• RaiJuku city slow loading and errors
• Friends' names delay in appearing green

vSide is all about parties and events!

New vSide Event Calendar
The vSide Event Calendar is back and it's kick-ass. Now it's easier than ever to find out just when and where the next celebrity event, radio show, or vSide tour will be. Don't miss out on the next blowout party just because you didn't know!

Now you can add your own events to the vSide Event Calendar and let everyone know where the next party's at! A birthday party at the club? A theme party at your apartment? You set up the deets, invite everyone you know, and have your guests RSVP on your event posting.

vSide Beta 5b Q&A

Common vSide Beta 5b Questions

Where is the vSide Event calendar?
Get to the vSide Event Calendar any time from the Events link at the top of vSide.com. You can also use this handy dandy easy-to-remember web address: http://www.vside.com/go/events .

How do I add my own event to the vSide Event calendar?
Adding your own event is a snap! Simply hit the "Create Event" button on the vSide Event Calendar or on your profile's My Events section. Fill out the details of your event and submit it. Remember, all dates and times are in vSide (Pacific) time!

Where can I find more info about the new vSide Event Calendar?
You can get more info about Events and the Calendar on the vSide Music and Events FAQ.

What's New in vSide Beta 5

vBux By Mail, exclusive StarStyle fashions and Degrassi posters await you in vSide!

OMG no way! vBux By Mail
No credit card? No problem! Now you can get vBux with cash, check, or money order with vBux By Mail. Here's how (follow the directions carefully!).
Limited edition vSide goodies
Starting very soon, brand-new limited edition clothes and gear will go on sale in Drezz and Kong stores in LaGenoaAires. Only a very small handful of each item will be available, and once they're gone they're gone for good. Keep an extra eye out for announcements about when these very special goodies will be up for grabs!

Some more Degrassi love for you
Degrassi star rocks it on the mic! Hit up the new listening stations at The DOT Grill in LGA for an exclusive preview of Cassie Steele's not-yet-released album. You'll also hear great music from Degrassi from artists like Jackalope, Justin Hines, and Melissa McClelland.

Relive Degrassi Spirit Week with posters designed by our own vSiders Felixamberly, margarethe, and Vandetta. Get them for your DOT Dorm now!

Paris in StarStyle
Diamond necklace and watch, a classy ballet top, finished with a Juicy Couture fluffy bag and contoured belt. That's hot! Get your shopping on for an outfit Paris Hilton would flaunt at StarStyle in LGA.

Improved Friends list display
See what cities and apartments you friends are at in a flash with the new location display on your Friends list. Friends who are idle/away are now dimmmed out!

More of your favorite outfits
Are six saved outfits in your closet not enough? Well now we've doubled the amount of clothing and accessory combos you can save to 12! And if that's not enough, we've given you a small army of Mini-Mes to preview what you've saved.

Other stuff...

• Some new clothes, furniture, and dances
• All new vSiders get their own apartment upon registration.
• New PocketMOTO clothing line at Kong in LGA.
• New audio stream for Breaks lovers on the second floor of LGA's DDD club.
• New resizable and full-window snapshot features in the Camera tool. Send pics to your vSide profile!
• New whisper away message auto-reply from vSiders who are idle.
• Coming soon, vSider-created Tyra virtual tees for sale
• Some surprises...

vSide Beta 5 Q&A

Common vSide Beta 5 Questions

I'm not a new vSider but I don't have an apartment yet. Can I get one for free?
Have you been with us for a while but still don't have a place to call your own? Get an apartment for barely any dough at NV 255 Lofts in NV or The DOT Dorms in LGA. ]]> http://virtualnetworking.wordpress.com/?p=13 Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:57:51 +0000 virtualnetworking http://virtualnetworking.wordpress.com/?p=13

What's New in vSide Beta 4

Something big is coming to vSide:

vSide welcomes Degrassi
Award-winning series Degrassi: The Next Generation has made vSide their new virtual home online at The DOT Grill in LaGenoaAires. Hang out at The DOT Grill; meet, chat, and dance with other Degrassi fans!

Get your own Degrassi DOT Dorm apartment
A vSide exclusive! Above The DOT Grill are Degrassi's DOT Dorms. Deck out your very own pad/apartment in the Degrassi virtual world with new furniture, accessories and posters of your favorite cast members. Afterwards, host the ultimate Degrassi party with your friends, new and old -- you'll never know who will show up!

