Flyer for "Transmusicales 2008"

In 2007, a great concert was organized both in virtual and physical world. The physical (real life) concert that was performed in the city Rennes in the North-West of France, was at the same time broadcast in Second Life

This year, Transmusicales has higher aspirations in offering three concerts this year in a row, during which avatars can see and enjoy videoprojections live on a giant screen. There will also be “in real life” an experimental mixed reality to discover virtual worlds “without use of the keyboard and mouse” to the audience.

Beware: the access is limited to 60 seats per concert and it is recommented to make reservations on the websites: sldirect or Transmusicales 2008

Members and known supporters of the Bibliothèque Francophone are in the team of volunteers who prepare the city for concerts and transport. The contact for the project is the avatar by the name of “Clap Clip” Second Life.

Thursday 6 November 2008 - Right now I am attending the long announced and long awaited opening of RIL-shopping in Second Life TM. Many people already have come to see the shop and Linden Labs was represented by Glenn Linden, who stated that it is also a great and important step for the development of Second Life. This shop, now selling exclusive chocolate by D’lys Couleurs,  is special compared to all other shops in Second Life, because they sell real goods against real Euro, the chocolate purchased at RIL will be delivered to your door within a few days. So, not just pixel-shopping here.
Another specialty of RIL-shopping, which is initiated by the teams of Stonefield Inworld and credit bank Sofinco and managed by P.O. Carles, Richard Malterre and David Castera ,  is that real shop assistants will be there to assist the customers. These shop assistants can help with their subscribtion, which must be done both inworld and on the website and they can also assist in the rest of the process of choosing, purchasing and paying. Just like all customers are used to in “physical life” shops.
These pioneers in retailing are now only serving France, Belgium and Luxembourg, but of course: the desire and ambition to grow and expand to more countries is very strong.
Customers are welcome on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 17.00 til 21.00 CET, but extra days for sales will be announced at the shop and on the website. But only for residents who live in France, Belgium or Luxembourg purchases are open.

Sail Away, the unique machinima project of Rafale Kamachi, is still being made in Second Life, at Remember Island. Rafale Kamachi, who is initiator and producer of this full lenght movie, is still looking for Second Life residents who are creative and like to contribute to the film with outfits for an early 18th century setting.

For this purpose, a contest was held among creators of clothes and attributes. A number of 14 residents have taken part in the contest, and came all dressed in their best costumes to the establishment by the name of “Pirates Grotto” On Remember to show themselves, while dancing on modern tunes of DJ raph.

The jury, for the occasion formed by

Cisko Vandeverre, director
Romtherom Freenote, builder for sets, props, avatars and costumes
Nemesys Wemyss, builder sloop and weapons
Sevader Wheels (Tiny@Boudoir), costumes
FredieLajoie Merlin, event organizer
Philippe Chaplin, reporter photographer
Rafale Kamachi, producer
and myself representing Bibliothèque Francophone of Second Life and Metaverse had an hour to watch all the nice creations and announce the winners. The winners, who will have a part in “Sail Away” with their creations, are:

Fabulle Loon
nathalie charman
Ashes Halderman

18th Century costumes. Source: http://www.broadwaycostumes.com

They will appear in the machinima “Sail Away” in their costumes.

If you have missed this contest but feel that you could create an awesome costume for this movie, then do not hesitate to contact Rafale Kamachi, as a lot of outfits, but also other attributes are still needed. Meet het at Remember Island in Second Life or contact her by the website, either in French or in English.

If you like to check out, what style of clothes people were actually wearing those days, you might like to visit also www.costumes.org and learn a lot about costume history.

For nearly 2 years, the company Stonfield InWorld has invested in a comprehensive program of research and development to build a new sales channel that combines into a single format: easy access to offerings of e-commerce, proximity of commercial advice on offerings and the ability to offer financing.

With its expertise in virtual worlds, today Stonfield InWorld announces the creation of RIL SHOPPING in Second Life, in partnership with SOFINCO. The official opening of this new space will take place on 6 November with a sale of outstanding “real” products.

A new way to sell and buy online: “RIL SHOPPING does not replace local shops, the vast
distribution or e-commerce trade” says Pierre-Olivier Carles, co-founder of Stonfield InWorld.
“It adds to existing channels a new way to sell and purchase online. The brands, distributors and / or merchants regardless of their types of offers can offer their products while providing their customer service levels close to the local shops.”

