AMAZON IS A REAL WORLD COMPANY WORKING IN SECOND LIFE

You would have to have been there to have believed it. The Amazon Job Fair was in full flood when I arrived. There were up to 60 avatars there at any one time, sometimes peaking at over 70, and not one sign of lag. Everyone was rushing hither, thither.

Scattered amongst a throng of jobseekers, shouting “Where do I put my resume?”, “I'm interested in project and program management opportunities”, interspersed with “You can also email your resumes” was a group of Amazon employees fielding these question with patience and aplomb.

“I have been here since 5:15 AM.” said one. What?

I am standing in the empty arena where all this took place only 24 hours ago. It is silent and empty. I have time to collect my thoughts and think about what had just happened. Several hundred applicants had bombarded the Amazon staff for possibly 12 hours.

The area was laid out with a central meeting area surrounded by tents dedicated to particular skills and vacancies. Around this central areas, like 21st century Stonehenge, there was a ring of panels explaining what the event was all about, giving instructions to the very excited and determined applicants that flew, jumped and teleported in and out, doing a good impression of a swarm of giant mayflies. There were mailboxes strategically placed for those who had read the panels and were ready with their resumes. Others, not so well organised, rushed around bumping into each other trying to get the attention of the Amazon staff who were not already surrounded.

Suddenly in the middle of this milling crowd Philip Linden appeared, taking photographs. The senior representatives of Amazon greeted him and they all started to discuss the success of the day, so far. But even the presence of the avatar of the creator of Second Life did not stop the masses from harassing the Amazon staff.

Resume Mailbox whispers: “My inventory has changed and there are now 115 notecards inside.” Amazing! Despite the chaos, things were happening just as Amazon had planned. I was just a bystander, a witness, and I spent my time there in shock! I was being buffeted by 2 day old residents, still unable fly and walk properly, seeking high-level positions with Amazon, belying their stumbling steps in Second Life with a Real Life of years work experience at a very high level of expertise.

Like two sides of a football game, Amazon staff and the hundreds of applicants were battling it out for what was a truly common goal, the filling of vacancies in a shared and flexible and workable environment.

This was a powerful and active interface between the two worlds. Nobody here called Second Life a game.

By Kim Trefusis

Teen Grid merger?

Speaking as a guest of Metanomics with Robert Bloomfield on Monday Phillip Rosedale (Linden) had a lot to say and the transcript is a great read one of the most important points he made was this about the future of the Teen Grid:

PHILIP ROSEDALE: Generally, I think that the future of Second Life needs to be one where people of all ages can use Second Life together, and that's the direction that we're taking in our planning and our work. I think that the educational opportunities for Second Life are so great for all ages that we need to make it as available as we possibly can to people. If you look at what we've done with the Teen Grid, I think we've done a good job, as a small company, of being inclusive and creating an environment in which teenagers were able to use Second Life, I think, perhaps earlier than, I don't know, we might have been able to. We pushed hard to get that working.

But, if you look at the problems with having a teenaged area, which is itself so isolated from the rest of the World, they're substantial. There's an inability for educators to easily interact with people in there because we've made it an exclusively teen only area. Parents can't join their kids in Second Life so problems like that are ones that we think are pretty fundamental and need to be fixed. We need to stop creating isolated areas that are age specific and, instead, look at how we can make the overall experience appropriately safe and controlled for everybody. So that's the general direction that we're taking there.

ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Do you expect any official action or public notice on this anytime soon? And is the idea am I hearing you right that it would basically be to allow people of any age to come into at least some parts of Second Life? Is that what I'm hearing?

PHILIP ROSEDALE: Definitely. From my perspective, our long term strategy is that but I won't make any specific "this is what's coming next and that's where you can expect it," in that regard. We're still working on how to do that and what to do next.

With Linden Labs push towards education this move is perhaps not unexpected as the age limit has caused all sorts of issues for a lot of schools and universities wanting to get involved in Secondlife but many are predicting TROUBLE ahead.

Source: Metanomics.net

SL5B opens with speeches from Phillip Linden and M

Philip Linden opened the birthday celebrations with a speech that reflected on his amazement at how much secondlife has grown:

"I feel I have lived a lifetime in that 5 years, it feels almost like 50 years"

He also surprisingly addressed the problems surrounding the celebration itself:
"I know there has been tension, protest and stress around this event and I think its great, its emblematic of what secondlife is all about and why it's special. To attempt to make a celebration of what secondlife is about is bound to fail"

I wonder if those excluded think its 'great'?

He goes on to talk about the progress that has been made on the grid itself and notes that Linden Lab are 'working hard on stability' thats it is a 'big focus' for LL to work towards.

M(ark) Linden also touched on a tender subject that of IP rights:

"One of the fundamental elements is on IP rights. Its really really important that people who create great content are able to enjoy it and protect it, its one of the things philip put in place and which has underpinned the economy today."

But although he did mention the topic and admit that creative content is the backbone of the economy there were no answers as to how this was to be achieved or even if Linden Lab were doing anything about content theft.
There was a lot of corporate bolstering and obviously the speeches were tailored to boost that image but on the whole I felt the speeches were aimed at the residents without actually solving any of the present resident concerns, both speeches taken together did acknowledge those issues exist and let everyone know that Lindenn Lab have been listening and they are aware of the problems facing ordinary residents.
I can't say there was any reassurance that these issues would be fixed, just that the Lab is aware. To me that was a reassurance in itself an acknowledgement of the work they still need to do.
The speeches felt to me like a placification for those that have issues and concentrated on the creative content to be seen over the 20 sim exhibition.
There is some incredible content to be seen over there and I urge everyone to take the time to 'wade through the honey', as the lag has been labled, and have a look at what is now possible in Secondlife.
I hope there are some hair displays around too as M pointed out to Philip 'its been 4 years since his avatar was updated and although his hair is the best in SL it is also the oldest' showing perhaps the human side of the Lab. I wonder if some of the hair creators out there could send him some prim hair based on the newbie style he is wont to use.
M Linden himself has obviously been shopping and looks a good deal better than his newbie CEO pictures :)
Happy Birthday Secondlife

If you want to watch the entire speech see the blog HERE