Coming up this Sunday, June 22nd, is Second Life’s 11th Birthday Celebration — commonly known as SL11B. I am excited to have applied to be part of the press corps so I can (hopefully) get a early view and will be able to report on what’s happening. Their preview is this Saturday, where invited members of the press are allowed access and offered a tour of the 10 sims that make up the SL11B celebration. I am hopeful that my application will be approved.
Meanwhile, I saw this on the SL blog that I thought was worth sharing. What a wonderful prize! $10,000 Linden Dollars for top photo.
Posted: June 16, 2014
“Starting today, you’re invited to take part in the Second Life: Celebrating Your Second Life Snapshot Contest, in honor of 11th Birthday of Second Life.
“Participation is easy – submit your celebratory snapshots from inworld to the contest page on our Official Second Life Facebook Page. Click the contest tab, review the contest information and rules and start sharing. This year you will be able to submit up to one snapshot a day for the duration of the contest. Full rules, submission and voting dates, and details are all on the Facebook page.
“Looking for some inspiration for pics? Then drop by Hairy Hippo Fun Land to grab your Limited Edition SL11B Robot Avatar. You can also get your free avatar off the Marketplace.
“Browse the SL11B category on the destination guide to see what the community has planned to mark the event inworld.
“Don’t forget that the Resident-driven Second Life 11th Birthday Community Celebration starts this coming Sunday the 22nd. Visit their website for the latest information.
“You only turn 11 once, and we can’t wait to see what kind of celebrations and fun you create and share!”
I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZoHa Islands Social Media Manager
It’s Sunday evening, and another weekend has come and gone. We are facing another Monday tomorrow, but meanwhile I thought I’d close out the weekend with some highlights of things that are happening around the grid, and that are coming up soon.
And here we go…
New Mesh Default Avatars
On Linden Lab’s blog, they posted about new default avatar options they are offering. Linden Labs has updated Second Life’s default avatars with 24 brand new mesh avatars. In the Second Life blog, it states,”These avatars are designed to give new users a more appealing set of choices as they start their time in Second Life. Based on the most popular avatars picked at registration, these new options are much better-looking and take advantage of technology incorporated into Second Life over the past year (like fitted mesh and materials) for a more modern feel.” Maybe noobs won’t look so noob-y anymore!
Even if you’re a current SL user, you can check out the new default avatars in the SL viewer by opening the Avatar Selector in the viewer. Under the People tab, you’ll see a great variety of male and female mesh avatars to pick from. They even have mesh Vampires, along with some other monsters like zombies, werewolves, and winged beasts.
Project Interesting
Early in May, Lindens Lab announced the latest update to their viewer — Project Interesting. This viewer completes the series of improvements they began several months ago with a series of server updates. This update reduces the load and time it takes to draw objects in regions, meaning scenes appear more quickly and smoothly as you move throughout Second Life. The always-entertaining Torley Linden explains Project Interesting in the, well, interesting video below. Have a look!
SL11B is coming!
As I reported earlier, SL11B, SL’s 11th birthay celebration, is quickly approaching! June 22-29 are the dates. If you want to participate as an exhibitor, performer or volunteer, applications are due May 20th, so hurry and get those applications in! They are not accepting applications from commercial enterprises to promote business. Watch the Destination Guide as it approaches, because all of the events during this wonderful celebration will be listed there. Or you can follow their website here. This year’s theme is “The Empires of the Future.”
Relay for Life
Relay for Life, (or RFL as it is colloquially known in SL) is a huge grid-wide series of events designed to raise funds for cancer research. These events run parallel to the RL American Cancer Society’s “Relay for Life” fundraising events. All proceeds raised in SL at these events go directly to the American Cancer Society for their Relay for Life fundraiser. You can see their website here.
According to the Relay for Life Wiki, “Relay For Life of Second Life (RFL of SL) is an annual activity that takes place in Second Life in July each year. Volunteers form or join teams to have fun while fundraising and raising awareness from mid-March through mid-July. In July teams build campsites and walk a track, just like in a Real World Relay. Since 2005, Relay For Life of Second Life has raised over $1 million USD for the American Cancer Society. Relay For Life has become an international movement in RL and in SL.”
RFL has been active in SL since 2004, where they had the first volunteer driven fundraiser for the American Cancer Society ever in Second Life. Ninety-nine Avatars participated, and they raised a total of $2,000 US dollars. In 2013, the ninth RFL of SL saw 3,549 avatars participating, with 200 teams walking 2,898 laps. They raised $393,000 US dollars! This is a whopping $98,250,000 Linden dollars!! (based on an average exchange rate of $250L to $1.00 US). This is truly mind-boggling.
In 2014, the 10th RFL of SL will take place on Saturday, July 19 through Sunday, July 20, 2014. The Event Chair is Nikki Matheson and the theme is “A Journey of Promise.”
Please visit the RFL of SL website and take a look at how huge this event has become. This enormous effort raises hundreds of thousands of US dollars a year, and is a very worthwhile effort. Nearly everyone’s lives have been touched by cancer — either through their own diagnosis or a friend or loved one. Please consider participating, either with your time, or your linden dollar donations.
Soon Second Life™ will be turning 11 years old, and of course that means a huge party!
The event will be held from Sunday June 22nd – Sunday June 29th, 2014. There will be 11 sims worth of amazing exhibits, music, conversation, debate, firework displays, games, puzzles, sports and much, much more!!
Actually, even that won’t be the end of it, as the sims will be open for a further seven days for everyone to explore.
The theme this year takes inspiration from a quote by the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill:
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
When Winston Churchill said this in 1943, he could not have imagined a virtual world like Second Life, but now, more than seventy years later, his words have come true in this new world that we have created.
Last year’s birthday celebration was an important milestone — 10 years. And, appropriately, Linden Lab’s theme was reflective of the past 10 years and a review of how far SL has come. This year is a good time to examine where we are going — what does the future hold for SL and it’s many residents? Where are we headed?
As stated on the SL Community Celebration website: “If there’s one thing that makes SL unique, it’s our community of users. Users from all corners of the globe come together under a single umbrella to build a community that comes from our minds and our imaginations. Everything we see, touch and use in Second Life is a product of our imaginations, our minds, and our community.
Want to get involved?
Applications are now open for Performers, Volunteers and speakers and performers in the Auditorium. Lots of volunteers are needed to make this a success, so please consider whether you can give some time to helping out. It should be a lot of fun!
Applications for Exhibitors (i.e. people who want a plot to build on) opened April 27th. The closing date for Exhibitor, Performer and Auditorium applications is May 20th, so don’t hesitate too long!
There is also a Flickr page where you can paste your own images when the sims open. In the meantime, keep an eye on the Flickr feed, because the team will be posting some sneak peek pics!
