A Quick Word

I’ve been blogging about my SL times since the end of 2007. As I post rather eclectively on both D/s and Second Life in general, I’ve now split my blog up. This one deals with living in a virtual world in general. My i-Squared blog is the place to go for information on i-Squared designs and builds. My peysworld blog deals with all matters relating to D/s relationships and D/s in Second life. I hope you enjoy reading them, and that you’ll leave any comments that come to mind!

Further Confirmation

The other day, I posted a response to the Behind the Firewall product announcements. In it, and in a reply to a comment / question from Prokofy Neva , I stated pretty much that I felt that people were misunderstanding the SL Enterprise (as it is to be called) “model”  – and on two scales.

The first, and more trivial, is that some in SL have perceived the new product as applying to them  – even to the extent of expressing shock at the quoted price of $55,000 (I think people were expecting it to be a kind of “pay-to-use” content-populated OpenSim competitor.

The second mistake I tried to sum up in my response to Prok’s comment, where I stated:

This is why I really don’t think that the new channel [the "Work Marketplace"] is “the mecca for all content creators to aspire to”. The majority will be excluded simply on the basis of what they make. Joe Schmoe (or indeed Inara Schmoe) who makes nice houses and skyhouses isn’t going to cut the mustard. If corporate minds are going to want a shiny edifice in-world or on their squeaky-clean sim in a box, they’re going to want a Name behind it; someone with a Reputation and Qualifications. They are also not going to need comfy sofas, beds, lamps, cars, planes, boats, BDSM gear… and so on.

Thus, the channel will remain more of a funnel, bottlenecked at one end to prevent the “unsuitable” getting in while directing others to the status of favoured elite.

In other words, the Work Marketplace will be carefully filtered, throttled and guarded to prevent the likes of you and me participating because our wares are “no good enough”.

With the possible exception of Anne O’Toole, I seem to have been somewhat alone in voicing this view – even though the evidence is abundantly clear elsewhere. Hence, I’m a little surprised that Prok herself states outright disbelief at a recent statement by none other than Justin Bovington, CEO of Linden Lab’s bed mate, Rivers Run Red.

In the piece, Bovington states in reference to the Work Marketplace, “”It has [to] be less Xstreet, more Wall Street. It has to reflect relevance, rather than drowning us all in deluge of content: clothing, furniture and avatars,” he wrote, adding “if [Linden Lab] attracts the right people to develop these apps, this could be the tipping point.”"

In other words, it will be the jealousy-guarded filter I described.

Bovington’s comments also tend to support the idea that the grid is to be further messed with – or as Amanda Linden euphemistically calls it, “improved” – as he also states “We also think that Corporates will create a mixture of hybrid behind-the-firewall closed-off spaces on their Intranets and a private, gated Internet-accessible space for their partners and collaborators.”

In other words, if he and his ilk get their way, stand by for a scenario I touched upon while commenting in Prok’s blog earlier today when commenting on the idea that avatars may soon be “streamed” by “type”:

“This might be good from a sign-up perspective to some degree, but IF carried beyond that (admittedly a big “if” at the moment) I’m not entirely sure it’ll do SL any favours. With users so corralled / siloed, how hard would it be to start demarking areas of the grid as “no go” based on avatar type (e.g. your avatar is recorded as “role-play”, therefore “business only” regions are off limits to you)?”

In reviewing the SLE product release, I referred to Amanda Linden’s seeming hostility toward the user base at large. In Bovington’s comments the hostility is now approaching a state of warfare.

The writing on the wall is becoming clearer every day. There are those  – as again I stated in my last post – who see SL a world of to unequal halves: those involved in corporate endeavours – and everyone else. And those of us in the latter category are to be tolerated, rather than embraced. We are, to use a phrase I believe (in all fairness) Prok herself used not long ago: now the “legacy product”.

We are not the Web!

Tateru Nino over at Massively cornered Mark Kingdon (I still have to grit my teeth and swallow hard when attempting to say “M”, and will do until Second Life is renamed “Fantasy MI6″ or something similar) and put some questions to him last week.

Now…I’m really aware that I seem to only write negatively about LL, which is odd, because I genuinely enjoy SL in many different ways. However, it has to be said that the company itself is largely responsible for much of my negativity, and interviews like this one – while well-intentioned on the part of Tateru – do much to further promote feelings of ire. Not so much because of the questions asked, but for the answers are given.

Leaving aside most of the opening commentary on the Typical Kingdon Day, I find it somewhat laughable that for someone who professes to spend time each and every day in-world, Kingdon clearly doesn’t “get” SL.  The evidence? His comments around the “first five hours” of user experience and the new “Viewer 2.0″.

Now, with regards to the “first five hours”, I could throw in a snide comment here and point out that this work originally started as trying to improve “the first hour” experience for a new user in SL, and that now we have reference to the “first five hours” – isn’t that what project managers who find things slipping out of their control ’scope creep’?. But I won’t. Oh, damn, too late….

