The last Drax Files for 2014 – Episode 25: Oblee


Draxtor Despres has uploaded episode 25 called Oblee on 30th December 2014 and this month it’s all about music. Oblee performs every week in Second Life reaching out to a global audience via live musical performances. Oblee is definitely one of the top performers in Second Life playing amazing music.

The episode runs for 4 minutes and 59 seconds. Check it out and spread the word about episode 25 with friends.

This is the last Drax Files for 2014. More great episodes to come in 2015 i’m sure. Well done to Drax for an incredible series of the drax files during 2014. I can’t wait to watch more in 2015.

Episode 25 details 

“I do not see a conflict between the virtual and the natural world!” says Indie Musician Oblee.

He lives – with wife, chickens and a brandnew puppy – on a remote 7 acre piece of land in Durango Colorado, but through virtual reality he can connect to a global audience: “I can do a world tour in one day”, he says about his gigs in Second Life, where he plays solo shows as well as collaborative ‘multi-streams’ with fellow musicians from all over the world: “I can feed my chickens during the day and play concerts at night.”

Oblee owns only one synthesizer alongside an eclectic assortment of acoustic instruments: ” I am actually bringing a bit of the real world into virtual reality!”

And so Oblee’s debut album “Wow Bob Wow” – produced in the physical realm but financed entirely through the virtual currency Linden Dollar [Oblee’s Second Life earnings from club and gallery owners who book him to play their venues] – is a perfect example of the synergetic effect of being engaged in both worlds.

“This is what I tell fellow musicians who do not understand VR or SL: that money is to be made here! When I mention that, they are interested all of a sudden. I mean, these are people, when you dangle a dollar bill in front of them, they will play Rolling Stones cover songs for an hour easily…”

The success Oblee has in Second Life has boosted his self-confidence to keep pursuing a music career outside of the digital realm as well:

“When you can do something in virtual reality, who is going to stop you from doing it in REAL reality?”

And to that, there is nothing more to add. Not in this world, or any other…..

Locations shown in this video: After Dark, Legion, Templemore, Firefly, Bwomp, Bay City, The Pen, Cica Ghost, Tart Gallery, Nipponbashi Club, Pinoy Hideout, The Vortex

Special thanks to Marianne McCann for wrangling extra actors on the ground and building beautiful sets. Thanks also to Pupito from Engrama for playing such forceful drums during a Depeche Mode cover…..

For more information about Oblee go to http://obleemusic.com/

See previous episodes of the drax files series here. You can follow Oblee on Twitter to stay updated on his upcoming performances in Second Life. Woooot!

OpenSim 2014 year highlights


This is my special blog post looking back at the most popular news/events from OpenSim during the year of 2014. For me I have enjoyed blogging about OpenSim news/events and I can’t wait to start my 2015 OpenSim adventures.

Here are the highlights from January to December 2014 below. All blog posts below are my own blog. What are your OpenSim highlights during 2014 ? Please post them in comments!

January 2014

I joined the great canadian grid – see my adventures here.

Some new graphs were published to find out the prediction size of OpenSim and Second Life in 2014.

Using the free InWorldz Explorer HUD 8.0

Tranquillity Dexler from InWorldz published a new InWorldz development roadmap for 2014.

On 29th InWorldz released 5th birthday planning details.

Avination grid team announced details about the first community meeting of 2014.

February 2014

InWorldz reached the 95, 000 total user signups milestone.

New Kitely events calendar was created.

AviWorlds hypergrid closes.

March 2014

Trying out the InWorldz Info App.

April 2014

VWBPE 2014 interesting stats were published.

May 2014

Metropolis Grid 6th Birthday snapshots.

InWorldz reaches 100, 000 registered users milestone 

June 2014

New Kitely homepage went live.

Kitely new changes to Metered Worlds.

July 2014

OSGrid hits 100, 000 registered total users milestone.

OSGrid 7th birthday celebrations take place.

August 2014

3rd season of Relay For Life of InWorldz opens.

