My So-called Virtual Life

Crosspost: In Defense of Twitter

2012-01-28T01:26:00.000-08:00

New post at Netpolitik:

No, I will not be joining op #Twitterblackout.

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SOPA & PIPA: An Internet Legal History Primer

2012-01-17T14:24:00.000-08:00

Today, January 18, 2012, a huge amount of websites will be "going dark" as a protest and demonstration of the damage that the Stop Online Piracy Act [SOPA / HR 3261] and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 [P.R.O.T.E.C.T. IP Act -PIPA - S. 968] are prepared to do to the functionality of the internet in the name of "protecting intellectual property" at the behest of the media megacorps.

An incredible array of tech and internet sites are taking part in this protest/declaration/demonstration; your internet will not look the same at all [for a day]. The provisions in PIPA and SOPA can actually break the internet's functionality; this is being pushed by a coalition of media and entertainment companies to "protect their intellectual property from pirates." Yes; they'd rather break the internet's functionality than figure out why their old rapacious business models are failing.

You may not know it, but SOPA & PIPA are only the latest in a long line of laws attempting to limit, contain, channel and control the internet. I have lived through these times on the net and offer some historical outline below. Unfortunately, since Wikipedia will be blacked out today, you'll have to come back tomorrow if you want to explore these links in more depth.

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A History of Communications, Privacy and Internet Law

1984: Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 - set forth strong protections for subscriber privacy by restricting the collection, maintenance and dissemination of subscriber data. The Act prohibited cable operators from using the cable system to collect "personally identifiable information" concerning any subscriber without prior consent, unless the information is necessary to render service or detect unauthorized reception. The Act also prohibited operators from disclosing personally identifiable data to third parties without consent, unless the disclosure is either necessary to render a service provided by the cable operator to the subscriber or if it is made to a government entity pursuant to a court order.

[The USA P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act [Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001] has narrowed/gutted the CCPA privacy provisions considerably]

1986: The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was passed by Congress to expand the scope of existing federal wiretap laws, such as the the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (Wiretap Act) to include protection for electronic communications and expanded the privacy protections of the Wiretap Act in five significant ways:

ECPA broadened the scope of privileged communications to include all forms of electronic transmissions, including video, text, audio, and data.
ECPA eliminated the requirement that communications be transmitted via common carrier to receive legal protection.
ECPA maintained restrictions on the interception of messages in transmission and adds a prohibition on access to stored electronic communications.
ECPA responded to the Supreme Court's ruling in Smith v. Maryland (June 1979) that telephone toll records are not private and restricts law enforcement access to transactional information pertaining to users of electronic communication services.
ECPA broadened the reach of the Wiretap Act by restricting both government and private access to communications.

[The USA P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act [Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001] narrowed/gutted the ECPA privacy provisions considerably]

1987: The Computer Security Act of 1987 reaffirmed that the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) is responsible for the security of unclassified, non-military government computer systems. The main purpose of the Act is to protect unclassified information from military intelligence agencies. However, the Act has since been weakened, primarily as a result of the efforts of the National Security Agency and repealed with the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 [FISMA, see below]

1989: The Secret Service is given authority by Congress over "access device fraud" as an extension of its "wire fraud" authority.

1990: Operation Sun Devil, Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service

These two raids and subsequent court cases resulted in the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and provided law enforcement with evidence to convince the US Congress of the need for additional funding, training and overall expansion of Federal law enforcement.

The great hacker witch hunt hysteria begins in earnest; "hackers are going to destroy your word perfect documents and steal your credit cards!!!!!"

1991: Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 amended Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 and requires the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC" or "Commission") to promulgate rules "to protect residential telephone subscribers' privacy rights." In 2002, a federal judge ruled that the TCPA's ban on sending unsolicited fax advertisements was an unconstitutional restriction on commercial speech.

1994: Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 [CALEA] aka "Digital Telephony Act" was passed by Congress to preserve the Government's ability, pursuant to court order or other lawful authorization, to intercept communications over digital networks. The Act requires phone companies to modify their networks to ensure government access to all wire and electronic communications as well as to call-identifying information. The law also included several provisions enhancing privacy, including a section that increased the standard for government access to transactional data.

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1996: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 [TCA] and Title V of that Act - Communications Decency Act [CDA]

Signed into law on February 8, 1996 by then-President Bill Clinton, this bill purported to foster competition among companies sharing the underlying infrastructure of networked technologies. Buried in that legislation was an amendment - Title V - The Communications Decency Act of 1996 [CDA] - which proposed to "regulate pornographic material on the Internet". This amendment is the precursor to the Child Online Protection Act [COPA] of 1998; the Children's Internet Protection Act [CIPA] of 2000 and the current pending PROTECT IP Act as well as scores of bills passed in the intervening 15 years, using the specter of pornography (later switched to child pornography), terrorism and fear to push through legislation that favors media cartels and the government's interest in strangling the free flow of information.