However, snide comments aside, that the “first five hours” is being looked at is worrying. Yes, Second Life can be a bewildering place to enter. Some people do find it difficult to grasp what “it” is “about”. They can flounder. And much of the “first hour experience” in terms of sign-up, etc., appear to have gone some way to solving the more major issues. BUT….by the same standard, there is a lot of content already in-world available to help the new user; much of it – resident-developed infohubs, etc. – works very successfully. Also, I think it fair to say that few entering SL are completely naive – they may not totally “get” SL, but they’ve been around games, potentially other 3D worlds, etc., enough to grasp the basics and use the “first hour” “improvements” as a means to leverage themselves successfully into SL. Others are doubtless here due to friends already using SL, and thus have a cache of help in-world on which to draw.

So why are the “first five hours” now on the radar as needing improving by LL? What could possibly come of pre-packaging that time and sanitising it to the Nth degree? Other than pre-packaging it? And therein lies the answer. As Kingdon himself says: “Over time, we’ll develop unique entry paths for different types of Residents. If you are interested in role-play, there will be an entry path for you…if you are interested in starting a business there will be an entry path for you.” In other words, LL are now looking at SL as (self-contained?) market silos. If you are a role-player, you fit in X, and X shall be your domain. If you want to start a business (and here I think it safe to say Kingdon isn’t referring to “simple” content creation or land rentals  – he’s referring to a “real” business, serving LL’s corporate efforts) then Y shall be your domain.

I hinted at something in this direction in my last post, while responding to Prokofy Neva’s question that followed it. “Adult themed” play has been corralled to Zindra and private estates. Could this be a prototype run at starting to “silo” users? One can’t help but wonder – not that quite this complexity of siloing is actually required.

Why? because Kingdon only sees two audiences for SL: “role players” and those wanting to “start a business” – a theme that is entirely in keeping with Amanda Linden’s apparent view that SL is a world of two halves: those here for “serious” stuff, requiring a clean (er, “improved”) Mainland, et al, and “work avatars”, and …. everyone else, regardless as to whether role play, a desire to “socially network in SL (ugh!) or tinker around with prims and “make things” is your motivating urge.

It seems clear that if you’re not in any way connected to “business” (either as a corporation or as a GSP or one of the yet-to-be-defined “Work Marketplace” creators), then you are definitely in the “everyone else” (“role-play”) category. Thus we have two market silos, each undoubtedly to be managed, controlled and (well, for one of them at least) constrained; and possible confirmation that those at the top of LL miss the fact that what makes SL so attractive, so vibrant, is the freedom of interaction we all enjoy; freedom that is to be artificially limited in the drive for “corporate value”.

Then there is the Viewer 2.0. Here Kingdon slips into lyrical web metaphors. He talks of SL being more a web experience, and glowingly describes the “address bar” functionality of the new viewer that will “instantly” drop someone to any desired location in SL without (apparently) all that tedious mucking about with landmarks.

Well, cool, eh?

Actually, no. Possibly not cool at all. I’m not sure if Kingdon, as he frequently claims, uses “web metaphors” because that is the terminology  / reference everyone will “get”, or whether it is because he himself is actually incapable of looking at SL outside of a web frame of reference. If it is genuinely the former, then at times the metaphor is badly placed as it leads to confusion rather than clarity. If the latter – well, that’s deeply worrying, as it means he simply cannot see SL as anything other than a glorified web.

And if there is one thing SL is certainly not (OK, one thing among several LL seems to have become hung up on over the last 18 months) – it is not a successor / extension to, or enhancement of, the world wide web and to consider it in these ways is the route to disaster.

Again, the “address bar” sounds great in principal….but what does it mean for the humble land mark upon which we all rely? Will it become obsolete? Discarded? How do we trade points of interest with one another then? Grab a bookmark a-la the web and then start cut-and-pasting it in and out of chat or IMs when wanting to share? And how do we give out the locations to our little stores and the like. LM’s are great because they are both a location on the grid and a physical object that can by easily passed around and stored in notecards and objects. Simply replacing them with an idealised SURL (which is really what Kingdon is talking about) could kill this flexibility.  Are store owners to be left with having to place their address on a notecard inside a sold item and hope people will cut and paste it into their “favourites”?

Of course, if the idea is just a metaphor, and the system actually compliments the “old” LM system, then fine – but why not say so from the outset? Bundling it purely in “webby” terms without giving some reassurances of what this means cannot fail to generate worry and concern.

The webby focus gets worse. When asked what he’d most like to see in Second Life, Kingdon proposes: “A Web 2.0 oriented data model with an array of APIs that expose data streams so that developers can create more apps for Residents to find, discover, connect, transact, share, create and build.”

Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh. So in other words, his focus is on ways and means to deliver yet more web content  – information, video streams, etc., into SL, further turning it into some kind of glorified web browser. And not the emphasis on “developers” in the comment. It’s pretty evident here that he’s not discussing an enhancement for the likes of you and me (although we may well benefit in getting improved media streams into SL we can harness for our home entertainment, or which may have some novelty value to our SL-centric business). No, here again, I think it safe to say he’s talking about ways and means to deliver all that juicy enterprise-oriented information out on the web into the hands of the residents who matter – corporate entities, GSPs and the like.

