Second Life and Virtual China
I decided to take a break from blogging tonight. Instead, I took a busman’s holiday on Second Life. And, I got caught up trying to find out what had happened to Sandbox Island? I’m talking with a couple of scripters - a beautiful, pink, dancing robot with a big bust, and a taciturn scripter with a flatulent, but quite elegant, AV bot, and a lot of scripting power at his finger tips. I’m the one with the foxy face.
What did happen to Sandbox Island? A whole sim just vanished. Apparently that doesn’t happen very often on SL. I have scanned the SL blog and found no answers. But, the speculation on SL is that it is definitely not something the Lindens would have done (perhaps an errant architectural prim?). Sandbox Island was a wild and woolly place in its day.
I first went there to try out my newbie scripting skills and build a portable media player. Sandboxes are where you can try out your building skills, even if you don’t own land. Within minutes I was blasted onto another part of the grid by an enormous arsenal of heavy weapons, and my (not even working yet) media player vanished for good!
But, since then, I have learned to sit (if you sit on a prim you can’t be blasted off your location by any of the enormous inventory of weapons that are experimented with in some sand box locations). Also, it is wise (anywhere RL or SL) to save frequently a script you are working, so it can’t be sabotaged. Not all sandboxes are dominated by war games though. Some are very peaceful and fanciful like The Dreams. But, sometimes you find out the culture of a particular sand box the hard way!
Spiritual communities and peace projects are growing on SL. The Buddhist Shrine at Varosha is very beautiful, and a Buddhadharma Island is in beta. But, if you want to practice your building skills in a strange sandbox, and you don’t know how to build a protection dome, just sit tight on a prim when the Griefers come your way.
Anyway, when I came back to the RL blogosphere, I saw a number of posts about China’s latest spate of web site bans. But, fresh from the open source wilds of Second Life, I made a quick visit to Virtual China where Lyn Jeffrey and Jason Li have a very interesting post on, “ Ultimate Springboard 3D Virtual Community 终极跳板３D 虚拟社区, a new community site for Chinese virtual world residents and creators. Its slogan, written along both sides, is ‘Your world, your dream. Virtual community helps you grow up.’ The site has articles and tips on how to make money, how to create objects, and so on, mostly for Second Life. But there are also photos and the latest flash clip from the Chinese virtual world, HiPiHi.”
Then I visited the Great Wall of China discussion site where several ways to get around the firewall are posted. I couldn’t help feeling optimism.
Is it the Great Firewall of China or The Emperor’s new clothes? But, the news from China has not been good. See Boing Boing where Cory Doctorow posts, China blocks LiveJournal, And, Wired for more:
“The Great Firewall is a filtering system that sits on the edge of China’s connection to the internet, and also in software installed at PCs at internet cafes. It looks for a wide range of sites that the government finds unsavory — a list that changes from month-to-month — and which includes everything from online pornography to sites holding discussions on democracy or Tibet.
Livejournal, with its diverse user base and highly personal voice, has plenty of content that might trouble Chinese censors. Xiao says the site’s block could be the result of a single blog with content that China’s Communist regime finds objectionable. ”
And, in another post Tuesday, from Xeni Jardin, No more Net Cafes , 113K is enough: “China’s state-controlled news agency Xinhua reported today that 14 government departments, including the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information Industry, have issued a notice decreeing ‘local governments must not sanction the opening of new Internet bars’ this year.”
There will be an opportunity to make a statement against Chinese Government actions and click and play in solidarity when Tibetan exiles protest Chinese rule via ‘net video, March 10:
“Tibetan exiles around the world and their supporters plan to use YouTube to commemorate ‘global uprising day’ this Saturday, March 10.”
Jardin writes, “Videos already uploaded include pilgrims, rap songs, statements from monks, rants from young Tibetan exiles in the United States, and words from ama-la (grandmas). Looks like the revolution(s) will be televised after all. Link. (Thanks, Nathan Freitas / Students For a Free Tibet)
Image below: at left, screengrab from a statement by a man identified as a Tibetan pilgrim. At right, Ama Adhe (Adhe Tapontsang), “one of Tibet’s longest-serving political prisoners. Here’s an Amazon link to her autobiography.”
Technorati Tags: SecondLife, Web3D, Virtual, China, HiPiHi
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