Meta tags:
Headings (most frequently used words):
2008, october, blog, avastar, in, friday, december, thursday, blogs, of, and, ambling, second, life, 19, sunday, 30, 17, 16, wednesday, 15, saturday, 11, about, me, this, site, creative, commons, license, archive, virtual, worlds, other, note, handy, links, stats, etc, disclaimer, merry, christmas, us, holocaust, museum, kristallnacht, tuning, to, am, radio, again, figment, island, finally, some, more, thoughts, ave, ad, enough, galonge, the, effect, web2,
Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (197), and (74), that (52), you (44), this (41), #second (28), for (28), not (27), life (26), are (26), have (20), but (20), blog (18), about (18), avastar (18), they (18), from (17), virtual (16), like (16), was (16), their (16), has (14), with (14), sim (13), there (13), been (13), while (12), all (11), out (11), posted (11), many (11), more (11), would (11), well (11), don (10), just (10), also (10), 2008 (10), comments (10), can (10), who (9), october (9), timbo (9), post (9), one (9), think (9), should (8), may (8), holocaust (8), museum (8), some (8), what (8), few (8), will (8), content (8), now (7), linden (7), work (7), new (7), labels (7), really (7), rather (7), find (7), away (7), least (7), seems (6), logo (6), point (6), way (6), other (6), view (6), interesting (6), got (6), here (6), through (6), since (6), after (6), good (6), sims (6), see (6), world (6), exhibit (6), research (5), finally (5), december (5), places (5), show (5), his (5), could (5), pictures (5), which (5), its (5), than (5), full (5), too (5), mission (5), company (5), had (5), then (5), when (5), article (5), did (5), time (5), articles (5), write (5), writers (5), first (5), figment (5), island (5), gallery (5), thinking (5), tell (4), following (4), grid (4), know (4), above (4), given (4), ambling (4), blogs (4), worlds (4), september (4), kristallnacht (4), posts (4), snaps (4), however (4), before (4), found (4), flickr (4), real (4), enough (4), make (4), your (4), very (4), thought (4), galonge (4), closure (4), over (4), back (4), far (4), news (4), event (4), perhaps (4), hope (4), actually (4), art (4), offer (4), radio (4), things (4), eye (3), hand (3), any (3), creative (3), commons (3), comes (3), light (3), again (3), title (3), open (3), wiki (3), home (3), january (3), ravenelle (3), fact (3), travel (3), order (3), aware (3), take (3), ago (3), group (3), described (3), geek (3), squad (3), popular (3), let (3), particularly (3), hard (3), say (3), maybe (3), completed (3), feel (3), indeed (3), long (3), piece (3), upon (3), give (3), because (3), range (3), little (3), recent (3), most (3), comment (3), into (3), these (3), actual (3), move (3), ads (3), small (3), writing (3), were (3), paid (3), already (3), earlier (3), left (3), itself (3), business (3), much (3), yet (3), where (3), get (3), area (3), sure (3), secondary (3), experience (3), works (3), space (3), various (3), meeting (3), biomedical (3), them (3), students (3), put (3), journo (3), synagogue (3), obliged (2), hexagon (2), lab (2), slurl (2), trademarks (2), inc (2), use (2), license (2), writer (2), might (2), bit (2), words (2), under (2), page (2), note (2), february (2), march (2), april (2), june (2), july (2), august (2), merry (2), christmas (2), site (2), profile (2), web2 (2), torley (2), big (2), hence (2), regular (2), day (2), add (2), check (2), course (2), familiar (2), favourite (2), link (2), huge (2), giraffe (2), soon (2), origin (2), american (2), idea (2), model (2), existence (2), nothing (2), nice (2), needed (2), civilization (2), old (2), departure (2), bild (2), newspaper (2), gist (2), shop (2), quote (2), paper (2), written (2), residents (2), made (2), being (2), success (2), criteria (2), achieved (2), organisations (2), help (2), often (2), frankly (2), asked (2), doubt (2), likely (2), plan (2), years (2), future (2), part (2), running (2), months (2), credit (2), another (2), kick (2), close (2), reasons (2), confess (2), reader (2), events (2), sorry (2), top (2), opinion (2), demise (2), took (2), look (2), available (2), vibrant (2), information (2), weeks (2), called (2), areas (2), month (2), enjoyed (2), generation (2), pdf (2), website (2), drop (2), free (2), something (2), same (2), simply (2), last (2), longer (2), generated (2), failed (2), different (2), demographics (2), advertising (2), format (2), wanted (2), ezine (2), felt (2), off (2), worth (2), two (2), thursday (2), singapore (2), around (2), place (2), gives (2), based (2), zones (2), school (2), down (2), great (2), accompanying (2), notecard (2), processes (2), designed (2), once (2), floating (2), snowflake (2), successful (2), neuros (2), immunos (2), building (2), does (2), doing (2), quite (2), case (2), asia (2), getsmart (2), developed (2), marketing (2), communications (2), friday (2), days (2), birmingham (2), czech (2), republic (2), together (2), night (2), wordage (2), creations (2), latest (2), fine (2), seen (2), why (2), appeal (2), extensive (2), set (2), room (2), conceit (2), file (2), report (2), documents (2), buildings (2), audio (2), personal (2), provide (2), short (2), people (2), done (2), necessary (2), lecture (2), drew (2), skip (2), lindex, insl, cube, tsl, windlight, registered, rights, reserved, infringement, intended, necessarily, copied, list, verbatim, friend, paragraph, iyan, http, iyanwriter, blogspot, com, affiliated, sponsored, although, knows, averse, affiliation, etymology, interpretation, clearly, combination, slam, bling, disclaimer, stats, etc, construction, history, nmc, campus, handy, links, november, 364, 2007, 186, archive, licensed, licence, blogroll, complete, alville, subscribe, atom, older, japan, excuse, subject, strange, mythical, wheel, context, readers, surely, storing, travels, follower, checked, him, return, saw, name, wife, everybody, route, stared, awe, photo, elongated, creatures, reminding, strongly, painting, features, elephants, grossly, sized, legs, hurried, along, japanese, fair, though, architecture, reminded, native, design, funding, rationale, care, shops, tier, unusual, freebies, own, sun, god, caught, chase, convoluted, how, fared, web, hopi, mysterious, unknown, ancient, egypt, roma, temptation, anthony, dali, zugzwang, hidenori, glushenko, effect, saturday, thanks, chum, alerting, decided, wind, operations, announcement, shutting, largely, assume, closed, come, unfortunately, articulated, anywhere, therefore, whether, touched, wishing, hurt, feelings, declaring, objectives, bullpoop, publish, exit, assess, personally, parent, probably, timeline, less, explore, possible, journalism, never, keep, indefinitely, expected, collapse, only, kept, resident, feels, teeth, compounded, researching, stumbling, describing, closing, ones, reason, regret, passing, due, crunch, economic, downturn, avid, informing, donning, sackcloth, ashes, disappearing, poorer, result, broadsheet, red, mindblizzard, veejay, ave, wednesday, root, further, surprised, packed, newsfest, expecting, trickle, fewer, average, supposedly, boasted, 28th, worryingly, aside, announcing, busier, hardly, branch, metaverse, between, accounting, combined, sum, heard, reading, fell, helped, gave, heft, laid, contrast, served, conceal, approached, section, declined, invitation, obviously, google, expect, professional, capacity, others, conclude, major, contributory, factor, lack, entropia, kaneva, focus, shift, elsewhere, girls, guys, thoughts, insight, former, prefer, remain, anonymous, shortly, changeover, staff, meetings, told, henceforth, presumably, continue, effectively, redundant, quit, working, meanwhile, noted, materialise, either, death, worthwhile, experiment, ultimately, perspective, simple, readership, advertisers, kaput, renew, refused, didn, advertisements, wouldn, advertise, went, suspect, dropped, dramatically, money, income, ezone, remember, correctly, problems, began, moved, published, looked, tabloid, bucks, tune, 200, travails, haven, snoring, update, updates, insights, blogger, entrepreneur, slightly, jigged, rated, promotion, minor, league, ari, blackthorne, tales, occasionally, stumble, happily, quietly, going, ages, tonight, difficult, judge, difficulty, european, hoopla, western, googling, reveals, odd, knocking, stumbled, reviews, talking, guess, game, belongs, unreasonably, describe, themselves, still, sounds, dreamt, during, fruitful, workshop, buzzword, dollop, snottiness, question, effectiveness, mentions, below, belt, shall, easiest, viewed, split, preference, daresay, yours, validity, adult, definition, tells, pick, hud, tho, fun, walk, charcoal, sketch, end, solo, visitor, mind, activity, mentored, mediated, albeit, touch, led, relaxing, seating, discuss, deduced, best, giant, lying, immense, tree, arms, facilities, such, orientation, crisp, textured, aspect, third, zone, incomplete, leased, promote, explains, faithful, reproduction, facade, ummm, clear, suppose, potential, overseas, clients, panoramic, amount, stuff, year, unless, slew, hide, meantime, strategically, located, within, biopolis, north, sciences, seven, storey, fully, infrastructured, laboratory, conducive, environment, makes, choice, location, quality, centre, eading, provider, solutions, ascendas, teachers, featured, taken, using, routines, adopted, artful, harvard, university, dispositions, deepened, project, zero, ngee, ann, integrated, agency, meaning, unlikely, next, couple, health, recently, toured, ill, formed, near, right, late, computers, tomorrow, mindless, raved, builds, marvellous, those, stay, includes, noting, inspection, spread, across, starting, marvel, expanded, addition, flying, machine, piccies, visit, amazed, refuge, expansion, multiple, inter, connected, klein, bottles, welsh, lakes, cognoscenti, tuning, usholocaust, involve3d, coming, quill, pixel, parchment, pile, condensed, single, catch, tracking, enterprise, become, equivalent, finding, needle, haystack, moment, interviews, sort, denial, privy, numbers, signally, failing, universities, colleges, welcome, couldn, fig, doesn, interrupt, bizarre, ups, downs, lives, several, newcomers, visited, inspired, including, week, message, behind, inviting, behalf, attempts, met, education, manager, technology, distance, learning, initiatives, tour, opens, officially, detail, intend, towards, images, foot, want, impressions, thing, nor, virtualised, version, commemorating, 70th, anniversary, passed, defining, start, covers, roughly, quarter, starts, 