An extravaganza with a magnitude yet unseen before is how the seventh birthday bash of Second Life this June 21–July 3 has been shaping up to be. Not even the “strategic restructuring” that was announced by Linden Lab (LL) on June 9 resulting in an anticipated 30 percent reduction in its staff could put a dampener on the celebrations for SL’s seventh birthday (SL7B). Yes siree, mademoiselles, if you please, SL7B flies high under its thematic “Unexpected Collaboration” banner.
For one thing, it was announced by M Linden from the metaverse’s San Francisco HQ that SL is as robust as ever. For May, it was reported that over 1 million residents logged in, resulting in 37 million hours of in-world sojourns in 31,800 enabled regions and close to US53 million worth of transactions. A record SL year for 2010 is hence expected, as the cited report came on the heels of a record first quarter performance, auguring further for a really festive SL7B. Transactions among users, for instance, hit an US$160 million as of end-March, 30 percent higher than its year-ago level and an unprecedented quarterly record in SL’s seven-year history.
Resident empowerment is the core and mainspring behind SL7B designed to showcase and celebrate Second Life as a creative and social medium among residents hitherto strangers before, and do so at magnitudes never seen or imagined before. An overflow of resident-applicants vied for the free 1024 m2 (234 prims) exhibitors’ space in the SL7B venue that spans all of 20 sims. This venue has been described as a “verdant cityscape” representing the virtual world that SL residents themselves have built in unexpected collaborations among strangers-turned-friends over seven years.
The names of each of the 20 sims in the SL7B venue at the Main Grid are indicative of the potent mix that the creative talents that bring into the metaverse. Five of the regions, for instance, are called Sideways, Visionary, Marvelous, Uncanny, and Rare. Another quintet of sims are named as Absurdity, Paradox, Incredible, Contrary, and Fantastic. During the nearly two-week birthday bash, a slew of teleports and landmarks are likewise imminent for such SL7B sites as Imagination, Phenomenal, Contradiction, Extraordinary, Miraculous, Enigma, Upsidedown, Supernatural, Astounding, and Unique.
In addition to the exhibits at these 20 regions, SL community participation and cooperation comes to the fore in entertainment events lined between June 23 and June 27. Expect the SL7B revelries to hit fever-pitch levels as some of Second Life’s top DJs and live performers have signed up for these events. Count-in too the indefatigable efforts of an army of SL7B greeter-volunteers, and the seventh birthday bash of Second Life goes into history as an affair worth all the inspiration and remembering.
Read the official wiki about SL7B
About the authorTroy Aristocarnas is a wanderlust photo-journalist in SL weaving tales of adventure in a tapestry of avatars and awe-inspiring sims, wielding nothing but fingers dexterous at camming to capture some magical SL moments in the raw, unpretentious, and sometimes unforgiving. He's joined HeartBeatSL magazine recently as music editor with further hopes to link up with souls kindred to my quests.