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:
"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:
In heaven, everything is fine. You got yours and I got mine... Click here to visit.
That's right: The David Lynch fan group in Second Life that I wrote about last month has gone ahead and opened up a whole dedicated sim devoted to Lynch's imagination and tributes to scenes and characters from his most memorable works (with a decided Twin Peaks skew). It's open now, and this weekend starting tomorrow at 4pm PT, there's an official opening party. Dress code is "sensual black attire", and an owl mask will be given out upon arrival.
Here's some more glimpses of LynchLand courtesy of group leader Myrdin Sommer, who is financing the sim with a couple other founders: "Cate infinity, SurfSide66 and me, we pay the rent and we hope we get some Lindens in the Land-tip jars at events... the sim is there to have creative events and if people like to hang around in LynchLand that is perfectly fine, all terrain is accessible, so they can stay at the cabins etc. all they want, or just come and take pictures."
So if you're a Lynch fan too -- or David Lynch himself, as he's known to make the occasional metaverse visit -- consider tipping! More images and event details below:
Tomorrow at 11am PT, watch live above or click here to witness in Second Life a pretty intriguing event: Tia Rungray, a Second Life avatar and a "Noise Classical" project by musician Takayuki Noami, is going to improvise live in the Metaverse, in front of two massive cubes in the desert.
"[Sculpture] Blue Tsuki's new installation art is titled Vinculum. This is a Latin word that seems to mean 'bond' or 'cord' in English," Rungray tells me. "The piece consists of two giant cubes that rise up in the desert, reminiscent of electrical circuits and an organic structure within them. Appreciating his art reaffirms that we are not unrelated to the scientific human history that has spread across the earth beyond the desert.
"I usually play my original music, but when I face his work, I use an improvisational performance style. This is because this style allows me to intuitively express what I feel from his work as music, creating a chemical reaction, as it were, like a catalyst. And although my sound is abstract, it has the advantage of not fixing the interpretation for the viewer of his art."
Sounds like this could be spectacular, and the very kind of art only possible in a metaverse platform.
Influenced by Erik Satie and John Cage, Takayuki Noam has been performing in Tokyo since 2013 (when his first of three albums was released), and in Second Life since then:
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
There is a new event in town: Acclaimed metaverse photographer Whiskey Monday has created a new shop-and-hop event focused on art. It’s called Curated and goes for ten days a month. It’s covered here at Seraphim, the event guide blog with all the details on just about everything. Click here for pictures of all the items and links to to hop around to buy a copy of your favorite works for your virtual home.
I love several of the artworks featured this month, so picking two to feature is going to be so hard. But here goes:
"Lynchland is not about roleplay," group leader Myrdin Sommer tells me, "but we do like to dress up as characters from a Lynch movie; LynchLand is a cool place to indulge David Lynch's eccentric persona so to say! And as a dress code we ask this from our visitors at events, but it is certainly not mandatory." But if you had the chance to turn your avatar into a character from a Lynch movie or TV show, why would you not?
"And that goes for everything in LynchLand," says Sommer, "The Bang Bang bar, The little church, the Blue Velvet Diner, The Mulholland Drive-in Cinema or the Lost Highway Motel, where we even have a room specially for David, so he can stay over when he is in ' town."
And you never know when Lynch will be in the neighborhood: He just made a visit the Metaverse just a couple years ago.
More on LynchLand next week, meantime, here's some images from the LynchLand group on Flickr. (Warning, not all of them are worksafe viewing, not even when it's the Log Lady.)
Second Life's famed annual Hair Fair to benefit RL charity Wigs for Kids is unfurling this weekend, and empresario Sasy Scarborough is offering 5 (five) New World Notes readers special early access to the event. Here's how:
Second Life events abound today and this weekend. Starting tomorrow at 11:30am PT, New World Notes' media partner Seraphim opens their fun and fabulous SeraPride extravaganza gala to support a seriously important real world cause:
SeraPride is their annual one day fundraising event. Last year the event raised well over $3000 USD. Hoping to raise even more this year, the festivities will start on June 18th at 11:30am PT and throughout the day there will be DJs, a Drag Race, SeraPride Idol, Raffles, Giveaways, and more! All proceeds will benefit Rainbow Railroad, a small Canadian based organization that helps LGBTQI+ people threatened for their lives to relocate to a safe place.
In the first flush of general interest in the Metaverse, literally hundreds of colleges and universities opened up a virtual campus in Second Life -- up to and including Harvard -- but most of that enthusiasm has drifted away in recent years.
Starting this Saturday at 11am PT, however, a group of dedicated educators are soft launching a new Second Life-based project with the help of Linden Lab: The Virtual Worlds Education Consortium: Click here to teleport.
Unlike that previous era, where universities each had their own isolated (and usually empty) SL campus, these educators are creating an expansive, shared campus:
"[S]o that there is always something going around, green dots on the map, people come to check something out, see something else nearby, etc.," as VWEC member George Djorgovski (a professor at Caltech), explains it to me. "This alone can help the groups already in SL, increase the collaboration and resource sharing, etc. "