Nexeus Fatale

[nf_d] has been a 10 month project in the making announced in January.  [nf_d] is a collection of new and previous content (under the name ‘apex-high studio.’) that I’ve created for use in Second Life including: poses, furniture, scripts, and houses.  Today, I’m releasing the first series of items underneath the [nf_d] name, the pin-up pose collection which includes 8 poses no mod/copy/no trans, each for $L 75.  Visit the store in Second Life at the Skiddaw sim and follow the [nf_d] website as many new items will be released.

Julia Roy, a twitter celebrity who I met at last nights TweetUp NYC!

I love meeting people through social gatherings, it is one of the reasons I participate and help organize the Second Life Community Convention. Social media is an extension of face to face interactions, but not just one way; last night’s TweetUp NYC is an example of such an occurrence. The idea behind social media is to interact with friends, family, and to create new friends through web applications where personal interactions occur. While social media applications can be a conduit for business, services, and news it ultimately provides a direct interaction with two individuals. Rather than having to call family members one by one to outline my day and what is going on, I could Twitter and provide the minor details (and save a phone bill). The beauty of these services is using them to meet someone new, although it provides an insight into a stranger’s life like no other. It is through meetups and gatherings that interactions turn into stronger means of interaction.

Connections made, first through social media, and enhanced through social engagements create stronger bonds between individuals. In last night’s experience, I was able to connect with friends I do not see on a day to day basis and meet new, interesting people (especially people whom I’m a fan or follower). In discussion, @woodlandalyssa pointed me to a recent New York Times Magazine article exploring social media interaction and makes several interesting point. One of them being that we are interacting with friends, family or strangers in ways that may need very little face time to truly understand a person. The fear is that it may eliminate face to face interactions altogether. I believe social media is the new ice breaker in developing stronger connections with other people and strengthens face to face meetings. Something like TweetUp is a great place to socialize because there a comfort zone has been established, more than likely the people you know attending the gathering are the same you interact with through Twitter although you may have never met face to face. It is rare that you would ask for that person’s name or job or where they live, that sort of information is usually already known. In events like TweetUp or the SLCC there is a commonality, everyone may be a bit geeky but a vast array of geeks and interests. In my socializing last night, I found that to be very true, I met members of a band with crazy hair, a sports fanatic, video experts, PR and twitter celebrities.

I believe that more of these interactions should happen in several different formats and be more inclusive of other social networks. Why have a twitter meet up when you can introduce friends of your plurk friends to the gathering and combine the two? The combination of social media and social media gatherings provide powerful ways to extend personal social network, idea, or even meet new friends. If you do it right, you may also extend your professional career as well.

Plurk the Vote: How everyone has voted on Plurk so far

I’ve previously mentioned how important it is to vote.  I do not engage in political talk on this blog but Plurk is doing something interesting that warranted a blog post (especially with its large population of SL residents).  Plurk using their platform as an encourage voting by giving all of its users to vote through a Plurk users mini-election (why don’t you vote for your candidate in my mini-election!)  The benefit of this is the chance of a prize as the top 3 mini-elections with the most votes gets a change to share $5,000!

While it is not uncommon for popular social media networks to engage in politics, Plurk’s is unique as it encourages people to vote (the United States election is only a month away!), encourages people to join and use Plurk (there’s already a large contingent of Second Lifer’s on Plurk, so you won’t be alone) and uses micro-blogging and social media applications in a very different and unique manner.

So vote in the United States 2008 on November 4th (if you can), vote in my mini-election, and spread the word!

Image from New World Notes, Round 1 Male Contestants

Iris Ophelia on New World Notes asked “Who Are the Hottest Male Avatars in Second Life“.  Usually this is a topic that revoles around the women in Second Life; contents, pageant, and calendars featuring the “hottest” women of Second Life are all too frequent in Second Life.  It’s nice to see the men get a fair shake in the action.  There seems to have been some 100 entries and the first round to determine whom the top 10 are is underway.  My recommendation is to vote often for your favorite male avatars.

Behind the scenes I’ve been working a lot on The Avaverse, an open source multi-platform content distribution project of mine. While the initial feedback has been great, I’ve been working on considerations for content submissions. At the root of this problem is the conversation of license rights and ownership, a conversation that I would like to open to the public. One of the goals of the project is the distribution of content and make all sorts of open content available.  There’s also a need to protect the content creators rights along with protecting the rights of those whom use the content (so there are not any confusions between individuals). I’m anticipating publishing a submission requirement within a week which would more than likely require that submitted content must use some form of Creative Commons License (they also have GNU GPL, and GNU LGPL versions of the CC licence). I don’t want the project to become a sort of advertising scheme or means, which means that the submission requirement would remove advertisement such as land marks, but allow people to place a readme containing their name, contact information and web address.  I wish I could make my submission requirement really simple (much like Wordpress’ requirements for plugin’s), but due to the diverse nature of Second Life and all of the possible content that can be submitted I want to make sure I’m as clear as possible and don’t harm anyone in the process.

I would love to hear what other’s think.

As far as content, earlier this week I’ve released a hardwood texture for public consumption, and working on several scripts for public release.