[Section 230 of the CDA added protection for online service providers and users from actions against them based on the content of third parties, stating in part that "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider". Effectively, this section immunizes both ISPs and Internet users from liability for torts committed by others using their website or online forum, even if the provider fails to take action after receiving actual notice of the harmful or offensive content. We'll return to this important proviso later.]

Promises, promises

The TCA was actually a deregulation of the 1975 FCC cross-ownership rules put in place to limit media concentration and monopolies in the radio and television space, preventing companies from denying accessibility of airspace and broadcast space to other companies through the conglomeration and consolidation of media and denial of the common carrier infrastructure built with US tax dollars as the telegraph and later telephone copper wiring.

The TCA was supposed to foster competition, fairly distribute the use of infrastructure paid for by the public and allow for the collection of a levy handed to the telcos to upgrade and improve the national backbone and fiber-optic cables, requiring "fiber to the curb" by 2006. The Bell companies — SBC, Verizon, BellSouth and Qwest, claimed that they would step up to the plate and rewire homes, schools, libraries, government agencies, businesses and hospitals, with a fiber (and coax) wire capable of at least 45 Mbps in both directions, and could handle 500+ channels... if they received financial incentives. This wiring was to be done in rich and poor neighborhoods, in rural, urban and suburban areas equally and would be open to ALL competitors, not a closed-in network or deployed only where the phone company desired.

[This was not DSL, which travels over the old copper wiring and did not require new regulations. This is not Verizon's FIOS or SBC’s Lightspeed fiber optics, which are slower, can't handle 500 channels, are not open to competition, and are not being deployed equitably. This was NOT fiber somewhere in the network ether or only on the intranets of the telcos but directly to homes. The FCC now defines broadband as 200 kilobytes per second in one direction — 225 times slower than what was promised in 1992]

In exchange for building these networks, the Bell companies ALL received changes in state laws that handed them excessive profits, tax savings, and other perks to be used in building these networks. It is estimated that $300 billion dollars in excess profits and tax deductions has been collected for this purpose.

(not) Built on lies

But there was a problem with this - the networks couldn't be built at the time the commitments were made. TELE-TV and Americast, the Bell companies' fiber optic front groups, spent about $1 billion and were designed to make America believe these deployments were real in order to pass the TCA.

Instead of spending the money on these promised networks, the Bell companies used the money to enter long distance markets, roll out wireless and inferior ADSL services: customers paid for a fiber optic wire and got ADSL over the old copper wiring with old and failing routers, switches and exchanges. Network capacity was lied about and the network was oversold.

[Verizon and SBC are rolling out new fiber optic services but want the laws changed again. These services are crippled, closed networks. FIOS’s top speed is only 35% of the Asian standard, and yet it cost $199 vs $40 for 100 Mbps in many European countries]

What the TCA really was about was deregulation and an open invitation to telcos, media conglomerates and lobbyists to swoop into the vacuum left by the breakup of ATT on antitrust grounds in 1982-1984. On the promises of the telcos, the FCC succumbed to lobbyist cash and sold out the protected common carrier infrastructure to corporations to use as they saw fit.

The Net Speaks Back

Written in outraged response to government's intrusion on the development of the internet through the passage of the TCA, John Perry Barlow, an early and influential voice on the web, published the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace on Feb. 8, 1996. Although strident and anthemic, Barlow's opinion was shared by many of the top technicals, theorists and legal scholars of that time, who saw in the TCA and the embedded CDA the beginnings of censorship and control over the channels of communication the net was opening. They also saw the first attempts by corporations to use Congress and lobbyists to shape the net for the convenience and profit of the entrenched entertainment industry, who had already begun consolidating companies and muscling out new businesses built around the net with bagsful of cash to attorneys, congressmen and the FCC.

Barlow was not alone in his perception that something underhanded was going on. Articles began appearing online and in print media pointing to something rotten in all this quickly-moving legislation:

The Telecommunications Act of 1996:A Commentary on What Is Really Going on Here

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 - Mauer School of Law

Will The New Telecommunications Act Promote Monopoly? Yes, It Will

Digital Robber Barons?

... and countless others. Search "Telecommunications Act of 1996" for more information and some awareness that these rats were smelled early by many respectable journalists and newspapers.

