The nice thing about audio tours is that you can spend the whole time looking around, rather than constantly switching between reading text and looking around. That’s why I prefer audio-narrated tours in Second Life. Unfortunately, until recently, there was no nice way to make audio tours in Second Life.

One option is to break the tour audio file into a bunch of nine-second clips, then upload those clips as “sounds”. You can use scripts to preload and queue those sounds to play in order. That sounds nice in theory, but in practice it’s unreliable and kludgy. Also, everyone hears the sounds, so they disturb nearby people who aren’t on the tour.

A second option is to use parcel music. SL can play MP3 and Ogg Vorbis files or streams of any length via the parcel music URL (provided the tourist has parcel music enabled in their viewer). To set the parcel music URL, you either need to be the parcel owner or in the group who owns the parcel (and in the latter case, you also need to have a role in that group with the ability to set group parcel music URLs). So long as the tourist stays on the magic parcel, it’s a nice solution, but what about tours that span multiple parcels? What about parcels where you can’t set the music URL? How do you handle busy places where there are multiple tourists arriving on the parcel at different times?

A third option is to use parcel media, which can be any file or stream that QuickTime can play (including MP3 files). Parcel media has some of the same problems as parcel music: you might not be able to set the parcel media URL and it’s restricted to one parcel. In addition, the tourist must have the latest version of QuickTime installed or parcel media won’t work properly. Parcel media does have one nice feature that parcel music doesn’t: you can target individual avatars one at a time. For example, you can write a script to make file X play for Jake while Sally hears file Y.

Voice chat is another way to get audio into SL, but would be a solution with so many moving parts that it would be unreliable. Maybe someday someone (like PikkuBot) will make it possible to tell a bot to play a specific file to a specific avatar via private voice chat. Until then, I’m not going to pursue that idea any further.

My latest SL audio tour is a tour about the history of the International Spaceflight Museum, which you can find here [link] - just sit on the red flying carpet. It asks the tourist to launch a Flash MP3 player in an external web browser. Yes, I honestly believed that was the best option at the time.

Enter the recently announced SL Viewer 2, with its new “Shared Media” feature. It can play QuickTime and Flash content on the side of any prim (and Flash can play MP3 files). It’s not restricted to one parcel. You can attach the prim to your avatar and carry it all over Second Life; it will continue to play no matter where you go. Of course, that would be annoying to people who don’t want to hear it…

The other day, I did an experiment with Rocket Sellers (thanks Rocket). I put some Shared Media on a HUD: an MP3 file being played by a Flash application embedded in a web page. I played the MP3 file. I heard the audio and she didn’t! In other words, audio being played via Shared Media on a HUD can only be heard by you (the HUD wearer), not people around you.

And that changes the audio tour situation completely. Stay tuned!

Photo credit: I love my music ! by shankar, shiv on Flickr, booN Headphones by Ramona.Forcella on Flickr. Both images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

Longtime residents of Second Life will know of Prokofy Neva, a mainland land baron and pontificator on all things SL. One of Prokofy’s projects is the SL Public Land Preserve, with a charter “To preserve SL wilderness and beautiful builds for the enjoyment of the general public.” One part of the SL Public Land Preserve is St. Paul’s Plaza (SLurl), which includes a model of St. Paul’s Cathedral (based on the landmark building in London, England, shown above) and some shop space for rent.

In the past few days, I was looking for a nice place to make a new tour for some place in SL, like the one I recently made for the International Spaceflight Museum. I was browsing the SL Destination Guide and came across St. Paul’s Cathedral, which I hadn’t seen before. I was quite impressed and figured it would be a good place for a new tour. I did some research and found out some neat facts. Did you know that the ashes of Sir Alexander Fleming (the scientist who discovered penicillin) are in the crypt below St. Paul’s? Or that it was almost destroyed by a time-delayed bomb during The Blitz (but the bomb got defused in the nick of time)?

Today I figured I’d run the idea of a tour past Prokofy. Below is a transcript of our conversation. (Prokofy has posted transcripts with me on his blog before, so I hope this is okay with him.)

