New World Notes

Second Life's Iran Vigil Adds Presence and Shared Space and Embodiment to Uprising's Internet Support Community

Here's a few glimpses of yesterday's Second Life vigil for Iranians killed in the democratic uprising, taken from my brief visit. Lasting longer than 90 minutes, reports attendee Laraa Short, about forty people ultimately showed up for the vigil. No one there was reportedly from Iran, but some have family members who are. It wasn't only a time for mourning, but coordinating and growing the nascent "Support Iran" group which organized the event. What we're seeing here, then, is an immersive offshoot of the informal Internet community that has sprung up in the last couple weeks in random, often unexpected places -- on Twitter, in YouTube comment threads, on blogs like the the Huffington Post, and more. While those asynchronous communities mainly express their support through text, or simple gestures like changing one's Twitter avatar to green, this new Second Life adjunct brings 3D and real time to the experience, adding a sense of shared space and embodiment to this community's shared values.

As that suggests, more vigils are planned today, at 2:00pm and 7:00pm SLT -- direct SLurl teleport at this link.

Second Life's Iranian Residents Gone From SL During Protest

When the widespread protest over Iran's heavily-disputed presidential election erupted last weekend, I went searching Second Life for Residents who lived in that country. According to Linden demographic stats published last year (as above), there were over a hundred of them then, logging into Second Life on a regular basis, and likely more this year. There are numerous Second Life groups devoted to Iran and Persia (as below), the two largest totaling over 500 members, and I joined both, sending out several futile "Hello?" messages in the group IM channel, getting mostly silence in reply. (One Iranian member finally responded, but he was living abroad.)

During the previous few days, Linden spokesman Peter Linden confirmed to me last night, "[W]e've not seen any log-ins from Iran." I had been hoping that the Iranian government, far more focused on blocking Twitter and other Internet social networks that have become crucial communication channels for the uprising, may have forgotten to block virtual worlds like Second Life, which connect to the Internet via different protocols than web applications. However, the utter lack of Iranian log-ins in the last few days suggests that Second Life is being blocked, or that Internet connectivity has become so degraded in that country, it's shut down by default.

In any case, I'll keep looking for Persians to return to Second Life, and ask my readers to do the same. For the moment, however, it is probably better that Iranians' Internet activity center on Twitter and other such tools. As I told Roland LeGrand, who's been wondering the same thing, virtual worlds like Second Life are more powerful social change agents on an interpersonal level, for the small percent of Internet users able to meaningfully use them. A great tool for a tech-savvy Iranian woman who wants to safely explore her sexuality or spirituality in ways that would be extremely dangerous to do in her country now, for example -- but when she wants to rally a thousand students on Tehran's Valiasr Street in the next 30 minutes, not so much.

The Real World Object Essential To Noelyci's Second Life

I asked Second Life bloggers in Alicia's challenge to write about a real world object important to their virtual experience. Noelyci Ingmann wrote about this: his insulin pump. (Which as it happens, acts as a kind of virtual artifical pancreas that keeps him alive.) Why is the device so important to what he does in Second Life? "I felt like I always wanted to design something in Second Life that was meaningful and lasting," he writes, "a contribution I could stand behind." So he created an SL version of his insulin pump, as a way to raise awareness about diabetes, then got friends' avatars to model it in a Virtual Insulin Hotties photo series. Whether they're in the challenge or not, I'd love to read other SL bloggers discussing the real world objects that impacted their Second Life as profoundly.

Obama Administration Advisor To Appear in Second Life

Shortly after President Obama was elected last November, I noted that two of his FCC transition team members, academics Susan Crawford and Kevin Werbach, were involved with Second Life in its early years. That's Kevin and his avatar, Eli Gorham, at left; his Supernova conference in 2006 included a heavy SL component, which he described then as "an extraordinary playground... [giving] you tremendous freedom to experiment". He's still a part-time advisor with the Administration, helping craft a Broadband stimulus grant program. Werbach will be back in-world this Wednesday at 1pm Pacific to appear on the Metanomics show, for an extremely apropos topic: "The Age of Obama: Virtual Worlds, Open Government, and Policy". (All the event details at that link.) Kevin tells me he can't discuss the particular policy advice he gave the Administration about virtual worlds, but I suspect he'll provide some great insider perspectives on how they're being shaped.  Read more about him on his site. (Avatar screenshot courtesy Prof. Werbach; photo by Joi Ito, from his Flickr stream.)

Virtual Hair Benefit For Real World Kids With Hair Loss

The fourth annual Hair Fair is hitting Second Life on June 20th; it's the fashion extravaganza where profits from sales of SL hair attachments are donated to Locks of Love, a real world non-profit that gives hair pieces to kids undergoing chemotherapy and other medical crises. To get involved, here's the official site. (A related Flickr hair photography contest just launched.) Along with being a great fundraiser, it's an opportunity to marvel at the range of creativity around this single avatar enhancement. In previous years, the kind of hair pieces donated to the fundraiser ranged from the dramatic and glamorous to the uniquely surreal; one of the top sellers in 2008 was this blue wig which supported a growing Cthulu baby fetus. Hat tip: Harper Ganesvoort, who has much more info.

