Blog #15

Tim Long

Professor Crawford

Eng Comp 1

19 April 2010

Beam Me Up

Space or the final frontier, both of which are synonyms to describe the black place when we look up at night. What about space makes people so interested? Could some people be attracted to the stars or maybe others are more interested in the solar system. I know that space interests me because it is the location of the most powerful source known to man, the sun. There are many ways to view space here on earth. For example we can view space from a telescope, space dome, or even Second Life.

On April 19^th, 2010, I went to one of the premier art galleries in Second Life. My avatar and I saw many creative pieces of art at SmarterEarth. SmarterEarth is an island in Second Life, where avatars can go to view many different art galleries and exhibits. However the best exhibit was the Solar Space Exhibit. The exhibit involved many amazing space experiences. When I clicked on the exhibit from SmarterEarth, Dante Arlington(my avatar’s name) teleported immediately to the space tower. From the space tower, there are many extravagant sights to see. The space station was illuminated by the bright stars and sublime solar systems that a viewer could see in any direction they looked. Everywhere Dante went there were sparkles and various colors of violet, yellow, indigo, and green. In the middle of the space tower there is a circle. If you go to the space tower face the circle and look up. When this happens you should see a floating bus. The space tower is a must see if you are looking for something extraordinary and different.

Dante on the space tower viewing a sun of a system.

Blog #14

Our asignment is for our group to creat a newspaper/newsettler for Second Life. The topic our group decided to do is "Things you should know about Second Life". We choose this topic, because we all agreed that this was the topic we all could contribute a great deal of information. My task in the group is to be a writer as well as Dean and Mike. Daniel's job is to be a writer and editor.
My first article is in the format of an interview. I am going to interview my peers to get a general idea of to who you need to know as students when you first are getting started in Second Life. My next article is in a 1st person format and the topic will be why Second Life is important. My last article will be a review of a live performance. The article will include me going to an art gallery/exhibit in Second Life and then reviewing the experience. I will achieve all of my task of writing the articles by going into Second Life and traveling to many places in order to get the information I need to complete my articles.
In orde to follow the four principles of knowing your audience, satisfy your audience, consider the audience, and remimber you purpose I intend to write articles that apeal to the student body and professor. I will keep my articles formal while trying to find a way to apeal to my audience. It will be a hard task, but in order to get it done will need to spend a lot of time in Second Life.

Blog #13

Today in class we went online to look at some example of newspapers and heralds of Second Life. It very interesting to see how Second Life newspapers compared to each other and then see how they compare to real world newspapers. All Second Life newspapers a similar in the face that they all have many pictures. For example one newspaper our class visited had over forty pictures. When a newspaper has a lot of pictures it draws readers intention to that article. Whenever I saw an interesting picture that caught my eye I felt compelled to read the article.

Another similarity is that all the newspapers online today seemed to write about interesting topics going on in Second Life. Topics such as gossip and crime. This is interesting because these are topics that I would not expect to find in the virtual world. Todays experienced gave me many ideas about what kinds of articles I want to write for our group newspaper. All around I'm glad we took class time to look at examples of Second Life newspapers. Because the experience showed me an overview of how our group wants to set everything up. My favorite part out of all the newspapers we viewed was the comics.

Blog #12

Today in class we went on another virtual field trip in Second Life. This time we went to a fighting gym. It was a new and interesting experience. At the end of class all of the students in Second Life took a group picture, which was pretty cool. When we arrived at the gym it was a huge building. By huge it had a lot of ceiling space. The gym did not have very much floor space, which made it crowed in the gym.

One interesting feature of the gym is that it had to boxing rings. Two people could actually box for free if they wanted to. However we were not able to figure out how the controls work. In the gym there was also an octagon which an MMA fighting cage. Visitors could not fight in this cage. In the gym there was a punching bag and a speed bag.

My favorite part of the gym was the octagon. Because the octagon was surprising I did not expect to see it. The gym was very hands on when it came to boxing. Any visitor who came to the gym were able to throw down which is different. It was a good experience going to the gym, because it was yet another thing I did not know was in Second Life. When I realized that there are gyms in Second Life it made me think, what else is in Second Life?

