The Content Liberation Front

(This post was updated on October 24, 2014 to reflect the changes that were announced here: Kitely Market to Support High Fidelity).

Are you a content creator in Second Life who’s concerned about the latest TOS changes? Are you worried about what will happen to your content? If so, then have we got a deal for you! You can now use Kitely to create a perfect backup of your content so that you’ll never be at anyone’s mercy again.

What does this mean? Well, you probably feel that due to Second Life’s new policies you’re losing control over your content. You want to reclaim control, which means first of all that you have your own copy of your content on your hard disk. In addition, you want to have the flexibility to move this content wherever you want: to any grid, with any company, or even just for your own personal use.

Here’s what we’re offering: copy your content to Kitely, and we will give you full control over it. You’ll get a full, perfect copy of your objects and assets on your hard disk. Having your own personal copy of this data means that no company will ever be able to hold your content hostage again.

How does it work? There are three steps:

  1. Upload your content to Kitely and add it to Kitely Market.
  2. Use our Content Analyzer to fix problems.
  3. Export the content to another grid or to your hard disk.

To be clear, you don’t have to make your content available for purchase on Kitely Market.  You can keep selling only on the Second Life Marketplace, while making your products in Kitely Market Inactive, which means that you’re the only one who will see them. The reason Kitely Market is involved in this process at all is that it contains two powerful features: first, the Content Analyzer which allows you to find and fix problems; and second, Kitely Market can be used to deliver your content to other grids.

Let’s go over these steps in more detail:

Step 1 – Upload Content to Kitely Market

You can add your content to Kitely Market for free:

  • Asset uploads – FREE
  • Land – FREE (by building in the Kitely Merchants Sandbox)
  • Listing fees – FREE (we’ve eliminated all listing fees!)

You may have heard that Kitely uses per-minute charges, and you’re wondering if it’s really free. We do have such charges in some places, but not in the Kitely Merchants Sandbox. So adding content to Kitely Market costs you zero, nada, zilch.

There are well known Second Life Merchants already listing their items in Kitely Market - read one testimonial here: http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2013/10/merchant-earns-200-on-kitely/
There are well known Second Life merchants already listing their items in Kitely Market. Here’s one testimonial: http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2013/10/merchant-earns-200-on-kitely/

Step 2 – Use the Content Analyzer to fix problems

You will probably use a program such as Second Inventory or Imprudence to copy your content from Second Life to Kitely. These tools save a lot of time, but they often have some problems in the content that they create. We have an awesome tool to help you find and fix these problems: the Content Analyzer. When you add a product to Kitely Market, the Content Analyzer checks it for missing or invalid assets, and shows you what needs to be fixed. For more information, see this blog post.

Kitely Market Content Analyzer

Step 3 – Export to Another Grid or to Your Hard Disk

If you’ve been burned by Second Life then you don’t want to lock yourself into another company. Even if you think Kitely is a great company run by swell guys (we really are!), you want to control your content. We understand, and that is why we enable you to export your content to your hard disk or have it delivered to another grid.

Kitely Market can deliver content to other grids, so you’ll be able to deliver the items you list to any Hypergrid-enabled grid or even deliver to closed grids if they are properly set up.

Another option is to send your items directly from your avatar to avatars on other Hypergrid-enabled grids (export controls will apply to help protect other people’s content).

Finally, if you own a Kitely World, you can rez your items in that world and export it to a standard OpenSim Archive (OAR) file. You’ll be able to use that file to restore your content on any OpenSim-based grid or standalone simulator (including on your personal computer).

You Have Rights

We respect your rights and we don’t claim ownership over your creations. You retain sole copyright over your content, and the only license that you give to Kitely is to allow us to handle your content as required by the services that you choose to use. If you’re up to reading legalese, here are our terms of service; note in particular the rights that you have, which are listed in the section “Proprietary Rights”. We’ve updated our terms of service today to clarify how your content may be used.

You can control the use of your content by setting the Export permission in Kitely Market. If you make a product Exportable then it can be sold to other grids, and backed-up by users. If you make a product No-Export then it can only be used in Kitely: we will not allow it to be accessed by other grids, or saved in OAR files (except by you). This last part means that if your No-Export product is used as a component in someone else’s product then that other person won’t be able to export his or her product to an OAR file unless they first remove your No-Export component.

No Strings Attached

As we’ve explained, you don’t have to actually make your products available for sale in Kitely Market in order to take advantage of this offer. If you wish, you can make the products Inactive or delete them. But we hope that you will choose to make your products available for sale. If you do so then you’ll be able to sell to all Kitely users, and to users in hundreds of hypergrid-connected grids. You’ll be able to do this from a single online store, and without having to re-upload your content to each grid. You’ll even be able to sell to non-hypergrid connected grids, by exporting your products to an OAR file and then uploading it to those grids.

