Statistics compared to Wednesday, February 20th:
Peak concurrency dropped 460 users, a decrease of 0.78%.
Minimum concurrency grew 317 users, a increase of 0.96%.
Median concurrency grew 51 users, a increase of 0.11%.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Second Life Statistics: 27-Feb-2008
Statistics compared to Wednesday, February 20th:
Peak concurrency dropped 460 users, a decrease of 0.78%.
Minimum concurrency grew 317 users, a increase of 0.96%.
Median concurrency grew 51 users, a increase of 0.11%.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Second Life Statistics: 26-Feb-2008
Statistics compared to Tuesday, February 19th:
Peak concurrency dropped 332 users, a decrease of 0.56%.
Minimum concurrency grew 286 users, a increase of 0.87%.
Median concurrency grew 551 users, a increase of 1.22%.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Second Life Statistics: 25-Feb-2008
Statistics compared to Monday, February 18th:
Peak concurrency dropped 1,900 users, a decrease of 3.09%.
Minimum concurrency grew 168 users, a increase of 0.50%.
Median concurrency dropped 993 users, a decrease of 2.14%.
Virtual Web Symposium
There will be a Virtual Web Symposium Wed. Feb. 27th, 15:00 - 22:00(GMT +1) at De Balie (Leidseplein) in Amsterdam. The event will include Scientists, Educators, Web Specialists, 3D Designers and Technicians. There will be demonstrations, lectures and discussions (both live and virtual) about Education and the Future of the Virtual Web For a list of participants and more detailed info see www.eduverse.org. The entrance is free but there is limited availability. To guarantee access please RSVP ASAP to: EdSymp@eduverse.org (as of Thurs. 21.2.08, there is still space available). Dinner is not included. Also please note that the Symposium will be in English only
If you have a specific question which you would like to have answered, please include it in your response.
The event will be streamed on the web at: http://streams.live.nu (UK) http://www.debalie.nl/live (NL) and will be viewable afterwards from De Balie archives
The event will also be available to be seen live in Second Life at these locations:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Holland/157/79/23
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Eyre/210/203/23
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Groningen%20Centrum%20ZO/205/208/113
http://slurl.com/secondlife/maya/163/66/24
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Business%20Exchange/153/207/32
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Amsterdam%202/205/205/25
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Enschede/133/212/22
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nuova%20Sicilia/88/166/33
http://slurl.com/secondlife/New%20Berlin/131/131/31
http://slurl.com/secondlife/New%20Berlin/244/166/33
Should you wish to stream it yourself, then it is possible using this url:
rtsp://82.94.217.140:80/balieh264-320x240.mov.sdp
It will also be streamed live simultaneously with the following codecs for low speed internet connections:
http://live.nu/1.ram ( RealVideo)
http://live.nu/1.m3u (Mp3 audio mono)
http://live.nu/1.jpg > http://cam.live.nu ( image refresh 'webcam')
Time of the event: 15:00 - 22:00(GMT +1) / 6:00 am to 1 pm (SLT)
Monday, February 25, 2008
Second Life Statistics: 24-Feb-2008 - New Concurrency Record
A new Sunday a new record.
Statistics compared to Sunday, February 17th:
Peak concurrency grew 896 users, a increase of 1.41%.
Minimum concurrency dropped 454 users, a decrease of 1.30%.
Median concurrency dropped 253 users, a decrease of 0.53%.
IBM Puts Data Centre in OpenSim
Around the beginning of the millenium, IBM had announced that they would start providing services using Linux (similar to what HP and Sun also did). As part of their effort, of course, they would release a lot of new code to the Linux kernel and drivers, make it more robust and stable, and make sure that Linux became a valid alternative as a corporate-grade operating system in the years to come.
