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…)

Me by my pond

In Second Life people often refer to life outside SL as RL, for real life. But according to the dictionary, the word real has these definitions: (more…)

Twitter Searches in Seesmic

In The Usefulness of Twitter, I talked a bit about the useful of Twitter concerning finding great product reviews, getting product support, and finding communities of  interest. All of this is done through saving Searches. (more…)

I was hesitant to use Twitter. It seemed like just a wild stream of useless blather and banter, people throwing their boring thoughts out into the ether. There is that in tweets. But there is more. (more…)

I must admit, I really enjoy my job, and the industry that I’m in. This week I went to the Virtual Edge Summit conference in Santa Clara. Today, I am attending that same conference, but I’m participating while lying on the couch, in my jammies, and getting some other work done at the same time.

Virtual meetings and conferences are wonderful. I’m not saying this replaces face-to-face interaction, but there are many advantages to attending meetings and conferences virtually:

1. Convenience — no traveling; easy to join in; can squeeze in between other tasks because you don’t have to go anywhere
2. Increases productivity — you can do other work when parts of the meeting don’t apply to you, or during conference sessions of no interest to you
3. Document share — you can share documents or other computer assets instantly
4. Increased communication — while one person is talking, you can IM others pertinent information
5. Expense — virtual conferences and trade shows cost a lot less to run than physical ones, or extend the physical
6. Increased Participation — Folks from all over the planet can join since no physical travel is involved
7. Near face-to-face – Video and avatars, plus live chat or voice, provide a near face-to-face experience that is immediate

I’m looking into various software applications for CollabNet to use for virtual conferences and trade shows. Yesterday while at the Virtual Edge Summit in person, I had a chance to talk to a few vendors. My experience has been mainly with Second Life, so this was a nice opportunity to see what other folks are using, and what features are provided.

Some of the software was mostly 2D, some of it 3D similar to Second Life, and one ran in the browser, using graphics and a menu system. I was impressed with all. Some are quite pricey but have a lot of features. I’m also looking online for less expensive alternatives, and to see what is available.

I welcome suggestions from you folks who have experience with particular software that you really like. I’d also welcome hearing your experiences with virtual conferences and tradeshows.