While these abilities may will have a role within “Second Life” it is hard to see how they benefit the majority of the current user base as a whole, or how they will appeal to future casual users coming into SL. As such, surely these aspirations are better suited to the Enterprise Tools (the behind-the-firewall “solution” et al), rather than goals to be applied to SL as a whole.

We are not the web. We never have been. And the fact that we’re not has never made understanding and getting involved in SL an insurmountable problem. But it could easily become so if we’re all forced into looking and using SL as if it were just an enhanced web tool.

Behind the Firewall

Well, it’s here, with ballyhoo aplenty. The much-vaunted “behind the firewall product”.

Yippee, one might state. Others might be more ecstatic. Some, poor benighted souls, might even think it is for them (I did find it hilarious that one “SL businessman” expected the new “sim in a box” to cost around $100 USD, and was stunned at the $55,000 price tag!).

Make no mistake. This “solution” is not about, for, or really involving “business” as the majority of us in SL go about it. Nor is it really geared towards the education sector LL has (until recently) been treating as a possible bedfellow. No, make no mistake, the Behind-the-firewall “sim in a box” is aimed at one market and one market only: the big corporations.

You might say it is 2006-in-a-box. Remember back then, all the hype and trumpeting about SL being “the place” for business, with the like of NBC, Toyota, Nike, Coca-Cola and others flocking into SL….doing next to nothing and then stampeding out again six months later….

I really don’t know that this new product has a market or whether it has been built on wishes and daydreams. To read the hype, a lot of it has been specifically engineered in ways that suggest it goes far beyond the capabilities of the main grid. However, seeing is believing, and as I’ve not seen, I can say either way. Certainly, as a “next generation” communication tool, it’s going to have its work cut out to effectively and efficiently compete with the millions big corporations have invested in direct-to-the desktop communications and collaborative tool sets, the ability to host face-to-face meetings with the participants hundreds (or thousands) of miles apart (or separated be several floors in the same building) without the need to either ldeav their desks or poke around with some 3D “image” of themselves in a digital utopia…..

But…that isn’t my concern. so long as LL don’t hang all their hopes on this yet-to-be “solution” and as a result crash and burn should it crash and burn, I don’t really care if they hit the mark or shoot themselves in the foot.

What concerns me is what else they are doing alongside this announcement. Because frankly, this “sim in a box” now seems to be the thin end of the wedge (or chisel) that could fracture SL.  Ciaran Laval, in his blog, cuts to the heart of the matter.

Several times I’ve fought shy of posting to the official forum “discussions” challenging Amanda Linden as to why LL simply can’t develop a “Corporate mini grid” to which, if they wish, those corporations employing the new “sim in a box” product can connect at some future date. It’s been obvious for some time that the tool on its own would be limited in scope in terms of a revenue stream and that  – given the emphasis on collaboration – somewhere would be needed where corporations could meet, not only with each other but with LL’s vaunted “Gold Solutions Providers” and perhaps with potential customers; so why not simply section-off server capacity and build a grid specifically for that purpose?

Now we see the reality: LL don’t have to go that route, as they appear to have already earmarked the main grid for this purpose. Many suspected this when they thrust the “Adult Content Policy” on us. I and several others challenged LL on precisely this point, and were told we were wrong.

Well, seems we were wrong in a rightish sort of way.

What is really worrying though, as Ciaran makes clear, is that now the gloves are really coming off. LL is moving beyond inconveniencing its user base (vis-a-vis the OpenSpace sim fiasco, the Adult changes, etc.), and into open hostility we’re being told “our world” is now a “serius” place of work, that if we want to be taken seriously “in business” we must start wearing suits. The implications in Amanda Linden’s post on the sim in a box are clear: if things don’t match the corporate-friendly image LL require, then “improvements” will be made – so step aside!

In this respect, I actually disagree with Ciaran’s assessment. He refers to the move as a “stealth takeover”. Actually, I’d say that up until now it has been “stealthy”; but not it is blatant and in our faces. And the stink is even worse for that.

Of course there will be the inevitable cooing from LL about how their “core business” – you and I – still matter. And we will; so long as we stay in our nicely corralled environments, overseen by the Lindens themselves (Zindra) or by their new Land Baron friends, who will doubtless vigorously police their estates and “themed lands” in accordance with the meme that “residents should be seen (on a map) but not heard”.

I’d given go so far as to say that LL are actually looking to keep us around, albeit nicely constrained and within markets that the new “big boys” won’t want to touch. To name but two of the markets and the reasons I say this:

• Markets like land (corporations are going to be interested in running zillions of sims and renting out parcels, obviously) – but the big land barons are, and guess who are already being enticed with “beta programmes” by Jack Linden et al to buy more land, and to possibly take on management of “themed” Mainland.
• Markets like the Adult community. Sure, we might not be appealing to LL’s corporate image, but we’ve all now been brushed under the carpet, tucked away in private sims or on Zindra. And while we may be “unsavory” – the fact remains that the Adult community is one of the most creative in SL, and one where businesses can thrive with huge turnovers (and Stroker Serpentine isn’t alone in this). It has a lively, nay, bubbling community that cannot help make T Linden’s quarterly reports look good. Ergo, so long as we behave, we Adult Market users stay – which is likely the real meaning behind all the hollow assurances LL gave back in the Adult Change fiasco that they were not “changing” their attitude towards the Adult market.

