New World Notes is reporting on a rather large protest that's just taken place in Second Life. It appears to be a protest against IBM's cutting of the wages of some of it's Italian workers. Truth be told, because this event happened in SL, it's a bit difficult to tell what the hell it was actually about.

The t-shirt reads, "Please ignore the various flying people and objects behind me".

The union is claiming that 1850 people engaged in the protest. IBM is claiming...well, they're not claiming a whole lot, as the only employee watching the protest promptly disappeared and no one from the company wanted to comment. The Wandering Goblin's only insight on the protest concerns the term "people", as we're constantly uncertain if any humans actually play Second Life. (Our current theory is that transgender aliens from the planet Odious IV are piloting all the SL avatars...but it's just a theory).

I understand what the banana is protesting, but I don't get what the triangle is trying to say.

Of course, wierdness abounded, simply because wierdness is the fuel upon which Second Life runs.

According to this news article posted yesterday in Strategy Page, the US Army is taking advantage of Second Life for training purposes. In the wake of the severe push towards a greater online community they have even cre

I'm convinced that most reporters who write about Second Life have never explored the world themselves. Maybe they read blogs about it or get press releases with screenshots from Linden Labs, but if they had actually "been" to the "3D online digital world," they wouldn't write about it as if it were a normal place, one where going shopping for Reeboks, attacking John Edwards' campaign headquarters, or raping innocent victims are everyday occurrences.

Until I decided to write this column, I had never been to Second Life. I signed up for a screen name months ago, when Second Life was appearing in the news every day, but after choosing my virtual name I had never downloaded the application that would have let me join the fun. I suspected that creating an avatar and exploring the "world" would be time-consuming, without much reward. I was dead right. The other week when I downloaded the program, I discovered just how much of a learning curve there is, and realized what I'd long suspected: Second Life requires far too much effort and expertise to become mainstream. More of what's wrong with Second Life after the jump.

It's Hard…News outlets make it seem like anything goes in Second Life,

Not even the virtual world is safe anymore. Researchers from the University of Nottingham have discovered in a recent study on cyber-bullying that griefing may have negative consequences for users in both Second Life a

There, I said it. Though, for those of you who don’t know me well or what I went through a couple weeks ago, perhaps I should start a the beginning. I wasn’t going to detail this in the blog, but to be honest

A World Of My Own (or, charmingly, AWOMO) will also bear similarities with PlayStation 3's Home. It's a 3D world for gamers, the developer GDI claim, where "launching a game is as simple as walking into a room in one of the many themed buildings in the environment". And, in order to prevent AWOMO becoming just a better-dressed download client, the technology behind it won't force you to wait around while your chosen game downloads onto your PC.

Click read more for details

More interestingly, AWOMO (we're already sold on the acronym) will offer full-blown PC games, not merely browser time-wasters or simple simulations. You'll be able to wander the world, drifting from genre to genre of game by navigating the different districts. And GDI promise that downloading and getting started with a brand new game will take "minutes, not hours."

This is down to some inventive techno-thinking. Instead of supplying the entire game to your hard drive, which often amounts to gigabytes of data, you'll download a "stub." A stub will take only minutes to haul onto your PC, and contains all the fundamental files needed for the game to run. The rest of the game can be downloaded when needed as you pl

ABC Island, the third-most-visited commercial site in the online game that has more than six million members globally, was found as a "bombed, cratered mess" yesterday.

Craig Preston, head of technology for ABC innovation, said only the digital transmission tower was left standing on the island, which cost the ABC tens of thousands of dollars to create.

"It looks like we've had some enormous cyber-bomb set off on our site," Mr Preston said.

"Somebody has nuked us in some way, shape or form, and they've obliterated almost every object on the site."

The online vandalism, called "griefing", took several hours to repair.

The ABC was the first major Australian brand to embrace Second Life, in which people exist in a virtual world where they can buy cyber-goods, own digital islands and interact with other players around the world.

Mr Preston said the ABC was at a loss to identify who had vandalised the site, but the owners of Second Life, California-based Linden Labs, might have digital recordings of the vandalism taking place.

The vandals left logos for sports brands Nike and Puma on the island, prompting speculation that the attack could be the work of a commercial rival jealous of t

ABC Island, the third-most-visited commercial site in the online game that has more than six million members globally, was found as a "bombed, cratered mess" yesterday.

Craig Preston, head of technology for ABC innovation, said only the digital transmission tower was left standing on the island, which cost the ABC tens of thousands of dollars to create.

"It looks like we've had some enormous cyber-bomb set off on our site," Mr Preston said.

"Somebody has nuked us in some way, shape or form, and they've obliterated almost every object on the site."

The online vandalism, called "griefing", took several hours to repair.

The ABC was the first major Australian brand to embrace Second Life, in which people exist in a virtual world where they can buy cyber-goods, own digital islands and interact with other players around the world.

Mr Preston said the ABC was at a loss to identify who had vandalised the site, but the owners of Second Life, California-based Linden Labs, might have digital recordings of the vandalism taking place.

The vandals left logos for sports brands Nike and Puma on the island, prompting speculation that the attack could be the work of a commercial rival jealous of t

Miscreants have hacked into the ABC Island inside the virtual reality world of Second Life, reducing the two-month-old facility to rubble.

The vandalism, which completely wiped out months of painstaking work, was discovered this morning.

Linden Labs, the San Francisco-based company which operated the virtual world, attempted a "rollback" late this afternoon, a procedure which should ensure that most of what was on the island before the attack is restored.

However, it could be several days before the island is reopened to the public.

The head of ABC Innovation, Abigail Thomas, told the abc.net.au website that the facility had been "bombed".

"We will now be looking closely at security measures, investigating how the hackers breached the existing security and, of course, making changes to protect the Island's future development," Ms Thomas said in a statement. "Normal activity will resume in the next day or so."

Virtual "atom bombs" were recently used by the self-styled Second Life Liberation Army against in-world stores owned by Reebok and US retailer American Apparel.

The group claims it was campaigning for more democracy in the virtual world.

In the most infamous of such attacks, vandals

Second Life is being investigated by German police following allegations that some members are trading child abuse images in the online world.
The investigation follows a report by a German TV news programme which uncovered the trading group and members who pay for sex with virtual children.

The police are now trying to identify the Second Life members involved.

Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, said it would help identify users and pass on details to prosecutors.

Jail term

Second Life, as its name implies, is a virtual world in which members create an avatar and then use that character to live out a separate existence.

The investigation was carried out by Nick Schader from the Report Mainz news programme who is also a member of Second Life.

Mr Schader was asked to pay to attend meetings where virtual and real child pornography was being shown.

Members of this group also offered to put him in touch with traders of real child pornography.

The investigation also uncovered so called "age play" groups that revolve around the abuse of virtual children.

Information gathered during the report was passed to the prosecutor's office in Halle who said it hoped to track down the German