If you want to learn more about Kitely Market then you may be interested in the presentation I gave in the OpenSim Community Conference 2013.

New Kitely Welcome Center

We are proud to announce that Kitely has a new central world: the Kitely Welcome Center. This beautiful always-on world will be used for several purposes. First, it contains helpful information about Kitely, so when new users join Kitely we invite them to visit the Kitely Welcome Center. Second, this world will be used for community activities such as the weekly Kitely Mentors group meeting.

Kitely Welcome Center

Our previous welcome center, Kitely Plaza, was an interesting and good looking world. However, due to its size and complexity it had performance problems that couldn’t be resolved without substantial optimization work. We have therefore decided along with the Kitely Mentors group to work together to replace Kitely Plaza, and the Kitely Welcome Center is the result of that project.

Kitely Plaza is still available on Kitely as an on-demand world. Please note that Kitely Plaza is a complex world, so if you attempt to visit it then you may need to wait a few minutes inside a Kitely Transfer Station until it starts (you’ll be teleported to the plaza automatically once it’s online).

It Takes a Village

The Kitely Welcome Center was a community project that involved many people who generously contributed their time:

  • Concept, layout and landscaping: Paislee Myrtle and Dot Matrix
  • Landing area and gateways: Dundridge Dreadlow and Sierra Jakob
  • Kitely information area: Allen Partridge and Rosa SLGardner
  • Hall of Merchants and Kitely Worlds Showcase: Paislee Myrtle, with display boards and infrastructure by Dundridge Dreadlow
  • Meeting and hangout areas: Paislee Myrtle and Min Tigerpaw
  • Avatar changing area: Paislee Myrtle; free avatars by Linda Kellie
  • Kites and water sounds: Sierra Jakob
  • Swing: Sherrie Melody
  • Bird sounds: KatiJack Studio
  • Trees from Kitely Market by: Brayla Sana, Cordts Baxton
  • Other trees and plants: Paislee Myrtle, Daniel Hoffman, Ruby O’Degee, Dot Matrix, Sifan Shan, Shenn Tao, Leah Auxifur, Avia Dezigns
  • World showcase photos: Dot Matrix, Sherrie Melody, Graham Mills, Danko Whitfield, Ruby O’Degee, Caitanya Rupa
  • Miscellaneous licensed items from generous individuals throughout the OpenSim hypergrid

We want to give special thanks to Dot Matrix who organized this community project. She did a phenomenal job of getting everything and everyone in order. This project wouldn’t have been completed this fast and wouldn’t have come out this great without her outstanding project management skills.

Thank you all who’ve helped built this wonderful new Kitely Welcome Center. We welcome everyone to come and visit!

Kitely Market Presented in OpenSim Community Conference 2013

Kitely Market is a virtual goods marketplace that is designed to help join all Hypergrid-connected OpenSim grids into one viable ecosystem. Its mission is to help the Metaverse evolve from a collection of standalones and small grids to a unified market that can attract more merchants, buyers, money, activity, and interest for everyone.

I presented the Kitely Market in the Business and Enterprise track of the OpenSim Community Conference 2013.

Here is the video:

Here are my slides:

Kitely Market Featured Merchants

Kitely Market is a virtual goods marketplace that will create a unified market out of the separate grids that make up the Hypergrid metaverse. This will enable content creators to make serious money, while setting up only one store. We’re currently offering incentives to merchants who set up their stores before Kitely Market opens.

With the launch of the Kitely Market so close, we wanted to remind content creators about our Featured Merchants program. If you earn Featured Merchant status then your store’s logo will be prominently displayed in the Kitely Market home page for a full year. Here’s what this will look like:

Featured Merchants Stores

In addition, the Kitely Welcome Center world (which is currently under construction) will include a billboard ad for your store, and a gateway to your Kitely-based in-world shop (if you set one up).

Featured Merchant status can really help your sales, and the number of available slots is limited so you should act now to get it! In order to be considered for Featured Merchant status you’ll need to:

  • Create a Kitely Market store with a description of your store’s brand, a banner image, and a thumbnail image of your store’s logo.
  • Add at least 100 high quality product listings that adhere to our guidelines. Close variations of the same item (e.g. the same shoes in different colors) will only be counted once. Items that are mostly made up of third-party content will not be counted.
  • Send us an email and request that we review your store for consideration for Featured Merchant status.