And the reason both stay? Two words: fall back.

It’s insidious and it is nasty. LL are aware that they are taking a gamble. They are aware that if it succeeds, then they break their reliance on the “casual” or “home” user – those who have, as many keep saying, made SL the “success” it has been. They can finally move beyond the “narrow” opportunities we afford them and move into a bigger marketplace and Do Things, as I seem to remember Mitch Kapor demanding of the company back just before Mark Kingdon showed up.

But…they can’t just let us go. Oh no, not yet; because everything still might go, as my father was once fond of saying, tits-up. If that happens, LL will need a fall back position – you and me – in our nice, constrained environments in SL, still turning our hard-earned cash over to the Lindex mill in order to keep their coffers topped-up.

It’s a pessimistic view on things, I admit. And I hope to high heaven I’m wrong.

Dynamic Shadows

Yup! They’re finally here in Emerald, providing you have the graphics capability!

Here’s how – but be warned: dynamic shadows ARE still experimental, and I give NO guarantees the following may work, and take NO responsibility for any unforeseen results:

1. Enable the Advanced menu in Emerald (CTRL-ALT-D).
2. Open Debug Settings.
3. Type “RenderDeffered” (without the quotes and the command should auto-complete as you type). Make sure the flag is set to FALSE.
4. Type “RenderUseFBO” (again, no quotes, and watch for the auto-complete). Set the flag to TRUE.
5. Enter “RenderDeffered” again and set the flag to TRUE.

Shadows should now be enabled on your machine….if you get anything remotely psychedelic, set RenderDeffered back to FALSE.

Here’s what things can look like at sunset, as a simple example

 

 

LL Announce Third Party Viewer Policy

Jack Linden isn’t the only one setting up new programmes within SL now the Adult Change fiasco is “sorted”. Cyn is back, with an announcement concerning third party viewers.

On the whole, this can only be seen as good news: while open source viewers are not the root of all evil as some would have us believe, it cannot be denied that there are several out there that exploit weaknesses in the SL environment in order to make activities like content ripping easier. As such, it is right and proper that LL work with the community as a whole to develop the means of keeping such unwanted elements – Neillife, Cyrolife, and their ilk – well out of SL for the good of all.

However, this does not mean that all third party viewers should be condemned. While the usual voices can be heard again screaming the house down over the Emerald viewer in particular and to the exclusion of all else – again, it cannot be denied that open source development on the Viewer has also been a power for good. It has allowed those who experience uneven results with the “official” Viewer to find a degree of stability with one or more alternatives that has dramatically enhanced their SL experience; it has allowed those so-minded (and who can remember back far enough) to enjoy the benefits of some of the “old” UI that were lost when LL forced us into acceptance of things like the catch-all “Communicate” window (which was a terror when it first came out). Third party viewers have eased the use of legitimate API functions, they have provided improved menus, improved access to building tools (Imprudence being one of the first in this regard), and so on. Perhaps most importantly, they’ve introduced genuine bug fixes and helped clean up code far quicker than would have been the case had the Viewer remained closed – and in doing so, have directly benefited the “official” Viewer itself, as these changes and fixes have been fed back into the code – something those all too keen on screaming “ban the open source!” seem to forget.

So in this regard, policing third party viewer development, such as through the use of a register that places real life accountability against viewer code, can only be a good thing if handled correctly. There can be little doubt that those “honest” third party viewer creators – the guys at Imprudence, the team behind Emerald, those working on the various flavours of Cool Viewer  – all will be the first to sign-up to a properly thought-out and implemented policy and registration / policing process.

To this end, and leaving aside the banshee wailing and biased finger-pointing that repeatedly singles out just one viewer for vehemence, there have been many very excellent ideas posted in the blogrum discussion following Cyn’s post. Anne O’Toole hits upon one important element, while others offer ideas for helping ensure the development process can be more properly integrated into SL – the worry that any policing could inevitably drain the patience of “legitimate” open source developers if it puts unreasonable hurdles between them and their goal of improving the SL experience for everyone. And while it may require a lot of technical input (and possible cost), Marine Kelley possibly hit upon one of the best solutions.

Right now, the real question is, will LL actually engage fully and openly with those most involved in the development of third party viewers? Macabe Maxstead from Imprudence raises a genuine concern with his question, and has every right to be worried when Blondin Linden announces that while there will be Brown Bag meetings  – they will be run more-or-less like those for the Adult Content changes – i.e. open only to a select few, with the criteria for selection known only to LL themselves.  That the latter were carried out as closed-door sessions gave people cause for much alarm at the time – alarm that was all too easily justified as it became clear just how little room there was for actual engagement with LL and discussion around their decisions relating to Adult Content.

