Blog #15

Avoiding Certain Places
Second Life is home to creators from around the world. There are many different places to visit in this vast and growing online world. From any type of museum you can think, to rock venues, social gathering, and even shopping islands. But what you should know is many of the users do not share the same views as other users so it would be safe to say that users should be careful and avoid certain places at all costs.
Some islands will not even let the user on and will automatically pop up with a notification saying that the user must leave the island immediately or will be forced out. If that does not get the user to get out a huge red banner will pop up around the island and the avatar cannot pass the banner no matter how hard the avatar tries. Another way to get kicked off the island is if the organization does not like the user for some reason they can kick you out by reporting you and Second Life will remove the user from the island.
There are also many political or extremist islands that are created to promote what they are trying to come across. Groups trying to overthrow the so called government of Second Life which is probably Second Life’s Board of trustees or something also have islands in Second Life. This Second Life Liberation Army as they like to call themselves has created havoc in Second Life and have done damage to people and property. In the end it would be safe to avoid these places all together.

Blog #14

How to act in Second Life
Knowing how to act in Second Life is an important thing to know if you are going to be participating in Second Life. Second Life is full of people from around the world creating islands to either keep contact with friends, in a political party, or simply a business trying to advertise their merchandise through Second Life. No matter what knowing how to act around these places is something to know. Each creator of an island can create rules to their island. These rules must be followed or you may get kicked out and have consequences to deal with.
When hanging around friends, users can usually do or say something inappropriate. When around friends people usually tend to act more casual and use slang. Knowing how to dress is also important because users casually wear whatever they want, but if you are at a political function or debate the avatar may have to dress up and have to watch what they say because if someone gets offended right away they may kick you off the island and can never go back.
Traveling around islands is fun and interesting way of meeting new people. You can find free merchandise such as clothes, drum sticks, or even weapons. It may look fun and cool to have weapons such as bats or swords but knowing where you can openly carry around these weapons is also something to worry about. For now just try using proper courtesy and a little common sense. Oh and do not forget to watch what you say.

Blog #9

Today a team member and I each had to create an introduction for our position essay. I am writing about virtual terrorism. Does it exist? My position on the essay is that I truly believe groups are now using 3d virtual worlds to find new ways to obtain money and communicating through these worlds. They also have websites that show "virtual bombings" of buildings blowing up. Anyways it helped me out a whole bunch because it helped me to set up a timeline and create a thesis for my paper.
It helps to have another person's opinion on what is being written. They can help see errors that you had in spelling, punctuation, and word choice. When I write I usually understand what I am writing. When someone else reads my paper they help me to realize that I have many run on sentences and fragment sentences. I like working with other people on papers because I receive their perspective and try to understand my audience so I can write a better paper.

blog # 8

In my assignment today, I was to explore an island that is related to a subject in school and write about it. The Island I went to is called the Native American Museum. When I first teleported to the island I walked around to see what it had to offer. It was a very small island, but they were still doing construction and fixing the island up. The island was connected to other islands which I had to walk to because I could not fly in the area. The other islands contained Native American shops and kivas (ceremonial chamber, but I headed back to the Native American Museum.

The first interaction that caught my attention was a glowing dream catcher with nine feathers attached. I placed my mouse on the icon and each feather contained a story passed down from their ancient ancestors. Each story is unique and quite interesting. The stories were about the native people before the discovery of America. After I read through all the feathers I walked to the center of the island where there was a huge drum surrounded by other small drums. I connected my earphones to the computer and clicked on the icon and played the biggest drum I could find. Each drum contained different drum beats from different tribes of Native Americans.