September 2014

Four years later on InWorldz.

Registrations opened for 2014 OpenSim Community Conference.

5th OpenSim Grid Survey voting opens.

RFL of InWorldz raises over one million izzies.

October 2014

No posts this month on OpenSim

November 2014

2nd annual OpenSim Community Conference opens.

December 2014

Update on grid numbers including OpenSim.

InWorldz residents achieve largest donation to ToysForTots.

Bring on 2015! 

My SL blog 2014 in WordPress crunchy numbers


It’s been a great year of blogging for me and I have enjoyed the 2014 owl adventures this year too. I’ve enjoyed blogging about the biggest events/news of the year from Second Life and OpenSim grids. Thanks for all of your support this year.

I can’t wait to start my 2015 adventures and blog more about the latest happenings from the metaverse. Woooot!!!!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared my 2014 annual report for this blog and here are the results. See Full Report Here.

Crunchy numbers

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 120,000times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 5 days for that many people to see it.

There were 615 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 130 MB. That’s about 2 pictures per day.

The busiest day of the year was May 16th with 1,859 views. The most popular post that day was Linden Lab announces new starter avatars .

Posting Patterns

In 2014, there were 295 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 2,082 posts.

Attractions in 2014

These are the posts that got the most views in 2014. You can see all of the year’s most-viewed posts in your Site Stats.

How did they find you?

The top referring sites in 2014 were:

  1. facebook.com
  2. twitter.com
  3. plus.google.com
  4. plurk.com
  5. community.secondlife.com

Where did they come from?

That’s 180 countries in all!
Most visitors came from The United States. U.K. & Germany were not far behind.

Who were they?

Your most commented on post in 2014 was Prediction size of OpenSim and Second Life in 2014

These were your 5 most active commenters:

  1.  zzpearlbottom                  22 COMMENTS
  2.  James OReilly                   12 COMMENTS
  3.  Minethere Always            9 COMMENTS
  4.  caoimhelionheart            9 COMMENTS
  5.    5E.L                                  7 COMMENTS

See Full Report Here.

Much loved SL friends we lost in 2014


In 2014 Second Life lost some great talented people and they should never be forgotten. It’s heartbreaking when love ones pass away however we should celebrate their lives.

Tributes go to the following…

Brooke (Saiman) Denimore – Passed away on 15th February 2014

Dirk Talamasca Passed away on 30th March 2014

Ever Dreamscape – Passed away in early May 2014

Joe Miller (Joe Linden) – Passed away on 27th July 2014

All of the above will all be greatly missed in Second Life. If you know of any other SL friends that passed away in 2014 please comment so we can remember them. Thank you!

Celebrate 2015 with the Bay City Prim Drop


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Marianne McCann
Bay City Alliance
marianne.mccann@gmail.com

BAY CITY SET FOR “PRIM DROP”

Annual New Year’s Event Coming 31st December

BAY CITY, SL (27th December, 2014) – Bay City is one again preparing for their annual “Prim Drop” on 31st December, with festivities commencing at 11:30 pm SLT: Festivities will take place at the Bay City Fairground in North Channel with a brief music set presented by Marianne McCann as well as fireworks and other fun. Food and drink will be provided.

The event is themed as an outdoor, wintertime soirée, and black tie attire is recommended. Nevertheless, all Second Life® Residents are welcome to attend and mingle with Bay City’s high society.

This will also be the last event in Bay City this year for donating to Child’s Play Charity (www.childsplaycharity.org) . Child’s Play is a 501c3 non-profit organization offers online communities such as ours an opportunity to help seriously ill children around the globe during their hospital stays with the purchase of games and gaming equipment.

As of the 24th of December, Bay City has raised a staggering L$355,273 for Child’s Play Charity through their annual silent auction and tree lighting concert, a Christmas tree sale, and other events.

Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab® and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest group for Residents of Bay City.

For more information, or to participate in the event, please contact Marianne McCann.

