Disqus - Latest Comments for vwestland

Re: A Serious Second Life for B-Schools—No ‘Big Bird’ Avatars Allowed

Valiant Westland — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:57:41 -0000

The title of this article points highlights one of the reasons Avaya's
virtual world offering will continue to fail. People don't want to be
CLONES! Second Life, Open Sim, upcoming Virtual Worlds and even popular video games allow people to customize their avatar! The combination of no personalization to speak of and overall crude graphics are to visual nails in the Avaya VW coffin.

I've worked in, "lived" in, taken and given classes in and
explored all of the major and many of the minor Virtual World platforms
developed to date. The Avaya platform is clunky and unfriendly by comparison.

Second Life WAS the darling of the educational community, until Linden Lab started charging them standard prices for the simulator services they consumed. When the teachers didn't get their discount, they fled. How is Avaya going to counteract this entitlement mentality?

The bottom line is; Avaya's Virtual World offering is week, uncompetitive and doesn't meat the core needs (personalization) of digital natives or those who have any existing Virtual World experience. I predict the product platform will be completely dead within 12 months, especially if Microsoft or Google releases their own Integrated, customizable, Virtual World alternative!

Re: How Close is 3D Immersion in SL?

Valiant Westland — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:56:27 -0000

My office workstation consists of my laptop and two flanking 42" LCD displays on either side. I frequently put SL up on an even larger LCD in my family room or a projector in a conference room. Seeing Avatars full-size, definitely increases the immersion effect.

The idea of a Kinect-enabled, 3d-visor viewed Virtual World experience is very attractive. Using an environment like Second Life, with this type of interface, for virtual prototyping or other hands-on collaborative tasks, has tremendous potential. Not to mention the broader potential that increased immersion offers for every other Virtual World activity.

With respect to Second Life specifically, I would like to see Linden Lab simply support multiple monitors. As it stands, no matter how many monitors you have, you are limited to viewing your entire SL experience on just one. The 3rd-party Viewer developer that is first to market with a viewer that supports multiple monitors would score a huge win with lots of users!

Re: NANCE Brody: It’s Okay To Be You

Valiant Westland — Sat, 05 May 2012 22:41:53 -0000

I've been a huge fan of Nance's for awhile now. She's one of the most genuinely talented performers in SL and has a terrific personality to match. I encourage anyone looking for live music in SL to come to one of Nance's performances. You won't be disappointed!

Re: New Linden policy may hurt viewer development

Valiant Westland — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:33:34 -0000

Customer Service, Innovation & Value, not threatening developers is how LL should compete! "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin (LL), the more star systems (Grids) will slip through your fingers." ― Princess Leia

Re: Second Life Enterprise was a costly mistake

Valiant Westland — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:41:52 -0000

While an "Open Source" product like #OpenSim might be a superior solution to the #EPICFAIL that was Second Life Enterprise; an "Enterprise-grade" channel is the key!

Like you Chris, I had high hopes for the Second Life Enterprise platform. I came to Second Life hoping to find a radical, game (no pun intended) changing collaborative platform I could build profitable, next generation solutions on.

Instead, I discovered tremendous potential, controlled and hindered by a Geeky, OpenSource-oriented, self-absorbed (Phillip) bunch of social activist programmers, who knew ZERO about building an effective Channel of independent Developers, Consultants and VARs. LL was/is also completely clueless about how to position / market their product; insisting on targeting complex, high-expectation Enterprise Clients or penniless consumers, when a huge SMB market could be captured; by a motivated bunch of channel evangelists.

I don't share the love of OpenSource software that some do. What I want is a Second Life or similar platform that has a 1-3 user version that runs on my own system (PC or Mac... sorry, Linux doesn't have the market share) or in the Cloud (ala www.kitely.com) and is connected to a master Virtual Commerce and Communication Grid in the Cloud, that allows me to securely "travel," share and sell virtual goods, grid-wide.

I'm still waiting....

Re: Metaverse Music Expo 2012

Valiant Westland — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:01:21 -0000

Looks like a great lineup of SL Music talent. I'm looking forward to dropping by and catching some of the acts!

Re: OpenSim exceeds Second Life private regions

Valiant Westland — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:35:30 -0000

"This could be an indication that there are only so many avatars that people are willing to maintain."

And for me and any typical business person, who are the ONLY people who will ultimately make Virtual Worlds of any type, on any platform, a viable business tool, that number is exactly ONE (1). Actually, I'm willing to maintain more than one, but only if the Avatars (My Personal Identity / Brand) and all the digital content I've purchased for them is fully portable between platforms.

