'Second Life' dreams of Electric Sheep

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It's "meant to entice the visitor because it's very, very beautiful," said Johnson, "so (Electric Sheep) has done a tremendous job of building something very, very rich."

Johnson said that working with Electric Sheep--which had won out in a competition for the NMC contract against other "Second Life" developers--has been a new kind of experience, especially for a 55-year-old man who isn't used to playing around in futuristic virtual environments.

"Our home base is Sheep Island in 'Second Life.' We meet up in our sheep tower. That's our place."

-- Jerry Paffendorf, Electric Sheep project director

"For me, the most interesting thing was that...much of our interactions (with Electric Sheep) took place in 'Second Life,' avatar to avatar," said Johnson. "The social aspects of 'Second Life' were a very interesting part of the project for me because a lot of this took place in that world, even though it was a real-world contract between two companies."

In fact, because Electric Sheep's employees are spread out geographically, its functional work space is a building in "Second Life."

"We're a virtual company," said Jerry Paffendorf, Electric Sheep's project director. "We're spatially distributed. Our home base is Sheep Island in 'Second Life.' We meet up in our sheep tower. That's our place."

Meanwhile, in addition to working for Fortune 500 companies and institutions like NMC, Electric Sheep has worked on several other projects, including Jibun Life, which is a "Second Life" teens-only environment that connects classrooms and youth groups around the world in an immersive, 3D environment. The company has also worked on SLE-CERT, a Dartmouth College program designed to give first-responders in Hanover, N.H., a way to practice dealing with urban emergencies.

And of course, not everyone looking to hire someone for project work in "Second Life" contracts with Electric Sheep.

A Boston company called Vivox, which is developing a VoIP system that can be implemented in virtual worlds, hired a developer called Home Depoz to build it a British-style phone booth complete with a phone that can be used to dial any real number in the world.

"We have no artistic talent ourselves whatsoever," said Monty Sharma, Vivox's vice president of marketing. "You want somebody who's actually a 3D artist and, second, somebody who's familiar with the modeling tools in 'Second Life' and the behaviors needed to make things happen."

Linden Lab is often involved in connecting clients with developers. But Paffendorf explained that while Electric Sheep is currently doing some work for Linden Lab, it is totally independent from the "Second Life" publisher.

And that's just how Linden Lab wants it, even if the success of outfits like Electric Sheep means that the cost of engineers and developers versed in "Second Life" building and modeling skills goes up.

"I love them," Linden Lab's Rosedale said of Electric Sheep. "They're deadly, and they're hiring the best developers...We're competing with them to hire some of the same people. They may end up increasing the salaries of everybody working in 'Second Life.' But I'm so happy to have that competition."

[AMPerez]

Second Lifes' got a chance but...

If you're on a dialup connection, (yes some of us are still trying to get off the Information Dirt Road), it's nothing more than a headache.

The premise of an online world is a good one but they (2nd Life operators), should state on either their registration page, or somewhere on the homepage, that a broadband connection SHOULD be required.

If you're on anything other than dialup, I'm sure it's a great place to visit, otherwise pass on it, or stock up on some pain medicine.

[The_Chef]

Pretty Obvious....

That you need a broadband connection. But lemme tell ya, even
with a broadband connection SL tends to bog down to a crawl. It
amazes me that people are willing to put so much into something
that can disappear at the flick of a switch though.

[CharleyO]

This is old news ......

***

Actually, this type of program has been around since 1995 and I had heard of SL 2 years ago when it was a late comer even then. So, what prompted this "new" story now?$?


***

[Lillian Veranda]

Good Articles Cost Money

First of all, second life is older than 2 years old. I was a member there a few years back and found it slow and difficult to make friends. I read on CNet about a site called Jewel of Indra, in the comments of another story. I went there and fell in love. It was easier to use, the people were friendly, and they delivered on their promises. I asked one of the owners why I never saw any articles about Jewel of Indra and was told that Jewel of Indra or JOI as they call it could not get the big-wig journalist to do a story on them because they didn't have big bucks behind them. I think that is a shame. I used to think that journalists were all about getting the story. I even sent the link to a few journalists myself and learned they had no interest in the site that started all this 3D adult community chat interactive stuff in the first place. It's a shame because there is a very good story there that seems will never be told unless they can get the money to attract the Cnets of the world. Nice job on the SL story Cnet. But, I can't help wondering how much a story like this one costs.

[Epistomolus]

Jewel of Indra - Thanks, Karen!

The key to community chat is to build a community. JOI is a beautiful place to hang out with good people, and the people are what make it worth the time and effort.

I'm happy to hear of any 3D community's success, because we all benefit on the electronic frontier, but rather than skip to a second life I'll stick with my first love. ;-)

-Epistomolus

[DarianKnight]

JOI Started it All?

Try again..

Give credit where it's due. Worlds Inc technology later to evolve into AlphaWorld (Active Worlds).

That is the original model these people are now copying like it's something new. Active Worlds has been doing this since 1995. LucasFilm's Habitat if you want to go all the way back to Commodore 64 days.

Lots of money, thats what journalism is about. I agree there. C|Net and others now have a Second Life presence, so it's in their best interest to talk about Second Life every chance they get.

It's gonna suck when Second Life collapses.

[Bob_Barker]

Second Life + C|Net

= advertising machine in the guise of tech news! Second Life sucks *expletive*.

Jewel of Indra: Truly Adults Only

While I am impressed with all the services the Linden Labs folks are offering for children; I am concerned about the apparent lack of safety measures taken to protect children from the adult content and sexual adult activities that seems to take place there. I believe it is mandatory that any chat community make a firm decision between offering itself as an adult oriented community or a family one.

Apparently in the Second Life community there is very strong adult related interaction, although it may be somewhat hidden from the mainstream. But, subjects such as Bondage Discipline and Sado Masochism, Polysex, and such should be left to Jewel of Indra (who specializes in such content) and not provided in a community where children are encouraged to participate.

Jewel of Indra has taken great pains to limit the risk of exposing such content to kids... even going as far as calling members on the phone... long distance and to other countries to verify age when necessary. And even though the parent company of JOI owns other communities that are family oriented (with well trained security staff to protect kids), such care has been taken to avoid contamination to children that the adult community, Jewel of Indra, has been placed on an entirely different server.

By nature, children are inquisitive. And if you offer a space where adult related content and activities are present, either the children themselves will seek out this content, or heaven forbid, some unscrupulous adult will seek out the children. In my humble opinion this is a very dangerous mixture and I am both surprised and appalled that reputable companies such as Wells Fargo and others are willing to ignore this fact in an effort to make more money. I will be closing my Wells Fargo account forthwith. However, as a sort of an underground sex community, Jewel of Indra has received critical acclaim without exposing children to this type of danger.

I sincerely wish the Linden Labs people continued success. But, I implore them to seek out and remove ALL the adult content and any risk to the many children to whom they offer service. Keep up the good work but, leave the sex content to Jewel of Indra where it belongs.

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.jewelofindra.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.jewelofindra.com</a>