around Tayzia Abattoir's wonderful museum.)

Either way, Chrome was not someone I spoke to often, if at all--until I received a scrawl on my Wall in Facebook today: "Hey Harper, Just posted on my presentation on the ever-so-touchy subject of fine art in Second Life at SIGGRAPH last week." Hrm.

So I looked at Chrome's blog, and darn if he wasn't a presenter with a bunch of high-tech guys about art in Second Life (a subject near and dear to my heart). So I invited Chrome over for a chat about art.

He showed up and he had changed a bit. He no longer had the waddle. He was wearing prims and he had chrome hair. (Still the dark Dirty Biker hair, but he had shined it up and given it a touch of glow--very ingenious.)

I gave Chrome a tour of my villa and gardens. Those of you have seen it know I am a "primcess" (nothing like Shenlei, of course--I can only dream of that), but he continued to insist I was a Princess as he looked around. He stomped around my villa with that *very* he-man Animazoo male walk and ruined some flowers. Then he plopped himself on my sofa with his dirty boots on!

Well that was the final straw!

I offered him a candy.

And he took not one but two.. and... didn't blow up!

WTF?

So I threw candies at him. They poofed in a green glow but didn't smoke. I tried one of the candies myself and blew up.

The man is some sort of superhuman avatar, imperious to Ordinal Malaprop's VERY STRONG CANDIES.

I can only conclude it's the chrome hair.

Massive blow up near Rustica

2008-08-10T00:09:00.000-07:00

This just in: several people, who will NOT remain unnamed, have been blown up eating the delicious candies I proffered near the Rustica sim (please shop there).

Maxwell Graf, Pierre Roelefs (Pie), Angelica Zuma, Terra Volitant, the Muse Sereine Bard, and none other than her Ladyship Gwen Carillon partook of the incendiary bonbons and paid a dear price.

[0:11] Pierre Roelofs: Well that's cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn't it?

Indeed.

Fleet is bored at work, Part 2

2008-08-06T23:13:00.000-07:00

As if that wasn't enough, here is more (and he stole Bono from me!):

August 5, 2007: Fleet meets Bono at the UN. He was not stoned--he was just blinking. Fleet, that is. I can't remark on Bono.

October 10, 2006: Fleet is invited to become the "Fifth Wiggle." He declines but not before waking Jeff up.

November 14, 2007: Fleet enjoys the company of several playmates and Paris Hilton at Hugh Hefner's mansion. He licks champagne out of Hilton's belly button later that evening.

February 22, 1980: Fleet sees the final score during the "Miracle on Ice" game at Lake Placid. (Now, Fleet, this is like "Where's Waldo?" Sheesh!)

Send in your historical moments!

Fleet is bored at work

2008-08-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

All his Facebook friends got to see this, but I insisted I get to put this on my blog because I laughed so hard. And now he has challenged me (and I challenge you, Gentle Reader) to top him in his historical exploits.

And so we find....

Fleetwood's Place in History

March 12, 1930: Fleetwood marches with Ghandi to Dandi in the Salt March.

March 12, 1865: Fleetwood meets with some guy and President Lincoln soon before the end of the Civil War.

February 11, 1990: Fleetwood gathers with Nelson and Winnie Mandela upon Mandela's release from prison.

May 14, 2006: Fleetwood shoots the shit with George Clooney about hair gel.

October 17, 1962: Fleetwood consults with Jack Kennedy about the Cubans. Suggests they stock up on cigars.

November 17, 2005: Fleetwood talks to Woody about kids, careers and marrying one's adopted daughter.

June 13, 2008: Fleetwood runs off with Kate Middleton, leaving Prince William in the dust.

July 9, 2007: Fleetwood gives the Pitt-Jolie family a ride on his boat.

Uh, I don't know how this is, but wow, what a babe! And Fleet knows her!

June 6, 1944: Fleet consults with Eisenhower about D-Day. (His head was too large for a helmet, apparently.)

February 13, 1997: Fleet passes Bill Clinton a cigar.

April 5, 2003: Fleet shows Bill Gates a map of the "Information Superhighway."

I blow up John

2008-08-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

I had the fine pleasure of meeting John Zhaoying, who is an advisor to virtual event agency, World2Worlds. He interrupted me while I was shopping to ask me to be in a photo. Now, I am of the vain variety, so I went to be photographed, but I arrived to find that I was to be photographed in front of a photo of rather ordinary Real Life people, standing on a very ugly carpet. For a guy who throws a lot of French around and says he once lived in Paris, he certainly has crap taste in interior design.

However, he's a nice guy, so I offered him a humbug. (Ha!)

I asked him how it tasted:

[21:51] John Zhaoying: Delicious. A little star-anise, rosewater and coriander.

Hm, maybe he did live in Paris....

I blow up a lawyer and make you ALL happy

2008-07-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

Haven't you ever wanted to do that? Blow up a lawyer? And a British one--a barrister? Well, I have done it to more than one, but this one is special. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ashcroft Burnham at one of Codebastard's parties (even though she wasn't there). We exchanged pleasantries and then went for each other's throats.

Turns out Mr. Burnham is the Chair of the Constitutional Team of the Metaverse Republic, and he convinced me to attend a meeting. After a lot of notecard shuffling (at one point I could not see my screen for all the notecards I was passed), I decided that it was an interesting undertaking--the idea of providing a means of arbitration over virtual issues through a third party--and I let them group me.

Mr. Burnham, however, saw fit to insult my nation, the one that freed itself from the tyranny of HIS nation.

[14:13] Ashcroft Burnham: Of course, you Americans don't have Christmas puddings, do you? ;-)
[14:14] You: no
[14:14] You: you people are weird
[14:14] Ashcroft Burnham: *We're* weird?! And this coming from a nation that spells "colour" without a "u" and calls trousers "pants"!
[14:15] You: A nation that drives on the correct side of the road and calls the back end of a car a "trunk," not a "boot," which is something one wears on one's feet...
[14:16] Ashcroft Burnham: A nation that calls lifts "elevators" and doesn't even have a queen can't be a proper nation at all :-p
[14:17] You: A queen
[14:17] Ashcroft Burnham: A king would do.
[14:17] You: We have plenty of queens. They live in Boys Town, where they belong.
[14:17] Ashcroft Burnham: LOL!
[14:17] Ashcroft Burnham: Anyway, we have public buildings older than your entire country, so there :-p
[14:17] You: and fruitcakes too
[14:17] Ashcroft Burnham: Yes!
[14:18] Ashcroft Burnham: Can't be a proper nation without fruitcakes.