Normally there’s a fee of 100 KC to add a product to the Kitely Market, and 25 KC to add a variation (Update October 5, 2013: Kitely Market listing fees have been eliminated). However, we are offering a limited-time promotion to encourage merchants to add products now, so that they’ll be ready once the Kitely Market opens for buyers. This means that it would be a good idea to get started on creating products now, before our normal rates kick in.

For a limited time, this promotion includes the following benefits:

  • Add 20 products to your store for FREE (no listing fees).
  • If your first 20 product listings adhere to our guidelines then you may request to be allowed to add an unlimited number of products to your store for free. The link that will allow you to send us this request will appears once you’ve added 20 products to your store. This benefit is unrelated to the Featured Merchants program: anyone can request it.

The free listings promotion will expire once the market is open to buyers. However, Featured Merchant benefits will last for an entire year after the market opens for business.

See the Kitely Market Fees page for a complete list of our fees, our payouts, and additional details about this promotion.

Please note that there are no fees for uploading content in Kitely: only for listing products in the Kitely Market. Furthermore, if you don’t have a world of your own where you can import or create your products then you can use the free Kitely Merchants Sandbox.

Community-Created Transfer Stations

A month ago we made a big improvement to our service with the addition of transfer stations. The transfer stations have been a great success, making logins faster and simpler. However, not everyone was happy with the appearance of the transfer stations, so we’ve spent the last few weeks working with the Kitely community on a new design. Here’s the new look of the transfer stations:

Kitely Transfer Station

The new design was carefully chosen in order to avoid clashing with the designs of existing worlds, as well as rezzing quickly.

Several people from the Kitely community volunteered their time to help develop the new design. We’d like to give special thanks to Dot Macchi, who did most of the work, as well as to Ada Radius and Dennis Albion that assisted her in the process. We also wish to thank the 15 other Kitely users who participated in the forum discussions and in the Kitely Mentors Group meetings where we discussed this issue. Your helpful advice is much appreciated.

Preview of Kitely Market Categories

We are continuing to work on the upcoming Kitely Market, and we would like to get your feedback on our categories tree and attributes. We’ve discussed them with the Kitely Mentors Group over the past few weeks and now we feel that they’re ready for broader review. If you have any comments then please discuss them in the forum. (The forum works better for extended discussions than commenting in the blog).

Items in the Kitely Market are organized into categories. Categories are groups of similar items, e.g. Shoes or Bridges. At the same time, items can also have attributes that describe them: for example, their Color or Material. Typically users first choose the category they want, and then refine their search by selecting some attributes. As an example of how this works, take a look at the Best Buy TV shopping page. In this example the user already chose the category (TVs), and the left side of the screen contains attributes: Screen Size, TV Type, etc.

The use of attributes allows us to make the categories tree relatively simple. For example, we have only one category for Clothing, instead of having categories for Regular Clothes, Wedding Clothes, Goth Clothes, Christmas Clothes, etc. Users who want a specific type of clothing can click on the Clothing category, and then use attributes to specify the type of clothes they want.

When we chose our categories and attributes, an important consideration was what to leave out. For example, consider the Color attribute. It contains only the main colors: Black, Blue, Bronze, Brown, Gold, Grey, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, Silver, White, Yellow. Having a limited number of options makes searching easier, because users can see similar items together. As another example, consider the Theme attribute: Arabian, Asian, Fantasy, Historical, Modern, Sci-Fi, Steampunk, Western, Other. Although other themes could be added, our goal is to provide values that match about 80% of the themes that people use. We don’t want to provide 100% of the possible themes because then there would be too many options to choose from. Note that users can still use the regular search field to search for any word that appears in the product’s description, even if it doesn’t have an explicit attribute. Having said all that: if you think that another category or attribute is needed then please let us know, but keep in mind that there is value in limiting the possible options.

Some categories and attributes are Adult-only, and will only be shown to users with an Adult maturity level. These categories and attributes have a star (“*”) after their name and are marked in brown.

Attributes

This is the list of attributes we intend to use. Most attributes can be used only with specific categories, and the categories tree below shows which attributes apply to which categories.

All of the attributes are optional: merchants don’t have to specify values for the attributes. However, we recommend specifying attribute values when appropriate to make it easier to find items in the market.

