LIVE SECOND LIFE TALK SHOW

Tonight I let my avatar experience her first live talk show in Second Life, "Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe."  Paisley Beebe hosts avatars who come on the show to talk about the work they are doing in SL.  They talked about health, music, and art.  It was quite interesting even though I had some problems with the sound (there was an echo).  I had trouble finding a good seat because the room filled up so quickly!!

I found it interesting to think that many of these people are artists and musicians in real life, yet somehow having a radio show with the real-life people speaking about their lives would not be as interesting, but a SL show with avatars speaking transports you to another level of interaction.  You can chat with the avatars and interact in a way you couldn't through a simple radio show.   The avatars also can express real-life gestures like clapping during the show.  Even the interviewees can use gestures while they are answering questions.  What does SL gives to the user that any other web 2.0 interface does not give?  Is it a new market for artists to get their work known?

These are some of the pictures I took during the show.  Guess which one I am? :)

MR. CALIXTO AND THE SPIDER

Last week while I was visiting Help Island Public in Second Life, I experienced and observed three different interactions:

1. An avatar in the shape of a huge spider was talking or I would say... kind of bullying another avatar named Calixto.

2. Some avatars were having a conversation about whether voice masking was ok on second life.

3. I received an email from an avatar who had offered to help me earlier and who I had responded "no, thanks" because I had to leave.

I was wondering about each of these interactions and I came up with these questions:

1. Is the look of your avatar a reflection of who you would like to be? What would you gain from being more powerful than other avatars?  Why would someone go on Second Life to bully another avatar?  What motivates them to do that?  Are they trying to compensate for something in their own life?

2. Why would you use voice masking if people don't even know who you are or what you look like in real life?  

3. Could the people that offer help to the point of sending an email after you log off be predators? Or are they simply people trying to be extremely helpful?

PRESIDENTIAL TWEETING

On September 30th, Ecuador lived through a crisis. There were police riots and the president was held by the police for several hours, ending with a thirty minute gun battle to rescue the president.   All of this was updated in the presidential twitter account. 

While this was happening, the presidential facebook page was overflowing with messages of support for democracy. I couldn't believe what was happening. You didn't need to be present in Ecuador... holding a flag and demonstrating on the streets to show your support. You just needed to have a facebook page and keep checking your twitter account for updates on the crisis.

As a result of this commotion, the presidents of the country members of the Union of South American Nations - UNASUR - held an emergency meeting in Argentina to talk about the crisis in Ecuador. The meeting lasted for an hour and a half.  It was then that the group of presidents decided that for future emergency meetings they will use technology and they will have virtual meetings so they don't have to fly so far for such a short meeting. 

Various presidents already use social media.  In times of crisis, I found out from this experience that the best way to keep updated is via twitter.