Austin Tate's Blog

The Second Life viewer from version 6.5.1.566335 (15-Dec-221) now includes by default a facility to create 360° Snapshots. I have usually uploaded the resulting 360 panorama (equirectangular) to Flicker where they can be directly viewed and panned round, and just added a link to the Flickr image in my WordPress blog posts. But Inara Pey in one of her helpful blog posts has described how to directly embed 360° Snapshots in WordPress posts…

https://modemworld.me/2021/12/19/embedding-second-life-360-images-directly-into-wordpress/

EMBEDDING A 360º IMAGE UPLOADED TO WORDPRESS VIA THE CLASSIC EDITOR

1. Use the 360º viewer to take your image.
2. Upload the image to your WordPress Media Library.
3. Edit the image via your Media Library, and copy the URL as it is given.
4. Edit the post in which you wish to embed the 360º image and position the cursor when you wish the image to appear.
5. Switch to the Text view (click the tab at the top right of the WordPress text editor), and enter the following shortcode: [vr url=path-to-photo view=360] Where “path-to-photo” is the 360º image URL.
6. Switch back to Visual (click the tab at the top right of the WordPress text editor), the shortcode should appear as you’ve typed it.
7. Once you have created the 360º image shortcode:
   • Use the WordPress Preview option to check the layout of your post / page and that the image is properly displayed.
   • Use the Full Screen toggle option in the bottom right corner of the image to expand it to a full screen view and then click the icon again to return to the post / page view.
   • If you see a message similar to “Enter valid URL” or “failed to load the VR scene”, check to made sure you have added the shortcode and / or image URL correctly.

Here is an example using this method…

More details here: https://wordpress.com/support/embedding-360-photos-and-virtual-reality-vr-content/

Ah.. there seems to be no capability to add a “shortcode” block in our WordPress. To be investigated.

https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/shortcode-block/

Hypergrid Safari (HG Safari) is a group formed in 2014 as a successor the original Hypergrid Adventurers Club formed in 2010. members gather at a jump off location on OpenSim grids and visit a couple of grid or sites at each meeting, speaking with the developers or owners of those facilities.

After a gap of a couple of years the HG Safari group will begin their travels again in early 2022 (blog post)… and this time they have a jump off location on OSGrid in the “HG Safari” region…

Join the Discord discussion for the group via https://discord.com/invite/TAVjSZqF.

The HG safari group visited Ai Austin and the Openvue and AiLand grids in 2o14… see this blog post… https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2014/11/26/hypergrid-safari-visit-to-openvue-and-ailand/

This blog post is to provide resources and access links for initiatives related to virtual worlds and metaverse interoperability including avatar appearance and world content.

I have previously blogged about OpenSimulator as an exemplar for some of the capabilities that will be useful for Metaverse platforms and services. This includes some resources, links and information on an experiment in 2008 on interoperability between Second Life and openSim. See this blog post:

Open Metaverse – the OpenSimulator Contribution, Blog Post August 14, 2015by Austin Tate.

Open Metaverse Interoperability Group

https://omigroup.org – Bridging virtual worlds by designing and promoting shared protocols.

This blog post is to provide resources and access links for the UK programme on “Enabling Advanced Autonomy through Human-AI Collaboration”.

https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/advanced-autonomy/

This blog post is to provide resources and access links for Decentraland – https://decentraland.org.

• decentraland.org
• Decentraland Market
• Decentraland FAQ

Temporary (Guest) login is possible without registering, but the avatar appearance, etc is only kept locally in your browser for that mode. Full facilities require that you link a cryptocurrency wallet to the account, though that can have zero funds in it.

The Metamask Wallet is suggested by Decentraland, but you can also log in via e-mail using Fortmatic (validated via a GitHub account) which provides a wallet ID.

