Tech -- Culture -- Humour
The World Stock Exchange has made another location move – only weeks after its last one.
The multi-lingual exchange options are certainly a step forward – we weren’t able to determine their operability at this stage. With the pending partnership with the World Internet Currency and support from Anshe Chung, Hope Capital certainly has some big opportunities. Capitalising on them in a way that benefits the community will be the pivotal challenge over the coming months.
With less than 18-months until the next US Presidential election, the number of presidential candidate presences has grown steadily. In real-life the USA has a significant influence on the world, including Australia, so we’ll follow the campaign as it hots up in SL. Here’s what’s happening so far:
Republicans
Republican Ron Paul is one of the lesser known candidates:
The Republican Party of SL gives you the opportunity to vote for your preferred Republican candidate:
Democrats
Edwards Campaign Central is the area devoted to Democrat John Edwards’ tilt:
Hillary Clinton 2008 is one of the glitzier presences:
Grassroots Barack Obama HQ is quite corporate with plenty of Obama photos and Obama TV.
Mike Gravel 2008 Headquarters has extensive information on his policy positions and is a large presence to boot (perhaps inversely proportional to his level of real-life support):
Related presences
Finally, there’s the Presidential Flag store which has flags and t-shirts from all the known candidates as well as a sales leaderboard:
Over the past 24 hours I’ve come across some great stuff being generated by Australians in Second Life, and the best thing is it’s not necessarily about money. There are two examples from the past day in particular that come to mind.
The first is directly related to the call by Rails Bailey for formation of an Artisan’s guild to provide assistance with building projects of varying sizes. If that idea turns out like some of the more informal networks I’ve seen across SL it’s likely to be a win-win: new users get expertise for very reasonable cost whilst the builders get increased experience and exposure to a wider community of users.
The second is not something I’m able to disclose in full, but there’s an Australian SL user doing some really great work that will benefit the Australian SL community and we’re looking forward to covering the developments as they occur.
Thanks again to 3pointD, there’s some interesting information on Peer to Peer developments and how they may relate to Aussie-driven SL competitor, Project Outback (formerly known as Outback Online).
We’re currently in process of finalising a Q&A with Yoick CEO Rand Leeb-du Toit to discuss his views on virtual worlds in general and Project Outback’s place within what is a fast-growing user space.
On the SLOz forums, Aussie SL resident Rails Bailey has put forward an interesting proposition:
“When I first joined Sl, it was a wild mystery ride. Thankfully a few good people helped me on the journey.
As I travel through SL I keep meeting lots of good people who are willing to assist or offer good advice.
I have been thinking about my journey and how new Sl’ers might need some help in establishing themselves in SL. Hence this concept.
I am looking at starting an Artisan Guild (Group). The aim being to attract experienced builders who would be willing to help anybody in SL with building projects of all shapes and sizes.
Obviously such services from experienced Artisans would not come free, and such a Guild would need a strong code of Ethical Practice.
I am canvassing opinion on this concept and would greatly appreciate input from all Second Life citizens, irrespective of their knowledge base within SL.
My name in SL is Rails Bailey.
Looking forward to your responses”
It would appear such a guild, if created thoughtfully, could provide a great service for new SL users. What are your thoughts? Respond here or on the forums
Actually, it is. Long Now is a foundation that hopes “to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years” i.e. it is involved in projects that work against the “faster/cheaper mindset”. One of its founding board members is musical icon Brian Eno and he has an art installation entitled ’77 Million Paintings’ that is about to make its debut in Second Life.
Eno’s enormous body of work in fusing aural and visual landscapes is an obvious fit for Second Life. And there’s no risk of SL being labeled faster OR cheaper.
Veteran American satire site, The Onion, has cast its gaze on Second Life…..
As a regular Onion reader I’d had money on the first story having something to do with ‘male slob as sexy female avatar’ – shows you they don’t go with the obvious.
If weapons are your thing, then Armory island may be worth adding to your landmark list. It’s owned by Australian Apollo Case. Apollo describes his island thus:
“Armory Island is Second Life’s largest virtual arms area with almost fifty independent exhibitors. There is a broad range of weapons, shields, clothing and gadgets for every avatar”.
An example of what’s on offer can be seen here:
Armory Island even has a motto: “Come for the guns, stay for the funâ€
The ABC’s Abi Goldflake has clarified the cause of the damage done to ABC Island on 22nd May:
“We’ve now finished investigating the ‘griefing’ episode on ABC Island on 22 May with Linden Labs. I’d like to set the record straight publicly here. It was definitely not a deliberate act of vandalism but was in fact a server error caused by the island crashing during a routine back-up. Linden Labs were able to restore the island to its normal state through a rollback a few hours after we requested it. Despite some inaccurate stories in the press, there was no cost or long-term damage to the ABC Island. As I said at the time, we’re very grateful that we have such a strong community on the island who alerted us to the problem and were on hand all day to help with the situation.”
As we reported at the time, we believed the damage was unknown rather than griefing-related. Either way it has indeed been a great example of members of the Australian SL community working together.
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