Tribute Opening Party

It's the official opening island party, now! Folks are gathering :-)

Tribute Island opens 'officially' right now [slurl], with a big blow-out DJ bash from renowned SL DJ, DJ Jenns (his last in SL before his upcoming Italian season), and top Caledon favourite (and CodePoet) ZenMondo Wormser.

Prizes, competitions. good tunes, dancing, loads to explore (and all obsessively WindLight optimised).

2pm - 6pm: DJ Jenns (Euro shift)
6pm - 10pm: Zenmondo Wormser (Pacific shift)

Come over if you can, bring friends, and have a good browse around, do some dancing, and meet some of the folks who made the sim possible.

Tribute Island is about celebrating the lives of the people we've lost and loved. About showing the information we have, as a news and media company, in a different way. It's about the people who have inspired us, entertained us, selflessly protected us, and have filled our lives with sound and colour.

The island has tributes from the British Army, Navy, and RAF, to the political, scientific, and Hollywood classics. Most of the exhibits we've made interactive in some way, so pop over for some music and to enjoy exploring, and click the exhibits for freebies and to leave your own tribute (oh, and Treasure Hunt prize just went up to L$6k and theres a brand new GeoCache).

OpenSim Now

Go read this at 'Not Possible IRL'. No point me replicating someone else's comment, but WELL WORTH a look regarding the new OpenSim.

OpenSim, an open source project 1s now in Alpha release 0.4, and I am here to report that yes, Second Life is possible outside of Second Life.

ThomTrance O'Toole

This could change, well, everything :-)

Company Statistics

Hmmm. I was reading something my dad sent me this morning, and seriously, can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 600 employees and has the following statistics?

• 29 have been accused of spouse abuse
• 7 have been arrested for fraud
• 19 have been accused of writing bad cheques
• 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
• 3 have done time for assault
• 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
• 4 have been arrested on drug-related charges
• 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
• 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
• 84 have been arrested for drink driving in the last year

Which organisation is this? Naturally, we're talking about the current crop of MP's in the House of Commons...

Tribute Looking Good

Nice to see Tribute Island turning up in the press overnight. Things are looking good.

She was listed as top place to visit yesterday in Jen Hienrich and Relic Starbrooks 'The Best of Second Life' and there are some nice comments appear in Seamus McCauley's 'Virtual Economics' (on the collision of news publishing, digital media and technology) about him reflectively looking for a friends marker in the military section. We're also featured on 'Hold The Front Page' (the journalism site for journalists) this morning and in a couple of blogs (like those of Edward Pearse, Daz, Guen DeCuri, Eladrienne Laval and Aleister Kronos etc.). Just for a bit more traffic, check out our 'virtual ammo-box' at SLGeocaching too :-)

When I say 'things are looking good', I should actually be saying that 'things have never looked better'.

If you get the chance, pop along [slurl] and take a look at us with the new WindLight (FirstLook) client, available here.

SO damn beautiful, and the island looks so cool, I think this is really going to change my SL experience. I love it. Photo-real seas, stunning rolling clouds, gobsmacking light sourcing, added improvements to the Sky Editor dialog, improved glow and rendering tricks to minimize lag and add stability, Tribute was just made for this kind of thing.

“They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them.”

I'm liking today already :-)

Open for Remembrance Day

Tribute Island is now open to all visitors (posh official opening 'put-a-suit-on-hippy' party coming soon).

Hopefully we can make some pennies for The Legion today (as it's Remembrance Day).

The bloggers party went well last night, and we didn't crash the sim (tho we had a damn good go). A few people have been in touch asking to place tributes already. Come take a look [SLURL], or I'll spam you all with LM's :-)

Also, check this video out about the new British Legion SL Garden of Remembrance (Rivers Run Red) which is 9 sims worth from the looks of the map, at Poppy 5 (128, 128, 0).



Alas I can't seem to get access to the sims yet (might just be me tho). This video is SO beautiful, I'm really look forward to checking this one out :-)

Tribute is Coming

So, what have I been going on about for the last couple of months?

Now I can talk about it :-)

Saturday, at 2pm - 5pm SLT, will be the SLBloggers Bash at Tribute Island [slurl] (and, I'm glad to say, this won't be our Zoe's last shindig as head honcho).

Expert DJing c/o Radio Riel (who are doing a bloody excellent "Music from the Middle Ages" today). No point in going there 'till 10 minutes before the start tho, as the sim will still be closed and, during the do, only open to group members. After that it's open house.

