AROUND THE GRID - the OracL Newsletter
(an irregular publication)

#04

OPENLIFE IN THE METAVERSE MEDIA

In the last few months, Openlife has been in the media and if you're a follower of the OL Forum you'll have seen a number of articles and interviews that have been posted to a thread called Openlife News Around the Metaverse.

These include articles in the Metaverse Journal, Prim Perfect and on Joe Essid's blog. Shai did an interview with a group from the Washington University Virtual Campus, and recently spoke on Friday Night Live to a limited audience (due to problems with the radio feed), though this is being re-done as a podcast in the coming weeks.

There will be more in various media over the coming months, so keep your eye out, and if you come across something recent (and I underscore "recent") you think we should all see, post it to the OL Forum.

As OL nears the end of the Beta phase in its development and things stabilise and are rounded off, it made sense to a group of residents to start looking at ways to increase population numbers.

From the 3DX end, Sakai's happy enough with the grid now to consider promoting it, and 3DX have been madly working on the grid infrastructure and more latterly the website - improving the inter-relationship between the two alongside further functionality inworld. Each weekly meeting has had Sakai listing more developments completed and more to happen in the coming updates. Everyone is now more prepared for an influx of newcomers and returnees than has been the case previously.

From the residents' side a number of things have begun.

We already had the long-standing Virtually Live Events running live music every Saturday from 8:30pm UTC with Surreal Numbers at the helm of a team of people - bringing great music to residents. If you want to know more talk to Surreal and if you're a musician/singer and would like to perform, contact Shai Khalifa.

Eureka! the Grid-Wide Treasure Hunt was started in January and has been a great way for residents and newcomers alike to explore the grid while collecting free items along the way. To get your regions or shop or parcel included in the next hunt, contact Grimley Graves inworld.

There's a regular DJ Dance Party each Friday evening from 8pm on Loftlore and hosted by Balanore Starstrider, for everyone to kick back and enjoy.

Abraham Ferryhill holds regular monthly Roleplaying Sessions on Borderwatch. There are 2 each month - one in Finnish and a second in English. Abe would love to hear from anyone who'd like to join in, and Borderwatch is a region custom made for mediaeval roleplaying.

There's also Fishing at Borderwatch and Skating on Danaus available all the time.

If you have any activity or regular event you hold or provide, please the OracL know and we'll help to promote it. You can email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or you can IM Shai Khalifa inworld.

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WHATS GOING ON WITH ORACL?
OracL is hoping to take a more active role in OL life, and will be hosting the inworld podcast of the Friday Night Live interview when it's organised.

The OracL office can be found on Tropicana and further development in the office will be underway soon. Now scripts are fully functioning, there will be a number of goodies we can add to the office which will add more interactivity.

There will also be an assessment done of some parts of the website, so you may see some changes here over the coming months as we upgrade the underlying Joomla software - hopefully for the better.

A NEW ADDITION is a page called Openlife Regions & Parcels which will list regions & parcels, the owners/managers/tenants and a description of what's on them and why. The main purpose is to have a resource for those who'd just like to log directly into a region, or who would like to know a bit about a region before heading out to explore it or look for something.

To have your region included, add to the Comments at the bottom, and I will keep the main page up to date, including links to any Classifieds you may have that are associated with your region. If you're listing a Parcel please include the co-ordinates. You can also include pictures or you can send them to the OracL team via our Contact Us page.

Please let us know what you'd like to see and what you don't think works for OracL. We'll consider everything, and you'll get a big thanks if we decide to include your idea.

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A NOTE FROM SHAI

Firstly, I'd like to welcome all our new members. March has seen an upsurge in the number of new people not only to the grid, but also to the OL-associated websites. Namely OracL and Pants's Openlife Chat. Please remember that OracL is for you the OL residents.

The articles posted on OracL can be commented on by members, and in this way the bank of knowledge held in these pages will grow and be renewed.

If you have anything you'd like to add as an article yourself, there's the Submit an Article link in the User Menu. We're always happy to receive informative articles from people. If you're worried your English isn't up to it, I can do the relevant edit for you if you request. Also, if you'd like to translate any of the existing articles, this is alao something we here at OracL would most appreciate.

On the site you can do a number of things to grow OracL yourself.

• Members can add their events to the Calendar for everyone to see - member or not - so your event is not double-booked inworld with someone else's.
• Advertise your products, land, shops or houses for rent or services in the Classifieds, adding up to 10 pictures.
• Create your groups, provide information about you and your OL, pass messages, post videos or pictures etc in the Community section.
• Comments and posts on the Forum always provide good info in an informal way.

Thank you for being a member of OracL and we - me and Eli - hope you enjoy and get use from what we offer you here.

:) Shai

THE PHAEDRAN PROJECT

I'm going to take a bit of license here and promote my own project. It's been a labour of love over the past 4 and a half years since I began it in SL as the Numidia Project.

I really love fantasy, and the virtual world provided the chance for me to build something from my own imagination rather than from someone else's. So with my build partner Jerry, we began the regions of Numidia and Zanth in SL. In order to put context to the elements of the build, I began to weave a story, which quickly provided inspiration for the build.

On relocating to OL in 2008, I realised the building freedoms of the grid offered me so much more scope - not only in the building, but also in the story as one seems to feed the other in a symmetry of reciprocity.

The website solved a number of publishing problems for me. A book would need to be linear in structure, but the story wasn't. A book would mean I had to get in and write, then I'd be stuck with it - it would be too constricting.

The story itself is in 3 parallel layers and would require a great deal of literary acrobatics to do justice to in a single book.

But to put it all on the web meant I could write stories, characters, and background as they occurred for me. The whole thing provides a far more rich world that I hope will inspire others to contribute to. You can find the history, the races, social structure, beliefs, magic origins, and much more to flesh out the picture.

My hope is that you the public will be sparked to contribute, either in stories of your own within the world, images illustrating moments in time, characters or events, suggestions or even objects for the inworld 3D spaces.

Anyone can visit Phaedran and Zanith which are one layer of the story - and the Museum of Phaedran Antiquities on Creek which is another. I'd love to meet you inworld and show you the virtual Phaedran world, or read your contributions on the website. Please feel free.

:) Shai Khalifa

EUREKA!

The Grid-Wide Treasure Hunt

If you have any suggestions for Eureka, please post them to the dedicated OracL Forum thread.

Inclusion of a region, parcel, shop or location is done by contacting Grimley Graves inworld. He will provide you with a set of participation rules, and before the next hunt, a pack for you to set up on your designated area.