My friend In Kenzo passes on to me an incredible video of the in-world briefing on the genocide in Darfur organized by the US Holocaust Museum that took place last month. The video features a very skillful and powerful juxtaposition of in-world footage and images from Sudanese refugee camps. Makes me want to work on…
Dance Marathon today and tomorrow in Madison Square Park
I did my little bit for the cause of dancing today, heading out in the freezing cold to dance for an hour with a hardy dozen lindy hoppers in Madison Square Park this afternoon. The cause was an effort to fight the ridiculous Cabaret Laws in New York that restrict public dancing to only a…
A face only a Martian mother would love
I rather like this picture of my avatar, taken at the Live Without Boundaries sim.
Call for youth-oriented groups interested in teaching computer game-building
I received yesterday from Amber Oliver of the World Wide Workshop Foundation a very interesting "grant" call for proposals, offering their new education platform that teaches young people how to create computer games to educators and youth leaders around the world. Sounds like a great opportunity for an educational organization looking to expand their interactive…
The Phoenix article on Second Life and real world politics
Sara Donnelly wrote an interesting and lengthy piece in The Phoenix on Second Life and political action entitled "Out-of-Body Politic." I must have been in a grinchy mood because I said some pretty unpolitic things about Second Life activism: “SL ‘protests’ are really just cop-outs for people who don’t want to show up in the…
Ted Castronova announces “Videogames and Public Policy” conference June 22-23 at Indiana U
Just got word that the Synthetic Worlds Initiative at Indiana University, headed by Dr Edward Castronova, is hosting a conference on "Videogames and Public Policy" tentatively scheduled for June 22-23. The format sounds like a complete hoot and a half: The theme will be explored through a game that puts participants in a 19th century…
Considering in-world violence as a Quaker pacifist
Catherine Linden posts on the official SL blog that the Linden Lab PR department is looking for "folks who are using Second Life in the pursuit of religious or spiritual ends." As some of you know, I’m a Quaker. Not a great Quaker, but still a member of the Religious Society of Friends. After the…
Breakin’ it down
I’m in my fourth week of breakdance classes at PMT Studios. It’s a lot of fun and very physically and mentally demanding, as you can imagine. The instructor Pavan Thimmaiah (that’s him on the left) has a gift for taking even the most daunting of dance moves and making them seem do-able for beginners like…
Second Life Music Study: Initial Findings
I’ve been wanting to do a quantitative statistical analysis of the format of the music being performed in Second Life, and to compare it to the general kinds of music Americans are exposed to with traditional broadcast radio. I have a working hypothesis that, similar to streaming radio, Second Life music performances are filling unfilled…
My expired UN badge: why access matters
I just noticed on my dresser that my United Nations access cards have expired. It’s been nearly a year since I was last working for an NGO at the UN. I get a bit nostalgic for those times, rushing off to a General Assembly debate on the Digital Divide in Africa or an NGO strategy…