  • Color: Black, Blue, Bronze, Brown, Gold, Grey, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, Silver, White, Yellow
  • Movement: Static, Flexible, Animated, Interactive
  • Department: Boys, Girls, Men, Women, Unisex
  • Avatar Type: Animal, Anime, Fantasy, Furry, Human, Machine, Object, Plant, Weefolk
  • Environment: Land, Sky, Space, Water
  • Breedable: Yes, No
  • Rideable: Yes, No
  • Gesture: Yes, No
  • Tattoo Style: Biker, Celtic, Erotic *, Funny, Gothic, Military, Tribal, Spiritual, Other
  • Hair Type: Facial, Long, Body *, Short
  • Hair Color: Black, Blonde, Blue, Brown, Grey, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, White
  • Skin Color: Light, Tan, Dark, Other
  • Clothing Style: BDSM *, Bridal, Business, Casual, Formal, Goth, Holiday, Maternity, Pirate, Uniform, Other
  • Clothing Material: Cotton, Fur, Jeans, Latex, Leather, Silk, Suede, Synthetic, Wool, Other
  • Building Material: Bone, Earth, Fabric, Feathers, Fire, Fur, Glass, Leather, Leaves, Liquid, Metal, Plastic, Scales, Stone, Wood, Other
  • World Size: 1 Region, 2×2 Regions, 3×3 Regions, 4×4 Regions
  • Sound Type: Ambient, Creature, Human, Machine, Nature, Object
  • Theme: Arabian, Asian, Fantasy, Historical, Modern, Sci-Fi, Steampunk, Western, Other
  • Art Theme: Abstract, Erotic *, Creatures, Landscape, People, Objects
  • Furniture Use: Bathroom, Bedroom, Dining Room, Erotic *, Kitchen, Living Room, Nursery, Office, Outdoor, Rec Room
  • Occasion: Birthday, Hanukkah, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Independence Day (US), Kwanzaa, Mardi Gras, New Year’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Winterfest, Wedding

Categories

Our categories tree appears below. In each category, the first item indicates which attributes apply in that category. For example, items in the Clothing category support the following attributes: “[Color, Movement, Department, Clothing Style, Clothing Material, Theme, Occasion]“.

Attributes that appear in a category automatically apply to all of its subcategories as well. In addition, sometimes subcategories add attributes of their own. In that case, we use a “+” sign as a reminder that these attributes can be used in addition to the attributes in the parent category. For example, the Avatar Skins subcategory shows “[+ Skin Color]” in the first line. This means that the Avatar Skins category supports all the attributes of its parent category Avatar Appearance (“[Department, Avatar Type]“), and in addition it also supports the Skin Color attribute.

Avatar Appearance

  • [Department, Avatar Type]
  • Avatar Shapes
  • Avatar Skins
    • [+ Skin Color]
  • Cosmetic Enhancements
    • [+ Color]
    • Ears and Tails
    • Feet and Hooves
    • Genitalia *
    • Horns and Antlers
    • Face and Body Make-Up
    • Nail Polish
    • Wings
  • Eyes
    • [+ Color]
  • Hair
    • [+ Hair Color, Hair Type]
    • Hair Textures
  • Tattoos
    • [+ Color, Tattoo Style]
  • Avatar Component Bundles
    • [+ Color]
  • Complete Avatars

Avatar Accessories

  • [Color, Movement, Department, Theme, Occasion]
  • Armors and Shields
  • BDSM Accessories *
    • BDSM Collars *
    • BDSM Cuffs, Leashes and Restraints *
    • BDSM Whips, Crops and Paddles *
  • Belts
  • Canes, Staves and Wands
  • Furry Accessories
  • Glasses
  • Hair Accessories
  • HUD Attachments
  • Handbags, Backpacks and Briefcases
  • Hats, Gloves, and Scarves
  • Jewelry and Watches
    • Anklets and Leg Jewelry
    • Belly Jewelry
    • Bracelets
    • Brooches
    • Crowns & Tiaras
    • Earrings
    • Jewelry Sets
    • Necklaces
    • Nose Rings and Piercing Jewelry
    • Rings
    • Watches
  • Masks
  • Neckties
  • Other Avatar Accessories

Avatar Animations

  • [Occasion, Gesture]
  • Animation Bundles
  • Animation Overrides
  • Combat Animations
  • Couples Animations
  • Dancing Animations
  • Emotive Animations
  • Erotic Animations *
  • Posing Animations
  • Sitting and Lying Animations
  • Walking and Running Animations
  • Other Avatar Animations

Clothing

  • [Color, Movement, Department, Clothing Style, Clothing Material, Theme, Occasion]
  • Clothing Textures
  • Clothing Bundles
  • Dresses
  • Footwear
    • Boots
    • Shoes
    • High Heels
    • Sandals and Flip-Flops
    • Slippers
    • Sneakers
    • Socks and Stockings
    • Other Footwear
  • Jackets and Coats
  • Outfits
    • Pants Outfits
    • Shorts Outfits
    • Skirt Outfits
  • Pajamas and Underwear
    • Lingerie *
    • Lounge and Sleepwear
    • Underwear
  • Pants
    • Capris
    • Long
    • Shorts
  • Shirts
    • Blouses
    • Corsets
    • Halters
    • Long Sleeved
    • Short Sleeved
    • Sweaters
    • T-Shirts
    • Tanks and Camis
    • Tube Tops
  • Sportswear
  • Swimwear
  • Skirts
  • Vests

