This week's Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon will be our first in Extropia!

Exciting as this is, it's a melancholy time as well, as it means I'm saying farewell to my home away from home at the Diversionarium.  I've worked for Div owners kateamdahl and erisfallon since I was six weeks old. It's been a constant in my life, and Kate and Eris have been supportive, kind, generous and wonderful in every way. I'll miss working for them, but I hope we'll always work together.

Kate and Eris, thank you for five wonderful months and for being two deeply valued friends!

The rest of you, be sure to come to The Nexus in Extropia Core at 1pm SLT this Saturday for an extraordinary event, Islamic Law and Community in SL, with Spotlight Guest Michel Manen, founder of The Al-Andalus Project, a groundbreaking experiment in community formation and governance.  This is going to be a *fascinating* discussion, so come on by!

We had another *terrific* Salon this Saturday, with Nobody Fugazi of  Your2ndLife.com leading us in a wide-ranging and spirited discussion of banking and finance in Second Life. We had 16 guests, 9 first timers, a lot of whom I'm sure we'll see again soon!

Featured quote from Nobody, on being asked for his top bit of financial advice:

  "I would tell people to invest in themselves first. People never get rich investing in other people."

Upcoming Spotlight Guests:

11/17:  Michel Manen, Islamic Law in SL
11/24:  Alanagh Recreant, SL and Africa
12/1:    Grace McDunnogh:  Virtual Worlds Development and Live Concert

Saturday, 1-3:30 pm SLT
The Diversionarium

Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon:  Banking in SL - Is It Safe?
Spotlight Guest Nobody Fugazi, blogger at Your2ndPlace.com, will join us in a discussion of banking and finance in synthetic worlds!


Sunday, 12 noon-3pm SLT
The Nexus, Extropia Core

The Board of Directors of Extropia and the Founding Citizens of The Independent Technocratic City-State of Extropia welcome friends to a groundbreaking and flag raising ceremony, to be followed by a hot bayside party, as DJ Nicki Petrichor of Reactor Radio spins the best in electronica!  Come salute the flag, get your swag bag, and dance with the new citizens of Extropia!

Banking in SL: Is It Safe?

The Second Life banking industry has been rocked with scandals - is it safe? How do banks and stock exchanges work in synthetic worlds? Can we have an honest banking system without outside regulation?

Join us Saturday, November 10 from 1 to 3:30 PM SLT at the Diversionarium along with Spotlight Guest Nobody Fugazi (Taran Rampersad) of Your2ndPlace.com, journalist and commentator on the SL financial industry for a primer on virtual finance and an investigation of the state of SL banking and investment!


About Nobody Fugazi (Taran Rampersad)

Taran Rampersad is a 36 year old man with a fairly varied background. He has been in contact with almost every level of society. At age 11, he started working in the family printery. At age 16, he graduated secondary school, at age 17 he landed his first job as a contract computer programmer. After some wandering and holding a variety of different jobs which ranged from pumping gas to programming, he ended up in the United States Navy. He enlisted as a Sonar Technician, became a Nuclear Field Electronics Technician, and then became a Hospital Corpsman where he worked in an emergency room and with the United States Marines.

He has been active in ICT circles within the Caribbean and Latin America and has worked on projects such as CARDICIS and MISTICA. He's a firm believer in self-sustaining ICT as a tool and mechanism for bridging the digital divide. Generally speaking, he believes technology should be used sensibly to improve the quality of life of all human beings. He's a firm advocate of Free Software and Open Source, but leans more toward the GPL. He's a firm advocate of Open Content.

Somewhere between all of this he managed to become a published poet, an amateur photographer who has had some of his work published in book and magazine formats, and a person who gets asked to do more pro bono work than he can afford to do. He balances all of this by legal use of caffeine and feeding birds as well as exploring things by traveling, reading, and experimenting.

Taran is also a Second Life Consultant, and runs Your2ndPlace.com, a site dedicated to Second Life.

The Diversionarium is a non-commercial spot for social games, creative play, and miscellaneous horsing around. It's located in beautiful Pandora's Peace Park, with a mer-friendly lagoon, and includes some well-known games, like chess and Othello, as well as exclusive games you won't find anywhere else: word games, building games, and more.

SLURL: The Diversionarium in Pandori

The word is in: Cybergrrl Oh rocks, and we like our smaller Salons!

Despite trying some new advertising channels, we only drew 10 people this time, 2 first-timers. But we had a *fantastic* time in a wide ranging chat with Cybergrrl, and the hours vanished around us!  Super thanks to Cybergrrl and everyone who participated!

Cybergrrlz!

Join us Saturday, November 3 from 1 to 3:30 PM SLT at the Diversionarium for a very special Saturday Salon!

Our Spotlight guest Cybergrrl Oh (Aliza Sherman) has been helping empower moms, daughters and women entrepreneurs since the dawn of the Web.

Cybergrrl will lead us in an exploration of virtual worlds as an empowerment platform, the rewards and challenges of women as mothers and entrepreneurs active in SL, and what the future holds for our daughters in worlds of their own creation!

 

About Cybergrrl Oh

Named by Newsweek as one of the "Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet," Aliza Sherman is a Web pioneer, online marketing expert, published author, international speaker and regular contributor to national magazines and web sites.