My company have very kindly given the exclusive on this place to the real reporters of SL, the bloggers, and another 'official' opening will be happening in the next week or so. I'm well chuffed on this, being a bit of an SLBlogger since the groups inception, and it just goes to show how attitudes have changed in the media and within our field (RL journalism) in particular ;-)

For the record, Tribute Island was built during October ’07 by Associated Northcliffe Digital (part of the DMGT Group), with the senior design consultants and master builders of Wind Meta Works, and has been something of a labor of Hercules. 65,536 m2 of highly detailed content, made by a tiny team.

Anyway, so, what is Tribute Island [slurl] and why the big secret? Basically, it's all about celebrating the lives of the people we've lost and loved. People who have inspired us, entertained us, selflessly protected us, and who have filled our lives with sound and colour. The island is a SL based (and totally FREE) 3D sculpture and tribute park. Why a secret? Well, it's work and that's the nature of 9-5.

'Tribute' is roughly divided into topical areas (see the map above). You really have to see the British Military section, where we've replicated individual tribute markers to all the UK soldiers and military personnel who've lost their lives in the continuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's incredibly sobering.

Hopefully folks can get into some serious exploring, and click the exhibits for freebies, to make donations to charities, or to leave your own tribute (through our links with the Lasting Tribute website, so the sim can stay locked down tight). We hope to support the place by holding regular events and making something out of this sim, not just abandon projects to self maintenance like other corps do, so keep coming back or IM me ('Nikk Huet') to get involved.

I'll be setting up a Tribute Island Group today if I get the chance, so come join for updates. Most of the exhibits are interactive in some way and this place has loads of ‘Easter eggs’ (just for fun) and stuff to explore that we've been slaving over for weeks.

Anyway, please feel free to pop over after Saturday and say ‘hi’ if you see me or one of our staff in the sim :-)

While I have the chance I'd like to personally thank a few folks, namely Carricre Wind, Firiel McGann, Lapin Paris, Andr00 Darkstone, Posemaster Darkstone and Terry Lightfoot, with individual tributes and help from the likes of Brad Sabre, KP Pera, Sen Pixie, DALEK Drillon, Butterfly Laa, TheDove Rhode, Shadowen Silvera, Jimbo Perhaps, Desmond Shang, Emilly Ladybird, Grafix Writer, AngryBeth Shortbread, Cornelia Rothschild, Alfonso Avalanche, Mike Calhoun, Gabrielle Riel, Cheen Pitney and Ub Yifu, for their awesome builds, help, kind encouragement, coffee, sleepless nights, and support. Just a few of the great people who stood behind this project and understood what we were trying to do.

As of the Bloggers event we're open (ish) so please, if you get the chance, explore the island, take some time to contemplate and think about some of the exhibits, and help celebrate the lives of the people represented here.

If you have any ideas for tributes, events, fund raisers or want to get involved, IM me ('Nikk Huet') or catch me on the grid.

Tribute Cleared & Caledon Studios

So, Tribute opens in 2 weeks. Had a review of the new sim with the boss at work today and (except for a few bits) he's happy for me to crack on. Actually, to be truthful, he was well chuffed.

Gotta say a big THANKS to Carricre Wind, Firiel McGann, Lapin Paris, Andr00 Darkstone, Posemaster Darkstone, Terry Lightfoot, Oolon Sptnik, AB Shortbread, Brad Sabre, Sen Pixie, DALEK Drillon, Butterfly Laa, TheDove Rhode, Shadowen Silvera, Jimbo Perhaps, Desmond Shang, Emilly Ladybird and Ub Yifu, for their awesome builds, help, kind encouragement, coffee, and support. Just a few of the great people who stood behind this project and understood what we were trying to do. Once again I stand upon the shoulders of giants.

2 weeks, SL Bloggers party. Still to sort the details with Zoe, but it's a go for opening pre official shin-dig (so cool my boss is up for the 'real' reporters getting in their first, cheers KP). 1 week, when I get back from my hols, then I can talk/blog about it :-)

Anyway, other news, I got a 900 prim plot now (with The Guvs blessing) in the new Caledon Penzance's sim. This'll be 'Caledon Studios' ("Lepus Gratis Cuniculus"), and will be my new base for machinima efforts instead of the old Mayfair Studios (which had lost its isolation with the advent of Penzance off the north coast). This sim is well worth a look as soon as it hits the grid. I've seen the theatre and the high street and it's a thing of textured beauty loving crafted by the hand of artist Ms. Persephone Gallindo. By the time I get back, it'll be time to get cracking.