Creatures

  • [Color, Movement, Environment, Breedable, Rideable]
  • Amphibians
  • Humans and Humanoids
    • Babies
  • Birds
  • Fantasy Creatures
  • Insects
  • Machines
  • Marine Animals
  • Mammals
  • Reptiles
  • Other Creatures

Creature Items

  • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme, Occasion]
  • Accessories and Toys
  • Food and Energy Supplies
  • Furniture
  • Houses and Habitats
  • Other Creature Items

Structures

  • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme]
  • Agricultural Buildings
  • Commercial Buildings
  • Educational Buildings
  • Entertainment Buildings
  • Government Buildings
  • Industrial Buildings
  • Landscaping Structures
  • Military Buildings
  • Parking and Storage
  • Religious Buildings
  • Residential Buildings
  • Transit Stations
  • Other Structures

Furniture

  • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme, Furniture Use]
  • Beds and Hammocks
  • Bookcases and Shelves
  • Chairs and Sofas
  • Chests and Cabinets
  • Tables

Interior Design

  • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme, Occasion]
  • Appliances
  • Decor
    • Aquariums
    • Books and Periodicals
    • Clocks
    • Decorations
    • Dressing Screens
    • Cut Flowers and Potted Plants
    • Miniature Display Vehicles
      • Boats
      • Cars
      • Motorcycles
      • Planes
      • Trains
    • Mirrors
    • Pottery and Ceramics
  • Electronics
    • Audio Systems
    • Computer Equipment
    • Televisions
  • Entertainment
  • Fireplaces
  • Industrial Equipment
  • Lab Equipment
  • Lighting
    • Candles
    • Chandeliers
    • Lamps and Lanterns
    • Outdoor Lighting
    • Torches
  • Office Equipment
  • Rugs and Carpets
  • Showers, Tubs, Pools and Saunas
  • Window Treatments

Art

  • [Color, Movement, Theme, Art Theme, Occasion]
  • Drawings and Paintings
  • Glass Art
  • Graphics
  • Greeting Cards
  • Photos
  • Picture Frames and Easels
    • [+ Building Material]
  • Posters
  • Sculptures and Statues
    • [+ Building Material]
  • Tapestries
  • Wall Art and Murals

Building Components

  • Bridges and Walkways
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme]
  • Building Aids
  • Doors
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme]
  • Fences and Railings
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme]
  • Kits and Templates
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme, Occasion]
    • Architectural
    • Avatar Accessories
    • Avatar Apparel
    • Creatures
    • Food and Drink
    • Furniture
    • Hair
    • Landscaping
    • Plants and Trees
    • Shoes
    • Shop Decoration
    • Vehicles
    • Other Kits and Templates
  • Signs
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme, Occasion]
  • Stairs and Elevators
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme]
  • Textures
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Occasion]
    • Animated Textures
    • Clothing Textures
    • Exterior Wall Textures
    • Fantasy Textures
    • Floor Textures
    • Ground Textures
    • Industrial and Urban Textures
    • Interior Wall Textures
    • Plant and Garden Textures
    • Stone Textures
    • Windows and Glass Textures
    • Other Textures
  • Windows
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme]
  • Other Building Components
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme, Occasion]

Recreation and Entertainment

  • Adult Entertainment *
  • Bars and Clubs
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme]
    • DJ Booths
    • Dance Floors
    • Tip Jars
    • Other Bars and Clubs Equipment
  • Contraband *
    • [Movement]
  • Event and Traffic Tools
  • Food and Drink
    • [Color, Movement, Theme, Occasion]
  • Games
    • [Occasion]
  • Musical Instruments
    • [Color, Movement, Theme, Occasion]
  • Sporting Goods
    • [Color, Movement, Theme]
    • Bicycle Equipment
    • Camping Equipment
    • Fishing Equipment
  • Theme and Amusement Parks
    • [Movement, Building Material, Theme]
  • Toys and Video Game Memorabilia
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme, Occasion]
  • Other Fun Stuff
    • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme, Occasion]

Landscaping and Plants

  • Caves, Grottos and Waterfalls
  • Flowers and Plants
    • [Color, Movement]
  • Trees and Shrubs
    • [Color, Movement]
  • Underwater Landscaping
  • Vegetable Gardens

