1. The Legend of Titanic in Second Life 2010 (Con te partiro-Laura Magori&Alexander Zailer)
2. New Year welcome
3. Second Life – Ahern Retardedness Episode 6
Archives for January 2010
Beautiful Kate – DVD and USA screening
January 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Just a quick heads-up that Beautiful Kate as of today is available locally (PAL version) on DVD.
For those in the United States, the film is also showing this coming weekend at the Palm Spring International Film Festival. Hopefully that will lead to some wider screenings throughout the US.
Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds
January 5, 2010 by 1 Comment
1. Forterra have fallen upon hard times, laying off around half their workforce, according to an email we’ve received and as reported here. It’s a shame to see any company lose so many employees – her’s hoping Forterra are able to continue their work ongoing.
2. The dynamos at Kzero have updated a couple of their forecast charts. Active virtual worlds users is one of the most interesting ones:
3. A prim has been rezzed at the highest ever altitude in Second Life – here’s the proof.
4. The first machinima to be presented to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been produced by Pooky Amsterdam. It was produced for Alissa Moreno, who performs her song ‘Every Day’. Have a look for yourself:
5. The University of Western Australia’s Second Life activities continue to expand, with a machinima competition announced:
WHAT: MachinimUWA : The UWA Machinima Challenge
WHEN: Submissions are open 18th December 2009 – 31st January 2010
All entries will be displayed on the University of Western Australia (UWA) Second Life Blog. http://uwainsl.blogspot.com
Winners will be announced during a ceremony in February
WHERE: In front of Winthrop Tower (Main SIM of the UWA presence) & starting point of all Machinima
THEME: Architecture, Teaching, Research & Arts on the UWA sims
THE CHALLENGE
Create a Machinima between 2 and 5 minutes in length that captures the 4 main elements thats make up the heart of the University of Western Australia SIMS. These elements are the RL architecture, the teaching, the research and the arts. The purpose would be to show that UWA’s presence in SL is comprehensive and covering all these areas, creating true bridges between SL & RL for prospective students, current students, staff, alumni & the community (this is the snapshot – more details below). Note that there are 3 SIMS making up the UWA presence, namely UWA, Uni of WA & WASP Land, and this challenge covers all 3.
Method of Entry:
* Load the Machinima anywhere, and provide the link to both Jayjay Zifanwe & White Lebed (co-hosts of MachinimUWA)
Closing Date:
* Midnight 31st January 2010 (winners annouced in Mid-Feb 2010)
The agenda-setting challenges for virtual worlds: a discussion paper
January 4, 2010 by 3 Comments
The past couple of years have seen virtual worlds start to get on government agendas worldwide. From a policy perspective, agenda-setting is a widely researched area and it’s very pertinent to virtual environments. To that extent, I’ve written a discussion paper that analyses the challenges to date in ensuring virtual worlds do end up as a policy priority for governments.
It’s an expanded version of a piece written in recent months as part of my MBA studies – it has not been published elsewhere and nor will it be.
Who’s the paper for?
If you’re someone interested in the policy aspects of virtual worlds, you may find this paper useful. If you’re an experienced policy analyst you’re going to find the paper very broad, but otherwise it’s a good overview of the challenges and progress to date.
Sample
The introduction to the paper is replicated immediately below to give you a taste of the language and approach:
Virtual worlds have grown in popularity to an extent that they pose a range of policy challenges at both an organisational and governmental level. This discussion will examine the inherent challenges in agenda-setting for those attempting to establish governance structures in virtual worlds, and the growing interrelationship between events in the virtual and real worlds and the related policy conundrums they pose. The work by Kingdon (1984) will be used as the framework for describing the interplay between political factors, policy formulation and any previous approaches to problem resolution. Examples of current policy debates in regards to virtual worlds will be explored within that framework, to illustrate the level of government involvement with this policy arena to date and why there has been a relative lack of response from government in the Australian context.
What does it cost?
The cost of this discussion paper is up to you. When you click on the ‘Add to Cart’ button below, it will show the suggested cost of $9.95 (Australian), all of which goes to our charity of choice, Kiva. If you cannot afford that price, you can manually adjust the cost to whatever amount you want, including zero – we’ll let your conscience determine that 😉
Feedback
Please don’t hesitate to provide any feedback on the paper. By their nature, policy debates are far from black and white affairs and this one is no different. I’d also like to thank Ren Reynolds for responding to a query on the analytical framework prior to writing the paper.
Click below to purchase the paper:
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Or – here’s the direct link for the download service we use.
Metaplace – final concert
January 2, 2010 by 1 Comment
As discussed last week, Metaplace is closing its doors. That closure comes into effect in the next few hours, and as a farewell founder Raph Koster is holding a farewell concert. It’s just started, with REM’s ‘End of the World’ the opening song. How many virtual world execs would get up in front of an audience of people who are losing their world and put it on the line musically? Not many, but I’m not surprised that Raph Koster has done so.
If you want to spend some time in Metaplace, now’s the time to do it. The concert location is here.
Update: I managed to hang out for the majority of the show and it’s an understatement to say Raph Koster out his heart into his show. As one audience member stated, he should consider performing as a musician in Second Life. I captured one song, Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing, which shows the passion of the performance:
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