Casting for the first movie will start around Christmas.

Classic Audience Stats

Funny one I spotted on the news feed today about the Classic FM Gramophone Awards.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra gripped a gong for 'audience innovation', and guess why? Yup, the inevitable.

The Phil gave a live concert in SL back in September. Sweet, good on 'em, however, according to the orchestra "9 million Second Life denizens watched the performance live on Second Life's own cable network".

Er, so that's me, you, shed loads of failed registrations and all our alts then? As if SL user stats weren't ambiguous enough.

Well, if nowt else, it's innovative mathematics.

Probably Moving

There's every chance we might be moving offices soon, so, while I had the camera in the office I re-immortalised the desk.

Strange, but the old pic of my desk on Flickr has had more visitors than any of my other pics. No idea why. Must be the tag cloud of obsessive boredom.

So here's how my work station looks today anyway. Did I mention how cool my job is sometimes?

The Winners

So, festival done and Stolen Life won a plenty. The trailer is above. Personally I'm not sure it's actually machinima, correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, the stars were:

Best Story: The Snow witch - Britannica Dreams
Best Commercial: When the Postman spits twice - SL-Inworld Productions
Best Technical: Machinima Island - la.interactiva
Best Experimental: Cirque du Machinima: Cukoo Clock - Tom Jantol (which I loved)
Best Sound: Innocent Minds - James Dubose
Best Student: Machinima! with Officer Dan - Amorphous Blob
Best Series: The Grid Review - the ILL Clan
Best Visual Design: Stolen Life - Nanoflix Productions
Best Direction: Stolen Life - Nanoflix Productions
Best Picture: Stolen Life - Nanoflix Productions

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees! Sweet.

Positive Words on Virtual Worlds

"It's kind of like getting your life back again, but even better in some ways," she said. "I've met so many people. I can walk. I can dance. I can even fly. Without this I'd just be staring at four walls. Mentally it's helped me so much."

Here's a nice article, positive for once, in todays Washington Post. True too, I've seen it in practice.

Machinimatographers Unite

The lovely Miss Iridium Linden has set up a mailing list and wiki for machinima enthusiasts, so if you haven't already joined the machinimatographers in Second Life mailing list, here is the link.

Here's Iridium's posting on the list and wiki.

The Far Away

AM Radios "The Far Away" field has been receiving so much attention it's now hosted on a bit of the grid donated by one of his fans. AM has kindly decided he's going to sell 'The Far Away' in modular form in aid of charity! So far he's raised $130USD for Heifer International, helping people in 3rd World countries towards self reliance.

Vendors in aid of the charity are on the plot, with explanations of the work, including some bits not shown in the installation. This is a chance to get hold of a truly beautiful and unique piece of SL history. If you got the spare prims, do go and grab a bargain in the name of a damn good cause.

[SLURL]

SL Blogger Party

[14:28] Mygdala March: enjoying it as I?
[14:28] Madison Carnot: Peachy when I stand in one place :)
[14:28] Kris Constellation: Oh, this is zoe's voice.
[14:28] loki Popinjay: Better now :-)
[14:29] Tiana Meriman: i cant do a machinima in this lag XD
[14:29] JellyBean Madison loves the lag between her thighs...

...be here, now. And bring a gun :-)

Shift Happens - Globalization & the Information Age

Phew...

The Work of AM Radio

Please, AM, come make movies with me :-)

ADDED 25th SEPT

AM Radios "The Far Away" field has been receiving so much attention is now hosted on a bit of the grid kindly donated by a fan. AM Radio has kindly decided he's going to sell some of his works in aid of charity! So far he's raised $130USD for Heifer International, helping people in 3rd World countries towards self reliance. Vendors in aid of the charity are on plot, with explanations of the work, including some bits not shown in the installation. This is a chance to get hold of a truly beautiful and unique piece of SL history. If you got the spare prims, go consume in the name of a damn good cause.

[SLURL]

NASA CoLab's Second Life Mission

Wanted. Virtual Kate Aide.

Here's a potentially interesting one.

Sky News is calling on Second Life residents to turn themselves into virtual news reporters and submit videos about our crazy little 3D world. They've joined forces with the video-sharing website SkyCast to launch an SL 'reporters' challenge'.

