The next blogger party is scheduled for July 15th, starting at 1pm Second Life Time (US Pacific Time). Dinee will be hosting the party.

The last party, the theme was SciFi…. For this party we have - drum roll please…. the following themes to vote on:

Voting will close on July 13th and the results will be posted, and visible here.

Hmmm, all are going to be fashion challenge for moi, but that is what makes life exciting. I think a tiny party might be a bit, well, odd.

See ya!

I had a good time at the party yesterday - ignoring my cold. TheDiva Rockin spun some really cool mashups which were the hit of the party. Hawks and JellyBean have a pretty cool video of party of the party….

Now if I could just shake this cold….

-Veyron

As I surmised in my last post in this subject, The Herald has picked up on the dangerous legal course Linden Labs has charted. The best posting so far is from Virtually Blind. The blog post on Virtually Blind is fairly detailed, and complicated, but under US law, Linden Labs is really digging themselves a deep hole that is going to take some serious back peddling to get out of….

-Veyron

In the book, Stranger in a Strange Land, one interesting concept is put forward, a Fair Witness. They serve to witness events and give full accounting of these events in court without additional facts added or changed. One interesting example of how their mentality works is, one of the characters asks a Fair Witness - “What color is that house over there?” Anne (a Fair Witness), just acting as a normal person and not in her Fair Witness mode answers, “This side is blue.”, without thinking about what she said. Now that as interesting statement… this side. Hardly anyone would state it that way. The side they can see is blue, so probably the rest of the house is blue, thus the rest of the house is blue. A normal person would have filled in the rest of the information - and probably have been correct - probably. They would have said, the house is blue.

It’s a useful survival mechanism. For example, those spots moving over in the bushes there… is that a leopard or a peacock? Let me think about that - leopards move low and peacocks make these noises - hmmm. (cue screams of a person being attacked….)

A human brain is not a monolithic processing unit. It is a giant parallel processing unit that does all kinds of work in parallel. Albeit slowly compared to a modern computer, but we can kick a computers ass in doing some things - actually lots of things. Stopping to think about everything you see, hear and touch would mentally bog you down, so parts of your brain fill in details for you. Think about how easy it is to drive. Most people can do it without really any serious thinking. A computer is seriously taxed just trying to follow a preprogrammed route with some sensors, take a look at the DARPA Grand Challenge.

Want disturbing proof of this? You have a hole in your vision. It is in the middle of your view. You cannot see ANYTHING in a small circle directly in front of you. The back of your eye where your optic nerve attaches has no retinal receptors for light. You cannot see there. Your eye and brain visually fill in that hole in real time all the time. Don’t believe me? Get a small light, you want a small one, like a dim LED light, nothing really bright. Even something that will glow in the dark will do. But nothing really bigger than the O on your keyboard. This might be hard to find, but it’s what you’ll need. Next, at night, go into a darkened room. So that the only thing you can see is that tiny glowing object. Then look directly at it. POOF - it’s gone. Look slightly away - there it is. You just fooled part of your brain - it didn’t have enough information to automatically put the small light there so it didn’t.

Ever get an email from someone, and it made you mad? Angry? You fire back at them all indignant. They reply all befuddled and confused. They just asked a plain question and didn’t intend to make you upset.

A wise person I worked for many years ago said, an email message can be interpreted in what ever mood you are in. You have to be careful of that. An email message (text) usually lacks any emotional cues. That’s missing information, that your brain will be allowed to fill in for you. If you are in a bad mood, maybe have not very good feelings about that person, or just luck of that moment, your going to have ill feelings to that person in your reply - no matter that they did. Even if they did not mean to be taken that way. This sort of theory probably extends into IMs and similar communications.

Second Life takes this to another level. I can appear to be angelic, beautiful, graceful and all those wonderful things that. Now the reverse is could happen. Someone who maybe is not so perfect or wonderful might be perceived as far more wonderful than they really are. This is why emoticons are commonly used in text inside Second Life - like for happy or for sad. Even though they seem dumb or sometimes overused, they help to give us the body language that is missing from Second Life that helps put a lot of the text in context.

Where am I going with this? Second Life can be a hall of mirrors and your brain is your own worst enemy. It was never made for a place like Second Life and it is not going to perform like you would expect it to. Trust your instincts, but always take a moment to step back from the screen and think about what you’re doing - take a deep breath - maybe wait a day, and then do what you think you need to do. There’s no rush, it will still be there tomorrow.

Just remember, this should be all for fun.

-Veyron

I got irritated last night. Then I got upset. It bugged me all morning. It gave me an upset stomach. So, I have a rant here. I’m ranting here to make sure that I can at least read it again in the future. Learning can sometimes be painful.

I joined up into Second Life fully planning to “ride under the radar” and have some fun. My situation has obviously devolved into something more (or less) than that. And I’ve been reasonably comfortable with that so far.