It’s a cleft stick to be sure: no-one can justifiably stand against measures that control third party viewer use on the grid when the control is fairly aimed at reducing the ease with which those so minded can carry out malicious acts. But, by the same token, Linden Lab need to be prepared to engage fully with the open source development community to ensure that the actions they take both safeguard those of us who use Second Life and allow those passionate enough about SL to continue to work at their own expense to improve our in-world experience.

Signs and Portents….

Two recent events involving Linden Lab reps have caused yet more head-scratching.

The first is a posting from Amanda Linden on the subject of “work avatars“, espousing the view that if people are to do “professional” business in SL then they should consider having a “professional avatar” as distinct from their runabout everyday avatar.

I’ve found two things interesting with this – one of which is somewhat amusing, the other is more alarming. The amusing element is in the number of replies from people who have somewhat missed the context of the post. This isn’t about all of us engaged in SL commerce having to ditch our current look and come over all business-like. Nor is it about any form of “outing” real identities behind avatars on the part of LL.

No, the article is aimed squarely at the question of “professional” (read “corporate”) employees being in-world as representatives of their organisation, and the need for these individuals to keep their “professional” identity both divorced from any “social” identity they may have and use outside of working hours, and in line with the professional / corporate image they are trying to promote.

While many have mistaken the posting, as mentioned above, giving rise to a range of misguided (…?) responses, those that have realised the intent of the post have, in fairness given interesting feedback on the matter relating to the “validity” of “business” (or “professional”) avatars, the question of naming rights / abilities, etc. However, with one or two exceptions, no-one has really addressed the question of why is Amanda even raising this issue in the public forum?

Second Life was never designed to be an engine of business. Period. It was designed – if such a term can be used – as a fun-based social networking platform (and I never thought I’d hear myself say that!). Yet, in the drive to make it sustainable, Linden Lab have been increasingly forced to look at the corporate environment as a means of generating sustainable revenues and growth (again, this drive is to me one of the clearest indications that all is not well with the SL economy as an “engine of commerce”, despite the rosy pictures painted every quarter by those juggling with the finance figures). To this end we’ve had much focus from LL on their “behind the firewall” product which (I gather) is designed to be the nirvana for all corporate communications needs.

And, in its own way, this is fair enough. Second Life does offer some unique opportunities for internal management to corporations. Whether they can compete with established tools and technology (video streaming, desktop-enabling video conferencing, secure collaborative work tools and information sharing, etc.), is obviously debatable – but one cannot simply discount SL on the basis of existing technology, or for LL for trying to leverage what they believe is a potential market.

Where this becomes an issue, however, is in the way it impacts how Linden Lab view the grid as a whole. Until recently, the grid was a place of open interaction, creativity and development, where many different lifestyles and communities could converge and mix and share (largely) without rancour or fuss. Sure, groups were/are prone to their own bouts of drama; yes, Linden Lab did and does sometimes show an insidious favouritism here and there – BUT on the whole, for those in SL it really was a case of “our world, our imagination”.

That is no longer the case. The “big business is everything” mantra is one that is spreading across the whole of Linden Lab, resulting in a grid that is slowly but surely being sanitised, and individuality squirreled away on private sims and small holdings. “Adult” content has been largely removed to its own continent or private sims; any that remain on Mainland are (theoretically) unable to advertise or gain much visibility unless people stumble upon them – and where they do advertise, users are encouraged to AR them so they can be taken down.

We’re now seeing discussions emerging between Linden Lab and a favoured few relating to “zoning” areas of Mainland for “community building” – words that again subliminally suggest “homogenising” the Mainland into a nice, clean, “safe” environment where Corporate Daddy will feel safe letting his children (employees) “play”.

In this, Amanda’s enthusiastic posting is but the latest demonstration that there are those within LL who view Second Life as being “all about business” – and very little else, despite the lip service they may pay to the rest of us. The only reason the idea of having a “professional” avatar is being promoted is because Amanda and others in LL want to see the grid as a confluence – not of communities and lifestyles and interests – but of corporate marketing and exposure. A place where all those behind-the-firewall grids can safely connect and where their minions and roam outside the hallowed portals of their corporation and “do business” with others “safely” (and by “safely” I don’t necessarily mean “securely”, I mean simply without the “risk” of running into any one of two dozen exotic avatar styles we all take for granted in SL).

And this is the worrying aspect of Amanda’s post; not that we’ll all have to somehow be “outed” (as some on the blog comments are decrying), but that here again we see Second Life – a place never designed to support Big Business – being slowly but surely forced into a business suit, shirt and tie….

Nor, in passing, do I find this kind of commentary being followed by Philip Rosedale’s recent bombshell unconnected. Other the last several months we’ve seen several departures from Linden Lab that have raised questions concerning the company’s intended future direction. Until now, the hardest of these was perhaps Robin Linden’s departure.

While Robin caused a mixed range of reactions from those around her, she did, in many ways, having the “community” of Second Life at heart. Not all of us agreed with some of her actions all of the time, but she was committed to the idea of Second Life being an open community. As, I think it fair to say, was Philip. And now he, too – despite all the comforting words – is off. Why, exactly, is unclear. Lots of promises and pleasing words – but one cannot help but feel that in sharing the same workspace as Mark Kingdon, Rosedale finally realised the yawning gulf between his dreams and ideas and Kingdon’s (Kapor’s?) vision for the future of SL, and the fact that the two can no longer comfortably co-exist.