Sherman founded the first woman-owned, full-service Internet company - Cybergrrl, Inc. - in the early days of the World Wide Web,. She also founded Webgrrls International, the first women's Internet networking group that grew to over 100 chapters worldwide in its first year. She has been building online communities for women since the early 1990s. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her innovative work on the Internet including the prestigious Avon Spirit of Enterprise Award. </span>

In 1995, she built the first 3 websites for women (Cybergrrl.com, Webgrrls.com, Femina.com), preceding both Women.com and iVillage.com, and is considered the pioneer who helped pave the way on the Web and in the New Media industry for women.

Cybergrrl is currently a business reporter for SLNN.com, founder of the Second Life Women’s Club and Moms In Second Life, and Writer In Residence on Elysian Isle.

 



The Diversionarium is a non-commercial spot for social games, creative play, and miscellaneous horsing around. It's located in beautiful Pandora's Peace Park, with a mer-friendly lagoon, and includes some well-known games, like chess and Othello, as well as exclusive games you won't find anywhere else: word games, building games, and more.

SLURL: The Diversionarium in Pandoria

Yesterday's salon was a *huge* hit!  Our first Spotlight Guest, Lillie Yifu, was a gracious and enthralling speaker, and led us in a lively discussion of sex in SL, the sex trade, and the politics and philosophy of sexuality. 

We had even more people this week than last: 45 this time to 44 last, but it was much more manageable.  Our peak concurrency was barely 30, versus 40 last week, and not everybody was talking at once :)   Everyone had a chance to voice their opinions, and to engage with each other and with Lillie. 

Thanks to Peer Infinity, there's a chat transcript available here!

The explosive growth of the Salons has hit a point where it's affected the quality of the experience. At 35 people, we had lag issues, but the conversations were still pretty much ok to follow. At 45 people, most of them talking at once, a lot of us got overwhelmed and tuned out.

Giulio, dandellion and Argent all suggested *very* interesting long-term fixes, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with them. My main concern, starting right now, though, is that everyone have a good time, a chance to speak their mind, and a chance to interact with our guest or guests in a meaningful way.

So, here's what I'm going to do. For the next month, instead of a panel, we're going to spotlight one interesting SL personality. We'll give them a chance to talk about themselves and their work, and give everyone a chance to participate in a fun and equal discussion.

Instead of a big panel this week on sex and technology, we're going to spotlight one of the most interesting writers in all of SL, blogger Lillie Yifu of the blogs 2nd Sex and Raise the Red Lantern. Lillie is a top escort, an expert on the SL sex industry, a gifted poet and an insightful political pundit. 

This Saturday, Lillie will be our first Spotlight Guest, to spark a discussion on sex, the sex trade, and politics in Second Life.  If you're interested in sex, politics or conversation, this is the afternoon event for you!

Please join us this Saturday from 1 to 2:30pm SLT at the Diversionarium, with open chat and games from 2:30 to 3:30. 

The Diversionarium is a non-commercial spot for social games, creative play, and miscellaneous horsing around. It's located in beautiful Pandora's Peace Park, with a mer-friendly lagoon, and includes some well-known games, like chess and Othello, as well as exclusive games you won't find anywhere else: word games, building games, and more. SLURL: The Diversionarium in Pandoria

Every time I think the Salons have set an unbeatable standard, the next one comes along to top it!  Yesterday's "Beyond Bionics" shattered attendance records:  we had 44 people, and a peak concurrency of 35, all of them talking at once, I think!

We were joined by the World Transhumanist Association/Second Life, and with the able assistance of our panel, kept the discussion going flat out, well past our 3:30 closing time!

Special thanks to Extropia DaSilva for being fascinating, charming, and for the quote of the day:

Extropia DaSilva: Transhumanism. Is it not just a form of religion for people who trust in the word of the Wachowski Brothers more than Holy Scripture?

Thanks also to my dear Esteban Moody, for bbq-ing some intellectual sacred cows, and for an *exhaustive* list of household tools!  :P 

And, my gratitude to Brielle Coronet for sticking to her guns and challenging the room's consensus with grace, smarts and aplomb!

Finally, and most importantly, thanks to Giulio Prisco for being the *perfect* panelist and bringing a crowd of his own!  Check out his blog for his perspective on the joint event, some more photos, and a good chunk of the chatlog!  We'll collaborate again, I'm sure. 


Next week, watch as we shatter this week's record, with "SexTech: Waaay Beyond Poseballs!"

Beyond Bionics: Transhumanism and Virtual Worlds

We are cyborgs!  We may not be able to run faster than a speeding locomotive, but our selves are already deeply linked with technology. What's the next step for the human species?  Will we become Jamie Summers, with onboard hardware?  Will we be able to upload ourselves into a server farm? Will we re-engineer our biology to let us become in First Life everything we can be in SL: eternally beautiful and young, any sex, dragons or furries?  Or are we turning ourselves into Frankenstein's monster, and debasing our genetic heritage?

Come join us for a *spirited* discussion of what's next for humans and technology!  Don't miss this one, people - it's going to be *legendary*!

Saturday October 17, 1-3:30 SLT, The Diversionarium

Invited panelists include:

Giulio Perhaps: Giulio Prisco of the World Transhumanist Association
Extropia DaSilva: Transhumanist and essayist
dandellion Kimban: blogger and digital philosopher
Alexander Burgess: blogger and digital philosopher
Esteban Moody: blogger and digital philosopher
Argent Bury: blogger and digital philosopher

The Diversionarium is a non-commercial spot for social games, creative play, and miscellaneous horsing around. It's located in beautiful Pandora's Peace Park, with a mer-friendly lagoon, and includes some well-known games, like chess and Othello, as well as exclusive games you won't find anywhere else: word games, building games, and more. SLURL: The Diversionarium in Pandoria