Those few who protested and claimed the Act would lead to mass media consolidations were surprised by how quickly that consolidation happened. Within just a few years, radio stations, over the air TV stations, cable TV stations and telephone companies were eaten up by the larger, richer companies in a feeding frenzy that has resulted in the limited, false "choices" we are forced into today. Rather than "encouraging competition," the TCA allowed consolidation of the media and control of all information received by people to a small group of sources, all of them incestuously feeding content to their own networks in a war for eyeballs (and click-throughs).

Some Further Reading on the TCA:

1997-2002

False Premises, False Promises: A Quantitative History of Ownership Consolidation in the Radio Industry

Lessons from 1996 Telecommunications Act: Deregulation Before Meaningful Competition Spells Consumer Disaster [Consumer Reports]

Fallout from the 1996 Telecommunications Act [PDF file - Common Cause]

Moyers on America . The Internet @ Risk . Resources . Timeline

Com101- Intro to Mass Communication: Media Economics [Cabrini College]

A Little Analytical Honesty Please...

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1998: Child Online Protection Act [COPA] passed by Congress to protect children's personal information from its collection and misuse by commercial Web sites [the law, however, never took effect, as three separate rounds of litigation led to a permanent injunction against the law in 2009]... but that didn't seem to be enough, as Congress then passed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) - the "think of the children!" spectre was first being pushed as a way to make people fear the internet.

1999: The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLB), aka Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 regulates the privacy of personally identifiable, nonpublic financial information disclosed to non-affiliated third parties by financial institutions. The Act requires written or electronic notice of the categories of personal information collected, categories of people the information will be disclosed to, the consumer's opt-out rights, and the company's confidentiality policy. The Act also requires administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect the security and privacy of information.

The Wireless Communication and Public Safety Act of 1999 required all mobile telephones created after 2000 to have the capability to map the user's location through the use of global positioning systems. The primary benefit of such a system is that it enables 9-11 operators to locate callers in distress. However, such systems also raise major privacy concerns since they allow mobile telephone users to be located at any time. The Act clarified that telephone companies' must obtain the customer's opt-in consent to collect location information in any non-emergency situation.

2000: Children's Internet Protection Act [CIPA] - proposed to limit children's exposure to pornography and explicit content online. Both of Congress's earlier attempts at restricting indecent Internet content, the Communications Decency Act and the Child Online Protection Act, were held to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds.

2002: E-Government Act of 2002 - expanded e-government initiatives in the executive branch. The Act contained privacy protections, such as prohibitions on the secondary disclosure of information obtained for statistical purposes. This Act included the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 [FISMA; Title III], which recognized the importance of information security to the economic and national security interests of the United States, and the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act [CIPSEA; Title V], which establishes uniform confidentiality protections for information collected for statistical purposes by US statistical agencies. The law guides standardized approaches to the idea that a respondent's information should not be exposed in ways that lead to inappropriate or surprising identification of the respondent. By default the respondent's data is used for statistical purposes only. If the respondent gives informed consent, the data can be put to some other use.

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Reading the above laws in light of current knowledge, you can see a pattern of stretching interpretation, ignoring provisions stated explicitly in those laws regarding privacy and the responsibility of both government and private corporations to protect consumer's privacy, limit the sharing and pooling of information and identifying records.

You know this has not happened. You know that these laws have been exploited, twisted or ignored by both government and private corporations. This is the danger of SOPA and PIPA and their ilk; proponents of the law say "trust us!" when there is ample evidence for the last 28 years that such assertations are not to be believed; that any loophole, clever lawyer word-games or outright bribery or intimidation will be used to turn these laws into a bludgeon against free speech under the rubric of "protecting intellectual property."

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To the people who would say the government "has a right" to do this because "DARPA created the internet" or "companies pay for the servers and lines," let me make a very important point:

The government did not pay for the lines the internet uses, nor did the communications companies. Those (mostly) copper lines were paid for by your parents and grandparents in taxes, surcharges and easements given to The Bell System, AT&T and the rest of the corps, who then taxed you (through Congress) to lay those lines.

You continue to pay for a 1997 grant of $93 billion dollars to the communications companies to roll fiber out to the home by 2004. None of that has happened; the telcos took that money, in violation of the terms of the deal made with Congress for that purpose, and instead used it to invest in their own wireless market. You have been, and are being, ripped off [check your phone bill; see those "federal excise taxes" and "surcharges"? That's the debt you're paying for something not rendered].

You own the internet. You paid for it; you still pay for the infrastructure.The government does not own the internet, nor do the telcos.

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Twitter Shorty Stories

2012-01-10T20:38:00.000-08:00

Going for Best Capsule Film Pitch for the Twitter Shorty Awards. Can also be used as television guide blurbs or novel skeletons (preferably trilogies or more).

