Voodoo's Christmas List 2008

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Well, Christmas is coming, and the goose is... well, the goose is hoping that the cost of food continues to rise. You see, it's fast becoming a tradition for me that once a year, I come up with my Christmas gift guide, spotlighting some truly superb consumables you can find inworld, that could well be the perfect pressie for one of your many second life pals. However, when approaching this years price guide, I was aware of two things. Firstly, with the papers and newsmedia shouting and screaming that we are all descending into the abyss of recession hell, the idea that I show you all the sparkly high cost treasures inworld seems a little, well, irresponsible's a strong word, but you get my point. The second thing relates to a story of a friend from not long ago, who had a stand at an sl trade show, and wanted to give away a promotional gift. She got a lot of flack, since this "gift" was set for sale at 1$L. Her reason for the price was that, as she apparently said, that if you offer a freebie, that everyone will think it isn't very good. So, with these two factors in mind, I present to you the 2008 Christmas gift guide, with every item being an example of cool design, funky ideas, and would bring a smile to anyone who received it. Oh, and every one is free!

To hunt down these items of frugal fun and frolics, I went to the sl shopping website, http://www.onrez.com/ and started browsing. The reason I went to this site, as opposed to http://www.xstreetsl.com/ (or slexchange as it used to be called), is that unlike xstreetsl, when using the onrez site you are able to buy freebie items as gifts for others, with the item being delivered straight to your pressie recipient inworld. And here, is what I found:

For the Steampunk Aristocrat:


The RCR Unnecessarily high prim monocle by Spindle Vlodovic
This gorgeously crafted eyepiece has fantastic high tech looks, but still has the quaint Victoriana styling that would not look out of place gracing the face of any steam powered mad scientist. With precise and minute detail, the high prim nature of this piece may be described as unnecessary, maybe because of the addition of an arm and nose bridge to make the monocle a kind of half spectacle, but whether unnecessary or not, it's certainly appreciated.

For the Wannabe Rockstar:


The Xcentric Rock Stage by Jamiecat Janus
This item screamed out of for included, for although it's described as "Freeshit", it is in fact 228 of pure rawk joy. Torn straight out of the filthy dive of your dreams, you can now drop this grunged up stage onto your land, and kick out the jams to your heart's content. The stage comes complete with mics, a drumkit, monitors, a wall of amps for you to throw your guitar at, and a ton of spotlights hanging above it all. LET THERE BE ROCK!

For the Tiny on the move:

Tiny Skateboard by Nanjido Oh
2008 has been the year that the Tiny revolution has really taken over SL, meaning that chances are that you may well have a cute vertically challenged buddy, with a stocking that needs filling. And what better than this funky skateboard, stylishly produced, for them for zoom about on. Good looking and containing the needed animation to make you look like a pro skater, this allows you to thrash in the cutest way possible!

For the Glamourpuss:


2007 BijouxOr Design Freebie Jewel set by Alienbear Gupte
This well created and beautiful set of jewelery, complete with necklace, earrings, and navel ring, manages to be stylish with a splash of sparkle, but since it's bling can be turned off, you can avoid being hunted down by the "blingtard police". The detail in these items means that they will add that little extra glamour to any outfit.

For the Artist:


(Shiny Things) Freebie Painter Shoes by Fallingwater Cellardoor
Is your best friend one of the many artists filling the galleries of SL with their creations? Then why not get them a pair of shoes that reflect the number of hours they spend tirelessly working on pieces of beauty and meaning. Splattered with virtual paint, these comfy looking slip-ons have a sense of Bohemia and childlike enthusiasm to express yourself that should bring a smile to any inworld Pollock.

For the SL socialite who doesn't want to be bothered by just anyone:


Miss Gadgets Personal NoEntry by Maeva Anatine
Do you know one of the many divas, the kind of person seen at all the very best and high class parties, with a friend's list containing anyone who's anyone in SL? Why not give them a little personal space, since they will no doubt be besieged by hapless newbies trying to make a name for themselves amongst the glam and gorgeous. You can bet their land is surrounded by a security barrier, showing that only their prestigious inner circle are allowed access, so why not give them this cute little attachment that puts just such a barrier around themselves, to show everyone that only a select few get access to a person of such stature.

And finally, if your friend is one of those people that just loves this time of year, and would be happy with anything Christmassy, you can't got far wrong with the Giant Sculpty CHRISTMAS CUPCAKE with 2 animated poses by Minke Bailey, but act fast, as this item is only available for this Christmas period. So there you have it. A selection of high quality and creative items to regale your buddies with, and none of them costing a single Linden Dollar. I guess there's still an argument to be made for the best things in life being free. Happy Holidays!

