twodoebs

Well it only took about 6 months, but I finally got us all official in my "hometown" paper, the Hunterdon County Democrat. Their website- at LEAST 10 years behind the times proved too difficult to deal causing some long delays in getting this published, but alas we got it in two weeks ago!

So in my line of work, there are experts out there trolling for the "latest and greatest" in technology. Recently we've been doing a lot of talking about this new trend, and while I personally haven't spent the time and money to play (yet), lots of people are.

The "thing" is called Second Life. This is a virtual world at it's core- where you as a user can develop your own virtual character. You can make this character, called an avatar, look like you- or nothing like you. It's up to you. Currently there are over 1.2 Million "residents" in second life. Think of this like a social networking site (such as Friendster or LinkedIn) meeting the world of network-based gaming (such as World of Warcraft). Second Life describes it as: "vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity".

What's the purpose?? Well, consider it a virtual place where you can get your message out there. For example, recently there's been a few political rally's hosted in second life. This would allow a candidate to get to a very particular demographic, and reach a wide audience without having to travel. I've also heard of companies hosting sales meetings or quarterly company-wide meetings in second life. Again, reducing those travel costs. Singers, like Suzanne Vega and Ben Folds Five have recently held concerts in Second Life.

How do you do it? Well you start by signing up for an account. A free account will give you a basic avatar with limited looks, clothing options and possible movements. Soon though, you'll start wanting better clothes, movements, housing etc. There are two ways to get some of this. The first is using your skills. With Photoshop skills you can literally make your clothes, house etc. The second way is MONEY. Now, if you want to advance your status in second life, such as buying property (you can even buy an island!) you can use actual money and actually buy things. That island for example will cost you about $1300. But you can also buy virtual objects like clothes from virtual clothing stores, if you don't have those skills.

The currency of Second Life is called Linden Dollars (or L$) and the average exchange rate is 250L$ to 1$US. According to Second Life's home page, $588,074 US DOLLARS have been spent in the last 24 hour period. Second Life content for sale is popping up now on eBay even. Anecdotally, I hear rumors that people are leaving the actual work world and sustaining themselves by developing virtual goods and services.

Now, while I do not have a Second Life account, I have heard too that there is a 'seedy' side to Second Life with lots of strip clubs etc, so I can't promise clean content. But just like in Times Square, ya just shouldn't go into those places if you don't want to see it!

One last thought before I go...while I think Second Life has a TON of potential and it will be great to watch it grow- of course now the legal system is left to wrangle issues of ownership and property. Recently in World of Warcraft (i think), a man lent his sword to a friend who promptly sold it- causing a lawsuit over theft of stolen virtual goods. There was another suit filed recently against Linden Labs (behind Second Life) over fraud and breach of contract when Linden seized land from a user and auctioned it.

A sign of the times...as they say!

According to CNN.com, the "information super-highway" has reached quite a milestone recently. The world wide web now features 100 million sites.

Now, I don't know if this means Blogger (host of this blog) counts as one site with individual contributors as "sub-domains" if you will. OR if our own little twodoebs.com counts as one of those 100 million. Maybe it's domain names?

Anyway, this article proffers that one day a domain name will be as common as SSN's. To this I say, of COURSE it will be! If parents are getting smart enough to get their children email addresses at birth, domain names can't be that far behind.

Though if you ask Matt- chips in our brains with IP addresses will be the new normal. I'm still not convinced, but I'll go with domain names!