Mr. Burnham is not exempt from the laws of Harper's world. Nay. He is more beholden to them. And so in all due process, I offered him a humbug:

Ah, what sweet victory!

And still another

2008-07-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

I had the fortune of spending time with Sabein Streeter and Toko Voom of Vain Magazine this evening. And Kermit Rutkowski. Lovely quiet Kermit in his freebie tux.

Put a Caption on This Photo

Another one...

2008-07-22T23:54:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of the adorable Douglas Story and me when he was completing the Dynafleur and I was modeling the new-at-the-time RFyre Wanderer for women. We were quite the pair.

Put a Caption on This Photo

New Feature on the Bizarre

2008-07-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

I was sitting with Fleet tonight, discussing Berlin and stuff, and I was in one of Maxwell Graf's wonderful Cafe du Blonde lounges from Rustica, (shameless plug here) while Fleet was sitting in another chair, and he said, "I look like your therapist."

Well, I couldn't resist. So I decided that I needed a new feature on the Bizarre, similar to the one on the back page of the New Yorker. This is called:

Put a Caption on This Photo

I think it's kind of self-explanatory. Tell me in comments what your caption would be.

Provocation in Art

2008-07-18T11:46:00.001-07:00

Time to be serious here. Again about art. And gosh, the image has nothing to do with blowing people up. It is totally coincidental.

Well, I have been provoked by art--most amazingly, I might add. I saw this piece at the new Hotel Dare & Muschi Lounge build by Gattina Dumpling and Kasabian Beck with some work from Four Yip. Kasabian had this piece up on one of the buildings:

I have a sneaking hunch this isn't art generated by an SL artist. Can anyone tell me? And if it is, please accept my apologies.

That being said, Wow!

This art provoked, but in a manner that was most delicious and amazing. There is an amazing juxtaposition of the corporate logo (which I have blurred, but you know who it is) and that incredible Pulitzer prize-winning photograph of one man executing another.

And it resonates with me on several levels. First, there is the level of the corporation-executing-someone thing. Then there is the actual REAL fear I felt for the creator and for myself in using this corporate logo (this is why I have blurred it myself--I am scared).

Then there is the wonder I feel about people of different ages and nationalities viewing this on SL. Everyone certainly knows the logo, but do they know the historical importance and resonance of this photo? Do they know the origin? For my generation, it has huge resonance, but someone younger than me.. does it?

I get really bent about the reference to "provocation," as I have written in another blog. When people use tired, used, cliched images in tired and cliched ways, I am not provoked--I just feel manipulated. Don't offer me another crucifix, pile of TVs, casket, swastika, or puddle of blood. I have seen it. And I am too young for it to mean something to me.

I haven't seen this one before. I won't get the same frisson when I see something like this again. But it provoked--the way Braques meant "provocation."

Stephen Venkman accepts candy from strangers

2008-07-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

I met Stephen at the press conference for the opening of Codebastard Redgrave's new sim, Rouge. He seemed a nice enough guy, so I said hi and offered him a piece of candy, right under the big uh.. cigarette.. that comes out of Codie's mouth on her new sim.

Stephen, Stephen, Stephen.. hasn't anyone ever told you not to accept candy from strangers?

I am not sure if what I smelled burning came off that cigarette or off Stephen... hmm...

Anyway, come to the Grand Opening tomorrow, starting at 2 p.m. Best to IM Codebastard Redgrave for addition to the group--they say it will be packed.

Support Ability Commons!

2008-06-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

My friend Pecos Kidd, who endured being blown up, sent me a little note and asked me to publish it. I asked him who I could blow up in exchange.

Something wonderful is happening and with one small action you can be part of it. Our friends in the Health Support Coalition have a chance to win 300,000 Lindens from the Annenberg School to create a SL home for a wide range of peer support groups.

"Ability Commons" is the work of Gentle Heron, Carolina Keats and many of the 41 members of the Health Support Coalition, including MDSLA, Crohn's and Colitis Support, Open Gates Peer Support, and Agoraphobia Support Group.

We need your help, right now. Please take 20 seconds to go to this website and vote for "Ability Commons." Rank them "1) Favored" and do your part to help us create an incubator for small and emerging groups.

Your vote will allow more people with disabilities and health issues to share our pleasure and purposefulness in Second Life.

Will you do more? Please forward this note to your friends - voting is open until June 30, and your help will make all the difference.

Thank you!

Find out all about their proposal and Annenberg/USC.

That being said, Pecos worked on another project that is being assessed for this same program. It's kind of cool: you click a big red button and it alternates between two kitchen scenes: one is a normal home with high countertops, etc.--the other is an accessible kitchen for disabled people. To toggle them you click a BIG RED BUTTON.

I complimented Pecos.

[11:42] Pecos Kidd: I think it demos the concept fairly well
[11:42] Harper Beresford: yes
[11:42] Harper Beresford: very well
[11:42] Pecos Kidd: And everyone likes to push big red buttons :)

This is what he wrote:

Please consider voting for "Independence House", which will create an interactive SL house to demonstrate various modifications that can be made to RL houses to improve access or usability for people with disabilities. Being able to visualize the impact of lowering the height of countertops, using ramps instead of stairs, adding handrails around bathroom fixtures, or even just rearranging a kitchen will help people with RL impairments understand what is possible, as well as better plan these types of modifications prior to construction.

Please take just a minute of your time and vote for "Independence House."

Your vote for "Independence House" by June 30 will help us win the 300,000 Linden prize, and create this important tool to help people with RL disabilities take practial steps to improve the quality of their lives.

Thank you - and please contact Kathee Gibbs in SL if you have any questions!

Evil land baron blown up!

2008-06-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

Dirk Talamasca is an evil land baron. Everyone agrees. Scope agrees. Raven agrees. I agree.

He needed a little incendiary reminder that he is not immune to the power of humbugs.

He said it was "minty fresh" right before his head blew off.

Particle maker exploded after "examining" Ordinal's work

2008-06-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

Arminasx Saiman invited me over so he could look at the humbugs I was passing out. He wanted to hack into the candy to see how it worked. However, in taking a bite to get to the soft inner core, he managed to, yes, blow himself up.

