There has been an interesting debate going on between Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices and Hamlet at New World Notes. It’s a discussion centered around the Second Life virtual Darfur Camp built by several activists to highlight the plight of refugees from the conflict in the Sudan. Ethan’s contention is essentially that while it might…
Category: Virtual Worlds
Pathfinder Linden speaking on Second Life
Notes from presentation on High Order Bit: Second Life and Collaborative Drama at Beyond Broadcast conference. John Lester (aka Pathfinder Linden) of Linden Lab gave an overview of Second Life as a virtual world space. He noted that the fictional analogs to SL are Neal Stephenson’s metaverse and Vernor Vinge’s otherverse from “True Names.” He…
My Pal Abdi: Race and Identity in Virtual Worlds
So the other day I am hanging out at Berkman Island in Second Life, checking out the preparations for the "Beyond Broadcast" conference they are throwing later this week. I run into Ansible Berkman, the main organizer of the virtual component of Beyond Broadcast, shuffling around chairs in the main auditorium. Ansible’s avatar is a…
Mediating Real World / Virtual World Events
I dropped in on the open house taking place on USC’s new Annenberg Island they have built in Second Life as a virtual counterpart to their real world Annenberg Center for Communication. (Thanks for the heads up, Hamlet.) The Annenberg folks did a nice job creating the virtual version of their center. However I assume…
“Mixed Reality” events give me a headache
I just popped into a "mixed reality event" called "Virtual Worlds—The Rules of Engagement" taking place both on Innovation Island in Second Life as well as at the Computer History Museum in San Jose, CA. It was a pretty weird experience. I (as in my avatar pictured right) was sitting in a large auditorium with…
Do I need a Second Life?
I have been playing around with the online community gaming platform Second Life, which I know is hardly cutting edge at this point with more than 150,000 members. I’m more interested in the community aspects of Second Life much more than the gaming part. No really. Your first account on Second Life is free, incredibly…