Multi-user 3D Worlds



:: Worlds ::

[The Street] is the Broadway, the Champs élysées of the Metaverse. It is the brilliantly lit boulevard that can be seen, miniaturized and backward, reflected in the lenses of his goggles. It does not really exist. But right now, millions of people are walking up and down it. …
Like any place in Reality, the Street is subject to development. Developers can build their own small streets feeding off of the main one. They can build buildings, parks, signs, …
Hiro has a house in a neighborhood just off the busiest part of the Street. It is a very old neighborhood by Street standards. …
(Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, 1992, pp.23-4)

Second Life

Second Life has, since its launch on 23rd June 2003, become an Internet phenomenon, arguably on a par for popularity and brand recognition with MySpace and YouTube; and, like them, a triumph of user-created content. From an initial 16 servers and around a thousand users it now (22nd May 2007) runs on 3000+ servers and has 6,607,337 residents of whom 30,000 upwards will typically be online at any moment of the day.

A possibly minor (given the ubiquity of MS Windows) but significant advantage Second Life has over much older Windows-only rivals such as ActiveWorlds and Worlds Inc is that it is cross-platform (WinXP, Mac, Linux): as a Linux user I can now wander around a virtual world without having to grudgingly dig out and boot up a Windows machine.

Second Life
» http://secondlife.com
Summary page at VWR:
» http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/secondlife/

SL-related sites:

SLTutorials.net
As the name suggests, tutorials for everything related to SL, with topics including building, currency, land, and scripting.
» http://www.sltutorials.net

SL Universe (SecondLife news)
“SLUniverse is the longest running third party Second Life community site. Launched in 2003, it has grown into a comprehensive resource for Second Life residents.”
» http://www.sluniverse.com

SL History Wiki (“a project to document various aspects of Second Life’s history that anyone can add to”)
» http://history.secondserver.net

Second Life Herald (the SecondLife community newspaper)
» http://www.secondlifeherald.com

Second Life News Network
“SLNN offers in-depth reporting on breaking news and events in Second Life and Real Life developments that affect Second Life. The news network fills a gap by serving people unbiased and objective information about relevant topics on a daily basis.”
» http://www.slnn.com

Second Life News Center (Reuters of course has a SL Bureau)
» http://secondlife.reuters.com

Sloog
“Sloog is a bookmarking service for Second Life residents. It allows users to save favourite places and avatars and search for them later, both in-world with a simple plug-in (HUD) or via web browser.”
» http://www.sloog.org

SL Boutique (a market for buying and selling SL objects)
» http://www.slboutique.com

Second Realty
… strange but true: “Second Realty offers a number of property services including sales and rentals of land and housing, landscaping services and related products such as furniture, fixtures & plants.”
» http://www.second-realty.com

Second Life Video (a sort of YouTube for SecondLife)
» http://www.secondlifevideo.com

Second Cast (a podcast covering culture and events in Second Life)
» http://www.secondcast.com

Planet.WorldofSL.com (“Syndicating the Second Life blogosphere”)
» http://planet.worldofsl.com

Second Life : Official Linden Blog (the official Second Life blog)
» http://blog.secondlife.com

Pathfinder Linden
Personal blog of Linden Lab employee John Lester, currently Linden Lab’s Boston Operations Director. Masses of useful information, news, and links. Scroll down to browse, especially, the ‘Great Second Life Links’.
» http://zero.hastypastry.net/pathfinder/

Second Tense (another Second Life blog: “Discussing technology and future of Second Life as the Metaverse—a matter of when, not if.”)
» http://secondtense.blogspot.com

Second Life Research (academic research on all aspects and uses of Second Life)
http://secondliferesearch.blogspot.com

Second Life Future Salon (yet another Second Life blog)
» http://slfuturesalon.blogs.com

3greeneggs
Plenty of useful postings in SL in a blog “about virtual worlds, web systems, and pretty much everything else”.
» http://www.3greeneggs.com/wp/category/secondlife/

ninjafoo Ng : A Second Life on Linux (a Second Life blog for Linux users)
» http://ninjafoo.blogspot.com

