Second Life at Stony Brook

[21 Nov - 6PM PST] Group search issues have now been fixed.

We are aware that at present clicking on groups found in Search results in a “Page Not Available” error. We are investigating and will have an update as soon as we know more or have resolved the issue.

Filed under: Business models, Culture, Economy, News items, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds

This week, Linden Lab announced that it was going to start charging listing fees and minimum commissions on its Second Life Xstreet Web-shopping adjunct in the near future. Within hours, vendors took down thousands of products, many abandoning the service entirely in favor of alternative services.

It's unclear just how many vendors have abandoned the Xstreet SL system, but it apparently was enough to temporarily overload the Web-sites of third-party sites such as Slapt.

Continue reading Linden Lab to raise Xstreet fees, loses vendors, products

Linden Lab to raise Xstreet fees, loses vendors, products originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hola! Ciao! Boas Tardes!

With roughly 60% of Residents based outside of the United States, localizing the Second Life experience is an important area of focus for us, so we’re pleased to share two pieces of good news on that front.

 

On Wednesday, we launched SecondLife.com in three additional languages: Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian. We now have websites localized in English, German, French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, and are looking forward to continuing to grow this list.

 

Additionally, as you may have seen, we’ve recently signed an agreement with Gisland (actually, you may have seen it called Dragonfish or 888 - 888 Holdings is the public limited company, Dragonfish is the brand name of 888’s B2B Division, and Gisland is the operating company). This is a company with a great deal of experience in providing secure payment processing, andthis relationship will enable us to begin accepting payments from Residents outside the US in a broader range of currencies than we currently do.

 

We're working together with Gisland on a cashier interface and other tools that will give Residents more than 20 payment options and make it easier for Residents to pay in a wider range of native currencies than they can now. Gisland will also help us implement appropriate anti-fraud measures as we expand these payment options, and will help us to provide payment-related support in seven languages. We’re not yet ready to launch these new services, but more payment options are coming, and we think it will make things easier for Second Life Residents outside the US. More to come, and we’ll keep you posted.

.

As the Winter season makes way to the northern hemisphere, we have some big events planned and many ways for you to participate in this year's Winterfest! Please read on to learn more about Winterfest land auctions, how to submit content to the Winterfest Destination Guide, and a little bit more about Winterfest traditional events on their way!

Winterfest Shops

Linden Lab is pleased to announce Winterfest Shops! To complement the overarching Second Life Winterfest, we’ve created a small number of parcels available only via the Second Life Land Auctions page starting on Saturday, November 28th and ending December 5th. Auctions for parcels on Dasher, Prancer, Donner, Blitzen, Eggnog, and Turtle Dove will start at only L$1. In order to participate in auctions, Residents must have a premium account at least 14 days old. For only the price of a winning auction bid and no recurring land fees, you can have your parcel until February 26th--about 80 days!!

If you win a parcel at auction, you may open your shop and hold events and gatherings on your land. Winterfest Shops merchants are more than welcome to direct shoppers to their larger outlets in other Regions (”If you like what you see here, grab this landmark and visit my larger store!”). At the four corners of Dasher, Prancer, Donner, and Blitzen is an iced-over pond where a spectacular "Skating Under the Stars" event will be held from December 21st-23rd, making it a prime location for Winter themed fun!

Winners are allowed a rental of the parcel they win, but do not own the parcel they are given use of. Land rental lasts until February 26th, 2010. After February 26th, all land will be returned to Linden Lab and all remaining objects will be returned to the winner. No adult content please. All builds must conform to our Terms of Service and Community Standards.

Don’t forget to check out the Second Life Land Auctions starting Saturday, November 28th for your chance to win! If you have more questions, check out the Second Life Knowledge Base entry at the wiki.

Winterfest Destination Guide

The Destination Guide (inworld displayed as the Showcase section of Search) has been updated with a Winterfest category, and we need your help to populate it!  What are the wintertime traditions in your part of the world? If you are planning a winter extravaganza in your region that demonstrates your traditions, read on to learn how you can have your location highlighted in the Destination Guide!

Just like last year, keep these guidelines in mind when you plan and execute your winter builds: We will be looking for builds that are engaging, well made, available from December to February, and that present your regional sights, sounds and traditions of winter. We will bypass builds that are commercial in nature, so if you’re basically decorating your store for the season, that’s great, but it’s unlikely to be in the Winterfest Destination Guide. Think of your build as a gift, freely given, to your fellow Residents, not as an opportunity to sell something. You are also welcome to submit winter related events that are open to public!

As submissions come in, we will send out Lindens with snowshoes to check out the locations and bring back their recommendations for the Destination Guide, due to be populated on December 6th. While space in Showcase is limited, we will try to fit in as many submissions as we can, with potential to rotate the listings throughout the Winter season.

