The Top Second Life DJ Clubs of 2008 - The Ravelong Award

The Ravelong Award goes to the top Second Life DJ clubs which over the course of the year exhibited outstanding excellence in showcasing live DJ talent in an atmosphere that can only found in the virtual world. 2008 was an amazing year for SL Clubs and music communities. The scene, followers, and fans blew up in unbelievable proportions. Many people are always craving clubs and music venues where the focus is the live turntable djs and the electronic music culture.

Second Life features many clubs that come and go, however from time to time, a rare crew of talent gets together and sparks the idea to create a DJ music venue that goes beyond anyone's expectations. The elements line into place, and the crowds follow. The Ravelong Awards will honor and pay respect to the top breed of the phenominal SL DJ Clubs of 2008.

The 2008 Top DJ Clubs of Second Life ARE NOW ANNOUNCED HERE.
Which clubs were your favorites?
Which clubs and crews do you think will win the award?
Which clubs would you nominate?

Each Club will receive an award at the Ravelong Awards Ball in Early January.

The JSP New Years Eve Ball - December 31st, 2008 - 1:30pm-3:30pm (slt)

December 31st, 2008
1:30pm-3:30pm (slt)

JustSoulPromotions Presents...
The JSP New Years Eve Ball!

featuring DJ Doubledown Tandino,
spinning the jazzy & funky house music in a Live Turntable Mixset

DressCode: Hip Chic
Contest: Best Dressed

http://slurl.com/secondlife/JSP%20Island/115/154/23

Get the METAVOTER & Ditch the Old Green Votebox

I still do not understand why many land owners are so attached the the old green vote boxes. They swear they work, and refuse to get rid of them. I have seen entire packed events, and the votes are going into the boxes.... but...

THESE VOTE BOXES DO NOTHING. They havn't done anything in SL in over 3 years. Although it is a lovely relic from virtual yesteryear, the old green vote box made by Linden is nothing more than decoration. It says "thank you for your vote" and then files the votes under 'D' for 'Doesn't Do Anything'


TIME TO GET THE WORKING LAND VOTER: The MetaVoter!

The METAVOTER, on the otherhand, does EVERYTHING! It is connected to the Metahud worn by thousands. Come and get the Metavoter ( and the Metahud, and the Metakiosk ) for your land for free HERE: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Muse%20Isle%20NorthEast/204/205/26

Have a Second Life Brand? Check out the new Metabrand system too! Did I mention it's entirely free?

"Christmas All Year Through" - A SL Musician Collaboration Tune for You

Yes, we've done it again!

This time Djai Skjellerup has written a Christmas song, "Christmas All Year Through', and invited Second Life performers to send in their recordings which are being mixed into a collaborative song.

The list of artists who appear on the finished song:

BabbleGrabble Swindlehurst
Carah Nitely
Djai Skjellerup
Franz Paine
Jean Munro
Kaklick Martin
Kiaranne Flanagan
Krell Karu
Lonnie Nightfire
Lyn Carlberg
Mambo Welles
Mimi Carpenter
OhMy Kidd
The Professor
Rich Desoto
Saraine Sands
Slim Warrior
Tommy Cult
Toby Lancaster
Tpenta Vanalten
Vicki Nilsson
Zak Claxton

URL for downloading Christmas All Year Through:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/wttmmwunktz/SLChristmasAllYearThrough.mp3

Here are details of the musicians:
--

BabbleGrabble Swindlehurst
BabbleGrabble Swindlehurst is an American singer-songwriter from the San Francisco Bay Area. He began his musical career at an early age as a concert violinist and eventually shifted his focus to the guitar, songwriting, and other instruments, delving into the rock and roll music he grew up on. BabbleGrabble ultimately built his own home studio for creating and recording music.

After several years of writing songs and performing with other bands, he discovered the amazing potential of Second Life and has been performing live shows in SL for over a year. He enjoys entertaining audiences with a wildly diverse range of cover songs, playing acoustic guitar and crooning into the microphone with a sultry voice that is like being draped in velvet on a calm sea.

http://babblegrabble.com/
http://www.thesixtyone.com/babblegrabble
http://www.myspace.com/babblegrabble

--

Carah Nitely
Coming from a huge musical background, Carah Nitely is a live performer from the UK. Proud to have inherited her voice from her mum who was once a professional singer both nationally and internationally. Carah now happily takes the stage in Second Life and her soulful voice covers such artists as Westlife, Wil Young, Leann Rimes, Bette Midler, Colby Callait and many more.

www.myspace.com/carahnitelysl

--

Djai Skjellerup
Djai is a piano vocal singer songwriter from the UK. Djai wrote the song "Christmas All Year Through" and conceived the project for the recording and free distribution of the song. Djai's shows consist of his own songs which he performs live. His album "Ice Age Diaries" will be available later in 2009.

http://www.djaiskjellerup.com/
http://www.myspace.com/djaiskjellerup1
http://www.thesixtyone.com/DjaiSkjellerup/

--

Franziskus Paine
Franziskus is a musician from Hamburg, Germany, who loves to play in Second Life.Music. He is a pianist and singer, a variety of rock, pop, ballads and evergreens.
As well as playing piano, Franz is also an experienced drummer and trumpet player.

www.myspace.com/franziskuspaine

--

Jean Munro
Jean has her degree in music and is a professional vocalist and keyboard player, arranger, and composer. She likes to perform in all genres, from classical, rock, contemporary, and Jazz, putting her own personal style into everything she does.

http://www.myspace.com/jeanmunrosl
http://jeanmunro.blogspot.com/

--

Kaklick Martin
Kaklick martin (Bryan Baker) is a metaverse musician: A singer/songrwriter performing in, and writing songs about, the virtuak world known as Second Life. Bryan's avatar, Kaklick, took to the stage in Second Life for the first time back in late 2005, so he is among the most respected performers in Second Life and was an early evangelist for the live music scene there.

http://ka-klick.com/Welcome.html

--

Kiaranne Flanagan
Kiaranne is a songstress and creative person from the country hills of Vermont, USA.

http://kiaranne.blogspot.com/
http://www.thesixtyone.com/Kiaranne/

--

Krell Karu
A musician with an extended background, Krell has shared the stage with diverse artists such as Leon Russell and Roomful of Blues, through artists such as Shelley West (Jose' Cuervo, You are a Friend of Mine) and Gus Hardin, to such rockers as Blues Traveler and 38 Special.

After such endeavors, Krell has just moved to Second Life. Krell is comfortable singing and playing guitar on anything from Country Blues through firebreathing Shred-fest, with stops in between for Rock, Alternative, Classic and Contemporary Country, as well as many others.