[And screw you Blogger for reducing my already-optimized small PNG and blurring it out. Click on the pic for unblurred version]

2011 - Art Year In Review

2011-12-30T10:10:00.000-08:00

Despite having a completely-disrupted year and 6 months of hospital hell/enforced medication addiction, I was able to do some pieces this year I am happy with:

1. Commodity

When the Industrial Era began, it broke the connection between kinship and trust and began the perceptual shift of people as commodities to be used rather than human beings/resources. Datamining accelerates this process where people are dehumanized into aggregated sales data, market segments and things. I don't like this trend; it makes it that much easier to dismiss real human problems by abstracting them into some mental marketing model.

Commodity was done to point out the conflict between person as object and as human & to engage dialogue about the marketing/selling of artists. The dreams concealed in each part were very deep fears, wishes, hopes and yearnings of mine and I sold these intimate parts of myself in order to contribute to the UWA artist's prize pool. I really was astonished by the speed of the reaction to this piece.

2. For Your Viewing Pleasure

Involving the issues of art curatorship and accessibility as well as the problem of encouraging interaction with virtual art when people have been trained all their lives to be "hands off!" on artwork; the reality of a media culture where curators and institutions claim ignorance of their confederate role as perception & attention manipulators.

3. Prime Radiant/Chroma

Both pieces explored my love of the color palette & transparency of the pure light of a computer screen along with the problem of translating the CYMK [print] color model to RGB [screen] and mixing colors in light.

4. Daddy (for Sylvia)

This piece was a great break for me, as it was created in 3D from the memory of a painting I did at 16 and had forgotten. Plath's work touched me in deep places and has affected me my whole life. Daddy gathered many strong personal reactions from people.

5. Theatre of War

"War is entertainment" they say, and in these days of video-game-like rocket launches, remote Predator drones, breathless semi-pornographic weapons summaries on the mainstream media channels, it only seems more so; dehumanizing war and contributing to our alienation - it's easier to kill someone when they are just a blip on a screen and not a human being.

6. Time Considered As A Helix Of Semiprecious Stones

Another light-piece encouraging "slowing down" & working with overlapping transparencies mixing and blending RGB color and light, with a 9-track multi-directional soundtrack.

7. Down On The Data Farm

This issue had been concerning me for some time; I get very aggravated filling out soooo many forms for this blog, that blog, avatar, world, email, twitter, this & that - when I am painfully conscious of the reasoning and uses for this enforced data-cross-correlation (echo of Commodity) - so I had already been thinking (and talking about) these issues and started work on this piece at the beginning of July. I had only just completed it (and was still studying it to see if it needed trimming/additions) about 12 hours before the whole Google/Nymwars/PlusGate issue caught fire.

8. Big Winter

One of my most naked pieces, dealing with my feelings of isolation, depression, vulnerability and existential hopelessness. Big Winter is the main story subject of the upcoming film of the same title, which has been delayed by my illness (dammit!) although the 47-track soundtrack was completed in late Spring just before I got sick.

9. OccupyLEA

Inspired by the Occupy movement but continuing my examination of the curator/sponsor/patronage issues of art brought up in For Your Viewing Pleasure. #Occupy has become a deep and meaningful thing to me and this performance-work engaged the issues directly and with explosive reaction, bringing up issues surrounding the arts patronage of Linden Lab discussed in many blog postings and forums for 9 months and engendering heated dialogue among many.

10. A Reply From The Recalcitrant I, II, III

Writing pieces rebutting the perception that we who talk about the problems of Linden Lab hate SL and are the reason for its niche status. Meditations at length on how much we actually love SL/virtuality and wish it to succeed, even to the point of being unpaid (and mostly unappreciated) beta testers.

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Some other nice things happened for me:

My installation State of Mind was featured in a talk by Rik Panganiban (SL: Rik Riel), Community Manager at the Non-Profit Commons in his keynote speech "We Built This City: Creating a Better World" at the Second Life Community Convention (SLCC).

I got to take part in both Spring & Fall semester interaction with students from Cal State University at Long Beach in their Art110 - Introduction To The Visual Arts program as a Featured Artist.

I began investigating materials and contacting fabricators in preliminary consultations for bringing my Radiant Stallions into physical manifestation; also experimenting with materials for fabricating Lady With A Fan and Big Winter. and continuing my focus on creating/translating digital pieces into physical works.

Was invited to speak at the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable on the realities/challenges of creating art in virtual worlds.

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Other things... at the suggestion of Wizard Gynoid I began my Netpolitik blog, which engages the politics of the Information revolution - issues I have been involved with since 1993... started making machinima/videos, which was something I tried in the late 80s to mid-90s but is much, much easier now that I have a computer than can handle rendering in less than 27 hours at better than 320x240 and don't have to tiptoe and hold my breath hoping it doesn't crash 80% into the rendering or completely fill my hard disk.

