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Rod Humble (and I) talk SL on Australian radio about Second Life

\"\"An interesting morning, with Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble and myself being invited to appear on the Kyle and Jackie O show.

For Australian readers, you\’ve probably heard about Kyle Sandilands in particular, so I went into the interview with eyes wide open on how balanced the interview would be.

As expected it was a predictable angle, paraphrased as \”Hey, look at those freaky people who give up their life to go into Second Life\”. That said, Kyle Sandilands was the comparative voice of reason out of the two hosts, at least keeping an open mind.

It\’s worth a listen to hear how Linden Lab\’s CEO deals with a tabloid approach to Second Life. Not surprisingly the piece opens with Sissy, a self-proclaimed SL addict. Have a listen for yourself and here\’s a link to 2Day FM\’s podcast of 17th January. It did make the cut – as predicted, sex pose balls make for good listening in the tabloid world.

Discussion on internet filter on Tonight Live is… live!

\"\"As mentioned previously, I had the pleasure of appearing on Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe. The topic of discussion was the Commonwealth Government\’s proposed internet filtering legislation and its potential impact on virtual worlds.

Paisley asked some incisive questions that helped set the scene for both the challenges and opportunities the legislation may provide. As I say in the interview, I\’m confident environments like Second Life won\’t be heavily impacted by the legislation, assuming those of us affected ensure the government understands the issue.

Aside from that discussion, there\’s some great music from Frets Nirvana and an interesting discussion on virtual pets with Sapphira Laval. Here\’s the full show for you to view:

A big thanks to Paisley for the invitation to appear and to Bliss Windlow and AutumnFoxx Sutherland for their assistance in the lead-up. If you haven\’t already, do check out the enormous stable of shows that Treet.TV offer: they are an Australian success story to say the least.

Internet filtering and virtual worlds: Tonight Live discussion

\"\"I\’m really pleased to be a guest on tomorrow\’s Tonight Live With Paisley Beebe. Paisley is an Australian singer and broadcaster we\’ve profiled before, and Tonight Live is arguably one of the most popular virtual worlds TV shows around.

Paisley and I will be discussing the background and potential impact of the internet filtering legislation proposed by the Commonwealth Government as well as some 2010 predictions and more. The show is live from 6pm SLT on the 24th January (1pm Monday 25th January AEDT).

If you want to take part, here\’s the location of the show, or you can watch it live on the web or anytime afterwards via the Treet TV archive.

Mainstream media and Lowell\’s public appearance

Crikey.com.au have covered Second Life twice this week, firstly in relation to crime, then a discussion on lawlessness and research and development issues.

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Similar issues are likely to be discussed at the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association forum on Tuesday 22nd May. Titled The Future of Virtual Worlds, it features Chris Collins (Logan Linden) from Linden Lab, Abigail Thomas (Abi Goldflake) from the ABC and yours truly as the moderator. Registration required on the AIMIA site.

SLOz HQ launch a success

Like any party, success is never a certainty and we\’re the first admit we had pre-party nerves. That said, more than a hundred Australian SL users turned up for the launch party over the three-hour period. We actually managed to crash the Koala sim at one stage when more than forty people were partying.

What became apparent over the nearly four hours the party lasted was that there\’s a definitive belief amongst Aussie SL users that they want community spaces to meet and interact. That\’s part of our brief and we look forward to providing more opportunities in the future. And we\’d also appreciate your input on what you\’d like our in-world presence to provide you. A poll on that issue will appear in the near future. First – a pictorial sample of SLOz HQ:





The launch was also the first outing for the SLOz logo:

This site will change to reflect the new look in coming weeks.

SLOz HQ is now open to the public and can be found here

SLOz Launch Party third huge aussie event for March

Ok, so we\’re talking ourselves up in a big way ;)

On Wednesday 21st March at 8pm AEDT (2am SL time), we\’re having a launch party. It\’ll be a humbler affair than the Telstra or ABC launches but who says bigger is better? There\’ll be a BBQ, Beer, streaming of music featuring aussie unsigned / independent artists and tours of SLOz HQ. We\’d love to see you there.

This will also be a key opportunity to get your input on what role you\’d like to see SLOz HQ play in-world.

Coming Soon a.k.a Teasers

We\’re really pleased at SLOz to be able to announce a couple of upcoming events:

1. This coming Monday Lowell is being interviewed on a Melbourne radio station on Second life. Not just any radio station but on ABC 774 Melbourne – Breakfast with Red Symons. Tune in at 6.15am Monday 19th February and listen for yourself.

2. We\’re in the process of interviewing one of Linden Labs\’ aussie staff members – expect the full interview online in the next 10 days.

3. SLOz HQ in-world commences construction this coming week!

Both Graham and Lowell are away this weekend so no further updates until Sunday evening. ;-)