To be opened on 6 November, this unique space in Second Life will allow each brand to meet the expectations of Internet users in online sales: quality products at exceptional prices, the possibility of being informed directly on each product and the offers of consumer credit.

Organized as a private sale, RIL SHOPPING differentiates itself by its ability to accompany each resident during an online purchase, for his advice and assistance but also by the possibility of offering loans for consumption thanks to the presence of SOFINCO consultants.

The presence of a sales-assistant helps to improve the processing rate from 5 to 10 depending on the type of product, RIL SHOPPING offers businesses wishing to change their sales quickly, sales-formats by private, objective and adjusted terms for 4 hours in a few days.

Needless to be an expert in computer science to facilitate a sale in RIL SHOPPING; experts are in charge of Stonfield InWorld and the full development of the virtual shop and they will also accompany the specialist who will guide visitors.

The establishment of this new virtual space by Stonfield InWorld answered the need to be totally in tune with the market. It aims to serve customers better, and offers new opportunities for businesses through a economic potential.

The desire for development and innovation has succeeded in finding an ambitious partner:
SOFINCO, a leading consumer credit establishment in Europe and the pioneer in financing for e-commerce has the strong belief that the Virtual Universe represents a true revolution in online commerce. SOFINCO teams have worked with those of Stonfield Inworld to bring the shopping experience for residents of Second Life to a level of unmatched service and quality.

About Stonfield InWorld

This company, settled in Oloron Sainte-Marie (Pyrenees Atlantiques) and also established in Neuilly sur Seine and Toulouse, became in a short time a player in the market for virtual worlds (Second Life, There.com, OpenSim, Multiverse). It offers businesses of all sizes and all sectors, comprehensive solutions for integrating Internet and virtual worlds in their development strategy.

Accredited with Full Service Provider Solutions by Linden Lab, Stonfield InWorld also focused part of its efforts to research and development on sale online (e-commerce) and training (e-learning) to make two poles of growth with high added value for its clients on Virtual Worlds.

In September 2007, Crédit Agricole entered the capital Stonfield InWorld and became the largest shareholder. Clients of the consultancy and service are companies like Réunica, the Navy, ENST Bretagne, Suez Environment, Saint Gobain Glass, IBM, Intersport, Bull …

About Sofinco

About Sofinco: SOFINCO, a subsidiary of Credit Agricole SA is a leading consumer credit establishment in Europe with 17.6 million customers. Present in 20 countries, SOFINCO makes 60% of its turnover abroad and is experiencing a sharp increase in its activity.

Sofinco is dominant in all trades of credit to the Consumer direct sales, financing at the point of sale (Equipment Market home markets for recreational vehicles), partnerships.

Sofinco has developed partnerships with major retailers and distribution of many institutions.

To learn more: read also the blog of RIL SHOPPING: www.ril-shopping.com/blog (In French)

Smitsol Finesmith is reading Proust. (Film by Hugobiwan Zolnir)

Of about 20 avatars that have read a page of Prousts “A la cherche de les temps perdu”, Smitsol made an even greater effort, as he was the only non-speaking french at the mandala stage, who had learned his text all phonetically. Well done!!

A great report in french is to read here.

Google maps meets Second Life, is the way it should be described in very short. But that is no-way covering the whole story.

http://twinverse.com

At first login, after assigning with a name, location and a picture, the application looks like an ordinary Google Map with my name on it. From here, the first thing to be done, is to find my home, or any place I would like to call home, on the map and click on my own thumbnail image. A menu appears and one of the options is “Establish my Home here”, which gives a starting point and a place to return to if one gets lost. This all might seem rather basic, but the fun starts, when other people start the same. When ‘travelling’ around the globe one finds many other homes of other participants and also their thumbnail avatar. When meeting another, you get the immediate chance to start chatting with each other and getting acquintant. A faster way to meet new people is hardly possible.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Two years ago it all started with the idea, to make a virtual world, using the real globe and as such, using Google Maps as a grid. Internauting on the website of Twinverse, it becomes very clear that it was meant to be a globe-based virtual environment based on peer-to-peer technology, which uses the computers of the users who are connected to the application, in stead of one or more servers. This is the main difference between Twinverse and for example Second Life, which is almost all server based. Also it was meant to be in 3D, like most other virtual world are already.
Another feature that is very interesting, is under the tab “user content” and shows, in chronological order, all text, photo’s and video’s that have been added by users to the maps, by using “maptags”. Readers who are more interested in the technical details will enjoy Joaquin Keller’s blog “In the Computronium“.