I walked around a little more and stumbled upon a wooden shack shop. The shop contained headdresses, axes, clay pots, and artwork which could be purchased with the Linden currency. I then walked to the information center where I received the most information about Native Americans. The Information Center itself was a teepee , and located in the middle of the teepee a fire burned. It contained artwork, signs, and different pottery scattered all around which were icons. When I clicked on the different icons it sent me to different websites which provided addtional information about Native Americans. On the way out there was a donation box to which visitors could donate money to their cause, where I was unfortunately unable to offer any money so I decided to leave Second Life.

blog #6

Benner, Katie. "I got my job through Second Life." Fortune Online. Jan. 2007. 17 Feb.2010 http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/22/magazines/fortune/secondlife_recruit.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007012310

The world of Second Life is forever changing, but recently many online users are gaining jobs through this online world. The users are able to go to an online virtual interview instead of having to create a resume and having to go to the interview in the flesh. Most of the jobs offered through Second Life are of course virtual reality jobs. Most of the users who are obtaining work have been with Second Life from the beginning, and are now the experts of the virtual reality world. Ogilvy is an advertisement company who has hired many people of Second Life to do work for them for big companies who want to be in Second Life. Many other big marketing companies are now looking to be in Second Life and these companies are searching for experienced virtual reality creators in avatar created worlds.

This article is a reliable source but the article is three years old and pretty sure that much more has changed. This article is a reliable source because it appeared in Fortune Magazine which is a branch of CNN Money, and CNN hires experienced staff and writers. Katie Benner seems like an objective person because she now works for TheStreet.com as a staff reporter and still has many other articles about commerce, businesses, and Wall Street. Benner, researches her work and finds the facts because that is her job as a reporter. Benner is a graduate from Bowdoin College and spen time in China where she held various editorial positions at China Morning Post, Beijing Review, and The Economist Group. She also used to be employed at CNN/Money as a Staff Writer, and done freelance work for The Boston Globe, The Far East Economic Review, and The Portland Press. I believe this source is scholarly because Fortune Magazine is all about commerce and how it affects the people.

blog #5

Kirkpatrick, David. "Coldwell Banker's Second Life." Fortune Mar. 2007. 16 Feb. 2010
http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/22/technology/fastforward_secondlife.fortune/index.htm

Coldwell Banker is one of the nation's largest real estate brokerage firms. The real estate firm is now going on to Second Life to help bring order to the world of virtual real estate. They bought tracts of digital land which they then turned into individual houses and living units, half of which is to sell and half to rent. Coldwell Banker real motivation is about buying and selling homes in the real world. Coldwell, is using Second Life as an advertisement tool to figure out new ways of reaching out to consumers. What they have figured out is that not all users of Second Life do not like commercialism brought into this virtual world.

David Kirkpatrick is a great reliable source. This article may be a couple of years old, but Kirpatrick has held jobs at Time Inc. and Fortune Magazine. He Specializes in Computer and Technology industries. Kirkpatrick appears frequently on CNN and PBS as a technology industry expert. This source is scholarly because Kirkpatrick is well qualified in this area. He has written cover stories for Apple, Ibm, Microsoft, and Intel Sun. He is now a senior editor at Fortune and even developed and hosts his own show called Brainstorm.

Blog #4

I recently read an article titled Wired Travel Guide: Second Life. The article starts off with Second Life users starting the program by creating an avatar and being able to change the sex, shape, and species. Everything created in Second Life is created by the users of Second Life. The program is home to half a million users including Duran Duran, Wells Fargo Bank, and the Department of Homeland Security has funded real estate in Second Life. The currency of Linden dollars is freely convertible to U.S. dollars. Thus, increasingly numbers of residents are leaving their jobs back in the real world to make their living within Second Life's economy.

All that needs to be done to create an avatar is to go to Secondlife.com and download the software. The avatar starts off on an orientation island where users can familiarize themselves with the program. Second Life has many entertainment opportunities such as festivals, Sex, games and an underworld where four miscreants were permanently banished from the program itself. The places that users can travel to and attend are endless including a re-creation of Amsterdam, Holland, to clubs, casinos, and fishing camps where users can select a rod and a bait type. Second Life's Fashion scene more than just clothes. Users can purchase clothes, hair, body parts, and even sex organs. Second Life is a whole new other world that can be found with just a click of a mouse on a computer.