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Archives for 2007

Australian Federal Police: We’re Watching

July 7, 2007 by 2 Comments

Mick Keelty, Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police is quoted in today’s Sydney Morning Herald as saying that the AFP are aware of online scams in virtual worlds, including Second Life. Nothing particularly surprising there. Keelty is also realistic about the challenges of policing virtual worlds, admitting it will be “difficult”.

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There’d be widespread support for their involvement with the Virtual Global Taskforce which has a strong child protection focus and comprises the Australian Federal Police, the Australian High Tech Crime Centre, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre in the UK, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the US Department of Homeland Security, Interpol and the Italian National Police. The test for the AFP will be drawing the line between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in a way that protects innocent parties whilst maintaining freedom of expression.

One thing is certain – any Australian believing their activities in Second Life are beyond scrutiny are deluding themselves to the highest degree.

Filed Under: Australian News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

The Sun Never Sets

July 6, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Australian machinima auteur Skribe Forti has produced a short “avant-garde soap opera” titled The Sun Never Sets.

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Who needs Young and the Restless?

Filed Under: Art, Australian News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

Australia Council announces first in-world artists forum

July 5, 2007 by 3 Comments

The Australia Council certainly can’t be accused of not howing interest in Second Life as a means of artistic expression. Last week we reported on the ‘matchmaker’ service for artists and musicians working in Second Life. Now, in conjunction with the ABC they’ve announced an artist forum for the 12th July:

“The in-world event, to be moderated by ABC’s Sunday Arts reporter/producer Fenella Kernebone, is for the Australia Council’s inaugural Second Life artist residency.

In an open forum at 7pm (EST) on ABC Island, Paris-based artist and architect Brad Kligerman – one of the first artists in Second Life to complete an in-world residency – will present his work, discuss ideas and answer participants’ questions.

Brad, an architect and teacher, completed his 11-week residency with US-based Ars Virtua , a new media centre and gallery in Second Life, where he questioned the idea of materiality in the rendered environment and the nature of image.

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Australia Council chief executive officer Kathy Keele said the partnership with the ABC was a great fit with the Australia Council’s Second Life initiative. ‘The ABC was the first Australian media organisation to establish a presence in Second Life and we are excited about working with them on this project.’

‘We hope that Australian artists gain valuable insight from Brad Kligerman’s successful art interventions in Second Life and that they will be inspired to create innovative works in-world that will place them at the forefront of this groundbreaking practice,’ Kathy Keele said.

The Australia Council has also set up an artist’s forum in Second Life for artists looking for other artists with whom to collaborate. The moderated artists forum can be found at ABC Island and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) Island, Esperance.”

Like any event, places are limited so drop an email to slrsvp@ozco.gov.au with your Second Life Avatar name. The event will be streamed live at a location to be announced and and a vodcast . A vodcast of the event will also be available on the ABC Sunday Arts website . Sunday Arts screens at 5.00pm on… Sundays.

For more information on Ars Virtua and Brad Kligerman visit www.arsvirtua.com.

Filed Under: Art, Australian News, Music, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Wiz Nordberg’s Smart Company Blog

July 4, 2007 by Leave a Comment

SLCN’s Wiz Nordberg has a blog running on the business-oriented Smart Company website.

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Our two-part interview with Wiz and the SLCN team can be found here and here.

Filed Under: Australian News, Virtual Worlds, Virtual worlds in the media Tagged With: ,

Party time for ABC’s 75th Anniversary

July 3, 2007 by 2 Comments

A bunch of Australian SL users organised a party on ABC Island as an impromptu celebration of the ABC’s 75th anniversary:

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Stalwart ABC Admin Wolfie Rankin was a key organiser, helped out by a number of other active community members.

Filed Under: Australian News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

Linden Lab offer resource directory

July 3, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Linden Labs have announced the aggregation of a range of directories into a Resident Resources database. Any SL resident can submit information on a tool or service they’ve created, but it will cost you L$250 per category you list in. Allow up to five business days for your listing to be approved. It’s good to see the community side of things actually expanding a little since the reduction of SL forum options.