Submissions end on Monday, November 30th, so please check out the FAQ to learn about how to submit an entry to the Destination Guide editors for consideration. In the subject line of your submission email, please mark whether your location is a "Winterfest Event, (dates/times)" or "Winterfest Location." (Please note, not all correspondences will be met with reply.)

Winterfest Traditions

Of course, what would Winterfest be without Second Life traditions?! This announcement comes early so you can mark your calendars for some end of December fun!

On December 21st to the 23rd, get out your winter gear and join us for the "Skating Under the Stars" event at the Winterfest Shops regions, where a central bonfire will light the midnight sky and music will be provided for during select hours each day. For further details, keep an eye on the blog for an update mid-December to learn more! If you would like to provide live music or DJ for this event, please contact Mia Linden via Notecard inworld with your available times and a brief description of what your music/DJing offers.

From December 28th to 31st, get out those mittens and join us yet again for the battle of the year:  Residents vs. Lindens, in a snowball fight showdown! Designated times during those days and locations of the event will be announced mid-December as well.

Winterfest Spirit

In keeping with the spirit of Winterfest, it's important to remind about our previous announcement involving our partnership with Kiva.org, the world’s first personal micro-lending Website that empowers everyday people to lend to working poor entrepreneurs around the world. Content creators are encouraged to create special Winterfest Wreaths and enter their designs in the Winterfest Wreath Competition, sponsored by Linden Lab, hosted on XStreetSL.com - see the submission form here. All submitted wreaths will be displayed inworld at the region Zermatt. Though the competition ends November 23rd, all Residents will have an opportunity to purchase the six (6) winning wreaths on Xstreet SL through December 31st, 2009. All donations from sales of winning wreaths will go directly to help support Kiva's operational costs as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. For more information, check out this blog entry.

Enjoy the start of a fantastic Winter season in Second Life!!!

Filed under: Culture, Guilds, News items, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds

Yesterday at the morning Second Life mentors' meeting, Linden Lab staff announced that Linden Lab's sponsored mentor group, which had been functionally closed (in all but name) for approximately a year now, would finally be disbanded in practice. The move doesn't really come as much of a surprise to observers of the Lab's sponsored volunteer programs over the last eighteen months.

Almost immediately more ex-mentor Second Life social groups than we could comfortably count sprang up, as people prepared to maintain their network of contacts without the overarching group umbrella. While there was surprisingly little actual yelling, some members of the organization feel the blame lies squarely at the feet of Linden Lab's CEO Mark Kingdon, though there's not a lot of apparent evidence to justify that.

Continue reading Linden Lab to disband moribund mentor group

Linden Lab to disband moribund mentor group originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

[19 November 09 - 5:15 a.m. Pacific] All in world functions and transactions should be available including new account registration, Second Life logins, and XStreet logins.

[19 November 09 - 5:01 a.m. Pacific] We have started the database cutover and it should take no longer than 30 minutes to complete.  All in world functions and transactions should be available. However, new account registration, Second Life logins, and XStreet logins will be unavailable.

[18 November 09 - 4:00 p.m. Pacific]

Beginning at 7 p.m. Pacific this evening, we’ll be adjusting the performance of roughly 1300 mainland regions, a few at a time.  Tomorrow at 7 p.m. Pacific, we’ll tune another 1300 regions to complete the maintenance.

The only visible impact to Residents within those regions should be a standard restart. There will be a five-minute advance warning for each restarting region.

Also, tomorrow morning beginning at 5 a.m. Pacific, we’re doing a quick database cutover. It should take no longer than thirty minutes to complete. During the cutover, all in world functions and transactions should be available. However, new account registration, Second Life logins, and XStreet logins will be unavailable.

Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds

Virtual environment operator Linden Lab has partnered up with 888 Holdings plc's Gisland/Dragonfish division to provide payment processing for non-US Second Life customers.

A spokesperson for Linden Lab told us, "We're working together with Gisland on a cashier interface and other tools that will give Residents more payment options and make it easier for Residents to pay in a wider range of native currencies than they can now. Gisland will also help Linden Lab implement appropriate anti-fraud measures as we expand these payment options. In addition, Gisland will assist Residents directly with payment-related issues, including failed transactions."

That last part is fascinating, as that would be something of a first insofar as Second Life payments processing goes, as is the tantalizing hint of expanded payment options - something that is of considerable interest to users outside North America.

Continue reading Linden Lab partners with Dragonfish for non-US payments processing

Linden Lab partners with Dragonfish for non-US payments processing originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

[Completed 11:18am PST, Nov 18] The server deploy for odd numbered sim hosts has been completed. This concludes the 1.32.1 server update.

[Update 7:00AM PST Nov. 18, 2009] Server deploy for odd numbered sim hosts has begun.