Show off your brain for vPoints Yep, you asked for it, and now we have even more ways to earn vPoints in vSide. Find Bob, Terri, or DJLarsBerg bots and whisper to them (double-click on) to flex your synapses for a trivia challenge! Interactive bots have exclamation points over their heads -- there may be other bot surprises in store for you across vSide.

New vSide Live Event stream
vRL, Time Machine, and more delivered right to your own crib. No way! Now it's even easier to throw the hottest vSide live event parties with the dedicated vSide Event music stream. Find it in the Audio/Video Panel in the Space button in your apartment.
Other stuff...

• New clothes in 121 for the guys, as well as new gear in Gothzilla and the shop at The DOT Grill
• More free stuff in the apartments including a bed. No more sleeping standing up!
• Some new dances

vSide Beta 4 Q&A

Common vSide Beta 4 Questions

Where did Mood selection go?
Are you confident, upbeat, relaxed, or blue? Let people know by selecting your Mood! Mood selection has moved over to the Actions panel in the Me button or by pressing F4.

What happened to the "Kick" option in my apartment?
Is someone buggin' or are you not feelin' the company at your place? You have the control with the Block (formerly "Kick") option in your pad. Simply right-click on any person and choose "Block from space" or type /block <user name>. Wanna let them back in? Choose "unBlock from space" or type /unblock <user name>.

What happened to my apartment layout?
Pardon our mess! During the Beta 4 upgrade, some apartment layouts were reverted to their state from April 14th. If you bought any apartment furniture since then, fear not! All of your new goodies that are not placed are in your storage, but some things may have been moved around your pad.

Don't wait, get vSide Beta 4 now!

• vSide server-side fixes
• Apartment teleportation, music, furniture, and access permissions fixes
• Random avatar invisibility fix
• vSide.com improvements
• Web user profile enhancements
• New vSide Macintosh incremental update installer (yay smaller downloads)

What's New in vSide Beta 3

There is so much new stuff in Beta 3 we hardly know where to begin. This is by far the biggest release of vSide ever!

Buy stuff with your points
That's right, you asked for it, and you got it. We've replaced Respekt with a new kind of currency called vPoints. You earn vPoints the same ways you earned Respekt, except vPoints can be SPENT ON VIRTUAL GOODS. Along with the new points system comes an improved shopping experience.

Own your own apartment
That's right, you can finally have your very own apartment with your own furniture and style. You can paint the walls, buy and lay out furniture, invite your friends over, and throw a hot party. Oh yeah, we don't just have apartments, there are yachts for sale as well.

Watch YouTube
Now you can watch your favorite YouTube videos right in your apartment. An unlimited supply of video goodness for you and your friends to enjoy. You can also make YouTube playlists to create the soundtrack for your next party.

All new website and profiles
We've redone the vSide website from top to bottom and it's jam packed with new features like cool new profiles and a fresh new look. More web goodies are on their way too!

The Gateway
New vSiders will now start in the Gateway, a small tutorial area where they are taught the basics of how to use vSide. The Gateway is only open for new users.

Rock out on the guitar
Check out the new guitar available only in apartments. You can jam with your friends or play along with the music.

Gifts to you from vSide
As a special Thank You to everyone who has supported vSide as we grow, we have gifted limited edition class rings to everyone registered before Beta 3. Also, as an extra Thank You, everyone who has ever purchased Creds in the past has been gifted with a limited edition purse (for the ladies) and limited edition necklace (for the gents).

Other stuff...

• Creds are now known as vBux, and ya'll who had them before now have 10x more than you had in Beta 2.
• There's now an in-world camera connected to a photo gallery on your profile. Tools->Camera. Dope!
• There is now a real-time radar that shows you an overhead map of the city and where your friends are. Tools -> Radar. Hell yeah!
• You can now resize the vSide window. Yup, that's right. Grab the lower right hand corner and drag.
• There is a new settings panel that's easier to use with a few more options. The best addition is the ability to disable the profanity filter. Holy #@!%@%@ @#!# really? Yep.
• Apartment owners can have and grant microphones. SAY WHAT? For sure.
• The button bar has been reworked into menus to make it easier to learn for new vSiders.
• There's a new Goth clothing store in RaiJuku called GOTHZILLA.
• There's a ton of new dances.

vSide Beta 3 Q&A

Common vSide Beta 3 Questions

What happened to Creds?
Creds are now vBux on vSide. There are 100 vBux to 1 US Dollar. All Creds have been converted to vBux as 1 Cred to 10 vBux (10 Creds were 1 US Dollar). This means if you had 2 Creds in your account before vSide Beta 3, you now have 20 vBux.