The open source community's reaction was mixed. The strong supporters of open source software in the corporate environment were thrilled with the strong support given by IBM — they had seen IBM's previous support to things like Apache, for instance — which would give Linux an even higher credibility than what it enjoyed. The unthinkable became true: not many years afterwards, IBM, HP, Sun, and others started to ship their servers with Linux as an option, which was completely unthinkable in the late 1990s.
The die-hard open-source left-thinkers were not happy. They felt that IBM was "swallowing" them up, and turning into money the dozens of thousands of hours of labour and millions of lines of code put into a free product. They felt soiled and cheated. Ultimately, however, I believe that they were mostly unhappy because it was easier to complain about the "enemy" when it was "outside". Today, corporations, universities, and naturally enough, individual volunteers, all work together to make Linux a better and better operating system — and everybody has to agree that the way it works is the best way. Nobody — not even Microsoft, who have a Linux Division — can afford to shun Linux these days. It's "part of the establishment". Even if it's not popular on desktops, it still continues to dominate the server-side market.
Now IBM apparently is doing the same with Second Life!
According to Virtual World News, IBM has started to do a remote viewing application for data centres in 3D, using Second Life, as a prototype. This would basically allow system administrators to quickly have a visual look of how the data centre is performing, by getting extra clues (sounds, particle effects) if there are network or server issues. Getting better tools for system administrators to quickly locate the hotspots in the hardware is crucial. Virtual worlds are one of the ways for that, and IBM is definitely doing a great job at trying these out.
The most interesting aspect of that article is that IBM is now using the same concept, but using OpenSim. OpenSim is open source, of course, but it's as SL-compliant as possible (you use the same set of SL viewers to access it). This is actually good news. IBM could obviously develop a completely new virtual world for their experiments, or use any of the many that are freely available and tweak them for their use. They could also work together with LL to further develop LL's own server software — but this would make LL "dependant" on a strong agreement with IBM. Instead, they opted for the best of both worlds. They embraced the OpenSim project, like they did embrace Linux a few years ago. What they develop using OpenSim could be implemented on LL's own grid — but the point is, IBM can correct bugs and expand functionality using OpenSim pretty easily. They don't need to wait for LL's slow development cycles to get the functionality they need.
This makes me think about what it means for "the metaverse". Unlike many others, who expect that competition will pop up from every corner, now that metaverse-building worlds are "mainstream", I'm rather more skeptical, and the more time passes without anything being launched (we'll see if Sony Home launches in March...), the more skeptical I remain. Things like Kaneva are even more overhyped than SL was — and they're basically cutting corners to have a faster-rendering engine, at the cost of dropping unlimited user-created content. SL remains the leader in that area, and LL is the only company crazy enough to allow user-created content.
So what I think that will happen is something quite different. People love the concept of SL; but not the way LL handles all issues. The trick, then, is to get the code and tweak it, and run it under a different ToS (either more or less conservative, depending on your political agenda :) ). With SL, we can do that — or we can almost do that with OpenSim. IBM apparently spotted the opportunity. They don't want to create "another metaverse". They want SL. But SL run "the IBM way". With OpenSim, they can have both things :)
Now imagine what happens if "everybody" starts doing the same. Oh yes, there are already a handful of OpenSim-run grids — some already with several hundred sims! — and these will grow over 2008, as OpenSim slowly advances towards implementing all features that LL's own server has. And corporations planning to launch their own virtual worlds, what will they do? Start from scratch on a new project? Or download OpenSim for free, place a dozen programmers tweaking it, and launching something SL-compatible but run by someone who understands what users want? If I were in the business, I'd certainly go for the latter. In fact, almost two years ago, I started doing a business plan to run my own sub-grid, connected to LL's — and asked them how much the license for the servers costed. They said it was too early, they weren't prepared to license the code yet. Well... now I could do the same... and use OpenSim, and spare the costs of buying licenses by hiring developers instead to finish up the work.
