Second Talk is a Second Life to Skype in-world utility for voice chat. Centric warns it is still in public beta, but I had my headset up and working in less than a minute last night.
This is completely portable, and notifies you of other headset-wearing avatars in your vicinity. It isn't 100% seamless with the in world environmnet - a web page is loaded, but unlike Vivox where you must have a Vivox-Avatar user name match up and an in-world base station, you simply connect with your existing Skype name.
It is a handy. easy and they are free. You can also pass them along freely to other avatars for those serendipitous moments when real life and Second Life simply must meld.
As the word of the launch of Second Talk was landing in my email (thanks, Jason), I was in-world having a planning meeting for an upcoming conference to be held in SL, and the issue came up of whether voice communication or traditional chat presentation would be a better choice. Each has each own benefits. Voice can really come in handly in talking someone through an interface issue, for example, and you can definitely talk faster than you can type. Chat, on the other hand, lends a more immersive experience and tends to draw in others in the vicinity. There are many other reasons to measure one against the other, but having the choice is now just a little easier.
Like everything in Second Life and communications - what is best is purpose-driven.
It's nice to have a portable, shareable, social device such as this. Nice value-add, Centric.
Go in world to get your Second Talk headset. See the Second Talk web site for locations.
January 17, 2007
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