Although I lost half a year, I am still satisfied with the work I've done and look forward to doing even more in 2012.

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Winter Solstice 2011

2011-12-21T21:34:00.000-08:00

Light waxes; prosperity and joy, understanding and peace to you and your loved ones.

Blinded By The Life

2011-12-17T10:06:00.000-08:00

Madmen, griefers, spammers
and owners with ban hammers
a new avatar surmounts
With their things full of blings
as the sim owners sling
their bots to pack the count

With a soldier-pet on my shoulder
feelin' kinda bolder
I built a merry-go-round
with this very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing
the entire sim crashed to the ground

Some sim-stim builder-bim
was heading for the golden prim
flappin' his textures, poundin' his script
And some Barbie noob with giant boobs
was dancing with some penis dood
spewin' particles from his tip

And now young Claire, bad noobie hair
finally found a camping chair
and was stopping there to earn some bux
And some rude dood in Furry suit whispers
"Daddy's got some sexy boots,
try some thong stuff, I think you're stuck"

     And she was blinded by the Life
     Cut loose like a noob
     Another avie in the night
     Blinded by the Life
     She got rezzed but she never got tight
     She's gonna make it alright

Some big-shot coffee-pot
who formerly was something hot
a dreamer from the West
He says, "Forget the VR worlds
ride the modern business curls
that's where we'll make cash best."

And some lamerguys who never fly
said "we know what'll make 'em buy
let's send them some free gifts"
And the dethroned market drones
were mumbling over broken bones
usin' their blogs to pick some tiffs.

     And she was blinded by the Life
     Cut loose like a noob
     Another avie in the night
     Blinded by the Life
     She got stuck but she never got tight
     She's gonna make it tonight

Some gallery sister with her manager-mister
told me I got what it takes
She said "I'll turn you on, hun, to a sim so strong
if you rez those prims with the funky breaks."

And Go-Kart Linden was checkin' out the Primdom
to see if it was safe to finally sell
And little avie Teddy was playin' with his Stroker beddy
and asked me if I needed some Ls

Oh, the Crazy-tard was foamin' hard
she posted stuff that was bizarre
sayin' "You commies killed the splash"
Yes, and Jack-Hack, former flack
was tryin' hard to make it back
from a planet that simply crashed

Well, I teleported, but was thwarted
rezzed in the air, tour aborted
and tried to make my way back home
He said, "It's your fault that nothin's there
you're recalcitrant; it's over, square
it's a deathwatch, stop with the moan"

And now in Welcomeland, a giant hand
was slappin' noobies in the sand
hummin' a griefer tune
Yes, and the avatar said, "You're a 'tard
but first I'm gonna boot you hard
we're gonna teach those Mods to laugh too soon"

And some satrap land baron fap
was complainin' that she lost her tap
on the Anshe Chung strategy
Cause her homestead sim wasn't jammed to the brim
with renters bailing, looking grim
She'd bet on the downward spree

     She was blinded by the Life
     Cut loose like a noob
     Another avie in the night
     Blinded by the Life

Mama always told me not to look into the virtual sun
Oh, but Mama, that's where the fun is...

I was blinded...
I was blinded...
I was blinded...

[composed live on Twitter to the tune of "Blinded By The Light"]

... with apologies to the virtual Boss

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Solstice-time Stirrings and Doings

2011-12-16T00:26:00.001-08:00

Inworldz Holiday Gala

IWurl: Inworldz Holiday Gala

The Inworldz Holiday Gala is now open to the viewing public and it is spectacular. This year's chosen benefit charity is the well-known Toys For Tots, a program begun by the US Marine Corps Reserve in 1947 by reservist Major William L. Hendricks. Kiosks for donations are set up near all the builds, and donations will be gathered and sent to Toys For Tots.

In previous years in Second Life, the inworld Toys For Tots campaigns have raised substantial amounts to benefit this charity. Please come and visit this wondrous winter carnival and send a donation to a child for the holidays.

As mentioned, the builds are really gorgeous; given Inworldz' prim allowances, size (dis)constraints and the creativity of the residents, the builders have really outdone themselves.

There is a Santa's Workshop, a fantasy Ice Forest of magical creatures, ice skating, a beautifully-done train which encircles the entire Gala and can be hopped on for a relaxing tour, horse-drawn carriages, winter hay bale tour carts, and of course lots and lots of snow and blinky lights.

There are also some "warm-weather" areas for the folks Down Under and other peoples for whom it is warm and dry this time of year. This is a no-advertising, no-selling event so come and enjoy the energy and creativity shown here.

