New World Notes

Philip Rosedale Added as GamesBeat Next Speaker! Get The 40% Discount Code, Join Him, Cory Ondrejka, Raph Koster & Me There!

Just got word that Philip has been added as a keynote speaker to GamesBeat Next in San Francisco next week Monday and Tuesday (October 23-24) -- use this discount code for 40% off at sign-up: GBN23SPEAKER

That's on top of me moderating a panel with Second Life co-founder/Google VP Cory Ondrejka; as I discuss in the book, Cory later went on to become a top VP at Facebook, where he led the acquisition of Oculus VR. We're joined by MMO game god Raph Koster, who's furiously and secretly at work creating his next platform, Playable Worlds.  

Here's the title/description of our talk:

That's on top of me moderating a panel with Second Life co-founder/Google VP Cory Ondrejka; as I discuss in the book, Cory later went on to become a top VP at Facebook, where he led the acquisition of Oculus VR. We're joined by MMO game god Raph Koster, who's furiously and secretly at work creating his next platform, Playable Worlds.  

Here's the title/description of our talk:

Get a 40% Discount Code for GamesBeat Next, Where I'm Talking Practical Steps to Make the Metaverse With Raph Koster & Cory Ondrejka

If you're interested in attending GamesBeat Next in San Francisco this month (October 23-24 to be exact), use this discount code for 40% off at sign-up:  GBN23SPEAKER

As that suggests, yes, I'm moderating a panel with Second Life co-founder/Google VP Cory Ondrejka and MMO game god Raph Koster, who's furiously and secretly at work creating his next platform, Playable Worlds.

Here's the tentative title/description:

Watch: Talking Today About Making a Metaverse That Matters With the Virtual Worlds Education Consortium!

Starting today at 1pm PT/SLT I'll be chatting with the lovely folks of the Virtual Worlds Education Consortium about Making a Metaverse That Matters in the OG metaverse platform of Second Life. If you want to join us in-world, click here to teleport -- or watch the live YouTube stream above.

Hosted by longtime virtual world educator Valerie Hill, it should be a meaty, expert level conversation with people who've been doing This Metaverse Thing for years if not decades.

Maui Fundraiser With Special Sales, Live Music & Linden Lab Vetting Open Until End of Saturday -- Let's Raise Three Million L$ for the Maui Food Bank!

Click here to teleport into the Maui Wildfire Relief drive in Second Life. Running until end of this Saturday, over 75 SL brands are selling excellent items (full list of participants here) with 100% of net sales going as cash donations to Maui Food Bank.

Several live music events are also planned today and tomorrow, including a very special one: Today at 5pm PT/SLT, event co-organizer Wendz Tempest, who's from Maui and still has family there, is set to jam live on her ukulele!

Since launching last weekend, over L$1,874,517 (almost $7000 USD, after 5% cash-out) has been raised. Since then, Linden Lab has vetted the donation process and is actively promoting the fundraiser on Second Life's social media channels. Let's double that raise and get it to over L$3,000,000 this weekend!

Speaking of the L$ cash-out fee, I definitely recommend also consider making a direct US$ donations to Maui Food Bank here. At the same time, there's tens of million of USD already in the Second Life economy, and if you have L$ in your account to spare, consider spending some of it to help the people of Maui. Not to mention being part of this virtual community event featuring several SLers from Hawaii including Wendz on the uke!

Starting This Weekend: Second Life Shopping Fundraiser to Benefit Maui Families in Need, on a Sim Shaped Like the Island

Click here to teleport to a Second Life fundraiser to help the people of Maui now in desperate need due to the wildfire tragedy. Dozens of top SL brands listed here are donating content to the project, Maui Wildfire Relief SL, with all Linden Dollar proceeds converted to USD and going to the Maui Food Bank. 

The fundraiser starts August 19th, 9amSLT and runs to August 26. (The teleport link won't be live until then.) And yes, the island sim has been shaped to look like Maui itself -- the creation of event manager Wendz Tempest, who is herself from Maui. (As are several other members of the volunteer team.) 

Go here for more info, and if you're a content creator, consider signing up to participate!

The sim itself has a chill beach party / flea market feel, with a gorgeous stream of Hawaiian music setting the vibe. Wendz even created a tribute to Lahaina's vast famous banyan tree, which now struggles to recover from the blaze:

Next Week: Join Me in the Metaverse Platform Breakroom for a Metaverse Book Launch Party!

Click here to a reserve a spot to join a book launch party in the metaverse platform Breakroom next week Wednesday! Will be a fun and casual Summer bonfire-themed event, hopefully similar to the event I co-hosted for Philip Rosedale back in 2021 (watch below).  Details:

Released on the 20th anniversary of Second Life, the first metaverse platform to reach mainstream awareness, Wagner James Au’s new book Making a Metaverse That Matters: From Snow Crash & Second Life to A Virtual World Worth Fighting For (Wiley) arrives after three years of media hype, misinformation, and backlash around the concept.

Weaving together two decades of experience writing about and helping launch metaverse platforms, from his start as Second Life's official embedded reporter, James clarifies the history of the Metaverse, debunks myths that have since formed around it, and offers best practices for engaging a metaverse platform audience over 500 million in size -- and growing it toward a billion.

Attend My GamesBeat Online Talk for Free Next Week -- And Get My Discount Code to Attend GamesBeat In Los Angeles!

Next week I'm speaking about Making a Metaverse That Matters (and related topics) for the first time, at the GamesBeat conferences' virtual event -- go here to register for a free pass. 

And if you can be in the Los Angeles area next week, you can attend GamesBeat's in-person conference on March 22-23 at the Marina del Rey Marriott, with a special discount from the GameBeat folks -- here's how:

See in SL This Month: "“Transcend Struggle”, a Powerful Art Gallery Show

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

There is an exhibit at Dido Haas’ Nitroglobus Gallery that might intrigue and fascinate many of you. It’s called “Transcend Struggle”. You want to go soon as it is only for the month of March. [To teleport to the gallery, click here] 

The show features the work of Yann Gyro, who does most of his work for in-world exhibitions rather than Flickr. The exhibition is about illness, struggle, and transcendence. The artist wrote a poem, which you can read by clicking through to the picture on his Flickr. 

Here is the first verse for the above image: 

You faced the fear, when you heard the news

But I was here, and I saw you rise and choose

To find your power, and stand tall with grace

And embrace the challenge, with courage in your face

For more by Yann Gyro, click here:

Watch: Isabelle & Me Chat About the Metaverse on Cloud's Edge

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who joined us, especially Erik and Rosie in fluff form! We talked about a Second Life avatar in the Vienna Opera House, Bryn Oh on Steam, and too many VR headsets in Metaverse stories. Plus viewer questions and topics that quickly get racy!

Metaverse Safety Week Announced to Help Prevent "Cambridge Analytica 2.0" & Other Security / Privacy Crises

Registration is now open for Metaverse Safety Week, an online conference from XR Safety Initiative (XRSI), the brainchild of Linden Lab veteran Kavya Pearlman.

"It is essential to getting things right at every level. especially when it comes to safety, privacy and cybersecurity," as she tells me. "Currently besides the XRSI privacy and safety framework there are literally no frameworks that factor these aspects into the risks assessment, along with factoring in several converging technologies."

This is probably why we regularly see huge privacy crises like this one happening in metaverse platforms even when they're backed by companies spending billions to produce them.

And the problems seems to be getting worse, not better: