Yesterday, some discussion sprang up on the metered vs unmetered status of Second Life bandwidth to Big Pond users. Telstra/BigPond is Australia's largest ISP, and for a variety of largely historical and political reasons, bandwidth in Australia is metered - essentially charged by the number of bytes received (this is the case in more countries than not). That makes any site or service that is unmetered unbearably attractive to local Internet users.

Due to some confusion with conflicting statements on the Big Pond website about what is and is not metered bandwith insofar as Second Life is concerned, we contacted the Big Pond staff to get a definitive answer, and got one quite promptly.

Major Australian Internet Service Provider Telstra/Bigpond has expanded their already large Second Life presence, The Pond. Formerly weighing in at 11 sims, The Pond has expanded to 13, adding Pondagon and Pondi Beach.

Pondagon is designated for residential rentals (since The Pond opened up a rentals program a few months ago, it has proven to be very successful). Approximately half the lots in Pondagon were leased in the first 12 hours. Currently rentals in Pondagon are only open to members of the Friends of The Pond group, but that will open up shortly.

The Pond's three orientation sims have been converted to also support some rental-commercial plots, although at a slightly higher cost than residential.

Pondi Beach doesn't officially open until the beginning of December, so we'll be hearing more about that soon, along with additional plans for expansion.

Iris Ophelia, Fashion Writer, Talented Photographer, and Sweetheart Extraordinaire, was recently interviewed live on in-world interview program Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe. In it, she's as adorable as I know her to be (full disclosure: she's a friend), and converses on a range of subjects including fashion, blogging, and her photography.

Don't mind the voice lag; the interview was done over Skype, with Iris in Canada and Paisley in Australia. It's an all-too-brief glimpse into the mind of someone I wish I could spend more time with. Enjoy!

"A currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and services." - Wikipedia.

"'Fictional Currency' is used as game tokens and have no monetary value in and of themselves and as a result are not be taxable as income. In most cases a fictional currency constitutes a limited license right for use by account holders and is subject to the terms of each Fictional Currency provider. The World Stock Exchange supports the "Linden Currency" (Linden Dollar, LND$, L$, Lindens) and the "World Internet Currency" (WIC, WICS, W$)." - LukeConnell Vandeverre, Chairman and CEO, World Stock Exchange.

Vandeverre is right ... and wrong when he says "have no monetary value". You see, as long as he sticks to first party tokens (W$, in this case) he's right. We're just talking game tokens. However, any interaction with Linden Dollars (L$) or other currencies messes up the statement.

If you're an Australian, you know the ABC's (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) program, Four Corners. You probably nod and look thoughtful thinking of the in-depth coverage of important and sensitive issues covered by this long-running Australian icon.

If you're anything like me, though, that's probably tempered by some cringing at the pieces by Ticky Fullerton -- to be honest, I mostly laugh, but I do rather feel sorry for the people and organisations she covers. Four Corners is airing a piece by Fullerton on Second Life this coming Monday.

Okay, the straight-up news: An Australian company called Yoick is in the process of creating a peer-to-peer (P2P), user-generated world(s) called Outback Online. You can read the initial story here, and here is Yoick's website, where you can sign up for updates.

Okay, now to my unabashed incredulity. P2P shared world? Really? How would ... I can't ... Seriously? I've tried P2P file sharing, and my compy slows to a crawl. That's without any kind of interaction with another user whose computer will likely be experiencing the same kind of problems. This made me giggle: "Second Life has a low-res look to it whereas sometimes I just stand there in the rain and watch the sun go down in World of Warcraft because it is so beautiful," he says. "Our stuff is rich, 3-D and graphically more like something you'd see in World of Warcraft." Uh huh. It looks really nice on your optimized systems, I'm sure, running on your network of computers mere feet away from each other, on your trusted intranet.

If there's something I'm missing here, O Those in the Know, where this is actually something possible, please enlighten me. Until then, I'll scoff away.

(Via theage.com.au)

Australian residents and Second Life residents who are fans of Australia have displayed a huge vote of confidence for the move by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, not American) to establish a presence in Second Life. Ideas have flooded in through various means: the SLOz forum posting, the ABC friends group and directly through Abi Goldflake, the ABC's representative in Second Life. The ABC Friends group itself - created only a week or so ago for the purpose of collecting together interested Residents - now has 60 members.

Since the ABC's own team had done a substantial amount of brainstorming before the fact and with ideas from residents coming in so fast, building on ABC Island was able to commence on Sunday, 28th January. At this point, an art director has been brought on board to draw the project together. It is estimated at this point that the project will be complete within a couple of months.

The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) has expressed an interest in creating a virtual space within SL. But do they have an understanding of what Second Lifers need, or of what they will be receptive to?

The ABC is Australia's non-profit public broadcaster. The ABC provides television, radio and online services to metropolitan and rural areas in Australia, as well as international services. The commercial arm of the ABC raises revenue through publishing, retailing, content sales and resource hire of media such as books, DVDs, and magazines, and actively promotes Australian music, and stages concerts and events. The ABC also maintains a limited content-sharing relationship with the BBC.

While the title of this article may be confusing to our international readers and anyone who has never eaten in a Denny's, the fact remains: The Australian Open will be receiving the virtual treatment today, courtesy of IBM.

IBM will be using real-time plotting and tracking data from the matches themselves to simulate actual play within SL, somewhat similar to the previously-covered Home Run Derby. The hope is that this will provide an immersive experience for those unable to attend the actual tournament. However, judging by the video hosted here, you'll need the absolute top-of-the-line specs on your computer to experience anything even remotely like reality. That's even if you've received an invitation to the event, which IBM has made a private affair.

(Via the Sydney Morning Herald)

Ah, I've found it: the Australian TV tech show 'Beyond Tomorrow' did a short piece on SL, and it's available on YouTube. The tone of the segment seems to bounce back and forth between 'hey, isn't this interesting', and 'hey, this is weird', but it's an upbeat look at the world, at any rate.

There's a brief interview with Kim Anubis, in which we get to see her RL self (bravo to you, Kim; most residents jealously guard their RL selves!) as she sits at her computer, talking about commerce in SL. There's also some moments of speaking one on one with Philip Linden, though the clip shown on YouTube strangely doesn't mention his name at all... perhaps it was said before the author of the clip began recording.

There's also a strange color cast to some of the video, but it's likely because of recording what's on-screen by using a video camera aimed at the television set. It's nothing too serious, and it only crops up some of the time. You can watch the video on YouTube here.