Update, 3:10pm: A reader points out Locks' FAQ says, "Most of our recipients suffer from alopecia areata. Others have experienced hair loss from radiation therapy and chemotherapy, severe burns or trauma, and various other genetic and dermatological conditions." Changed the title accordingly. Read more about the non-profit (including criticisms of its operation) on Wikipedia.

Tomorrow Morning, I'm Kissing For Life, Star Trek Style

Warming up the booth with Starfleet Ensigns Montgomery and Salomon

Tomorrow morning (Sunday) at 11am SLT, I'll be smooching for Linden Dollars, with all donations going to American Cancer Society's Relay for Life SL. Thanks to Shawna Montgomery and Haley Salomon, who organized the fundraiser, this is a Star Trek-flavored event, so I'm taking all comers (male, female, robot, tribble, etc.) in Starfleet uniform. Ominously, they gave me a red shirt uniform to wear, and you know that never ends well. So come to help me cut into Kirk's action, or for whatever calamity (Klingon ambush, pizza monster attack, etc.) awaits me. Whatever you do, bring your L$ donations. Direct SLurl teleport at this link.

Studio Wikitecture, Virtual Ability Win USD$10K "Linden Prize" For Second Life Innovation For Real World Good

The Lindens announced the USD$10,000 winners of their first "Linden Prize" for socially transformative innovation in Second Life: Wikitecture of Keystone Bouchard and Theory Shaw, and Virtual Ability of Gentle Heron, a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation (perhaps one of the first of its kind), which uses Second Life to help people disabled in real life. Here's Virtual Ability's official site, very much a great resource.  I've written about Wikitecture for years (as here and here) and have an interview with Keystone coming next week.

Holocaust Survivor Fanny Starr Speaks in SL Tomorrow

I recently got word that 87 year old Holocaust survivor Fanny Starr will be appearing tomorrow early evening to speak in Second Life on her harrowing experiences in Nazi-occupied Europe.  As always, she'll testify through the avatar of her daughter Helen (known as Explorer Dastardly in SL). I wrote about them a few months ago, but this is one event you absolutely want to attend first hand, it's truly rare and profound. Here's the details:

• Host: Lighthouse Learning Island, Virtual Pioneers and WNYRIC (moderated by Orchid Jameson)
• WHEN: Sunday April 26, 2009
• TIME: 5:00 PM SLT
• WHERE: Lighthouse Learning Island [Direct SLurl teleport at this link]

For Some Combat Veterans, Second Life Used For PTSD Therapy "Working when nothing else has”, Ret. Lt. Col. Says

A few months ago, I wrote about how military veterans were forming large Second Life support groups, in large part as a way to help each other recover from post-traumatic stress disorder. (This in addition to the SL outreach by real world veteran organizations like Disabled American Veterans -- .pdf bulletin about their Second Life efforts here.) At the time it struck me as an awesome and undeniably valuable application of SL. After all, some vets are uncomfortable about discussing their PTSD in public for many reasons, and are often physically disabled and/or live in remote areas, making it logistically difficult for them to commune in person with fellow service people.  In these cases and others, a virtual community of avatars embodied in a shared space seemed like an ideal solution.

That intuition was recently confirmed by an individual infinitely more qualified to speak on the subject: retired Marine Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman, who's now director of the vet support organization Freedom Is Not Free. In a speech at East Carolina University, which is experimenting with SL as a PSTD treatment platform, Kopelman addressed the subject of Second Life as a therapy tool: “I know Marines that say that Second Life is working when nothing else has," he said.  Often SL is touted for various real world applications, but by people already vested in the metaverse, so some skepticism is warranted.  (That includes, of course, me.)  But I'm far more inclined to take at face value an endorsement from someone whose interest isn't virtual worlds per se, but in helping vets.  And sad to say, as service members keep returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, often after multiple tours, it's an application we're likely to see more of, in coming years.

Explore Green Tech Ideas in Second Life, Take Green Survey for L$ and USD$ Donations to Battle Eye Disease

If you're interested in green tech, this looks like a fun SL diversion: graduate students with the University of Innsbruck led by Rein Spire have developed the "Green Ideation Quest", a Second Life site exploring alternative energy/conversation ideas. You can create and submit prototype your own green tech ideas there, as well. Demo video above, official site here. At the end of the Quest, there's a survey you can take for L$300. Even better, for every survey taken, the project will donate USD$5 to Light for the World, a non-profit that battles eye disease in the developing world. To start, visit the University of Innsbruck's island in Second Life. [Direct SLurl teleport at this link.] You can also take the survey on the web here.