Second Life™ users have an interest in Blender. Since a new round of discussion is starting on regard to the Blender user interface, now is a good time for us to get involved. Of course we want to avoid coming across to the Blender community as total ignoramuses and losing credibility… if we have any. So…
Andrew Price has a video up discussing the important points of User Interface design. Whether you are going to make suggestions for Blender or the Second Life UI this is an import video to watch.
[youtube xYiiD-p2q80]
The survey he recommends you take is here: Blender User Interface Survey. This is a two-question survey. Please watch the video BEFORE taking the survey.
Inara Pey has an article up about a meeting this Sunday to discuss the change in the Second Life/Linden Lab Terms of Service. That meeting is today, Sunday, at noon SL Time (PDT). See: ToS Changes: in-world meeting.
The meeting will be at: East, West, North Galleries Ampi-Theatre. Region: Georgiana 159/189/1800. This is a main land region from the looks of it.
I couldn’t figure out who is sponsoring the meeting. So, I went there to see what the deal is. On TP’ing in you get this note card:
This is the news from the Third Party Viewer Developers Meeting. There is always lots of interesting new information that comes out in these meetings. The first thing Oz Linden went over were the RC Viewers currently out.
RC SL Share
Merov Linden talked about SL Share. Oz Linden translated for him as Merov’s voice was distorted beyond understanding.
I gathered that the SL Share feature is mostly implemented server side. The Facebook login tokens are not kept in the viewer. So, third party developers would not see the Facebook information… But… one does type an ID and password for the account into the viewer to set up the connection. So, is that safe?
I’ll have to look and see how this is actually working. For now I think it may be similar to how SL Search works, where a web page is opened as a panel in the viewer. While you are appearing to type in the viewer, you are typing into a web page. I suspect SL Share is something similar with the account connection setup.
Once the connection is established, future posts from the viewer are passed to the SL server, which has the tokens, for it to pass the post along to Facebook. So, the viewer would never actually be connecting to Facebook.
Jo Yardley notes The Verge has another article up on Second Life™. The Verge article is: Second Life updates graphics, promises Oculus Rift support ‘soon’. This one is by a different author and about the Oculus Rift. I think this author, Adi Robertson, watched the video. I doubt Ali has been in SL.
Jo in her article, The Oculus Buzz caused by Linden Lab, is discussing the reputation of Second Life. She has some good ideas. We know several Lindens, including Rod, read her blog. So, may be some of those ideas will get picked up or at least shape some of the Lab’s PR work.
Jo believes, and I think with good reason, that the Oculus will bring a second renaissance to SL. Of course the ToS change may offset that… I do believe we will see an up tic in the number of people entering Second Life. I can’t decide if I believe the Rift will change the retention rate. I flip-flop on that point.
And check out the first comment after her article…
There’s still quite a bit of discussion going on about Linden Labs™ new TOS. Lots of misinformation is appearing as people are giving their opinions. I think I have a few things to add to the discussion.
Empty Malls? – Image by: Lost Tulsa via Flickr
First, for those that want a definitive answer there is no choice but to consult an attorney. But, there are free legal advice services on the Internet, just Google free legal advice. You don’t have to hire an attorney. But, remember it is free. You get what you pay for.
The Point
Many haven’t bothered to inform themselves what the discussion is about. Remember. For some time the Lab has had a ToS that says you give them the rights they need to operate the service. Since you are GIVING them nonexclusive rights you have, since you created the ‘thing’, copyright is a non-issue. You are giving them a copy of your copyrights to your ‘thing’. This is not new.
Also, a number of people think you’re giving away your rights. You aren’t. The Linden TOS says you are granting them nonexclusive rights. That means you get to keep all your rights too. If you are giving up your rights, you would be granting them exclusive rights.
The change from all the previous TOS versions, as best I can tell, is removal of the clause: …rights needed to operate the service. (That is paraphrasing.) This little clause is the point of all the discussion. This clause limited Linden Lab to using your stuff with Second Life™ and only in connection with Second Life. Or if you push it another level up, with the services Linden Lab provides you.