Blog #11

Today we incorporated a topic sentence in our position paper. In class we had enough time to discuss, from the book, how to form a topic sentence. However we did not have enough time to work on the assignment in class. In class I knew I was going to work on the topic sentence for my first body paragraph. My first body paragraph is about comparing actual rape to a rape in Second Life. In class I thought about opening with a question.

On my rough draft I ended up using a question as my topic sentence. My topic sentence went as follows, "How is an avatar able to rape another avatar." I do not think this is a good topic sentence I know it needs some revisions. I think I am going to change the topic sentence above in to a statement instead of a question. Then follow up with that same question latter ing the paragraph. The classroom experience went very well today.

Blog #10

Today in class we went on many virtual field trips in Second Life. Our class went to many interesting places. My favorite out of all the places we went was the Barcelona Island that Pircilla took our class to. I liked it because I thought the island was designed very well. What I mean is it was designed like a tropical paradise. I do not know what Barcelona looks like but visiting the island in Second Life makes me want to see someday in real life.

Some particular things I liked about the island was that there was a diverse set of people on that island. For example I walked up to one group of avatars and they were talking in Japanese in the chat boxes. Also I walked up to another group and they were communicating in Spanish. Another aspect about the island I liked was the plaza in the middle of the island. The plaza was filled with shopping stores and hair salons. Then there was a beautiful beach that surrounded the island.

On the island my favorite part was when the sun started to set. In Second Life it was quite a site to see. It was amazing how an avatar and creator can view real world happenings in a virtual world such as Second Life. On the island there were a lot of drinks that visitors could choose from at this tiki bar on the beach, which that was my first time seeing drinks in Second Life. The only bad thing about the island I did not really enjoy was the fact the only two people, I think, could dance by the beach. Although other than the dancing I thought the island was very enjoyable.

Blog #9

My partner for this exercise was Daniel Barbosa. We both chose to use the question method for our introduction paragraph part of our essay. Each of us helped one another by giving feed back. I remember that my question was very broad and had to be more descriptive for my introductionI helped Daniel with the organization of his introduction. I gave him feed back that he needs more information and points in his introduction.

I enjoyed the exercise. It was very helpful to get another point of view rather than my own on my essay. The exercise was useful, because my partner gave me feed back that otherwise I would of never thought about. Although I wish we would of had more time to work together. In order to develop a better introduction. However thanks to this exercise my introduction is stronger than it would be without the exercise.

blog #8

Reflection
In Second Life I went to Democracy Island. Democracy Island is a really interesting place, because users can go there and set a booth. In these booths people can talk or present about any topic they so choose. This island was created so people could express their thoughts about the present day issues or topics. The island was not created to persuade avatars, but on the contrary it was created to inform viewers about any certain topic. Democracy Island is set up like a town hall where avatars can meet and socialize with other avatars.
On the island there were many different pages that consumers could click on. One of the things I quickly clicked on a screen that said “info” and it was a fundraiser requesting money for cancer patients. The fundraiser was through the American Cancer Society and the organization gave some basic information about how much money they raised although the statistics where from 2005. After the fundraiser webpage I went to the future salon. The future salon is where a lot of the discussion takes place about any topic that is posted. When I went there was really nobody on the island so there was not a topic posted to discuss. The “info box explained how the future salon is for monthly discussion and topics can vary from new technology to political debate.
Some interesting facts about the island include the architecture. One building of the island was built to be a court house. The court room in the court house was set up exactly like how a court would look like in the real world. Something strange that happened, however was a lot of these spiny things started spawning from the ground. At first they started spawning in one area then it moved all around. There were so many of them that I had to move from that area of the island.

Blog #7

Presentation Evaluation

Our team is team number one and we presented about commerce in Second Life. The presentation started out with Dean, the team captain, informing the audience about the major corporations investing into the Second Life market. Then after Dean, I presented. I was very nervous and I think that is why I did a poor job on my aspect of the presentation. I did have well documented information, but I was unprepared to present. The reason I was unprepared is because I usually practice before a presentation, but I did not for this presentation. I spoke about an interview with the chief financial accountant.

There were a lot of positive things about our presentation that overcame the negative parts of the presentation. The positives were, our group did bring the proper information. Our group also used all of the time for the presentation. One negative about our presentation is that we did not ask a lot of question to help the class discussion. Another negative is not everybody was ready to present, because we did not meet as a group before the presentation. Since we were the first group to present, our group really did not know what to expect.

