Just a couple of days ago I blogged about the possibility of a "darkhorse candidate" with a virtual campaign headquarters. Two days later Hamlet Au at New World Notes announces that he will be interviewing possible presidential candidate Mark Warner, the former governor of Virginia, live in Second Life tomorrow afternoon! Hamlet says that in…
Category: Politics
Using virtual environments for political organizing
Andrew Poppin in the article "Second Life Targets Existing Branded Communities" on Corante.com makes some interesting comments about how SL could be mobilized for political organizing: Imagine the 699,000 of 700,000 DailyKos political blogging community members who will NOT make it to next year’s YearlyKos conference in Chicago being able to "attend" online side by…
The American Memory Exhibit: Using virtual environments to teach about American history
The Second Life Librarian Shadow Fugazi has created an American Memory Exhibit on Info Island featuring a larger than life Declaration of Independence. The exhibit draws from the Library of Congress’s American Memory division, which provides free access to "written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps and sheet music that…
“Play Money” and the ethics of MMORPG cheating
I just finished Julian Dibbell’s informative and entertaining new book on virtual economies Play Money. If you will recall, I purchased both the virtual and real world versions of the book last month, opting to read the dead tree edition. It’s a quick read, told from the wry and clever personal perspective of the author,…
“Virtual Poetry Slam” for the environment: Win $500!
My friends at Citizens for Global Solutions have created a number of innovative campaigns and contests on various global issues. Their last effort to come across my in-box was a "Better than Bolton" home video campaign, urging people to send in short videos saying why they oppose the re-nomination of UN-basher John Bolton to the…
Slavery Still Exists: AP reports that sex slavery widespread in US
On August 15, authorities arrested the owners of 20 suspected brothels on the East Coast, where they rounded up 70 possible sex slaves from Korea. Experts and advocacy groups like Free the Slaves contend that slavery and human trafficking is alive and well, according to a recent AP story. The US State Department estimates that…
Convenient simulation of an Inconvenient Truth (redux)
Back in June I blogged about the amazing working ecosystem called Svarga that Laukosargas Svarog had created in Second Life. I concluded that : While global warming might be an inconvenient truth that people don’t want to face, creating more interactive, fun ways for people to learn about how the Earth operates might help convince…
Joss Whedon speech: Why I write strong female characters (video)
Just when I was sure that Joss Whedon could not get cooler, my pal Chivalrous posted a link to a YouTube video of the Buffy and Firefly creator giving a speech for the feminist group Equality Now. As always, Joss alternates between being profound and funny, often within the same sentence. Makes me think there…
Virtual ball-and-chain to free real slaves
After posting my blog entry about the Global Kids event on child sex slavery, I was corresponding with Global Kids staffer Barry Joseph ("GlobalKids Bixby" in-world). Barry and I agreed that it would be great if adult SL residents could benefit from the work that was done on the teen grid event. A few emails…
The Metaverse as Civic Space
Reflecting on last week’s Metaverse event at Eyebeam, it seems to me that one aspect that was barely touched upon was the idea of the metaverse as a new form of civic space. The virtual agora, if you will. Prokofy Neva got closest, talking about the need for gathering places and a common rule of…