To date, Kitely demonstrates the greatest promise for easily moving between different "worlds" with a single identity. This type of seamless transit is difficult to achieve between grids, due to immature technology and the political challenges associated with multiple Open Sim grid operators, many of whom are fiercely territorial and lack the necessary technical skills and/or business sense, to integrate their disparate systems.

Re: Rivers Run Red leaves Second Life for Kitely, Unity

Valiant Westland — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:30:13 -0000

I think the departure of Rivers Run Red is
another nail in the slowly closing coffin of Second Life and Linden Lab.
The Lab botched their foray into business and education, by failing to
deploy and integrate tools for mainstream business and education and
instead, opted to try and woo Fortune 500 Corps who already had superior
collaboration tools in place.Linden Lab has also #FAIL ed to create a VAR
program or engage the reseller channel, to help them promote, expand and
integrate the Second Life platform. Is anyone surprised businesses are
moving towards platforms and providers who listen to their needs and
provide innovative and cost effective Virtual World solutions as
alternatives to Second Life?

Re: It’s time to move all grids south

Valiant Westland — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:21:45 -0000

If we started insisting on RW verified user identities and hanging content thieves live on the Internet, our IP theft issues would rapidly diminish to near zero! Of course all the gender confused, pedophiles and other deviants would have a fit, but if that's the price you have to pay, you just need to decide what's more important.

Re: Avatar Rape

Valiant Westland — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:15:06 -0000

Like Gypsiekate, and Tateru Nino, I have spent a significant amount of time in Second Life during the past two years. During that time I have witnessed naked avatars, most of whom were either new users experiencing "wardrobe malfunctions" or juvenile individuals (griefers), who act up.out by flashing themselves. Not one of the hundreds of people I know in Second Life has ever reported being "raped" or knowing anyone who feels they have been.Unfortunately, the world contains its fair share of assholes. No amount of hand wringing, regulation or censorship is going to solve the problem. If someone tries to assault you in real life, shoot them! If someone hassles you in Second Life, mute them. If it happens on your own virtual property, ban them! If you don't feel comfortable doing these things yourself, either A) Don't expose yourself to situations where they can occur or B) Hang out with people who are ready, able and willing to do it for you!ps. There is still a significant percentage of people, myself being one, who take great pleasure in defending the innocent and kicking the shit out of assholes, be they real or virtual! Remember, Second Life is 100% consensual and optional. If you don't like the way someone is behaving or the environment you find yourself in, leave!

Re: TWILIGHT Goes MMO This Fall

Valiant Westland — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:11:41 -0000

Vampire stories are supposed to be textured in rich dark velvety tones and at least a minimal nod to the gothic antiquity of the bloodlines roots. Recreating this feeling in the lego-people environment of Habbo is FAIL.

The Avatars of Habbo are about as visually interesting and "dark" as a Precious Moments figurine. Even young children know the difference between this "Lego-Land" and the high quality digital characters (Avatars) of their favorite video games. By the time they are old enough to appreciate the Twilight story, their aesthetic tastes are 15 years beyond the primitive early 80's video game like interface of Habbo.

If you're over 18 and want to hang out with some "real" vampires avatars, you need to check out Second Life (www.secondlife.com). Here you will find the richly-textured vampire world you love. Be a vampire, choose your appearance, clothing and even wings. Entertain, dance, socialize and "hunt," and even fly with others of your bloodline. You can even make your avatar look like your favorite Twilight character or buy/build recreations of where they live!

The bottom line is: www.secondlife.com is the place for "real" vampire / Twilight fun. Habbo simply "sucks!"

http://theslrevolution.word...

Re: The CTO wore drag

Valiant Westland — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:05:58 -0000

Although a discussion on the ethics of gender identity is not the main purpose of this post, the topic of gender policies raises important questions for the SL community. Is there ever a situation where portraying oneself as a different gender is unethical?

Much of the experiential "data" (opinion) on gender switching in virtual world business settings, such as that collected by IBM, was collected during the bleeding-edge phase of virtual world adoption, when everyone involved was acutely aware of the socially avaunt garde nature of the virtual community. These days are over. Mainstream businesses utilizing virtual world tools will NOT tolerate behaviors that are going to distract or potentially offend their clients or partners.

Some people may not like this and it may irritate the hell out of those who see virtual worlds as a tool to further their social agendas, but the fact remains; The vast majority of companies are as likely to support cross-dressing virtual employees as they are to hire the leading "ladies" of Too Wong Foo to represent them at their next trade show!