With his varied background, there is quite a spectrum to choose from. However, Krell is currently focusing on a solo variety rock'n'blues covers format, accompanying himself on his 12-string. Any given set could include anything from Elvis Costello, Clapton, Beatles, Goo Goo Dolls, Willie Nelson, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Led Zeppelin, Matchbox 20, or even Looking Glass.

http://www.myspace.com/krellsl

--

Lonnie Nightfire
Singer-songwriter Lonnie (RL Lonnie Knight) may joke that “Legendary is just another way of saying ‘...been around a long time,’” but the lanky Minnesotan is one of those rare musicians who has truly earned the title Legendary. He got his start as a folkie, learning from the likes of Townes Van Zandt. Then he played in some of the Midwest’s seminal rock bands, including Jokers Wild, the Nielsen-White Band and the Hoopsnakes. His 2005 CD Better Days brought him back to his acoustic roots, and the release of 2007’s tour de force, I Wrote My Name on You, his music is inspiring a whole new generation of fans.

http://www.lonnieknight.com/
http://www.myspace.com/lonnieknight

--

Lyn Carlberg
Lyn Carlberg is from Wales, land of song, dragons, and awesome rugby. He plays a Martin electro-acoustic guitar, and has been performing live in SL since Sept 2007. Lyn likes to play a folky style like Paul Simon, James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Stevens and sings bluesey-mushy-weepy romantic covers of Clapton, Dylan, Dire Straits, and Sting, as well as some traditional Celtic love songs and a few of his originals.

http://www.myspace.com/lyncarlberg
http://thesixtyone.com/lync

--

Mambo Welles
Mambo Welles (RL - Trevor Tweedy): Based in West London, he's been playing bass for +25 years. During the 80's he worked with several unsigned bands in and around London. After a break from the music scene for a few years, he returned to playing live with the rock covers band, Limeburner (www.limeburner.co.uk).

Mambo was recruited for VLB after bumping into Throughthesewall Moody whilst Roller Skating at a gig in SL. For Mambo, VLB combines two of his favourite pastimes: Bass Playing and Second Life.

http://virtualliveband.com/

--

Mimi Carpenter
Mimi Carpenter is French currently living in Germany. She was mostly brought up on country, Anglo-Saxon and world music, which her parents enjoyed listening to. "I wish to transmit what I feel through my music... It is for me a way to express myself as I am not so good in handling words, when I have to speak about myself and about what I feel..."

www.myspace.com/Mimi_Carpenter
http://thesixtyone.com/MimiCarpenter

--

OhMy Kidd
OhMy Kidd's acoustic guitar and vocal work have been developed over many years' RL experience, but their dynamic simplicity turns out to be ideally suited to Second Life performance. OhMy Kidd's original songs have their feet in the folk rock of the 1970s and their head in the strange but exciting world of the 21st Century. No wonder they have been described as "Hippie Music with a Haircut".

OhMy's shows feature his original set and he also plays classic covers from Pop to Rock, and likes to have extra-special fun on the ukelele. OhMy plays regularly at his own venue, The Pocket, and at various live music venues around Second Life.

http://www.myspace.com/ohmykidd

--

The Professor
Ed Lamoureux plays guitar and sings in SL as "the Professor." In RL he teaches Multimedia and Communication at Bradley U. in Peoria, IL; in SL he teaches Field Research/Ethnography as Professor Beliveau. He's active with the NMC both in RL and SL. Ed/the Professor/Professor Beliveau is married (28 years) with 4 teenagers (YIKES), enjoys golf, Angels/Lakers/Rams/Kings, watercoloring, and of course writing music and singing. He's had a rough time with health issues the last couple years: Music in SL has been a saving grace.

http://slane.bradley.edu/com/faculty/lamoureux/website2/index.html
http://slane.bradley.edu/com/faculty/lamoureux/website2/profsl.html

--

Rich Desoto
Rich is known as Rich Palmer in real life. He plays bass for the band "The Fries" ( http://www.thefriesband.com/ ). Rich is working on new material for a pop/rock CD entitled "Future Retrospect." He's also a singer/songwriter that has recently released a CD for children called "Sing a Song for Safety."

http://richpalmer.com/
http://richdesoto.com/
http://www.myspace.com/richpalmer
http://www.myspace.com/richdesoto
http://thesixtyone.com/richpalmer

--

Saraine Sands
Saraine plays shakers, and often accompanys OhMy Kid at his live Second Life shows. She is a great supporter of live music in Second Life.

--

Slim Warrior
Slim, a recording artist based in London, is passionate about writing and composing her own music and hugelyinspired by listening to others. To this end, a widely varied mix of music has influenced the songs that she has writen. She also works on other projects with musicians from around the world in various collaborations. She was the first UK artist to perform live in SecondLife. Her music varies from Ambient to Dance with a few other genres in between.

http://www.myspace.com/slimmie

--

Tommy Cult
He sees himself as more of a busker, a resident in SL who found the fantastic music scene 2 years ago and was inspired to be part of it. He plays both nylon and steel string acoustic guitars and sings mainly his own tunes, folk/alternative style. He likes to write songs about family, friends, and things that make us laugh and cry.

--

Toby Lancaster
Toby Lancaster is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from the south of England. Although guitar is his maininstrument, he also plays keyboards and uses computers to make music. He composes in a number of styles including solo acoustic guitar, rock, blues, jazz, and experimental. He produced and engineered the Christmas All Year Through track.

http://toby.weebly.com/
http://thesixtyone.com/tobylancaster

--

Tpenta Vanalten
In the mid 80's (rl Alan Hargreaves) he played with a few Newcastle Bands. Quarterdeck , a four piece pub band that did mainly covers of current popular and a smattering of their own material, and Kel-Anne & the Jitterbugs, A 50/50 Club band, playing dance music for clubs against an unusual set of 50-80's music. Alan dropped out of the music scene to pursue a (more lucrative) career in computing, but still kept his hand in.

In 2005, his wife invited him to Coastfest and this lead to his getting involved in the following year's Coastfest. He has been helping out with sound for the North monthly event and has started doing a couple of walk-ups.

