Complicated issues surrounding taxation for Second Life business activity have come to the fore recently, including VAT tax for Europeans and Congressional hearings on the issue for Americans. Non-profit and charitable organizations also need to familiarize themselves with the relevant tax issues that might apply to their in-world activities. It’s simply short-sighted to think that…
Playing tourist in Brooklyn
I have found that having visitors is one of the best ways to get to know your own city. You get an opportunity to visit places you would not normally visit as a tourist in your own town, and to see familiar places with an outsider’s eyes. My father has been in town for the…
“This Film Is Not Yet Rated” asks is sex more dangerous than violence?
Interesting appropriate for the "Violent Media Fast" this week, I watched the documentary "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" last night. An entertaining diatribe by one filmmaker against the Motion Picture Association of America’s film rating system, it makes a convincing argument that the system is unfair, non-transparent, prudish and possibly even harmful to children…
Upcoming Second Life job fairs for EMC, KPMG, Royal Bank of Scotland and more
For those of you looking for employment, Second Life offers a new way to find out about real life job opportunities, attend virtual job fairs, and even participate in a job interview, all from your desktop. There are however lots of new considerations that you have to take into account as you engage in virtual…
Yehoodi celebrates nine years serving the global swing community!
Yehoodi Admins Rikomatic, Shorty Dave, LilieBlue and Effervescent. Pictures by our pal D-Rod. Last night, we had a modest but fun celebration to fete the ninth anniversary of Yehoodi.com, the lindy hop/ swing dance community website that I help run. Instead of our usual blowout party weekends, we just expanded our regular Thursday night Frim…
Rainbow PUSH “Violent Media Fast” targets violent TV, movies, and video games
The Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the Office of Communications of the United Church of Christ are co-sponsoring a "Violent Media Fast" from October 14-20, encouraging people, particularly parents and their kids, to refrain from violent TV, movies and video games for a week: Our children will see 100,000 acts of violence on television in the…
Special deals for non-profits on YouTube / Google
I was checking out the cool Nonprofit Communicators blog and found out that Google/ YouTube are offering some special deals for US not-for-profits that I thought others might be interested in. Here’s what you get: Premium branding capabilities and increased video uploading capacity Rotation of your videos in the "Promoted Videos" areas throughout the site…
Report calls for U.S. Universal Broadband Policy
The Center for Creative Voices in Media has just issued an important report on broadband access in the United States entitled "The Case For Universal Broadband in America: Now!" The report notes that three years ago, President Bush promised universal broadband internet access "in every corner of America" by 2007. Meanwhile, the United States has…
Reminder: Add your AV to “You and Your Avatar” Flickr Group!
Speaking of avatars, this is just a reminder about the "You and Your Avatar" group on Flickr, where we collect images of people with their avatars from whatever virtual worlds and MMORPGs they inhabit. Lots of great new submissions, but this one by iodee is my current favorite.
Avatars and virtual world interoperability
Reuters has a story today about IBM and Linden Lab’s announcement that they are working together on creating interoperability standards so that avatars can cross from one virtual world to another. This is welcome and important news, given the likely enormous proliferation of virtual worlds in the coming 12 months. But the Reuter’s piece doesn’t…