Second Life to Get Voice and Chat Upgrades for Real World Communication

Linden Lab is working to implement an upgrade allowing Second Life users to receive calls from the outside world, said Joe Miller, vice president, platform & technology development for Linden Lab earlier this week. When we spoke to voice provider Vivox in September, they showed off similar applications for PSTN-in/PSTN-out communication. One of the biggest problems,though, was that they hadn't found an ideal way to monetize the service without making the host foot the bill. The service should debut in the first quarter of 2008, though, so apparently Linden has some ideas. Linden will also release "voice fonts" a service for masking users' voices to let them tie their actual voice more to the identity of their avatars than their physical bodies. Finally, Miller mentioned that Linden was working on a standalone chat client to let users chat without having to sign in world. For users who work in multiple worlds or work from older computers, it'll be nice to be able to talk to the Second Lifers without having to go all the way in-world for every occasion. [via Information Week]

Comments

[Alex]

This looks like a 'Microsoft way' to me... :) hehe.
For how long you will be sitting on top of everything and holding (nonexistent) API's under your a... , Phillip? When will you realise that you need to develop an ecosystem of developers (not 3D designers, but DEVELOPERS of software and services/mash-ups)? It may be too late soon.

[Alanagh Recreant]

If this really works... which I believe it would, it is the best news for increasing African access to SL.

In South Africa (for instance) more than 80% of NGOs have computers connected to the Internet, but the quality of the hardware prohibits active participation. Interestingly enough it is often hand-ne-downs that are no longer cost-efficient. Together with remote IT management support, this may play a role to address digital divide and information poverty...