Oh, ye of unpronounceable name... how dare you trust me?

Art curator--head blown off

2008-06-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

Frank Koolhaas has spent the last few months organizing the Rinascimento Virtuale 2008, (the "Virtual Renaissance"). Showing more than 100 artists on video screens in the Museo Nazionale di Antropologia ed Etnolologia in Florence, Italy, the exhibition will prove to be the first international gathering of SL artists in RL.

The old adage of herding cats is probably true for this exhibit. Frank had to choose photos, contact artists, get their images, have them sign agreements to be sent to Italy--and it's all culminating in a press conference today at noon.

Well, to provide some enjoyment and relief, I offered Frank a sweet humbug.

I think this whole show has blown his mind....

He is, however, thrilled about the venue for the press conference. He sent me a sneak peek:

I hadn't spoken to Frank in a while due to various issues (like uh, being busy blowing people up). I was so glad to see Frank and his little goldfish again.

Burning Dizzy

2008-06-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

I offered Dizzy Banjo a candy when we were meeting with our Voice Dorks group. He accepted, reluctantly. As well he should have...

The funny thing is that Dizzy is really flammable it turns out. Who woulda thunk?

So we threw some wood on it and got something going.

Taarna blew on the fire to keep it going...

Wendell was hungry apparently and the marshmallows and s'mores were not enough. He said Dizzy smelled good cooking. Eep!

Wendell said, and I quote, "This is awesome!"

A convenient two fer

2008-06-06T22:46:00.001-07:00

Jezebell Barbosa seems to have a sweet tooth, the dear. I went to a wee party with Codie, Kanomi, Dale, et al. Jeza was there and she asked for a wee piece of candy. So I offered her one. But Jordyn Carnell, in all his glory, stepped in to take a piece as well. The two friends blew up simultaneously.

I got a new computer today with flaming hot speed and a huge monitor. I am still getting used to seeing this kind of carnage in such high-definition detail. The pink boots Jez had on really popped on this new screen.

My dear friend Botgirl Questi was there to document the explosion, the sweet thing:

Rustica owner, blown up in his new sim!

2008-06-02T14:57:00.000-07:00

The paint is hardly dry on the stonework at Maxwell Graf's new sim, Rustica, and here I am, already blowing him up.

This is for two reasons: first, he previewed this absolutely gorgeous sim with me but did not let me take photos of it until today, the Grand Opening, and second, his hair leaves something to be desired. He is a wonderful person, however, and the King of sculpty building, bar none. His new sim raises the bar on sim development, and it is a MUST SEE.

Please, please check out Max's new sim. It has secret hiding places, romantic rendezvous niches, and some of the best damn furniture you can find in SL.

Maxwell's castle.

The entrance to the canyon.

Inside one of the rooms. (That's me, looking out.)

I will take about a hundred more photos, but I had to get this posted to get you all over to Rustica. Max is there--tell him I sent you!

I blow up a big land owner!

2008-06-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

Slippery Enzyme, a landowner on SL, decided to give me a little crap. I decided to give him a humbug...

The Internet Universe

2008-06-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

I tweeted this but I need to blog it as well. It is good to know that Second Life somehow made it in the Internet universe.

Click through....

Ziggy takes it like a man...

2008-05-31T12:50:00.000-07:00

Ziggy Figaro took it like a man.. or rather, the brave and bold primate he is. He asked me over to Ziggateria so he could partake of the incendiary humbugs.

"Come here, little monkey...."

He didn't quite die right away.

He finally buried himself into the ground.

Now I have to say, I have nothing against Ziggy. I like him tons. He just wanted to taste the candy.

Is this art? (Subtitled: How am I going to explain this?)

2008-05-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

I went with my friend Z to see Ina Centaur's new sim, Skin City. I was poking around looking at eyes, but he was drawn to a big wall of sculpty penises that Ina was setting up. Z, being Z, asked Ina if they were rideable. Next thing we know, she was furiously setting up horse-riding poseballs on each one.

We accommodated her and found ourselves riding the penises (penii?). Avatars were coming in suddenly as Ina decided she wanted to fill up the wall.

So here we are... (shall you all remain nameless?)

And of course, I brought Botgirl in to share in the fun. It's an odd thing to be riding a huge sculpty cock next to your friend.

Ina insisted this was art. I suggested it was "performance" art (fully intending the double entendre). What do you think? Twenty avatars riding oversized sculpty cocks? IS it art?

On a roll--got DanCoyote Antonelli!

2008-05-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

Today I wandered by Hung's sim as he said his friend DanCoyote Antonelli was evolving a sculpture he had left on the sim. So I tp'd in and got into a sort of tense debate with DC about art history. (Hung asked me kindly to shut up before he lost use of the sculpture. I did.) So we all dispersed and went our ways.

I later went back to take photos of the sculpture and guess who rezzed in but Mr. DC himself. We warily circled each other, exchanged pleasantries, and then discussed the sculpture. It was when he complimented my dress and I explained that it was an Eshi Otawara creation, that we found common ground. I was concerned his lovely pink sculpture would not match my dress--he changed it to green.

In return I offered him a humbug with my characteristic sweet smile.

Of course, he had to add his own pyrotechnics. Luckily Eshi made this thing fireproof. But damn, he burned with a lot of smoke! (I think that mohawk is made of plastic!)

Dan was gracious enough to clean up after himself, and I found myself happily flying through his sculpture--still green--on Hung's sim.

Blew Wendell up real good

2008-05-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

Wendell Holmer is a wonderful friend, and he writes about sex and love for the Second Life Herald. I haven't seen him in a long time, and I am kind of PO'd about that.

He also hasn't been following my blog, apparently, because when I offered him a humbug, he was completely innocent. Heh.

"It had a very unpleasant smoky taste, sort of like month old bacon, as if you had smoked the pig while it was still alive," he muttered.

A sweet woman with a sweet tooth

2008-05-27T18:31:00.000-07:00

I received a call from my cousin, Charlanna Beresford, the events columnist for NWN, this evening. She was in bright spirits, despite having had to sit 2 hours in the dentist's chair this afternoon. (I suspect wading through the JIRA is only slightly less painful). Her partner, Kit Meredith, had called a couple days earlier suggesting to me that Lanna had a bit of a sweet tooth. So I suggested I visit Lanna to commiserate. I brought a fine housewarming gift: humbugs.

