Just checking in on what’s going on at YearlyKos Convention today in SL. I rezzed into a breakout session being run by Hilary Clinton. She’s talking a good talk right now about the need for stronger infrastructure in the US, including our mass transit system and broadband internet. Hurray for mass transit and broadband! There’s…
Category: Virtual Worlds
A Brief Interview with the YearlyKos Organizers
The YearlyKos Convention has started in Chicago and in Second Life (teleport SLURL) It’s amazing seeing the parallel tracks being broadcast in the different meeting areas they have set up in-world, and the avatars gathered to participate virtually. Unlike real conferences, you can instantly teleport around to the different sessions, checking in on a panel…
New Castronova book examines how virtual worlds impact our real lives
University of Indiana professor Edward Castronova has a new book examining the real life impacts of our increasing involvement in virtual worlds, such as World of Warcraft and Second Life. Entitled Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality , it looks like an interesting read. From the book description: Virtual worlds…
Opening Keynote tonight for YearlyKos featuring Dean and Durbin
Dire Lobo, one of the organizers of Second Life section of the YearlyKos Convention, reminds folks that tonight at 5PM SLT Senator Dick Durbin and Governor Howard Dean will be speaking at the opening keynote (teleport SLURL.) I asked Dire how preparations for the convention were going. He reported that they are wrestling with some…
I’m headed to SLCC in Chicago!
"I’m going to Chicago, I’m sorry but I can’t take you…." I got a call on Tuesday from Barry at Global Kids asking me if I wanted to help out with the non-profit / philanthropy theme at the Second Life Community Convention. Oh, would I! SLCC is happening this year from August 24-26 in the…
TakingITGlobal moving to the virtual world
Catching up on old emails, I found a press release about the new virtual home of the youth-oriented international non-profit TakingITGlobal. It seems that the Starwood owners of the Aloft Hotel in Second Life have decided to donate their sim, which has outlived its usefulness to Starwood. So instead of letting it lie fallow like…
YearlyKos is this weekend!
This weekend, August 2-5, progressive activists, bloggers, and politicians from all over the country (and the world) will be gathering in Chicago for the Yearly Kos convention. Joining them will be all the major Democratic Presidential candidates, as well as Democratic party leaders, so you know its going to be quite the shindig. If like…
Global Kids hiring YouthVentures Program Manager
Catching up on correspondence after my trip, I saw this message from my friends at Global Kids that they are hiring a new "YouthVentures Program Manager". Here’s how they describe it: YouthVentures supports groups of teens to develop social enterprises. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to…
Second Life Non-profit Commons Opening Party August 14
I’m excited to announce that on August 14 the Plush Non-profit Commons in Second Life (teleport SLURL) will be holding an official opening party. Starting at 5:30PM PST, this will be a mixed-reality event taking place in the real world in San Francisco as well as virtually at the Non-profit Commons sim. Here’s the official…
The virtual Sistine Chapel revisited: Codes of Conduct in Second Life
Click To Play I have been meaning to talk about this interesting security system built into the Sistine Chapel build at the Vassar College sim (teleport SLURL). Vassar has instituted a mandatory "Code of Conduct" that they require all virtual visitors to agree to before you can enter the build. This was the first time…