I have had a few bad experiences in the past with online relationships, so I’ve essentially sworn them off. No, I have definitely sworn them off. And that means what it means. And what I mean by a relationship is something beyond an acquaintance. I like meeting people, having fun with people online, but that’s as far as it is ever going to go. I have learned my lessons. In fact, I wrote down a memo to myself about a week into Second Life detailing what I will not ever do. It’s my contract with myself. When I feel I get close to violating it, I read it again. It’s good to remind myself of what I have learned.

Someone insinuated I was not who I said I was. So, being stubborn and bull headed, I couldn’t take it any longer. I charged right in to prove them wrong around noon today. Taking a cue from the old show, The Spot, I changed into a swimsuit and setup my camera in my living room on a tripod. I wrote up a small sign to hold and took a few pictures.

I shoot RAW, so I need to then process the shots in my computer. Since I do have some vanity, I though I would clean up a few “minor” (ahem) issues in Photoshop - I mean, why not while I’m at it? I was all smug thinking how I was going to prove them all wrong and I was going to show them up. I tinkered with the best shot for a while and then I realized that someone could obviously accuse me of Photoshopping the shot together, and this would be insufficient. More would be required. Visions of audio, and then video being required as proof…. Then I remembered my contract with my self…. I deleted the photos and seethed for a while at my computer. I felt I had let myself manipulate myself and that was the ultimate form of stupidity.

I play in Second Life for my entertainment and no other reason. Not for money, life or liberty. Only entertainment. And to be frank, my entertainment - not someone else’s. Letting myself get manipulated into doing something I did not want to do in the beginning was now not fun. It was drama way outside of what I needed or wanted, and I let myself get pulled into it rather than blowing it off like I usually do.

Lillie Yifu has an excellent post on what Second Life virtual sex revolves around, presence. I let some other people push their presence into my space without thinking about it. I have seen this happen to friends of mine inside Second Life. People get overwhelmed and consumed with Second Life without thinking about it. I let myself get consumed with it for a few hours, and I am grateful I was able to pull back.

My first two weeks or so inside Second Life I was obsessed with who was behind the keyboard. I’ve meet people like this - I was one of them. Then I had an epiphany. I have either no intention, desire, or real ability of ever meeting anyone in Second Life in Real Life. Therefore, who or what they are in Real Life actually is more of a fantasy than what they are in Second Life. Think about it. Inside a fantasy world, reality is the fantasy.

I take everyone in Second Life at face value. What does that mean? You are what you look like and who you say you are. Why not? While it’s obviously cute if two guys are doing a ridiculous job at cybersex with each other as girls - I really could care less otherwise. I feel for someone who is mislead about the other person who they are if it caused hurt feelings, last thing I want to do is see hurt feelings. There’s enough pain in the world.

But for me, I don’t necessary need to know about their Real Life lives. Again, that’s a fantasy here. If I wanted more Real Life - Life - I might be on IRC or something similar, but I’m not. I’m in the current ultimate fantasy land.

The annoying part about this whole drama is that it is no fun. Which goes back to the point of why I play in Second Life - to have fun. And then we circle back to why Real Life has to or needs to intrude in Second Life. The day Second Life is not fun anymore is the day I am done with Second Life. Today was a close call. I have too many people inside of Second Life I would miss to leave.

What does this mean? I had set my terms with myself up front. My terms were good terms and terms I need to and wanted to live with. I control my destiny. I am in control of who I am and what personal information I want to give out of any kind. It’s not a angry statement or loud statement, it’s just a firm stance. I don’t think it’s unreasonable either.

I think a lot of people in Second Life start out with the “I am going to be anonymous” position and let it erode over time. There is no recall button for information once it is given out. Just say no and walk away. It’s that simple. If the other person can’t live with that, then there are at least 5 million other people in Second Life to play with.

I just wanna have fun….

-Veyron

Something interesting appeared in my Second Life inbox today…. I had no idea there was an election coming up for Second Life Governor.

To All Second Life Residents

Concerned Residents of Second Life do hereby declare a new election process for Governor.

Governor Phil Linden has held the office for four years and the seat is now deemed up for re-election.

Interested parties should file a Petition of Candidacy in accordance with SL 22.141(A)(4) with the Concerned Residents of Second Life Board of Elections no later than June 14 to be eligible for this election ballot.

Voting will be open to all residents and will be held on July 1, 2007.

Anyone going to run? Hmmm…. Tiessa? That might make an interesting platform….

-Veyron

By a 38% margin, the theme for the next party will be SciFi. Formal came in a close second at 31%. If you want to dress formal SciFi, that would be fine.

I’d like to start the party early and maybe go on for a while to better accommodate our European bloggers…. I’ll get invites together and maybe a schedule.

Thanks everyone!

Disclaimer, I am not a lawyer…. And let me also state up front that I am not in favor of all of the grotesque child play activities. I even dislike seeing “children” avatars (dwarfs are obviously different than children - I can tell the difference) inside Second Life. The adult grid is just that, the adult grid. Children and facsimiles of them do not belong in the adult grid. That’s my position.

