W. James Au

Welcome to the new New World Notes.

From April 2003 to February 2006, I was a contract writer for Linden Lab, creators of Second Life, primarily hired by the company to cover SL as an embedded journalist in an emerging society-- its controversies, its personalities, its innovations and ambitions, along with larger themes of identity, social norms and organization, and cultural expression important to online worlds in general.

That contractual relationship has ended, but the story continues here.

For the longer version, read about it here.

I’ve been interviewed about my work as the embedded journalist for Second Life by CNN International, NPR’s All Things Considered, the BBC, The Los Angeles Times, Harvard Business Review, News.com, the San Jose Mercury, the Associated Press, Wired Online, Presstime, and the East Bay Express, among other publications. I have spoken on the subject for The Education Arcade (sponsored by MIT), twice at South by Southwest in Austin, and twice at State of Play (sponsored by Yale and New York Law School.)

Some media links here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4488103
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/008779.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4432019.stm

Apart from New World Notes, I'm also a contract consultant and copywriter for SL projects and advertising, and a seasoned game designer, screenwriter, and freelance journalist. Contact me at wjamesau@well.com.

Full disclosure: as listed on the homepage, I'm an "SL partner" with the metaverse development company Millions of Us , i.e., also a sponsor of the blog. As a developer and writer, I'll be an occasional consultant on various MOU projects in SL. During the infrequent times I mention Millions of Us projects in NWN editorial, I'll disclose that relation and/or designate the post as a "sponsored link".

I'm a contributor for GigaOM and occasionally for Kotaku. I’ve also been a regular freelance writer for Salon and Wired for the past eight-ten years, along with writing for the Los Angeles Times, Lingua Franca, Game Developer, Gamespot, Gameslice, and other publications, primarily on game culture and the game industry, along with politics, film, and pop culture. I am also a screenwriter (my script Future Tense was optioned by Canal Plus in 2001), and as a game developer, wrote for Electronics Arts’ groundbreaking conspiracy thriller Majestic and was a designer on America’s Army: Soldiers, an offshoot of the popular America’s Army game.