He is now doing live music into Second Life under the name Tpenta Vanalten, and is having a blast and making a lot of new musician friends.

http://blogs.sun.com/tpenta/
http://thesixtyone.com/tpenta

--

Vicki Nilsson
Vicki Nilsson (RL Victoria Lee) is 41 and resides in Upsate NY. She has 25+ years experience as a drummer and has played in marching, symphonic, jazz and many local bar bands, with styles ranging from classic rock, folk, country, and more. After seeking some technical advice from BlueTom, she tried out as VLB's drummer and the rest was history! Dreams do come true!

http://virtualliveband.com/

--

Zak Claxton
Zak Claxton is a singer/songwriter who has spent more than two decades as a live/session musician and audio technology expert. He plays often in SL. He likes expensive acoustic guitars, delicious cheeses, and his ladyfriend Kat Claxton.

www.MySpace.com/zakclaxton
http://zakclaxton.blogspot.com/

Doubledown Tandino's Holiday Music Experience - December 23rd, 2008 - 2pm-4pm (slt)

December 23rd, 2008
2pm-4pm (slt)

Doubledown Tandino's
Holiday Music Experience

SLURL to "Jazz-n-Dreams"
http://slurl.com/secondlife/JSP%20Island/90/155/23

Presented by Just Soul Promotions

☮ A unique winter journey incorporating retro holiday classic music although you have never heard these tunes played with the modern Doubledown flare. Sophisticated beats combined with jazztronica, live remixing, & DJ blending will turn these tunes and your holiday into a musical adventure.

Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits - RIAA Stops Lawsuits, But Not the Threats

Via http://www.wsj.com/
By SARAH MCBRIDE and ETHAN SMITH

After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy.

The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl.

Instead, the Recording Industry Association of America said it plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers. The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send an email to the provider when it finds a provider's customers making music available online for others to take.

Depending on the agreement, the ISP will either forward the note to customers, or alert customers that they appear to be uploading music illegally, and ask them to stop. If the customers continue the file-sharing, they will get one or two more emails, perhaps accompanied by slower service from the provider. Finally, the ISP may cut off their access altogether.

read more digg story

---------------

Via http://www.torrentfreak.com/
Written by Ernesto

For years the RIAA has been filing lawsuits against thousands of individuals who allegedly shared copyrighted music. Following recent court setbacks, the lobby group has announced it will stop mass lawsuits. Instead, it will focus on cutting deals with ISPs to disconnect ‘IP-addresses’ that repeatedly share copyrighted music.

read more digg story

-------------

Take action!

Write to your ISP proactively and say you expect them not to compromise your privacy, security, or ability to communicate by kowtowing to RIAA attempts at intimidation.

Support non-RIAA artists in your music purchases.

Check the RIAA Radar before making any purchases!

Install the RIAA Radar Greasemonkey Script.

DJ Lisa Lashes & DJ Tasty Hax at Koola Klub - Mixed RL & SL Event - Friday December 19th, 2008 - 2pm-6pm (slt)

Friday, December 16th, 2008

2pm-4pm - DJ Tasty Hax (second life)
4pm-6pm - DJ Lisa Lashes (real life)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cornwall/89/187/37

Real Life DJane Lisa Lashes meets Second Life DJane Tasty Hax @ a premier event in RL/SL Koola Klubs! Lisa DJs for the first time in SL! Don't miss this very special party!! :D Tasty will DJ @ Koola Klub in SL followed by Lisa Lashes at Koola Klub in RL streaming to SL.

"Mono for Second Life" simulator upgrade -speed scripts

"Mono for Second Life" refers to a simulator upgrade which can dramatically speed the running of scripts — especially calculation intensive ones. The Linden Scripting Language ( LSL ) has not changed in any way*, so all of your existing scripted objects and attachments continue to function as before, only now they will now run faster.



read more digg story

Will the web ever go fully 3D? | TechRadar UK

Will the web ever go fully 3D?
Opinion: From a lonely, flat 2D experience to a fun, social 3D world

The dream of internet pioneers, sci-fi writers and tech-obsessed geeks worldwide has always been the development of a fully 3D virtual online world.

After all, we all gobbled up William Gibson's Neuromancer back in the day, with the immortal lines (when he first coined the term 'cyberspace'):
"Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding..."

Games show lead
And while Blizzard's phenomenally successful World of Warcraft and other recent 'games' and applications such as Linden Labs' Second Life, Google's Street View and Sony's PS3 Home are (perhaps) early pointers in that direction, there are many who cannot see much further than the current rather lonely and 2D 'single player' web experience.

read more digg story

Bert and Ernie - Gangsta Rap

Avatar Dance - Rotoscoped HD Video from Second Life

MusicBox: a powerful visualization of your music library

The idea behind MusicBox is that it analyzes every song for not only written metadata (artist, genre) but also beats per minute, length, tone, and a whole bunch of other semi-tangible quantities. It then organizes them based on whatever axes you choose.

The idea behind MusicBox is that it analyzes every song for not only written metadata (artist, genre) but also beats per minute, length, tone, and a whole bunch of other semi-tangible quantities (check out the demonstration video). It then organizes them based on whatever axes you choose — looking for your short, fast-paced songs? They’ll be on the upper left if you tick “song length” and “tempo.” Want those songs that change up their beat? They’ll be on the left if you just tick “time signature stability.” It even puts together graphic previews of the songs, much like what I found when using a spectrum analyzer.

read more digg story

Patent Troll Claims To Have Invented Virtual Worlds

Are virtual worlds under legal threat? Lawyer Sean Kane notes that http://www.worlds.com/ is now claiming to have invented the idea for a "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space" back in 1995, and has hired legal heavyweights to defend its claim to intellectual property. Could this be a problem for Second Life, and hundreds of virtual worlds?

read more digg story

TheSixtyOne.com - The Second Life Listener Collective Group

The Second Life Listener Collective Group

on Thesixtyone

This group is for all musicians, singers, music makers, and listeners into the Second Life music social scene. Please invite all your fellow SLers already on the61. As soon as I figure out how to make people admins, I shall.

membership: public
created: December 2008

http://www.thesixtyone.com/group/Second+Life+Listener+Collective

Metaverse Mod Squad In Big Demand - iReport.com

Metaverse Mod Squad In Big Demand
Posted by: JaneyBracken //

I greatly admire people who start their own businesses in real life, and to have the initiative to start a business that is unique, creating a service that will very soon become essential and greatly in demand, is truly inspirational.

I recently had the great pleasure of meeting avatar Twig Tomorrow (Amy Pritchard in real life) who is the Chief Executive Officer of a real life company called Metaverse Mod Squad (MMS). ( http://www.metaversemodsquad.com/)

read more digg story

F.I.V.E - December 13th and 14th - Starts at 8am (slt)

F.I.V.E

Saturday December 13th - 8:00am (slt)
through
Sunday December 14th - 4:00pm (slt)

30 hours of nonstop DJs and music

Click HERE for SLURL

Not Possible IRL: Avatrait: Exhibiting Art in Virtual Spaces

Exhibiting Art in Virtual Spaces
Posted by Alpha Auer, with a very big thank you to the curator of Avatrait, Stephen Venkman who alerted us to the opening of Avatrait Island.