Scene from 'The Longest Night' at the Holiday Gala

This is my own build, one scene from the storyboard for my film-in-planning, 'The Longest Night," which will incorporate several of my major pieces. You might recognize 'Big Winter' and 'Solstice Tree,' two of the elements which inspired the whole story of the film.

Tawa (Hopi Sun Katsina)

The Hopi Sun Katsinam are the new element; they dance around the Woman sleeping in the snow to a loop from the soundtrack (completed late this Spring) for the film. The build also features a 5-directional particle blizzard of cross-blowing, whirling snow. You can see more closeups of the detail on the Katsinam in this Flickr set.

You can also find gifts under the huge (monstrous, gigantic, words-cannot-encompass-its-Yggdrasil-like-volume) Yule Tree set up in the center of the Holiday Gala, including this small one from me:

Brushed Silver Angel jewelry set

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Second Life doings

... over on the Second Life side of the grid, you might be the recipient of my Solstice Gift: a teeny companion Bear that clings to your upper arm (or other chosen attachment point) and protects you from grumbleyheads. Yes, he is small, but I assure you, he is fierce! (the knot is almost gone from my shoulders from working on him at micro-prim level; I am now spoiled by Inworldz' prim scalability for making-tiny)

This little Bear is a childhood memory of Clippy Bears, a fad that started with little bears and branched out to all kinds of animals (I remember monkeys and kittens) that you'd clip to your hair, shoelaces, backpack, jacket (even a punk black-leather jacket).

This Bear is small but has a large heart

VWER special Arts Panel

It was my pleasure and honor to be invited to speak at the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable Arts 2011 panel along with my friends soror Nishi and Wizard Gynoid as artists active in SL, OpenSim and other grids to talk about making art and life as an artist working in immersive 3D settings.

Chaired by Ignatius Onomatopoeia [RL Joe Essid, a faculty member in the departments of English & Rhetoric & Communication Studies at the University of Richmond], the panel was a stellar Who's Who of educators and artists working in virtual environments; among the luminaries were Merlin Moonshadow, Elphaba Helendale, Delightful Doowangle, Grizzla Pixelmaid, Wrenaria Antiesse, Sam55 Chester, Ridvan Atolia, Zotarah Shepherd, Kavon Zenovka, Sheila Yoshikawa, Rachelle Monroe, Frankie Antonelli, Lyr Lobo, snow Scarmon, Praxislady Witt, BackWoods Texan, barbarathelibrarian Magic, LoCE99Ch8 Morpork, Kali Pizzaro, Shailey Garfield, Nava Wonder, Claudia13 Rossini, Tomkin Euler... PHEW!

24 on the sim at the conference, including the renowned Pathfinder Lester, Hypergridnaut extraordinaire [who "just likes to poke around"] and who surprised and flattered me with several nice comments about my piece "Commodity" (awee was I pleased!).

We talked about Unity3D, making a living as an artist (VR/RL), barriers to real-time collaboration, hardware/bandwidth/latency problems in collaborating, the patron model of support, 3D printing, RL/VR crossover work, WebGL, the problem of deliberate retardation of tech because of trying to "corner the market" and locking up collaboration/variation, what grids we all explore/work in and why, future models of revenue/support for virtual reality, the wonder of people exposed to making in virtual worlds as opposed to merely consuming, machinima as a way to reach people unable to get into VR, preservation of virtual art for future collectors/buyers, computers as a tool for creators and... my spleen :D [there were some possible future-organleggers at this meeting!]

Plus a discussion of whether Iggy's companion Raven should have either a small Santa hat or elf ears for the holidays (you know which one I voted for).

It was a wonderful and heady experience and I am very grateful and honored to have been asked to attend. Soon, I am told, a transcript of this session will be available on the VWER site in the Library section (as soon as the site is rebuilt, although there are links there now to past conferences which are a great resource and well-worth exploring).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go make a kidney for Pathfinder before he comes in the night to collect one...

The Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable Arts 2011 panel

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Ch-ch-ch-Changes

2011-12-09T15:14:00.000-08:00

Things change all the time, and I've had some changes in Inworldz -

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Stefanik Dagostino is happy to have me back at the S&S Galleries of Fine Art - along with the Little Gallery and Painting Expo he has maintained for me there, he's had me build a nice new addition to the S&S Sky Gallery at the Museum at Cannery Row, where I have put out Big Winter, which now has a not-for-sale-separately companion Miniature in a snow globe (you can't make things that small in Second Life!) and which won the Phi Designs Prize at the University of Western Australia's 3D Open Art Challenge in October 2011, and The Fountain of Salmacis, based on Time As A Helix of Semiprecious Stones, which won 3rd prize in the Challenge and is a Finalist in the Grand Finale.

