Video: Digg-Like Service For Second Life
You might remember Babbage Linden’s SLateIt heads-up display that can be used to flag and tag objects in the virtual world of Second Life, much like the functionality of Digg. Well, Babbage has been hard at work since we first blogged the SLateIt HUD back in February, and now he’s come out with a YouTube video demonstrating the latest version’s feature set. It’s nice stuff, too, usable via either dialogue boxes or the chat line. It even interfaces with the SLateIt Web site, pulling in the last-flagged item on a search and offering you a teleport to its location.
What’s nice about this is that it lets you see how many times an object has been “SLated” without having to leave Second Life. I realize Babbage uses the word “rate” to describe what SLateIt does, but I don’t think that’s accurate, since the only actions possible are a “SLate” (a thumbs-up) or a “hate.” (Objects that are too hated get removed from the list.) Rating seems to me to imply a scale of more than just zero or one. So as usual I’m going off on my own tangent and refer to it as “SLating” — which is more in keeping with the “Digging” model anyway.
The only other things I’d like to see? An open API to both the HUD and the Web site so that people can build their own cool services atop this cool service. (I think the HUD may already be open-source, I’m not sure.) In any case, it’s nice work. With enough people using it, it could become a useful tool.
Feeds
The terminology here is tricky. I think SLating is fun, but it doesn’t help describe what SLateIt is to someone who hasn’t encountered it before. Although rating often implies a score, a number representing how many people rate an object is also valid. Social bookmarking might be another way to describe it, but bookmarking Second Life seems even more of a stretch than bookmarking the web.
What I would like to see, in addition to ranking individual objects, you could rank places, or certain aspects of places. I was wondering, not being a scripting expert myself, if a script could be developed where you could take a “snapshot” (in a sense) of some aspect of the world, whether it be a detail or wide view, and the rank you give that snapshot, would translate into all the objects within that snapshot. Perhaps you could set it up where objects closer to the foreground of that snapshot would be ranked higher, than those in the distance. If you had everyone ranking these ‘snapshots’ at different vantage points throughout a particular area, the overlaps that would occur could be used in the tally of that area’s rank. In other words, it would be as if you dragged a selection marquee, and selected all the objects in your view, and gave them all a collective rank – a higher rank would be given to those in the foreground and less so in the background. If a number of people where ranking their ‘snapshots’ as they were walking through the space, certain areas as well as vistas, would start revealing themselves as important to the community. It’s like taking a photo of the real world (which is essentially a vote/rank of something) and posting on Google earth. But unlike the real world, the virtual world allows you to translate these accumulative snapshots, via some database, back into the virtual objects themselves. Not only would it help a causal user discover cool, unique places, but it would also give the owner(s) some sense of what’s worth saving on their property and what could possibility be remodeled. I know this is probably a scripting nightmare, and maybe it can’t even be done. Either way, whatever the mechanism the community uses to rank an environment, it needs to be as quick and user-friendly as possible… as user-friendly, for instance, as the snapshot is. I feel Baggage Linden’s script, although moving in the right direction, is still a little too cumbersome for the average user to use on the fly.
Theory, I really like where your going with this.
Babbage, kudos to your HUD and site (especially the open source aspect!). I haven’t had a chance to check it out but will do soon.
Both of you may want to check out my service/HUD: www.gridmarker.com
@Babbage: being a meaningless word didn’t exactly stop the term “Digg” and “Digging” from catching on :)
@Mark, I agree. It would be great if everyone starting using the term SLating, but what’s the elevator pitch for people who don’t know what it is? SLateIt is a service which lets you SLate virtual objects is too circular. SLateIt is a virtual world social bookmarking service sounds weird.
“SLateIt lets you vote for stuff in Second Life. The more Slates something gets, the higher it appears on the list of stuff.”