Yeah Yeah Get a BLOG!

I posted this to Prokofy's latest BLOG entry in response to the comment "we live in a medieval land, with a distant and disinterested king" - unnamed in accordance with forum rules.

We live in a convention hall. That's what Second Life amounts to after all, one giant, perpetual virtual world convention featuring long-term sessions that support attendees interested in using such a platform to operate businesses, teach, produce 3D graphical environments (there's a whole subset of sessions about, and examples of, 3D graphics), aruge politics (including religion), or build and play games. Even the blingy homemakers are just dedicated fans massing together to celebrate the only thing they have in common, Second Life itself.

Thus the Lindens operate is just as they would a convention. For all the talk of compelling community, innovative collaboration, and worldly nationalism, in the end, session definitions, facilitator selection, security measures, feature developments, every aspect of Second Life functions under the convention template because that's what the Lindens know and understand.

It's reposted here for you to rip to shreds. Enjoy!

Well, it's not a convention, is it? Do the organisers of conventions let people basically start whatever sessions they want, let people set up stalls whenever they feel like it, and not really know what's going on in their convention? No, at least not in the ones I've ever attended, though levels of organisation vary. And conventions have a common theme outside of the convention. The theme of the convention can't be "the convention itself".

I'm not really sure what you're trying to say with this metaphor but I think it needs work....

Maybe its more of a giant medevial faire.

Long live King Philip!!!

Dream:

Well, as long as we are trucking over things from other blogs, here is a good place for me to put the dream I had, which I posted in www.secondcitizen.com, especially since I had thought about putting it on the SL forums in the first place! But didn't, as one of the topics hadn't been brought up here yet.

This dream exemplifies the feelings I've had above, such as distance, which I had put in yet another blog, which occasioned Khamon's response:

---------------------

OK, I dreamed this last night, and it's the first time I remember ever dreaming about SL.

It mixes up SL life with real life, and involves two issues - the Town Halls and the newly announced so-called Advisory Committee. (Mind you, I wasn't at the actual Town Hall in game yesterday.)

In the dream, I was in this bus/van type thing - a sort of smaller version of the sort of van politicians make cross-country trips in, with Phillip, several other Lindens, and a few people I didn't know.

We were going to a Town Hall meeting. I was with them because I had been chosen as part of the as yet unannounced Advisory Committee, thus I had special entry to travel around SL in this van with them, though I wasn't sure at that point why.

(We were all our real people selves in this dream, but it was taking place in SL, which was also real, and was full of everyone as real people.)

Now - the van was traveling to a Town Hall, and Philip would speak at the Town Hall - but without leaving the van. We would all stay inside the van, and he would talk to the people in the Town Hall - who were standing around outside the van - via a microphone.

We inside the van could hear the response of the crowd to everything, but there was still the van between us and them, and everything had to go back and forth through the microphone. They could not hear us, though. Philip and the rest of us would not come out of the van once we got to the Town Hall.

OK - so we get to the Town Hall. Inside the van, there is a sort of party atmosphere with Philip, a number of other Lindens, people running the mikes and so forth, and several people I didn't know, but I assumed a couple were like me, and had just been invited to go along for the ride for some reason. Not sure why I was there, I stayed pretty quite through the whole thing. People were chatting in the van, but no one outside could hear us.

Philip gives a little speech and then talks to the residents - well, he talks to the residents, but only to some of them, the ones who send in questions, and through that microphone thingie setup. Being in the van, though, I can hear everything. We can hear the crowd responding to the things he says, from outside, cheering this and that - though the questions only come in through this special microphone, and they can't hear what we are saying in the van.

Philip is in a pretty good mood, and at one point, he announces that there is a new program in which some residents will be chosen to be special residents. The chosen ones will get to come to San Francisco, and will sit forevermore on a special advisory board and will be able to help shape SL with their advice.

He makes this announcement, and the crowd outside grows silent. No cheers. No nothing. Everyone in the van is looking at each other like, what gives? How come they aren't cheering? Philip says another something or other into the mike.

Then this quiet, small-boned, slender blonde woman speaks up for the first time. "Philip," she says gently, "maybe you had better mention . . ." - -and I forget what she said to mention, but it was something everyone would definitely like. She turns out to be Philip's wife. So he does, and things go on like normal.

After the Town Hall, they asked me what I thought. I said I thought it wasn't a good idea to have these residents singled out for special favors. Even though I had already been, in being invited to be in the van, and I said I thought that was a bad idea, too.

-----------------

coco

I presume you are referring to Morse Dillon, right?

Backward, Suez, yes All Hail King Morse!

Coco, I also dreamed just last week that I sailed in my little green boat from Taber into the harbour and docked at Kowloon. Then I woke up. The transition was smooth as silk; so I didn't realize until later in the day that the dream had been in both worlds.

Ordinal, you are correct, I misspoke. Second Life is not a convention focused on Second Life, but a perpetual virtual world convention. The analogy holds with the caveat that there is no scarcity in Second Life. Real world conventions can't let just any group host a session because there is limited space and time. Those restrictions don't apply inworld. Groups are only restricted by the lack of supportive features which are provided solely by the organizers.

Off topic, the lack of scarcity is also the reason that Second Life can never function as a collective wora'uld. Politics and economy and business all depend on realistic limits. Land and money can be readily supplied blah blah back on topic.

What I've been trying to accomplish, over the past few years, is an understanding of how the Lindens think through decisions that impact the project. Convention planning and execution is the closest parallel I've seen to date.