The Christmas Treasure Hunt starts tomorrow!

Stefanik is also the creator of The Hunt Club - an idea he had when Inworldz was fairly new to get people to explore the grid and find out what was out there in Inworldz. His Hunts are always great fun, and with the expanding of Inworldz, this year's Christmas Hunt will be huge, so come Hunt, starting December 10 and throughout the holiday season til January 6; gather the goodies and explore the grid!

The Sky Gallery at S&S

The Little Gallery at S&S

The Painting Expo

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Midsomer

I'm also happy to be welcomed by Leanna and Mera to have a small shop for my Garden of Sound in Midsomer, where I'll be keeping my crickets, frogs, whales and Singing Flowers. They've also invited me to put out my holiday items in the central square, where you can find my Singing Carolers, Sparkling Yule Tree, some pretty holiday rugs/wall hangings and free holiday jewelry.

Leanna has done a fabulous job bringing winter to Midsomer; it's pretty, warm and snuggy, so swing by for some holiday treats in the Cafe and great chat with the residents of Midsomer!

Midsomer's Holiday Plaza

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Inworldz Holiday Gala

Finally, don't forget, the Inworldz Holiday Gala will be taking place starting December 17th. This year's chosen Charity Drive is "Toys for Tots". We will have kiosks or donation builds, (Inworldz official only) set about. Please let's make this a banner year for Inworldz participation in this wonderful charity. No child without a gift, of love. This is a "No Sale" "No Advertising" event, just a celebration of the holidays and the spirit of giving.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Friends

My friends soror Nishi, Alizarin Goldflake and Maeve Eiren have generously offered me build space to make more artwork - mmmwwwaaahhh!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Breech Klout

2011-12-08T17:22:00.001-08:00

"... in heart I'm an American artist, and I have no guilt.
I seek pleasure. I seek the nerves under your skin.
The narrow archway; the layers; the scroll of ancient lettuce.
We worship the flaw, the belly, the belly, the mole on the belly of an exquisite whore.
He spared the child and spoiled the rod. I have not sold myself to God."

- Patti Smith, Babelogue

You Monetizers, you creepy-crawly Marketeers, you incessant leeches on the creativity of others; you who equate figuring out some little math trick to confine, quantize, qualify or judge worthy to receive your splendid trinkets in return for my soul and the soul of my friends; you craven carpetbaggers, you thieves of culture, you reducers of human motivation to snapping at mackerals like a trained seal, you pimps of prostitution; I see you.

My friends are not for sale; nor are they for worming your way into my life by using them. I've watched you do it to the Web and I won't sit and watch you do it to the social network this time without saying something.

Q. At what time does "social media" and "social metrics" become social engineering?

Influence and Power: The Delusion of The Social Klout Elite [ConversioNation]

A True Measure Of Influence [brandsavant]

Klout CEO Reveals How to Leverage Score for Fame, Fortune, Perks [Mashable]

Why Klout Is Dangerous [Business 2 Community]

Klout: A Call To Action [Spin Sucks]

The Making of a Social Media Slut [Grow]

Occupy LA, OccupyFairey

2011-11-28T01:02:00.000-08:00

My favorite tweet exchange of today, watching #OccupyLA livestream and Twitter:

... and in case you didn't get that url:

Vandalized Vandalism: A Healthy Cultural Conversation

Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey
A critique by artist Mark Vallen

Milton Glaser on Shepard Fairey

ANDRE THE GIANT GOT PEPPER SPRAYED

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

DISOBEY FAIREYS

DISOBEY SHEPHERDS

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Wizzy Makes A Klein Bottle video

2011-11-25T01:54:00.000-08:00

Wizzy Makes A Klein Bottle

You Tube (better-quality/fullsize) link

My friend Wizard Gynoid demonstrates the beauty of mathematics and topology by constructing a Klein Bottle in the virtual reality of Second Life.

The full rezzing from the initial trigger took 2+ hours, and the coloring of the panels took additional time. It's really something, as you can see on the video.

Here's some of the maths about this project:

[20:03] Wizzy Gynoid: nEdge = ( 6 * nVertex) / 2
[20:03] Wizzy Gynoid: nFace = ( 6 * nVertex ) / 3

1200 points
2400 faces
3600 edges

7200 prims total

I am told by Wizzy that SL resident Desdemona Enfield was of assistance in the math/scripting department.

If you want to know more about Klein Bottles you could read this:

Imagining maths: Inside the Klein Bottle

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The first piece of music used in the video is an arrangement of my musical/interactive piece Alchemical Table in Second Life; this composition is now titled Points of Order.

The second piece of music is Slow Light 1 (Ambient) and is by Moby, used with permission for non-commercial use in this video through the generosity of Moby, a most excellent person.