Vehicles

  • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme]
  • Aircraft
    • Airplanes
    • Airships and Balloons
    • Helicopters
    • Hovercraft
  • Ground Vehicles
    • Cars and Trucks
    • Heavy Machinery
    • Non-Motorized Vehicles
    • Military Ground Vehicles
    • Motorbikes
    • Other Ground Vehicles
  • Multi-Use Vehicles
  • Water Vehicles
    • Boats
      • Motor Boats
      • Row Boats
      • Sail Boats
    • Waterbikes
    • Submarines
  • Space Vehicles
    • Rockets
    • Space Ships

Sound Effects

  • [Theme, Sound Type, Occasion]

Gadgets

  • Chat Enhancements
  • Multi-Use Gadgets
  • NPC Scripts
  • Particle Effects
  • Pose Stands
  • Security
  • Teleporters
  • Other Gadgets

Weapons

  • [Color, Movement, Building Material, Theme]
  • Explosives
  • Ranged Weapons
    • Bows
    • Cannons
    • Crossbows
    • Handguns
    • Rifles
    • Other Ranged Weapons
  • Melee Weapons
    • Axes
    • Claws
    • Knives and Daggers
    • Pole Arms
    • Swords
    • Other Melee Weapons
  • Other Weapons

Scripts

  • Avatar Augmentation Scripts
  • Building Helpers
  • Business Scripts
  • Communication Scripts
  • Event Helpers
  • Recreation and Entertainment Scripts
    • [Occasion]
  • Scripting Tutorials
  • Vehicle Scripts
  • Weapon Scripts
  • Other Scripts

Business Tools

  • Affiliate Programs
  • Advertising Systems
  • Gift Cards and Vouchers
  • Guides and Tutorials
  • Information Management
  • Rental Systems
  • Retail Displays
  • Vendor Machines

Worlds

(Note: this category will not be available when the market first opens. It will be added later.)

  • [Color, Environment, World Size]
  • Empty Terraformed Worlds
  • Complete Worlds
    • [+ Theme]

We Need Your Feedback

What do you think about these categories and attributes? Please let us know in this thread in our forums.

Categories were updated on 12 Feb 2013Learn More

Categories were updated on 26 Feb 2013Learn More

Categories were updated on 19 Nov 2020Learn More

Kitely Market Early Bird Promotion

We are currently developing an advanced content marketplace. Since most OpenSim users are familiar with the Second Life marketplace, we asked our users what they like and don’t like about it. Using these insights we intend to deliver a great user experience that addresses the main usability issues with existing online marketplaces. At first the market will be used only for buying and selling inside the Kitely grid, but eventually it will be used for selling to multiple grids from a single online shop.

In order to attract good content creators we are now offering various benefits for merchants that bring their content to our market before it opens to the public.

How the Kitely Market will Work

The basic operation of the Kitely Market will be similar to existing marketplaces: merchants create Products using items in their inventory. Users browse the products and purchase them. Products are delivered directly to the buyer’s inventory.

One of the biggest problems with existing marketplaces is the rigid categories. First, sometimes items don’t fit exactly into a single category. Second, there’s a lot of duplication in the list of categories: e.g., the Second Life marketplace includes categories such as “Rings”, “Jewelry Sets”, “Valentine’s Day Jewelry” and “Wedding Rings” which makes it hard to find all the nice gold rings without visiting all of these categories. To solve these problems, the Kitely Market will use attributes. Attributes are properties of the product: for example, “Woman’s” and “Gold”. This makes the list of categories shorter because, for example, we only need one category called “Rings”, and then the attributes can be used to drill down into the various types of rings. This is how most big e-commerce websites work, e.g. Amazon, and we are bringing this useful feature to the OpenSim world.

Another problem with existing marketplaces is that there are many similar products. For example, a merchant that creates a blouse might offer it in five different colors, and each of them is a separate product. This makes it difficult for users to browse the available products because there are only a small number of unique products in each page of results. To solve this, we will be using variations. Each product can have multiple variations, based on color, material, etc. In the example above, there will be just one product for this blouse (e.g., “Mary’s Stylish Blouse”), and five variations: one for each color. When searching the products in the marketplace the product will appear just once instead of five times. All of the product’s variations are counted together for reviews and sales ranking. Again, this is something that already exists in big e-commerce websites but is missing from the Second Life marketplace.

Our listing fees will be:

  • Add product: 100 KC
  • Add variation: 25 KC

(Note that Kitely doesn’t charge content upload fees so you can import as many assets as you want into your inventory for free)

Another significant feature of the Kitely market is that we will add a new permission flag to objects: the Export flag. This flag will only be available for items bought from the marketplace, but not for items bought in-world. Items that have the Export permission can be taken out of the Kitely grid. Currently this will allow items to be included in OAR exports, and later it will allow the items to be used on other Hypergrid-enabled grids. This means that a user will be able to buy an outfit in the Kitely Market and, if the merchant gave it the Export permission, have it available when they hypergrid to other grids. Alternatively, a user whose “home base” is OSGrid will be able to buy an outfit (or any other item) for use in OSGrid.

