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Each Friday we provide a sampling of content generated by SL users and posted on services like YouTube:
1. InVision Art of Second Life 1
2. Second Health in SL
3. GION Project SIM Second Life the 2nd PV English version
One of SL’s greatest strengths is its ability to muster the community for worthwhile causes. The Relay For Life is one well-known example and we’ve covered and the Garden for the Missing is another that has gained a lot of interest.
Given Australia is one of the larger contingents in Second Life, where’s the Australian effort in community service / charity? If you know of one, we’d love to cover it. Even if you offer free services to the SL community, let us know.
Lowell Cremorne: How did you first get into SL?
Lord Coalcliff: Well I have always been interested in virtual worlds since the late 80s, and so I am always on the lookout for the latest. In early 2006 I
noticed Second Life getting a good review on a website, so I went to the site and liked what I found. The graphics were like no other online community I had ever seen, and the various ways to interact with the world around were the first deciding factors that had me addicted from day 1.
Lowell Cremorne: When did doing business in SL become an interest for you?
Lord Coalcliff: Actually I took my time absorbing and learning as much as possible from others. On the first day I arrived the first person I met was a woman recruiting people for a nightclub, little did I know that she would set my future path in SL. Her employer also owned a successful home rental business so I eventually became the assistant manager. For six months I learnt as much as I could about the rental business. I loved it when I was showing homes and helping tenants settle in, and how rewarding it was being able to help people. I also saved my pay of $L4000 a week that eventually paid the 12mth subscription fee that allowed me to purchase land and start of my own rental company. I also became a LindenLabs approved instructor teaching SL business related subjects. This made me realize the market potential as the population began to grow from what was 750,000 when I first joined. My friends list also began to grow :).
Lowell Cremorne: What was your first business in SL?
Lord Coalcliff: It was an art gallery selling textures from a basic house I build on my First Land of 512sq, and it failed miserably, I didn’t sell a thing but I did manage to rent the house, and that’s when SkyView Home Rentals began.
Lowell Cremorne: When did rentals become an obvious business model for you?
Lord Coalcliff: I guess I just got caught up in the market demand. During the first few months I had purchased more and more land and provided more rental homes,that’s when I realized I was heading in the right direction. Income from the rentals covered my tier expenses and also allow me to reinvest into the business growth. I also know what customers needs are from my past and now growing experience in the industry. I have always done my best to be available to customers and tenants for enquires and advice. I get a lot of satisfaction when tenants have a place they can call home. But it’s the friendships I have developed through the business from the early days up to now that is the most rewarding.
Lowell Cremorne: How’s business going overall?
Lord Coalcliff: At the moment there are 75 rental homes across 8 island locations with only one vacancy, so overall I would say business is good. The only problem I have is the tenants don’t want to leave so I guess I am doing something right :). Now I can get to sleep earlier at night since I recently employed the much needed help of USA time zone located Trixie Timtam into the role of rental support staff, for our tenants and enquiring customers.
Lowell Cremorne: What changes have you seen in the way aussies interact in SL in the time you’ve been a resident?
Lord Coalcliff: The population growth of us aussies has been really good. And we still seem to have a great reputation with the rest on the real world in here. There are some really good groups that are active all the time and everyone sticks together. Everyone knows they can post in the group chats the latest news or ask for help anytime. Its great to see the growing number of Australian themed locations and real world companies getting involved. We all get excited when the real world aussie media reports on Secondlife and the group chats jump to life expecting new arrivals
Lowell Cremorne: What places in SL do you keep coming back to?
Lord Coalcliff: I am a fan of technology and Architecture in SL so I recommend these if anyone is like minded:
1) Dr Dobbs Island Amphitheatre for live video conferences on the
latest is SL news and technology.and Amphitheatre
2) Welcome aboard the SS Galaxy, the only full size, full scaled, and full featured cruise ship in SL. You have to see it to believe it. It spans 3 sims! (covered previously on SLOz)
2) Caledon - spend weeks exploring the 30+ sims here.
3) The Greenies Home - feel whats it like to be the size of a mouse in this amazing huge build 
(SLOz coverage here)
Lowell Cremorne: What’s your future aims for your business?
Lord Coalcliff: The business is now at a manageable size and even though I do plan to have more properties, I am focusing more on features and services available to our tenants. Over the next month or so I will have finished installing tenant usable security systems at each property, I also plan to offer optional but free TVs, in home teleporters that can have the tenants favorite and most used landmarks added. We also have our SkyBar, managed and hosted by Pilar Catteneo who plans events for the tenants and their friends.