The idea is for SL residents to create video reports on things they think "...have news value and relevance to the virtual community". Finished reports will be hosted on skycast.com, with the best entries run on the Sky News website.

Potential vid-hacks can collect a Sky News microphone reporter package from the foyer of the Sky's virtual newsroom [SLURL] and then throw together a simple two-minute video piece. The closing date for entries is September 30 so there's bags of time.

Thanks to Patrick, from Hold The Front Page, for the heads-up on this one. I've been talking about shooting some SL docco for ages and this might well be the excuse I need. This could actually be a minor way to paint our little virtual world in a positive, non-sensationalist, sleaze-free light for once ;-)

So. Anyone gonna volunteer to be the feisty girlie voice reporter if I do the rest? I can do all the editing etc. piece of cake, but I look like a big gangly badly dressed beardy geek with a baritone and, well, lip gloss sells. Contact me (Nikk Huet) in-world if your curious. Also give me a shout if you have a cool story that might be worth covering and currently lack the resources to make it happen.

One Man in his Life...

...has many alts.

"What is an individual? We can make a new one with the greatest of ease - as many as we like." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

I went out for a coffee with a very dear friend tonight. We both grabbed a RL cuppa and found a coffee bar in SL (the sorta place we'd both normally hang). We turned on the voice, and sat there and talked.

Not unusual, but this time it was as us. We were both our corporate alts. We both looked like us, dressed like us (I was even wearing the same T-Shirt in RL), had our actual names, our actual voices, were actually drinking coffee etc. No tags over our heads saying 'Scientist' or 'Timelord'. Short of WiFi'ing in from a Starbucks this was probably the closest we'll ever get to actually sitting down and having a brew and just simply shooting the breeze.

We talked about stuff that friends would talk about in a coffee bar. About our spouses and going to the cinema, parties and mutual friends. About business, new media, psychology and SL sociology. It was half way through our 'break' that I realised I've never had such a feeling of SL paradox before. Sure it was flippant and probably a massive waste of resources and technology, yada, yada, but also cool to be so close to reality in SL (in that 'playing at William Gibson' kinda way) and I can't help but think this could well be a slice of the corporate future that Lindon Labs are working towards. Putting my LL scepticism to one side, if it is, this is a unparalleled, natural and surprising level of communication and I applaud their efforts.

My friend and I have never met in RL. She lives in the USA, me in the UK. But this evening we went out for a drink and sat in a coffee bar and talked like old pals. If I was telling someone in meatspace about going out for a coffee with her I wouldn't even mention SL in the conversation. Why would I need to? This was a (virtually) total social and business experience with sound, taste, visuals, etc., and just 2 corporate alts sat having a break from the hassles of the day before they went back to their offices and carried on being something their not.

Here is your social networking and communication of the future, right here. Come and get it. Mines a Grande Americano (with an extra shot).

Our New Island - 12 Minutes Old

Coolio.

I'm Outa Here :-D

Right.

All SL land fees paid, last SLRFL jobs done, work in safe hands and ticking along, ETC at Mayfair.

I'm off to Scotland to walk up stuff and bike down stuff. I can already smell fresh air, whisky, and hong. Lets pick up some Munro's.

See ya in a week or so. Will post pics retrospectively and Twitter as I go ;-)

Monthly Metrics

SL have just published their public metrics, which are available through their Economy page or kindly linked here in Excel, Open Document, and Google Docs format.

459,785 a week logging in, lets say 20% are alts, yada, yada...

...not exactly a ground breaking market is it?

Hmmm, and is that just me, or is that a slump on the last load of stats? A slowdown in the growth of Second Life’s population and economy is just what the sceptics have been looking for to say no to investment. Once a trend like that starts it's a bugga to break. I don't hear a bubble bursting yet, but I can see apin on the horizon is the wind don't change.

Headline numbers:

• Registered accounts = 7.7m
• Increase of 12.7%
• Unique accounts = 5.2m
• Increase of 19.5%
• Hours per month per unique account = 4.18

In terms of active users by country:

• US 26.45% up 3.3%
• UK 7.16% up 22.0%
• Brazil 7.35% up 52.5%
• Italy 5.46% up 12.3%

Multi-Learner Vids

I've been a big fan of the work of Aleks Krotoski from SocialSim (aka Mynci Gorky of the Social Simulation Research Lab on Hyperborea [slurl]) for a while now. When other folks do good well presented work it makes my life a hell of a lot easier. I was chuffed to find a video of her very good presentation (at the Massively Multi-Learner event in Paisley back in March) on Social Networks in Virtual Worlds. This discusses interactions in cyberspace, collaboration, friendship, trust and social learning theory plus general social network principles within online/virtual communities.