1930s, freshly, arrived, germany, assumes, investigate, happened, basics, click, wall, yourself, deserted, german, street, books, strewn, anti, semitic, graffiti, daubed, streets, trigger, commentaries, experiences, survivors, dreadful, enter, number, police, station, consulate, wrecked, house, ransacked, schoolroom, burnt, reminiscences, ingeniously, displays, views, related, notecards, throughout, giving, details, proceed, newsroom, opt, whom, listening, exploring, video, displaying, films, hmmm, central, investigative, suited, aimed, kids, teenagers, surprising, narratives, testaments, moving, build, sensitivity, skill, scripted, items, smashing, windows, burning, impressive, pieces, code, cannot, capture, fear, horror, strictly, supposed, investigating, occasional, flashbacks, anachronistic, certainly, effects, planned, genocides, witnessed, forgotten, greatest, strengths, allows, globe, meet, share, example, york, attend, promised, tuesday, 9th, david, klevan, 7days, magic, bakery, involve, stein, air, france, klm, kingdon, sunday, quickie, wish, season, greetings, assure, dead, merely, hibernating, bestest, regards, kronos, slambling, ramblings, amblings, among, non, residential, enjoy, pals, sidebar, main,
Text of the page (random words):
08 us holocaust museum kristallnacht well it s been quite a few weeks since i last put virtual quill to pixel based parchment there s a pile of reasons why this is the case but i think they can all be condensed together into a single catch all i ve got other things to do with my time tracking down new enterprise sims has become the sl equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack and frankly i don t feel like doing it at the moment mr kingdon in various recent interviews seems to be in some sort of denial about the business appeal of second life i am not privy to the numbers but my experience has left me with the view that second life is signally failing to appeal to organisations other than universities and colleges welcome news no doubt to many of the residents of second life who couldn t give a fig about this as long as it doesn t interrupt the often bizarre ups and downs of their virtual lives sure there are several newcomers to second life that i have visited but i ve not felt inspired yet to write about them including air france klm virtual birmingham and virtual czech republic so why am i writing now and what am i writing about a week or so back i got a message from drew stein of involve the company behind the rather fine 7days magic bakery sim inviting me to view their latest work on behalf of the us holocaust museum after a few attempts i finally met up with drew and david klevan education manager for technology and distance learning initiatives at the museum for a tour the site opens officially on tuesday 9th december as it has already been described in great detail by virtual worlds news i don t intend to offer you much wordage and would point you towards the extensive set of images at the foot of this post however if you want my impressions here they are the first thing to note is this is not actually a full sim nor is it a virtualised version of the us holocaust museum itself rather it is an exhibit commemorating the kristallnacht the 70th anniversary of which has just passed an event which many now see as defining the start of the holocaust the exhibit which covers roughly a quarter of a sim starts in a 1930s news room the idea the conceit if you like is that you are a journo freshly arrived in germany one assumes a day or two after the events of kristallnacht your mission is to investigate what happened and file a report once you ve got the basics a click will open a wall and you find yourself on a deserted german street books and documents are strewn about and anti semitic graffiti are daubed on many of the buildings as you move through the streets you trigger audio commentaries the first hand experiences of survivors of that dreadful night you can also enter a number of buildings the police station a consulate a wrecked house a ransacked schoolroom and finally a burnt out synagogue again the audio gives you the personal reminiscences while ingeniously designed displays provide you with views of related documents there are various information notecards throughout the exhibit giving you yet more details from the synagogue you proceed to a second newsroom where you can opt to file a short report and find out more about the people to whom you ve been listening while exploring the exhibit there s also a video room displaying a range of short films so what did i make of it does it all work hmmm it s hard to say i think perhaps the central conceit of the investigative journo may be more suited to an exhibit aimed at kids and teenagers not surprising since that is the origin of the piece in fact the narratives the personal testaments were very moving and interesting and the build itself has been done with sensitivity and skill however i am not sure that it all works at least not for me scripted items like the smashing of shop windows or the burning of the synagogue are impressive as pieces of code but cannot really capture the fear or horror of the event also while they show what can be done in sl they are not strictly necessary indeed given that you the journo are supposed to be investigating after the event these occasional flashbacks are also anachronistic the exhibit should certainly be seen and you may find the effects work for you i know the museum has planned a lecture