Democracy in Action

While not quite democracy -- and actually I have never been sure that TRUE democracy works anyway -- the Foundation Residents weekend meeting with Sakai was both well attended and informative. That's me in purple -- standing by an "away" Osiris (wink). These are my impressions and thoughts -- simply as a historical reference for myself.

The meetings have been going on since the beginning when they first held them under trees and sitting on the ground as that was the only choice at the time. They will continue as a way for the people IN world to have a say in what happens on the OLG. That is the intent anyway and hopefully that will be the historical record.

Money is planned to come on line in a test form in about two weeks. Then after a couple weeks of testing and if everything is going OK the money spent will be "rolled back" and we will have a real currency exchange. I am a little confused here, but it will be spelled out on the website so I am sure we will all be smarter soon. Only landholders will be able to take money OUT. This may simply be because we already have financial info on file.

Avatar 2 is still planned and the direction we are heading in. The new 3D mesh avatars may be implemented during the first quarter of next year. A personal note here -- there seemed to be a lot of underlying text in the discussion as Avatar 2 right now really doesn't seem to be ready. For one it is ugly as sin and admittedly difficult for new folks to grasp. These things will need to be worked out for it to come into its own.

I, personally, see some problems here. The software used to make the meshes (unless there is some freeware that I haven't heard of) is terrifically expensive and reportedly has a huge learning curve. After learning Flash and refusing to do sculpties I doubt I will venture into that design area. This moves me from content creator and leaves me an end user.

I have no problem with that role, but I am wondering how many content creators will actually be able and willing to put in the time and the expense to make both clothes and "skins" and things for the new model. LOTS of folks have Photoshop or a clone of sort and there is GIMP when needed. No giant expenditure is required. While I agree it may be good to move away from the LL model, I am wondering whether Avatar 2 will actually be a viable alternative for a year or so.

The companies website states that they will be "enhancing the realXtend avatar. This project phase is scheduled to be finished in June 2008." HMMM. I know not the plans of the inner circle. I don't need to know. I don't want to know. Still, right now no RL woman is going to be happy looking like the current Avatar 2 models. They are downright horrible and pretty much hairless (wink). So we'll see. I'm not deleting any of my texture clothes and prim shoes yet.

The M+15 designation came up again with some folks still not getting it even after an explanation. No overt sexual images in any public places was the message. There seem to still be some gray areas and that may very well be because the LAWS are very gray. No news there.

There are lots of things in the works in the background that we don't see including work on Groups (which will be BASIC for now). I got the sense that you would be able to use them to rent land etc. with group members being able to place objects etc. but that not all the functions available in other worlds would be implemented now.

Land in clusters can be divided and sold right now by contacting support with the particulars. In the future (not too distant) that will be automatic. Mainland regions cannot be sold but can be divided if needed. Again contact support with your request (and I think the reason you have for wanting the division).

An important point was that if you have any of the "group can do" boxes checked in the About Land Tabs that the GROUP right now is ALL the citizens so basically you are saying anyone can build even if you think you have that turned off (and it is showing that on the viewer toolbar). So some housework might be in order. I did mine. Autoreturn doesn't work but manual return is supposed to. (Note: It did NOT work for me at the beginning of the month and I had to find and click and return or delete each object, but that may be fixed now.)

The meeting went well, the sound streamed beautifully and aside from some of us getting caught under the floor as we entered, it was like a real meeting. And of course -- it WAS (wink).