[Sigia-l] Second Life: The other side

[Paola Kathuria]

Ziya Oz wrote:
> I thought someone had asked about Second Life recently. I have a difficult
> time with it (as it currently stands) but I'm over 18 so I don't count.

Last Dec, Linden said the modal age was 35. Certainly,
I have met regulars in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

> What's the Ajaxy equivalence (contextual interaction) in SL?

The question doesn't apply to SL as it's not a web interface.
AJAX came about, in part, to solve web page load problems
and to bring in application functionality to web sites. SL
is already an application. It'd be like asking what AJAXy
things there are in Windows apps.

However, I think it's interesting to think about interfaces in
SL. As far as I know, one can interact with objects through
spoken commands, touch, dialog boxes and scripted events.

For example, once could build a scripted vehicle that an
avatar can sit on that responds to spoken (typed) commands
through a specific talk channel (e.g., "/33 cloak").

And all objects can be set to respond to a basic touch
event (I made a slide-show object that shows a different
photo on touch).

LSL (Linden Scripting Language) also lets you pop up a
dialog box with up to 12, I think, options and a submit
button. E.g., List people nearby and give one of them an
object.

Finally, LSL is an event-driven language and so, for
instance, you could add llSensor() to a script in a door.
The door would be 'locked' unless the owner approaches
it, in which case it fades and allows the owner through.

SL has lots of interesting build and scripting tools but
if you let anyone (even non-paying account holders in SL)
build anything in an unregulated way, all the good and
innovative stuff ends up being swamped by gambling, sex
and crass commercialism because innovators are never in
the majority in any free-for-all medium.

> if SL is the solution, what's the
> problem? Is it simply vacuum that needs to be filled in, because users
> and/or competitors are there?

SL only became popular for the same reason that the Internet
only became really popular after the web was invented. Pre-web,
the Internet was e-mail, ftp, Usenet, IRC - text. It's really
hard to talk up a textual medium - it's not sexy. The web
added pictures and suddenly one could write a review and
show pictures - people 'got' it. SL is hyped only because
you can show it. It's that simple.


Paola
--
What would Poot Dibou do?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paolability/sets/72157594404575613/