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Garden for the Missing

July 2, 2007 by 4 Comments

The Garden for the Missing is a simple but powerful presence on the mainland Remora sim. Motivated by the tragic end of a missing persons case in her neighbourhood, owner Ronnie Rhode set up her presence. She states she’s been passionate about the missing persons issue since 2002 but only recently joined Second Life.

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The pictures of missing persons are sourced from a range of US-based organisations including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, BeyondMissing and Project Jason. Ronnie is hoping to move to a larger location and has a donation wishing well to help her achieve that aim. While we were there another SL resident was donating assorted flowers etc to help decorate the area.

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As Ronnie herself said when we had a brief chat, the more people that see the faces of the missing the more likely they are to be found. It doesn’t get much more worthwhile than that.

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Thanks to Aussie SL’er Rails Bailey for suggesting the story.

Check it out in-world

Filed Under: General News, Landmarks of note, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

The Ann Myers Medical Center

July 1, 2007 by 1 Comment

The Ann Myers Medical Center (AMMC) is part of the Sprott-Shaw Community College islands.

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The AMMC blog lists the presence’s goals as:

“1. Assist students to become more proficient in initial exam history and physicals. The patient often reveals many important aspects of their disorder through their words if the physician takes the time to listen. In this fast-paced world, med students are not being appropriately trained to listen.

2. A second aspect to the history and physical for Dr. Ann is attempting to train her students to truly care for their patients. Dr. Ann teaches her First Life students that they can heal simply by listening and caring. She often states to her students, “Laying a hand on a patient’s shoulder and honestly listening can heal more than any medication you can prescribe for a person.”

3. AMMC is attempting to link telemetric builds (ECG, oxygen saturation machines, etc.) to real-time outputs via URLs. Thus, a student will right click on an ECG machine and be taken to a URL, where they will have to accurately diagnose the medical issue through analysis of telemetric outputs.

4. In conjunction, we will be assisting students to become more proficient in the analysis of MRIs, CTs and X-rays.

5. AMMC will also be training Psychology students in various methodologies and treatment protocols, implementing Dr.Ann’s belief and research interest in psychoimmunobiology, the body’s ability to heal itself through the stimulation of the immune system to fight disease.”

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The goals are more than worthy, and any strategy that increases the human focus of medical students is a very positive thing. The hospital itself consist of three floors and includes and operating theatre, recovery unit, birthing unit and examination cubicles. Aside from the technological learnings that could be enabled here, when SL becomes fully voice enabled the ‘bedside manner’ issues will probably provide the greatest educational gains. Of course, it’d be nice to know that Australian health professionals were being provided the same opportunities.

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Check it out in-world

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: ,

The Australian Women’s Weekly covers SL

June 30, 2007 by 10 Comments

The Australian Women’s Weekly have run an article titled ‘Internet Communities Explained’ and SL gets a guernsey. RMIT’s Dr Lisa Dethridge is quoted extensively in relation to SL and one quote caught my attention in particular:

“avatars tend to keep the fantasy alive by refraining from chat about ‘RL’ [real life] and referring to this world as if it were the only world. Unlike regular chat rooms, where people discuss the details of their lives online, Second Life is a kind of hermetically sealed zone with laws unto itself”

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The intention of the statement is clear but it also clashes with my interactions with aussies in SL, particularly the newer users. It’s rare to not hear people asking each other where they’re from in RL. The wariness around disclosing extensive personal information definitely remains but it seems the boundaries between RL and SL aren’t as defined as they used to be. Do you find the same?

It’ll also be interesting to see the level of Australian sign-ups when Meta Linden releases the June stats – between 60 Minutes and the Australian Women’s Weekly, it’s been a mainstream media feast this month courtesy of PBL – perhaps a SL presence is looming including a virtual Crown Casino?

Filed Under: Australian News, Virtual Worlds, Virtual worlds in the media Tagged With: ,

Second Fest

June 30, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Second Fest is on this weekend and it’s very Australia-friendly with Day 2 kicking off around 9pm AEST (4am SL time). The rumours about an avatar appearance of the Pet Shop Boys are probably nothing more than that, but hey those guys were avatars fifteen years before SL so it’s an obvious fit.

The Intel sims are spacious to say the least with multiple viewing locations:

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Check it out in-world

Filed Under: General News, Music, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

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