SPNN, Rayburn island overflow room, Second Life – April 1st, 2008
Rep Ed Markey [D-Mass] asking questions. [latest updates: linked to apparent resolution to LL video misattribution, added links to SL tour vid shown at the hearing and continue to update my notes of other coverage, posted my ten pics of SL side of the hearings at flickr, a ref to Rep Markey’s previous inworld appearance coverage by Kat LeMieux, noted Musgrove’s WashPost coverage – Apr 10th, 7 pm EST]
Susan Tenby of TechSoup testifying.
Listening to remarks by Colin J. Parris, Ph.D., VP, Digital Convergence, IBM Research, IBM Corp.
We were viewing at the overflow Rayburn isle in SL. Video link will be released soon is here with pdfs of witness testimony. Thanks to Troy McLuhan for spotting that at NMC‘s [New Media Consortium] Campus Observer.
*Philip Rosedale said one good use of this sort of networking tool would be to fill gaps of all kinds – geographical, cultural, from differing languages, or lack of information.
*SciLands space and science islands featured heavily in Linden Lab’s [LL] 7 minute SL video from Machinama by Silver & Goldie. ISM(the International Spaceflight Museum)’s Spaceport Alpha island and NASA’s CoLab, a collaborative RL/SL [real life/second life] effort, as well as NOAA’s Meteroa got screen time as examples of the best that has been done in Second Life up until now. See the video Second Life®: Making the Real World a Better Place. ISM footage was misattributed to NASA CoLab, but Linden Lab and ISM are resolving the mistake, according to Kat Lemieux’s update. Goldie of Goldie & Silver just informed me that the copy with the corrected soundtrack is now up at their site.
*This is Congressman Markey’s second official appearance in SL; he attended the UN carbon conference on Bali last Dec, possibly becoming the first US legislator to hold a mixed-reality press conference in SL or any other VW. Kat LeMieux, who now blogs “about the developing metaverse” & tools for it in her NewMedia On the Go blog, captured the technical newness of last year’s event at her travel blog.
My followup interview with Representative Markey’s office made it clear he wasn’t the first legislator to hold a VW press conference, but is the first to hold a simulcast Congressional hearing in a Virtual World [VW].
Other coverage:
*Benjamin Duranske has a thoughtful analysis at the vr legal site Virtually Blind, and points out in a comment at TerraNova that Philip Rosedale’s prepared remarks were cut short [not allowing for LL vid time]. Be sure to read the pdf of Rosedale’s prepared remarks for the full version.
*Rik Riel posted pics from the SL Congressional room.
*Mike Musgrove’s Post I.T. technology column, Washington Post, April 2nd – Congress Goes Virtual in Online World Hearing
*Representative Ed Markey’s own website coverage