Lanna commented they had a bit of an aftertaste but she was otherwise unphased. I think the anesthetic from the dentist was still in force.

I get an astrophysicist!

2008-05-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

I would like to think that thinking about things like dark matter and black holes would be the thing to blow Curious George's mind, but no, it was my humble humbug.

(Chat reproduced through the permission of Botgirl Questi and Curious George.)

[18:34] Botgirl Questi: another one bites the dust, another one bites the dust
[18:34] You: ha! omg!
[18:34] Botgirl Questi: Blew him right through the wall
[18:34] You: i just blew the head off CURIOUS GEORGE
[18:35] Curious George: There wasn't much in it anyway
[18:35] Curious George: Don't you know what men use for thinking
[18:35] You: ha!

Dreams

2008-05-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning, turned on my computer, opened iTunes and found this song sent to me by KCRW...

Dream--Lyrics

Dream--You Tube

I loved it. I "heard" it. Now I want to fly.

(Harper as butterfly in front of a piece by DanCoyote Antonelli.)

Then I sent my normal good morning to my friend Pecos, whose organization, VAI, I had written about previously. And he told me that a lovely woman who was very active in SL helping people with disabilities had passed away overnight of heart failure after an extended struggle with her health.

"The Sojourner" was a stroke survivor who, among other things, created a sim called Dreams that offers self-help support groups and education for other stroke survivors. Dreams is a supportive and creative environment where people dealing with stroke recovery can keep their minds sharp by engaging in collaborative community events and round-table discussions. Here is what one SL publication said about her:

"A one-woman demonstration of the power of Second Life as a social tool, Ms. Sojourner has been a tireless volunteer and organizer in SL [since 2004] ... [A]s a founder of Shockproof, a support group for stroke survivors, and as an event planner and organizer on the Dreams sim, home to endless building contests and holiday fairs to benefit a good cause." ("second life the official guide" Chapter 11 Real Residents)

I forwarded the song and lyrics to Pecos. It seems the song was most fitting for this memorable woman, who I had not had the opportunity to meet but who helped so many real people in SL.

A memorial for The Sojourner has been set up on Dreams at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dreams/151/80/25

My lookalikes

2008-05-25T00:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

Here is my little lookalike poster.

Record night: I blow up THREE

2008-05-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

Oh what a great night! To make up for a lack of blowing up in the last post, I managed to blow up three of the most interesting people on SL. Thank you, Hung, for that party!

First we have Codebastard Redgrave. Yes, that sweet thing lying there on the ground, in characteristic red, is my own friend Codie. She partook of the humbug and paid the price.

Next came Crap Mariner, who needed a good blow up after he disagreed with me about my blog (how dare you!). Screw writing a retort. I just blowed Crap up REAL good!

Finally is my almost-sister Michele Hyacinth. She just couldn't wait to sink her teeth into that humbug. Well, she found out it wasn't nougat in there--it was gunpowder!

The Reality of Virtuality

2008-05-23T18:23:00.000-07:00

Allow me to take a break from blowing up friends to write something…. (Back to blowing people up in the next blog.)

I read my friend Rheta Shan’s blog with interest and great respect. Rheta has a way of winnowing the complex down into the simple. She has brought us back to what it means to have a second life: it’s an escape.

However, I have to say I don't quite agree with her. I consider my deuxième vie more a journey than an escape. “Escape” smacks too much of vacation or video game. SL is not a game to me. It’s a social space for the human sitting at this monitor, an experience I am enjoying alone and with others.

I have disconnected from the disconnect between myself as a person in RL and myself as Harper in SL. Am I escaping my RL? No. This IS my RL. She is me; I am her. She is flawed--as flawed as I am. Does she carry the same burdens that I do? No, she is not married, she does not have a child, she has a LOT more shoes and one heck of a home. And she never seems to gain weight. But she is still me. No one else could be Harper as you know her except me.

As I wander on this journey, I meet up with others. We walk along the path together for a while, we talk, we share our personal lives, première or deuxième, we "break bread." It’s really not much different than what I have experienced in a work place, with a group of friends in school, with neighbors. It’s just we are not in our corporeal bodies. It’s pretty “real.”

I have to digress from this issue of the "real" to discuss this business of manners in this virtuality. It's not really a digression as much as a comment on the disconnect of RL from SL. Everyone places a different status on their RL identity. I have become more open about my RL identity. In fact, I let you all know how old I am in RL. However, I have learned to respect the various boundaries that people have placed in front of me as best I can. These are not tacit boundaries as some would have us believe; they need to be enunciated and reinforced by the individuals requesting them because everyone in this new world has different boundaries, and they often find that their boundaries and needs shift as their journey progresses. I have many friends who have simply said, I am not sharing that information, and that is their right. And I have had many violate my own codes (or simply lie about my identity) but shame on me for not telling them my own rules.

Put it this way: in my RL neighborhood, I have neighbors who wander in and out of each other's houses; they don't expect to do the same in mine as I have made it clear that my house is not open to them. I keep the front door closed and locked. No harm, no foul.

Expect that if you show up in an avatar, share your RL voice, share your RL personal information in even a semi-public sphere, it will be discussed among others. (I know you're all discussing whether I am showing gray--I am not!) Expect also that people/avatars, for the most part, are on their own journey as well. Expect that their intentions are, for the most part, benign. Expect that they are humans too--flawed, not perfect.

Back to my original thought now: We feel happiness here. We feel hurt. We feel limerence (thank you, Botgirl). Whether you know my age, my gender, my marital status or not, I am here. I am not escaping. I am on my journey. I am real.

Edsel bites it

2008-05-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

Edsel Heinkel came up to me after Second Question tonight and said he enjoyed seeing Douglas and Pecos in my blog. I guess he was asking for it. So I gave him a dip in the humbugs....

Pooky Amsterdam looked on distractedly. She was already writing next week's Second Question, I assume.

Douglas and Pecos blown up

2008-05-22T11:26:00.001-07:00

You think I would let go of this adolescent occupation of blowing up friends after a day.. but no! I keep up my incendiary practices.

First, we find Douglas Story blown up after he attempted to discuss the contract about the exhibit in Florence with me. I was not in the mood to discuss contracts. Take that, Douglas!

