Nexeus Fatale, DJ Extraordinaire, has hit upon a great way to give back to the community. His 'DJ For a Cause' mission is to donate his DJ services to anyone, individual or organization, who fits the requirements: Their event must be philanthropic in nature (such as fund raising) and has to embody the Holiday theme of giving to others.
I see this as a great way to promote SL's philanthropic nature, which is embodied in its residents. These days, most of the press goes to sensational events, and not enough to the altruism that I see so often in-world. Nexeus is on the right track with this, and hopes that others will follow this example. You can read more of this here.
Tech Digest does a good job here of highlighting 20 trends gleaned from their recent trip to the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe, and they go like this:
1. Shedloads of virtual worlds will be launched in 2008 2. Teen-focused virtual worlds are huge 3. Brands still get it wrong 4. There's a problem with communication 5. There will be big growth in corporate use of virtual worlds
... and 15 more. It would be boorish and redundant to list all twenty here, even without explanation. You'll simply have to trust me and go check out the list yourselves.
Carl Linnaeus is a personal hero of mine (and probably every other biologist in the world). He's responsible for developing the structures of taxonomy in biology, the thing that makes humans Homo sapiens sapiens, and the MRSA a multi-drug resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus. The Swedish Embassy in SL is expanding its presence and activities with a permanent exhibition about this famous citizen, which will be inaugurated with an event on Friday (November 2nd) with a couple of competitions (best 18th Century costume, build a plant) with cash prizes as well as information books in a variety of languages. Read more about it on their website.
Continuing with SL's best Halloween-themed builds, here's far-and-away one of the creepiest I've ever enjoyed. The fine folk calling themselves ELITE (Electronic Lesbians In Their Element) have created quite an amazing build they call Dykemare on Elm Street.
Great builds are more than mere geometry; excellent textures are of far more value than prim contortions, and these are fantastic! A lot of weathering, cracks, grunge, and overall color choices make for a claustrophobic, decaying site that will have even the most stalwart heart quail in fear. For those brave enough to make the trip, there's also a photo contest, the winner of which will net 3,500L! Go check 'em out!
Alcatel-Lucent, the networking services provider, has opened an island in SL. To celebrate this, they're offering 50,000L to the winner of a new contest that asks residents to design the applications and gadgets of a future time when high-speed access to always-on networks is readily available.
To this end, Alcatel-Lucent is providing use of their sandbox, which, according to the referring article, will feature " ... application development tools and simple user interfaces to help contestants bring their ideas for 4G services to life." If anyone's going to give this a shot, do let us know what these tools and interfaces are. The deadline is December 1st, and three runners-up will be awarded prizes of 20,000L. Good luck everyone! Bring us the future!
Canada Post, the shipping and delivery company, will be opening Maple Grove, a city of commerce within SL that will hold many of the RL stores and brands that Canadians know and trust, including Toys'R' Us, Sears, The Shopping Channel, Brookstone, SkyMall, Red Canoe, Everything Olive, and Hudson's Bay Company.
"Today's net savvy consumer values convenience and relevancy in today's market," says Laurene Cihosky, senior vice president for Canada Post's direct marketing division. "Maple Grove is our way of meeting those expectations; a virtual place for friends to meet, shop, and enjoy the culture that Canada has to offer."
On Saturday, November 3rd, Maple Grove will officially launch in Second Life with a six-hour virtual live music festival, from 3 to 9 PM SLT. On the bill will be Grace McDunnough, Montain Gulruth, Juel Resistance, Rosedrop Rust, Shiger Seattle, and Louis Volare. You can get more information about the event here.
This October marks the third year anniversary of the creation of Alt-Zoom Studios, BuhBuhCuh Fairchild's answer to the growing phenomenon of machinima. The Ed Wood Festival was set up to celebrate machinima that's so bad it's good, an homage to the famously awful movies of that director who gave us Plan 9 From Outer Space.
