SL10B Bear Island & The Corn Field

Today I went to visit the historical SL10B Bear Island and The Corn Field regions which were added by Linden Lab just days before the grand opening last Sunday. When you first arrive at SL10B Bear Island you will find hundreds of Linden Bears from the past decade in Second Life on display for free. Just right-click the Linden bears and get them FREE.

The tradition for many years in Second Life was if you met a Linden inworld, you could ask for their Linden Bear. Lindens would make a Linden Bear to reflect their personality or role at the lab. If you want a nice collection of Linden Bears, now is your chance to do so before July when the birthday sims will go offline for another year. See below for snapshots and the corn field.

Teleport to SL10B Bear Island

Teleport to The Corn Field

In the early days (pre-2006) of Second Life Linden Lab introduced a system with a Twilight Zone twist to punish misbehaving residents in Second Life in which they were sent to The Corn Field which was like a prison. In the Corn Field there is a tractor, black & white television playing a feed of the 1940 educational film called Boy in Court and all of this is surrounded by rows of corn.

In the past The Corn Field was used during Halloween events hosted by Linden Lab. The Corn Field near Bay City in Second Life is closed for public access which remains today. The SL10B Corn Field is really fun exploring and its very scary in the dark.

Misbehavior in Second Life game punished by exile to “the corn field”

Sometimes when someone is suspended for a short time they are sent to the cornfield,” Linden Lab’s Senior VP of Community and Support wrote on the official Second Life discussion forums yesterday, adding that building the cornfield didn’t require any significant development work and reassuring the community that “Once someone is permanently banned they are no longer welcome in Second Life, anywhere, including the cornfield.”

Wow, two amazing regions at SL10B this year with a historical twist to both regions.

Check them out today!

Historical Maps of Second Life Birthdays

Here are some cool historical SL birthday region maps of previous Second Life Birthdays celebrations. Second Life officially turns 10 years old on 23rd June 2013 and it’s great to be part of SL history. The SL10B Community Celebration is happening to celebrate 10 years of Second Life and the party is huge this year.

There doesn’t seem to be any maps of either SL1B, SL2B or SL3B. Managed to find SL birthday maps from SL4B to SL10B which are shown below. Enjoy!

SL4B

SL5B

SL6B

SL7B

SL8B

SL9B

SL10B

The structure of the birthday sims and design has changed alot since SL4B. Hopefully the next 10 years we will see more SL birthday map changes and interest.

SL10B History Walk

It’s really worth checking out the SL10B History Walk at the SL Community Celebrations to see history of Second Life and historical objects. The historical walk is very interesting and its a great way to find out about Second Life from 2002 in beta to 2013 today. Walk through the ages of Second Life. After you have completed the walk its worth walking to the SL10B Welcome Area, Avatar Central and Time Capsule area in the SL10B Beguile region. The Man and other historical areas can be found nearby. All areas are linked by a path and small info boards can be found along the way.

Arrival at the SL10B History Walk – SLURL

• Check out SL History from 2002 to 2013 on Info Boards and Objects from those years!

Avatar Central area - SLURL

• Check out this historical Linden-owned store which uses recreated parts and textures

SL10B Welcome Area – SLURL

• Visit the recreated “Newbie Corral” Welcome Area which uses vintage primwork based on archival inworld snapshots.
• SL10B Greeters can be found here who do a great job every year on welcoming visitors!

SL10B Time Capsule area – SLURL

• View the historical SL birthday time capsules.
• The SL10B Time Capsule has been delayed. Hopefully it will be available soon!

What do you think of these SL10B Historical Areas ? 

SL10B Opening Day

After months and weeks of preparations the SL10B regions are now officially open to everyone to explore and have fun. Time to celebrate 10 amazing years of Second Life. Thanks to Linden Lab for making Second Life possible. Over the next week or so I’ll be blogging about SL10B so stay tuned for that.

Important Links

• #SL10B - tweet about SL10B using the #SL10B hashtag!
• SLURLS - visit the main stages and points of interest 
• SL10B DESTINATIONS - list of SL10B places via The SL Destination Guide
• LIVE EVENTS - attend live performance events 
• LATEST SNAPSHOTS - see the latest SL10B snapshots from the SL community
  
• SL10B FREEBIES - Many freebies via SL Marketplace

The SL10B Community Celebration is now OPEN for 2 weeks. Keep checking below for the latest news and updates during the day. For the next two weeks I’ll be blogging mainly about SL10B unless something big happens on the grid.

The SL10B Community Celebration is Second Life’s 10th anniversary resident-run gala celebration, and it happens from June 16 at noon slt to June 29. This year, we have 22 sims cram-packed with art, exhibitions, information, and events.

