warning: this is truly a rambling post
a few weeks ago Hamlet Au wrote an article about a guy doing store layouts with some version of sim-on-a-stick. i have no idea if it was the pseudo-official sim-on-a-stick (patent pending by SpotON3D – kidding!) or if he built it himself. i did not invent SoaS, i just saw it as such an easy way to get people started in OpenSim for zero cost. the easy and free aspects are important to me because Second Life is too expensive to really try out. sure, you can get a free account – but without land to mess around on, you can’t fully explore all the possibilities
when subQuark was speaking at conferences about Second Life for eLearning, i saw people get excited but then never get in-world. at one conference in Texas in 2009, people were standing room only for his session (he had made a five minute loop of Second Life builds that played in the hallways of this conference, so he got loads of publicity for his session) and people stayed for an extra 30 minutes just to talk about Second Life. attendees were clearly fired up and why wouldn’t they be? they saw how straightforward it was to create sets and actors, how easy it was to film, and how fast you could create video for eLearning
BUT . . . you need land to really do this and that’s expensive in Second Life
OpenSim changed all that and when i saw Roger Stark’s tutorial on setting up OpenSim on a USB drive, it showed that you could run a decent version of OpenSim for free (plenty good to give building a try). then through banter on this blog, it became evident that people thought this was an approachable way to try OpenSim – so, as a gag, i grabbed simonastick.com. that was almost 18 months ago!
because of the Hamlet Au story about the store layout guy, i prodded subQuark to blog about his project from last year. he had mentioned it lightly in a previous post but i wanted him to get into it more. subQuark did write about it last week and Hamlet Au picked up the story and that’s awesome because Hamlet is deservedly well respected and this helps get the word out (the entire reason for this rambling)
BUT . . . what i find weird is the “disconnect” i hinted at in last night’s post in which only a niche group within the OpenSim niche seem to know about running sim-on-a-stick (clearly only the innovators and uber smartie pants are informed!) =D
there are some major power users of the stick concept: like Beacara who did the art gallery, Erik N. who networks it to allow a classroom to work concurrently on one stick, and Dorena who uses it with hypergridding
this disconnect is best summed up with Hamlet’s own words
It makes me think there’s a great Kickstarter crowdfunding project here: Develop and distribute OpenSim on a stick customized for use in rapid 3D prototyping.
i read that and was all like “what?” =(
isn’t that what has organically happened over the last year and a half?
Diva makes the D2 Distro for home use, Roger makes a live stick version out of it, then several other people (DreamWalker, Sarge, Breen, WhiteStar, Beacara, Kate B., and almost all of you steady readers) all impact what is now “simonastick.com”
i think more can be done and i’d love to see others offer their own versions or maybe modules to add to it. an example would be the “studio” tools mentioned by Beacara in a post here or maybe some ed-specific OARs like Kate B. has created for her students. i purposely don’t go down the road of adding anything to sim on a stick for two big reasons – one is that i think it should be a blank canvas to provide the bare minimum that allows anyone to put their own mark on it, and two – i know it would be more work for me to keep a more “evolved” version up-to-date and i’d probably fall behind
for example, the nifty New World Studio version of a super easy way to use OpenSim (easier than SoaS, imo) but it’s a few versions behind (0.7.1.1). part of that is beacuse it’s a pain to keep it up to date. keeping it simple, for me, means i am more likely to stay on top of it
so what’s my point?
if someone like Hamlet, who makes a living blogging about virtual worlds, doesn’t know about the work and ideas generated by you that have made sim-on-a-stick what it is today, then how the heck can we expect the mainstream to stumble upon this easy way to dip your toe in virtual worlds?
that’s my fault, for all i know about online metrics and being OCD about getting this momentarily in the top 1.72% of global web traffic (oh yeah, ain’t i da bomb! too hot to touch! =p), i have not applied that same vigor to getting simonastick.com rated highly. for one thing, every version of the site (four of them!) has always been as an image map and that means there’s no text for a search engine to read! derr! =\
so i’ll blog a bit more about it, make the next SoaS site more textual (like the help part, that would bump it up in search), and directly link the soup-to-nuts video right on the site
what do you think needs to be added to the SoaS site to make it “friendlier” to understand for virtual world n00bs? does it assume the user knows more about OpenSim than they probably do?
phew! thanks for bearing with my rambling and thanks to ELQ last night who helped frame this dilemma in my head and a huge thank you to Hamlet for getting the word out to his way larger, and more mainstream, audience =)
ah, the glory days of last summer . . . =p
lol nice rant :D
The SoaS community is growing..it’s really popular. Maybe you should have users write articles – like guest bloggers – on how they’ve used it, offer their insights, even offer help in the comments or a forum, and post this at the SoaS site. Maybe ask Diva and Roger for a piece on their part in it, how they made it work, what they envision for it. Maybe a wiki page so those of us who use it can edit articles in there to create some central help documentation over time.