Listen to this Crap

Monday 8 December 2008

In a quandary what to give this Christmas? Without doubt gift vouchers are as popular now as they have ever been. However as the times have changed, so have our vouchers. No longer are you given a giftcard to buy your own hideous woolen jumper, but you are given a giftcard to purchase the latest and greatest tunes.

The two major players in the internet shopping world are of course iTunes and Amazon. Both companies of course offer gift vouchers and allow shoppers to buy the music from their vast catalogues; these catalogues include some of the SecondLife resident musicians.

Crap Mariner, a keen supporter of live music in Second Life and regular voucher shopper has created two locations in-world for the promotion of music purchases and support for SL musicians. Crap offers us a project focusing on the wonderful and talented SecondLife musicians as well as a new and inspiring way to support them. I managed to catch up with Crap and ask him how this project came about initially and how residents and musicians can get involved.

Trinity Dechou: Tell us a little about Tunes inSL, what set the ball rolling?

Crap Mariner: Last year at SLCC 2007, the musicians, deejays, venue owners, and Lindens were at the business track arguing over shortcomings in the platform and business model, but not coming up with many solutions that resulted in "a rising tide lifts all boats."

I took a lot of notes, studied things for a while, asked a few music performers and promoters in RL, and let it stew for a while as I hosted live musicians in my own venue. While I was saying "I support live music in SL" I constantly asked myself "What can I do to support it more?"

When the holidays rolled around, I got a few iTunes gift cards. Instead of wasting them on ungrateful overhyped tabloid trash like Madonna and Britney Spears and rappers who shoot at each other while shooting up the charts, I wanted to use them to support live musicians in SL.

That's the heart of this project - if you get gift cards, how do you use them to support live music in SL? Everything comes back to that statement. Anything that gets in the way of that or adds unnecessary bells or whistles or drama - slice it off and get back to the heart of the project.

So I had these gift cards, but who can I use them on? I already had the albums by Cylindrian (Grace Buford), Kaklick (Bryan Baker), and Louis Volare (Louis Landon) - who else was in iTunes that I could buy music from?

I posted a call for names and links on my blog, and I got a great response. I picked up Tallguy Kidd (Dale Marsh), EvaMoon Ember (Eva Moon) and a few others.

People who read my blog let me know they used their own iTunes gift cards to buy SL music, so I know this was something that might work if there was more lead time.

As November rolled around, I wrote up a quick notecard, a few blog posts, and spammed my friends lists on various networks.

Keep it simple - one prim per album, link off to the download/review site on iTunes or Amazon. Nothing fancy that can break or go wrong.

Trinity Dechou: How do people purchase their music through SecondLife?

Crap Mariner: There's a few in-world systems like TRAX and SecondTunes, and God bless them for coming up with elegant solutions to allow in-world purchases, but they don't have as wide a footprint as the big players like iTunes and Amazon. They also don't have the userbase, communities, or review/ratings systems that can possibly lead to wider exposure of these talented people in RL.

Most musicians use CDBaby.com to get their music out there. It's quick, easy, and they give a good commission compared to iTunes or Amazon. They'll also burn copies of the music and ship them for live performers in their RL gigs.

But no gift cards yet. And the gift cards are the heart of the project - getting people to use whatever cards or credits they get to support live music in SL.

The industry standard for gift cards, community, reviews/ratings, and a simple storefront is iTunes, Amazon in second place and coming up quickly. If someone wants to make a CD Baby catalog site and build, more power to them. I'll help promote and link them as best I can.

Trinity Dechou: What sort of feedback have you had, both from shoppers and artists?

Crap Mariner: The response so far has been overwhelming - performers volunteering to join in, music fans wanting to see their favorite performers listed, people saying that they're having to cut back on holiday expenses with the recession so they're looking for inexpensive gifts like music, suggestions on how to improve the galleries and the website... Vint Falken made an awesome poster, Hulaboom Voom offered up space for the Amazon side of the project, venue owners and friends offering up space to put up the posters.

Yeah, I started it off as iTunes inSL Project, but since last year, Amazon's built up their site and service quickly, and they also have made a better effort to offer DRM-free music than Apple has.

Quite a few musicians who aren't listed in either iTunes or Amazon have told me they're going to make it a priority to get listed very soon - they've been meaning to get that done, just haven't had the time or motivation. Well, HOWDY BE! GOOD OL' MOTIVATION KNOCKIN AT YER DOOR! HOOHAH! Heh.