What happened to Respekt?
Respekt scores have been converted, using a super secret bunny forumula, to vPoints. vPoints are a type of currency you can earn by hanging out in vSide. The more time you spend on vSide, the more vPoints you can earn!

What happened to the Event Calendar?
For the short-term, events will be announced on the vSide Events Forum.

What's up with the keyboard shortcuts?
Some keyboard short cuts for the button bar have been moved around. New keyboard shortcuts include:

F1 - toggle Radar
F4 - toggle Emote and Dance panel
F7 - toggle Camera view

What happened to giving and receiving flowers?
The vSide florist is taking a break, so no new flowers can be given or received. Flowers will be back some day!
 

Get vSide Beta 3!

Fixed

• "Ignore" feature no longer sends notification to the person you are ignoring.
• Improvement for some graphics cards running on Windows Vista.
• Other miscellaneous fixes.

Fixed

• vSide Beta 2b is updated for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
• Screenshots directory is preserved during vSide software updates
• Other miscellaneous fixes

Hey vSiders. We are constantly upgrading all the time, trying to make vSide the best experience it can be for you guys.

Private Spaces
Now you can customize the party apartments. Like a virtual "trading spaces" you can go in and redesign the apartments and lofts to reflect your signature style. Not to mention that there even more apartments to choose from.

Also, starting next year you will actually be able to reside in your very own apartment. Just try not to wake the neighbors.

So what are you waiting for? In the modified words of Tim Gunn, "Make it work for you."

Bands Get A Permanent Place to Crash
Kenna and The All-American Rejects are the first bands to have permanent residencies in the Warehouse Lofts in NewVenezia. See how two of your favorite artists deck out their crib when they're not on the tour bus. Not to mention: Stay tuned for lots of new bands dropping into vSide in the coming weeks

Respekt Yourself
First, for those of you who aren't already familiar, Respekt is the term for gaining status in vSide. Want to get past the velvet rope in Club LAX? You need to earn Respekt.

Lately, we've received a lot of great input and ideas from you about how to improve the Respekt system (keep 'em coming!). Like anything good, it takes awhile to get it perfect, but it's going to get better all the time

Here are just a few ways that gaining Respekt just got easier:

• Rate music songs
• Update your profile
• Complete collection games

Welcome VOY!
vSide and VOY Radio (http://www.voymusic.com/) have partnered up to bring you VOY Plaza in LaGenoaAires (where the Hacienca Club use to reside).

VOY Plaza features the best in Latin music and video today. In addition to six Latin music listening stations and three cinemas, VOY Plaza will be streaming top Latin and Reggaeton hits in addition to vSide favorites on both floors of VOY Plaza.

What Else is New for You
Want more clothes? Check out StarStlye and Kawaii for new items. Also, next month StarStyle wll be hosting two fashion shows of their style. Stop in on November 21st & 29th to see their latest trends.

Having trouble finding your way or moving around? We've now updated the signs and maps to make it even easier to figure out how to get around vSide. Check out the new action panels that make it easier to dance, laugh or rotfl.

The Music Lounge is now vSide (http://www.vside.com). vSide is a major redesign from The Music Lounge Beta 11, with all-new city districts, features, and much more. Existing Lounge users, your login for The Music Lounge will work for vSide, so come check out what's new!

Here is a list of what is new in vSide Beta 1:

*** AWESOME NEW STUFF ***

Two all-new districts
Introducing RaiJuku and LaGenoaAires, with new stores, clubs, and places to hang out! San Francisco is now NewVenezia. Take the subway across districts or use the overhead map. Here's an overview of what's in each district.