Products in the Kitely Market can be sold using both Kitely Credits and US dollars. Kitely will charge a 10% transaction fee on content sales. Purchases made using US Dollars are paid directly into the merchant’s PayPal account (without going through Kitely), therefore PayPal’s fees will also apply.

NOTE: the following sections are now outdated and kept here for archive purposes only. Please continue reading our newer blog post about the Kitely Market Early Bird Promotion.

Early-Bird Discounts for All Merchants

There will be a 50% discount on listing fees until the market opens for buyers.

In addition, we will provide a special free world that registered merchants (see below) can use for creating their objects. Since we don’t charge upload fees, this means that even users using the Free Plan will be able to create items without any cost except for the listing fees. This world will only be available until the marketplace opens.

Additional Benefits for Featured Merchants

The discounts described above are available to anyone that creates content for the Kitely Market. But in addition, we have another tier of benefits for a limited number of big merchants. These benefits are as follows:

Free listing of products and variations until the marketplace opens. (I.e., we waive the 100 KC / 25 KC listing fees completely.)

The merchant’s store logo will be displayed on the Kitely Market homepage for one year from the date the marketplace opens.

We will create an official always-on free-access shopping world, tentatively called the “Kitely Plaza”. Each Featured Merchant will receive a free 2000m parcel with 3000 prims to build their shop in this world. This parcel will be rent-free for at least one year.

Finally, Featured Merchants will be eligible to participate in monthly fashion shows in the Kitely Plaza.

Criteria for Featured Merchant Consideration

You must upload at least 200 unique high-quality products (not variations) to the Kitely Market before April 1.

You must have been selling for a minimum of three years in Second Life and/or a well known OpenSim grid.

Since space in our homepage and shopping world is limited, only about 20 merchants will be eligible for these benefits.

Notes

Once the year is over Kitely will reallocate the parcels in the Kitely Plaza based on marketplace sales performance. We may rent some of the spaces in an auction, and/or allocate some spaces in a lottery between qualifying Kitely Market merchants.

The Kitely Plaza will be made available to Featured Merchants 3 weeks before we open the Kitely Market so they’ll have time to build their in-world shops.

Fashion shows will only be held if at least 3 Featured Merchants participate in them.

We may give Featured Merchant status to people who don’t pass the aforementioned requirements but have other good qualifications. If you have outstanding content but don’t meet these requirements then please contact us and let us know.

Since we are early in the development cycle for the Kitely Market, we may decide to change some aspects of its behavior or fees. However, the discounts and benefits described here will still apply.

How to Apply

Send us an email with your Kitely avatar name and the approximate number of unique content items you intend to upload to the Kitely Market before it opens, and you’ll get the 50% discount and access to the content-creation sandbox.

If you want to apply to be a Featured Merchant then include the following additional information in your email: the name you go by in other grids (if different from Kitely), and a SLURL and/or link to a website where we can view your content. We will notify you by email whether you were accepted or not. This will happen before we make the merchant control panel available, so that you’ll know which listing fees you will need to pay (if any).

Weekly Merchant Meetings

Kitely will hold weekly meetings for merchants where you’ll be able to ask questions and have a say on how the Kitely Market develops. Times and dates will be announced later. In addition, you can use our forums at any time.

Act Now

We will make the Kitely Market’s merchant control panel available in about 1.5 months. However,  you shouldn’t wait for that: you can start uploading your content to Kitely immediately, so that it’s already in your inventory once the control panel is available. Having a lot of high-quality content in your inventory will increase your chances of gaining Featured Merchant status.

A Minute of Your Time Can Help the Kitely Community Grow

Hypergrid Business is now holding its third annual OpenSim grid survey.  Last year many of you participated in the survey, and your support helped Kitely grow and become the biggest commercial provider of OpenSim regions. Please help us continue to expand the Kitely community by answering this short multiple choice questionnaire. Thank you!

User-Created Transfer Stations

What are Transfer Stations

In one of our next releases we will be introducing a new feature called Transfer Stations. Transfer Stations are miniature worlds that users wait in while their world is being loaded.

Kitely is a cloud-based virtual world provider, so when a user tries to enter a world that is currently offline we need to start the world first. This is fairly quick, but not instantaneous. Currently users look at a progress bar on our website while the world is being started, and once the world is ready their viewer is automatically launched. Transfer Stations are going to change this: when a user tries to enter an offline world their viewer will start immediately, but they will enter a Transfer Station instead of the desired world. Once the world is ready the user will be teleported to it automatically.