The new island of Avatrait was launched back at the end of November, so I am somewhat late in posting this piece. However, I wanted to give the matter some thought prior to doing so. I also co-authored a paper for an academic conference on virtual architecture in the interim, and that too has made me hold off and gather all of my thoughts on the subject. I also have to add a disclaimer here and state that I am not an architect but an artist/designer/Second Life® builder, so all of what I write on the subject is based upon mere gut instinct and a general knowledge of architectural concerns as far as they touch upon the basic design considerations common to all visual art and design practices.

read more digg story

Doubledown's Web 2.0 - 2008 Round-up

Web 2.0... whadda we gonna do with ya (shakes fist)...

2007 was the year of finding your old friends and discovering new ones.

2008 is finding your same friends on 100 other different websites. If you havn't connected to all of your friends several different ways by now, don't worry, I'm sure your friends (as well as many people you don't know) will be trying to connect with you a thousand ways from Sunday. 2008 was an ego-centric time. Each individual had something to share, something to comment on, something to advertise.... but did anyone ever view it? Does anyone else ever view "your page"? Anyhoo, 2008, each person spent their time building up their web 2.0 presence. Hopefully 2009 will be dropping the 2.0 services that are simply ineffective and pointless, so we all can congrigate on just 100 web 2.0 social networking websites, instead of 1000s.

I've spent the last year dabbling with this so-called Web 2.0. Here is my 2008 roundup.

Best:
http://www.secondlife.com/ - For over a half a decade, it is still the leading virtual metaverse in our real world. There are many other fascinating virtual worlds out there, however, Second Life still leads the way because of the freedoms, IP advantages, and working economy and money system. Still, Second Life is the only virtual world where you can do just about anything.
http://www.reverbnation.com/ - Reverb Nation, a music and social site is the best for artists and for fans. There are countless out there. Reverb Nation has become my favorite.
http://www.weblin.com/ - The best little add-on I've found to quickly share any webpage. Plus, the ability to chat with anyone else viewing that page is the 2009 way to go. A weblin type feature mixed with cooliris looks to be the future.
http://www.ning.com/ - Tired of other social networks? Just create your own!
http://www.friendfeed.com/ - Simply put, the best web 2.0 service would be a service that lists every other service and combines them all onto one big schmutz of a feed. This beats out mybloglog in my opinion.
http://www.facebook.com/ - All around best status, sharing, connecting, and fun center around. Facebook kicks myspace in the nards.
http://www.addthis.com/ & http://www.sharethis.com - Quick way to share. Combined with weblin, this is excellent.
http://www.buzz.yahoo.com/ - Unfortunately, this is my favorite "story bumping" site. I say unfortunately, because it's run by yahoo. I find Yahoo Buzz beats out Digg, Delicious, and any other website ranking & rating share site. I encourage anyone that enjoys sharing the most current news with your 2.0 network, check out Yahoo Buzz. It's impressive and easy.
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.cooliris.com/ - although this isn't quite web 2.0, this is a sleek modern internet browsing add-on to firefox. Combining the look and feel of cooliris with social networking sites will be the next stage for the internet.
http://www.blip.fm/ - Twitter with music. Even with some site glitches, I thuroughly enjoy tweeting music.... moreso than just tweeting on twitter.
http://www.hulu.com/ - Watch tons of TV and movies over the net. Leading the way so far.
http://www.youtube.com/ -
http://www.blogger.com/ -
http://www.wordpress.com/ -
http://www.intensedebate.com/ - Usually the most intelligent of Q & A type sites
http://www.mogulus.com/ - Want your own TV station broadcast over the web? Stream video live, or produce your own station by lining up videos.

So so:
http://www.last.fm/ - music social network site
http://www.thesixtyone.com/ - music "bumping" site. The only reason I didn't put it in the worst section is because this is a good site to listen to cover versions and remixes.
http://www.bebo.com/ -
http://www.mybloglog.com/ - Yahoo run mybloglog is interesting, however it's a bit too confusing, and you'll end up getting bogged down with feeds if you friend the wrong person. Friendfeed beats out mybloglog.
http://www.meetsee.com/ - Nice convenient virtual office and chat space. On the verge of pointless, but if you need an immediate chatroom, this is the way to go.
http://www.twitter.com/ -
http://www.digg.com/ - I prefer Yahoo Buzz, however, most people use digg. Hopefully they'll get off the digg, because I've never really liked it. Digg is specificaly good in relation to blogger.
www.google.com/calendar - Although it seems to be the easiest calendar to impliment into everything, there's still some schedule editing flaws which piss me off. I read other people's calendars, but never use one for myself.
http://www.flickr.com/ - There hasn't been much competition for photosharing social network sites. Picasa Web Albums is out there. Personally I love http://www.koinup.com/ which is geared specifically to Virtual World art (photos, videos, music).
http://www.avatarsunited.com/ - currently leading the way connecting virtual world users by means of a social networking site.
http://www.typepad.com/
http://www.weblo.com/
http://www.ilike.com/

The Worst
http://www.stumbleupon.com/ - A waste of time and adding the browser toolbar may screw up your views.
http://del.icio.us/ - Lame. People use it, I don't. Yahoo Buzz and Digg beat delicious.
http://www.myspace.com/ - A pointless spam haven. Everyone on myspace is spamming, and no one is viewing.
http://www.friendster.com/ - One of the first... however, the privacy is set too high, therefore it inhibits your network from ever taking off.
http://www.okrut.com/ - A very cheesy version of other social networking sites. Why use okrut if you can use facebook?
http://www.linkedin.com/ -
http://www.technorati.com/ -
http://www.exitreality.com/ - A brilliant idea, but shitty performance. The future of exitreality may have a lot in store though, but since it's release, i've seen no improvements.
http://www.livejournal.com/ -
http://www.diingo.com/ -
http://www.furl.com/ -
http://www.google.com/reader -
http://www.reddit.com/ -
http://www.jaiku.com/ -
http://www.plurk.com/ -
http://answers.yahoo.com/ -
http://www.netflix.com/ -
http://www.tipjoy.com/ -

UPDATES and more of my personal views n stuff to come soon. This is TAKE 4: Dec 17, 2008

Doubledown's TV Picks - Fringe - Torley Teaches us how to Play the Theme

Multi-Talent Torley (codename: Torley Bag-a-Watermelons)
is part of The Pattern



Check out every episode of Fringe so far here:
http://www.hulu.com/fringe

Real Life in Second Life: RL Businesses Must Go Beyond SL Advertising by SLentrepreneur Magazine's Feldpar Epstein

SLentrepreneur Magazine

Real Life in Second Life: RL Businesses Must Go Beyond SL Advertising

Editorial By Feldpar Epstein (www.SLentre.com Staff Writer)

- December 10th, 2008

It’s rare to hear about real life business success stories in Second Life.

