Really

First mention of Second Life in a non-geek oriented comic strip I’ve seen:

Reminds me of reading comics from the 90s where the punchline depends on how slow it is to load web pages.

I suppose we could argue about whether the mention is yet another sign of the growing spread of Second Life, or, since the joke depends on SL being something weird and unfamiliar, it is a sign that virtual worlds are not catching on with mainstream audiences.

Little Dee - a comic strip with hidden depths!

I attended two presentations at the SL Book Fair yesterday: An overview of the THiNC book and press, and a panel discussion on book technologies. Toneless Tomba presented THiNC books, and he also joined the panel with competitors Neo Rebus and Falk Bergman, with the discussion led by Maddyyy Schnooks.

THiNC produces a book “press” that enables users to sell and distribute books. I’ve heard that THiNC books can be hard to setup (but have no direct experience), and from the presentation my impression was that any difficulties are the result of ensuring that the books are secure. Apparently, including the textures that make up the book pages in the book itself would enable users to easily copy and distribute them to others.

Security came up in the panel discussion as well. Maddyyy Schnook pointed out that textures are never secure in SL, and can be easily copied, if you know how. One possible way to avoid texture theft would be to enable prims to display textures loaded from a URL; a feature Maddyyy claimed to be in the works. I asked the panel what other features they want to see in the future, and both Maddyyy and Neo Rebus mentioned more interactivity, for example being able to fold corners or scribble notes in the margin. CivilE Writer, in the audience, asked for a way to export books to a handheld or other device, essentially making it portable.

The discussion did not get very far in exploring ways to extend the notion of “books” in virtual world. The consensus seemed to be that books were an interface familiar and comfortable to users, so the best approach, for now, is to try to reproduce them as faithfully as possible. I’m more of the opinion that books in SL and virtual worlds will evolve to be more like the Ivory Tower of Primitives than a simulated stack of bound paper. However, the interest in the SL Book Fair shows that there is still plenty of life left in the book technology we are familiar with, and we’ll probably have book-like objects in virtual worlds for a long time to come.

Sunday is the last day of the Second Life Book Fair. Jilly Kidd, Selina Greene, and Roman Zeffirelli and the others have done an amazing job putting everything together. If you haven’t done so already, make sure you check out the more than 40 displays by various book publishers and authors at the Vision Publishing Village.

The events scheduled for Sunday look really good, too (all times SL time or PDT):

7am Podcasting your Literary Work 101 - In this half-hour presentation by Sam Chupp, aka Alexander Basiat in SL, Mr. Chupp will be happy to provide you with information about the basics of podcasting and give you pointers as to how you might begin creating your own literary podcast. There will be a Q&A session afterward.

8am Tricom podcast presents…Bestselling author, Lisa Jackson on podcast and live Q&A talking about her new book, ABSOLUTE FEAR

11am Thinc demonstration - Toneless Tomba, creator of the Thinc. book makes a rare appearance to demonstrates how to make a Thinc book - one of the leading inworld book formats. and answers all your questions about publishing in SL.

12pm Book technologies discussion - A rare oppotunity to be involved with slguides owner madddyyy schnook in a discussion concerning technology of books/ebooks/information transportation from avatar to avatar.

2pm Talk by Montag Alacrity and Sweetsweet Mincemeat, authors of THE UNOFFICIAL TOURISTS’ GUIDE TO SECOND LIFE, published by Macmillan. Followed by Q&A and signing
Hope to see you there!