• All We Are Saying - New York Times
  2007 - crowdsourcing your lifestream bacn by making it rain on lolcats ftw
  (tags: crowdsource lifestream bacn rain lolcat ftw)

• Waxy.org: Daily Log: Exclusive: Yahoo! Brickhouse launches BravoNation
  Waxy gets a preview of Yahoo!’s BravoNation
  (tags: web2.0 api yahoo bravonation games)

• David Byrne and Thom Yorke on the Real Value of Music
  Wired Magazine article
  (tags: art business byrne radiohead community culture economics music)

• YouTube - $5.15/hour (pilot episode)
  Pilot episode of “$5.15/hour” for a series that was never picked up about a group of workers making minimum wage at a chain restaurant. Directed by Richard Linklater, shot in Austin, Texas.
  (tags: funny video cinema)
• ITP Winter Show 2007 » Projects
  itp playlistology
  (tags: nyc media technology nyu)

• arglebargle!: Inside the Baxter Building
  faketown! sim tower! baxter building!
  (tags: comics architecture fantasticfour visualization history)

• Platform Studies, a book series published by MIT Press, Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort, series editors
  Platform Studies investigates the relationships between the hardware and software design of computing systems and the creative works produced on those systems.
  (tags: games book software hardware culture books atari2600)

• Measuring Ancient Inequality - Munich RePEc Personal Archive
  This paper infers inequality for 14 ancient, pre-industrial societies using what are known as social tables, stretching from the Roman Empire 14 AD, to Byzantium in 1000, to England in 1688, to Nueva España around 1790, to China in 1880 and to British In
  (tags: income economy history society equality)

• Lefsetz Letter
  angry bob rants about the music industry
  (tags: music blog musicindustry lefsetz media news)

• Virginia Heffernan - The Medium - Television - Internet Video - Media - New York Times
  in my perfect world, Virginia Heffernan and Steven Johnson would be solely responsible for breeding the next generation of humanity
  (tags: nyt television internet media books)
• vrmag - issue 28 in FullScreen QuickTime VR Virtual Tours
  Welcome to a bubble party of interactive panoramas from all over the world!
  (tags: 3d architecture art culture design development film fun)

• Snarkmarket
  easier then linking to every one of their posts
  (tags: blog culture media news Internet future)

• eToro Makes Forex Trade Child’s Play
  You pick the currency you think will go up and have it compete in a foot race against the currencies you think will go down.
  (tags: currency future games kids market visualization)

Edward Castronova’s MMO, Arden, is being released today. It’s available to play, download, and modify as you wish.

His new book, Exodus to the Virtual World, is also now available. I’ve been flipping through a copy, and it looks pretty interesting. Whether or not you agree with the thesis — that game mechanics are going to increasingly influence real-world governance and society — there’s a lot of fascinating research packed into its pages.

Arden is made possible through the generosity of the MacArthur Foundation. Read more on both at Terra Nova.

• In online worlds, the thought and the gift are social currency
  it’s the thought that counts ($$$)
  (tags: culture economics facebook virtual)

• 19.20.21.
  find yourself a city to live in
  (tags: art cell cities culture design flash fun future)

• Blogs on Social Media, New Technology Applications, Social Networking and New Website Trends
  Googlefox? Googlenews Corp?
  (tags: open social newscorp myspace murdoch google)

Mike Liebhold was one of the participants at the original Metaverse Roadmap Summit last year, which produced the Metaverse Roadmap Overview, and I remember him as one of the more forward-thinking and impressive presenters. Now, he’s presenting tomorrow at the first Metaverse Meetup at Stanford University, talking about “3D data for real world virtual worlds.” Definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area — and you can also attend via the virtual world of Second Life Details below, from organizer Henrik Bennetsen:

It is my pleasure to invite you to the first Metaverse Meetup on Thursday November 8th at Stanford University. We want to bring together people from across industry and academia who share an interest in virtual worlds. As our first invited speaker we are thrilled to have Mike Liebhold from the Institute for the Future. His talk will be entitled: 3D data for real world virtual worlds. This will last for about 20 minutes with plenty of time for some good conversation afterwards. We are also having an open mic session, so if you want to pitch a project, find collaborators etc. then here is your chance. The basic idea is a pretty loose format with lots of time for networking built in.

Here is the scoop on Mike:

Mike Liebhold is a Senior Researcher for the Institute for the Future, IFTF, focusing on the mobile and abundant computation, immersive media and geospatial web foundations for context-aware and ubiquitous computing. Previously, Mike has worked for an impressive array of companies including Intel Labs, Netscape Communications & Apple Computer.