The big ticket names – Pontiac, Adidas, Reebok, AOL, BMW, Aloft - seem to come - and then go. More to the point, they rush in with a big, splashy musical number and then take one of two routes out: they leave in a huff and a flurry of media attention, or they fade into nothingness before disappearing in the night. It seems that the louder a business yells about their entry in Second Life, the more likely it is that they will soon depart without fulfilling their objectives. These big-name businesses rely on conventional media to make a big noise about their entries into Second Life – and they shout for all to hear that they have left again. A Second Life build can merely be an excuse to get quick cheap media coverage - and for that an exit is just as good as an entrance.

On the other hand, there are just as many – if not more – businesses coming into Second Life with little or no fanfare - and staying long term. These companies are often not using Second Life as an advertising vehicle – or at least, not exclusively. Instead, they are using Second Life for their own purposes, and the builds they create, and the people they bring to Second Life, generate the Second Life community’s interest in the business. IBM and Cisco have developed facilities in Second Life for their own people to interact and collaborate with and these have been better tools for exposure than any unimaginative and sterile advertising-only build could ever hope to be. And by extension, they also have additional benefits not traditionally associated with advertising.

Another case in point is the CPA Island (http://www.cpaisland.com/) build. The MACPA (Maryland Certified Practicing Accountants) run conferences here on a regular basis; CPAs can attend these conferences in Second Life to earn CPE credit (this is a points system for the ongoing education of CPAs). The MACPA have engaged speakers from across the globe to lecture on a wide variety of topics; they started in the middle of this year, and the conferences have been so successful that they plan to continue into the foreseeable future. It has also raised the profile of CPAs within the consciousness of Second Life users.

As a counterpoint to companies that do well in Second Life because they are looking to do more than just jam advertising into people’s mouths, there is at least one notable company which has been successful in using Second Life as a more traditional advertising vehicle. Contrary to popular wisdom, Coca Cola have not withdrawn their presence from Second Life – in fact, they chose not to have a permanent presence in Second Life, choosing instead to rent space from Crayon for the duration of their campaign. Their intention was always to have temporary builds that would last the lifetime of each campaign. Indeed, the entire Coca Cola campaign was run with full intent and self-awareness. They determined their criteria for success before the campaign began. They worked with the existing market, instead of working against it or ignoring it entirely. They measured their successes according to their criteria. They are now spending a period of time learning from both the successes and failures of their campaign before they attempt to put another one together. The whole project was more like a well-run scientific experiment and less like a traditional marketing campaign.

Key points:

*Second Life can be used as an environment to be utilized for
interaction, collaboration and training of your staff. This
use doubles as a bit of advertising for your company that might prove
palatable to the general public.
* Using Second Life as an advertising-only vehicle is relatively
pointless unless you are willing to experiment somewhat rigorously
and learn from your mistakes.

Original Article: Real Life in Second Life: RL Businesses Must Go Beyond SL Advertising

http://www.slentre.com/real-life-in-second-life-rl-businesses-must-go-beyond-sl-advertising/

Source: http://www.massively.com/2008/12/07/businesses-not-stampeding-from-second-life/

Related Articles:

2008 SLentrepreneur of the Year Award to be Decided by SL Residents

SLentrepreneur Profiles: And The 2008 SLentrepreneur of the Year Award Nominees Are...

Second Life Traffic Report - November Top Spots Holding Steady

Second Life Machinima Video Report: Faster Cures - Changing the Culture of Research

Lunacast - Friday December 12th, 2008 - 6pm-10pm (slt)

LUNACAST MOONBASE

www.lunacast.com

Tunes inSL Gallery Project - Brought to us by Crap Mariner

Message from Crap Mariner:

Hello.

I am Laurence Simon, known in Second Life as Crap Mariner.

I wanted to share with you a project that I have been working on called the Tunes inSL Gallery.

I really like the live music scene here in Second Life. All around the clock, there's always someone performing, and so many different styles of music - folk, rock, country, classical, jazz.

If you're opening a new island or planning an event, the odds are you're going to have a live musician there to help promote it.

They are my friends, I respect them deeply, and I wanted to come up with a way to give something back.

Last year, I received an iTunes gift card. I'm not easy to shop for - kind of hard to imagine, right?

Well, I didn't want any new music out there - I wanted music from Second Life musicians.

So, I posted on my site a call for links to Second Life musicians on iTunes, and that's what I bought.

Others did so too, and it got me to thinking. Why not create a catalog of all that music for the next holiday season?

Sure enough, I've gotten the word out, and all these performers have agreed to appear in the gallery on Edloe Island. Every album cover is a link to their page in iTunes for listening to clips form their albums, reading reviews, and buying them.

Let those sites do all the grunt work, right?

You get their music, they get the royalties to help pay those holiday bills.

Not only do I have a catalog for iTunes, but also one for Amazon on the region called Selby, run by Hulaboom Voom

There's plenty of room for more performers, and I'm hoping that these places are packed with people using their gift cards to buy music to ring in the new year with.

And if you're not in Second Life, I created a web catalog of the links, too. http://riaa.isfullofcrap.com

I guess we'll see how well it works. Maybe we'll make this a permanent thing.

This is Laurence Simon, reporting from Edloe Island and Selby.

Basset Hound Beat Box

Obama Embraces Creative Commons

Obama Embraces Creative Commons
Written by Ben Jones on December 02, 2008

US President-Elect Barack Obama is a man with a message, and according to the speeches made during his campaign, that message is ‘Change’. One of those changes has been somewhat of a snub to the creative industries and their lobby groups - the embracing of Creative Commons licensing.

In some ways, Obama is an enigma. His meteoric rise to win the presidency from almost complete obscurity several years ago is, of course, the very basis of the ‘American Dream’. Young for a president (or even a senator), while promising ‘Change’, he has a lot to prove to the younger voters that propelled him into Executive office.

However, with the decision to choose Joe Biden as VP, many worried that with his ties to copyright lobby groups, he would influence things to further increase the reach of already-draconian laws. Despite this, he was endorsed by both Lawrence Lessig, and the US Pirate Party, with the former’s wife even campaigning for him.

After his election he wasted little time in establishing a ‘transition’ website at change.gov. However, to the dismay of some, the copyright notices were as draconian as ever. That has all changed now, though, as the site embraces Creative Commons, opting for CC-BY. While Obama is not exactly a stranger to Creative Commons licensing – his flickr photos are under a CC BY-NC-SA license – it is no small step to go from photo album to entire website.