I currently list other properties that owners want to rent out and plan to expand in that area. There is also a market for renting land, both residential and commercial. The most important thing in the future is to continue the community feeling and personal customer service that SkyView Home Rentals provides.
From the first day I entered SL the business has grow by putting any profits I make back into it. I have never deposited any of my own $$ into SL. Because of this the business has grown slowly but steadly and I have been able to learn along the way the difference between RL businesses and SL ones.
Lowell Cremorne: Which other SL residents inspire you?
Lord Coalcliff: Hmm there have been many, and I meet many everyday but I will mention 57 Miles as someone who inspires me, though he doesn’t know it. He is the editor of Metaversed.com and is my main source of the latest news in SL. He provides a fantastic informative news service to Second Life citizens. And this has allowed me to keep up to date on the latest technology available to implement into my own business. I also have to mention my staff Trixie Timtam and Pilar Catteneo.They both enjoy their work and often come up with innovative ideas and of course they have personalities like magnets to anyone around them.
Lowell Cremorne: What excites you about SL in the coming year?
Lord Coalcliff: I am excited about how SL is attracting new people with the skills to integrate our community with the real world. Being able to do
everything that you do at your home or workplace on your PC from within Second Life. I believe SL is evolving at an incredible rate when it comes to the various content and this is what will attract new residents and feed the needs of everyone. I only hope Linden Lab can see this.
Over on Clickable Culture, Tony Walsh has pointed to Electric Sheep’s ad network in development (beta sign-ups located here.
Such developments will go down like a lead balloon with some residents and there’s previously been a movement against the proliferation of ads.
What’s your thoughts? Would you place advertising on your land if you were paid?
Since July, another Australian university has been developing a presence in SL - La Trobe University. As others have done, La Trobe has chosen to purchase an island and it is a quite dramatic build with a coastal plains style area at the teleport point and soaring ridges behind.
The current main lecture theatre is called The Moat and not too far away, nestled in a small valley, are the under construction “Social Areas”.
This is still a work in progress, a key and important element we have noted in a recent post on Australian universities developing presences in SL.
Of special interest is the faculty that is driving this particular SL presence - the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. The diversity of faculties that underpin SL builds by Australian universities is especially heartening as it highlights, to some degree, the use of Web 2.0 technologies being explored beyond computer science courses.
The person to contact in-world is Flossy McMahon, (Dr Kay Souter), Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Doubtless we will see some interesting teaching and learning developments.
Each Friday we provide a sampling of content generated by SL users and posted on services like YouTube:
1. Burning Life 2007
2. Kampania Billboardowa w Second Life Akademii Viessmann
This is truly surreal - more than 8 minutes of different SL billboards. If you watch it all, seek help.
3. Fun With Havok 4 in Second Life
At SLOz we’ve covered Project Outback a couple of times (here and here), mainly because its CEO, Rand Leeb-du Toit, is Australia-based and was rightly touting an upcoming new virtual world competitor.
On Rand’s blog yesterday, I noticed the following few words: “since the demise of the virtual world I was working on”, so I’m assuming Project Outback is no more. We contacted Rand for comment on why Project Outback had ceased:
“Partly because of the dynamic nature of the space…there have been some fundamental shifts over the Summer of Facebook, hugely positive trends that have validated my decision not to continue with Project Outback. ”
It’s a shame this has occurred - particularly if the spectacular performance claims that were claimed had come to fruition.
Melbourne Laneways is a new build featured on ABC Island. It was created by Gary Hazlitt and Ben Zabelin from The Project Factory on behalf of the ABC and Multimedia Victoria, who have produced an associated publication titled ‘Would Your Business Benefit from a Second Life’ (download here).
The public launch was held this evening (Thursday night) at 7pm AEST with a good roll up of aussie residents:
The creators describe the build as such: “The project uses real-life images of graffiti, architecture and objects found in Melbourne’s iconic city streets, and recreates these to produce a completely interactive world where people can explore mysterious laneways, clubs, puzzles and cafes.