So what I think will happen is something akin to what happened with the NCSA web server and Apache. NCSA launched the "first" web server, ages ago, when the first graphical web clients appeared as well. Everybody used the NCSA server and Mosaic as a client. But the programmers were tired of dealing with NCSA's slow response in developing additional features on their server software. It worked, yes, but the Web was new in 1993, and there was so much that could be done, and which NCSA didn't really plan to integrate on "their" server. The talented programmers switched over to launch a new project — Apache — which was mostly NCSA-compatible at start, but evolved hugely afterwards. In the end, at the non-Microsoft camp, there is only Apache left (except, of course, for very specialised cases) — because it encompassed the vast majority of programmers and system administrators that wanted a full-blown web server that worked well, was infinitely expandable and scaled well, and that had all the nifty features added as modules...
And what happened in the industry? People like IBM dropped their own in-house web servers, and simply started to use Apache instead. They understood that their revenue came from their applications and the services — not from licensing their own web server. As soon as that happened, they also started to contribute code (and debugging effort) to the core Apache code, making it even more robust. Today, excluding Microsoft, almost nobody uses their own proprietary web server any more — and few even know what "NCSA" stands for.
The OpenSim might very well become the "Metaverse Apache". We all want SL — users, universities, corporations. We don't want "limited-content" systems, even if they look nice and run faster. We don't want to place the content censorship in the hands of a company which might have popped up from nowhere and disappears after a few years. We want to capitalise on the 12 million or so who downloaded the SL client and have seen how it works. We want to use the 3 billion lines of code written in LSL, or the 0.5 Exabytes (that's a billion Gigabytes) of assets that are in SL. We don't want to waste that!
On the other hand, LL might also wish to get more programmers to make their own grid better — and not pay for them.
So what seems to be the natural progression here? Linden Lab might not release their own server software after all! In fact, a far better strategy would be to invest their time in developing OpenSim instead — and at some point in the future, simply switch over to OpenSim :) Sure, right now, LL is able to be the "technology pusher" — they show what is possible, document it, release the SL client code — and the communications protocol between the client and the server gets "absorbed" by the OpenSim team which reverse-engineers the process. But by doing so, they're working with fresh, clean, new code — which is easy to expand and maintain, unlike what happens with SL's own code.
LL might learn from the NCSA experience (who, btw, obviously run Apache too) and continue their official help to the OpenSim team, and, when OpenSim replicates all functionality of LL's own server software, simply move over to it.
Remember that OpenSim is just the server software: you need to add the "glue" to make the individual sims behave like they're on a continuous grid. That's the job of the asset servers. Right now, every OpenSim-based grid uses their own system (often they publish how it works, too), and, naturally, LL uses their own. LL will still remain the biggest SL-compatible grid ever — but I wouldn't be too surprised to see Zero Linden's prediction of having LL as a "central hub" for many interconnected grids and draw a revenue from interconnection fees — something like what Central Grid is experimenting with.
The future looks bright for Second Life — I mean, SL-compatible virtual worlds :)
[EDIT: Thanks to SignpostMarv Martin for the original tip and correcting some spelling and grammar errors]
The open source community's reaction was mixed. The strong supporters of open source software in the corporate environment were thrilled with the strong support given by IBM — they had seen IBM's previous support to things like Apache, for instance — which would give Linux an even higher credibility than what it enjoyed. The unthinkable became true: not many years afterwards, IBM, HP, Sun, and others started to ship their servers with Linux as an option, which was completely unthinkable in the late 1990s.
The die-hard open-source left-thinkers were not happy. They felt that IBM was "swallowing" them up, and turning into money the dozens of thousands of hours of labour and millions of lines of code put into a free product. They felt soiled and cheated. Ultimately, however, I believe that they were mostly unhappy because it was easier to complain about the "enemy" when it was "outside". Today, corporations, universities, and naturally enough, individual volunteers, all work together to make Linux a better and better operating system — and everybody has to agree that the way it works is the best way. Nobody — not even Microsoft, who have a Linux Division — can afford to shun Linux these days. It's "part of the establishment". Even if it's not popular on desktops, it still continues to dominate the server-side market.