Heh, I think I mentioned a while back that you don’t seem to realize what an impact SoaS and your work here has had and how important it actually is and could be to the future of Virtual Worlds. You always seem surprised and I don’t really think you should be :)
ELQ
15 Apr 12 at 11:13 am
Something to consider, Ener, the US Copyright system. Some troll could come by, try to patent SoaS and then we’re royally fornicated. Not that we wouldn’t fight, given all this prior art we’ve got, but its something for thought.
And may I suggest the following for the SoaS site?
“Sim-on-a-Stick (SoaS) is a fully functional and modifiable instance of a virtual world using OpenSim open source software on a USB flash drive, or stick.”
That should catch a ton of keywords :-D
Sarge Misfit
15 Apr 12 at 11:44 am
Ask for inbound links. Whenever someone mentions “OpenSim on a USB stick” ask them to link to the website.
I notice when Googling for “OpenSim on a USB stick” a lot of sites come up that are writing about Sim-on-a-Stick — but Sim-on-a-Stick only comes up first when searching for “sim on a stick.”
– Maria
Maria Korolov
15 Apr 12 at 12:05 pm
I think Hamlet is operating in crowd-sourced funding mode at the moment. He first blogged SoaS back in October 2010 but then went through an OpenSim-sceptical phase as he wanted more evidence of its use/benefit. Having picked up on two commercial uses within the last month, he now seems more open to it.
Graham Mills
15 Apr 12 at 12:12 pm
good idea on articles and i will gladly publish anyone’s use of SoaS (even as a personal sexbot twisted NPC perv use)
on the copyright issue, luckily the date soas came online is it’s copyright date for all countries abidding by modern copyright standards (for example, the “all rights reserved” thing was abolished in 1938! yet people still use it)
your definition Sarge is awesome, and i’m gonna stick that in the description meta tag right now!
good idea Maria, now if people would only let me know they used it! i rely heavily on Google alerts for that
great observation Graham and it makes sense when you put it in context of his posts and history! maybe he’ll write a book! (i read his “Making of SL” which was pretty insightful to Linden Lab’s early days and their decisions
Ener Hax
15 Apr 12 at 2:17 pm
Interesting post, Ener. Got my attention and that’s no so easy these days. /me smiles
Thanks Sarg, for “Sim-on-a-Stick (SoaS) is a fully functional and modifiable instance of a virtual world using OpenSim open source software on a USB flash drive, or stick.”
Yordie Sands
15 Apr 12 at 3:13 pm
“warning: this is truly a rambling post”
Fair do’s :)
Disclaimer: with apologies to who I am about to offend. I admit I could research this more but I will fire from the hip.
And fire from the hip hamlet did on that opensim/usb stick story. There is no pragmatic research. Its whatever is thrown accross his desk in a way that needs little research/rewriting. I wonder what the equivilent Virtal World term would be for “Hotel Journalism”?
I have stopped reading hamlet for now. The crowdsourcing stories really get my goat. It seems one a week, and I feel its getting close to being exploited.
Even the US government has a more pragmatic view to taxpayer funded data. IE they make available for free mapping, weather, and other data where many countries still close this off to their own people. Yet Linden Labs take benefit from donations to content creators who in turn enhance the content of Second Life. Its bordering on offensive.
Some good news, Hamlet is running a story today on David Millars efforts. So that provides some balance.
Breen Whitman
15 Apr 12 at 5:50 pm
I think some valid keywords to add into your blog, ensure that the search engines are allowed to scan your web sites (good bots) including Yahoo, Bing (goto MS Bing & add Simonastick.com to it) Google of course and any other you feel are acceptable.
“Portable OpenSim” “Easy OpenSim” “Simulator on USB” “Portable Simulator” don’t forget “Virtual Worlds on USB Stick” & “Portable Virtual World” then we have Simulation & Prototyping and various other permutable keywords & key strings…. Above is quite mixable but correct to use.
