There’s an interview over on Reuters/Second Life with Amazon’s Jeff Barr about the future of shopping (Link). It’s okay. A little short and a little light on details, but worth a read. Amazon – or more properly some of the people working for Amazon – is one of those companies you just have to keep an eye on. If you’ve not checked out some of the things they’ve been doing with Second Life (e.g. reLink), I’d recommend developing an interest. More than almost any other company, I expect Amazon to be blazing the trail for the future of commerce – both online and off.

There’s not much I like more than enjoying someone’s creative effort when it’s personal and it’s genuine and it’s a little off the beaten path. When I first arrived in Second Life, it turns out I was fortunate enough to have acquired a talented programmer for a virtual neighbor, AlphaZero Sugar. I won’t talk about the real world work he does, even though it’s related to activities about which I’m particularly fond. Instead I’ll keep my comments to the creative effort he passed my way last night: the dreaded ChickenGun.

I’ll start by including a bit from the instructions:

Congratulations on your purchase of the latest in poultry based weapons systems!

The ChickenGun combines the natural aggression of the modern domesticated chicken with the high acceleration of an electromagnetic rail gun, mixed in with a bit of high explosives to create the deadliest, or perhaps just the most amusing, weapon in Second Life today.

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Ouch. Get a good look at the power falling into the hands of the average person. There was a time when people would make toys like this Mark Foley action figure and at most their township might have become aware of it through the town paper. But now, with the power of the net and inherently social websites like eBay, on which this one-of-a-kind toy is being auctioned (Link), the simplicity of something like this cuts through every editorial, every lengthy blog post, and every television news special report to distill the situation to it’s most basic element; the thing that will remain with the voters.

For anyone who wonders why people like Henry Jenkins pay attention to “funny books” (aka comics… aka graphic novels), I’d submit that it’s this kind of clarity. Toys and comics are media. Powerful media. I’ve already forgotten most if not all the news stories I’ve read about the Foley Mess. I’ll not forget this and I suspect not many will. Imagine what would happen if the urban vinyl creators started getting political.

{Image Copyright © 2006 spectrstudios}

After posting the entry regarding GM’s move into Second Life (reLink), I found hits coming from a Techmeme link associated with Joi Ito’s post (Link) which was a response to something Lawrence Lessig has written (Link). I’m not sure why Techmeme associated those posts with mine other than that Ito’s post contained a mention of Second Life and I’ve exchanged comments with Cory Doctorow (reLink) on the topic of “sharing” which is what Lessig is discussing. Anyway, because Ito’s blog seems to be having issues, I thought I’d post the comment I posted there – a response to both his and Lessig’s entry – on here as well. Continue reading →

Just happened across a short video on C|Net (Link) concerning the Aloft hotel being replicated in Second Life. I posted about it back when the project was first mentioned (reLink) so it’s nothing new, but what is worth calling out are comments regarding the feedback from SL residents and how it might be used in the real hotel. That too is not news, but for some reason hearing the words is more compelling than reading them – so you might want to give the video a look.

{Image Copyright © 2006 CNET Networks, Inc.}