Grand Opening Schedule:

• SL10B Regions Open to everyone at 12pm SLT then live SL10B music events take place for 1 week
• Special Opening Ceremony at 1pm SLT – special flags

X‘s marks the spot for the SL10B flags!

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My SL10B Blog Coverage! - 

• 2:30pm SLT – End of blog coverage for opening day. More posts to come in the coming days with reviews on my visit around the sims.
• 2:20pm SLT – Everyone is having a great time and there’s been a big attendance on all events so far today!

• 1:05pm SLT – Flags go up to mark SL10B

• 12:48pm SLT – Just counted there are 640+ avatars in 22 SL10B regions at the moment.
• 12:30pm SLT – The SL10B regions are packed and very busy as expected. The party is underway at the main stages and around the regions. SL10B greeters are welcoming new visitors at the SL10B Welcome Area (top middle sim).
• 12pm SLT – SL10B regions are now OPEN – Lets celebrate 10 years of Second Life!

• 11:55am SLT – 5 minutes left to go until the grand opening
• 11:45am SLT – 15 minutes!
• 11:35am SLT – Sims start to slowly fill up with people.
• 11:30am SLT – Moderated chat has started in SL10B inworld groups!
• 11:30am SLT – 30 minutes to GO and it’s almost time to celebrate 10 years of Second Life!
• 11:15am SLT – 45 minutes to GO!
• 11:02am SLT –  New blog post via SL10B website > Join us at SL10B Community Celebration for the Special Opening Ceremony!
• 11am SLT – 1 hours to go and final checks are happening right now. It’s worth looking at Ekphrasis Live-at-SL10B blog post via Prim Perfect including details about interviewing artists at the SL10B celebrations.
• 10:40am SLT – 1 hour and 20 minutes to GO!
• 9:20am SLT - Grand Opening at 12pm SLT. There will be a big event happening at 1pm SLT today – announcement to be made at 12:40pm SLT today!
• 9am SLT – 3 hours left to go and there is a excitement is building up in group chat via SL10B groups!
• 8:50am SLT - 3 hours – 10 minutes left until things kick off for 2 weeks and final preparations are taking place on the 22 SL10B regions this year. Regions closed for access for maintenance and last minute checks. It’s recommended to wear less laggy attachments etc as the regions will be very busy for the first 3 or so hours of the opening today.

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SL10B Map - Snapshot taken at 8:40am SLT today

Have fun exploring and lets celebrate 10 years of Second Life!

SL10B Press Tours Review

For the past month there has been alot of planning for SL10B Press Tours which happened yesterday on Friday 14th June at 2pm, 4pm, 6pm SLT and this year was a success on all three tours. The tours were hosted by myself, Gemma, Samantha and Saffia which ran for about 1 hour and half visiting the main landmarks of SL10B. There was alot of positive things said during the tours and it would be great to now receive feedback on what people thought of the tours/regions.

• My snapshots of the press tours
• Official SL Community Celebration Flickr Group for Snapshots

Snapshot of Tour 1 at the SL10B Welcome Area. 

The attendance this year for all three press day tours were around 20+ people which I thought was a good amount. I believe alot of press members explored the regions before and after the tours. Today is a great opportunity for press members to explore the sims and blog about the birthday experience this year. There needs to be more blog coverage this year to mark ten years of Second Life and snapshots posted on Flickr etc.

Snapshot of press members near the DJ stage on the road. 

Snapshot of Governor Linden with the press tour happening in the background. 

Thanks to all SL10B Press members for attending the SL10B Press Day tours. Share your views in comments or by IM/Notecard. Thank you!

List of SL10B Flickr Groups to Join

Here is a list of SL10B Flickr Groups to join to share your SL10B snapshots with the SL Community. All groups are free to join (more members needed) and it will be great to have a massive collection of snapshots before the end of the month. I’ll add more to the list when I hear about them. Please spread the word to friends and share SL10B photos.

1. SL Community Celebration 
www.flickr.com/groups/slcommunitycelebration/

2. Second Life SL10B Bear Avatar Photos
www.flickr.com/groups/sl10bear/

3. My SL10B Newbie Makeover
www.flickr.com/groups/slnewbiemakeover/

4. SL10B Community Celebration Photo Contest- Now Closed
www.flickr.com/groups/2188135@N20/

I’ll add more to the list above when I hear about them. Please spread the word to friends and share SL10B photos here in the groups.

• I’m all set for SL10B Press Day on Friday and Saturday.
• Over 50+ SL press media/bloggers have signed up this year.

