Media watching

Mentions of serious applications of SL in UK: several (good)
Noticed a couple of news items about SL in the UK, namely:
** Sussex University has its own campus: in RL I was library assistant there for a year, and the SL version is SPOOKILY like the real thing (pictured here). In fact the Sussex architecture is rather suited to SL since it is angular but distinctive: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
england/sussex/7290762.stm
** Liverpool Hope University evidently thinks that having an open day in SL is worth a press release: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
england/merseyside/7303279.stm
** Eloise Pasteur noticed that the UK Government is defending its use of SL: http://eloisepasteur.net/blog/
index.php?/archives/278-Second-Life-in-the-news.html
** and finally .. the head of computing services at my uni blogged about SL ... http://cicsdir.blogspot.com/2009/03/ic-in-sl.html

Will write up SL meeting when have done more marking, meanwhile...

Whilst marking coursework (good) and following up references, start doing search on SL (bad). See that voice communication is coming to SL. Immediately align with Old Timers and find this v. bad idea. Clunky disconnected typing has faded charm. Next news story suggests "Collecting friends is the new philately" (Keegan, 2007), which seems true.

Further search on Lexis-Nexis reveals journalists' new way of creating quick and cheap copy is to cut and paste chat sessions from SL (Adams, 2007). Article has v.v. short intro paragraph and then transcript of mindless avatar conversation. Unless is making whole thing up? In which case is even more pointless. Must look out for Adams ("KENNY KESEY") and remind him about intellectual property rights, vis, random and poorly spelled chat by me is MINE.

On other hand, have already reproduced other people's conversation on blog. Justify this to self by thinking that

a) quotes were v. short and

b) no-one is paying me for writing this.

Adams, T. (2007) "Together in virtual sin: Dawkins cant escape the wrath of God, even online." Observer (Review), 3 June, 3.

Keegan, V. (2007) "Collecting friends is the new philately" The Guardian (Technology supplement), 7 June, 4.

PHOTO: Air balloon in Danish area, visited after meeting today