Update

I’m way too busy again, so apologies for the lack of posting about interesting things happening around the world. Here is an update on what I’ve been doing though:

• Last week I did my first video skype lecture to students at the University of Western Australia on cross-media entertainment. It was for the Masters and Honours level course in Communication Studies: iGeneration: Communication and Participatory Culture. It was great to ‘meet’, well, see Christina waving in the distance and the rest of the class, and of course Peter. I’ve been checking out the vlogs and blogs of the students and am really impressed.
• I started a wonderful mentoring program with the Booranga Writer’s Center: Youth Online Writing Workshop (YOWW). They’re running an online writing program (which means we converse and publish online and create electronic literature) for six months and I’m one of the three mentors. I’m lucky to to be co-mentoring with Bernard Cohen and Johannes Klabbers. Fantastic! I met the participants on the weekend and we took them through some exercises and gave an intro to the various forms of electronic literature around. They’re a very talented bunch of writers so I really look forward to working with them. I’ll let you know once the public part of the cool YOWW site is up.
• I was on radio again about Second Life, on ABC’s PM show. The segment was good but I’m feeling a bit pimped by the media at the moment. They keep putting in the inane things I say in the interview. [Note to self: Don’t say inane things.] Part of the problem is, however, that the interviewers are just findingout about SL and want to report ont he basics of it, the sensationalist angle. This is a first step though. There is much more interesting stuff that can be said about the creative community and what is actually happening in SL that is unique. Ho hum. One day I’ll get to talk about that I hope. Anyway, here is the blurb:

Internet Attracting Virtual Worlds
More and more people are escaping workaday reality by starting a new life in virtual reality. In 3D virtual worlds on the internet, you can create your own body and personality, meet virtual friends and carry out everyday activities. One online society, called Second Life, now has more than 870,000 residents logging in around the world. But social commentators are warning that some addicts of the virtual world run the risk of being trapped in a fantasy of cyber perfection.

• Speaking of work in virtual worlds. The next issue of Slate Night Magazine will be out shortly with another article by me on a virtual art. The previous issue, in which I (Lythe Witte that is) wrote about the remediation of virtual world art is now available in pdf form.
• And this week I’ll be speaking at the New Media Consortium’s Impact of Digital Media Conference in Second Life. They’re running a symposium in Second Life to augment the real life and internet activities (or vice versa). Here is the blurb:

The NMC is hosting a 12-day symposium on the NMC Campus in Second Life focusing on the impact of digital media on all aspects of our daily lives. At the intersection of virtual 3-D space and the “flat-web” of the browser, virtual worlds like Second Life are active settings for collaboration and socialization. The Symposium on the Impact of Digital Media will explore the ways we encounter and understand digital media — inside such a setting.

Angela/Anya has arranged a Slate Night session in which I’ll speak about the remediation of art in SL. Keep up to date with the symposium at the NMC Second Life blog.