RaiJuku
Stores: YJL high heels, Kawaii general store, iiG eyeglass shop, and EvilTwin Black and White stores
Music venues: iiG cafe, iiC lounge, Gigoth, and Ramen Shop
Private spaces: iiR hotel_raijuku and more
Hangouts: Roof garden, pier, climbing wall, Zen Garden, and
Secret locations

 LaGenoaAires
Stores: StarStyle, Kong t-shirt boutique, Drezz, 121 evening wear, Radio Broadcasting booth, and Hacienda store
Music venues: Hacienda, Rooftop Bar, DDD multi-level lounge, and Radio Station
Private spaces: Boca apartments
Hangouts: Downtown band practice space, art gallery, waterfront park, pier, basejump tower
Secret locations

 NewVenezia
Stores: Kitson, Rocawear, PCD Boutique, DJ AM Club LAX store, Gari's Boutique, s/f 1972 shoes, EvilTwin Black and White stores
Music venues: PCD Lounge, Club LAX, The Teahouse
Private spaces: The Warehouse Lofts
Hangouts: Tyra Virtual Studio, the Zen Garden, Hot Tubs, Disco Rooftop, BBall Court
Secret locations

Tons of new clothing selections
From formal wear to goth styles, as well as branded, limited edition and rare items!

More, better Private Spaces
Brand new private spaces are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Throw parties and get together with friends in iiR hotel _ raijuku, The Warehouse Lofts, La Boca and more. Private space operators can set the place name, music stream, restrict access to the space, and boot unwanted users out of the space. Lots more features coming soon for private spaces!

Respekt social status system
Get Respekt points to get awards, access exclusive and limited edition clothes, special venues and club VIP areas! Earn Respekt by doing the following:

• invite your friends to join vSide through e-mail, AIM or our new MySpace badge
• make friends in vSide
• win random jackpots while logged into vSide. The more friends you have logged in, the better your chances!
• activate your account with a valid email address when you first register

New vSide Badge for your Myspace page
Access it from your vSide profile. Paste into your online profile at MySpace and other services, and show off your vSide avatar!

New Friendship system
Send and receive friendship requests instead of saying "Add me"!

Applause meter
Show appreciation for others! Access it by right-clicking a user and selecting "Applaud for me!"

More Secrets!
'nuff said
*** GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS ***

• Brand new look and feel of the client application and improved interface
• Celebrities now auto-accept friends requests and can have an invisible force field around them
• New Mood selection in the button bar lets you adjust your stance based on your mood
• New dances and emotes
• Better user profiles

vSide Beta 1 Q&A

Q. What happened to The Music Lounge?
A. NewVenezia is a district in vSide based off of The Lounge's San Francisco.

Q. What changed about calling a Moderator or getting Help/SOS?
A. To report abuse, right-click on the abusive users's name or avatar and select "Report Abuse". You will have an opportunity to describe the abuse and the current chat log in your chat bubble will be sent to us. MODs are notified as soon as an abuse report is submitted. While MODs are continually watching over the environment, they may not always be available to respond to all abuse reports in realtime. We read all abuse reports.

Q. What about my Lounge Creds and my Wardrobe?
A. Everything you bought in The Music Lounge Beta 11 and earlier is yours and will be in your Closet in vSide.

Q. What is this new Respekt system?
A. Gaining Respekt grants you access to exclusive venues, VIP rooms and private space ownership, as well as unlocks limited items reserved for vSiders with status. More information about Respekt can be found on the Respekt FAQ. Lounge users are grandfathered in some Respekt in vSide depending on when they signed up, how many hours they have spent in The Lounge, and how many Friends (two-way favorites) they have. The maximum amount of grandfathered Respekt points possible is 640.

Q. Can I get Respekt for receiving applause?
A. No, others can show their appreciation for you with applause, but your Respekt score will remain unchanged at this time.

Q. What happened to my favorites? A. Only Friends (two-way favorites) were preserved from The Lounge when we migrated to vSide. You must request friendship again from anyone who was a favorite and not a friend on The Lounge.

Diferente do que muitas pessoas pensam, Vside não é um mundo virtual
igual ao Second Life. Apesar de algumas semelhanças, vSide optou por
ter um enfoque mais artístico voltado para a música. Quase totalmente
dedicado à vida social, a top model e cantora Tyra Banks foi
homenageada e possui uma zona com seu nome dentro de uma das 4 cidades
que a plataforma possui.
Para quem gosta de tocar, compor músicas, shows e criar instrumentos,
é o local ideal… já que dá para fazer tudo isso de forma individual ou
coletiva.
Diferenças do Second Life: Não permite criar prédios, lojas e
edifícios. Ou seja, um mundo sem moeda e não comercial já que a
maioria de seus objetos são gratuitos.

Para quem quiser visitar o site de vSide e quiser conhecer um pouco
mais sobre a plataforma: http://www.vside.com/app/dashboard

Postado por : Stefanie Mancini, Angelica e Claudio.

