catchup

Do as I say, not as I do:

If you have a blog, you create the expectation that you will post at least once or twice a week. So I’ve got a lot of catching up to do…

Two items I’ve been meaning to share, both about contacts that came entirely via SL:

1.) I received an inworld IM one day from an avatar named Adrianna, who had used the inworld Search and found Quinnipiac University mentioned in my profile. I arranged to meet her in my favorite place in SL, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar in New Orleans, where we proceeded to have a wonderful chat about the Master’s Program in Interactive Communications.

I connected her with the other students in SL, and with the Prof who brought us inworld and who maintains both an avatar and an SL group. Adrianna met and chatted with him as well, and long story short: She has applied and been accepted to the program. SL is officially an educational recruiting channel.

2.) My avatar has a profile on Facebook (contemplate that for a second) and belongs to several SL related Facebook groups. Through one of those groups, I was contacted by a journalism student in India who was doing a paper on SL. She wanted to send me a questionnaire about my SL use; I immediately asked her if she could send it to me inworld rather than by email, because it would be “more fun” than getting it as a Word doc attachment.

She sent it to me as an SL notecard, which I filled out and sent back. I also put her onto some of my fellow students and gave her some other leads for sources (like danah boyd and Sherry Turkle). Long story short: she completed the paper and posted it on her blog at my suggestion.

Cross-world, cross-cultural collaboration. I love it!

goodbye red rocks

by complete coincidence, Sphere logged in the other day — and the next day, Red Rocks was gone. I rescued this “last bmp”

notes from SLCC Chicago 2007

The SLCC in Chicago last weekend was great fun. In addition to the sold-out SL show (750 registrants), a steroid-infused ESPN event and a lovely real-life wedding were also taking place in the same Hilton Hotel and it was funny to see all the characters mixing in the lobby.

I attended the Business seminar track and heard several speakers talk about their projects:
Amazon.com talked about their appropriately themed Amazon River “attraction”
SL Dublin is sponsored by Blarney Stone bar-restaurants and is growing rapidly
A passionate young designer showed how she creates fashions in SL and then sells them in RL (real life)
A creative director for an SL development company said the next buzzword after “engagement” is “involvement”
A marketing firm showed how they will use product placement in SL to build real-world brand awareness and sales

The other tracks were: Social (identity, interpersonal relationships, etc.), Education (very well attended as over 300 colleges are using SL), and the so-called Machinima (using SL to make animation videos).

The masquerade ball was a blast, and I was lucky enough to have Sphere Gasser as my date. We met lots of interesting folks (Ph.Ds, software developers, etc.) and I was even interviewed by Reuters. Talk about “engagement,” see the last quote below:

What will the next year bring in Second Life?

Jeska Linden. Linden Lab community and product wrangling: “We’ll continue to be amazed by the creativity of the Second Life residents and hopefully we’ll be able to open source the servers.”

Prokofy Neva: “A better search that will actually harm the economy because it will remove ‘traffic’ from search results. But ultimately it will attract a lot more people to find stuff and there will be more shopping. We can be sure of that.”

Jeroen Frans. Metaverse developer: “Second Life will only grow much larger.”

Moo Money. SLCC Machinima track coordinator: “I look forward to all the new residents breathing life into the main grid.”

Forsythe Whitfield: “More live music, and more completely immersive environments.”

Thediva Rockin. slfashionpolice.com: “A more fashionable Second Life. That’s what I’m pulling for and I’m here to clean up the streets.”

Jennyfur Peregrine. SLCC co-host: “I’m really hoping for grid stability.”

takup0pe Neumann. libsecondlife.org: “Something awesome and open source.”

Gigs Taggert. “Best bug hunter”: “The expansion of the open source program with various third party modifications will provide a better experience.”

Durango Ringo: “More furries.

Joshua Nightshade: “Robots will become the next fetish for Second Life.”

Stroker Serpentine. Host of the Ball, adult products mogul, currently involved in a copyright infringement lawsuit: “Better sex.”

Regina Lynn. Wired.com columnist: “Lots and lots of sex.”

Izzy Linden. Linden Lab concierge: “Increased satisfaction among the membership.”

Sphere Gasser: “We’re going up to twenty million. See you there!”

Jazz Asylum had the band at the Leather & Lace Masquerade Ball stop the music to get down on one knee before Chelle Moore, who he met in Second Life last October. She said yes, and all of SLCC cheered.

look who has the new phone

E&P on virtual journalism in SL

Here’s a look at how media and journalistic principles are evolving in Second Life.

party pix

a great time was had by all. thanks to the staff at Sublime restaurant!

from the scanner darkly sim

fun “photo op” setup puts you in the movie

Sphere’s review of Caledon sim

Genteel Manners in a 19th Century “Steampunk” Victorian World

Sim One

Was just admiring the turquoise bracelet I’d modified into a chunky necklace for SG (the designer of the bracelet now promises to create some pendants for her) when I started thinking about Pygmalion in relation to SL. In that context, remembered the Al Pacino bomb called Simone and made a mental note to try to rent that from the library. Scanning the movie stills online, I came across this one with Jason Schwartzman and a guy who looks like Prof. H.

winter in Red Rocks