Someone suggested that I put out a Subscribeomatic to avoid using up a group slot and make it easier to get the word out, so I set one out there. Quite a few people have signed up for it, and they're going to be entered into a giveaway of at least 12 iTunes/Amazon gift cards. I also got an unexpected bonus from work for an article I wrote, so if things work out I may toss in a few 2GB Shuffles or an iPod Touch.

Another suggestion was to make a website to catalog the music and archive a few helpful hints/announcements. So I repurposed http://riaa.isfullofcrap.com/ to handle the catalog, rigged up a Movable Type template, added Vint's awesome art as a banner, and collected up a few tips on getting listed on iTunes and Amazon - that kind of thing. This way, if the grid's down or you know someone in RL who ought to try out these people's tunes, just point them there.

We'll see how this makes an impact on album sales when the holidays arrive and people start using those gift cards they get. If it's a useful resource beyond the holidays to everyone, then it's going to stay and grow.

Trinity Dechou: How do artists get involved in the project?

Crap Mariner: Get listed on iTunes and/or Amazon and toss me a notecard with a full-permissions texture of your album cover as well as where I can find your music. If you want to kill three birds with one stone, you can get listed in CDBaby and they have a method of getting your tracks up to iTunes or Amazon through them. (I haven't been through the process, so I don't know how many Advils of a headache it is.)

I've posted links on how to get listed on those systems on the blog sidebar: http://riaa.isfullofcrap.com/

Also, join the subscribeomatic in the Edloe clocktower gallery so you can keep up with announcements of new performers, where the project is heading, any surprise promotions that iTunes or Amazon are having that will make it easier for people to get credits on their systems, etc and so forth.

Trinity Dechou: How can people get involved through using their clubs/ galleries etc?

Crap Mariner: Come by the Edloe clocktower and click the main poster - it will give you a full-permissions copy of the poster that you can display at your venue.

Join the subscribeomatic in the Edloe clocktower gallery so you can get new versions of the poster, learn of new performers, keep up with the stuff that iTunes or Amazon is doing for the holidays, and get entered in the gift giveaways.

If you want the subscribeomatic at your venue, just drop me a line via IM and we'll figure out what we need to do permissions-wise to have that dropped into place. All I need to do is be able to rez and not have the thing return.

If you're a blogger, podcaster, or SL journalist - plug the living daylights out of this thing, guys. Get the word out. Even if it's something as simple as just copy-pasting the notecard with a link to the blog. I know that everyone (but me) is busy for the holidays, so whatever y'all can do to get the word out without losing too much sleep is appreciated (those sugarplums won't dream of themselves dancing, you know)

If you don't see your favorite performer listed in the gallery and you know they have an album out on iTunes or Amazon (or even CDBaby), *politely* offer them a copy of the notecard so they know this is available. They may not be able to get listed in time for Christmas, but I have a feeling that this gallery is going to be around much longer than that.

Finally, if you're a RL journalist, quit chasing down the sex angle of SL for a few seconds and drop me a line. I'll show you how SL can bring people together, inspire, entertain, and make a difference. And, yes, this project has a lot to do with that. Otherwise, well, I guess I'm right when it comes to thinking all of you reporters are just a bunch of worthless sex-seeking perverts trying to cover your asses when your editors catch you poseballing with a half-llama stripper. "Um... I was just doing research for this story about how SL is just a bunch of sex and weirdos!" Yeah, right. We believe you. NOT.

That's right, Guardian, BBC, and The Register. I'm calling your punk asses out.

Both images taken from Crap Mariners Flickr stream with his kind permission. Logo image created by Vint Falken.
More information and some valuable tips can be found on: http://riaa.isfullofcrap.com/ The flickr pool for this project can be seen on : http://flickr.com/groups/963660@N21/ iTunes Gallery: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Edloe/128/111/81 Amazon Gallery: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Selby/151/213/53

18 & Life

Saturday 6 December 2008

With over 3 million accounts, Teen Second Life is in place for the younger people (13-17) in our world to enjoy the possibilities of another world. A safe environment where only teenagers, Linden and approved adults may enter the Teen Grid (TG) is a growing community of our young adults and future Main Grid (MG) residents.


On the brink of his eighteenth birthday I caught up with Teen SL Community manager, Daniel Voyager to asking him his thoughts about Teen Grid and his hopes and fears about his forthcoming move to the Main Grid. A hot and controversial topic at the moment is the merging of the two grids, I also took this opportunity to ask Daniel his thoughts, and gauge feedback from others about the proposed merge.


