Sail Away costume contest

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.

Stonfield Inworld launches RIL Shopping

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.

Video: Le baiser de la Matrice

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.

Twinverse, planet earth as a Virtual World

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!