I have been watching for sometime, with some concern, Linden Labs increasing migration away from their previous laissez-faire attitude toward governance within the Second Life grid. While this obviously annoyed certain individuals, mostly leftist really (who are into that Big Brother as a state mentality) and right wing lunatic fringe. This laissez-faire governance was probably driven by a few basic problems, they would never have enough staff to enforce any real or serious rules they laid down and the rules themselves could become a real morass themselves.

Creating laws within Second Life would be a massive undertaking. The US Federal Code alone is a massive tome of laws, and only a small part of it covers criminal law (in the US most criminal law is covered by State Laws). This also avoided other legal messes and left the masses to themselves. In fact the terms of service is setup mostly to protect themselves. This attitude actually has an advantage to the Second Life citizenry. One could argue that under this policy Linden Labs is just a common carrier.

Being a common carrier in the US is a way of realistically performing commercial work without being criminally responsible for certain acts used for your commercial goods or services. An obvious example here is the phone company. Making a bomb threat using a telephone does not make the phone company criminally liable for the act. They were just the carrier, they do not monitor the call or vet out the activities. And that is the key. They do not monitor or vet the activities.

It is very similar to how the somewhat hated Digital Millennium Copyright Act works in the US. If the carrier did not know about the violation, they cannot be held liable for it. But once they are informed of it, they have to take action.

Linden Labs original policy set themselves up to be purportedly a common carrier - but that had not been upheld by a court yet since Second Life does not quite fit the mold one would expect of a common carrier (yet).

Now, here’s the bad part for Linden Labs - once you start to police your self for “naughty” bits, you start to loose your common carrier shield, if not entirely. If Linden Labs states or implies that they are policing the grid for “naughtiness” and they fail to do so, they are liable. In the US tort law is going to make them a target for lawsuits because they have money. And they only need to have a modicum of guilt to pay out millions. Since they do business in the entire US, a lawyer can shop the entire US for a court district friendly to his point of view and sue there. Being a US corporation, they are at the mercy of the US court system.

This posting from Linden Labs about keeping Second Life safe probably had their corporate counsel climbing the walls. I am perplexed at this strategy they are undertaking. It seems reckless and without much thought to it to the long term consequences - to themselves no less.

This also opens themselves up to legal attack from the other direction - terminated users. Let’s say this user is annoyed about that. They had a few hundred or thousand dollars of “stuff” in SL. They march down to the courthouse and pay $50US or so and make a small claims to LL for say, $2000 in damages. Now LL has to defend that claim. I’m not sure how they are going to defend it. Small claims court is a complete roll of the dice for all sides, and since LL probably has no counter claim to make, the person making the claim has almost nothing to loose. Judges really hate it when one side is acting capricious, illogical, or inconsistent. A litigant is going to be able to prove all of that in court, probably with ease. The lawyers will have a field day. Everyone looses - except the lawyers.

It always seemed the best approach for Linden Labs was just to be the supplier and not the government. Supply the viewer, the servers, and the infrastructure. Let the land owners make the rules/laws. That follows the common carrier model.

Now maybe this age verification thing is some attempt to segregate parts of the grid to marginally protect themselves. On paper maybe this seems to be a good idea. But it is being implemented in an idiotic and ham fisted fashion. If they were smart Linden Labs would just back off from the idea for now and let things cool down. Claim stupidity and call it a day - or ask for alternative ideas. State clearly what their objectives are.

I also wonder how they plan on enforcing these “rules”. A volunteer police department? Sex police? (Okay, don’t give too many people too many ideas…. I think I might have a uniform that might work for that…. but I digress.)

They also open themselves up to another legal trip up for them - privacy violation. If you do it in public, you have no rights to privacy. If you do it in private, you have different rights. Oh yes, yet another legal can of worms for them. Hmm… I own the land in SL, I had a skybox, I took precautions to ensure I was private, yet the sex police (Linden Labs or their assigned agent) spied on me and terminated my account, and defamed me. Again, it defies logic they would go down this route.

Linden Labs would like everyone to think that sex in Second Life is not a major part of the SL economy. They are lying to themselves. The VHS video tape recorder in the 1980’s was a hit because of pornographic videos not because people could watch Snow White at home it was Debbie Does Dallas. The Blue-Ray versus HD DVD groups are more concerned about not what the major movie studios think of the formats, but what the porn industry thinks of each format and which one they prefer.

Lastly, I think the Teen Grid, this reaction - if not overreaction - is all driven by a public relations and possibly an attempt to avoid a real government from stepping in and monkeying around. It is not driven common sense.

I’m not sure where it all ends, hopefully in a good place. Fear not, Linden Labs has paved the road and proven this technology and business model can work. If they screw it up, someone else will pick up the pieces and eat their lunch….

Synopsis: Acting dumb (you know - the previous modus operandi) in the end will pay off more for Linden Labs (and everyone else) than acting paternalistic.

-Veyron

Drut Burton has entered the new Second Life blogosphere. What I really want to here is about his dancing experiences (apparently the girls are cheap) and why he has that butt slapper on….

Welcome to the insanity….

-Veyron