Degrassi is a nice match for this platform because it is already a well-established brand with a decent online presence. vSide will use the DOT Grill from the show as the hub in the virtual world from which users can access each other as well as cast members. It should translate to a 3D world seamlessly, and should be a nice way for Degrassi fans, including Live Journal's Terry Jo, who wrote about the vSide Launch, to interact with one another.

vSide is an all-encompassing "three-dimensional social entertainment platform" that boasts the ability for users to create avatars, design and furnish apartments, and have parties with virtual friends.

Se doveste avere bisogno di me in vSide, io mi chiamo Kwisatz Haderach, parlo italiano (haha), e ho i capelli lunghi. Solitamente sono nei dintorni della stazione della metro di New Venezia, ma se girate anche voi potreste incrociarmi. Buon divertimento!

Eine kleine Auswahl "Virtueller Welten" finden sie hier:

Virtuelle Welten - Auszug:

1. Second Life
2. Twinity
3. KANEVA
4. VMTV
5. vSide
6. VLES
7. There
8. METAPLACE
9. ENTROPIA UNIVERSE
10. Papermint
11. Whyville
12. WORLDS.COM
13. Moove
14. Stagespace
15. HIPIHI
16. HABBO
17. TOONTOWN
18. VZONES
19. VastPark
20. The SIMS ONLINE
21. activeworlds
22. PANDA
23. Multiverse
24. barbieworld
25. mokitown
26. GAIA Online
27. CLUB PENGUIN
28. neopets
29. Zwinky
30. …

With all these virtual places, navigating virtual worlds has startling (to me at least!) similarities to navigating the real world. To make things interesting, some of the problems navigating the real world are magnified. My first experience of Second Life was teleporting to a totally random set of locations and some subsequent aimless wandering/flying. I have absolutely no idea where any of those places are! I did try and go back to one of them later but without any GPS I didn't stand a chance. To start with teleporting reminded me of stepping out of tube stations in London- I gradually get to know the area round stations I visit frequently, without realising that they are in fact practically next to each other! To make matters worse, navigating by landmarks can be unreliable when the landmarks can change so quickly and completely. It's like going back to a home town after moving away for years, when new roads and buildings have replaced old familiar landmarks. Except that change happens much faster in a virtual world, and even mountains can move!

I quickly learnt to save landmarks of places I might want to return to in Second Life, which leads to the next tiny problem. Places change. In the real world, people and businesses move. In the virtual world they seem to do it a lot! I might go back to a cake shop I visited a month or two ago in the real world to discover that it now sells clothes. In the virtual world, I might go back to a shop to discover that the shop has gone, along with the town it was in! I might teleport in to the middle of a battlefield! It will get even more interesting when places move from one virtual world to another- my Second Life landmark is not going to do much good in Kaneva!

The DNS system already provides a way to look up the address of a computer based on a name. So the computer this weblog is hosted on could move from one country to another and the name you use to view it would stay the same. Instead of a post code (isn't a zip what you use on clothes?!) system, maybe a Place Name Service (PNS) would help. No need to restrict this one to virtual worlds either. Register your place name and when someone uses it, they could end up with a real world address, a Second Life landmark, etc. etc.

That doesn't solve the problem of finding places in the first place. This is a bigger problem on a general purpose virtual world, since not finding a place you think is interesting or useful is likely to mean you leave thinking that the whole virtual world is not interesting or useful. There could have been the most amazing place just round the corner and you would never know. (You'll live without it but thats a big problem for a virtual world that wants more active users.) In the real world, you might use a guide book or go on a tour to find interesting places. Why not do the same in a virtual world? Or, as with anything on the internet, look out for where other people are going. Tom Werner's blog might be a good place to look, although I must admit I am slightly biased!

So what are your top 5 virtual places (Second Life or anywhere else)?

I'm still exploring sometimes that metaverse, vSide. Some days ago I told you a bit about it in other post.

I made this machinima, just for fun and explore the possibilities. Anyway, even the frame rate goes down a bit when using the "movie capturer" I think it looks pretty acceptable.

As I said vSide is more social orientated and completly PG. People is quite nice there, always ready to dance with you and have some fun.

You can find more images of this metaverse in the vSide main page in Koinup.

New in the city, originally uploaded by Raul Crimson.

