As part of the busiest week of events in Extropia's history, we're holding a special Sophrosyne's Salon at 10 am SLT Thursday morning, in the Central Nexus in Extropia Core.

Our Salon Spotlight Guest will be Tom Bukowski (Tom Boellstorff).  Tom is the author of the newly-released book, Coming of Age in Second Life.

Tom is Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Irvine and Editor in Chief of American Anthropologist. He hosted the recent atomic-world conference "Cultures of Virtual Worlds," and has been an embedded anthropologist in Second Life since 2004.  His new book is an anthropological study of Second Life's cultures and subcultures. It's challenging, provocative, engaging, and offers much to everyone, casual reader, SL Resident and social scientist alike.

Tom is a delightful, engaging, insightful speaker, and we're delighted to welcome him to Extropia!





Our regular Saturday Salon will feature another very special guest, Universa Vanalten (Erika Vick) of NASA Headquarters. Universa is the coordinator of NASA's extensive activities in Second Life, and will be discussing the space agency's use of virtual technologies for outreach, education, research and exploration. 

Fresh from the coming NASA Future Forum this week in Extropia and other SL venues, Universa will set out the future of NASA's virtuality efforts, and share some exciting movies and slides of present and future space endeavors!

Saturday, May 17, 1-2:30 pm, Central Nexus at Extropia Core.



Meanwhile, last week's Salon has been described by many as the best yet - which is saying a lot!  Ben Duranske, of the virtual worlds legal blog Virtually Blind and author of the new book Virtual Law, joined us for a terrific discussion of legal issues facing residents and merchants in virtual worlds.

Ben has a rare gift for explaining complex matters in an engaging, entertaining and enlightening way, and we were all (33 peak concurrency) treated to a marvelous discussion!

Thanks, Ben, and we hope to have you back in Extropia again!