Second Life 2014: The year in review


This is my special blog post looking back at the major breaking news stories from Second Life and Linden Lab between January 2014 to December 2014. Let’s rewind 2014 and see the highlights – see below!

January 2014 

In early January 2014 Linden Lab turned off the Direct Messages feature on SL web profiles because of a rise in abuse of the system.

The Relay Rockers announced their plans for the 2014 Celebrate Remember Fight Back Top DJ Competition.

The SL profile feed snapshot upload was fixed in mid January after many weeks not working correctly.

The biggest news story of January 2014 was the big shock announcement that Rod Humble (former CEO of Linden Lab) stepped down after 3 years in the job.

In late January 2014 VWBPE removed the CloudParty platform due to Yahoo acquiring CloudParty.

February 2014

Second Life was seen on the internet map in early February 2014. I mentioned in the blog post that the map was one of the best maps of the internet to date. The map is divided into many continents. Check it out!

In early February 2014 Bay City celebrated it’s 4th annual Mole Day where over 30 avatars attended. Great music was played with a special dance at the end of the day.

The biggest news story of February 2014 was the announcement that Ebbe Altberg is the new CEO of Linden Lab.

In mid February 2014 Linden Lab launched Fitted Mesh. “Fitted Mesh gives Second Life content creators the power to craft mesh garments that make avatars look their absolute best”.

In mid February 2014 there was a small invitation-only meeting with Pete Linden and Ebbe Linden for a meet and greet with the SL press. The first meet and greet meeting with Ebbe Linden went extremely well and everyone had a few questions to ask Ebbe. Ebbe talked about the past, current and the future of Second Life which was very interesting.

Later in the month Linden Lab ceased development and support for Dio, Versu, and Creatorverse. The three axed products were removed from the Linden Lab products page.

March 2014

In early March 2014 Linden Lab announced the launch of the SL Go mobile app (open beta).

Linden Lab announced JIRA changes went live. The new changes: users can see bug issues, users can comment and the new feature request came back.

In mid March 2014 Linden Lab called for beta testers for a limited beta for Oculus Rift integration in Second Life. `

In late March 2014 Dirk Talamasca sadly passed away. The memories will live on and he will be missed deeply forever more.

April 2014

In early April 2014 Philip Rosedale attended VWBPE 2014, see keynotes updates here. Check out Ebbe Altberg keynote highlights here. Stats for VWBPE 2014 can be found here.

Confirmation details were released for SL11B community celebration. Again it was a successful event. Thanks to all that took part and made SL11B happen. 🙂

In late April 2014 there was a special tribute show by Designing Worlds to celebrate Dirk Talamasca life.

May 2014

At the start of May 2014 there was mention from Ebbe Altberg that new starter avatars were on the way.

In mid May 2014 Ever Dreamscape sadly passed away from liver failure.

in mid May 2014 Linden Lab announced new starter avatars for Second Life. The new starter avatars were designed to improve the new user experience during their first hour or so in Second Life.

In mid May 2014 Bay City celebrated its 6th anniversary in Second Life. There was an exciting parade, live music and over 50 avatars attended the annual event.

The first SVVR Conference and Expo featuring Philip Rosedale and Ebbe Altberg took place. Philip Rosedale talked about Second Life and High Fidelity.

Ebbe Altberg, Philip Rosedale and Drax at SVVR 2014. More details here.

In late May 2014 the 1920s Berlin Project in Second Life celebrated their 5th anniversary.

June 2014

OnLive changed SL Go trial period from 20 minutes to 7 days.

Linden Lab launched a photo contest for SL11B and everyone had a chance to win L$10, 000.

Linden Lab announced details about working on the next generation virtual world.

in mid June 2014 SL11B Community Celebrations opened. Second Life officially turned 11 years old on 23d June 2014.

July 2014

In early July 2014 there was a live Q&A session with the Firestorm team/Linden Lab about the future of Second Life.

In mid July 2014 Linden Lab announced new experience keys and the return of the cornfield.

In mid July 2014 Linden Lab updated the Terms of Service regarding user content in Second Life.