Metaverse Technology (an SL-based company)
» http://www.metaversetech.com

and see articles at:

[BBC] ‘Second hype or second life?’
» http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6137424.stm

[The Guardian, 14 June 2005] ‘Second Life and the virtual property boom’
» http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2005/06/14/↩
second_life_and_the_virtual_property_boom.html

[The Guardian, 20 July 2006] ‘Slices of life in a parallel universe’
» http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1823964,00.html

[The Guardian, 07 Oct 2006] ‘You only live twice’
» http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1889617,00.html

[The Guardian, 24 Oct 2006] ‘Braving a new world’
» http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/↩
story/0,,1930135,00.html

[The Guardian, 07 Nov 2006] ‘Second Life gets its first tabloid’
» http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1941621,00.html

[The Guardian, 07 Nov 2006] ‘Second Life plugs into broadband TV’
» http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1941633,00.html

[3pointD, 27 Nov 2006] ‘Convert Your MySpace Page to 3D Space Via 3B’
» http://www.3pointd.com/20061127/convert-your-myspace-page-to-3d-space-via-3b/

Finally, take a sobering look at:
‘Get a First Life: A One Page Satire of Second Life’
» http://www.getafirstlife.com

[World verified on 31 Jan 2006, and all links and world last viewed, on 01 Dec 2006]

Other ’social’ / ‘Web 2.0′ worlds

There
» http://www.there.com
Summary page at VWR:
» http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/there/
There Frisky (a There blog)
» http://www.therefrisky.com
[Link verified on 31 Jan 2006, and both link and world last viewed, on 01 Dec 2006]

Kaneva
» http://www.kaneva.com
[Link verified on 31 April 2007]
IMVU
» http://www.imvu.com
[Link verified on 31 Jan 2006, and both link and world last viewed, on 01 Dec 2006]
Moove
» http://www.moove.com
Summary page at VWR:
» http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/moove/
VMTV (from MTV)
“A virtual world where you can live the show right alongside friends and fans – via a persona that you craft from head to toe. It’s the whole Laguna experience in a parallel online universe – including special events, exclusive prizes, cool groups, shopping, and more.” Quite frankly, this is truly crass … but the ‘Big Brother’ generation will love it.
» http://www.vmtv.com

Outback Online
» http://www.outbackonline.com
[Link verified on 31 April 2007]
Virtual Laguna Beach (from MTV)
“A virtual world where you can live the show right alongside friends and fans – via a persona that you craft from head to toe. It’s the whole Laguna experience in a parallel online universe – including special events, exclusive prizes, cool groups, shopping, and more.”
» http://www.vlb.mtv.com

:: Resources, news, and reference ::

  • 3pointD.com
    “3pointD.com reports on emerging 3D connectivity — a phenomenon sometimes called the metaverse — in all its manifestations. From virtual worlds like Second Life to applications like Google Earth, from cool mapping hacks that link up real-world locations to new ways of creating virtual ones, from concepts like folksonomy to the culture of online worlds, find news and feature articles about all that and much more at 3pointD.com, every day.”
    » http://3pointd.com
  • Who’s Who in Virtual Worlds
    “Who’s Who in Virtual Worlds is sponsored by ivinnie.com, a virtual world news network and the Alliance Second Life Library. See who is doing what, find colleagues or experts in a field to assist you, share your services and expertise with others.”
    » http://whoswhovirtual.ning.com
  • Sloodle
    Second Life + Moodle = Sloodle. “Sloodle is a project to integrate the VLE platform Moodle with 3D immersive settings such as Second Life. Imagine a Moodle course that, if you wanted, could turn into a proper 3D interactive classroom with all your Moodle resources available to your students in the virtual world. A growing community is using Sloodle.com to work toward making this happen. As is the ethos of Moodle, the code will be open source and so we encourage all users, no matter how IT-savvy to get involved and make this a reality. Its benefits to the global education community could be huge.”
    » http://www.sloodle.com