Then we have Pecos Kidd, customarily helping people but today trying to jam me in a human cannonball. (And yes, I let him do it. It was fun--once--as we agreed.) Blew his cowboy hat right off!

I am sure this next photo will give someone satisfaction...

I just realized that with heads blown off, there is no way for anyone to verify that the burning carcasses you see before me are actually the people I claim they are.

Well, how do I verify THEY are the person they say they are? Hmm...

Hung is blown

2008-05-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

Codebastard has her Boudoir Rouge series. I have my candies.

I have decided I am going to do a series called, "Friends I blow up." Or something like that.

Today's installment shows Hung Runningbear sampling one of the treats from Ordinal Malaprop's lovely box of Humbugs.

(I was given permission by Hung Runningbear to replay this conversation. Photo by Harper, taken in haste while Hung burned.)

[15:58] You: humbug?
[15:58] Harper Beresford smiles sweetly
[15:59] Hung Runningbear: uh oh
[16:00] Hung Runningbear: it was like, I left my body man, and I was like, floating up above, and I could see myself on the floor man!
[16:00] Hung Runningbear: awesome
[16:00] You: mindblowing, hm?
[16:00] Hung Runningbear: I think I died
[16:00] Hung Runningbear: but then I woke up
[16:00] Hung Runningbear: and now I'm wondering
[16:01] Hung Runningbear: was it a dream? or is this like, a new life, and are all these memories I have, like, manufactured?
[16:01] You: dude..
[16:01] You: that hurts my head
[16:01] Hung Runningbear: mine too
[16:01] Hung Runningbear: but I can't make it stop
[16:01] You: detach
[16:01] You: the humbug
[16:02] Hung Runningbear: I do what the voices in my head tell me too.
[16:02] Hung Runningbear: Well, duh!
[16:02] Hung Runningbear: I am like, so toasted. That was really good shit Harp!
[16:02] Hung Runningbear: Did you bake those yourself?
[16:03] You: nono..
[16:03] You: Ordinal Malaprop
[16:03] Hung Runningbear: Wow, he must be like, so connected.
[16:04] Hung Runningbear: Woah
[16:04] Hung Runningbear: what a weird dream
[16:04] You: (she)
[16:04] You: she is well connected
[16:05] Hung Runningbear: I'm never going to eat anything you offer me again

Bloggers in person

2008-05-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

I figure, why bother leaving an incendiary post on someone's blog? I decided to teach Dale a lesson.

I simply offered a Ordinal Malaprop Humbug (TM). Who wouldn't want a sweet holiday candy? *smiles sweetly*

(Photo by Kanomi Pikajuna.)

They were a little hot. Sorry Kanomi and Botgirl. Thank you for being guinea pigs.

Candy, anyone...?

Abilities in Virtuality

2008-05-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

Recently I became reacquainted with a friend from my days on Help Island, a gentleman cowboy named Pecos Kidd. Pecos and I knew each other through hellos, but we hadn't really talked about much except the day I asked him to tell me where to get a good cowboy hat. We had very close rez dates, so we were ostensibly from the same Orientation Island graduation class, and later we both became Mentors.

I was delighted to get to know Pecos better in a chance encounter recently. I found out that while I was learning how to adjust my hair and earrings, taking photos, and stuffing my inventory, Pecos was off exploring Second Life and finding something that would have a positive impact on his real life.

One day, a lady came to Help Island seeking help, and Pecos stepped up to the task. It turned out the lady had recently been in an accident and she was unable to use her hands, so she relied on Dragon Talk to do her bidding while she was on the computer and in Second Life. Her Dragon Talk was not working for her.

Pecos persisted in finding an answer for her, and his persistence brought him to the Heron Sanctuary, where Gentle Heron and her group were working on helping people with disabilities. Pecos arrived and he never really left.

Today, Pecos addressed the membership of the group, and he will do so again tomorrow at 11 slt. Below is a slightly shortened version of his speech, which talks about the laudable efforts of this organization better than I could:

Good evening. Thank you for coming! My name is Pecos Kidd, and I am Vice President of Virtual Ability, Inc. Gentle Heron, President and one of the cofounders of our organization, is here this evening as well.

I'd like to start with a modification of the presentation I recently gave at the "Dreams Fair." It will look at how we got started, describe what we do, and then discuss our current projects and future plans.

The presentation should last about 20 minutes, following which Gentle and I will be happy to answer any questions you might have about Virtual Ability (VAI), the Heron Sanctuary, and our groups' work and future plans.

Many people know VAI best by the name of our initial SL project, "The Heron Sanctuary." "Virtual Ability, Inc." is the RL non-profit company that oversees, funds, and grows "The Heron Sanctuary" and other projects.

Virtual Ability, Inc.’s vision is: “To be the leading provider of services for and information about people with disabilities in electronic virtual worlds.” Our mission is to enable people with a wide range of disabilities to enter into electronic virtual worlds, and provide them with a supporting environment once there.

The co-founders of the Heron Sanctuary began from the important concept of community for those who face barriers to participating in their physical communities. They collected medical research about the benefits of operating in virtual reality that accrue to people with different kinds of disabilities. They visited the websites of a half dozen different virtual worlds, and chose Second Life as the one to colonize first, since it seemed to be the richest cultural environment and the most fully developed.

The three co-founders of the organization came into Second Life in early June of 2007. Adopting the name “Heron” from the list of names available at the time, Sodapop, Superquiet and Gentle Heron began to explore, and met many kind and generous people who shared their understanding about how Second Life operated. Eventually they met Lorelei Junot at the Accessibility Center on HealthInfo Island. Lori allowed them to temporarily use a plot of land on EduIsland 4, and "The Heron Sanctuary" project began.

Today, less than a year after starting, The Heron Sanctuary has helped numerous people get “up and running” in Second Life. We have created a community of almost 200 individuals. And we have developed a growing reputation within SL as the leading organization dealing with the support of people with real world disabilities.

As we grew, we reached the point where we needed to create the Real Life structures that are required for us to have legal protections, conduct fundraising, and exhibit the credibility required to talk seriously with advocacy groups, doctors, researchers, the media, and other SL and RL organizations. So, a few months ago we created the RL corporation “Virtual Ability, Inc.” to perform that role. We are a non-profit corporation based in Colorado. We’ve applied for, but have not yet received, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

So – how does Virtual Ability help people here in Second Life?

