Second Time Around by Lacy Muircastle...

It’s finally done…  This manuscript took a long time to come to fruition but I’ve enjoyed the journey immensely, and I have Lanai Jarrico, she of the SL Enquirer, to thank for its existence.  

Out of curiosity, I joined Second Life, which was back in 2008.  What a mind bend it was.  The learning curve was incredible and coming to terms with the technical aspects of just moving around never mind making the avatar look halfway presentable was daunting.  But I persevered and with time things began to fall into place.

But now what?  I decided that if I were to remain in Second Life that I needed to do something constructive.  In Second Life you can do what you want, be what you want and as a creative platform, the options are many and varied. In 2000 I’d dabbled with the idea of writing, but I filed it away and didn’t think about it again till early 2009.  I’d come across several virtual publications in SL and decided that’s what I wanted to do.  Write.

I applied to two virtual newspapers, one of which I never heard back from and which subsequently closed and the other was the SL Enquirer.  Lanai Jarrico, the CEO, and publisher of SLE gave me a chance and now here I am.  She became a good friend and I will forever be in her debt.  Persia Bravin, another colleague at the SL Enquirer, showed me the ropes and with her encouragement, I was on my way.   

Lanai Jarrico

Back in real life, I came to the conclusion that I’d like to write a book.  Apparently, we all have one in us…  I took an online writing course offered by Get Smarter and facilitated by UCT lecturer Dr Ron Irwin.  Second Time Around was born.  My first draft was, well let’s just say not awfully good and I obviously needed to learn a whole lot more about the craft of writing.  Who knew just how difficult it was to write.

I rewrote my manuscript, several times... and along the way, I connected with All About Writing, run by Richard Beynon and Dr Jo-Anne Richards.  They coached and mentored me, and the final version of the book is the result of that collaboration.

To my friends, Persia, Maxes, Mal, Peny, Dallin, Nigal, Lowell, Craig, Giancarlo and IrishGent amongst others, thank you for being part of my journey.   And to all those avatars I’ve had the honour of interviewing over the years, I have enough material to write several Second Life related books…

Huckleberry Hax

A big thank you goes to Huckleberry Hax for allowing his character, Definitely Thursday, to have a cameo role in this book.  Definitely Thursday is one of the main protagonists from the Second Life based AFK series written by Huckleberry Hax.

links:   huckleberryhax.wordpress.com

Last but not least, thank you to Linden Lab for providing the platform for creativity in a virtual environment and to Philip Rosedale for coming up with the concept in the first place.

Second Time Around by Lacy Muircastle

A 21^st Century romance in which virtual life intertwines with real life

Sheridan King had it all and then she didn’t.  Her trust in men irrevocably shattered, or so she thought.

Luke Ashton, accomplished Ad man and artist, surfer and ladies’ man.  His pain and distrust of women run deep.

Having a Second Life© complicates matters even further.  What is real and what is imagined?

Josh Magic and Callista Hancroft

Second Time Around is available on Kindle by Amazon.

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OpenSimulator Community Conference Announces High Fidelity CEO Philip Rosedale as Keynote Speaker

 

August 29, 2014 - The OpenSimulator Community Conference is pleased to announce Philip Rosedale, Founder and CEO of High Fidelity, Inc. will be a keynote speaker at the second annual OpenSimulator Community Conference, scheduled to take place virtually on November 8-9, 2014 in a virtual conference center designed for the event.

Mr. Rosedale’s keynote presentation will address the question, “What is the Metaverse?” and discuss the opportunity to develop an open platform for virtual reality over the internet, including new hardware devices that catalyze entirely new kinds of interactions between avatars.  

In 1995, Philip Rosedale created an innovative Internet video conferencing product (called "FreeVue"), which was later acquired by RealNetworks where in 1996 he went on to become Vice President and CTO. In 1999, Rosedale left RealNetworks, founded Linden Lab and built a virtual civilization called Second Life, fulfilling his lifelong dream of creating an open-ended, Internet-connected virtual world.