The 10th annual Relay for Life of Second Life weekend kicked off. Stats can be found here.

August 2014

In early August 2014 Linden Lab revamped the Second Life viewer login screen to make it more simple and cleaner for new users.

in late August 2014 many residents took part in the ice bucket challenge in Second Life.

Ebbe Altberg confirmed that Oculus Rift DK2 support is coming along.

September 2014

In early September 2014 Firestorm Viewer team celebrated their 4th anniversary.

Joe Miller (Joe Linden) sadly passed away

Linden Lab announced that from Saturday 1st November 2014 the new enforcement of the updated Skill Gaming Policy will come into effect.

October 2014

In early October 2014 Ebbe Altberg had a special interview with Designing Worlds. Highlights can be found here.

Linden Lab ceased development for Patterns.

November 2014

Draxtor Despres went on a road trip with SL Go featuring Torley Linden.

OnLive announced a new SL Go “Refer-A-Friend” program in mid November 2014.

December 2014

The 4th annual SL Christmas Expo 2014 officially opened

Linden Lab launched new feedback & suggestions page.

Linden Lab releases two new promotional videos for Second Life.

The year ahead in 2015

I can’t wait to see what 2015 has to offer and I’m up for another year of blogging for sure. What are your highlights of 2014 in Second Life ? Are you looking forward to 2015 ?

My Top 10 Most Viewed Blog Posts of 2014


With less than a week to go until the start of 2015, it’s time to look back at my blog stats and find out which blog posts were the most viewed during 2014. Here we go…

Top 10: Most Viewed Blog Posts of 2014

  1. Prediction size of OpenSim and Second Life in 2014 > 2, 539 views
  2. Linden Lab announces new starter avatars > 2, 394 views
  3. Second Life statistics 2014 spring update > 1, 975 views
  4. The launch of SL Go mobile app > 1, 666 views
  5. Dirk Talamasca has passed away > 1, 445 views
  6. New updates on the next generation platform from Ebbe Altberg > 1, 085 views
  7. Linden Lab working on a next generation virtual world > 913 views
  8. Rod Humble officially leaves Linden Lab > 805 views
  9. Second Life on the map of the internet > 688 views
  10. Ebbe Linden first Meet and Greet with SL Press > 639 views

Thanks so much for reading my blog during 2014 and I think it’s been a good year in general. Thanks for all the blog comments/likes this year.

2015 is going to be a interesting year for sure and I’ll forward to another year of blogging about the latest metaverse news from Second Life/OpenSim grids.

Stay tuned for more highlights of 2014 in the coming days. 🙂

 

Merry Christmas!


Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wishing you a lovely day filled with family and friends, yummy food and goodies. Thank you to everyone that has read my blog this year and I can’t wait to blog more in 2015! 🙂

The owl meets Santa
Happy Christmas! 
The Snowman vs The Owl
It’s christmas!! 

Wishing you all a successful and prosperous 2015!!! 😀 

Let’s celebrate! 🙂 

 

Linden Lab releases new Second Life promotional videos


Linden Lab has released two new Second Life promotional videos on the official Second Life YouTube channel. The first promo is about how to get started in Second Life if you are new to the grid. The second promo is all about creativity in Second Life.

Check these new Second Life promo videos out below. Spread the word! 🙂

What do you think about these new Second Life promotional videos ?

The owl adventures in Second Life during 2014


2014 celebrations at the Muddy’s Music Cafe – January 2014
Bay City Mole Day 2014
Bay City Mole Day 2014 – February 2014
RFL Kickoff 4
RFL Kickoff Event – March 2014
The Faery Court
Fantasy Fair 2014 – May 2014
2014 RFL of SL Wrap-Up Celebrations
2014 RFL of SL Wrap-Up Celebrations – September 2014
Burn2 2014
Burn2 2014 – October 2014
The owl meets Santa
The owl meets Santa – November 2014
SL Christmas Expo
SL Christmas Expo 2014 – December 2014