Wagner James Au / New World Notes
Author, strategist, virtual world reporter
recent posts
- Welcome to New World Notes’ 2006-2025 Archive!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
- Top Five Posts Including: Huge Rec Room Layoff & Meta Boots Neal Stephenson Off Facebook (Briefly)
- Four Glorious Second Life Sims to Explore — After Watching Sabina Valeska’s Machinima Tributes to Them!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
about
Category: SL Media Mentions
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Anthropologist Tom Boellstorff has a new thought-provoking essay on The Conversation, pointing out the importance of learning from metaverse/virtual world history. For instance, what Second Life's real estate management policies can teach new metaverse platforms like The Sandbox: Second Life originally had “point-to-point teleportation” (P2P). You could arrive anywhere in an instant. But in 2003…
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Pretty fun article. Unfortunately, my favorite metaverse-meets-the-movies story didn't make the cut: When a rising tech CTO watched The Matrix for the first time in 1999 with his friends, he left the theater somewhat bummed. "That," he told them, "is what I wanted to make." And that man's name? Philip Rosedale. My favorite lines for…
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How To with John Wilson is an acclaimed and quirky quasi-documentary comedy series on HBO — think a handheld video version of This American Life, but even more nasally — where John explores New York, attempting to accomplish various everyday tasks. (Not always an easy or non-ridiculous goal, since this is after all New York).…
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In the Atlantic, longtime Internet activist and scholar Ethan Zuckerman takes textual fisticuffs to Mark Zuckerberg's Meta and Metaverse ambitions, going through the long evolution of the technology like an avuncular Bane. ("Ah you think the Metaverse is your ally? You merely adopted the Metaverse. I was born in it, molded by it.") Because Ethan's…
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Click above or listen here for a real treat (in my extremely biased opinion): An in-depth interview of my career in the Metaverse leading up to Second Life and beyond. It's for the podcast Stayin' Alive in Tech, created and hosted by Melinda Byerley, and she's among the best qualified people to conduct this conversation:…
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Listening to The Office podcast about the 2007 episode where Dwight and Jim play Second Life reminded me of another appearance by the virtual world a few years later — in Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), starring John Cusack along with Craig Robinson and Clark Duke. (Both of whom, funny enough, also starred in The…
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Above: Sharky in SL and in RL (images courtesy Constantine of Nano Station Technologies Tonight at 8pm on the Discovery Channel (check your local listings!), there's a chance for Second Life users to cheer on a hometown champion: Episode 6, third fight of the night, it's Sharko (woot woot!) versus Slap Box (boo! hiss!) on…
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This is a really good new segment of Science Friday on the life and death of Science Friday's own Second Life islands over a decade ago, where the much-loved NPR show hosted an audience of avatar fans during the live broadcast, with host Ira Flatow even occasionally taking questions sent in-world via group message. Produced…
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Recent SL concurrency stats via Tyche Shepherd's Grid Survey It's been over a month since YouTube gaming celebrity Carmen King started streaming hilariously raunchy Second Life videos on her channel — September 3, to be exact — but has that led to growth in Second Life use by her nearly 1 million subscribers? Based on…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 