First, we have a specialized intake process, individualized for the person's needs and capabilities. There are a number of unique challenges a person with disabilities can encounter while learning and using Second Life. Some of our members are not able to use both hands, which not only slows down typing text chat, but creates difficulty for inputs requiring multiple simultaneous keystrokes. Other users are unable to sustain depressing a single key, such as the arrow keys used for walking and flying, due perhaps to tremor or weakness.

Many Second Life functions, including managing inventory, dressing your avatar, and sharing objects and notecards, rely on mouse drag-and-drop function. Users who cannot depress and hold mouse buttons can not perform these basic activities unless they have adaptive equipment such as a tracker ball with single-click locking and unlocking functions. By identifying the need for, and helping with the use of, this type of assistive hardware or software, many of these issues can be alleviated or overcome.

Second, we train people to become regular Second Life citizens, as much as they are able, so that they can have all the benefits of being in a virtual world. We have volunteers who help new group members with makeovers, and who love to go shopping. While almost anyone new to a virtual world like SL would enjoy a little early guidance, we are finding that individualized attention is often critical for the success of those with disabilities.

Finally, we provide a supportive community for people once they are here and trained. We provide an environment where people with disabilities can make friends both with other people with disabilities who "get" what their lives are really like and with non-disabled people who will learn from them, and from whom they will learn also.

We measure the success of Virtual Ability, Inc. not by how many people stay in our group but by how many people use our services to grow into Second Life and other virtual worlds, and become productive members of society once here.

The bottom line is that many people with many different types of disabilities, who are isolated within the real world, find that the social interactions within a virtual world rapidly become crucial to their emotional well-being.

Now, I’d like to turn to our current projects, and then finish up with look at our future plans:

• New Resident Training. We continue to provide assistance to new residents with disabilities as they enter Second Life. Currently, this is done on a one-on-one basis. We have volunteers who are RL experts in assistive technology, and can refer new residents to other services as required to get started.

• Open Gates. Virtual Ability sponsors the Open Gates Peer Support group, run by Namav Abramovic and Kat Klata. Open Gates is a 24x7 peer support service for anyone who is feeling the need to talk, get a comforting word, or get a virtual hug. Open Gates provides peer support and discussion, and makes referrals to other SL or RL services if appropriate.

• Community Housing. One of our volunteers, Stepinwolf Darkstone, has created an experiment in community housing, based on research published as "A Pattern Language." He has built a housing complex on our temporarily donated property on Wolpertinger. The apartment complex focuses on shared public space and interaction of its residents. This project is going very well. There are currently 12 residents in this community, and additional units are being planned.

• Research Group. One of VAI’s goals is to develop our capability to act as a conduit to professional and academic researchers who are studying the impacts of virtual worlds on people with disabilities. To that end, volunteer social work researcher Gabrielli Rossini recently formed a SL group with a charter to establish, promote and support disabilities-related research in SL.

This group is creating guidelines by which we will verify that research requests are legitimate, and a protocol and standards of conduct for any such research projects. This is a very exciting area – please contact Gabrielli Rossini if you would like to find out more or get involved.

• Educational Disabilities Advocacy Group. This new group, run by Lyday Latte, assists college students who have disabilities to better understand the resources available to them, and how to access them.

• Community of Support. Through “The Heron Sanctuary”, we continue to provide an open, broad supportive community for people with disabilities within Second Life. We provide information about SL events to our members, hold dances and parties, and just hang out at the pool and chat.

Turning finally to our future plans. As many of you know, we recently announced our partnership with the Alliance Library System (ALS). This partnership will develop a new island with an orientation, training, and consumer health information center for people with disabilities and chronic illness. The new facilities will dramatically expand our new-resident orientation and training capabilities, allowing us to bring in many more people to the benefits of Second Life.

Funding for the partnership is provided in part by ALS based on its receipt of a grant from the National Library of Medicine called, "Share the Health: Training People with Disabilities and Chronic Medical Conditions on how to Locate Quality Health Information." This project is well under way.

We have purchased an island for this purpose.... in fact, it is the island you are now standing on :) Together with ALS, we developed a Building Requirements document, and sent it out to a dozen builders. Eme Capalini from our group and Carolina Keats from ALS head up this work. A team from VAI and ALS reviewed a half dozen responses, and are now in final negotiations to select the winning builder. We expect construction to begin next week, and our facilities to open in July.

This will include the delivery of health information, and a directory of health- and disability-related services and products, providing links and contact information. Integral to our new Island and its facilities will be the collaboration and partnerships with other organizations - SL and RL - that assist people who have various disabilities and health conditions.

In addition to this expansion of our "public facing" services, we also will be continuing to provide ongoing support and community for SL residents as they become integrated into the virtual world. To this end, we have now acquired a second island, "VAI Sanctuary", that will befocused on this purpose. This second island, and its planned future expansion, will allow us to grow beyond our current borrowed spaces on EduIsland 4 and Wolpertinger. These will eventually provide a permanent home for residential housing, entertainment venues, and a vibrant community center.

VAI will also be sponsoring multiple other projects over the coming months, in whole or with partners. These tentatively include the following:

• Space Destiny, which is a group geared toward enabling all (including people with disabilities) to participate in Space and Scientific Exploration.

• Providing vocational training for in-world jobs, for those who want it.

• Demonstrations of Universal Design principles as they relate to a virtual world.

• Expansion of the provision of Virtual Ability, Inc.’s services to other virtual worlds besides Second Life.

• Working with the Ophoenix Foundation to distribute donated computers and computer equipment to people with disabilities.

• Supporting the formation of a group of medical professionals who would be willing to provide information to our members and support of peer supporters.

In addition, we plan to significantly increase our activities in the “real world”, including:

• Conducting outreach and awareness activities to inform the disabled, their doctors, and their caregivers of the benefits virtual worlds can provide.

• Publishing articles in journals and attending and/or presenting at conferences related to disability issues and on-line virtual worlds.

In summary – Virtual Ability / The Heron Sanctuary has been on a remarkable ride over the past ten months. We have been blessed to have made many new friends in this strange and wonderful new virtual world. And we are so excited to realize how much potential lies directly ahead of us.

For many people with disabilities, Second Life is not a game. It provides a whole new world where they can be free of many of the limitations of their bodies. We at Virtual Ability, Inc. look forward to helping as many people as possible realize the dream of this new world.