Now IBM apparently is doing the same with Second Life!
According to Virtual World News, IBM has started to do a remote viewing application for data centres in 3D, using Second Life, as a prototype. This would basically allow system administrators to quickly have a visual look of how the data centre is performing, by getting extra clues (sounds, particle effects) if there are network or server issues. Getting better tools for system administrators to quickly locate the hotspots in the hardware is crucial. Virtual worlds are one of the ways for that, and IBM is definitely doing a great job at trying these out.
The most interesting aspect of that article is that IBM is now using the same concept, but using OpenSim. OpenSim is open source, of course, but it's as SL-compliant as possible (you use the same set of SL viewers to access it). This is actually good news. IBM could obviously develop a completely new virtual world for their experiments, or use any of the many that are freely available and tweak them for their use. They could also work together with LL to further develop LL's own server software — but this would make LL "dependant" on a strong agreement with IBM. Instead, they opted for the best of both worlds. They embraced the OpenSim project, like they did embrace Linux a few years ago. What they develop using OpenSim could be implemented on LL's own grid — but the point is, IBM can correct bugs and expand functionality using OpenSim pretty easily. They don't need to wait for LL's slow development cycles to get the functionality they need.
This makes me think about what it means for "the metaverse". Unlike many others, who expect that competition will pop up from every corner, now that metaverse-building worlds are "mainstream", I'm rather more skeptical, and the more time passes without anything being launched (we'll see if Sony Home launches in March...), the more skeptical I remain. Things like Kaneva are even more overhyped than SL was — and they're basically cutting corners to have a faster-rendering engine, at the cost of dropping unlimited user-created content. SL remains the leader in that area, and LL is the only company crazy enough to allow user-created content.
So what I think that will happen is something quite different. People love the concept of SL; but not the way LL handles all issues. The trick, then, is to get the code and tweak it, and run it under a different ToS (either more or less conservative, depending on your political agenda :) ). With SL, we can do that — or we can almost do that with OpenSim. IBM apparently spotted the opportunity. They don't want to create "another metaverse". They want SL. But SL run "the IBM way". With OpenSim, they can have both things :)
Now imagine what happens if "everybody" starts doing the same. Oh yes, there are already a handful of OpenSim-run grids — some already with several hundred sims! — and these will grow over 2008, as OpenSim slowly advances towards implementing all features that LL's own server has. And corporations planning to launch their own virtual worlds, what will they do? Start from scratch on a new project? Or download OpenSim for free, place a dozen programmers tweaking it, and launching something SL-compatible but run by someone who understands what users want? If I were in the business, I'd certainly go for the latter. In fact, almost two years ago, I started doing a business plan to run my own sub-grid, connected to LL's — and asked them how much the license for the servers costed. They said it was too early, they weren't prepared to license the code yet. Well... now I could do the same... and use OpenSim, and spare the costs of buying licenses by hiring developers instead to finish up the work.
So what I think will happen is something akin to what happened with the NCSA web server and Apache. NCSA launched the "first" web server, ages ago, when the first graphical web clients appeared as well. Everybody used the NCSA server and Mosaic as a client. But the programmers were tired of dealing with NCSA's slow response in developing additional features on their server software. It worked, yes, but the Web was new in 1993, and there was so much that could be done, and which NCSA didn't really plan to integrate on "their" server. The talented programmers switched over to launch a new project — Apache — which was mostly NCSA-compatible at start, but evolved hugely afterwards. In the end, at the non-Microsoft camp, there is only Apache left (except, of course, for very specialised cases) — because it encompassed the vast majority of programmers and system administrators that wanted a full-blown web server that worked well, was infinitely expandable and scaled well, and that had all the nifty features added as modules...
