I watched again Friedrich Kirschner’s spectacular machinima "the Journey" last night. It’s been floating around in my head ever since. It strikes me that it’s a good allegory for media reform. Little stick figures pointlessly race around a bleak valley while giant monitors display banal images at them. A sign tells them to "Never leave…
Joi Ito to be interviewed at CNET HQ in Second Life tomorrow
I just heard word that CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman will be interviewing well-known entrepreneur, lEEt g@mr, virtual worlds innovator, and overall cool dude Joi Ito tomorrow (Friday), at 4PM EST/1PM SLT. Joi will talk about his experience using virtual worlds as a tool to manage co-workers, his World of Warcraft guild, and his investments. To…
“Before the Music Dies” tackles the increasing homogenization of the US music industry
"Before the Music Dies," a new documentary film by Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen, explores how the radio and record industry conspire to limit musical choice by consumers. Meanwhile they examine how independent artists find new fanbases through the internet and live performance. The film includes interviews with such diverse and notable artists as Branford…
Little known fact about Copybot
State of Play Symposium Dec 1-2, NYC
Although the full-strength State of Play IV Conference in Singapore in January still seems to be in jeopardy, there’s a smaller, equally interesting State of Play / Terra Nova symposium happening in a couple of weeks in New York City, December 1-2. The event will feature a number of cool panels on such topics as…
Friedrich Kirschner is a machinima genius
I finally got an opportunity to see some of the machinima pieces of my friend Friedrich Kirschner. With due respect to the other machinimators I know, Friedrich really creates at a completely different level than everyone else’s work. I am not sure I can even call it machinima. They are more like moving collages of…
But do you REALLY want to work for an NGO?
Me with the WFM staff in 2001 A friend invited me to speak last week to a group of students interested in careers in International Relations at St Johns University in Queens. I have done these sorts of talks a number of times and it’s always both invigorating running into young people interested in social…
Szyndi & I in the Gardens of Apollo
A romantic moment watching the sun go down in the Gardens of Apollo with my baby.
More virtual reality coolness from Stephane Zugzwang
And you thought Second Life could not get any cooler? In Kenzo TPed me over to an incredible, enormous virtual reality simulator on Commonwealth Island built by Stephane Zugzwang. You stand on a small suspended, semi-opaque platform high above a mountain range. As you click on a large sampling of images on a floating screen,…
Pics and transcript from talk on SL political organizing
Tonight In Kenzo and I gave a little talk on the subject of Second Life political organizing and awareness raising. We had a small but very engaged group of a dozen or so progressive activists participating in "RootsCamp," a weeklong series of discussions on the fallout from the recent US elections. What follows is a…