For more information about Virtual Ability, Inc., or to make a donation - please visit our website at http://www.VirtualAbility.org

Please feel free to contact Pecos Kidd with any questions about his organization. I am so glad we have made friends again, Pecos. You remind me why Second Life is so magical.

My RL Birthday in My New Existence

2008-05-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday--my 40th, as a matter of fact. I am not saying this in order to garner attention--I have received plenty here already today.

The reason I remark upon it is that I find the friendships I have made through this social network have become personally very meaningful to me. I don't think expression of this is particularly revolutionary or mind-blowing. I think we all know how it applies to us.

Rather than going into a lengthy discourse telling all of you what you are doing wrong socially, I would rather briefly talk about what you are doing right. Following real life social norms, you are remembering to honor an individual for her mere existence and deciding to take the time to acknowledge her.

Thank you to many, many people on SL who have sent me cards, emails, tweets, and gifts. Your generosity of time and spirit means more than you can imagine.

Thank you, my friends here in this world, for making a big difference in my first life on my special day.

"Art" in Second Life

2008-05-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a project with Frank Koolhaas for a real life exhibit in Florence he is organizating. I was asked to curate a section of the exhibit (and I am in amazing company on this project--more on that in another blog). My section of the exhibit has to do with pieces of work that have been made by the artist using only the tools of Second Life. The section will be called "Untouched" and will include sculpture, jewelry, and photography. I am disqualifying from MY section of the exhibit anything in which the artist made something in out-of-world and uploaded it to Second Life, which means I am excluding post-processed photos, builds with textures on them, clothing, sculpties, etc. It does not mean that things with these features are not art; it means that I am making my one small section about "untouched" work. What I am trying to do is examine how the tools of Second Life constrain and inspire the artists who use them to work and talk about the "reality" of la deuxième vie.

I have sent inquiries out looking for artists who work this way, and I have been to several galleries, but it's been frustrating. It is a foreign idea in many people's mind that one could create art from the tools simply available to them in Second Life. Many who I have encountered have said, "Well, you can't do much without textures." And some think the tools in SL are simply not artistic tools. I read an article about one artist, Arahan Claveau, who said, "I don’t see pictures from SL as art in any way. No matter how complex they are, to me they are still just snapshots.”

I was frankly, irritated by this statement, so I spoke to a friend whom I respect. He suggested to me that Mr. Claveau's snapshots are probably just that--snapshots. Mr. Claveau has taken the time to learn other software and other artistic techniques (I went to his exhibition--it was nice), but he has not pushed himself to learn the craft of using the tools in Second Life very extensively. However he remarks, "If you want to do something, you can do it if you have the talent and desire. If you don’t do it, it’s just laziness."

Well, Mr. Claveau, I challenge you to take a good look at the work of some of the artists I have contacted. First, I would not call Random Calliope's work at all lazy. Random spends sometimes months on one piece, torturing prims to the desired shape, building them on his living avatar models (friends or himself in female form), infinitely adjusting glow, transparency, shininess, brightness, etc., finding form and beauty in the outcomes he can achieve with the building tools available to him. They are not "confrontation," as you would like your art to be, Mr. Claveau; they are form and beauty.

Then take a look at the work of Michelle Babii. Michelle admits (as I do) that she is not very skilled with Photoshop. Hence she would rather take a good photo right off using the Second Life tools than mess it up with unskilled manipulation of filters, smudges, and adjustments. Her photography IS a copy of all the textures that others have brought into Second Life. However, she relies only on the tools given to her in Second Life to create photos of incredible beauty, creating the ultimate mash-up of other people's textures within her frame and using her adjustments of light and environment in Second Life. She relies on the moment of her capture, much as a RL photographer would have relied on the tools in her hands to create a photograph. (My aforementioned friend explained to me once that Richard Avedon left the black frame around his photographs to prove that the composition and the spontaneity of the photograph were all captured at the exact right moment and composed in the best way there and then and not altered or cropped later on. Michelle is doing this, sans the black frame.)

I have to say, Mr. Claveau, a well-composed and lit "snapshot" beats an overprocessed "photo" any day. It also takes a lot more skill and artistry to do what both Random and Michelle are doing than taking photo-sourced images and slapping them on a prim.

To other artists on SL: I respect you all and you all have a place here. There is an amazing wealth of art and architecture available on Second Life. Why confine my appreciation of your work to what's not possible in RL (because I am so into Gracie Kendal's paintings at Cetus and Pippistrello Bonetto's and Semiramis Theas' and I could go on and on ) or to the not-possible (cheers, Mr. Douglas Store, because I spend more time at Dynafleur than just about anyone else, I have heard)? I keep poking Frank with suggestions for his part of the exhibit because there are SO many artists doing work in Second Life that is amazing, evocative, beautiful, emotional, so on, so forth. If I were to exhibit all the artists I appreciate on SL, they would need more than the Museo di Storia Naturale to hold them all.

I may or may not personally like your work (because I don't think that art's job is solely to provoke--I think that's manipulative and cliched and one-dimensional). But it doesn't mean I wouldn't call it art, Mr. Claveau.

Web hosting and land ownership--again

2008-04-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

Crap Mariner's blog addressed an analogy in my last blog, which I have read thoughtfully, and I have to say, I have to agree with him. Second Life is not like TODAY's web hosting services.

I think Second Life is more like the web hosting services from which they had evolved: frontier family set-ups using crap (sorry--TM) machines in someone's garage. Wise entreprenuers hooked up with these little hardware holders, repackaging and marketing their hosting as affiliates and reselling the hosting to individual users, providing at times, the go-between for the customers and the hardware/software guys.

Now that was in the '90s, when I knew what web hosting meant because someone in my household worked for one of these start-ups. They literally plugged into a main line in downtown Chicago with a bunch of crappy little PCs and hosted people's websites. They were glad to have those middle men for a while because the middle men kept the customers off their backs so they could keep the machines going. They were ostensibly outsourcing their customer service. And did it cost $1000 to set up a web site? No, but it cost considerably more than the nearly free cost that is quoted nowadays, as set up was not automated nor was registering a domain cheap at the time.

That worked great until they automated their web hosting sign up, troubleshooting, etc., and also as technology improved through the data stream. And the market was heating up. Technology was making it so one big ol machine from Cisco could do what their 200 PCs could do and firms were professionalizing their web hosting companies so that they WERE doing "managed application hosting," as Crap names it. They couldn't compete--their cost to run was too high. One big guy could come in and eat them up, and that is what happened. My family member's company closed its doors, not in bankruptcy, but with their customers sold off to the bigger tuna. Could we do anything about it? Nah. We went on.