What does this mean for copyright? Well, as Creative Commons themselves point out in their blog, the group behind change.gov is not a part of the government - yet. It’s a non-profit organization, so could (and did) fill the site with copyright notices. Yet, that a Creative Commons license has been embraced by the President-Elect means good things. Most importantly, that the President has knowledge of less-restrictive copyright methods, and first-hand experience that not only do they work, but that the sky doesn’t fall down when they are used, cannot hurt. That the license chosen was, in Lessig’s words, the ‘freest license’ is more encouraging still.

One can only hope that when the likes of the RIAA and MPAA come to talk about further strengthening copyright, he turns around and says, “I’ve been using these great CC licenses, have you heard of them?” Regardless, it’s a great boost to Creative Commons, as they prepare to celebrate their sixth birthday.

TorrentFreak articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license.

Doubledown's TV Picks - Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Day Man

Always Sunny in Philadelphia (very interactive site with full episodes) is already a cult classic hit in the making. Four seasons are now complete for your viewing pleasure.

From Season 3 - "Sweet Dee is Dating a Retarded Person"


Check out all the episodes here on Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia

Barack Obama Appoints Two Second Life Innovators To His Team

New World Newsfeed:

Barack Obama Appoints Two Second Life Innovators To His "Innovation Agenda" Group

via New World Notes
read more / digg story

The Second Life of Second Life - A-list Companies are Returning to Second Life with New Methods of Customer Interaction

Second Stage: Joni West (real life, center; avatar, right foreground) has revived Second Life as a place to engage customers. Site: Toomey-Tourell Fine Art Gallery San Francisco, California which represents Joni West’s real-life fine art. The works on the walls are by Joni West. photo illustration by Jamie Kripke


The Second Life of Second Life
By: Arianne Cohen

A-list companies are returning to the virtual world of Second Life with new methods of customer interaction.

When the online virtual world Second Life first got hot a couple of years ago, Dell was among the companies that joined the craze. The computer giant built four islands: a factory where users could build custom PCs, a theater, a model of Michael Dell's dorm room, and a nursery promoting a plant-a-tree program. "We learned right away that maintaining these areas requires a lot of resources," says Laura Thomas, an e-business consultant at Dell who headed the efforts. Of course, if customers had followed, there would have been no problem, but "there wasn't enough usage of the space to justify the resources needed to keep it dynamic." Dell dismantled the factory last year, right alongside dozens of other companies that scrambled to stanch their bleeding Second Life budget line items. Second Life was over before it had begun.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

35 Days Against DRM -- Day 1: MacBook

Starting this Black Friday and over the next 35 days leading up to the end of 2008, we want your help in promoting a consumer boycott of DRM. Once again, Apple have pushed their DRM agenda, with the release of the latest revision of their MacBook computers, with a hardware chip that prevents certain types of display being used when playing movies.

read more / digg story

35 days against DRM
Say NO to DRM!

What is DRM? Digital Restrictions Management. DefectiveByDesign.org is a broad-based anti-DRM campaign that is targeting Big Media, unhelpful manufacturers and DRM distributors. The campaign aims to make all manufacturers wary about bringing their DRM-enabled products to market. DRM products have features built-in that restrict what jobs they can do. These products have been intentionally crippled from the users' perspective, and are therefore "defective by design". Learn more about our campaign.

DJ Doubledown Tandino LIVE at Italia Vera - Friday 3pm-5pm

▓▒░ FRIDAYS - 3pm-5pm

•:*¨¨*:• DJ Doubledown Tandino - •:*¨¨*:•

Mixing the fresh peak hour club, progressive house, breakbeats & techno music. Pumpin', fresh, and packed!

▓▒░ Friday Nights at ITALIA VERA

Meetsee - My Office - Mal's Office

For those times ya just don't feel like making it to your real virtual office, you can pop into your Meetsee virtual office.

Here's my office: http://DDTandino.meetsee.com/DDTandino.Doubledown

Get your free Meetsee virtual office at: http://www.meetsee.com.

Here's Mal's Office

We have similar tastes.
Thanks Mal for the find!

Music Mogul. Make Your Mark. The new metaverse for music!

In rare instances, I find a virtual world (other than Second Life) worth mentioning. There have been many made. I have tried any and all of the free metaverses. I have an account in each. Second Life is the ONLY one I use. However, once in awhile I find a new metaverse with potential. This one not only has potential, but I think it's could be the breakthrough many Second Life performers will move to. We shall see, it's waay too soon to tell, we only have a preview so far. Music Mogul Drops in The Verse in 2009.

MUSIC MOGUL. MAKE YOUR MARK

It was extremely tough to find any form of promotion in relation to the site. and the http://www.musicmogul.com/ launch. Lucky the press release came my way (posted below).

The website currently has a video explaining what's to come, and otherwise, there's basically nothing on the net announcing this.... ... yet....

I think this is going to be HUUUGE! Rodney Jerken's new ahead-of-the-game music project is already getting me thrilled. Mr Jerkins is a hitmaker, innovator, phenomenon, & impresario. If there were a Guinness Book of Musical Records, Grammy Award-winning superproducer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins and his myriad accomplishments would certainly comprise quite a few chapters. An outstanding producer/songwriter, multi-faceted 29-year-old Jerkins creates timeless compositions that stand the test of time again and again.

Personal Sidenote: He was a neighbor of mine in South New Jersey for some time. Although we had never met. I did meet Whitney Houston though on one occasion and not only made her laugh, but made her BUST OUT LAUGHING! It was a proud wonderful moment in my life that I actually don't think I ever mentioned to anyone except for one other person until now. I got to meet many Darkchild reps during my fun and exciting times working as a performer at Caesars Atlantic City. (yep, that's me Jugging in front of Caesar and Cleopatra. I was 18.)

OK SO BACK TO MUSIC MOGUL!!!
This is the next step, the next level, the obvious next level. This is the way to go. Some may have the goal of specifically winning the record deal Mr Jerkins is going to drop to one music artist every 3 months. Others will have the common goal of music networking, sharing, spreading, enjoying, collaborating, and exposing EVERYONE to the world.

I think this is it! I think this could be the next big thing. Reason being: The money and the backing is there to make this universe work. The combination of technology professionals leading the virtual worlds movement, mixed with the talent of all people creative and artistic, plus the backing and simple fact that Rodney Jerkins is gonna make his shit work! He's not gonna accept lag. People's gonna get fired if they don't fix his shit up tight! I jest I jest.

Mr Jerkins, the Darkchild team, and the wave of people that jump into this metaverse is going to be a proper combination.