• https://docs.decentraland.org/examples/get-a-wallet/
• Move Decentraland MANA between Ethereum and Polygon
• https://metamask.io/
• https://fortmatic.com/ (sign up with Github)

A Second Life build by Hera (zee9) entitled “Gotham” as it might appear in the early Batman days in the 1940s or 1950s. Visit via the arrival portal on the Cloud Lake region via https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cloud%20Lake/98/100/395 and then click on the board to Gotham… http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cloud%20Lake/129/124/2213

Hera also created wonderful atmospheric Second Life builds of Whitby (see this blog post – 17-Oct-2021) and Whitechapel (see this blog post – 17-Nov-2021)

A Second Life build in November 2021 by Hera (zee9) entitled “Whitechapel” as it appears in Victoria era (late 1980s) around the time of the Jack the Ripper murders. Visit via the arrival portal on the Cloud Lake region via https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cloud%20Lake/98/100/395 and then click on the board to Whitechapel… http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cloud%20Lake/136/108/35

Hera also created a wonderful atmospheric Second Life build of Whitby – see this blog post (17-Oct-2021).

See also Inara Pey’s Blog Post on Hera’s Whitechapel in Second Life (14-Nov-2021).

The Network on Air free streaming evening on 25th Noveber 2021 of Gerry Anderson’s “You’ve Never Seen These”… https://watch.networkonair.com/you-ve-never-seen-these.html (see also gerryanderson.com) included colourised episodes of Supercar (Pirate Plunder) and Fireball XL5 (The Granatoid Tanks).

Colour Clip for Episode Pirate Plunder

Supercar and Fireball XL5 in Colour! | You’ve Never Seen These | Supercolourisation

The Royal Society of New South Wales and the Learned Academies Forum in Australia ran a forum entitled “Power & Peril in the Digital Age” on 4th and 5th November 2021.

A child is born 04.11.21… That child enters a complex digital world that brings both power and peril. Join us as we explore how technology, health, security and industry in a digital age will impact our child’s journey as he/she approaches 2030, 2040, 2050 and beyond.

Cathy Foley, Australia’s Chief Scientist, used the fictional timeline of the 1960s “Jetsons” future family animated series to bring to life the timeline as the Jetsons was based in 2062 and as George Jetson, the father in the family would be born about now!

This blog post is to provide resources and access links for Alethea.ai.

White paper – https://alethea.gitbook.io/alethea-ai-whitepaper/

This blog post is to provide resources and access links for Microsoft Mesh (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mesh).

Mesh for Microsoft Teams – Microsoft News – 2-Nov-2021.

Microsoft bought AltspaceVR as part of this development. See my earlier blog post on AltspaceVR in 2015.

The iconic campaigning Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior ship sailed into the River Clyde in Scotland on 1st November to join other climate crisis activists encouraging world leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) to commit to changes necessary to protect the climate of Planet Earth.

Dolphins swim alongside Rainbow Warrior as it approaches Glasgow to send an inter-species message to COP26… [image from onboard Rainbow Warrior]

Current Location of Rainbow Warrior can be tracked on MarineTraffic.com…
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:225703/

Channel 4 News (TV UK) report from onboard Rainbow Warrior on 1st November 2021…
https://www.channel4.com/news/cop26-onboard-greenpeace-ship-rainbow-warrior-as-it-sails-to-glasgow

https://conference.opensimulator.org/

Links to my blog posts on earlier OpenSimulator Community Conferences.. https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/?s=oscc

This blog post is to provide resources and access links for Meta (meta.com – previously Facebook) and its Metaverse developments.

Announcement at Facebook Connect 2021 on 28th October 2021: Mark Zuckerberg Talk (YouTube):

Keynote by John Carmack at Facebook Connect 2021:

• Meta – YouTube Channel, Twitter
• Facebook Reality Labs Videos
• Other video presentations at Connect 2021.
• Ars Technica Commentary on John Carmack Keynote on 29th October 2021.
• Raph Koster musings on the Oculus sale to Facebook in 2014 and Metaverse futures… still applies in 2021.
• Blog Post on Meta by David Burden (Daden) on 29th October 2021.
• >a href=””>Blog Post on “Meta Isn’t New. The Future Started in 2003” (with Second Life) by Phaylen Fairchild on 30th October 2021.