Transfer Stations will be used only when entering the Kitely grid, i.e. when your viewer isn’t already logged into another Kitely world. If you are already logged into Kitely then you will wait in the current world you are in while the world you are heading to is being started (this is also how Kitely currently works).

If several people try to enter the same offline world at once then they will be placed in the same Transfer Station. This will allow you to talk and chat even before the world is ready.

Transfer Stations have several benefits:

  • They reduce the time it takes to enter an offline world, because the time for starting the viewer is spent in parallel with starting the world.
  • They make it possible to enter a world by starting the viewer directly (instead of from our website). Currently that isn’t possible: we require users to click “Enter World” in our website first.
  • Once Kitely supports HyperGrid access, transfer stations will enable people to HyperGrid teleport into Kitely worlds even if their destination worlds are currently offline.
  • You’ll be able to start chatting, dressing up, etc. with other people going to the same world as you even before the world is ready.

User-Created Transfer Stations

We discussed this feature in this week’s Kitely Mentors Group meeting, and a few people asked about the possibility of choosing the theme of the transfer station that will be used for their worlds. Subsequently several people volunteered to create such themed stations. We think this could be a nice touch, so we’ve decided to accept a few themed stations in addition to the standard transfer station that we’ll create. Once Transfer Stations are enabled, world managers will be able to choose which transfer station should be used for their worlds.

If you are interested in creating a Transfer Station then please consider the following guidelines:

Overall Structure

  • A transfer station is a small, self-contained, simple build. Here’s an example (please note that this is an incomplete rough draft):

  • A transfer station is a structure roughly 48m x 48m x 48m in size, which is enclosed within a larger box whose size is 127m x 127m x 127m. The large box must contain skybox textures, as shown in the screenshot above. (You can make the inner platform slightly bigger or smaller than 48m if you want, but the outer box must be exactly 127m.)
  • The station should be open-space with no closed structures. People should be able to see the entire station and everything in it by zooming out. For example, it’s ok to use arches, but not tunnels. The station doesn’t have to be circular.
  • The station can’t include any scripts or physics.
  • The station must be very low on the prim, texture, and mesh counts so that it will rez quickly when people enter it. Textures should be 512×512, unless they are used for big areas in which case 1024×1024 is acceptable.
  • Consider the physics engine load in your design. Don’t use hollow prims/meshes that are non-phantom. To prevent avatars passing through such barriers, simulate the physics mesh with non-linked transparent non-phantom prims. If you use multiple prims to get multiple textures on the ground then make the textured prims phantom and cover them with a single non-phantom megaprim the user can walk on.

Contents

  • Each transfer station has a few required elements:
  • When you enter the transfer station there should be a large sign directly in front of you. This sign will explain what is happening, e.g. “You are currently waiting for your world to load.” The sign should take up at least 50% of the visible space in front of you when you enter the world. Use a blank rectangle as a placeholder for the content, because the real contents of the sign will be rendered via a script by Kitely when the station is set up.
  • If required, attribution for you and other content creators can appear on a small 0.5m x 0.5m plaque near the landing point. The plaque needs to fit the theme of the station and must not stand out visually. It should state “This Kitely Transfer Station was designed by X and includes content which was created by Y, Z, and W” (where X is your name, and Y, Z, and W are the names of the people who created content which you included in your build).
  • Don’t include any links, ads or promotions in the transfer station. The only exception is the attribution plaque which can include the name of your company (not a URL, or logo), e.g.: “This Kitely Transfer Station was designed by John Smith of John’s Designs”.

Legal

  • You will retain your copyrights for anything you build, but you will need to license your submission to Kitely using the Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license.
  • Don’t include any content which Kitely can’t use commercially or that includes share-alike license requirements. If you use someone else’s content then it must be permissively licensed and you’ll need to give us direct links to all the website pages from which that content was obtained.

What’s Next

If you wish to contribute to this project then please add your name to the comments section below. Once your world(s) are ready, please edit that comment to add a link to your submission’s world page(s). If you wish you can contact us privately instead.

Please keep in mind that we may ask you to make modifications before accepting your submission for inclusion, and that your station might not end up being included in the Kitely Transfer Station world even if it adheres to all the aforementioned requirements. We’re very open to providing feedback, however, so if you have ideas or drafts you can ask us about them.

This entire blog post is a preview of an upcoming feature. We might yet discover that we need to make changes to the way Transfer Stations work, and if that happens then we may ask you to make changes to your build.

We’ll start considering submissions on October 1st so please add your preliminary builds before then. The Kitely Mentors Group will travel to all submitted worlds; information about these field trips will be provided ahead of time.