meeting in january and i hope they provide many more the holocaust and the many genocides the world has witnessed since then should not be forgotten one of second life s greatest strengths is the way it allows people from around the globe to meet and share the same experience so for example it should no longer be necessary to travel to new york to attend a lecture or meeting at the holocaust museum as promised earlier here are my pictures it s an extensive set posted by timbo at 17 12 0 comments labels coming soon holocaust interesting places involve3d usholocaust museum thursday 30 october 2008 tuning in to am radio again i am aware of at least 4 blog posts that i have been meaning to write i am also aware that they are unlikely to get written in the next few days so sorry to places like virtual birmingham and czech republic and a couple of interesting health sims i ve recently toured in second life i will put some ill formed words together about you in the very near future but right now it is late at night i am off for a few days away from computers and all things virtual tomorrow and i wanted to put up a mindless post that needed no research or indeed much in the way of wordage just pictures i have raved about am radio s builds before and the cognoscenti of second life should already be familiar with his many marvellous creations however for those of you who don t know his work or who don t stay close enough to these things and that includes me it is worth noting that mr radio s latest creations are available for inspection spread across 3 sims welsh lakes is a good starting point you will find many things to marvel at the multiple inter connected klein bottles have given way to well go and find out and the refuge and expansion seems to have expanded too with the addition of a fine flying machine here s the piccies take a look and then go visit if you ve not seen am s work before i hope you like i d be amazed if you don t posted by timbo at 00 39 2 comments labels am radio interesting places friday 17 october 2008 figment island occasionally i stumble upon sims that have been happily or quietly going about their business for ages i found tonight s sim to be a difficult one to judge part of the difficulty is that this is not a european or american sim and so may not have generated much hoopla in the western blogs in fact a little light googling reveals that the sim is a good 18 months old odd that it has been knocking around for so long yet i have not stumbled upon any actual reviews of the place so where am i talking about i guess the title of this post rather gives the game away figment island the island belongs not unreasonably to a company called figment who are based in singapore they describe themselves as asia s first full integrated virtual world marketing communications agency and while i get the gist this still sounds like it was dreamt up during a particularly fruitful workshop on buzzword generation just to add another dollop of snottiness i would also question their effectiveness in virtual world marketing communications if i can find so few mentions of their existence but that is perhaps below the belt as we shall see what they have on their island is actually rather good at least i think so so what s on the island then it is easiest viewed as being split into 3 zones in order of preference the art gallery the company area and the other bit my favourite and i daresay it will be yours too is getsmart this is a virtual world art gallery by ngee ann secondary school i am not sure about the validity of a secondary school on the adult grid maybe that s down to a definition of secondary but this place is great the accompanying notecard tells me students and teachers art works are featured here in this gallery students are taken through thinking processes using thinking routines that are adopted from artful thinking a model developed by project zero harvard university through this we hope students thinking dispositions are developed and deepened you can pick up a hud that will help you with your thinking processes but the gallery tho small was fun to walk through i particularly enjoyed the what 3d charcoal sketch at the end the experience is not really designed with the solo visitor in mind but rather it should be a small group activity mentored or mediated albeit with a light touch once through the gallery you are led to a relaxing seating area where you can discuss the works or so i deduced most of my pictures are of this getsmart area floating above the sim is the second of the 3 zones this is figment s space and is best described as a giant snowflake lying on top of an immense floating tree well it is second life after all the various arms of the snowflake offer different facilities such as meeting areas or orientation the content is crisp well textured and has a nice open aspect to it the third zone is perhaps the least successful and may be incomplete this is leased to ascendas a l eading provider of business space solutions to promote neuros immunos a biomedical research building the accompanying notecard explains strategically located within biopolis at one north asia s home for biomedical sciences the seven storey neuros immunos offer fully infrastructured laboratory space and a conducive research environment that makes it the choice location for a quality