Today at 11:00am SLT, the second world descended on the 20-sim estate setup as the home of Second Life’s 9th Birthday party. The even was held at the giant auditorium in the center of the estate. Below is a photo of the area as SL peeps began pouring in.

This is the Main Stage region at the center of 4 sims.
The auditorium is so large the 100+ residents
pouring in look tiny by comparison.

Shortly after the event began I did a quick count of avatars and discovered that in addition to the 100+ residents at the auditorium, there was an additional 200+ people exploring the exhibits and attractions. Yes, over 300 people where there for that first opening hour.

When Honor McMillan announced that Saffia Widdershinns was ready to give the opening speech, the crowd was in for a great treat. Saffia spoke in voice and talked about how this event, this 9th birthday celebration of “our” Second Life almost didn’t happen. For those who weren’t closely connected with what was going on, LL had no intention of providing sims as they had in the past.

In fact, if it hadn’t been for group of community minded individuals, the event would be nothing more than a bunch of links to different communities where those communities were putting on their own events. There’s much more to this story in the archives of many blogs, but I became aware of the struggle through Crap “Mr Crap” Mariner’s blog.

Another in fact, this entire event including the creation of the sims, building of exhibits, planning of events and staffing for the many support jobs, all took place in about one month! For those who know anything about planning and executing any plan, this is an incredible example of what can be done by determined people. Now, let the show begin:

Without question in my mind,
the stars of the opening ceremony were
the giant birds and their cousins the dragons.
This one is piloted by Maike Reiderer.

There is much more to this opening ceremony, I have some really fun photos which I’ve posted on my Being Yordie Sands blog. Generally I use that blog to cover the wonderful events and discoveries I’ve made in Second Life, so I’ll be very appreciative if you take a peek after finishing up here.

Commentary

However, I wish to use this remaining space to talk about one other aspect of Linden Lab’s lack of involvement in this years Birthday. Already I’ve spoken to four major community owners from my own little sphere of interest. Of the four I spoke with two had no knowledge whatsoever that there even was an SL9B. Another didn’t have time to participate and the fourth is doing his own SL9B celebration in conjunction with the general theme LL tried to promote when it chose not to provide sims for this event.

How could such a huge event go unnoticed? If you check your Second Life website you’ll find nothing about this event, not even under “Community” and this is more than ironic because LL had chosen the theme for this years birthday, Community. This is a sad commentary as we start this joyful event, but it really needs to be said.