Latest Update

Currently the SL10B sims are closed for 24 hours while all builds are being inspected and approved again. Regions are set to open at 12:01am SLT on Friday 14th June 2013 for builders. Press Members will have access starting at 12pm SLT on Friday. Press Tours will be happening at 2pm, 4pm and 6pm SLT on both days. Then the big grand opening will take place at 12pm SLT on Sunday 16th June 2013 when we will celebrate 10 years of Second Life for 2 weeks. Woooot!!!

New regions for SL10B this year!

• Bear Island
• Corn Field

Are you excited ? 

SL10B Community Celebration Press Day Announcement

Please spread the word about SL10B Press Day and apply today!

There are just 4 days to go until the grand opening of resident-run SL10B Community Celebration and after carefully planning by myself and Gemma Cleanslate it’s good to announce that press day is set for Friday 14th and Saturday 15th June 2013. SL10B Press Day is a chance for all SL bloggers and SL news media to get a early sneak preview of the 21 SL10B sims before it opens to the public on 16th June 2013.

Last year for SL9B the press day was very successful and I enjoyed managing a few press tours for press members. I hope that SL10b Press Day will be exciting and interesting this year. If you have any questions then please contact me.

• 2 days to go until Press Day
• Over 50+ press members have applied this year

SL10B Map – 21 sims this year!

SL10B Map of region names

SL10B Press Day Press Release

If you would like to have a early sneak preview of the 21 SL10B sims, then join us for SL10B Community Celebration Press Day Events on Friday 14th June 2013.and Saturday 15th June 2013.

Opens to press at 12pm SLT on Friday
Closes to press at 6pm SLT on Saturday

There will also be special guided Press Tours (starting at the Welcome Area) at:
2pm
4pm
6pm
All times SLT.

Press Packs will be given out to all people taking the tour, full of goodies donated by exhibitors. There will also be information on the Long Walk (the special Hunt we are organising) and a list of very useful landmarks!

Press members are welcome to take snapshots, videos and blog on the SL10B Community Celebration sims. Press Tours include visiting the main attractions of SL10B and fantastic resident created builds. It’s recommended to ride the pod tour around the SL10B sims to see many amazing builds.

All members of the Press who have signed up for our Press Group are very welcome to attend although – to help us organise numbers – it would very much help us if you could also complete the form here.

Please complete the application form below for the press tours!

Avination releases HTTP Inventory Throtteling to OpenSim

Leonie Gaertner (Saphira A-Team) who is apart of the Community Management / Public Relations team on Avination has published a press release announcing that Avination has released HTTP Inventory Throtteling to OpenSim. “HTTP-Inventory throttling reduces the amount of data sent in one burst to allow sim and viewer to actually process the data and not overloading sim or viewer.”

Read the Press Release for more details…

Avination releases HTTP Inventory Throtteling to OpenSimulator

Avination is once again helping the open source community to create a better platform to develop
virtual worlds and to improve performance and usability of OpenSimulator

When Avatars login to virtual worlds, large amounts of data has to be transferred between the server and the client
computer. Viewers often have to request many items at once and this data is mostly transferred using the well known
HTTP protocol. Having to suddenly deal with that amount of data all at once can often result in massive overload of
both the client and sever network connections. This can cause viewer disconnects and crashes as well as server
instability and teleport failures

So what can we do about this problem?

The solution is to take a step back and send data slightly slower to allow both sides time to work and fulfill requests for data rather then being allowing the endpoints to just request the same data over and over again.  HTTP-Inventory throttling does does just that. HTTP-Inventory throttling reduces the amount of data sent in one burst to allow sim and viewer to actually process the data and not overloading sim or viewer.

Avination has developed code that implements this feature and has been tested and used in Avination for quite some
time. This code now being introduced via code donation to OpenSimulator. Avination is once again helping the open
source community to create a better platform to develop virtual worlds and to improve performance and usability of OpenSimulator.

Main links and contact info  

OpenSimulator: web: http://www.opensimulator.org
Avination: web: http://www.avination.com
contact Leonie Gaertner; Mail: leonie@avination.com; Tel: +49 152 – 36926035

This is very interesting news and a positive way forward for Avination I think. It’s great to know Avination is helping the opensim community build a better platform for the users.

6 years on Flickr sharing SL snapshots

On the 7th June 2007 I uploaded my first snapshot to Flickr which was a snapshot of the former teen grid and it was much smaller back then. As the months and years went past I uploaded hundreds of snapshots sharing my journey through my teen years. I transferred to the main grid in mid December 2008 when I started to upload my adult adventures in Second Life onto Flickr. My main mission at the start was to document events and share my adventures with the SL community. I didn’t imagine I would capture thousands of snapshots at the start but somehow I managed it now looking back on 6 years on Flickr.