Overall, for the first group to go we did well. For the next group presentation however, our group needs to be better prepared. We can accomplish this by meeting outside of class before the presentation. We can also come up with specific topics about the general subject we are talking about in order to get organized. There was definitely a high point of our presentation, which was at the beginning. As the presentation went on the energy of the presentation seemed to go down, which is some thing our group needs to work on.

Blog #6

Tim Long

Professor Crawford

English Composition I

18 February 2010

Annotated Bibliography

Komin, Bob. Interview. CNN Money. Dec. 2006: 1-4.

Bob Komin is the CFO of Linden Labs. From the interview, viewers can gather the linden dollar is a floating currency. A floating currency is not a fixed amount when consumers try to exchange linden dollars; this type of currency depends on how the market is doing. Komin also speaks about managing the money supplies. The economy is growing so fast that Linden Labs is having trouble supplying money for the Lindex. Komin then explains that there are three ways that Linden Labs help mange the money supply. The first method is Linden stipends to premium users. The second method is Linden Labs is able to actually sell linden directly on to the exchange. Finally the last major method Linden uses is “sinks”. A sink is a Linden fee, for example if a user wanted to upload a file they have to pay a sink. Koman concludes the interview by expressing the demand for the Linden dollar is based on the growth of the use of the world and growth of services provided determine the value.

The source is reliable, because of the person being interviewed is, the chief financial officer of Linden Labs. Therefore it is his job to know the financial matters of Second Life. The research is not based on a biased opinion but rather on statistics, which can not be biased. The facts are well documented, but the interview took place in December of 2006. The information one can gather from the interview is substantial, however it is dated which could be misleading. The source is both scholarly and popular because of the network that did the interview.

Blog #5

Tim Long

Professor Crawford

English Composition I

18 February 2010

Annotated Bibliography

Rosedale, Philip. Interview. Second Life w/Philip Rosedale. Internet Television. The GigaOm Show. 25 June 2008.

In the interview Philip Rosedale explains the basics of “Second Life”. Then Rosedale explains how Second Life is growing so fast that it is hard to meet the demand of the users. Therefore the demand of the consumers is creating a frustration for the customers of Second Life, because Linden Labs can not work fast enough. Rosedale also addresses how Second Life’s concurrency rates have been at a steady increase however the consumer statistics for new users has seem to stop increasing. The statistics start to balance out for the new consumers, because of the users who get on Second Life and stay on for a few months then decide to quit using Second Life. It seems more and more consumers do three months then quit, but the long time consumers seem to be putting more hours into Second Life in that case, boosting Second Life’s economy. Rosedale also explains why businesses should stick into Second Life and he explicates how a good reason is the growth of the economy, which is bringing a half a billion dollars annually.

This interview source can be very informative, in which case makes this source reliable. Another key factor of the source is the fact that Philip Rosedale, the person being interviewed, is the founder and CEO of Second Life. This makes Rosedale a reliable source, because he knows more about Second Life than any analyst or critic. However this also makes his information very biased, because Rosedale is always trying to sell Second Life to potential consumers. The source itself is not a popular source or scholary, because it is an informal interview. The interview takes place with the primary interviewer, Chris Albrecht, and a secondary interviewer, Wagner James, who is a person in Second Life. The interview was don on June twenty fifth, 2008. This makes this interview almost two years old so the statistics are a little out dated.

Blog #4

Summary of Wired Travel guide: Second Life

The webpage covers many topics about Second Life such as, the history of Second Life, economy, fashion, and Locations. When the author writes about the history of Second Life it is very interesting, because the writer compares alot of American History with how Second Life began. A good example of the comparison is the tax revolt which Linden Labs started taxing the users of Second Life for there creations. In conclusion to the taxing, the users revolted by creating a lot of crates of tea everywhere and posting signs on Second life that say "we are born free: taxed to death". The comparison is of the Boston Tea Party that happened in American history. Second Life's economy seems to be growing rapidily according to the data on the website. Many more users can be found starting a business and making a profit according to the information on the webpage.
Locations in Second Life are also growing very fast. As an avatar the users are able to fly around and teleport to anywhere the consumers want to go in the virtual world. However the author warns potential users that some places in Second Life can be violent or sexual. As far as transportation goes not only can consumers fly and teleport, but there are rocketships, sailing ships, and many more creative machines for transportation. When the writer gets to fashion, the author gives many places where users can shop for clothes, body parts, and hair. The author also describes how consumers do not have to be humans or even there same sex in real life. Overall the Website's information was useful, because there is a lot of tips and many topics.