Yes, I cheated on Linden Lab. But was one of this moments when someone cheats on his partner just to discover that he loves him/her deeply in despite of all the bad moments. ;-)

After some stupid days of lag, crashes and assets server problems i decided to explore other "virtual worlds" to see how they are. I have a limitation, just a few of this metaverses work with Mac, the most similar to Second Life, There, works just on Windows.

Between the limited selection available i decided to try vSide (still in beta, well, in alpha for Mac), and i found it... how to say it?... interesting. vSide is focused in social and music side, the lag is really low and the frame rate is quite high, even having a lot of people in one server (more than 100 avatars), there is music playing all around. There are three regions (servers) for the moment, all three full of shops, clubs, places to chill with friends. In the regions there are also "apartments", you can "rent" them for free and organize a private (or opened to all) party. This apartments are available to the first who arrives and become "free" again once the "renter" leaves or logs off. You can modify the furniture of this apartments inside some limitations. There are some other nice features but...

If you want to find a place for creation don't go to vSide. You can't create nothing there, absolutely nothing. The "regions" are as they are, no building or creation possible (a good way to keep lag low, but also a big limitation). Absolutely all you can see (clothes, buildings, animations, etc...) is created by Doppleganger, Inc. the developers and owners of vSide. To make your avatar you have to choose between the (limited) possibilities and, in theory, you can't use an avatar of other gender (it depends on the RL gender you say you are). You have to buy all new clothes and apparel in the stores around with a "local currency" and all is quite expensive, all the stores are owned by Doppleganger so no possible competition (maybe they should let Anshe Chung visit them ;-) ).

Furthermore all is quite childish, nudity is not possible (not only is not allowed, is impossible to make your avatar fully naked) and cyber is strictly forbidden (not kidding, the TOS says you can be permanently banned for cybering). Of course they control all content because you can't create or upload nothing. So if you have children now you know is a safe environment for them, but quite limited for an adult. Anyway is not a bad place to hang sometimes and have fun with people and listen music.

I love Second Life, the possibilities are almost infinite, but i needed to go out and see what's around to keep loving it. Anyway Linden Lab should work more in the main problems, stability and performance. They are losing some of the "beloved" corporations (AOL and Pontiac have decided to close their sims in SL and Coca-Cola have just opened one in There, main SL competitor), maybe this will be the only way that they finally react, if they don't listen the residents sure they will listen to the corporations.

Without people, you're left with 3d graphics, or not even that for some virtual worlds. If you want to show off some 3d design on a web page, there would certainly be better ways to do it if slick graphics, simplicity or speed were you primary concern. You could mash up 3d content and social software in some sort of google CAD application so people can collaborate on garden layouts/kitchen designs/pimping their ride, and there are already instant messaging tools, voice over IP and web cams, so who needs a virtual world? There's no one thing that you can do in a virtual world that you can't do another way but virtual worlds tie it all together in a natural way. (Well, I'm sure there's room for improvement but the potential is definitely there.)

If you just try out your first virtual world without anyone else, you're unlikely to see them at their best. It's a lot like arriving in a big city- there must be things to do and people to talk to, but where do you start? Exploring with someone you already know can help a lot. That's certainly my experience with Second Life; the first time I logged in was very nearly my last. It was only after being shown round a few places and meeting up with people in-world that I began to see the potential. I think linking up virtual worlds with social networks is a great idea in this respect, which I think Kaneva does, and you can now do with the Second Life Link on Facebook.

Trying out virtual worlds with a specific purpose in mind also seems like a good way to experience the people power early on, whether they're people you already know, or just other people with a common interest. The I am Legend Second Life game is a fun example, but I recently heard about talkademy which just sounds fantastic. One of my excuses for being so bad at languages is just not having the chance to practice. I rarely go to Spain or Germany, and when I do, everyone is far too kind and happily talks in English before I've barely struggled through my first sentence! Using virtual worlds to practice sounds like a great use of virtual worlds. Another killer app?

Googling further on the topic I saw an interesting study by Accenture on "User-Generated Content Is Top Threat to Media and Entertainment Industry".

The study goes on say that such content will continue to grow and the user will gain:
* Increased power - As he can now create more content and hence can direct where a social network would grow. While the study did not examine Virtual Worlds - I would submit that a similar trend would be visible in this space too. With a far more impact being felt in such Virtual Worlds
* Increased control - The user can direct what kind of content can be published.

