Tonight I managed to catch most of a special Future Salon discussion and machinima movie viewing in Second Life featuring Paul Marino, head of the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, founder of Ill Clan Productions and most importantly my roommate. In typical SL mind-bending fashion, I was sitting in the living room of our…
Author:
Talking Trash about Second Life
My buddy Frank (aka Ill Bixby) and his crew at Ill Clan productions have just finished episode 8 of TrashTalk with ILL Will. The talk show features Ill Will and his sidekick / missile Mal, commenting on the wacky world of gaming. In this episode, they explore the Second Life universe where they find love,…
Telling the media reform story better
I just went to the Spin Project and Opportunity Agenda strategic communications workshop at the New School, where they presented their “Opportunity Framework” model. The following are some thoughts I wrote down for myself, but upon reflection think might be of some use to others in the media reform and media justice advocacy fields. I…
More Macs on the R Train!
This morning I saw yet another person using their Mac on the R train, from at least City Hall to 42nd street. This guy looked like he was learning how to use a design app, playing with fonts. He even had on headphones connected to his iPod nano. It was after 9:30am, so the train…
Actual real-live working we’re-serious-this-time but-still-sorta-in-beta $100 laptop photos
New pics of the first working prototype of the $100 laptop have been posted by Pete Barr-Watson on Flickr. These laptops, produced under the coordination of the non-profit One Laptop Per Child, are designed to help kids in the developing world bridge the digital divide. There appear to be at least three flavors: orange creamsickle,…
UNAIDS warns about scam emails
I never intended this blog to be the disseminator of knowledge about scam emails purporting to be from the United Nations. And yet, that has become by far my largest “audience” from looking at my stats. I just found another warning from a UN agency about these scam emails, this one from UNAIDS: Various scam…
Show your outrage over telcos attack on Net Neutrality
Just got the press release from Saveaccess.org, describing the "National Day of Out(R)age" happening tomorrow, May 24, in cities around the United States, to protest the efforts of telephone companies to win national franchising licenses to provide television content: On Wednesday, May 24th, thousands of people in cities across the country will protest the Telephone…
How to put on an event for students, activists and talking bears
I have started a wiki page on the Second Life Education wiki to encourage folks who know better than me to share their thoughts and suggestions on how to organize “multi-verse” events. I.e. events that take place simultaneously in virtual space and in real space. My contention is that there must be a growing body…
Virtual laptops for real world kids
I have previously blogged about MIT’s “One Laptop Per Child” project. Spearheaded by Nicholas Negroponte, the project aims to develop a small, linux-based laptop costed at less than $100 for use by students in schools in the developing world. I am interested in seeing if the Second Life metaverse is a useful space to develop…
My robot alter-ego
Pathfinder Linden turned me on to the amazing avatars designed by Kage Seraph. Kage builds enormous, several story tall, mecha avatars that are so geeky and cool. Pathfinder has one that appears to be made of wood, spews steam, and generally gets your attention quick. I bought one that has more of a burnished steel…