Excerpted/Related Blog Post - Mutatio Vox Populi (Changing the Voice of the People) - http://theslrevolution.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/m...

Re: Race for a Web viewer is on

Valiant Westland — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:03:20 -0000

I predict the 3Di Virtual World Web Plug-in is going to usher in a Tsunami of Virtual World adoption! I believe it also represents the single greatest competitive threat to Linden Lab's Nebraska offering.

Although it is unlikely serious Virtual World users / "publishers" will adopt embedded technology as a replacement for a dedicated client anytime soon, it's going to be a different story with corporate and casual users alike. Corporate clients who have been deterred by the onerous implementation and support challenges associated with dedicated VW client software will see a slip-streamed plug-in as a solution for Intraworld (Intranet + Virtual World) as well as customer-facing deployments.

Since most people are already comfortable downloading plug-ins like Flash for browsers, the barrier ("cost of entry") to Virtual Worlds will be significantly reduced. The biggest challenge facing plug-in adoption will be server capacity. Any web site hosting a virtual world destination, risks crashing the target sim with a flood of web-directed plug-in-enabled visitors. The "perfect storm" for the adoption of browser-based (plug-in) 3D/Virtual World clients will happen when the plug-ins are simple to install and point to servers that can host multiple hundreds or even thousands of simultaneous connections.

Despite the 3Di announcement, the dream of having a ubiquitous, industry standard web interface for virtual worlds remains just that, a dream. My hope is that this announcement puts the competitive spurs to Linden Lab, Mozilla, Microsoft, OpenSim and the rest of the Virtual World industry, to develop and support this technology.

Re: Confirmed: Second Life, online adult games to banned outright in Australia

Valiant Westland — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:29:10 -0000

I invite all Australian SL users to add me as a friend on Plurk, where I would be glad to discuss this topic further and assist you in any way I can to reverse this travesty of Freedom. http://www.plurk.com/VWestl...

Re: Confirmed: Second Life, online adult games to banned outright in Australia

Valiant Westland — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:28:07 -0000

Australia's ban of Second Life and other similar sites sets a dangerous precedent that should strike fear into the hearts of free people everywhere. A "free" country that has a "Minister for Censorship!?" This is something we might expect from China, North Korea or Iran, but Australia!? The Nazis would be so proud!

Those who call themselves "Christians" or "Moral," might see this as a "victory" over "evil." But for them, as well as all who applaud this travesty of freedom I will quote Benjamin Franklin, who said:

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

It appears the people of Australia are still prisoners, exiled as were their forefathers and permitted only the "freedoms" their masters deem fit. It will be interesting to see if they accept this Orwellian destiny or rise up and demand the freedoms so many of them have given their blood to defend around the world.

As for Second Life (SL) and its "danger" as a source of adult content; SL is no more or less dangerous than the rest of the Internet. Those who wish to can find virtually anything they want on the Internet, good, bad or indifferent.

It should be up to adults and parents, not a "Nanny State," to take the steps necessary to limit exposure to content they deem inappropriate for themselves or their children. This can be done at the individual PC or user level.

By banning access to Second Life, the Australian government is not only cutting off access to "adult" content, but also art, music, education and collaboration opportunities that have the potential to enlighten, inspire and improve the lives of its citizens, young and old alike. If the government of Australia succeeds in censoring SL from their citizens, those of us who work, learn and yes "play" in Second Life will miss the tremendous spirit and contributions our Australian brothers and sisters make to SL everyday.

I close with a quote from another of our (American) Founding Fathers, that I hope will be taken to heart by all those who love freedom in Australia and around the world:

""The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson

Re: Hacker destroys OpenSim regions

Valiant Westland — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:07:54 -0000

This is a perfect example of what happens when you approach IT security with a "Fan Boy" mentality. I'm sure many of the people affected thought... "I'm running Linux, so I'm "Safe"" NOT! This is a painful lesson that hopefully reverberates through both the Virtual World, Linux and Open Source communities. Hopefully, it will cause people, regardless of the OS Platform they choose, to validate the security of their OS and all of their software infrastructure and make sure they have a backup and disaster recovery plan that is sufficient to prevent catastrophic data loss and/or downtime!

Re: Looking for a virtual place for my online community: Metaplace

Valiant Westland — Sun, 17 May 2009 10:52:31 -0000

I've been a part of the Metaplace Beta for months. Honestly, all of the cartoonish, 2D-esque, pseudo-anime-inspired 3D Virtual Worlds leave me cold. They remind me of being trapped inside a Mario or Pokemon game.