It was just bad luck perhaps, that nobody was interested to download the software and start using the application. According to Jamal B, who is one of the creators, it was because of this that they have changed their plans for a while and have started with this webbased application in 2D, like it is now.

But the dream is not over, it is just getting started. Although many features still have to get finished and a lot of wishes are still to be fullfilled, the strongest wish, as to build this application in a 3D version is still alive.

Give it a go, it is worth it!

INVITATION “AVATARS Reading PROUST”
with the FRENCH LIBRARY  (in Second Life TM)
WEDNESDAY 8 OCTOBER 08 17:00 GMT (19H00 PARIS)

19:00> 21:00 CET
* in RL: room blanche
** in SL: Bibliothèque Francophone
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ebeoplex/37/212/779
Web-turning read Proust by the avatars of the French Library of Second Life and presentation of the library by Hugobiwan Zolnir.
With the Paris-Villette avatars Coulaut Menges and Betty Renoir.

* RL: Real Life
** SL: Second Life

19:00> 21:00 CET
Great Hall
The Kiss of the Matrix (Proust Lu on the Internet)
Spectators, you can watch the film, installed in spaces built specially for the occasion.
Readers players, webcams are available to register and participate in the film.

The Matrix is a computer program that manages real-time distribution of texts, information dissemination to capture new readers, the timeline of the film, and consulting it at any time. The ambition of this project is to create a successful company whose time is governed by the Matrix.

> Bar

Paris-Villette • Parc de la Villette
211 avenue Jean Jaurès 75019 Paris
Porte de Pantin vélib
Reservation 01 40 03 72 23
http://www.theatre-paris-villette.com
x-network is a program of the Paris-Villette, supported by the City of Paris, the Ile-de-France, DICREAM (Ministry of Culture and Communication) and the NLC as part of Read Day. With the support of the DRAC Ile-de-France workshops for “Les Enfants du Net.”

Quoting Butterfly Laa on her weblog:

This morning proud to present our first contest entry! Elements photo taken by Mallory Destiny, who has an Art Gallery of her own in Tournicoton, and a wonderful site on the net, http://mallorydestiny… Has lots of good information there!! Thank you Mallory !!! Nice Photo!!!

The White Room Contest October 2008

Theme: The four elements (Earth, Wind, Fire & Water)
Give us a picture of something you refer to the four elements in SL and win 1500L$!

SL consists of prims, textures and scripts but under the surface there is much more.

How it works:

You go to the WHITE ROOM yourself, buy one of the “WHITE ROOM PANELS” for 1L$ and paste the texture on your own panel.
Go to White Room by follow this SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Akh/47/137/24

Rules and conditions:

1) No touched up (photoshop, gimp, paint etc) pictures, send them just as they are. Windlight and other SL photosettings are allowed

2) The pics will be displayed at The White Room galleries and maybe in the blog (http://whiteroomstudios.blogspot.com)

3) The contest starts October 1st and ends last day of October.

4) The pics will be judged for its creativity and originality by our secret jury as in the past.

5) Max 1 PICTURE / contestant, but you can change your pic as many times you like. Its your own panel

6) We have the fully right to disqualified pictures that we judge as distasteful.

7) The prize cermony will be held at the re-opening party for the White Room Nov 1st.

The winner in this contest will be directly qualified for The White Room Awards 2008 which will take place on December 8 with the purse of 10.000 L$ to the winner!

We wish you the very best as before and will continue to do . Good Luck to you all !!!!!!

Jesper Prinz and Butterfly Laa
Visit the White Room in world at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Akh/52/134/23

Sustainable development and technological innovation are, for Saint-Gobain, powerful handles for improving its operations and its results. For several years, the company initiated a pro-active policy in this area. The establishment of Saint-Gobain Glass in the virtual world of Second Life, orchestrated by experts of Stonfield InWorld, is a new step to encourage exchanges between scholars and performers of glazing residents with high environmental sensitivity.

A strong agreement to the protection of the environment in Second Life

The new showroom of St. Gobain in Second Life

To initiate a constructive discussion on the role of glazing in environmental protection and energy saving, Saint-Gobain Glass organizes conferences and debates between marketing and development and residents whose sensitivity and Culture Sustainable development is high. This is to present innovative solutions developed by Saint-Gobain Glass to build the ecological house of the future and talk with residents.

Twofold:

* explain solutions for existing glazing and present the environmental impact of the most innovative often little known to the general public.

* exchange of ideas with residents who are highly committed on the theme of environmental protection, improve their comprehension of these solutions and above all their expectations of products.

