New Viewer: Second Life 1.18.3 Viewer Available Today! After spending several weeks as a Release Candidate viewer, we are pleased to make the Second Life 1.18.3 Viewer available the primary download today. With your help reporting issues in the Issue Tracker and through public bug triages, we were able to find and fix bugs along the way. Thanks to this great participation from Residents, we have a high degree of confidence in the stability of this viewer. Thanks to everyone who took the time to evaluate the Release Candidate viewer!

Yankee Group: ‘Second Life’ doesn’t live up to hype When it comes to the virtual world Second Life, we’re definitely in the middle of one of the predictable hype backlash cycles that often surround hot new technologies.

Since the fall of 2006, when Second Life hit 1 million registered users, it has since grown to nearly 10 million. Of course, that number doesn’t reflect how many actual users there are.

Research Firm Doesn’t Buy the Second Life Hype Sorry Second Life evangelists. The Yankee Group’s just not buying the hype surrounding SL and other virtual worlds. Today, in a “group note” called Wither Second Life?, the research firm revealed that despite near-continuous media coverage, SL and other metaverses are actually in the midst of a continued slow down in growth and limited impact because of “the tethered nature of their virtual world experience.”

KPN “virtual” workers leap naked on to KPN Building in Second Life virtual strike action! Abvakabo, UNI’s Dutch affiliate, has had a strike on Second Life with the workers of KPN Callcentres. This is to support the real strikes they have been taking to show KPN their serious demands to start negotiations for a decent collective agreement.

Subdued Virtual World for Japan Orderly, pornography-free and safe for children, “meet-me,” an online interactive virtual Tokyo, is Japan’s answer to “Second Life.” Or so its creators hope.

Kunimasa Hamaoka, who oversees “meet-me” at digital marketing company Transcosmos Inc., is banking on the cultural differences between Japanese and Americans to compete against the world’s top virtual community.

Yankee Group Says Second Life Too PC-Centric To Be Relevant The Yankee Group announced today that “the hype surrounding Second Life doesn’t match its actual marketplace impact.” Based on Second Life’s slowing growth rate and plateau of the average time actually spent in world at 12 minutes per month, the Yankee Group says that the actual reach for advertising in Second Life is far under the media’s perspective of its power. It compares the virtual world to social networks like Facebook and Myspace, which have seen increases in usage time, and points to the PC-centered nature of Second Life as a limiting factor.

Second Sense of Perspective Second Life is a lot of things, good and bad. For me, Second Life is all about entertainment and some social activity - as it seems to be designed for. The dark side of Second Life is when it becomes a force for dragging yourself down. Whenever I feel Second Life is being more of a negative than a positive to myself, I just remember what I am here for, having a good time.

Eduisland II Education Fair Saturday 10/13 1pm SLT My friends Pia Klaar and Tek Zeno over at the Teacher Networking Center are planning an Education Fair on Saturday, October 13 from 1:00 - 3:00 SLT at their place on EduIsland II. Pia and Tek are working hard to build a resource center for educators in SL and their facility is loaded with great free resources. Stop by and see for yourself!

Second Life gains competition in the form of SceneCaster Move over Second Life, there’s a new 3D virtual web space in town which is trying to make a name for itself in the online community. SceneCaster is a company that has a created a 3D scene creation application that integrates itself with many other web-based apps and online accounts.

Raising a glass to partnership To enable resellers and ISVs to come together, Cisco unveiled a Second Life-type virtual platform, which contains a virtual exhibition hall where ISVs can set up virtual booths. VARs can then visit a booth and learn more about the ISV. The platform also includes a lounge where partners can hold meetings.
The entire platform is designed to be interactive, so partners can chat together, according to Sage.

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