So what of SL and the rest of us? I have no idea. But, like many others, I’m concerned about further developments coming out of Jack Linden’s office, as reported by Ciaran Laval and variously-reported elsewhere.

First off, the issue here – and Ciaran states – is not that LL have discounted a bulk sim sale to the likes of Dreamland (who are a huge customer well aware of their potential buying-power – thus discounts are hardly surprising). What is worrying about the deal is – again – the degree of obfuscation apparent in Jack’s responses to valid questions pitched during his Office Hours, and as reported by Ciaran. So much so, that Jack himself had to admit he was coming over as evasive – before hiding under the excuse that this is some kind of “beta program” – a laughable response at best.

Discounts are discounts. End of story. They are a legitimate part of business practices and require little in the way of hiding from others – so they fact that Jack (again) feels the need to obfuscate (just as he did over OpenSpace / Homesteads, and with the Adult Changes, and with the Blake Sea situation….), suggests that either favouritism is involved here, and a programme to edge-out the smaller land owner and private sim owners is in the process of being developed, or – frankly – Jack is (again) demonstrating a degree of incompetence in his ability to deal openly with his clients.

Personally, given the push for a bigger Big Business presence in SL, the erosion of the voices and dreams of those who made SL possible, and moves such as this latest “beta programs” from Jack, I’m beginning to get pessimistic about the future of SL.

These moves simply do not bode well for the smaller, independent player or player groups within Second Life. Again, leave us not forget that, after the special “beta testing” Jack developed with USS over Blake’s Sea, we’ve now got the much-touted Community Partnership Programme, which is utterly biased against small independents – right from the opening words: “a new initiative focused on expanding Linden Lab’s relationship with large, inworld communities“.

Indeed, taken together, one cannot help but view the CPP and this latest behind-closed-doors deal between LL and Dreamland as part and parcel of moves to sanitise Second Life ready for the Second Coming of Big Business, as heralded by Amanda….

Score One….

OK…I bash LL quiet a lot. So, in a pleasant change, I’m going to blow them (or some of them – notably Soft Linden) kisses.

Anyone reading this blog knows that content theft is a genuine issue within SL and that, as a content creator myself, I’d like to see LL become more proactive in dealing with it.

Well, now they have, as reported by Tateru Nino over at Massively – no fewer than 50 rippers have been summarily banned from SL for blatantly stealing assets from the Linden servers.

The culprits in question had been using a Viewer called Neillife (unfortunately built on the Emerald codebase) that utilises an purpose-built exploit that fooled the Linden asset servers into providing them with items to which they had no rights to own.

This is very much a step beyond “simple” copybotting or Viewer copying as evidenced with the likes of Cyrolife. It borders on outright computer crime that can far more easily be acted upon with legal measures than protracted DMCA actions, as the violations in question were directly against Linden Lab.

And it was becasue the Viewer behaved this way that Soft and co were able to get the hackers – by identifying the object the hackers were going for, they simply substituted the original item with one that effective “phoned home” with the user’s account information each time it was illegally copied….making it a cinch for LL to round up the culprits and ban them – including the Viewer’s creator….

It’s not clear how this kind of action by LL can be broadened, but the fact that they have quietly taken such a step is very welcome; and while it would be very easy to say “well, they only took this action as a result of the class action against them”, I’d beg to differ and simply say that kudos falls where kudos is due – and that LL are to be unreservedly congratulated in the action they have taken.

My one real worry is that this success will leads to greater cries from the ill-informed (or those carrying certain grudges) for other “safe” Viewers such as Emerald, Meekat and Cool Viewer to be  “banned” as third party viewers are “evil”…..

Linden Lab and content creation (2)

Well, it seems that LL are determined to capture more and more of the market represented by incoming new users. I’ve previously commented on the fact that they appear to be going up against private estate owners by providing prefab sims. Now, with (I’m assuming) huge swathes of Mainland cleared of the “pesky” Adult Content, it seems that Linden Lab are about to effectively bite the collective hand of the Mainland landowners there who feed them through tier, with this announcement, which will provide (quote) content already in place, including busy commercial districts and residential areas.

Given the way Linden Lab has handled land over the last couple of years – yes, the OpenSpace sim debacle is just coming up on the first anniversary of the original hike announcement – this seems a pretty sharp kick in the teeth for those actively engaged in the Mainland market as land owners, as Prokofy Neva lucidly states in response to Courtney Linden’s latest (and totally inappropriately-titled) post on the subject of land.

Whether one agrees with Prok vis-a-vis her comments on FIC-status land barons (although I personally can see this being the case only too easily) one cannot deny that the that fact LL are now moving on both private and Mainland “themed” and “pre-fab” land underlines the fact that the die has been cast as far as Second Life content is concerned and LL’s role here.

