Chouchou Sims To Be Preserved By Linden Lab

Good news for fans of the Chouchou sims. In May, the owners Juliet Heberle and Arabesque Choche had announced they would soon be closing down. Fans protested in the forums, and Patch Linden responded by asking the owners to contact him about preserving the sims in cooperation with Linden Lab. Recently in the sims' fan group, and their Facebook page, there was a post announcing that the sims would be preserved through the Second Life Region Preservation Society, joining already preserved areas such as Svarga and the SS Galaxy. A third sim of theirs, Chouchou XVI, also known as "The Babel," which was closed in 2013 would also be brought back.

Regarding the closure of the region Chouchou (Chouchou sim, Chouchou V sim) in Second Life, we'd like to report some progress. As a result of our discussion with Linden Lab, we made a decision to maintain our region by joining The Second Life Region Preservation Society provided by Linden Lab. And it is also decided that one of our sims, Chouchou XVI - The Babel - which was closed in 2013 will be back in Second Life thanks to Linden Lab's kind arrangements. 10223 Resident (Tofu), the staff of our team will continue to take charge of the management of all our sims. Please enjoy our region that will remain unchanged including the music and video effects.

Right now, we’re in the middle of exchanging contracts with Linden Lab, and it's taking time for the contract procedures. We’re very sorry for the late announcement.

At first, we were not going to change our plan for the closure of the region Chouchou because of a variety of issues that the region is encountering, but as we received many messages hoping for the survival of our sims, we came to a decision to maintain our region as it is and to continue to work to resolve these issues. However, there is a limit to what we can do. Please respect others with morals and help us to make the place better and comfortable for many people visiting there.



For a video of The Babel, Click Here.


That the owners would still be among those managing the sims would be something new for areas preserved under Linden Lab's preservation program. Areas such as the SS Galaxy essentially became static museum areas in which change had stopped. Talking to Hamlet Au, the owners stated

"We will manage our sims just like before we participated in [Linden Lab's preservation program] ... We will stream music and videos to the sims, do the maintenance if needed and handle troubles if there's a griefer or harassment. ... "[w]e always add new music some time after its release, but only if the songs match the atmosphere of the sims."

In real life, the two owners are a musical duo, vocalist Juliet Heberle and composer Arabesque Choche, who had met in Second Life, performed a number of events there, eventually met in real life, and got married. While they continued to expand their audience over the Internet, their performances in the virtual world declined. That led to their original decision to close the sim. But thankfully both they and Linden Lab listened to their fans, and these artistically well done sims will be preserved.

Source: New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Still In Talks With Djehan Kidd Over Hangars Liquides

Last Friday, the Newser reported on the five region Hangars Liquides urban sci-fi sims in danger of being shut down at the end of the month. This weekend, I had a few words with the builder and owner Djehan Kidd about the area, and it's situation.

Djehan told me it's looking unlikely Linden Lab will allow Hangars to rent out apartments and still remain a nonprofit. She felt it's not because they don't want to, but in her opinion they're "monitored" by the US Government more today than in the past. She's also gotten numerous offers of help to keep the sims afloat. But she feels their best chance lies with the Lab's sim preservation program, "So far I didn't get a no or a yes. All I know is that a commitee will visit (the sims) and decide."

Meanwhile, others are spreading the word about the sims. A concerned resident created a thread on the official forums about Hangars Liquides, and it quickly grew to numerous pages, some people posting pictures of the area. There were numerous pleas for the sims to be given a break and allowed to stay on. One commented, "I don't think I have been there before or if I had I didn't spend long there because the scale of it whilst immersive is also bewildering. Spent 30 minutes exploring it again and it is undoubtedly a work of art. Despite all its complexity it is well optimised, I had none of my usual problems with textures and objects not bothering to load. It is a fine example of what is possible to do here."

There's also a Flickr page full of screenshots of the sims (caution, not all safe for work).

The full interview with Djehan will appear later this week in the Newser.

Image Credit: Lawrence Celestalis

Bixyl Shuftan

Chouchou Sim May Be Saved

The news about Chouchou about to close down drew quite a reaction among a number of residents. This included an appeal by Kira Balestra on the Second Life forums for Linden Lab to save the place. As it turned out, they were listening. Yesterday on May 22, Patch Linden posted the following on the forum thread:

Your calls have been heard! 
 