Also worth checking, at the same site, is a great presentation by my old RL mucker AB, on Integrating SL into Education. Essentially, using Second Life to directly support or simulate art and design plus the progression of skills and professionalism in a 3 year degree program. She also chats a bit from her perspective as a long-standing practising artist in the metaverse.

While entirely educationally based, I also enjoyed the potential in the one by Jeremy Kemp on Sloodle (an integration of SL and Moodle which Gabbi R put me on to a while ago) a mashup of the two systems. The video is watchable here.

The Proteus Effect

The armchair psychologist in me just loves this dissertation from Nick Yee at Stanford, where he addresses the issue of transformed identity in virtual environments.

Below is a short section of the abstract (viewable here in total) and here's a link to a PDF of the full text. Well worth a shufty.

...facial and behavioural mimicry can make us more likeable and persuasive. In addition to gaining social advantages, our avatars (digital representations of ourselves) can also change how we behave. This occurs via conforming to expected behaviours of the avatar - a process referred to as the Proteus Effect.

I conducted a series of four pilot studies that explore the Proteus Effect. In the first study, I found that participants in attractive avatars walked closer to and disclosed more information to a stranger than participants in unattractive avatars. In the second study, I found that participants in taller avatars negotiated more aggressively in a bargaining task than participants in shorter avatars. In the third study, I demonstrated that the Proteus Effect occurs in an actual online community. And in the final study, I showed that the Proteus Effect persists outside of the virtual environment. Placing someone in a taller avatar changes how they consequently negotiate in a face-to-face setting...

This I can TOTALLY see, in micro, since Oolons regeneration.

This change has not necessarily been in a noticeable reactions of others, but in my own confidence and attitude with those around me. People conform to the stereotype of their avatar. Essentially, while the same character and the same person sat here as observer watching the same social relationships, my attitudes have noticeably changed. The new 'physical' AV has made Oolon 'feel' quieter, slightly more passive and 'isolated', and yet this new AV seems to have (and yes, I know how oddly esoteric this sounds) a greater inner strength than before.

This is great work. Truly fascinating stuff. My hat is off you Nick.

/bows

SecondFest - First Impressions

I was at DJ Jenns (and top one by the way fella) set with Kiralette as the sun went down on Intel1. I made a point of heading over to SecondFest early, before I got too blown away by the obligatory AM IM storm, pressured into RL stuff, and the good lady got out of bed.


There's a lot of cool interactive stuff to do as well as the music and movies, and I'll be back over the weekend (off to RL Ikea now to look for more media storage solutions). A lot needs groups of folks to activate, which works nicely for the social side of things, and there seems loads to poke around at and investigate further. The freebies are a bit half arsed, but it's not targeted at folks who can build lets be honest.


It was a bit quiet, it was early and there's just not that many of us UK residents I guess. Oddly, it had that early morning fest feeling to it when I was there (except for the obligatory pill come-down, the quests for doughnuts and the baggy eyed hong-over). Odd icons like locked up camera trucks and a single half naked bloke still dancing in the dance tent. I'll try and get back later for 'Coldcut' at least.

Go, it's got potential for shits-and-gigggles and it's crawling in Brits with being marketed at the Guardian GMT crowd. There's a full what's on listing HERE.

77 Million Paintings

Tomorrow, at 8pm SLT, The Long Now Foundation will kick off the SL premiere of Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings. This is in sync with the RL American premiere in San Francisco.

Why do I give a shit? Glad you asked. To quote Metaversed:

"The event will open 8 PM on Kula 1 [SLUrl] at The Commons amphitheater which is a four SIM capacity installation, with an interview of Second Life artist Angrybeth Shortbread at the opening. Angrybeth developed the 77 Million Paintings remix in Second Life."

