My journey in second life

I have been busy with other things in Real Life and find myself not playing Second Life anymore. I have decided to stop working on this blog. If you are interested in this blog, mail address, and Second Life character let me know. I would love to give it to someone who wants it. If not it has been fun

Merry Christmas! Just wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday. I know my posting has been slow and I am working on it. Just the holiday's have been so busy I have not been able to hop into SL lately.

I hope everyone had some good food and spent time with your family. Just sending out my love.


~Roxie~
XOXO

If you missed the Bootiesl party you missed an awesome night. The party was filled with lots of vips and half of my twitter list. It was good to finally meet people face to face who I have been talking to through twitter for te past few weeks.

I also wanted to thank thediva for running a pre party her tunes where awesome I liked them almost more than the main party.


~Roxie~

Just wanted to send out a congratulation's to all the fashion designers that won awards and the ones that where only nominated. Lots of beautiful designs.

Just in case you want to see the full list of people who won awards you can go to SL Fashion notes blog and see the full article with the winners.

The bootiesl party is coming up this Saturday. They will be spinning only the finest bootlegs and bastard pop! BootieSL is Webcast live from the DNA Lounge, San Francisco. This special Holiday edition features an all Holiday Mashup session from 10-11 SLT and one of my personal favorites - Party Ben later on in the evening! Make sure to check out this party it is definitely one of the premier parties of the year.

I was doing my normal reading in google reader today and found this article on tech crunch. It seems pretty sweet. I am going to head over there tonight and check it out. Full article here.

Eastern European nation Estonia has opened an official embassy in Second Life.

Estonia for those not aware of the country is a former Soviet Republic that this year is celebrating 90th anniversary of its initial independence, before it was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. It’s bordered by Russia to its East and Latvia to the South, and became a member of the European Union in 2004, the same year it became an American ally by joining NATO.

Estonia established an embassy in Second Life on the basis that Second Life was as progressive as its own society. The goals of the embassy are to promote Estonia among small groups of professional individuals by hosting discussions and lectures with people who not be able to travel to Estonia, and perhaps more interestingly, to act as a conduit for information to countries where Estonia has no representation (literally a virtual embassy).

The embassy itself is an interesting build that’s hard to describe in words. The post-modernist architecture hosts a variety of levels that includes art work and meeting spaces. During my time at the embassy I was impressed to note that it was manned by a “Estonia Republic” representative. I didn’t ask for a visa or particular information about Estonia, but I’m sure that I could have.

The embassy can be visited here(SLURL).

In related news, those keen on the environment can participate in a virtual Bali conference, the current major conference being held to discuss the post Kyoto environmental treaty. The space is hosted by the Nature Publishing Group and includes speakers such as Tara LaForce of Imperial College in London, Simon Buckle of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and George Monbiot, British enviro-nazi and enemy of Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame. Those interested can TP directly to the NPG island here (SLURL)

The news zone, where a traditional Estonian “Eesti hagija” dog welcomes you to the Embassy

This is an interesting article that comes from cnet. The article talks about Second Life and fashion designers teaming up. I think its an interesting idea but I think Linden labs would need to getter better stability in their systems first. Here is the full article(also it can be found here):

BOSTON--Is a fashion and tech industry partnership the equivalent of mixing plaids with stripes, or is this a case of black and white being the perfect match?

After all, there are not many tech events where you need an Italian translator on hand.Members from both groups eagerly met Tuesday to discuss their mating potential at a place they could both feel comfortable--the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston. The event was hosted by Moda e Technologia, an Italian nonprofit organization that promotes fashion and tech exchange. Big names present included Linden Labs, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dolce & Gabbana, MaxMara, and Italian filmmaker Giacomo Faenza who showed his online short Gadget Men.

A fashion-technology partnership is an obvious benefit for both industries. Venues like Second Life or My Virtual Model could serve as a place for the fashion industry to promote brands and virtually develop the worlds they attempt to create through their clothing lines. Fashion jumping into the world of Web 2.0, virtual worlds, and tech-related products could in turn draw in mainstreamer shoppers who might not have otherwise bothered before with that kind of tech before.But the event itself revealed fundamental differences, with one crowd easily slipping into presentations with their laptops and the others needing a little tech support when their turn came.

Dolce & Gabbana is known for having already jumped headfirst into technology with digital media promotions, cell phones, ring tones, and wallpaper. They are one of the fashion companies that do seem to get that they can use the Internet and its new tools to both enhance brand image and create new streams of revenue. But even their own digital marketing guy said it could be hard to convince companies to understand the importance of creating things like a virtual presence and products for avatars. Dennis Valle, director of media interaction at Dolce & Gabbana, said that the move to digital is a big jump that will require teaching a whole industry a new vocabulary and explanation of context.

People in the fashion industry normally do their advertising through their fabric and their market research by talking to people out in the world when they travel, he said.

"Advergame, edutainment, advertorial, and docudrama are new terms that will become part of companies' everyday use...Sensorial marketing, a way to understand consumers' actions, thoughts, and intentions, could translate into a new way to meet their needs," Valle said.

After giving a forthright and informative presentation on My Virtual Model, an avatar creation site that incorporates brand name clothes, Louise Guay, the company's president and founder, was met with a question that showed not everyone in her audience had started with her from the same place.
So how much do people pay to use this avatar person, asked one audience member? She raised her eyebrows in delightful surprise once Guay explained that it was not the user who paid, but the company promoting the brand.

John Lester, director of business development and academic programs at Linden Labs, explained Second Life's business model by comparing its in-world users to people browsing the Internet for free and its islands or presences as hosted Web sites.

Lester, on the other hand, was not as savvy when it came to fashion. He proudly explained the user-friendly way in which people can incorporate clothing and body parts into their Second Life avatars with a runway worthy slide show and real-time presentation of fashion forward avatars in Second Life. But when he pointed out that friends can even duplicate outfits so they can wear the same thing, he was met with a few snickers and giggles from the audience.

He did, however, manage to hit the important points.

"Whatever you do in Second Life you retain all of the intellectual property rights...Our community is more gender-balanced...our user base has a median age of 35, and it's very international with 70 percent of users outside the U.S.," he said.

What's more, Second Life already has a thriving fashion scene including lighting effects, night clubs, dancing, and even its own Vogue equivalent. He showed Second Style, a virtual magazine whose publisher makes money by selling ad space to retailers of not just avatar clothes, but body parts like noses, lips, and hair. During one phenomenon, SecondLife avatars even carried around chickens as an accessory.

Now that's something you don't see on the runway.