• My SL Flickr Stream

Historical Stats

Since then I’ve taken 22,410 snapshots of my Second Life journey through the years and in total I’ve had 22,298 views which is just unbelievable I think. In total there have been 2,519 comments on my Flickr stream since 7th June 2007 which is amazing and thanks to everyone that wrote comments/viewed my snapshots over the years on my SL Flickr stream. In the groups section on my SL Flickr I admin 23 groups, moderate 5 and I belong to 452 groups. On my contact list on Flickr I’ve now got a huge total of 1, 115 friend contacts  and I would like to say a big thanks for being a fan of my Flickr stream since the beginning.

The Future 

I’m staying with Flickr to share my adventures with you from Second Life and OpenSim for many years to come yet. I’m proud of all the milestones I’ve reached since June 2007 and hopefully more records will be broken in the near future. I’m excited and looking forward to what will come next in my journey through Second Life.

View My SL collections on Flickr to see many cool snapshots over the past 6 years on Flickr. There are 10 main collections full of great SL snapshots I’ve took which is really worth looking at.

View My SL Sets on Flickr to see the best snapshots I’ve captured of events, places, avatars and changes in Second Life during the past 6 years on Flickr. There are 152 sets full of awesome snapshots of Second Life.

Page 1

 Page 2

Stay tuned for more great snapshots on my SL Flickr stream!

SL10B Greeters Class

Tbere are now 11 days left until the grand opening of SL10B Community Celebration and today I attended the first session for SL10B greeters to find out more about the biggest event on the grid. The first class session was hosted by iSkye Silverweb at The field in the THINC region. Around 15+ people showed up for the first greeters training session. There is a lot of excitement and interest already for SL10B this month which is good.

What to expect from SL10B Training sessions:

• The basics of greeting
• Key roles at the event
• Useful notecards & freebies
• Translations
• And much more!

I’m ready and set for the big event of the year in Second Life which starts on Sunday 16th June 2013!

The Drax Files: Episode 7 with Rodvik Humble

Watch Episode 7 with Rodvik Humble the CEO of Linden Lab talk about Second Life. Episode 7 runs for 5 minutes and its available to watch now.  It’s great to see Rodvik Humble exploring inworld locations and active again. Later this month Second Life celebrates it’s tenth birthday and this is a great way to start a new month with the CEO of Linden Lab in this special of the Drax Files SL series.

Rodvik Humble mentioned some updated stats about Second Life which is very interesting to share.

• Over half a billion US dollars in user to user transactions
• After ten years – over a million people active every month
• 400, 000 sign up every month
• Over 176 employees at Linden Lab
• San Francisco is the main office of Linden Lab
• And there’s more! (see video below)

Yay, Rodvik Linden has returned. This is by far the best video of Rodvik Linden and interview in Second Life ever I think. It’s all good, very positive and exciting to watch. I’m sure the SL community will absolutely love this special episode 7 of the Drax Files

British native Rod Humble is possibly America’s most honest CEO: “I have no idea why it’s magic but it is!” he says about his company’s core product – the vast digital sandbox known as Second Life! 

This sprawling virtual universe, solely created by its users, administered by Linden Lab from their San Francisco headquarters and simulated in server farms all over the world, is turning 10 years old this June and with over 1 million active monthly users it has outlived many prestigious game titles in the highly competitive market of digital entertainment. 

What is Second Life’s secret? Mr. Humble tries to get to the bottom of what makes open-ended creative platforms superior to other digital offerings, how community driven markets  that are not constrained by geographic boundaries work and ponders the power of avatar-based interaction in this special Drax Files/World Makers episode.

Spread the word and comment below on what you thought of episode 7 of The Drax Files ?

Exciting SL events in June 2013

Mark these upcoming exciting SL events for June 2013 on your calendar. The weather is getting warmer it seems in RL and we are now half way through 2013 already. In Second Life there are many events to attend and enjoy. I’m always interested to find out about popular SL events happening on a monthly basis in Second Life. This month is a rather busy time of year and its going to be another great month full of awesome grid events.

Check out the Event listings for June 2013:

• Sunset Harbor Open Mic – 1st June 2013
• 1920s Berlin Project 4th anniversary – Ends on 2nd June 2013
• Tribute City Fashion Week 2013 – Ends on 9th June 2013
• Numberology – 1st to 15th June 2013
• The Arcade - 1st to 31st June 2013
• Funny Puppet Fair 2013 - 2nd to 17th June 2013
• Second Pride Festival 2013 – 14th to 23rd June 2013
• Summerfest 2013 – 15th to 29th June 2013
• Cosmetic Fair Summer Edition – 15th to 30th June 2013
• SL10B Community Celebration – 16th to 29th June 2013 – (resident run this year)

New events will be added to the list above when I hear about them. Check out Featured Events on the Second Life Destination Guide for more interesting events happening on the grid this month.