If this is the case, one cannot anticipate anything less that the out working of the recently-proposed content roadmap will further the move towards greater control of content (and potentially content creators themselves) by Linden Lab, under the guise of “controlling” the genuine issues around content ripping – in much the same way as the genuine technical issues relating to OpenSpace sim performance was used by LL as a thin excuse for the massive price / tier hikes implemented at the start of 2009. (And I’d point out that those underpinning technical issues still haven’t been fully addressed, 11+ months down the road from the original OpenSpace sim announcement.)

But why are LL making these moves into pre-fab sims, Mainland or otherwise? I don’t for a minute buy the spin that it is to improve the “new user experience” – people have managed perfectly well within Second Life for the last six years without any need for intervention on the part of Linden Land when it has come to the provisioning of land, homes and the like. And as Prok rightly points out – the issue is not one that couldn’t be solved through vetted advertising at infohubs and greeting centres and better-up front information on the options and alternatives people can find as they explore SL.

Can the need to maintain a cashflow be so great that LL are now feeling compelled to enter their own market in direct competition with the people they ostensibly support and enable? Again, that doesn’t read right.

Taken together with the Adult Content moves though, one cannot help but wonder if elements within LL are trying to “sanitise” SL – at least in part. If this is the case, one has to ask why….is it purely to make SL more attractive to “big business”? Last year, Philip Rosedale, speaking at Metanomics made a passing comment that he’d like to see SL and the teen grid (which some regard as an epic fail in and of itself – although whether this is the case or not, I can’t say; I’ve never been there as I’m entirely the wrong age!) at “some point in the future”. Well, the “future” gets closer each day….

Or is it simply because LL are once again moving towards that other chestnut that gets raised from time to time: they’re seeking to IPO Second Life and focus their efforts in technology licencing in terms of the grid technology….?

Speculation is rarely accurate given the traditional lack of information  / feedback / commentary from those within Linden Lab itself – but if I were to be pushed into indicating which of the above scenarios I’d consider to be the case – I’d be edging towards the desire to “sanitise” Second Life in order to make it more attractive to Big Business.

For one thing the other two don’t entirely stand up to close inspection. But, more prevelently, it’s pretty clear that with all the recent blog and other efforts (Amand Linden’s sadly laughable Open Letter to Your Boss, her myraid of other posts relating to SL as a platform of “business” and the oft-promoted “behind the firewall” “solution”), that LL are very much pinning their hopes on “cracking” the commercial market. As such, a more “sanitised” (or “uniform”) approach to mainland development seems to fit the picture. Sadly.

Vitriol “rules”

It seems that nothing much can happen in Second Life without at least one sector of the community responding with misplaced and vitriolic posts. We saw it with the OpenSpace debacle, and again with the Adult Change situation, where people opted to pour scorn and derision on both Linden Lab & those trying to encourage more engagement on both subjects, rather than join in sensible debate.

And, if I’m honest – and I do try to be – at times I’ve been guilty of the same.

But the level of vitriolic (and largely unfounded) statements and backbiting some have entered into with regards to the Eros / Nomine class action against Linden Research that is evident on the blogrum really take things to a new low.

Leaving aside most of those issuing forth with spite / outright hatred towards Stroker and Munchflower have, in reading their posts, either failed to read the documentation relating to the action or had a failure of comprehension about what the papers are actually stating – I’m stunned at the degree of petty jealousy towards Stroker as a businessman that is inherent in many of these responses. Particularly when these same individuals would otherwise have us believe that they are “mature”, “professional” “business people”.

And yes, Stroker is a businessman; he’s sought to establish a professional presence in Second Life in exactly the manner Linden Lab would like to see businesses develop and strive. It matters not whether the content of his business is of the kind LL themselves would like to actively promote – he has played by their rules and made a success. And like any successful businessman, he has every right to defend both the position his company is in, and the trademarks, IP, etc., invested in the products that business sells – regardless of whether the products are virtual or real.

Note I say, “he’s ought to establish a presence in Second Life in exactly the manner Linden Lab would like to see businesses develop and thrive….” This is important, because it seems to be the point that many of those pushing out angry blogrum comments aimed at Stroker (and to a lesser extent Munchflower) seem to overlook.

Linden Lab promote Second Life as an environment in which real businesses producing genuine products  – be they quantified in terms of physical prims, scripts and textures sold to other residents, or skills and abilities provided to others in terms of consultancy or expertise that results in in-world creations.

As such, Linden Lab does have certain responsibilities for in ensuring the environment in which they actively encourage others to engage in commercial activities is as secure as it can possibly be when it comes to protecting the goods and services provided by those entering the environment.

And the bottom line is that Linden Lab did little to prevent the emergence of tools such as Copybot (which came about prior to open-sourcing the viewer) and have done next to nothing to prevent its continued use – other than adding a somewhat woolly statement to the ToS against its “misuse”.

And while they have constantly promised to tighten-up things within SL, the fact remains that right now, six years down the road from SL’s launch, all we really have is a “roadmap” that the company is considering in order to “improve” things. A roadmap that is in itself somewhat questionable in its end goal – and which could be potentially far more “damaging” to the overall state of “free” commerce in SL than the action being brought by Eros / Nomine.