There are a few potentials where people would NOT join. For example, if in the ToS, all music in Music Mogul becomes available to Darkchild. I doubt that will take place. Everyone will own their own intellectual property. That's what it will be about. Individuals, teams, collaborations, labels, all pumpin' their own directions and journeys. I am also hoping this is a free service. I would hate to see a pay for basic member. Obviously there will be high price tags for the Gold Membership, whatever that may be, but I'm also fairly certain that this will be free (I am hoping) and each music artist will be able to use all of the features without paying. We shall see.

-Doubledown Tandino
----------------------------------------------------------

THE PRESS RELEASE FOR MUSIC MOGUL:
-
The 80's had MTV(TM), the 00's had MySpace(TM), and now MusicMogul.com is The NEXT Evolution of the Music Industry LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Music Mogul, LLC (http://www.musicmogul.com/) is the world's first online music world with real rewards and a unique search for the hottest new superstars. This online destination is set to make a mark on the music industry and social networks with the ground-breaking design and interactive experience for the consumer,
performers, and celebrity artists, alike. For the first time, social networkers can experience the music lifestyle through a virtual living world.

Set to alter the face of music engagement through a rich interactive world, Music Mogul, LLC represents an entirely browser-based online destination where celebrity artists can unite with their fans and aspiring artists have a chance for discovery to become the next superstars!

It took the collaborative effort and vision of four industry power players from music and video games who have joined forces to pioneer this innovative new endeavor. The team behind the virtual world are a step ahead with their entry into the ever growing virtual online space. Music Mogul, LLC was founded by Nicholas Longano, CEO of Music Mogul, LLC (8 year video game
veteran and former Co-Founder of Brash, President of Massive Inc which sold to Microsoft in 2006, and General Manager/EVP of Vivendi Games); Rodney Jerkins, Chief Creative Officer & Music Supervisor of Music Mogul, LLC (Rodney is a Grammy(TM)-winning producer, who has produced many of the hottest artists in music, such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Brandy, Beyonce, Janet Jackson, Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears, Destiny's Child, Cher, Toni Braxton, Jennifer Lopez, Mary J. Blige); Ray Brown, Chief Talent Operations of
Music Mogul, LLC (Ribeiro & Brown Management, Nu Life Entertainment, Southern Boy Entertainment and has worked with Will Smith, Nick Cannon, Quincy Jones, and TLC to name a few); and Jonathan Eubanks, Chief Operating Officer of Music Mogul, LLC (15 years in video game production, with such companies as Activision, Brash, Vivendi Games and Warner Interactive).

Of his latest project, Jerkins says, "I've been looking for the next big thing to come out of music ... and I found it through games. Music Mogul is an extraordinary new music experience, created for anyone who's ever wanted a chance to be discovered, or anyone who just loves music or games. It offers something for everyone, including artists who are looking for new ways to
reach and connect with fans in a way that is both comfortable and personal."

Jerkins is confident in his belief that the Music Mogul, LLC world will be a direct line to undiscovered talent, as evidenced by his announcement that a new Music Mogul, LLC artist will be chosen every quarter to receive a three song demo deal with his own Darkchild Productions.

CEO Longano says, "Music Mogul offers a full music lifestyle and virtual world experience. Through Rodney's star making abilities and incredible ear for talent, it provides a new generation of performers that have grown up with video games and social networks, a new venue to discover and be discovered."

Music Mogul, LLC provides something for everyone. For performers, this is the first time ever that aspiring artists are given all the tools they need to audition, promote, and perform live to a global audience through a virtual world with real life rewards. For those who just want to experience the music lifestyle, there is endless opportunity for entertainment, including live
karaoke, game arcades, in-world concerts, and more.

To further expand the music lifestyle experience, users can establish, decorate, and expand their Hollywood "cribs," adorn themselves in the latest fashions, and attend exclusive in-world events with their favorite celebrities. "Using a game inspired, Aria powered, microtransaction platform,
Music Mogul collapses the barriers between the music, artists and their fans.

Music Mogul eliminates the restrictions of time, currency or geography and connects the music world participants in real time. It's pure genius," Ed Sullivan, CEO of Aria Systems.

Music Mogul, LLC is being developed by iLemon, a leading virtual world developer founded by former senior management of popular virtual world Habbo Hotel. "Music Mogul's attention to realism and detail is pushing the boundaries of virtual worlds. Music Mogul will be a showcase of not only the future of virtual worlds, but how users will experience music and connect with
each other. It is unique, focused and compelling," says iLemon President and Founder, Jouni Keranen.

Calvin Ng, CEO of iLemon says, "We are excited to be developing the Music Mogul world, and believe it is an important step toward bringing virtual worlds to a broader audience, and making connections between the virtual world and the real world through the global appeal of music."

See the evolution of music at http://www.musicmogul.com/
...coming Q1 2009.

For Press Inquires Please Contact:
Laura Ackermann
Much and House Public Relations
323.965.0852 ext. 150 or
lackermann@muchandhousepr.com

SOURCE Music Mogul, LLC

Doubledown's TV Picks - Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live

YouTube Goes Live! November 22nd, 2008

YouTube Live! is, first and foremost, a celebration of the site's vast user communities; everyone from bedroom vloggers to world-famous rock stars, musicians, comedians, athletes, artists and more. Part concert, part variety show and part party, the event will bring to life many of the amazing videos and talent.

YouTube Live Goes Mobile too!

Watch YouTube Live at http://m.youtube.com/ on your mobile phone.

I just want to mention...... I am there for YOU (Part 2)

Above is 4 screenshots of the The Monogram Virtua "Skins and Shapes" convention on November 22nd, 12pm-2pm slt. The expo continues onward through the weekend, November 22nd through the 24th.

----

On to the point at hand: I refer you to this post I blogged a few days ago:

http://djdoubledown.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-just-want-to-mention-i-am-there-for.html

Please take a moment to review comment 3 and then my response.

There is currently a "punk-crew" within Second Life, that has changed their goals from positive to negative. Previously they were about the promotion and enhancement of the DJ community. Now they spend most of their days simply tearing down other people's projects and creations. It must take a lot of their time planning to slander other people, instead of just continuing on with your initial goals. I am just a small portion of their hassles, mainly because I am completely indifferent to what they do, nor have their methods ever been anything but laughable. However, newer DJs, performers, and Venue Owners are arriving in SL, and running into this punk crew. Overall, no matter what this punkcrew wants to do, my simple suggestion is whenever you hear from someone in SL that "someone said this and that" or "someone did this and that" .. just go ask the people involved directly. Why would a DJ/Production crew rather spend their time trying to slander or incriminate other real performer/production crews?