[Resolved 11:40AM PST] The Rolling Restart of the even numbered sim hosts is complete.

[Update 7:00AM PST Nov. 17, 2009] Server deploy for even numbered sim hosts has begun.

We will be deploying server version 1.32.1 to the main grid during the week of November 17th

. The rolling restart is scheduled as follows:

• 2009-11-17, Tuesday, 7am - Deploy to even numbered sim hosts
• 2009-11-18, Wednesday, 7am - Deploy to odd numbered sim hosts

As with all of our server deploys, each region will be restarted once during one of the rolling restart periods. Most regions should be down no more than 5-10 minutes, although some fraction of the regions will take 20-30 minutes to upgrade. If your region stays down for more than 30 minutes, please contact support. Each region will receive warnings starting 5 minutes before that region is restarted.

Please refer to the forums for the most up to date information, including release notes, deploy updates, and comments:
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=350336

During this scheduled maintenance, starting at 5:00am PST and projected to last until 5:30am PST, logins to Second Life and XStreetSL will be blocked and new registrations will not be available while we carry out a minor upgrade to a central database server. All in-world functions should continue to work normally.

[1:47am PDT] Service to support tickets has been restored. The support portal should be functioning normally. Thank you for your patience.

[00:51] AM PDT]  Live chat is now available from the support portal.   Support tickets are still down at the moment.

[00:17 AM PDT] Our support portal is currently down.   Residents will not be able to access live chat or submit tickets at this time.  Phone lines however, are still available.

[Nov 18 10:25 PDT] Maintenance has completed. Thank you for your patience.

[Nov 18 10:25pm PDT] We are performing emergency maintenance currently. There will be isolated login failures and possible log outs. Please monitor this blog post for updates.

XStreet SL is offering content creators and customers alike an opportunity to help make a difference in someone’s life this holiday season. Beginning today through November 23rd, content creators can create special Winterfest Wreaths to decorate homes and businesses throughout Second Life by entering their designs in the Winterfest Wreath Competition, sponsored by Linden Lab, hosted on XStreetSL.com, and benefiting Kiva.org, a non- profit organization.

WHAT IS KIVA?

Kiva is the world’s first personal micro-lending Website that empowers everyday people to lend to working poor entrepreneurs around the world. By combining microfinance with the Internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending. Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. Learn more at Kiva.org

WHERE WILL DONATIONS GO?
All donations will go directly to help support Kiva's operational costs as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. If you're interested in learning more about direct person-to-person personal micro-lending that empowers everyday people to lend to the poor, visit Kiva or check out Kiva's volunteer run Second Life lending grouphere. Or, learn more inworld at Kiva's Second Life location in Tech Soup's Nonprofit Commons.

HOW DO I ENTER MY WREATH DESIGN?

First, you will need to get a wreath template by "purchasing" one that has been posted on Xstreet SL for L$0.  Click here to get the wreath template for $0.  Starting with the template, create a design using all the creative talent you can muster. If you’d like, you may partner with others to collaborate on a design and submit a group wreath.

Once your wreath has reached its full glory, complete the Winterfest Wreath Competition submission form and then send your wreath in world to Nancy Linden by 12 PM PST (noon), Monday, 11/23/2009.

Impartial judges from Kiva and Linden Lab’s Commerce team will review all submitted wreaths before selecting six (6) winners, which will then be offered for sale in the Winterfest Spotlight. 100% of each Winterfest Wreath sold will benefit Kiva directly. So, don’t stop with designing wreaths, make sure you buy one too! Winners of the wreath design contest will receive recognition and appropriate branding in all promotion of the Winterfest Wreaths.

XYZ item, designed by ABC designer for the Winterfest Wreath Competition.
All proceeds from the sales of this item will benefit Kiva.

All wreaths entered into the competition will be displayed on Winterfest event sims, so that everyone has a chance to view the amazing designs from Residents around the world. And, all content creators will be recognized in a forthcoming blog post.

With the deadline quickly approaching, there’s no time to waste, so put on your creative hat and design a Winterfest Wreath and help make a difference in someone’s life this holiday season. 

 

Edit:  Made on November 20th 2009:

Here are some answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the competition:

Q:  Can you change the size of the template as you wish?

A:  Wreath template size may be changed.

Q:  How many wreaths can I enter?

A:  As many as you wish.

Q:  When you make the final link, does the template need to be the root prim?

A:  The template does not have to be the root prim.

Are there prim limitations?

A:  Total # of prims should be no more than 50.

Q:  Is it anything goes (except for adult content) ?

A:  Only music and visual content that is your intellectual property, or with documented permission to use, will be considered. 

Q:  Can you use scripts? How will they be protected.?