I need the region owner to contact me directly (via email or through support) to start the process of entering the region into the Second Life Region Preservation Society.  I have not seen contact from them so far.
So it seems the sim can be saved, but it will mean owners Juliet Heberle and Arabesque Choche contacting Linden Lab to do so. While the Lab had brought back the Lost Gardens of Apollo apparently without contacting it's owner, it took five years. Hopefully Linden Lab can get in touch with the musicians for a smooth handover.

Stay tuned for further details

Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: This Week At The Science Circle : Archival and Digital Legacy, Preserving Your Digital Work

"Archival and Digital Legacy, Preserving Your Digital Work"

March 9 at 10AM PST

by Budd Turner

Background:

• When a person dies, their digital footprint persists.
• Digital providers assume ownership of Intellectual property (IP) created on their servers.
• Family and workgroup attempts to archive or maintain deceased works are blocked.

Approach:

• We worked within system permissions shared by the creator.
• We tested possible workarounds
• We contacted providers for account/work access

Findings:

• Limited Copy, Move, possible
• Edit (update), Delete, not possible, without creator account access.
• Providers reluctant to discuss or allow access to deceased work,(IP).

Conclusion:

• Advance planning needed for adding Trusted Friends and/or family member access to digital accounts in Trusts and/or Wills
• Everyone needs to learn provider policies and legal requirements for establishing a “Legacy” path of transfer of ownership.
• Passing your digital footprint when you can no longer login

For more information, Click Here

The Science Circle (61/127/32)

Commentary: Second Life Could Use A Historical Preservation Process

It's been spoken that change is the only constant. In real-life people make the news and either die or fade away into obscurity, land gets built-on and the buildings are either bulldozed and replaced or rust away. Well, it's not always the case with the latter. Occasionally a battlefield or a building deemed of historic value may be preserved by law as a public resource.

In Second Life, most places quietly go up, exist for a short time, and fade away without much attention. But some become well-known and popular. While popularity can sometimes help a location stay afloat, such as donations or sales if the place has some means of making money, it does not always help. Sim owners finances can sour, or their real lives can otherwise get in the way. And so people are saddened as a favorite spot of theirs closes down, sometimes after having been up for years.

Over time, a number of well-designed places have faded away. Many of these are memorials, such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,  the dAlliez Land Headquarters September 11 Memorial, and the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Others are reproductions of real life historic areas such as the picturesque Mont Saint Michel, the cleverly-built "Crooked House" (which was up as late as July 2012 but does not appear in recent searches), Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and others. Sometimes a favorite location is saved, such as the International Space Museum. There has been one case of a vanished place being brought back: The Lost Gardens of Apollo. But so many times an owner looking for help to maintain his/her location cannot find it.

Only twice has Linden Lab stepped forward to save a location. The first time was with Svarga, an artificial working ecosystem that was considered one of the virtual world's seven wonders. The more recent time was with the SS Galaxy, which announced it's closing following a blunder by Linden Lab, but the Lab would soon step in to preserve it.

But will this be it? Will these be the only two places that Linden Lab will intervene to save?

One thing Linden Lab could do is start a process of preserving the most noted sims. Perhaps every year or every six months, it could ask the residents on it's blog "Which area should be preserved?" There could also be an option for residents to write-in a location to be brought back (or perhaps rebuilt by volunteers) should no noteable location popular with the residents. Depending on how Linden Lab stores sim data, this could take some time.

Could there be another kind of process? Possibly, though without listening to the public it would be a tricky business. One complication for any process is for places like Insilico and Steelhead, part of what made them great was the people. Having them around as preserved museum pieces would be of mixed news to their fans as they would no longer be "alive" as active roleplay and community areas.

But in any event, Second Life could use a way that allows some sims that help make Second Life great from fading away when their owners are no longer able to keep them up.

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Moles Create SS Galaxy Preservation Group

While Linden Lab as a whole seems to have let the cruise liner SS Galaxy, Second Life's largest build, go, it appears to be a different story among the Moles. Henning Lionheart (The Slobrador), one of the staff of the ship, informed the Newser of a "SS Galaxy Preservation Society" group. The creator of the group, not one of the staff, but Mogura Linden, one of the "moles" of the Department of Public Works.

Membership of the group is small, just five accounts, at least as of the writing of this brief. All that were visible on the group page online were other moles of the DPW.

Will this move by the moles lead to the return of the SS Galaxy? Time will tell. For now, what is certain is not everyone with "Linden" as a surname has given up on this classic build.