My good friend AB, and old RL business partner, is heading up the SL side of things. This means it'll be ground breaking, breathtaking and all-round good :-)

Here's the openings across Second Life in time order, with each location having its own unique installation:

1. 8 pm Kula 1 through Kula 4
2. 8:30pm PDT/SLT at Art Center in Avignon
3. 9 PM at Leeds College of Art and Design at The Collective
4. 9:30pm PDT/SLT at Ars Virtua in Seventh Eye
5. 10:00pm PDT/SLT with Jeremy Neumann, Hooper Sim

The best of luck old girl. I'll pop in to The Collective one for sure ;-)

Caledon: The Movie

I'm not usually one for acknowledging the other Caledon blogs here, that's his knib's job, but the post on Bardhaven entitled Caledon The Motion Picture had me chortling into my Nescafe this lunchtime in a 'you have to know em' kinda way.

I've been meaning to do another movie trailer in SL, and will as time permits. I rather fancy a "Carry on Caledon" parody ("Bloomin' eck Jess Patterson, that's a monstrous great erection you got there for the Guvnah" etc., sorry Jess). Trying to prioritise my SL time and spend a bit more time with the Mrs, so not holding my breath on the Machinima front 'till the pop corn hits the screen on O'Tools epic.

Anyway, Oolon's Hugh Laurie apparently, and I can see that. Terry is Sandra Bullock (but I'd go with Tamsin Grieg, for the low budget vote). I must add some more :-)

SaveNetRadio Silence

Internet radio broadcasters have called for a Day of Silence today to make a point and raise awareness against the royalty rate increase that could put most of them out of business. The planned silence is to show what the stations will really sound like if the rate increase goes through.

ShoutCast, today, is pretty much shut.

I listen to Internet Radio a lot in SL, I have my favourite stations and my friends stations playing in all my parcels (both personal and professional) and American Congress is going to ruin this for this for the home and international audience. Do they credit the awareness these sites have brought about in the international listener? I listen to radio, it makes my buy things, that's the pay-off, I'm fine with that, I give them dollars.

Anyway, this was done once before (this Day of Silence) back in May '02 when stations were facing a royalty rate increase, and the that Day of Silence was pretty successful. This year’s Day of Silence will be supported by the big Internet broadcasters too (the last one was geared toward the smaller stations). This is cool of the big guys as they won’t be anywhere nearly as badly affected by the changes as a smaller Internet broadcaster will.

I'd miss my "1920's Radio Network" in the ETC, my "Radio Riel" at Mayfair, my "Whaling Songs & Sea Shanties" at The Salty Mermaid in Kittiwickshire, the raging hardcore Amsterdam techno on the skyplat at New Beach and the "Sky Classics" in the office etc. but I'm UK/GMT and I can't barrage Congress and ask them to support the Internet Radio Equality Act. I hope someone reading this can on my behalf, or SL is gonna be a pretty quiet place.

Machinima Fest

The first European Machinima Festival will be held with De Montfort University's Institute of Creative Technologies from October 12 to October 14. It'll have workshops, an awards ceremony, etc.

Prof Andrew Hugill, director of the Leicester university's creative technologies institute, said:

"Machinima is a phenomenon which is capturing the imagination of individuals and communities including games players and filmmakers.

"We aim to bring these communities together and open up the exciting possibilities of Machinima to a wider audience."

Cool.

More SecondFest News

I'm liking this more and more.

Guardian and Intels massive Virtual Festival 'SecondFest" on Friday 29 June at 6pm GMT (10am SLT) and till midnight (GMT) Sunday night, is now advertising head liners Underworld, The Pet Shop Boys, Hot Chip, Groove Armada, WireDaisies, Clayton, Strangefates, VLB and grid Djs Doubledown Tandino, and DJs DJ Jens, Rob da Bank, Gilles Peterson, a'la Sunday Best, Bugged Out, Ninja Tunes and shit loads more.

Two cinemas with offline blockbusters, BBC short films and Second Life machinima. Wandering thesps and musos, Rocky Horror, ballet, theatre, secret stages, human mazes, mud pit on Sunday! Map as promised.

There, me, in wellies.

SecondFest

Come one, come all, to SecondFest.

Now this could be interesting. I bet Brad will be there selling pills, so he can probably get me in.

A little bird tells me that if you go to the map and look for "Intel 1" then that's the chillout island. Pet Shop Boys, Groove Armada, New Young Pony Club etc., plus Bugged Out (the primo UK nightclub) are putting in a big appearance as well as Radio 1 DJs.

This is probably one of the biggest things as recognition for SL, like, ever, and the fact its done by the Guardian will mean its going to at least get a pull-out section. Brace for noobs ;-)

I'm going. Weekend after next. Who's coming? I wonder it there will be mud?