BTW: “All Rights Reserved” may have gone the path of the Dodo in the USA but not in many other countries. Although you may seriously want to consider (TM)or (c) for SOAS / Sim on a Stick. Maybe even dropping a licence on it (SOAS Components) which does not interfere with the BSD (OpenSim) GPL/LGPL/LGPLV2 etc (Viewers) Creative Commons 3 for SOAS would likely work, if not FLOSS should certainly cover it… Although Licenses give me a headache and I’m even getting complaints about my use of the WTFPL Licence for some things. We should start a new Licence, the “Poutine Licence: If you have had Poutine & like it, then you can use this as long as this licence & originator/creator & Contributor’s list remains” <>
Can SOAS be improved ? Bet your bippy it could and things could be further simplified for a user to setup and add functionality & features for it’s running & installation. (Local Only, Web Accessible, LAN Accessible (closed internal network), Hypergrid enabled [y/n], Scripting Permission levels, whole pile of stuff could be done.) not to mention some housekeeping functionality, as USB’s are far more limited than an HDD and good housekeeping of log files, caching system optimization etc should be facilitated transparently.
WhiteStar
15 Apr 12 at 6:51 pm
LOL great stuff, WhiteStar! and I thought the use I’m working on was pretty good :) I’ll be linking to you from my blog soon, Ener, when I write up my own latest SoaS project!
ELQ
15 Apr 12 at 7:20 pm
Spot on Sarge with your description of sim-on-a-stick! and I am going to go through the school blog shortly to make sure I have hyper-linked to iliveisl.com in every post that I have missed that mentions sim-on-a-stick.
I love that SoaS it is a blank canvas as the students can then create their own personal sim the way they like it. Now that we have sorted multi-user the separate whole class sim will be modified to suit the project.
Cheers
Kate
Kate Booth
15 Apr 12 at 11:40 pm
I am sitting on the sidelines as a consumer. Reading some blogs, trying to figure out what is happening in the virtual arena. Got my sim on a stick…so what? Now what? So, any info that is available on their website would be useful to folks like me. I am looking for content and the ability to easily transport out of my sim…and bring things back.
I have never operated a server and I don’t know what I would have to do to keep my Sim up and available. I have several old laptops, and i have heard that is one use for them.
So you can see here my noobiness. I appreciate your blog.
Joey
Joey
16 Apr 12 at 9:14 am
Hi Joey, and welcome to the metaverse. Ener’s blog here is a good place. Have you found your way to the OSGrid forums? http://forums.osgrid.org/index.php?sid=f68443a010510193605423f8e41c7892
Also check out twitter. There’s quite a few people using HyperGrid who are tweeting back and forth.
You don’t have to run your sim 24/7, btw, though lots of people do. You can have it unconnected to another grid and use hypergrid to travel.
And there is downloadable content out there. Linda Kellie’s site will come to mind for most people http://www.lindakellie.com/ and there’s also OpenSim Creations at http://opensim-creations.com/
Fleep Grid has a good collection of animations http://fleepgrid.com/store/
:-D
Sarge Misfit
16 Apr 12 at 10:58 am
Thanks Sarge.
I have already found all of the places you mention, except Twitter. I think fleepgrid was very helpful and was one of the first place I went to.
I can’t get any hypergrid functionality from my sim on a stick property. I go to the hypergrid address website and try places over and over, but nothing works.
I got tired of being a smoky cloud on OSGrid and finally stopped going there.
I have contacted two venders about renting land on their sites, either they did not get back to me, or I was not able to get to their site on the hypergrid, since no matter where I started, I seemed to be too far away. I found the website that directed me to approach a site via a string of closer sites, but that did not work for me.
However, the worst thing for ms so far is how ugly my avatar is on the HyperGrid. He has terrible posture and ugly hair (I have my own skins). I miss the artists in SL who have made the place so beautiful..including me.
Joey
17 Apr 12 at 8:48 am
lol on ugly hair Joey! depending on your laptops, one may work well for serving up OpenSim. one OpenSiom blogger set up a machine she found in the trash as a home server, she’ll be writing about that soon
https://eternalmetaverse.wordpress.com/
sounds like you are progressing nicely and it is a lot of trail and error
Ener Hax
17 Apr 12 at 12:28 pm
It took me 2 weeks to figure how to port forward my router properly.
It took me another 2 weeks to port my regions to use Mysql, to make them run on several diff computers, to be able to host my OSgrid regions on same computer i host my private grid via diva distro!
It took my soulmate 6h to do same, just being helped by me via skype!
So it does not matter how much but you will get it running!
About avatars, try Germania Plaza for Male avatars as i found to many good quality stuff for female avatars already!
ZZ Bottom
19 Apr 12 at 8:48 am
i still can’t get my router properly done and have given up =(
Ener Hax
19 Apr 12 at 12:52 pm