Thus, to suggest that Stroker and Munchflower are acting out of “greed”, or that they are risking the “status quo” of commerce in SL is at best misplaced sentiments – the issue does, whether people like it or not, go much deeper than this.

Which is why I can only  – for one of the few times in my life – thank Prokofy Neva for posting one of the most lucid, intelligent and positive comments on the matter. For all her faults, Prokofy has a knack for getting to the heart of a matter – whether one likes or deplores her more usual style of posting.

In this reply she hits every pertinent nail on the head and – and I say this with hand on heart – echoes many of the thoughts I’ve been having around the timing of this action and the possible underlying motives. The difference is, she’s put words around the possible reasons far more clearly than I could have managed (and indeed, I did attempt to post my thoughts on possible “conspiracies” yesterday, but gave up due to lack of clarity of thought).

But…whether or not there is much more to this matter than meets the eye, whether the plaintiffs may in fact be “in league” with elements within Linden Lab itself…is currently so much speculation. What Prokofy Neva has done – I hope – is re-focus the discussion on what should be under discussion – the potential outcome of this situation in terms of commerce as a whole in SL, and what responsible merchants should be looking to achieve in order to prevent many businesses from finding themselves out in the cold as a result of changes forthcoming either as a result of this suit or Linden Lab’s own “roadmap”.

So, let’s knock it with the idiotic and irrelevant arguments that we “shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds us” – again, for the reasons I’ve mentioned above – or that this suit is akin to someone suing the automotive industry for all car accidents – perhaps one of the silliest responses I’ve read on the matter. We may no all agree with the action Eros / Nomine have taken, and we all have a right to be concerned at the possible outcomes….

….But let’s at least try to be civil in discussing things, and mature in our dealings with one another.

LL Facing Class Action

SexGen is a well-known name in SL. Go just about anywhere in Zindra, and you’ll see adverts for SexGen beds….so much so, that you’d think that “SexGen” was a generic term.

It’s not. It’s a trademark. It belongs to Eros LLC, operated by Stroker Serpentine – as does the underpinning code and IP relating to objects powered by the SexGen system.

That so many apparent knock-offs of SexGen items thrive in SL points to the endemic nature of content theft in-world – theft which LL are only now resuming efforts to try and make harder, despite having over six years  – plus their pre-launch period – in which to more properly address the matter and try to stay abreast of evolving techniques and capabilities.

Thus, it is unsurprising that Eros has – together with clothing making Nomine – filed a class action against LL for allowing such copyright infringement to run unchecked in SL for so long.

The suit itself makes interesting reading – and has already created a storm of debate on LL’s own blogrum and elsewhere. Certainly, the suit is taking a different tack from other attempts at suing LL. In all it cites twelve individual causes for action against Linden Research, the majority of which relate to deliberate / negligent trademark / copyright violations, but which also extend to breaches of Californian business codes and intentional / negligent interference in economic relations.

The crux of the argument is that Linden Research is benefitting from the inappropriate use of trademarks and copyrighted property in that the infringing  / illegal goods must be sold via in-world land – from which LL benefits in terms of tier payments OR via XStreet – from which LL benefits in terms of the commission they receive on each sale. The argument even extends to ripped textures (particularly relevant in the Nomine side of the action) – wherein LL benefits to the tune of L$10 per ripped texture uploaded. Finally, there is the claim that LL also benefit in that they receive a 3.5% commission on every transaction of illegally-raised L$ transferred out of SL as hard currency.

This is indeed an interesting track to take – and one in which it is hard to see LL being unable to escape any claim they are failing to meet their responsibilities, either deliberately or simply through their own negligence – again, note that the action purposefully differentiates between the two and brings separate causes for each in terms of trademark and copyright infringements against Linden Research. Thus, it is hard to see that “ineptitude” on LL’s part can in any way be proffered as an excuse.

Certainly, the approach calls into question whether Linden Lab will be able to defend itself using the DMCA in much the same way as Veoh has apparently successfully done. But that is not to say the case is by any means open and shut. Take the DMCA and couple it with LL’s own recent announcements on the subject of content protection, their ToS, the fraud protection within Lindex – and one can see that LL may be able to mount a persuasive – to a judge, if not to content creators – defence of their position.

What cannot be dismissed is that should this come to an open trial, it puts Linden Research between a rock and a hard place. Should the case come to court and they lose – then they undermine their self-promoted position as the “safe” virtual platform for “serious” business – which has been touted so very recently by Amanda Linden. If they win, then they risk losing the confidence of every earnest content creator, big or small, already within Second Life.

Thus, either winning or losing the case could irrevocably tarnish Second Life’s reputation as a “serious” platform.

…Which, in a way, is why this may yet end-up as a non-issue, inasmuch as one can see it being quietly resolved out-of-court, which may in turn result in little or no major changes within SL beyond those already roadmapped by LL themselves. Or maybe the fact that the matter is now in the public eye – and being so widely debated – may still encourage LL to be more proactive in dealing with content ripping despite any out-of-court they may reach with Eros / Nomine.