biomedical r d centre there is a faithful reproduction of the facade of the building but no actual way in the point ummm i m not at all clear on that one i suppose it does offer potential overseas clients a 3d panoramic view but is that really enough well that s the sim so far not a huge amount to show for a company that has been doing virtual worlds stuff for well over a year now unless there s a slew of successful sims that i know nothing about quite likely if this is the case don t hide them away let s get to see them in the meantime you can see my pictures posted by timbo at 23 00 0 comments labels art figment singapore thursday 16 october 2008 avastar and finally i hope my tales of the travails of the avastar haven t left you snoring because i have just one more update for you well actually it s two updates or rather insights the first comes from blogger and second life entrepreneur ari blackthorne who left the following slightly re jigged by me as a comment on my earlier post i thought it rated promotion from the minor league of comments to the full blog itself the avastar s first problems began when they moved away from a real published ezine that looked and felt like a real tabloid off to the blog format i paid big bucks for full page ads in the ezine something to the tune of 200 worth of l a month when asked to renew my ads on their blog i refused i didn t like the blog format i wanted my advertisements in world and they wouldn t show the new demographics there are too many other good blogs to advertise on when they went blog i suspect advertising dropped dramatically no money income drop the writers who were paid back when it was an ezone if i remember correctly no writers no content no readership no demographics to show advertisers no advertising kaput it s that simple the second insight comes from a former writer for the avastar who would prefer to remain anonymous it seems that shortly after the changeover from pdf to blog at one of their regular staff meetings the writers were simply told that henceforth they would no longer be paid for their work of course they could and presumably should continue to write but for free at this point all the writers who had effectively been made redundant by this move quit working no writers no content meanwhile as already noted in the earlier post the reader generated content failed to materialise either hence the death of the avastar an interesting and in my view at least worthwhile experiment that ultimately failed do you have a different perspective posted by timbo at 15 27 1 comments labels avastar comment opinion avastar some more thoughts following my last post about the demise of the avastar i thought i would root a little further so i took a look at the range of recent articles available at the avastar i was a little surprised to find it was not the vibrant information packed newsfest i had been expecting there was just a trickle of posts and comments far fewer as far as i could tell than would be found on the average second life blog like this one supposedly the most popular article is too many girls are really guys posted back in may 2008 this also boasted the most recent comment on september 28th 2008 about 3 weeks ago more worryingly aside from the article announcing their demise there have been just 3 articles posted in october while september was busier with over 20 articles this can hardly be called vibrant did their focus shift elsewhere away from second life the avastar did branch into other areas of the metaverse but articles on kaneva there and entropia are very few and far between accounting for maybe 3 or 4 a month combined no news about these worlds has been posted in october so to sum up it seems that while many of us had heard of the avastar and enjoyed reading it the actual content generation fell away over time i don t think the move away from pdf helped since that at least gave you the feel and heft of a real newspaper you could see the content because it was all laid out before you the website by contrast served to conceal the drop in content i have to confess i was approached to write for the travel section of the website some time ago but declined the invitation while i obviously write this blog for free i don t event take google ads i would expect a small something for writing in a more professional capacity perhaps others took the same view i would conclude then that at least a major contributory factor in its closure was simply lack of content posted by timbo at 08 26 3 comments labels opinion wednesday 15 october 2008 avastar ave ad enough thanks to my chum veejay for alerting me to this through his blog over at mindblizzard it seems that the avastar the popular second life newspaper think red top rather than broadsheet has decided to wind up its operations the full announcement is here but the gist is that they are shutting up shop since and i quote the avastar has now completed its virtual mission i confess i was not an avid reader but i did like to check it out from time to time and found it had a good range of articles while also informing me of events and new sims while i will not be donning sackcloth and ashes i am sorry to see this popular paper disappearing i think second life will be poorer as a result as well as the paper largely written by the second life residents ther...
|
