voyeurism

Imzadi featured on Wagner James Au's 'New World Notes: World from my Window' :-)

this morning, the pioneer cohort of residents at SLolar Central were hosted by KJ Hax and Laelia Laval to a welcome tea :-)

it was very well attended, and we were joined by other educators based in EduIsland II. Here's KJ's Flickr photoset :-)

as if the housewarming do wasn't a sufficiently exciting start to the day, i was also deeply honoured that Hamlet Au (RL: Wagner James Au) - who, by his own description, has been Second Life's embedded reporter since 2003 - has seen fit to feature my home sim of Imzadi in his occasional series on the best screenshots of homes and hangouts across Second Life, "World from my Window".

i'd also like to thank Hamlet for alerting me to the conference 'State of Play V: Building the global metaverse', which will be held in Singapore this August, in conjunction with the Harvard Law School, the Yale Law School, the New York Law School, Trinity University, and my home institution of the Nanyang Technological University. the conference strikes an especially strong chord with me, because it explicitly acknowledges that "the conversation about virtual worlds is dominated by Western voices". if that doesn't resonate with what i've been saying lately, i don't know what does :-)

if you'd like to spend an August weekend on a Real Life tropical isle, you know what to do :-)

no place like home

the one-hundred-and-ninth episode of ventriloquy explores multiculturalism in Second Life.

the impetus for this, is the Lion City sim - a place which anyone with an interest in Singapore can visit to get a taste of the urban landscape of the tiny city-state which is my Real Life home.

i discuss just what constitutes 'home', laud the growing diversity of accents and voices that we encounter in our Second Life adventures, and elaborate on how i feel about the relative importance of realism with regards believability in learning environments.

please do join me in this 5.7 MB download :-)

Show notes:
- Imzadi (Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki)
- Gwyneth Llewelyn's 20 March 2005 blog entry (the internationalization of Second Life) Gwyn's Home
- Wagner James Au's 23 August 2006 blog entry (a brother-HUD of man) New World Notes
- origin of Singapura (thinkquest.org)
- Ivan Chew's 24 February blog entry (Setting up the Second Life "Singapore island" sim: Interview with Alvin) Rambling Librarian: Incidental Thoughts of a Singapore Liblogarian
- Peranakan Corner, Hyperborea
- Fort Malaya, Tovadok II
- The Truman Show (wikipedia entry)

resident alien

the one-hundred-and-eighth episode of ventriloquy is a report on the first-ever live cross-Grid interaction between Teen Second Life and the Main Grid.

the occasion was a visit to Global Kids Island on Teen Second Life, by Professor James Paul Gee. Professor Gee was visiting as an 'alien', and was therefore trying out avatars specially designed for him, by some of the residents of Teen Second Life. he then went on to discuss issues of identity, social activism, and the links between Real Life and Second Life, as well as the links between Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games such as World of Warcraft, and Second Life.

i present you my reflections on being a participant in this event, in this 4.5 MB download.

i've also found myself a desk over at SLolar Central - i'm on the second floor (in Singaporean nomenclature) or the mezzanine level (in American nomenclature). do please drop by if you have the time and pay us a visit :-)

finally, do check out this exceedingly thoughtful piece by Extropia DaSilva. it was written last July, and preludes so effectively my post from four days' ago on the minor metaphysical disaster i experienced when my carefully-constructed world in Second Life literally came crashing down on me.

well, i've now managed to rebuild and reposition everything, and i've also added taken the precaution of supplementing my skybox's antigravity system with some good old-fashioned assistance, courtesy of Metamorph Motivators by Michelle Morphett (RL: Michelle Nephew).

and here's an earlier pic of Bouncing Box and me, in the process of building our first iteration of the pool. i add it here, because it is of relevance to a comment i make in this podcast episode, in relation to something which Jim Gee said, about how motivating Second Life can be, because of the degree of collaboration and real-time creation it potentially fosters.

as Extropia asks, what is 'real' anyway?

it's a pertinent question, especially to anyone with the most passing interest in serious games.

in the design of new media learning environments, is it more important to be real, or to be believable?

:-)

Show notes:
- 31 May blog entry (James Paul Gee arrives on Global Kids Island) Global Kids Digital Media Initiative
- Flickr photoset (James Paul Gee Avatar Contest)
- Buddy Sprocket's 31 May snapshot (james paul gee on teen grid... seen from main grid)
- New Media Consortium 2007 Summer Conference (with details on Real Life - Second Life sessions)
- Extropia DaSilva's The Metaverse Reloaded (reproduced as Gwyneth Llewelyn's 16 October 2006 blog entry in Gwyn's Home)

Featured wardrobe:
- body shape: Lemon 2:39, by Aemilia Case, Lemon, at Imogen
- skin: Aitui [Premier Skin] Island, Clean Shaven, 2, by Jesseaitui Petion, Renown by Aitui, at Aitui
- hair: David - Midnight, by Calico Ingmann, Calico Creations, at Calico Kitty