A:  Yes, scripts are allowed. All items will be set to no copy before being publicly displayed and will not be copied by Linden Lab for any reason but to sell on Xstreet in benefit of Kiva during the promotional period and display on one region inworld.

Q:  After Winterfest is over, does the wreath become the property of LL since we turn them over to you with full rights?

A:  Permissions are different from intellectual property.  When you give us a wreath, even with full permissions, you are granting us a license to use the item for the purposes of Winterfest and/or to sell on behalf of Kiva.org.  You are not giving away your intellectual property rights.

Q:  Since you are requiring us to turn this over to you full perms and it becomes your property, does that mean that any textures I create for this (or textures that I have created in the past but am using for this) become your property and I cannot use them in my other builds since they would be your property?

A: Linden Lab reserves usage rights of textures and other components of a virtual wreath only for the direct promotion of the Winterfest 2009 promotional event. All submitted wreaths will be deleted upon the end of the promotional period.

Q: Since you are asking for Full-Perms , why not state…”If you submit for this event you grant LL a one time license for this event ONLY for use of your items for sale with all proceeds going to KIVA, after this event the items will be destroyed." ?

A: Items will be deleted upon the end of the promotional period, December 31st, 2009.

Q:   Will there be a KIVA alt, to whom we give our products to who changes the perms BEFORE, and we can verify that, then after that KIVA avatars inventory is emptied?

A: No, there is not a KIVA alt. Nancy Linden will change perms before wreaths are displayed to the public and delete wreaths from her inventory upon the end of the promotional period, December 31st, 2009.

Q:  What will become of my wreath if I am not chosen for selling on Xstreet?  Can I sell on my on Xstreet account?

A: You may sell the wreath that you submit on Xstreet, but you will not have the right to use the Kiva, Linden Lab, Xstreet SL or any other trademarked name except that which you own to market the wreath.  You may use Winterfest in your promotional copy. 

[Resolved] 1:02pm PST - This issue has been resolved.

We are experiencing some issues that affects saving notecards and uploading images.  This issue is being addressed and should be fixed shortly.  We will update any changes.

Filed under: Business models, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds

Telstra BigPond (a major Australian Internet Service Provider, with an approximate 50% market-share) has had one of the most popular corporate presences in the virtual environment of Second Life, even including a customer service center staffed eleven hours per day, five days per week. In a nation with expensively metered bandwidth, BigPond even refrained from metering a portion of the data sent to its customers from Second Life. All of this for what has basically been an experiment.

That, however, appears to be coming to a close. BigPond intends to shutter its Second Life presence on 16 December.

Continue reading Telstra BigPond to shutter Second Life presence in December

Telstra BigPond to shutter Second Life presence in December originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

[Nov 16, 10:30pm PST] Issues with LindeX have been resolved. Sorry for any inconvience this might have caused.

[Nov 16, 7:00pm PST] We are currently experiencing some issues with LindeX that may result in a delay with LindeX transactions being processed for some residents. We are working on resolving the issue as soon as possible. Please watch this blog for any additional information.

Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds

Back in 2007, Linden Lab formed regional partnerships with companies to operate localized portals for the Second Life platform, called the Global Provider Program (also sometimes referred to by the Lab as the Gold Provider Program, though distinct from the Gold Solution Provider Program). Linden Lab identified three non-English regional markets that it felt were priorities for support and localization: Brazil, Korea and Germany.

The first of the providers was Kaizen Games in Brazil, followed by Barunson Games (then called T-Entertainment) in Korea in October 2007. Bokowsky and Laymann might constitute a third partner in this program for Germany, but the the actual arrangement there isn't very clear.

Continue reading Second Life Global Provider Program troubled?

Second Life Global Provider Program troubled? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

[2:22 PM PST] Voice issues are now resolved.

[1:21 PM PST] We are currently experiencing voice issues in Second Life. It appears to be affecting a small segment of our residents and we are working with the engineers to correct the problem Please keep checking back here for updates.

There have been some residents who may have experienced their tier not having been billed last night as it should have. This should be resolved by tomorrow morning.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

[Resolved 06:57am PST, 13 November 2009] The maintenance work has been completed.

***

We’ve scheduled a quick server move for tomorrow (Friday, 13 November) at 6 a.m.  During the move, features involving currency or L$ will be unavailable.  These include:

• LindeX transactions,
• updating payment info at the Website, and
• upgrading to Premium membership.

We anticipate that all services will be restored by 6:30 a.m., possibly sooner.  If the scope or scheduling of the work change, we’ll update you here.

[Resolved,10:21am Pacific] The rolling restarts that began last night at 8:20pm PST have now been completed.

[8:20pm Pacific] We are beginning tonight’s rolling restarts. Each region will have a 5 minute warning prior to shutting down and will only be offline for a short time. We will post here when the restarts are complete.