LINKS OF THE WEEK!

Notes from the new new world...

Linden Lab recently opened up a new continent to the North, and the SL blogosphere is buzzing with reportage fresh from that unsullied land, including here, here, here, and here.

Meanwhile, back at the intersection of Second Life and our world, Gwyneth Llewelyn has another thoughtful entry on her blog, this one contemplating the coming effects of internationalization on the culture of SL:

I still think this is not a problem - yet. I believe, however, that very soon there will be "critical mass" for non-native English speakers. If a certain language group reaches around 1000 members, they'll be able to live on their own community, never to travel beyond their environment. They will announce events in the Event list - in French, in Korean, or even in Portuguese or Spanish. Their scripts and objects will have instructions in their native tongues, and be sold mostly to native speakers of other languages besides English. These will be tiny exceptions at the beginning, but the exponential growth of all things Internet-related may well mean that in a few years we'll have a "fragmented" virtual world, with signs "On parle Français ici" or "Man spricht Deutsch" warning potential travellers that they have now crossed the border into territories where English is simply not the "major language"...

And I just added four new SL bloggers to my ring on the bottom left: Jillian Callahan, Nala Galatea, Shiryu Musashi (the race car driver mentioned above), and Ryerro Rocco. I also added my own del.icio.us page directly on the left-- most links related to Second Life, virtual worlds, and computer games. If you come across any links you think would fit there, please e-mail them to me.