second life

I'm getting into Second Life. I tried to use it a couple of years ago when I first heard of it but my old laptop graphics card wasn't up to spec so I couldn't actually logon :( since getting the macbook I no longer have this problem! so my second life name is Alia Kiama, I haven't bought any land yet but I'm going to try make some objects.. once I work out all the new terminology. it's similar to the old compuserve worlds away and active worlds avatar based systems but seem to be more popular. the main difference is that when you build something you are allowed to keep your IP. people are making their living in RL (real life) creating objects in the world. you can buy and sell Linden $ (the inworld currency) on websites, and for US$.

some links whilst researching second life stuff :

(I'll post SL articles using my second life name, Alia Kiama)

main second life site
http://secondlife.com

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow
http://homes.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html

Trade & Services directory
http://trade.secondserver.net/

Anshe Chung studios
successful real estate broker in world who's making a living in RL from second life real estate
http://www.anshechung.com/

IT Conversations podcast about second life with Cory Ondrejka from Linden Labs
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail369.html

yahoogroups list for second life
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/slfuture

Second Life developers
http://sldevelopers.com/

uni subjects / courses :

http://trumpy.cs.elon.edu/metaverse/wiki/index.php/Second_Life - Second Life - Metaverse (taken from the Neal Stephenson book 'Snow Crash')

http://beyondbroadcast.net/wiki/index.php?title=Virtual_Worlds - Beyond Broadcast wiki - Virtual Worlds

second life blogs :

http://slfuturesalon.blogs.com/ - Second Life Future Salon

http://www.3pointd.com/index.php?tag=second-life - 3D Point D

http://secondtense.blogspot.com - Second Tense

http://nwn.blogs.com/ - New World Notes

http://terranova.blogs.com/ - Terranova

http://www.shaviro.com/Othertexts/MMOs.pdf - online copy of the paper "Money for Nothing : Virtual Worlds and Virtual Economies" by Steven Shaviro : http://www.shaviro.com

& the references from Money for Nothing :

References

Castronova, Edward. "Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier". CESifo Working Paper 618, 2001.

Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem, and Helen R. Lane.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983.

Dibbell, Julian. My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.

Dibbell, Julian. Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot. New York: Basic Books, 2006.

Foucault, Michel. Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology, vol. 2 of Essential Works of Foucault. Trans. Robert Hurley and others. New York: The New Press, 1998.

Hayek, F. A. The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Howe, Jeff. "The Rise of Crowdsourcing". Wired, 14:6, June, 2006.
LiPuma, Edward and Lee, Benjamin. Financial Derivatives and the Globalization of Risk. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004.

Llewelyn, Gwyneth. "Crowdsourcing in Second Life". http://gwynethllewelyn.net/article76visual1layout1.html, July 22, 2006.

McRae, Shannon. "Coming Apart at the Seams: Sex, Text, and the Virtual Body". In Lynn Cherny and Elizabeth Reba Weise, eds., "Wired Women: Gender and New Realities in Cyberspace", Seattle: Seal Press, 1996.

Spinoza, Baruch. Theological-Political Treatise. Trans. Samuel Shirley. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998.

Thrift, Nigel. Knowing Capitalism. London: Sage, 2005.

Walker, Rob. "The Hidden (in Plain Sight) Persuaders". The New York Times Magazine, December 5, 2004.

Wark, McKenzie. GAM3R 7H30RY. Institute for the Future of the Book (http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/), 2006.

Zizek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology. New York: Verso, 1989.