And what happened in the industry? People like IBM dropped their own in-house web servers, and simply started to use Apache instead. They understood that their revenue came from their applications and the services — not from licensing their own web server. As soon as that happened, they also started to contribute code (and debugging effort) to the core Apache code, making it even more robust. Today, excluding Microsoft, almost nobody uses their own proprietary web server any more — and few even know what "NCSA" stands for.
The OpenSim might very well become the "Metaverse Apache". We all want SL — users, universities, corporations. We don't want "limited-content" systems, even if they look nice and run faster. We don't want to place the content censorship in the hands of a company which might have popped up from nowhere and disappears after a few years. We want to capitalise on the 12 million or so who downloaded the SL client and have seen how it works. We want to use the 3 billion lines of code written in LSL, or the 0.5 Exabytes (that's a billion Gigabytes) of assets that are in SL. We don't want to waste that!
On the other hand, LL might also wish to get more programmers to make their own grid better — and not pay for them.
So what seems to be the natural progression here? Linden Lab might not release their own server software after all! In fact, a far better strategy would be to invest their time in developing OpenSim instead — and at some point in the future, simply switch over to OpenSim :) Sure, right now, LL is able to be the "technology pusher" — they show what is possible, document it, release the SL client code — and the communications protocol between the client and the server gets "absorbed" by the OpenSim team which reverse-engineers the process. But by doing so, they're working with fresh, clean, new code — which is easy to expand and maintain, unlike what happens with SL's own code.
LL might learn from the NCSA experience (who, btw, obviously run Apache too) and continue their official help to the OpenSim team, and, when OpenSim replicates all functionality of LL's own server software, simply move over to it.
Remember that OpenSim is just the server software: you need to add the "glue" to make the individual sims behave like they're on a continuous grid. That's the job of the asset servers. Right now, every OpenSim-based grid uses their own system (often they publish how it works, too), and, naturally, LL uses their own. LL will still remain the biggest SL-compatible grid ever — but I wouldn't be too surprised to see Zero Linden's prediction of having LL as a "central hub" for many interconnected grids and draw a revenue from interconnection fees — something like what Central Grid is experimenting with.
The future looks bright for Second Life — I mean, SL-compatible virtual worlds :)
[EDIT: Thanks to SignpostMarv Martin for the original tip and correcting some spelling and grammar errors]
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Second Life Statistics: 23-Feb-2008
Another currency record. First time we break the 60k on a Saturday as well.
Statistics compared to Saturday, February 16th:
Peak concurrency grew 1,299 users, a increase of 2.18%.
Minimum concurrency grew 983 users, a increase of 2.79%.
Median concurrency grew 1,043 users, a increase of 2.12%.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Second Life Statistics: 22-Feb-2008
First time that we peak over 60 thousand users on a Friday.
Statistics compared to Friday, February 15th:
Peak concurrency grew 2,222 users, a increase of 3.81%.
Minimum concurrency grew 693 users, a increase of 2.12%.
Median concurrency grew 3,034 users, a increase of 6.75%.
Friday, February 22, 2008
BOOK REVIEW: Second Life: In-World Travel Guide
by Sean Percival aka Sean Voss
ISBN 0-7897-3730-2
http://www.amazon.com/Second-World-Travel-Guide-World/dp/0789737302/
Background
This book has been a labor of love by Sean Percival (SL avatar: Sean Voss) for some time. We've conversed several times in world, and (far too briefly) at the 2007 Second Life Community Convention, and he has mentioned it. It is clear that he is a lover and believer of virtual worlds, and wants to be a curator of the transient beauty that often exists in them.
Many of the books I have read about virtual worlds, or Second Life in particular, tend to focus on success stories: how to make money, how to do things within virtual worlds, or extremely general overviews. This book has a very different dedicated focus: must-see locations within the Second Life virtual world that are some of the most impressive uses of the blank virtual canvas we call "the grid." It is laid out much like one would lay out a tour guide to any major metropolitan area, creating a format which can be recognized by most people.
