New World Notes

Holocaust Survivor Fanny Starr Speaks in Second Life Tomorrow

Speaking of profound experiences, 87 year old Holocaust survivor Fanny Starr will appear tomorrow in Second Life through Explorer Dastardly, the avatar of her daughter.  I wrote about her last month, and it's an event you don't want to miss.  Here's the details:

WHEN:   Sunday, March 1st
TIME:   10:00 AM SLT (i.e. Pacific)
WHERE:  ISTE Island [Direct SLurl teleport at this link]

As a courtesy to her mother, Ms. Dastardly requests that audience members turn off any animations, and refrain from using sound files.

Weekend Open Forum: What Was Your Most Profound Second Life Experience?

An open forum with an open question: what event, creation, avatar, or personal connection centered around Second Life was the most profound to you, and why?

Crimson Shadow Freebie Blood Hunt Ends This Weekend

Lokum Shilova, SL community manager of NWN partner Rezzable, is running a "Blood Hunt" with jewelery, Neko accessories, masques and other avatar accessories to be won.  It happens within the goth chambers of Crimson Shadow, and ends this weekend.  Go here to begin your search.

What's Your Favorite Name for a Second Life Business?

Electric Pixels is a good name for a Second Life business, because it's memorable, and strongly suggests what products it sells. (Particle effects.)  Unsurprisingly, the owner of that enterprise, ArminasX Saiman, has some good advice on naming your own SL company on his blog. Among his recomendations for would-be entrepeneurs: the company name should be unambiguously spelled (so it's easy to find in Search) and should be pronouncable (so it's easy for people to mention via word-of-mouth.) 

To that advice, I'd add my own personal criteria: the company name should immediately evoke the metaverse, sounding more fantastical or creative than most real world companies would ever dare.  Off the top of my head, that would include, for example, the SL fashion company Deviant Kitties, and the metaverse developer Cranial Tap.  What are some of your favorites?

Advice for SL Educators Chatting with Non-SL Colleagues

Veteran SL-based educator Joe Essid (Ignatius Onomatopoeia in SL) wonders if members of Second Life's educational community inadvertently alienate colleagues who haven't drank the metaverse's pedagogical Kool Aid.  He offers four guidlines for talking with educators who still aren't sure SL's worth trying as a teaching tool:

• Avoid the term “resident” with colleagues.
• Avoid in-world jargon and assumptions.
• Avoid both sensationalism and denial.
• Avoid the myth of inevitability.

I'd say the last one is the most important, because it's still far from clear how broadly adopted SL will ultimately be.  Far better, in my opinion, to simply demonstrate its proven utility as a development and teaching platform, and let the market deal with the adoption question. Anyway, read Iggy's reasoning here, and add advice of your on.

Rivet Town to Close; Sign of Steampunk Plateau in SL?

Rivet Town is a relatively recent addition to Second Life's large steampunk community, a beautifully wrought rendition of a smoggy, Verne-ian Victorian metropolis with a fascinating history perfect for roleplay. Or rather, "was". Citing "lack of constant traffic and rental incomes", owner Grace Loudon evidently announced that she would close the sim at the end of March. As as an admirer of the place, I'm surprised Rivet Town lacked for citizens, especially when SL steampunks are easily among the world's most active Residents.  I put the question to the gentlemen in tophats and the ladies in their brass-lined finery: is this a sign that the community is now reaching a plateau of numbers or activity, or something else?  Image credit and hat tip: Dr. Fabre's Heliograph.

What Are the Prime Sources of Second Life Social Drama?

I dig these graphs on metaverse culture from SL Revolution, especially this breakdown on the causes of interpersonal drama.  Mostly avatar tongue-in-cheek, but still largely accurate.  Especially the implicit observation that the majority of SL drama actually takes place not in-world, but on Web 2.0 sites like Plurk, or snarky blogs like Shopping Cart Disco.  (Which is where fashionistas generally air out their differences.)  I do think "Roleplay conflicts" deserves a pretty big cut of this pie.  But I give up: what are the biggest dramas are caused by SL-oriented Flickr groups?

CyFishy Blogs In Second Life For 24 Hours

Starting this morning, CyFishy Traveler plans to be in-world for 24 hours straight, posting periodic updates from her blogHUD.  If it goes anything like my experience, she may quite possibly wind up looking as pale in real life as her avatar is.  She will likely discover far more strange and wonderful things than I ever did then, so be sure to follow her progress.

Virtual Content "Inspired By" Real Trademarked Products in Legal Limbo on Second Life's eCommerce Site

If you sell virtual content on xStreetSL, the Second Life eCommerce site recently acquired by Linden Lab, you may want to remove any references to products that are trademarked in the real world.  Even if they're designated as "inspired by" these products, and not imitations, their sale may soon be prohibited.  That would likely include the three SL variations of well-known trademarked products pictured above, which I found after a few minutes of browsing.

I discovered this after talking with a content creator earlier this week, who told me that it was considered permissible to sell products which referenced trademarked products on the site, just so long as an "inspired by" clause was added in the sales description.  I wanted to make sure that was accurate, so I double-checked with Cayle Linden, the former owner and now manager of xStreetSL.  (A service that was previously known as SL Exchange, ironically enough, before the Lindens' enforced their own trademarks last year.)  That turned out to be only partly true:

Chestnut's Choices 2/26 - 3/4: International Machinima Fest, Hobo Block Party, Virtual Shakespeare and much more

Chestnut Rau’s weekly round-up of upcoming SL events…

When Chantal Harvey and Ze Moo (above) started to plan a Festival to celebrate machinima they did not anticipate what would happen.  What started as a chance to meet people with a shared interest blossomed into a huge mixed reality event, MaMachinima International Festival 2009.  On Saturday February 28th beginning at 1PM a festival of machinima from more than 50 talented artists will be shown. After each machinima, the creators will talk about the making of the film and will answer questions from the SL crowd.  Concurrently, the Festival will be shown at PLANETART in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Dutch audience will also be encouraged to ask questions during this mixed reality celebration of art. 

Expect machinima from Chantal Harvey, Dizzy Banjo, Toxic Menges, and many many others.  The Festival is not limited to machinima from Second Life so you may see work from World of Warcraft, Sims, or even Grand Theft Auto.  Go to http://mmif.org/ for more information including a short promotional machinima by CodeWarrior Carling can also be found here. In Rasta Views. [SLurl teleport at this link]

Also after the break: live Freestar Bay Pajama Party, Festival of St. Patrick, Live Native American Flute and much more....