Friday, November 23, 2007

Tribute Opening Party

It's the official opening island party, now! Folks are gathering :-)

Tribute Island opens 'officially' right now [slurl], with a big blow-out DJ bash from renowned SL DJ, DJ Jenns (his last in SL before his upcoming Italian season), and top Caledon favourite (and CodePoet) ZenMondo Wormser.

Prizes, competitions. good tunes, dancing, loads to explore (and all obsessively WindLight optimised).

2pm - 6pm: DJ Jenns (Euro shift)
6pm - 10pm: Zenmondo Wormser (Pacific shift)

Come over if you can, bring friends, and have a good browse around, do some dancing, and meet some of the folks who made the sim possible.

Tribute Island is about celebrating the lives of the people we've lost and loved. About showing the information we have, as a news and media company, in a different way. It's about the people who have inspired us, entertained us, selflessly protected us, and have filled our lives with sound and colour.

The island has tributes from the British Army, Navy, and RAF, to the political, scientific, and Hollywood classics. Most of the exhibits we've made interactive in some way, so pop over for some music and to enjoy exploring, and click the exhibits for freebies and to leave your own tribute (oh, and Treasure Hunt prize just went up to L$6k and theres a brand new GeoCache).

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

OpenSim Now

Go read this at 'Not Possible IRL'. No point me replicating someone else's comment, but WELL WORTH a look regarding the new OpenSim.

OpenSim, an open source project 1s now in Alpha release 0.4, and I am here to report that yes, Second Life is possible outside of Second Life.

ThomTrance O'Toole


This could change, well, everything :-)

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Company Statistics

Hmmm. I was reading something my dad sent me this morning, and seriously, can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 600 employees and has the following statistics?
  • 29 have been accused of spouse abuse
  • 7 have been arrested for fraud
  • 19 have been accused of writing bad cheques
  • 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
  • 3 have done time for assault
  • 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
  • 4 have been arrested on drug-related charges
  • 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
  • 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
  • 84 have been arrested for drink driving in the last year
Which organisation is this? Naturally, we're talking about the current crop of MP's in the House of Commons...

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Tribute Looking Good

Nice to see Tribute Island turning up in the press overnight. Things are looking good.

She was listed as top place to visit yesterday in Jen Hienrich and Relic Starbrooks 'The Best of Second Life' and there are some nice comments appear in Seamus McCauley's 'Virtual Economics' (on the
collision of news publishing, digital media and technology) about him reflectively looking for a friends marker in the military section. We're also featured on 'Hold The Front Page' (the journalism site for journalists) this morning and in a couple of blogs (like those of Edward Pearse, Daz, Guen DeCuri, Eladrienne Laval and Aleister Kronos etc.). Just for a bit more traffic, check out our 'virtual ammo-box' at SLGeocaching too :-)

When I say 'things are looking good', I should actually be saying that 'things have never looked better'.

If you get the chance, pop along [slurl] and take a look at us with the new WindLight (FirstLook) client, available here.

SO damn beautiful, and the island looks so cool, I think this is really going to change my SL experience. I love it. Photo-real seas, stunning rolling clouds, gobsmacking light sourcing, added improvements to the Sky Editor dialog, improved glow and rendering tricks to minimize lag and add stability, Tribute was just made for this kind of thing.

“They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them.

I'm liking today already :-)

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Open for Remembrance Day

Tribute Island is now open to all visitors (posh official opening 'put-a-suit-on-hippy' party coming soon).

Hopefully we can make some pennies for The Legion today (as it's Remembrance Day).


The bloggers party went well last night, and we didn't crash the sim (tho we had a damn good go). A few people have been in touch asking to place tributes already. Come take a look [SLURL], or I'll spam you all with LM's :-)

Also, check this video out about the new British Legion SL Garden of Remembrance (Rivers Run Red) which is 9 sims worth from the looks of the map, at Poppy 5 (128, 128, 0).



Alas I can't seem to get access to the sims yet (might just be me tho). This video is SO beautiful, I'm really look forward to checking this one out :-)

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Tribute is Coming

So, what have I been going on about for the last couple of months?

Now I can talk about it :-)


Saturday, at 2pm - 5pm SLT, will be the SLBloggers Bash at Tribute Island [slurl] (and, I'm
glad to say, this won't be our Zoe's last shindig as head honcho).

Expert DJing c/o Radio Riel (who are doing a bloody excellent "Music from the Middle Ages" today
). No point in going there 'till 10 minutes before the start tho, as the sim will still be closed and, during the do, only open to group members. After that it's open house.

My company have very kindly given the exclusive on this place to the real reporters of SL, the bloggers, and another 'official' opening will be happening in the next week or so. I'm well chuffed on this, being a bit of an SLBlogger since the groups inception, and it just goes to show how attitudes have changed in the media and within our field (RL journalism) in particular ;-)

For the record, Tribute Island was built during October ’07 by Associated Northcliffe Digital (part of the DMGT Group), with the senior design consultants and master builders of Wind Meta Works, and has been something of a labor of Hercules. 65,536 m2 of highly detailed content, made by a tiny team.

Anyway, so, what is Tribute Island [slurl] and why the big secret? Basically, it's all about celebrating the lives of the people we've lost and loved. People who have inspired us, entertained us, selflessly protected us, and who have filled our lives with sound and colour. The island is a SL based (and totally FREE) 3D sculpture and tribute park. Why a secret? Well, it's work and that's the nature of 9-5.

'Tribute' is roughly divided into topical areas (see the map above). You really have to see the British Military section, where we've replicated individual tribute markers to all the UK soldiers and military personnel who've lost their lives in the continuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's incredibly sobering.

Hopefully folks can get into some serious exploring, and click the exhibits for freebies, to make donations to charities, or to leave your own tribute (through our links with the Lasting Tribute website, so the sim can stay locked down tight). We hope to support the place by holding regular events and making something out of this sim, not just abandon projects to self maintenance like other corps do, so keep coming back or IM me ('Nikk Huet') to get involved.

I'll be setting up a Tribute Island Group today if I get the chance, so come join for updates.
Most of the exhibits are interactive in some way and this place has loads of ‘Easter eggs’ (just for fun) and stuff to explore that we've been slaving over for weeks.

Anyway, please feel free to pop over after Saturday and say ‘hi’ if you see me or one of our staff in the sim :-)

While I have the chance I'd like to personally thank a few folks, namely Carricre Wind, Firiel McGann, Lapin Paris, Andr00 Darkstone,
Posemaster Darkstone and Terry Lightfoot, with individual tributes and help from the likes of Brad Sabre, KP Pera, Sen Pixie, DALEK Drillon, Butterfly Laa, TheDove Rhode, Shadowen Silvera, Jimbo Perhaps, Desmond Shang, Emilly Ladybird, Grafix Writer, AngryBeth Shortbread, Cornelia Rothschild, Alfonso Avalanche, Mike Calhoun, Gabrielle Riel, Cheen Pitney and Ub Yifu, for their awesome builds, help, kind encouragement, coffee, sleepless nights, and support. Just a few of the great people who stood behind this project and understood what we were trying to do.

As of the Bloggers event we're open (ish) so please, if you get the chance, explore the island, take some time to contemplate and think about some of the exhibits, and help celebrate the lives of the people represented here.

If you have any ideas for tributes, events, fund raisers or want to get involved, IM me ('Nikk Huet') or catch me on the grid.