Metaverse – Resources

• Wikipedia – Metaverse (and timeline of Virtual Worlds)
• Teleporting between Second Life and OpenSimulator – Experiments – 2008 – Open Grid Protocol (Linden Lab Wiki Page)
• Second Life, OpenSimulator, Firestorm Viewer, Firestorm VR Mod
• Wishlist for Next Gen Virtual World – Blog Post by Austin Tate, 4th April 2015.
• Open Metaverse – the OpenSimulator Contribution – Blog Post by Austin Tate, 14th September 2015.

Social Web + Virtual World + Content + People

Austin Tate Briefing on I-Room and its Applications to Operations Centres and Simulated Training, 29-Aug-2015 [PDF of Presentation]

Presence

A sense of presence across platforms and experiences is identified as an important aspect of the metaverse/virtual worlds. We have done work on Virtual Distributed Collaboration across platforms and reported on some experience of experiments in this area in the following paper:

Tate, A., Hansberger, J.T., Potter, S. and Wickler, G. (2014) Virtual Collaboration Spaces: Bringing Presence to Distributed Collaboration, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, Assembled Issue 2014, Volume 7, Number 2, May 2014 [PDF Format].

Haunted Hollow 2021

https://secondlife.com/destination/haunted-hollow-2021
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chestnut%20Hills/144/219/2502/

More Halloween Experiences in Second Life

https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/9162-highlights-from-the-second-life-destination-guide-10152021/

A Second Life build in October 2021 by Hera (zee9) entitled “Whitby Birth of Dracula”. Visit via the arrival portal on the Cloud Lake region via http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cloud%20Lake/17/241/2657 and then click on the board to Whitby… http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cloud%20Lake/205/74/28

See also Inara Pey’s Blog Post on Whitby in Second Life (16-Oct-2021).

A Drink at the Spouter Tavern in Whitby

“AI Fest 4: Trustworthy AI” is organised by the UK Dstl on 12th to 13th October 2021 using the IVent online conferencing platform and Slido for Q&A and Polling. The meeting sets out to explore the transformational impact of artificial intelligence on defence and security and discuss the topic of ‘trustworthy AI’.

https://aifest.online-event.co/

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/global-ai-experts-to-present-at-dstls-virtual-ai-fest

At the request of the organisers information and speaker content is not shared on open social media. But the above links should provide access to information shared on-line by the organisers following the event.

The De Lacy Motor Club (D.L.M.C) in Yorkshire has been running rallies, car trials and driving tests for over 50 years as noted in my previous blog post. After a year out in 2020 due to COVID-19 the Seven Dales Heritage Run was run again in 2021. As usual family members entered the event again this year for a nice run through North Yorkshire. Unfortunately we could not enter ourselves this year. But hopefully we will be back mi 2022.

Event Secretary Steve Cowley was kind enough to give us an event plate and the road book so we can try the route ourselves sometime.

On 6th October 2021 there was a Second Life Book Club get together with SciFi author Derek Künsken – https://my.secondlife.com/derekkunsken – moderated by Draxtor.

Expo 2020 (https://www.expo2020dubai.com) opened in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates with an opening ceremony on 30th September 2021 and will be open for six months from 1st October 2021 to 31st March 2022. A “Virtual Expo 2020” runs alongside the physical real world expo on a range of platforms and including online events and experiences. More details at https://virtualexpo.world/.

A PDF Brochure with images of the architecture and pavilions at Expo 2020 is available here [PDF Format, 28 Pages, 7.5MB]

United Kingdom Pavilion, Opportunity District

https://virtualexpo.world/opportunity-district/united-kingdom

Expo TV (Live with Features Each Day)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeiPE91K10g

Live Chat Plays

Tours led by an Expo 2020 guide as he or she walks round some pavilions and facilities meeting those involved, watching live performances, etc. Polls, audience feedback via chat (Twitch.tv login required) provide guidance and audience interest feedback.

Virtual Expo Platform

The platform used for the front end user experience for Virtual Expo 2020 appears to be “Beehive” (https://liveunion.co.uk/beehive/) or something very much like it (see this Beehive Use Case for the Global Youth Engineering Climate Conference 2021).

Expo 2020 in Minecraft