Troy McLuhan: Do you suppose it would be okay to give tours at St. Paul’s Cathedral - I’m not sure how the Land Preserve works
Prokofy Neva: ? how do you mean “give tours”?
Prokofy Neva: it’s open to the public, it’s onthe mainland
Troy McLuhan: Yes, but group owned etc. and I don’t know the policy
Prokofy Neva: well you just walk in, what do you mean “give tours”?
Troy McLuhan: Talk about the significance of the real cathedral, the paintins inside the dome (8 depictions of the life of St. Paul) etc.
Prokofy Neva: As I said, the site is open to the public, anyone can come there. What is it you are tyring to get out of it though?
Prokofy Neva: Tour for whom? how? what?
Prokofy Neva: I mean, nothing stops you from just bringing a tour there
Prokofy Neva: it’s open to the public
Prokofy Neva: but I’m trying to figure out what your angle is
Prokofy Neva: you do religion instead of space now?
Troy McLuhan: People go on a tour, maybe tip the land preserve, maybe tip the tour guide
Troy McLuhan: I made a tour of the spaceflight museum
Prokofy Neva: Yeah I figured this was about a tip for you lol
Troy McLuhan: Goodness knows you’re a fan of commerce as much as me
Prokofy Neva: well as said, it’s open to the public, it never occurred to me that someone would then try to take that openness and try to monetarize it for themselves
Prokofy Neva: it’s not a profit-making venture, and has donations and tips that don’t even cover the tier
Prokofy Neva: so now you want to make a buck off it
Prokofy Neva: why don’t you stay on your space sim?
Prokofy Neva: getting dull there without God lol?
Troy McLuhan: Perhaps the tours could bring in more tips for the land preserve, if the guide specifically points it out
Troy McLuhan: A win-win situation, as every good relationship should be
Prokofy Neva: well that one gets plenty of tips already, it’s now in the Destination Guide and it was busy before that
Prokofy Neva: well no, Troy, it’s not a win
Prokofy Neva: it’s you glomming on to something else
Prokofy Neva: seriously, why don’t you do your own sims?
Troy McLuhan: As I said, I already made a tour for the spaceflight museum
Prokofy Neva: So why do you have to glom on to other people’ sites?
Prokofy Neva: I go to a lot of trouble keeping this up, advertiing it, bringing people to it, and now you will make a buck from touring it? seems like a big grab
Troy McLuhan: I’d be happy to give you a cut of the guide tips. It’s not like there’s no work for me
Prokofy Neva: However, as I said, it’s open to the public, and if the public includes grabbers like you making a buck I can’t do anything about it, just as I couldn’t about someone who photographed it all and sold books of photographs
Prokofy Neva: well I don’t know if such a tour in fact would even make money such as to bother with you
Troy McLuhan: It’s working for the spaceflight museum
Prokofy Neva: well why are you picking this site? there are a zillion sites in SL
Troy McLuhan: Indeed, it is somewhat random, based on my perusing the Destination Guide
Prokofy Neva: there’s just something that doesn’t sit right with me, given that this is a nonp-profit land preserve
Prokofy Neva: it’s not to make a buck from, it costs money
Prokofy Neva: it’s har to get the costs covered
Troy McLuhan: The spaceflight museum is also nonprofit
Prokofy Neva: well why not make your own sim, indeed
Troy McLuhan: The new tour at the spaceflight museum brings in more tips to cover the land tier etc.
Prokofy Neva: anyway, I’m not interested in facilitating your career as a guide
Troy McLuhan: I’d like to see the Cathedral continue and by increasing the tips coming to it, I hope to help that happen
Prokofy Neva: You are setting it up so that people pay YOU the guide
Prokofy Neva: so the visitors are not going to want to also pay the venue
Prokofy Neva: it’s a racket
Prokofy Neva: I think it’s sleazy
Prokofy Neva: why don’t you make your own damn sim
Troy McLuhan: The tour can end at the tip jar over near the altar, with the guide pointing it out directly. Indeed, that’s how the one at the spaceflight museum works
Prokofy Neva: I paid a builder for that seriously
Prokofy Neva: I find you sleazy, Troy
Prokofy Neva: Like I said: my land is open to the public
Prokofy Neva: it never occurred to me that I’d have to ban tour guides trying to make a buck
Prokofy Neva: I will be forced to put up disclaimers
Prokofy Neva: Honestly, you’re just a sleaze and a leach.
Prokofy Neva: and I’m done with thi conversation
Troy McLuhan: Well, if I turned down tips and told them to tip the land preserve tip jar only, that would be great for the land preserve, but hardly a way to continue tours operating
Prokofy Neva: then don’t? why would that be my problem?

I was disappointed by the course of the conversation, but there are lots of other places that could use tours. Moving along…

Update: Prokofy wrote about our chat in his blog.

Image Credit: St. Paul’s Cathedral, London by Dimitry B on Flickr is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

PookyMedia Films (Pooky Amsterdam’s video business) made some videos about the new viewer for Linden Lab:

There are more videos on YouTube’s Secondlife channel. Robert Scoble also interviewed Mark Kingdon, the CEO of Linden Lab, about the new viewer and the current state of SL:

“My uncle loved bananas; he ate them every day. Then he was knocked dead by a meteor. When that happened, I stopped eating bananas and I’ve never been hit by a meteor. Avoid bananas!”

Photo Credit: banana by Jason Gulledge on Flickr is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.