As the picture shows above, if anyone feels that packing a sim during my performances is a bad thing, then please let me know in advance so I can make sure not to get booked for your show.

At the start of my Monogram Virtua booking (which happened to be the start of the whole weekend, so things were just getting started), I was hired to be a DJ for 2 hours.

However because I am a good community member, I WANT to HELP by packing the convention center, instead of leaving it vacant. As I started my show, there was NO ONE present, NO ONE in charge, NO hosts, NO managers, NO vendors, and basically NO ONE that should have been there running the event. There was only me, the DJ, and no one there... and I was hired to start performing at 12pm.

a) I could have DJed from 12pm-2pm and then left.

or

b) I could take on the host/emcee/promoter/DJ role to make the event work even though I was the ONLY person around to make the event work.

Let me ask you, do you want someone to work FOR you and FOR your company REPRESENTING YOUR PROJECT out of kindness? Or do you just want an unprofessional jackass that just abandons shows, cuts off their live stream, and burns bridges just because the previous plans turned out differently?

It's all about professionalism and reputation in SL, and that is displayed directy from the avatar,... not from word of mouth, faked chatlogs, especially coming from someone you do not trust in the first place.

Feel free to comment about your own experiences or current dramas & distractions while you progress on your productions. Please REFRAIN from naming names. It's probably best if in the comments no one is specifically calling people out. Instead, use the space to describe what YOU are dealing with. This post isn't about supporting me. It is about supporting us all, everyone. I think if we can hear some common experiences, and even arguments, at least that is progress. We can then take the next step and figure out how to transform these various issues and greivances into more cohesive unit in the Second Life DJ and Club community.

Why I think Google is pulling the plug on "Lively"

Lively is a google enhanced chatroom, sorta virtual world MMO, sorta kinda.

For info on Google's Lively, and ending the service only after 5 months, I refer you to Sarah Nerd of http://www.your2ndplace.com/ : Google Lively Already Ending Only 5 Months After it Opens.
November 20, 2008 by Sarah Nerd

There are other Second Life blogs that have mentioned this (http://www.massively.com/ / www.nwn.com/blog ) I'm sure you'll hit those two.

[HERE} I would generally add a screenshot of what Lively looks like, but imagine this image:

a general cliche of a cartoon character facing the corner of an empty room.

That's the photo of Google's Lively.

----

I bring this up here: my theory as to the reasons why they're shutting it down. I believe it is NOT because it sucks, NOT seems childish, NOT because no one is using it, and NOT because no one gets it or likes it.... yes, those are all the reasons, however.... It was all just testing for Google to get their feet wet in the metaverse.

Google, I am guessing, almost predicting the future.... Google is using the technology from Lively, plus whatever they learned about social interaction, and is now moving toward these two technologies instead:

http://www.exitreality.com/

ExitReality is a new technology that has made the entire Internet 3D. By creating an instant 3D world from any web page, ExitReality adds a new dimension to the Internet. And this new universe of inter-connected worlds expands even beyond 2D to include thousands of innovative 3D places and games created over the past decade, and now ready to be explored.

&

http://www.weblin.com/

Meet your friendsand new peopleon every website!
weblin makes you and others on the Web visible as small avatars. There are others on the same page you are on right now. Weblin opens a new and exciting world on every web site.
Get to know people with the same interests. Do you want to enter this world? Get your personal weblin now!

-----

Both of these (which may I add have been discussed within Second Life in conversations for the past 4 years) are the beginnings of the future of the internet. Second Life is a virtual universe; a fictional world built up by the residents to make that inworld metaverse a reality..... and Linden Lab was always hoping that Second Life would be the "future of the internet"

Then comes along ExitReality and Weblin. The combination of these two would mean: any one can browse any webpage in a 3d virtual environment, while also seeing and chatting with other viewers on that page.

.... I remember pre-corporation SL times, 2006, Philip Linden would have town-hall speeches about how Second Life would one day be like "the future of the internet"...... (sidenote: thats why LL need corporations in SL now, because they need corps in SL so as Exitreality and Weblin technology comes out, the corps already have contracts set up with Linden Lab.)
----

ExitReality is clunky and barely works..... its so flunky. The concept and ideal of it is brilliant, but it simpy DOES NOT WORK currently... I'm sure Google could drop a cool couple million on the company that created it and buy it out..... which then becomes Google's technology.

Weblin, which I am seeing much more potential in usefulness (Weblin is the new black of instant messagers). Google will simply use their Lively technology and create their own Google form of a weblin instant messaging)....

--

So there's my guess, based on no fact, and no info. I am simply venturing an assumption as to why Google Lively is cancelling:

Google is cancelling Lively in order to create a much better social network virtual situation: which is a combination of viewing websites with other users, in a 3d environment, while being able to chat with others on the webpage.

----

As an unrelatable footnote: I have always refused to use the phrase "Instant Messenger" ... and I will continue to use the word "messager". I believe that it is called "Instant MESSAGER" and AOL fucked up years ago, and the name just stuck. Keep in mind... you are sending an instant message, not an instant messenger . The little yellow AOL running guy is not really the instant messenger delivering your message to the other person. SO, in conclusion. You send instant messages, you receive instant messages, and when two people are messaging eachother..... they are not 'messengering' : You are using an instant MESSAGER.

MalBurns Writer - The Ponce De Leon of Second Life

Explorer Ponce De Leon, among his countless expeditions, was most famous for his exploration for the fountain of youth. I'm not sure if he found it or not, because I think he's dead by now so I guess either the fountain didn't work, or he was at the wrong fountain. Plus, I live in Florda, and I havn't seen any "Fountain of Youth" billboards on the highway.

My askew anology here is that Mal Burns is the awesome Ponce De Leon of Virtual Worlds and Technolgy. In fact, Mal is better than Ponce, because unlike Ponce, Mal actually finds stuff.
Mal Burns (Malburns Writer in SL) is the explorer on a daily expedition to bring life, knowledge, and the overall happenings of all things related to us to the masses.

Soon, I will devote a whole feed section to his exploration find. In the meantime, here's some I picked out, courtesy of Mal Burns

It’s an SL Buskers Life?
By Allanah Tomsen

The Wishfarmers - Kelly Services Jobbit

Follow-up: 20% Tax Rate on Virtual Currency Brokering in China?
By Juho Hamari

Virtual Worlds: necessary or just making things easier?

Collapsing Geography
Posted by cory ondrejka
Having used every tool around during distributed development for Second Life, I am jazzed to finally see people moving in the direction of EtherPad. Real-time, collaborative text editing on the web done really well. Plus, from quick mucking around, it seems to work in the SL browser.So, collaborative text editing in Second Life. Very big deal.

Thank you Mal Burns for the finds.