In that spirit, this weekend will see a couple of events that aspiring machinimists will want to check out. Friday night at 7 PM SLT, in Lukanida, Alt-Zoom Studios will present the Ed Wood Festival Highlights of Yesteryear, showcasing the 13 past entries into the contest. That will give people an idea of the kind of quality that wins dubious awards. Saturday the 27th this year's contest theme will be announced, giving creators 48 hours to film their movie and submit it to Moo Money before 11:59 PM, for inclusion in the contest.
Finally, at 7 PM on Halloween, contestants will gather to watch all submissions, and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter. For more information, contact Moo in-world, or go to the website. Filmmakers, don your angora for inspiration and prepare yourselves!
I was invited to an early peek at wireless service provider Orange's new island, and man, it's beautiful. This is a build that you can spend some quality time in, whether it's by taking a stroll to look at the sights, playing with the many little fun interactive toys, checking out the streaming music available at the listening stations, or dopping in tomorrow, October 26 at 8 AM PST for the Grand Opening, which will feature live music from up-and-coming indie band Clint.
MDC Metaversatility really made some magic with this build, and their commitment to quality shows. It's an elegant combination of nature and technology that blends well. The best part? Orange built this island just to connect with the community; you won't find any hard or soft cells for products or services anywhere! This company Gets It.
Part of the fun of this place is exploring it on your own, so I'll just leave you with this gallery of shots. Go check this place out tomorrow morning!
When a "big publisher" finally agreed with the frequent posts on The Dilbert Blog suggesting that Scott Adams turn his funnier posts into a book, the creator of Dilbert and Dogbert came up with Stick to Drawing Comics Monkey Brain! Needless to say, not everyone is a Scott Adams fan. When creating his agenda, he agreed to only 2 book signings. And guess what? One of them is in Second Life. So on the off chance that you can't make it to the California restaurant, Stacey's at Waterford, come on down to the Kula sims on October 30th at 6 pm SLT. Plus he'll be giving away free virtual Dilbert and Dogbert posters, and one lucky fan will win a copy of Scott's new non Dilbert humor book Stick to Drawing Comics Monkey Brain!
Once you're there you can let him know how you feel about him NOT coming to your town! Ask him questions, kick him in the family jewels (yes, I really did say that,) rock em and sock em. Scott's there to take your abuse and answer your questions. This is the first time that Scott's opened himself up to abuse in virtual worlds... Here's hoping it goes as well as the blog abuse.
The University of Southern California, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Information Programs will hold their Virtual Vibe Jazz Fest '07 in Intercambio, this Friday at 6 AM SLT. Among the entertainers performing will be:
Paisley Beebe
Jean Monro
Ankari Holder
Kelvin Blue Oh
Frogg Marlowe
Virtual Live Band
From the press release: "There will also be a panel discussion titled, "Jazz in the 21st Century: The role jazz plays in promoting American values overseas and how new technologies like Second Life are helping." Panelists include Joshua Fouts, Director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, Charles Fishman, Executive Producer of the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, and John Stevenson, Director of the Central Programs Division at Voice Of America."
Machinima Guru, my Teen Grid alter ego, stopped by the College Fair on Sunday. It brought me back to the days when I had to wander around the smelly gym of my rival high school picking up pamphlets as I went along. Technology sure has come far! Storm Basiat, the dedicated teen manager for Eye4You, was waiting to send me a port as soon as I logged in.
When I arrived, I was greeted by two of the most adorable astronauts I've ever seen! I was able to listen to a few speeches before I had to log off. One of them, as presented by Daniel Voyager, was for TSL Greeters. When asked for comment, attendee Reallife Orca, of Digital Refinery, noted that "It was interesting to see all of the colleges who showed up, I was just a bit let down that no trade schools came out."
I grabbed pictures of everything I saw, but was really dismayed to find that I was unable to donate to the TG College Fund for some reason. If you would like to help, you can send your donations to Bluewings Hayek on the Main Grid. For a full write-up of the Fair from Storm, check out SLNN.
