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Sun Holds News Conference In Second Life
mikesd81 writes, "Internet News is reporting that Sun held an in-world news conference in the online game Second Life. From the article: 'Tuesday, Sun became the first Fortune 500 company to hold an "in-world" press conference to show off its new pavilion in Second Life, the popular 3D online world. Sun said it plans to invest in the Sun Pavilion as a place for developers to try out code, share ideas, and receive training.' Sun hopes to reach millions of Java developers, as opposed to the 22,000 that show up at its JavaOne conference each year." Good luck with that goal of "millions" — the total population of SL is under 800,000. And, who knew that Sun has a Chief Gaming Officer? Good quote from him in the article. He said Second Life isn't a game, "It's an amazing platform for global communications."
... Linden Labs has no intention (at this moment) of using Java for their scripting language. Mono is the next step, from the developer logs.
and it wants it's bubble back.
Seriously though, I think this is another sign that Sun isn't focused. Yes they have product and technology, but I don't see them turning it into sales. Company hasn't kept up with market changes in this way.
Warm and fuzzy this may be, but show me the money!
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
I would go to the Java One conference if it wasn't for the cost. So from that point of view this is great. Still, you would need some pretty craetive presentations that are SL aware to make this work. Wouldn't work if you just had a bunch of avatars standing next to each other talking about code. I can picture some custom objects that work as powerpoint screens/laser pens. Uuuu time to use all those neat 3ds plugins for SL now!
And WoW isn't a game either, it's a platform for global gold farming and life draining.
It's cheaper to get a free Second Life account than to travel to the live conference. I'd rather be in the oderless Second Life than a room full of developers.
Developers: We can use your help.
No, really? If I want to share code, ask questions, read docs, does having an avatar and going through that environment really add anything at all to these tasks?
Come on, Sun, tell us how it does things that can't be more efficiently served with a website and forums?
Did I miss something here? Sun holds a press conference. In an environment that cannot even run on their machines or in their own operating system? They're basically saying "We're cool, we're tech 'leet, but our hardware and software are worthless!"
Why didn't they just hold it in Microsoft Netmeeting?
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The base account is free, and that includes a weekly stipend of $L (inworld money) and the ability to go to a sandbox and build/script anything your heart desires. You are also able to go anywhere in the world that paid residents can go. The only advantage of a paid resident is a larger stipend, and the ability to own a permanent land location.
However there are some not-so-hidden cost barriers to entry. You need a good cable or DSL connection, and the SL client is able to bring even the most modern gaming machine to its knees at high settings and certain locations. If your setup is already able to play Counterstrike:Source nicely, then Second Life should work OK.
So you see no advantage to going to conferences or classrooms as learning experiences? Let's just shut down all the colleges then. Pheonix U online should be just as good as Harvard or MIT.
Oh, wait, now maybe there is some advantage to the classroom/conference format. OK, now if you want more people to show up, you have to get a bigger meeting space, arrange dates for when it's not in use by some other organization, arrange for people to travel to the location, arrange for places for them to stay, and figure out a way to pay for all of that.
But if we can get all of the advantages to a real-time, interpersonal learning environmet with top notch presentations and leading experts, but with none of the travel, hosting, or cost issues, isn't this exactly the kind of value added service we (that being technology advocates) have touted the web as providing for so many years? Yes, it comes wrapped in all the other silliness and baggage that is Second Life, but had Sun released this as a stand alone client/learning environment, and Second Life didn't exist, everyone would be hailing this as proof that tech can provide most of the benefits of a real life meeting, while avoiding the static and overly artificial interaction of webpages and forums. In fact, once VoIP is fully integrated, and dynamic expressions become easier and clearer (a frown while someone is listening to you, or the tone/type of clapping after your presentation provides a world of useful information back to a speaker) this could replace 80% of the gain I get from attending conferences. That loss would be more than offset by using this to allow me to attend far more learning and idea sharing forums.
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New free accounts no longer get a weekly stipend of Linden Dollars.
You think that's bad? I heard that Steve Jobs rides to his Apple Expo keynotes in a car not made by Apple! And sometimes when the CEO of McDonalds goes to lunches with business clients, sometimes he goes to restaurants that don't serve Big Macs! Hell, I work in an architecture firm, but I live in a house that someone else designed. I must think I'm crap!
They're basically saying, rather than roll our own online "environment" for this project, we'll just use a pre-existing one, and save our company some money by not doing a lot of extra work. That seems to make sense to me.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
There are other "sinks" in the economy as well. Uploading a texture or sound file costs L$10 and that money basically "disappears." Ditto with the fee for creating new user groups (L$100).
Linden Labs has actually found that, to help stabilize the exchange rate, they have to sell L$ on their currency market themselves. The exchange rate, after peaking at around L$330/US$1, now seems to have stabilized at L$275-280/US$1 for the present.
Be who you are...and be it in style!