How long have you been playing Teen SL?

I've been playing Teen Second Life, since 31st of October 2006. For the first 2 months, I did not play much, but then in early 2007 to present, i've been playing alot. I've had 2 amazing rezz day anniversarys so far in Teen SL, which was 2 big milestones for me. The first rez day (31st October 2007) was excellent because my friend was a DJ in TSL so we had a big party underground, Blue Linden and Claudia Linden attended. The second rez day (31st October 2008), was full of parties. Here are some snapshots of my rez days

What appeals to you most about TG?

I love that the Teen Grid is a friendly 3D environment to be part of. I like the way people help each other in Teen Second Life to build, script, texture and mentor each other. There are some great places in Teen Second Life and some really historic locations worth visiting which keeps TSL active, I think. The education in Teen Second Life has really improved since beta stages of TG because of growth and opportunities this provides teens to learn and share ideas. Educators can benefit from this because this would leverage the power of new digital online media to engage students and provide opportunities that might otherwise not exist if there were no virtual worlds.


As you prepare to move to the main grid what are you looking forward to the most?

Well, I'm looking forward to a new exciting adventure, that's for sure. I can't wait to explore the all famous and interesting landmarks on the main grid, which i'm looking forward to at the moment to do. I'm looking foward to see what opportunities and possibilities there are over there, as well as content creations because I love seeing interesting builds and being inspired by that :). I can't wait to join the new resident experience help programs/groups on the main grid because I like mentoring new residents and I love giving out helpful knowlege to others on the Teen Grid. Finally, I'm looking forward to meeting new people (friends) in the adult world and socializing with them. WoooT. :)

Is there anything you are worried about?

I'm mostly worried about about leaving Teen Grid because I fear that the TG community will fall apart once I leave and it will be be hard for TG to pick up again, because i've helped the community in so many ways possible. I'm in the process on selecting residents that can take over and make TSL sucessful I hope. I'm also worried about what kind of adult content/mature/bad content there might be lying about on the main grid. Except from that i'm good.

What will you miss from Teen SL?

Firstly, I will miss all my TSL friends because they have been so helpful to me over the past 2 years in TG and I know that they will miss me badly, :(. I will miss helping people to build, script, learn the basics and knowlege of TSL. I will miss helping out with management for groups and land across TG. Because I won't be able to send group notices out to let people know the very latest news and helpful tips anymore.

I will miss TSL Linden Lab office hours because they are so much fun to go to, because the community and Lindens discuss really interesting topics. I will also miss mentoring and greeting new people at the Welcome Areas and new resident TG areas. The last thing I will miss would be not be able to upload any more TSL snapshots of my travels in the community onto my TSL flickr stream, keeping people informed on what's on. I have taken more than 6,000 TSL snapshots since early 2007 and I hope I have inspired people to carry on when I transfer.

There is speculation at the moment the two grids may soon be merged, what are your thoughts on this?

At this stage, I think the grids will be merged next year or by the very latest 2010/11.

I think Linden Lab wants a grid merge to happen...why?..because on July 3rd 2008, M Linden came to TSL to for the 5th birthday celebrations event saying this; "there have been alot of conversation about the topic about grid merge" and there have been alot complex issues to consider first before merging the grids". M Linden also said "We are working on it.", "And our goal is to better incorporate teens in a much broader way in the future".

This month Blue Linden said this at a recent TSL Office Hour saying "in the past year teens have given LL tons of great feedback on the idea of grid merge", "it's come in handy....we've gone over all of it here at the Lab and some of the idea are perfect" and finally "it's just a difficult process and we'll have to take the time to do it right".

I recently created a survey using SurveyMonkey in TSL called "Should TG be merged with MG", the survey was created for both MG and TG residents to have their say about the issue. In total, 100 residents undertook the survey and here are the results; 85% of residents want the grids to merge compared to 19% saying No it should not be merged. Teen Grid residents have now set up a group called "Grid Merge" in TSL, with over 400 members in the group and it's growing each day. There is another group set up in TSL against "Grid Merge" too. Finally, Linden Lab have been thinking also about a "All Areas Area" in TSL or something on them lines, nothing yet has been announced about that. We will have to see if Linden Lab goes ahead on this idea or not.


You can check out Daniel's TSL Blog on his blog.

I hope to interview Daniel again in the course of 2009 and find out how has move to the main grid has gone, and if his hopes and fears have been realised.

Photographs all used from Daniel's Flickr stream with his kind permission, more images can be seen here.