Electrolux, previously reported on here, have announced a new program that will award innovation: the Electrolux Innovation Grant Program. This program presents the challenge to all residents to invent a solution to a problem SL residents currently face. From the press release:
Submission criteria:
Describe the problem you're trying to address.
Describe a thoughtful, cutting-edge and innovative solution that is based on consumer insights.
Describe how you or your team is prepared to meet that challenge.
Describe how long you think it will take your team to complete the project.
Be as detailed as possible.How is this innovative? Will it be free or for sale? How will it help Second Life users?
The prize money is quite substantial: " Grants will be awarded in amounts of $25,000 Lindens for accepted proposals.Upon reaching a decided upon halfway milestone, a second $25,000 grant will be given.Projects that are finished and released into the community will be given a final $50,000 Linden award grant." Even better, the intellectual rights to entries belong to the creators, not Electrolux.
This is a fantastic offering to the community, so if you've ever had a great idea that could benefit us all, now's the time to share it! The deadline for submission is November 1st! For more information, contact Celebrity Millionsofus or Blair Millionsofus!
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic put on a concert in Second Life on September 14, for what we are told was to be 100 Second Life users. There's not many venues that would have supported that many in relative comfort.
"According to the orchestra, 9 million Second Life denizens watched the performance live on Second Life's own cable network, and the broadcast repeats every couple of hours through November."
Nine million Second Life users watching live. The tensile strength of truth doesn't go nearly that far.
Perhaps counting beyond 4/4 is a mite harder than it sounds.
A special shout-out goes to Anastasia Tsioulcas at Reuters, who could have easily sanity-checked this figure, but didn't.
Hugh Hancock, coiner of the term "machinima", sent me this tidbit about his production company, Strange Company, premiering their feature film cut of their BloodSpell series. BloodSpell is a punk fantasy action-adventure movie filmed in NeverWinter Nights that has been written up by the BBC, the Guardian, Suicide Girls, Boing Boing, USA Today, and a slew of others. For those of you keeping tabs on machinima, there aren't many feature-length films produced in this medium.
That's why he's inviting everyone to be a part of the screening that will take place on Hathead Island on Sunday, October 21st, at 11am PDT, or 7pm GMT. There will be interviews, a special intro, and tons of awesome extras. After the screening, keep your eyes peeled for an interview here on Second Life Insider! Hope to see you there.
* I almost forgot to include a disclaimer about the violence that appears in this film. When I premiered the final episode of the series some time ago, many in the audience complained of the gore. Keep in mind that it's just pixels. If you have a strong stomach, come on over!
Oooookay. When I posted about this the last time, I was more than cautiously optimistic that maybe someone in the mainstream media would take SL seriously enough to do more than provide a backdrop of seedy sex and perversion. And this newest commercial for the upcoming episode of CSI: NY does still keep some of that feeling, but then in the latter half, turns it on its head.
Character creation has never been faster, according to this commercial. You can apparently do it all from the keyboard, too, from the sound of it. Whatever; that's all well and good. It's when they get to the gladiator arena that I begin to worry. "He's serious, Mac." Then, a shot of the SL expert character using some sort of gamepad, or input device to wage combat? Then a decapitation, Mac shouting "Log off! Now!", and the sound of my suspension of disbelief being smashed with a hammer. Well, at least it's different.
Nexeus Fatale, DJ Extraordinaire, has hit upon a great way to give back to the community. His 'DJ For a Cause' mission is to donate his DJ services to anyone, individual or organization, who fits the requirements: Their event must be philanthropic in nature (such as fund raising) and has to embody the Holiday theme of giving to others.
Machinima Guru, my Teen Grid alter ego, stopped by the College Fair on Sunday. It brought me back to the days when I had to wander around the smelly gym of my rival high school picking up pamphlets as I went along. Technology sure has come far! Storm Basiat, the dedicated teen manager for Eye4You, was waiting to send me a port as soon as I logged in.
Electrolux
Hugh Hancock, coiner of the term "machinima", sent me this tidbit about his production company, 