Head of Virtual World Development at The Project Factory, Gary Hayes, says: ‘We wanted to catch the vibrancy of the Melbourne Laneways and the architecture of Federation Square. Second Life gave us the ability to animate these buildings and give them the movement that we feel they want.’ ”
There’s a lot to explore in a fairly modest area. Without giving too much away, here’s some glimpses of what to expect:
And there’s even a cafe you can drop by with a well-known face behind the counter:
It’s great to see an iconic part of Melbourne in Second Life. Now, where’s Hobart?
Recently I was chatting to well known aussie SL resident Wolfie Rankin and we discussed the idea of covering what it means to be a furry. I posed a bunch of questions to Wolfie, and his responses are below:
Lowell Cremorne: What’s the history of furries?
Wolfie Rankin: It’s difficult to say when the genre began, some have said that it reaches back to the 1960s. Some say movies like Watership Down, Disney’s Robin Hood, Jungle Book, and Fritz the cat got the ball rolling.
Human beings have had affinities with animals for thousands of years, and have dreamt of having the strength and speed of animals. Look at our cars - Viper, Jaguar, Bronco, Mustang etc.
Women call their hubbies “Tiger” and men wish they were horses (at least in part). Then there’s the US Bald Eagle emblem.
Lowell Cremorne: How does one become a furry?
Wolfie Rankin: Being furry is not something you do one morning for the sake of fashion…although it has occured in the fandom now and then. I have seen times when skunks were “in” this week and foxes were “in” the next.
Disney was probably a furry, and I’m sure that Mel Blanc, the voice behind Bugs Bunny, was a furry. as he once said in an interview that Bugs was his alter-ego, that he didn’t just play Bugs, but he was Bugs on the inside.
Lowell Cremorne:What made you decide to be a furry?
Wolfie Rankin: In my case it was automatic, The thoughts were already in my head. When a friend introduced me to the internet in the late 90s, I found there were werewolf and furry newsgroups. I joined alt.horror.werewolves, where incidentally, I met Jakkal, who made the Avatar I use on SL.
To discover there were people who felt a lot like me well, that was great.
Lowell Cremorne: Is there any significance in the type of animal persona a person takes
on?
Wolfie Rankin: There can be, it could be a spiritual thing, or even an expression of sexuality. I’m really just wearing my insides on my outsides, I suppose that’s how it works.
I’ve had some deep talks about reincarnation with some people and wondered if souls of animals could come back as people, why not?
Listening to Dr. Karl on the radio years back, he said that “if reincarnation is real and there’s more people every year, then where are all the new souls
coming from?” A good question… I noted that there’s less animals every year too, so where are their souls going?
Lowell Cremorne: What are the downsides of being a furry in SL?
Wolfie Rankin: Not many really. Furries often worried what would happen when the broader populace discovered furries and especially after certain TV programs (MTV and ER) focused on the “shock horror” aspects of the genre.
But I think most people I’ve met are very comfortable having furry friends. If anyone has been worried about it but wants to talk about it and find out what it’s
all about, they discover that there’s nothing to fear.
Lowell Cremorne: What are the upsides?
Wolfie Rankin: Ahh well we did “sorta” have a Second Life in ye olde internet which were MUDS, purely text based, but had to remember who and what each other was, for me that wasn’t always easy. It’s partly why there’s so much furry art, as people would hand draw their avatars or pay someone else to do it… and say “this is me, this is what I look like”. It was fine for the day, but to actually see each other in Second Life is a lot nicer. There’s still art though, and it’s bloody good too.
Lowell Cremorne: There’s a perception I’ve come across that furries are gay. Thoughts?
Wolfie Rankin: There’s no real difference between furries and anyone else as far as sex goes, all tastes are covered and catered for, which includes straight furs too.
Lowell Cremorne: If I like the look of a furry avatar but I don’t “feel” furry, can I still wear one?
Wolfie Rankin: Of course, by all means have fun… it should make no difference to anyone what you choose to wear as an avitar in SL, as long as it’s not deliberately offensive, of course!
Lowell Cremorne: Any furry links you’d like to share?
Wolfie Rankin:
Youtube:
Furry comics: [try these out, they’re loads of fun]
Sorry, a little slow on the uptake on this - on the 5th September the Australia Council announced who it would give a $20 000 grant to for artstic development in Second Life, something we covered a while back.
Congratulations to Christopher Dodds, Adam Nash and Justin Clemens. We’ll try to touch base with one or all to find out about any plans underway.
(Thanks to SL Insider who made me realise I’d missed this announcement)
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