Since leaving Second Life in 2010, Rosedale has worked on several experiments in distributed work and computing, including Coffee & Power and Worklist.net. In 2013, he co-founded High Fidelity Inc. to explore the future of a next-generation virtual reality system.

“Philip Rosedale is one of the foremost thinkers about virtual reality and the Metaverse today,” said conference chair Chris Collins. “We look forward to hearing his thoughts on the next generation of open Metaverse platforms, including OpenSimulator.”  

The OpenSimulator Community Conference is an annual conference that focuses on the developer and user community surrounding the OpenSimulator software, an open-source platform that supports the creation of collaborative, immersive, distributed and social 3D virtual environments.  

Organized as a joint production by AvaCon, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to the growth of the metaverse, and the Overte Foundation, which manages code contributions for the OpenSimulator platform, the virtual conference features two days of presentations, workshops, keynote sessions, and social events across diverse sectors of the OpenSimulator user base.  Last year the first annual conference was attended virtually by 300 avatars, with thousands of viewers on the conference live video streams.

Registration for the virtual OpenSimulator Community Conference is free and opens on September 15, 2014.  The conference will also be live

streamed through UStream.  

For more information please see the conference website at http://conference.opensimulator.org.

ORGANIZATION INFORMATION:

OpenSimulator is an open-source platform that supports the creation of collaborative, immersive, distributed and social 3D virtual environments over the Internet. OpenSimulator software is now the basis for the emerging metaverse of many “grids” or worlds of varying sizes and purposes.  http://opensimulator.org

AvaCon, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth, enhancement, and development of the metaverse, virtual worlds, augmented reality, and 3D immersive and virtual spaces. AvaCon holds conventions and meetings to promote educational and scientific inquiry into these spaces, and to support organized fan activities, including performances, lectures, art, music, machinima, and much more. AvaCon’s primary goal is to connect and support the diverse communities and practitioners involved in co-creating and using virtual worlds, and to educate the public and their constituents about the emerging ecosystem of technologies broadly known as the metaverse.  http://avacon.org

The Overte Foundation is a non-profit organization that manages contribution agreements for the OpenSimulator project.  In the future, it will also act to promote and support both OpenSimulator and the wider open-source 3D virtual environment ecosystem.  http://www.overte.org/

High Fidelity, Inc. powers inter-connected virtual worlds, using new hardware devices to catalyze entirely new kinds of interactions between avatars. Our open source software architecture enables unlimited scalability of both content and audience. http://highfidelity.io

CONTACT:

Chris Collins, Vice President

AvaCon, Inc.

c/o OpenSimulator Community Conference 2014

275 Winthrop Street

PO Box 618

Rehoboth, MA 02769-1819

(774) 654-0010

http://avacon.org

Email:  opensim@avacon.org

Web:  http://conference.opensimulator.org

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/opensimcc

Hashtags:  #OSCC14 #OSCC #opensim

AvaCon, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth, enhancement, and development of the metaverse, virtual worlds, augmented reality, and 3D immersive and virtual spaces. This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, privileged, or otherwise protected by legal rules and are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender immediately.  AvaCon is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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PRESS PASS MEDIA: 7th Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference- April 9th-12th 2014

7th Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference is very pleased to announce our opening keynote: Philip Rosedale, CEO of High Fidelity and creator of Second Life.
Ebbe Altberg, the new CEO of Second Life, will also present at the conference.






We have an incredible line-up of speakers, panels, workshops, sim demonstrations, poster presentations for four days April 9-12th

Daily updates at:
http://vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe-2014-calendar
http://vwbpe.org

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What does Second Life mean to you?

I have an assignment for another publication in Second Life, part of which required me to ask a number of prominent SL residents the question “What does SL mean to you?”  A number of those I asked simply couldn't be bothered to answer me; I suppose they are above answering questions put to them by some wanna be journo.  I have to admit that self-importance in SL is one of my pet peeves; most of us are busy in one way or another, so when push comes to shove our time is all equally valuable (in my opinion of course….)

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