New World Notes

LOS ANGELES READERS, READ ON...

Resident Angelenos in love; Resident Angelenos from Europe.  I'm helping an LA-based production company put together interview and feature subjects for an upcoming TV documentary on Second Life and other online worlds.  If you're in or near the Los Angeles area and you're interested in appearing in the production, read on for details.

WIRED INSIDE

Click the screenshot to reach the Wired office

If you only go to one in your life, you've got to go to a Wired Magazine party.  I say that not just because Wired's CPU-shaped Second Life office was created by Millions of Us, a sponsor to this blog, but as someone who's been to many.  In the heydays of the first dot com boom, for example, they threw one in a three-story building, with every floor featuring a different band and an open bar; last year, they scaled back slightly, and just took over the famed Fillmore concert hall, and got DJ Danger Mouse (pre-Gnarls Barkley) to play a live set.  Will be interesting to see how much of that bleeding edge wildness they're able to recreate virtually, but then, they do have sushi, so that's a start.

Kick off is tomorrow at 4pm, with last call at 7pm.  (Direct teleport here.)  More details after the break.

THE SECOND LIFE OF CHRIS ANDERSON

Last Friday, Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson appeared in avatar form to sit down with me and an audience of Residents to discuss his groundbreaking book, The Long Tail: The New Economics of Culture and Commerce, and autograph copies of the virtual edition.   After the break, a lightly-edited transcript of our conversation with Chris (known in SL as "LongtailChris Anderson"), touching on numerous related topics, including Google's recent purchase of YouTube, Second Life and 3D printing, and the Long Tail's impact on social fragmentation, media distribution, corporate profit, developing nations, independent artists, the metaverse-- and beer.

Chris Anderson's appearance sponsored by Wired Magazine and Millions of Us.

THE LONG TAIL OF SECOND LIFE

Exploring The Long Tail with Falk and battle droid

There's still a few openings left to attend Chris Anderson's appearance in Second Life today at 10:30am SLT.  Send an Instant Message to Rodica Millionsofus, and if there's room, she'll provide you with a landmark to the space.  As always, Falk Bergman (pictured here behind the battle 'bot) has created a fully readable virtual edition of the guest author's book, with autograph function built in.  If you miss the event, not to worry-- the edited transcript runs on New World Notes soon.

Chris Anderson's appearance sponsored by Wired Magazine and NWN sponsor Millions of Us.

VIEWING VERSU (Updated)

Versu Richilieu has gone live behind a glass case, both in an undisclosed location in Second Life, and on the corner of 39th Street and 5th Avenue of New York City, showcasing both the Intel Core Duo processor, and the ability to mix reality on the fly with nothing but a laptop to bridge both worlds.

Watch both versions of Versu at this site.  Dual streams run there for the next 62 hours or so of this experiment, with live reports at the Millions of Us blog.

Late this morning, I stopped by to talk with Versu's virtual version, and asked her what she thought of it so far. "It is sinking in that I can't leave," she told me laughing, perhaps a bit uneasily.

"You only been there a few hours, yeah?"

"Mm hmmm, six and a half."

"What are people on the street doing as they pass?"

"Staring mostly.  [I'm] using hand signals to explain what I am doing to two nice ladies at the window."

When I visited the live video feed from New York, a large cheeful dude in a blue shirt was standing next to the window, dancing.  Grinning, the real world Versu obliged with a few shimmies from her chair.  I captured a stillshot from the feed, and uploaded into Second Life, bringing us this:

Real world Versu next to avatar Versu, building together, trapped for the next three days in their own enclosed reality.

Event produced by Millions of Us, a sponsor of this blog.

Update, 11:27pm: By "undisclosed location", I didn't mean Versu was hanging out with the virtual Dick Cheney.  She's in a private sim invisible to the grid.  To request access, send an IM to Rodica MillionsofUs.  (Thanks to Elle Pollack for the catch.)

Update, 10/13: In Comments, Paolo points out a Rocketboom segment devoted to Versu's adventure.

CHRIS ANDERSON COMES TO SECOND LIFE

This Friday from 10:30-11:30am, I'm proud to announce that I'll be interviewing Chris Anderson, acclaimed Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine, and author of the profoundly influential New York Times bestseller The Long Tail: The New Economics of Culture and Commerce.  He'll be appearing in-world in avatar form to chat with me and a live audience about the book, then signing copies of the virtual edition (an excerpt from the full print version.)  Seating is limited, but open to the Resident public.  To reserve a place, send an Instant Message to event coordinator Rodica Millionsofus by the end of Thursday.

I'm especially pleased to announce this event (and not because I'm an occasional contributor to his magazine), partly because Chris' thought has made its way to this blog before, first in the form of 3D models of the Long Tail created in Second Life by Csven Concord, and then in a post involving giant squirrels. 