At this point I would aim to classify such UGC into two key categories
* Individual directed Content - This content is targeted to Avatar customizations, the way your avatar looks, dresses, walks, talks. Where are the areas that are visited, what kind of content is bought out and is used actively and also the social network of other Avatars he or she interacts with.
* Environment directed Content - This content is specifically targeted to creating the environments in which these Avatars interact in with regard to the Virtual Worlds. So whether it is a fancy art gallery or a pub or even a retail store of the future.

Different Virtual Worlds have taken different view points on the level of freedom that they give their Users with creating the above two types of content. While most Virtual Worlds give Users the chance to create Individual Oriented Content, many limit the amount content that can be Environment-directed.

One of my favourite Virtual World - Doppelganger's vSide actually limits the amount of content that one can create from an Environment perspective.

Usually there is a cost associated with each of the types of content.
* So while Second Life requires you to have a Premium membership to buy land, you dont need one to create content whether Individual / Environment oriented.
* Doppelganger on the other hand requires you to buy individual content and has little or no flexibility with the customizations one can do from an environment based.

We see differing revenue models too.
* While Linden Labs (the creators of Second Life) have very limited custom content created by them other than the main archipelago they have a revenue model where they make money out of allowing people to create Environment oriented Content.
* Doppelganger on the other hand has a revenue model which is targeted specifically towards Individual based Content and makes money out of such sales and partnerships.

An older article by Robin Good says that "UGC is online content publishers most promising future" and I accept his thesis, however which sphere will lead to more revenues remains to be seen.

I conclude quoting from the Search Engine Roundtable :
"1) Users spend a lot of time in UGC (user generated content)

2) Consumers expect to be able to make their own content

3) Consumers trust user generated content

4) Product reviews increase sales

5) Increases conversions"

And hence UGC will become the key determining criteria for Virtual Worlds

Powered by ScribeFire.

Before getting started, Roo Reynolds very eloquently explains why you might want a virtual world in the first place.

There are quite a variety of virtual worlds out there, so some of the ingredients will only need to be added to taste. I have an idea of where I'm going to start but if there are any suggestions that would be great too; just bring your own ingredients a la Ready Steady Cook!

vSide is a virtual place for teenagers to hang out with their friends and hear music. You live the scenes and life that most of us only read about in magazines. Mercury News describes it best:"It seems like a no-brainer. Combine the social networking of cool sites such as Facebook with the visually appealing virtual world of Second Life. Add the prospect of meeting music celebrities from the hottest young rock bands to the Pussycat Dolls and TV host Tyra Banks." That's vSide, a company created by Doppleganger. It may serve as a potential tool for artists to go on, network, and expose their music to the teenage crowd.

A idéia foi explorar as noções (aceitando a provocação de Goli Guerreiro, que trabalha com noções em contraponto a conceitos) de mestiçagem e hibridismo. A mestiçagem foi trabalhada como um cruzamento entre as raças/etnias, sincretismo o contato entre as religiões e o hibridismo como uma noção mais apropriada para explicar os encontros culturais modernos. O suporte teórico foi dos pensadores Néstor Canclini, Peter Burke e Serge Gruzinski.

Para problematizar o hibridismo fora pensado no contexto da cibercultura, que fora entendida tanto como espaço de sociabilidade e ferramentas para o desenvolvimento de novos produtos. A cibercultura potencializa a produção híbrida a partir do momento em que altera a concepção de espaço x tempo, ruptura das fronteiras, liberação do pólo de emissão que reconfigurou a sociedade pós-moderna. Um exemplo (e foi esse o recorte da apresentação) é a música eletrônica, uma vez que é calcada pelo remix, mistura e trocas (P2P) culturais em um cenário (ciberespaço) efêmero e mutável. Daft Punk, Gorillaz, Mutantes, Asian Dub foram os exemplos do hibridismo digital = novas ferramentas, membranas no lugar de fronteiras e integração do virtual x real.

Como novidade citei o exemplo da campanha da Sony, que fora estruturada em bases colaborativas e contou com a participação de 128 músicos (cada um executou apenas uma nota da música). A Sony disponibilizou um banco de .mp3 e partituras para o remix. O outro exemplo foi o Vside, projeto que tem característica estruturais do Second Life, porém o seu enfoque é na produção artística via cenários virtuais conectado, possibilitando criar ritmo, instrumentos, formar concertos, bandas e demais relações musicais.