The book is 6 inches wide, 9 inches high - it literally looks like any other travel guide for a foreign country I've seen. This isn't a coffee table book - while printed in friendly, brilliant color, it isn't quite as big as "The Official Guide to Second Life." It clocks in at 190 pages, and many feature color photos, which are clearly the highlight of the book. This book has the clearest, most color-true screenshots of Second Life I have seen from the over ten Second Life books I own. The publisher, Que, deserves a lot of credit for giving the same treatment to Second Life that they would to any other travel guide. The quality given to the screen shots is the same a real life travel guide would give to the world's greatest cities. The book contains eight chapters, and some very valuable extras.
Topics
One of the strengths of the book is the breadth of subjects covered. While nothing is presented in much detail, a good overview of Second Life as a whole is presented. The different chapters cover shopping, entertainment, education, real life inspired locations, places for "mature" audiences (or should that be immature?), as well as a guide on where to live depending on your interests.
Everything I've mentioned above is fantastic, so I don't have too much to add, but I'll go into a few specifics.
One of the best parts of the book is the first chapter, which I didn't mention above: Virtual Boot Camp. In about six small pages, with plenty of handy photographs, Percival presents you with everything you need to know to be the next grid explorer. He covers the basic topics: moving, using the map, using the camera, and a few other very basic topics. I couldn't help by remember the travel guides I had during high school and college which covered foreign culture in a few pages: how do you get a beer, how do you find a toilet, how do you find a place to crash?
Second Life and virtual worlds have a very different local culture, and this crash course can get the n00biest new resident ready to explore in a very short time. He is also extremely friendly; before the book's introduction, is a "I Want to Hear From You!" page.
What's Not So Good?
It is the nature of the beast: Second Life changes so rapidly, that by press time, Second Life has already changed significantly. All tech books suffer from this: I'm pretty sure the IBM DOS 3.0 manual I have is only worth the laughs I get. The "Black Swan" sim, which I consider the most incredible piece of art I've seen in Second Life, was in development at the same time as the book, and thus is an notable omission. Maybe in the second edition? Percival should author a follow up, dedicated to hidden gems that older residents may not have seen, perhaps presenting us with the top 100 locations that not many people in Second Life know about.
Who Should Buy It?
Wide eyed new users: absolutely. This will show you some awesome locations.
Jaded old users who don't hang out much: yes. This will show you places that might bring back your spirit.
Users over two years old who still are frequenting SL: probably not. You've seen these locations.
Old users who want to show new users what SL is all about: yes. This is the book we've been waiting for that answer the annoying questions we all get from our friends and family.
Never logged in, or curious: maybe. This book cuts through the hype and shows what virtual worlds, and Second Life in particular, are actually about, regardless of interest type.
Non-English speakers: no. Sorry, but these things take time, as with SL itself!
Final Thoughts
This book will be a worthy addition to my increasing shelf of virtual worlds books, which I started back in 1994, with the book, "The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality." Over the past year, it has becoming quite a collection, but this is the first book I can show my mother that she would actually understand. I've already shown it to friends of mine who aren't of the geek persuasion, yet are curious about these virtual worlds I'm constantly babbling on about. The quality of the photographs and the descriptions included with them pique curiosity and make this a winner. If you are a new user, a curious onlooker, or a hard core user who finds yourself trying to explain what the hell we're all so interested in is, this is a book for you.
Over and out!
-FlipperPA PeregrineSecond Life Statistics: 21-Feb-2008
Not surprisingly, keeping with the current trend, 59,187 is a new Thursday peak concurrency record.
Statistics compared to Thursday, February the 14th:
Peak concurrency grew 2,382 users, a increase of 4.19%.
Minimum concurrency grew 1,526 users, a increase of 4.83%.
Median concurrency grew 1,473 users, a increase of 3.35%.
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