This interactive initiative has begun on September 18th, 2008 with a presentation of the implantation of Saint-Gobain Glass in Second Life and its new showroom designed and developed by the company Stonfield InWorld to present, through 3D animation, the characteristics of the most efficient glass. That evening, a lecture on “More glass, less energy” has been an opportunity to explain how the glazing enhanced thermal insulation and solar control participate in the reduction of energy consumption of buildings. The conference has also provided an opportunity for Saint-Gobain Glass to begin a fruitful discussion with residents of Second Life on future developments in glazing by Saint-Gobain Glass.

Understanding the glass … by planting trees:

To plant a tree in Second Life = to plant a tree in Real Life

Starting from September 18th, 2008, Saint-Gobain Glass has also launched a competition. Residents who will visit the showroom on “Ebeoplex” in Second Life, can go to the next floor and join the “game”. Its aim is to identify by multiple choice questions, for a house in a given environment, the glass best suited to an ecological point of view. Each winner will have the satisfaction of a tree to grow in his name in the garden adjacent to the showroom. A less virtual commitment has been made by Saint-Gobain Glass too, as it pledges to plant for each winner, a real cedar on the Mediterranean coast. The influence of Second Life in the first world … The game will stay on the upper floor of Saint-Gobain Glass until the 18th of November. (Saint Gobain Glass, Ebeoplex (23, 126, 21))

About Saint-Gobain Glass

What do you know about glass?

The glazing by Saint-Gobain has achieved a turnover of 5.6 billion euro in 2007 and employs about 39 000 people. Located in 40 countries, it is now Europe’s leading flat glass and number 2 globally.

Saint-Gobain, historically grown in glazing, includes three core businesses: the manufacture of flat glass and glass layers, processing and distribution of glass products for construction and glazing for transport. The efforts of research and development enable the Flat Glass to launch products and innovative systems and high performance in a sustainable development approach.
Saint-Gobain Glass is also very active in the field of renewable energy, particularly in the market for solar-thermal and photovoltaic.

About Stonfield InWorld

This company, originally established in Oloron Sainte-Marie (Pyrenees Atlantiques), also settled in Neuilly sur Seine and Toulouse, became in a short time a participant in the market for virtual worlds (Second Life, There.com, OpenSim, Multiverse). It offers businesses of all sizes and all sectors, comprehensive solutions for integrating Internet and virtual worlds in their development strategy. Accredited Full Service Provider Solutions by Linden Lab, Stonfield InWorld also focused part of its efforts to research and development on sale online (e-commerce) and training (e-learning) in order to make two poles growth with high added value for its clients on the virtual world. In September 2007, Crédit Agricole entered the capital Stonfield InWorld and became the largest shareholder. Clients of the consultancy and service are companies like Réunica, the Navy, ENST Bretagne, Suez Environment, Saint Gobain Glass, IBM, Sofinco, Intersport, Bull

When we start about virtual worlds such as Second Life™ and the ways to use this environment for teaching, the possibilities are presumed endless. As far as I can see, only the first few steps are being taken now and as long as inspired people like Namro Orman are exploring the ways, the (near future) is promising.

Namro Orman, who is in daily life occupied being Coordinator of electronic Services of the Central Medical Library of the University Medical Center in Groningen (UMCG) in the Netherlands, has invited me to meet him at the Info Health Island in Second Life™ and to show me his latest idea.

In the loan is a huge red tube, bend in some places and as Namro asks me, I walk into the tube. The tube turns out to be a giant model of a human blood-vessel and after a few meters I am stopped by a door that is meant to figure a blood-valve. I have to answer two questions about “strokes” – A misfunctioning that includes the rapidly developing loss of brain functions due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain.

When I have finally answered both questions correctly, which is not too easy for a medical nOOb like me, the blood-valve opens and lets me walk to the next. After passing three valves like these, a nice present awaits me! And, more important, I have learned a bit about strokes.
In case you would like to see me stumbling, watch the video here!

In this way, learning becomes enjoyable and very attractive. It gives many opportunities to use a vain like this in class, where the students can actually walk through a vessel, but also in other ‘parts’ of a human body and really see what it looks like. I can imagine, as also building in an environment like Second Life™ becomes more and more ‘like real’, the use of the Metaverse in teaching will become very valuable and we might have generations in our near future who will actually find it very common to learn within virtual worlds.

In case you would like to check out the place and do the strokes-quiz yourself, visit: Healthinfo Island (110, 152, 22) in Second Life™