Ted Castronova sends out notice on the Terra Nova blog that "Arden" the Shakespearean-themed virtual world (which I parodied awhile ago) has finished their alpha stress test and now is going into what looks like perpetual beta. For those that don’t know, Arden was pitched as leveraging the convening power of massively multi-player online games…
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Law and Order SVU goes virtual with “Avatar” episode
Beating "CSI:NY" to the virtual punch, "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" tonight features a sex crime linked to a remarkably Second Life-looking virtual world called "AOI". As described by a character in the preview: "People do everything in AOI: they build houses, gamble, dance, have sex." All, of course is not well in AOI,…
Enabling remote participation at the Rio Internet Governance Forum: blogging and virtual worlds
Brazilian blogger and researcher Jose Murilo Junior posts an interesting set of questions regarding how to enable effective remote participation at the upcoming Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janiero in November. Jose references my thinking on this subject at the IGF in Athens last year. Here’s my new response to Jose: event blogging and…
Living large in Brooklyn!
Mole and I are now safely ensconced in our new digs in lovely Fort Green, Brooklyn, after a trying and exhausting day of moving from my Manhattan apartment. My old place in the Financial District had some nice amenities, including plenty of space and a super-central location. But the pre-war building has not aged well,…
New York Sun article on Lindy Hop in New York!
Kate Taylor interviewed me for an article that was published today in the New York Sun entitled "A New Generation of Swing Kids." Nice to see the plug for the swing website I help run Yehoodi and our weekly dance the Frim Fram Jam. I was pleasantly surprised that I got quoted as much as…
Second Life demos in solidarity with Burma tomorrow (saturday)
Like millions of others, I am shocked and horrified with what is happening in Burma / Myanmar. The nearly complete isolation of the small country makes it virtually impervious to outside public pressure, short of military invasion. I have long been an admirer of dissident Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, back in 1999 when…
Handspring Visor Cell Phone and iPhone: old skool versus bleeding edge
In the midst of packing for my big move to Brooklyn, I ran into some interesting legacy technology that I’ve been lugging around with me everywhere — cassette tapes of 80s music, movies on VHS, film point-and-shoot cameras, and this blast from the past: the Handspring Visor with the cell phone attachment! Man, I loved…
Update on “Pink for Life” mixed-reality breast cancer charity event
Wow, there is like a ton of in-world activity going on around cancer lately. Here’s yet another cancer-related benefit coming up in October. Yogi Huldschinsky, the organizer of an upcoming charity event entitled "Pink for Life," contacted me regarding some changes to their mixed-reality event, which I have blogged about previously. "Pink for Life" is…
Is the new Newt the great uniter? (Thoughts on Gingrich’s first foray into Second Life)
This afternoon, former Speaker of the House and head of the group American Solutions for Winning the Future, Newt Gingrich spoke briefly and answered questions from an audience of 50-some avatars in Second Life. Located appropriately enough on the steps of the virtual Capitol Hill (teleport SLURL), Gingrich spoke about a number of issues, including…
1 million Flip video cameras to be given to non-profits around the world
Pure Digital Technologies has announced at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting today that they plan on giving away 1 million of their ultracompact Flip videocameras to non-profits and NGOs around the world to assist their work. “We believe video can help change the world,” said Jonathan Kaplan, Chairperson and CEO of Pure Digital Technologies in…