Blog #3

Four Corners." A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Virtual World(underlined). 2007. 19 Mar. 2007

Summary of A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Virtual World

In the Introduction of the web page, it goes in to talking about how fast growing the virtual world has become. The virtual world is expanding into other companies such as NASA and sony for their Playstation three. These companies are using the virtual world in order to expand the social network to a variety of persons. Another reason for the rapid growing of the virtual world is to spread information, such as education. The economy of second life is thriving and doing so well there is really no reason why it would not grow in the future. Virtual worlds are place people can escape and get away from reality to create an alternate reality in which they live their dreams.

Evaluation

The purpose of the Website is to inform people about Second Life. It also has a second purpose to try to persuade viewers to get try Second Life out. The biased is that the website does try to sell Second Life to viewers more than it tries to keep a balance of good vs. bad information. Although the website does do a good job of giving information about both sides. The information is not up to date however the information is still a good source for general facts about Second Life. The last update was in 2007 and the present year is 2010. The instructor Mrs. Crawford required me and my peers to go to this particular website. This information is directly relative to any questions I had and therefore it is a very appropriate source for anyone to go to if they are interested in learning about Second Life for the first time.

You Only Live Twice(underlined). Dir. Sam Doust. Four Corners, 2007.

Summary of Virtual Rules- Real Life Lawyers & Second Life Avatars

In the introduction of the web page, it explains how second life grows the demand for laws and regulations increases. The argue is that in the future, the more laws that are created the longer users of second life will go without breaking the laws. But creating laws imposes an important question about how the laws should effect out of country people. Some lawyers in second life say that it might be difficult to prove crimes that are committed, because the data can be manipulated. Because second life is on the internet there is a problem with figuring out which crimes are in what jurisdiction. Since no one country can claim the internet.

Evaluation

Sam Doust is the producer, developer and designer of Four Corners. The purpose of the film is to inform viewers of how safe Second Life is. The film was biased, because the video had to deal with a topic that critics were asking. Can Second Life protect users from crimes committed in Second Life? Therefore the people in the video had to try to defend Second Life, which makes it biased. The source might be a little out dated by the statistics it gives however the facts of the film remain for the most part true. This source is good, because it answers many questions that skeptics about second life.

bloG # 2

You Only Live Twice(underlined). Dir. Sam Doust. Four Corners, 2007.

Summary of Virtual Rules- Real Life Lawyers & Second Life Avatars

In the introduction of the web page, it explains how second life grows the demand for laws and regulations increases. The argue is that in the future, the more laws that are created the longer users of second life will go without breaking the laws. But creating laws imposes an important question about how the laws should effect out of country people. Some lawyers in second life say that it might be difficult to prove crimes that are committed, because the data can be manipulated. Because second life is on the internet there is a problem with figuring out which crimes are in what jurisdiction. Since no one country can claim the internet.

BloG # 2

"Four Corners." A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Virtual World(underlined). 2007. 19 Mar. 2007

Summary of A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Virtual World

In the Introduction of the web page, it goes in to talking about how fast growing the virtual world has become. The virtual world is expanding into other companies such as NASA and sony for their Playstation three. These companies are using the virtual world in order to expand the social network to a variety of persons. Another reason for the rapid growing of the virtual world is to spread information, such as education. The economy of second life is thriving and doing so well there is really no reason why it would not grow in the future. Virtual worlds are place people can escape and get away from reality to create an alternate reality in which they live their dreams.

Blog #1 continued

MLA cited Source
Another Perfect World-30 Minutes Preview(underlined). Dir. Femke Wolting and Jorien van (Indent)Nes. Submarine, 2009.

BLOG # 1

Summary of video 1:

The video was about second life and how the creator visioned a place where people could escape and live out there dreams with ease in a virtual reality world. In my opinion, why would you do in a virtual world what you can do in real life. I think second life is interesting though, because of the creativity that went into making the system. However I really still do not know enough about second life to give a my own opinion.