I see this and other similar virtual worlds appealing only to adolescents, tweens or a limited group of adults who are fans of the anime genre. I see absolutely no use for business, except of course those businesses that are selling virtual goods to the users this type of environment attracts.

Re: Guest editorial: How I became a virtual world believer

Valiant Westland — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:48:42 -0000

I'm glad to see you have become a fellow believer Rita (Eureka). I first signed up for Second Life in 2006 and quickly dismissed it as "not ready for prime time.)

A little over a year ago I came back, looking for a virtual prototyping environment for a a couple of projects I was working on. I've been an enthusiastic citizen of Second Life ever since and am meeting with increasing success, introducing it as a collaboration, prototyping and training environment for "Real World" business.

My recent attendance at Washington State Universities Virtual Journalism Summit convinced me that the tide is truly turning for virtual worlds like Second Life. I predict that by this time next year, use of Virtual Worlds for business will grow at least 150%-300%.

See you "in-world!" Valiant - http://plurk.com/VWestland/...

Re: [Angel of Chaos]

Valiant Westland — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:29:22 -0000

I loved this video. It was cool to imagine the two children standing on opposite sides of displays that were thousands of miles apart. I was also struck by the reduction in the number of people... My immediate reaction to that was also positive.

As someone who loved the tech of "The Minority Report" and an Uber Geek, I was glad to see the creative use of technology embedded in the surrounding environment. I would much rather gesture and use voice commands than have to use a rigid device like a keyboard or mouse. I also think getting rid of "Interface Islands" and common data exchange is a worthy goal.

If you look closely, you will notice that the "nonsensical" digital paper is actually a single page that can be reconfigured by "folding," to display information in multiple layouts. This single invention, if "perfected," could have a profound positive impact on both how we use information as well as natural resources. Just think of how many trees this could save and the energy savings associated with paper production, shipment, collection, disposal and even recycling!

I'm an optimist and look forward to using many of the technologies presented within my lifetime. I hope this video is show to every 5th - 9th grader in the world, to encourage them to pursue science and technology as a career field.

Re: Mashable on Tumblr - soupsoup: realreason: Timed with today’s...

Valiant Westland — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:30:03 -0000

What a totally stupid waste of taxpayer money. This is the kind of stuff that gives local government a bad name.

Re: Is Twitter vs Plurk a repeat of Myspace vs Facebook?

Valiant Westland — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:00:20 -0000

Use Multiple Social Networking Tools To Expand Your Brand Exposure

The success / failure of any social networking tool depends on both its qualities (ease of use, usefulness, integration tools, etc.) as well as the buzz it is able to generate among Internet users.

Some tools like MySpace, even though they are functionally less appealing then their competitors (Facebook), continue to survive because they have reached a critical mass of users who find it difficult to "defect" to another platform. Humans by nature are resistant to change, especially when there is a potentially negative social stigma associated with doing so.

Some users are savvy enough to realize that different platforms also cater to different demographics and maintain a presence on more than one, to capture the widest possible audience for their business or personal brand. Depending on how serious you are about building your brand, users should participate in any network that broadens their reach.

Using tools like www.ping.fm , RSS feeds and each networks own integration tools/APIs, is a smart way to minimize the amount of time it takes to keep all your networks updated/fresh. If you treat it as a branding/marketing activity and not your "life" it takes relatively little time.

As Internet-connected cell phones like the iPhone, Blackberry an GPhone continue to proliferate, the number of "always on" social networkers will continue to climb rapidly. Those who want to take advantage of this phenomenon would be wise to not dismiss any social network, new or established, that has active members that you want to reach with your brand.

Re: Home opens its doors for the PS3

Valiant Westland — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 11:02:43 -0000

It will be interesting to see how a closed environment, that amounts to a "lobby/lounge" for the connected gaming environment does... My guess is that it will wind up being a ghost town.

Most "hard core" gamers do their socializing while they game... talking/chatting about the game, but also about whatever at the same time. For them, sitting around a static environment is just not going to happen.

Those who are interested in social interaction more than gaming, may get introduced to it via the PS3 platform, but will soon crave the more immersive and rich experience offered by VW environments like Second Life.

http://www.plurk.com/VWestland

Re: Playstation Crushes Second Life with Superior Platform

Valiant Westland — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:06:13 -0000

It will be interesting to see how a closed environment, that amounts to a "lobby/lounge" for the connected gaming environment does... My guess is that it will wind up being a ghost town.