More, and map, to follow.

SL Still Bringin' Em In

I see the Japanese politician, Kan Suzuki, is officially the first politician to jump with both feet onto the rolling SL bandwagon. He's gone and opened a 'cyber office' on our crazy little flat Earth. I ask ya, is nothing sacred?

A "valid experiment to determine how virtual society and politics can interact" or another load of hyped-up media by some back-bencher to get his name in the popular rags? I know where money is, but alas when I searched for him on Google tall I could find were the reports on this story and a stub on Wikipedia.

See this story on the Beeb website.

You & Yesterday on the 18th

Had the opening do for You & Yesterday on the 18th of last, and here's some footage I finally wrangled together for Sian.



Hope that's okay, ducks. 😉

Beeb Comes to SL

According to my copy of Braodcast, the BBC is gonna show its first ever full programme "in a virtual world" this Friday. The Money Programme is going to be lookin' at the businesses of Second Life and MMOs.

"Virtual World, Real Millions" is going to be simultaneously broadcast on BBC 2 and at the Rivers Run Red cinema in SL on Friday June 1 at 7pm GMT.

The show will be the usual look at the growth of virtual worlds and will include spiel from the likes of Philip (Lindon) Rosedale, etc. It also features interviews with the virtual marketing gurus Rivers Run Red, which has amassed a multi-million pound turnover by trading inside virtual worlds, and the team behind Reebok's virtual stores. Oh, and GamesIndustry.biz deputy editor Matt Martin and David Solari, vice president of Codemasters online gaming, will be offering their high-frame-biased views on SL (er, woot) but will be talking about the recently launched LOTR Online: Shadows of Angmar, and the programme will focus on issues such as gold farming and virtual crime.

Pirates of the Caledonian

Good night last night in aid of Relay for Life. Thanks ladies!

Just a few bits of video, thrown together, from last nights bash ;-)

Us, and You & Yesterday

Had the opening do for You & Yesterday this afternoon.


That's Adele (all 60s), Naomi (50's), me (Victorian) and Sian (70's), Emma (Victorian), Claire (WW2) and Mandip (god knows) - L to R. Elaine was taking the photo. We dressed up and welcomed some famous local faces and generally posed for the press and extolled the virtues of local history.

You & Yesterday is a big new local history wiki that lets you record & share your memories of past events, people & places in Derbyshire (but rolling out nationally soon, pending trial) by uploading your photos, stories, comments and video. It's got a shed load of potential.

Geriatric1927 (local chap Peter Oakley) came along to wish us well, and even though we had other famous faces and the mayor (who's a marvellous character himself) he was a big draw with us. I sat down and had a chat with him for a bit, and what a nice chap. I'm not prone to the hyperbole of YouTube and the like, but he was a true gentleman.

I recorded a load of footage and I'll be editing it early next week. Will post something here :-)

Gun Bunnies Forever!

Finished this last night, for SLRFL and the ongoing war effort.



It's okay, but I was lacking a lot of cut-aways and stuff to make it tighter (which was a shame) and I need to get my head round the sound editing stuff in Premier Pro yet.

It'll do though, it's part of the learning curve. Around 9 hours in edit to get this though, so from now on there's no point doing this if it's not gonna be pucker. Post it note on monitor: "Get Cut Aways".

Thanks to Hotspur, Duchess Gabrielle, Lapin, Terry, Zealot, and the Tanglewood Tinies.

First Attempt

Had a go at some Machinima over the weekend. Just a few shots from a ball in Caledon, cobbled together, that's bound to cause a right old stink on the grid.

Top stuff by those that sorted it all. For plot bits and clues, see the blogs of: The Duchess of Carntaigh, The Duchess of Loch Avie, Mr O'Toole, Mr. Pearse, Miss Kiralette Kelley and that of Lord Bardhaven.

I was just a by-stander with a copy of FRAPS :-)

Hats off to ya folks.

I'm Calling It. It's Dead.

Okay. That's it.

Due to other things in life I'm closing this blog in the form it is. I just don't have time, or the inclination, any more. Sod it.

That's not to say that I won't use this account for other stuff, or open a fresh one on a specific subject, but this is my last post. 2 years, near as damn it, and I just can't be arsed.

Be happy. Boomshanka. Whatever.

L.

"Zaglabor astragard, Hootrimansion Bambriar!"