Compare my knowledge of web hosting from the 90s to today's Second Life. What I describe is what Linden Labs is doing with allowing "land ownership." They allowed land owners to be their middle men for their crappy little machines, while they tried to keep it all together. (We ALL know they are having a hard time keeping it all together right now, but that warrants someone's else blog.) A lot of the decrease in their start-up cost (I refuse to call it "land price") it is due to the same forces experienced by web hosts in the 90s: technology is improving and more companies are entering the market. Something's gotta give, and in this case, it's the cost to set up a website--oops, I mean, a sim.

While I concede to my friend Crap that my analogy was outdated, I won't back off my argument that "land ownership" in Second Life is nothing but a sales tactic by Linden Labs that worked. They got you to be their middlemen by calling you "land owners." And now they are responding to real life market forces that are saying "Your membership is plateauing, you have some 400+ machines sitting around unused (hello, Gaeta!), and you better do something quick to make some bucks because someone's gonna be calling you on that loan soon enough (*cough* Mr. Kapor)." Linden Labs had to risk devaluing current land by flooding the market with new land and pricing it more cheaply to take care of business.

I will reiterate that basing your business model on the arbitrary pricing whims of a private enterprise is risky business. It's called "speculation" for a reason. If you got stuck with land that you paid more for, well, whatcha gonna do? It's a product. It's not "land." Real life land is limited; they put another 400 machines on the grid, and you bet the price should go down. Supply and demand, baby.

And if Linden is not giving you what you need as a provider, go out and find the one that will. Cuz they are out there somewhere. Linden's feeling it--aren't you?

Thanks, Crap, for addressing my blog thoughtfully. I hear what you are saying.

"Land" ownership

2008-04-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

The strangest thing I encountered when I first entered Second Life was the concept of "land" ownership. A "sim," ostensibly a physical computer serving as a server in a network of other computers, included the opportunity for a wee avatar to have 65,536 sq. m. of horizonal space, which included the privilege to drop about 15000 prims on to that space.

Well, the concept of place didn't phase me in the least. I had been on a MOO. We had networked our rooms and homes through a series of doorways leading "n," "e," "s," or "w." The space, in and of itself, constituted one object. The consideration of trading quota for services rendered or currency was not a consideration, though I am sure some engaged in the former. Therefore, when I entered SL, the idea of paying for land did not seem absurd. The idea of paying someone who was not the holder of the server, however, did.

What was the deal with the "land barons"? Were they actual land owners, with all the worries, costs, considerations, mortgages, taxes, and maintenance (or lack thereof) that is involved in that?

Turns out the land barons do have a lot of duties. They argue on behalf of their residents with Linden Labs over their sims, they parcel the land, sell it, improve it, and generally police it. But what they are maintaining is strictly a function of the features provided to them by the program. They are middle men (or women, if that applies).

Lately the land owners have been up in arms about the new sim pricing. As we all know, the cost to get a new sim went down from $1675 to $1000. The cost for tier has increased for new mainland from $195 to $295, equivalent with the cost of tier for island sims. What this has done, according to sim owners, is lowered the value of land they currently owned by 40%. A huge hullabaloo has arisen over this as estate owners look at the multiple sims they have purchased, added up the extra $675 they spent per each, and tallied the "loss" they think they have incurred because they will now not be able to push this set-up fee, in the form of "land sales," off on the next guy.

We need to remember in RL terms that Linden Labs is a company with approximately 250 employees, on track for very fast growth and trying to wrangle a relatively new paradigm in virtual worlds. They are physically in an office full of people on computers linked up to colocations full of servers with all the same crap we all have our offices: guys like Dwight, people with toys on their desks, hushed conversations in the lunchroom, higher co-pays on their health insurance, some weirdo who silently steals other people's lunches. Linden Labs is a company, a private enterprise, with bills, employees, overhead and all the rest that Real World companies have to put up with. Well, heck, they are--us!

If we remember they are a private enterprise, we can see this for what it is. What Linden Lab's move *really* has done has allowed them to lower pricing for entry-level sim ownership, and it's potentially providing more income for Linden Labs through increased tier on mainland parcels (which, for some reason unbeknownst to me, are very popular for settling).

Back to this "land" thing. It's kind of a misnomer to call it land. What "land" owners have "purchased" is actually the set up of a server with their tier payment going towards "maintenance" (like the electricity to run the server, the health insurance with the increased co-pay, Philip Rosedale's hair gel). It's not a lot different than someone renting space on a server for a web page. In fact, it's nearly identical.

If you think about it, all Linden Labs really is is a glorified web hosting company. They have wrapped it in this magical package of Love Machine and kumbaya, forced us to use their browser, branded their name legally and literally. They are not "God" (God wouldn't have opened up Gaeta right when he lowered prices on sims). They are not the police state, as some would have us believe. They are a private enterprise.

This is the thing, my fellow residents of Second Life: we are not residents (as Robin Linden's clever name so makes us believe); we are consumers.

If my web hosting company announced that they were lowering my set-up fees and raising my maintenance fees, I would think about this two ways: first, I would be bummed that I paid an increased set-up fee on my other web sites and second, I would think darn hard about whether I wanted to continue with that company and would look to either move or get out of it altogether. Complaining that Linden Labs has not treated you well as a land owner by not announcing a price decrease with enough advanced notice, which has lowered your land "value" as a "resident" is like me whining to Volkswagen that they have not given me enough Fahrvergnugen (which they haven't, but that's another story). Put up or leave!

So land owners, think hard. Please stop complaining at public meetings and deluging the Lindens with requests to change their policy. It ain't gonna happen. Act like responsible business people. Adapt to the change, come up with a new strategy, pull in your belts. And consider: maybe you *would* be better off There.

The first entry

2008-04-21T17:07:00.000-07:00

Who knows how long this will last, but I will put up my own blog, regardless of the constraints on my "not-first existence." (Did I skirt that one ok?)

Thank you, Mr. Almo Schumann, for the blog title. It fits my experience in SL entirely.

I am gearing up for my first substantial post.. it's about land prices and land owners. Allow me to put my neck out there......