I never intended this blog to be the disseminator of knowledge about scam emails purporting to be from the United Nations. And yet, that has become by far my largest “audience” from looking at my stats. I just found another warning from a UN agency about these scam emails, this one from UNAIDS: Various scam…
Show your outrage over telcos attack on Net Neutrality
Just got the press release from Saveaccess.org, describing the "National Day of Out(R)age" happening tomorrow, May 24, in cities around the United States, to protest the efforts of telephone companies to win national franchising licenses to provide television content: On Wednesday, May 24th, thousands of people in cities across the country will protest the Telephone…
How to put on an event for students, activists and talking bears
I have started a wiki page on the Second Life Education wiki to encourage folks who know better than me to share their thoughts and suggestions on how to organize “multi-verse” events. I.e. events that take place simultaneously in virtual space and in real space. My contention is that there must be a growing body…
Virtual laptops for real world kids
I have previously blogged about MIT’s “One Laptop Per Child” project. Spearheaded by Nicholas Negroponte, the project aims to develop a small, linux-based laptop costed at less than $100 for use by students in schools in the developing world. I am interested in seeing if the Second Life metaverse is a useful space to develop…
My robot alter-ego
Pathfinder Linden turned me on to the amazing avatars designed by Kage Seraph. Kage builds enormous, several story tall, mecha avatars that are so geeky and cool. Pathfinder has one that appears to be made of wood, spews steam, and generally gets your attention quick. I bought one that has more of a burnished steel…
I guess I need a Second Life
You know you’ve been spending too much time in Second Life when : Your girlfriend gets her own account in SL so she can spend time with you Your friends don’t understand anything that you are talking about ("So was this in your real life or your fake life?") You neglect to go out dancing…
Philip Linden addresses Second Life residents at Town Hall meeting
Philip Linden, CEO and founder of Linden Labs which created Second Life, gave an in-world address to Second Life residents at the first Town Hall meeting that featured audio interaction. Philip joked that this was mostly due to his poor typing skills. Philip addressed a number of important issues in Second Life, including the state…
Kofi Annan calls for cyber-security on World Info Society Day
Yesterday, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan issued a statement on the first World Information Society Day, May 17th. His short speech centered on the importance of "cyber-security": In an increasingly interconnected and networked world, it has become critically important to safeguard our vital systems and infrastructures against attack by cybercriminals, while instilling confidence in…
Happy World Information Society Day!
Hey, everybody, it’s World Information Society Day! On 27 March 2006, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/60/252 proclaiming 17 May as annual World Information Society Day. According to the ITU, the commemorative day will "help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information communications technologies (ICTs) can…
If it’s not neutral, its not the net
Dan Berninger, senior analyst at Tier1 Research, has an interesting take on the Net Neutrality debate. He notes that the Bells are free to limit people’s access to content via discriminatory throttling of traffic from less-privileged providers (i.e. tiny bloggers like me) in favor of large corporate providers willing pay the toll. But the Bells…