After the event, I'll be running an edited transcript on this blog, for those who couldn't attend but wanted to, and all those who would have wanted to, but learned about it too late-- and, of course, to all those who subsequently Google the term "long tail", months and years afterward.  Demonstrating, in other words, the Long Tail effect with a Long Tail interview. 

Chris Anderson's appearance sponsored by Wired Magazine and NWN sponsor Millions of Us.

TWO VIEWS OF VERSU (Updated)

In her Second Life incarnation, Versu Richelieu is a seasoned builder, creator of Rue d'Alliez*, a shopping district of European charm, with cobblestone streets and old world architecture.  In her real world form, starting this Thursday morning, you'll find her in a glass box in New York City on the corner of 39th Street and 5th Avenue, confined entirely from the outside world, with only Second Life and the Internet as a lifeline to the outside world.  And that's where she'll be for the next 72 hours, building.  Building what?  No one knows.  You could always visit her in-world, to find out, or view either variation of Versu from the video stream that will document her process, both from SL and NYC-- or just swing by mid-town Manhattan, to get a material glimpse.

This exercise in reality-bending is the brainchild of Reuben Tapioca of Millions of Us (a sponsor of this blog), created to promote Intel's new Core Duo processor.  When he sent me word of this, he also hinted at a coming flurry of mainstream media around both versions of Versu, including a metaverse-based visit from a well-known late night television host.  For now, however, Reuben sends along the main details, after the break.

THE SECOND LIFE OF JONATHAN COULTON-- AN NWN INTERVIEW

It's all very nice to welcome Suzanne Vega or even Duran Duran to Second Life, but personally speaking, I'm more excited that Jonathan Coulton is performing in-world this Thursday.  Appearing in avatar form as Yonatan Coalcliff, Coulton is the "Contributing Troubadour" for PopSci (a co-sponsor of his SL appearance), the man who's managed to give songs about DNA and designer drugs a catchy alt-rock hook.  Songs like his beloved "Code Monkey" and "Welcome to Skullcrusher Mountain" speak wacky truth to the yearning geek in all of us-- if the guys in Office Space had a favorite rockstar, it'd be Coulton-- while his folksy guitar accompaniment to "700 Hobo Names" from surreal comedian/"Daily Show" regular John Hodgman helped turn the recording into a cult Net hit.  To top all that, Coulton is also a Creative Commons artist, making his music freely available and mixable to his many fans-- which is why CC-in-SL is also sponsoring his Thursday show.  (Disclosure:  I'm a proud part-time consultant for Creative Commons' office in Second Life.)

All the details you need for catching Coulton's 5PM Thursday appearance are available at the Creative Commons SL event wiki.  I had a chance to interview Coulton/Coalcliff last week, and catch him in-world for an impromptu photo shoot that was occasionally interrupted by a brain-hungry member of the undead. 

After the break, Jonathan Coulton on everything from writing "Code Monkey" to being a Contributing Troubadour and a CC musician, to collaborating with Hodgman, to creating his zombie anthem "Re Your Brains"-- and performing it with actual zombies onstage.

"CODE MONKEY" COULTON'S CREATIVE COMMONS CONCERT

If you're a fan of alt-Internet musician Jonathan Coulton, the man who brought us the beloved geek anthem "Code Monkey" and other songs of wacky brilliance, mark your calendar: next week on September 14 at 5pm SLT (i.e. PDT), he'll be performing live in Second Life, along with famed Resident performers like Frogg Marlowe, Cylindrian Rutabaga, and Slim Warrior, in an epic event brought to the world by Popsci.com and Creative Commons. 

Next week, I'll be running an interview with Coulton, known in Second Life as Yonatan Coalcliff. Meantime, here's all the info you need to know to attend and/or hear the event, in person or via audio stream.  (Disclosure:  I'm a proud part-time consultant for CC's Second Life office in Kula.)

HAMLET IN DENMARK!

Thanks to the good folks at Innovation Lab, a Danish technology/futurist center, I'll be traveling to Denmark in a couple weeks to speak at their "Knock Knock" conference.  As their speaker bio page says, "In 2003 he proceeded to write himself into the Internet universe Second Life, where, until this February, he acted as so-called embedded journalist for the newspaper New World Notes covering the daily life in the virtual world. Gain an insight into the life and work of a virtual journalist."  According to conference director Anders Morgan, "There are still roughly 40 seats available and... the conference will be streamed live on the Internet-- so people from around the globe can follow along on at www.innovationlab.dk."  Of course, I hope to meet a few NWN readers in person there.  And maybe visit Elsinore.  (Though I know the castle's relation to Shakespeare's Hamlet is even more virtual than my avatar is to me.)