Here is the talk abstract:

Abstract 3D data, maps, and software will change the way we compute and interact with spatial services. Moving beyond simple texture mapped terrain and boxes, new 3D mapping frameworks are rapidly evolving into platforms for real world virtual world media, interaction, commerce, and science. In this talk I’ll review work of various groups who are building different components of a 3D Geoweb. I will first describe how their 3D data and software will work as a platform for a 3D real world virtual world, and then, what kinds of new applications and user experiences might be developed on these platforms, and then finish with a brief discussion of prospects and mechanisms for data interoperability allowing users to create, discover, use, and exchange 3D data across platforms.

When: Thursday, November 8th 2007 from 6pm to 7:30pm
Where: Wallenberg Hall, Stanford University

More practical stuff:
* Feel very free to forward this email or blog about this.
* No need to RSVP but you can write me (Henrik Bennetsen: hbe AT stanford DOTedu) if you have any questions.
* The next of these events will be on Thursday, November 29th and will feature Jamais Cascio talking about the Metaverse Roadmap .

Great news! After I announced the Metaverse Meetup a number of you wrote and asked if there was going to be a virtual component to this. After some hectic work behind the scenes and a most kind hosting offer from the people behind the excellent International Spaceflight Museum we are now able to stream live video from our event into Second Life.

The event is taking place on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 from 6:00pm – 7:30pm SLT/PST and to attend via Second Life you go here:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/66/74/184/

After the talk we will also take questions from the Second Life audience look forward to some interesting mixed reality Q&A. Please be advised that for technical reasons we have to impose a cap at 50 visitors for the Second Life part of this event.

I hope to see you there,
Henrik Bennetsen

To add to the fun we had at our book party this weekend, Daniel Terdiman is throwing a party of his own, to celebrate the publication of his own book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Second Life. If you’re around San Francisco this Wednesday (Nov. 7), crash the party at the CNET offices, where Dan works, pick up a copy of the book, and check out all you ever wanted to know about making money in the metaverse. Rather than the usual thin gloss on selling prim skirts, the book actually takes a deep dive into the process of building and running a business in the virtual world of Second Life, covering everything from laying foundations and writing a business plan, to entering the fashion world, the real estate business, the virtual construction trade, the “adult” industry and even running a business on SL’s teen grid. I know Dan worked his ass off on this one, and it shows. Check it out for yourself and let me know if you agree.

• FTC Office of Public Affairs - News Room
  video of FTC’s Behavioral Advertising Townhall
  (tags: advertising marketing media privacy)

• Futuristic Play by Andrew Chen: Technology always changes, but people always stay the same
  never put your hand in an old machine’s mouth. no matter what it’s relative value might be
  (tags: emotions games human behavior)

It seems like forever since we first started working on it, but at last our book about the Second Life Herald — and about the metaverse in general — is being published (in a matter of days), and we’re planning a party to celebrate the fact. In case you missed it, I’ve written a book with philosophy professor and Herald founder Peter Ludlow. It features a colorful cast of virtual characters from places like Second Life, The Sims Online, World of Warcraft, EVE Online and various other places, as well as numerous flesh-and-blood people. Titled The Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid That Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse, the book not only chronicles the rise of the virtual world’s first and favorite tabloid, but looks as well at the increasingly important role that virtual spaces play in our everyday lives, and articulates the issues we’ll be facing as the societies now emerging in the metaverse grow in reach and influence.

It should be in bookstores momentarily, and you can already buy the thing online, but maybe the most fun way to acquire a copy would be to buy one at the party we’re having in Brooklyn on November 3.

As the official invite reads: Join us deep in ghetto-industrial East Williamsburg, for a night of measured discussions (yeah, right), virtual-to-real confusions, griefing, pr0n, and who knows, maybe even a bit of reading and/or speechifying, as we mark the publication of the official-as-it-gets story of the most kick-ass virtual newspaper you’ve ever read.

Party time: Saturday, November 3, 8-11pm
Location: 3rd Ward, corner of Morgan Avenue and Stagg Street
Subway: L train to Grand Street (then walk down Bushwick to Stagg, then down Stagg to Morgan)

Refreshments will be served, but we’d welcome contributions of the occasional six pack, as we have no idea how many refreshees are actually going to show up. In any case, it should be quite a good time, so we hope to see you there.