Astronomy Hangout

The recent emergence of video hangouts through tools like Google+ and Ustream have really bridged a gap in virtual communities. Streaming videos make communities more human and live. They are immediate, allowing you to attend without leaving your own home.

Video streaming has been going on for some time now. We’ve been able to watch and get addicted to seeing litters of puppies grow, having person to person conversations via web cams, see conference talks as they occur. But tools like Google+ Hangoug have come on the scene to provide togetherness for groups of people who would not meet otherwise, and to share experiences they couldn’t experience on their own. (more…)

Dana Oceanlane

While I’ve been blogging about Second Life (SL) for some time, I realized in talking to folks, particularly in Facebook that many people don’t know what it is or have misconceptions about SL. So, here is my view of SL, based, of course, on my own experience.

First, what SL is not. Second Life is not a game, though some people play games in it. For those of you who want a fast-action gaming environment, SL is probably not for you.

So, what the heck IS SL? It’s a free 3D social networking platform, with almost as many purposes and functions as you probably can imagine. SL is a virtual universe, with a vast variety of worlds that people have created called SIMS. Most just refer to them as land or worlds. What kind of worlds? I have found that SL very nearly mirrors the physical world and then some. (more…)

Over the last few years, it’s been amazing to see how social media has united people globally in various causes from ecological concerns to political uprisings. These days it’s much harder for a government to silence people, to censor them, and keep them under wraps. (more…)

Virtual communities are similar in many ways, one of which is providing information and support. But Facebook alone stands out in a way that I’ve not seen on any other platforms. It’s a community of like minds, and sometimes discord. Both are what make the FB families so special, much like physical families. (more…)

Married couple playing checkers

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting two friends in person who I’ve known for a few years in Second Life. We met in the Skeptical Buddhist Sangha, and they have been really supportive in the new island  I’ve been creating, Secular Community. (more…)

Care2.org Act on Banning Drilling

While I was busy raising a family, then starting a career, the world turned and churned even though I wasn’t paying attention.  I filtered information that came to me so it only concerned science and technology. Now, that my kids are grown, my career is doing well, and I have the energy, I decided to poke my head out in the world to see what was going on. UGH! Mayhem, freedoms being violated, ignorance running rampant, and the loonies seem to be taking over. (more…)

Historically and by definition non-believers, such as Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, and Secular Buddhists stood for nothing. Non-believers just went about their lives as though religion didn’t exist, at least not much, and paid little attention to the topic. In recent years, however, that has changed. (more…)

Transformed to Winter

Change is easy in Second Life. I just transformed my SIM from a lovely, sunny tropical paradise into a winter wonderland. All it took was swapping out a few textures, and the entire landscape morphed from the sandy beaches to fluffy white snow. With the installation of a few weather generators, I can create rain, snow, and even lightning. Virtual change is fun and easy. In-person, change is also on the horizon in all kinds of ways, but for many people it’s not so easy. (more…)

Working on Blog

Recently I purchased a SIM in Second Life, meaning a huge chuck of land I’ve called Dana’s Islands of Paradise. So, for the past few weeks I’ve been busy terraforming, shaping the place into a tropical paradise. It’s been a lot of fun raising and lowering plots of land, reshaping mountains, and smoothing out sandy beaches. (more…)

It’s not hard to understand why many people feel a overwhelmed, confused, and lost upon entering Second Life. It is a multiverse of many worlds, and it’s not apparent from doing the beginner’s tutorial just where a person might fit in, or where to start to find the right niche for oneself. But I encourage folks, especially the social types, not to give up. (more…)