Immediately flagged by You Tube, I am now in the dispute process; good thing I have a license from Moby ^_^

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Busy, busy

As you can see, I've done several videos in the past 2 weeks; in case you missed them, here they are on You Tube:

Subject of Study: A video displaying the Virtual Art Gallery made for me by my students as part of the Cal State University at Long Beach Art Department's Art 110- Introduction to the Visual Arts program, Fall 2011 semester.

Three-Ring Circus (Director's Cut): The Circus of O! comes to town.

Storming Heaven: An immersive philosophical build in the Inworldz virtual reality grid.

Still learning how to maneuver my joystick; lighting is next, so go easy on me please :D

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Subject of Study - Art110

2011-11-23T04:10:00.000-08:00

Subject Of Study
Cal State U at Long Beach's Art110 class

You Tube link (better-quality/full-size)

Flickr photo set

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I've been working with the Cal State University at Long Beach Department of Art's Art110 - Introduction to the Visual Arts Virtual Art Gallery program since last year. I've seen a lot of the gallery builds; some of them wonderful craftsmanship, but I have not seen anything like my students presented yesterday for their class; the gallery they created for my work.

This year's team has produced a stellar piece of artwork. Not a mere gallery for displaying pieces of my creative output and beyond a build, these three students have crossed many bridges and created a work that is not only structural but meaningful.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Two weeks ago this team was faced with a disaster known to all of us; the loss of their entire work output. The preliminary structures produced from their sketches and ideas were good (for noobs) although they were running into the realities of digital (or any) art: costs (in prims), time limitations and struggling with bringing their vision to obstinate materials. Because they are creating separately and because they do not have full-perm copies of my works, everything was lost, torn apart in the Return.

In less than two weeks, their building skills jumped to a point where some people in SL much longer than them wouldn't be ashamed of this build. Their vision also took a leap, integrating their first sketches and physical ideas into a comprehensive whole, a look into my life and the meaning of my work.

This is far and away not only the best gallery I have seen from these students in two years, but a real work of art, with meaning incorporated into the structure and layout of the gallery. It's a very deep understanding of my psychic roots, personal motivations and creative processes.

I am incredibly impressed, and also flattered and honored to have been a catalyst for such work. This is great stuff in any art world. To have students, new to SL and to virtual reality, produce such a work in less than two weeks is amazing.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I do not know if the gallery is in a permanent location (they shift them around while in Presentation mode) so I can't include a SLurl in this post. If you see me inworld, IM me and I'll check if the gallery's still there. It might be (probably, because this is a showcase build) be set up later for ongoing exhibition, as some galleries were last year (mine among them). If so I'll publish that SLurl when it comes.

I have requested a copy of this artwork/gallery because I believe it to be a great piece of work. If so, maybe I'll be able to host it myself sometime. In the meantime I've made a small video for the girls, to express my gratitude, honor and joy at having worked with them and for other people to enjoy their work; they deserve it.

Elayne, Robin, Leticia: thank you so much for the opportunity to interact with you, talk about art and explore the creativity in virtual worlds. You made art for me; you should be very proud of your work.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Casually Pepper-Spray Everything Cop

2011-11-21T03:14:00.000-08:00

Sgt. Pepper-Spray's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop is a photoshop meme based off of a photo of a cop - Lt. John Pike - pepper-spraying students from the UC Davis on Nov. 17th and now rampant on the nets, just casually peppering spraying his way through art and American history; connected to the Occupy protests. Here's a few more.

Clink the link to see the Know Your Meme page.

Joy Garnett's Flickr Collection

Pepper-spray cop works his way through art history [WAPO]

New Meme Alert: OWS’s ‘Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop’ [Mashable]

'Casually Pepper Spraying Cop' Meme Takes Off [NPR]

UC Davis Pepper Spray Cop Is Now a Meme [Gawker]

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Video: Three-Ring Circus

2011-11-18T03:07:00.000-08:00

updated: The Director's Cut

You Tube Link (better viewing)

All this began well before the last few weeks: last February Wizzy and I were poking around the LEA sims, which had been announced to great fanfare by M and then kinda... were pending... for awhile. So we wondered what was up with them, and having some idle time on our hands we took a map TP there.

We found the beginnings of what became Avatar Games, and since rez was on we left Bryn some of her dahls and took some photos - it was kind of a love-tease to Bryn Oh and Rose Borchovski. Honestly, it was a goofy homage or whatever. In the same vein I did this photo. I mean, they're dolls. You play with them.

It could have just as well been Rose's Susas if they were dolls. I can't begin to remember how many times I saw the "Phillip Linden Noob" dressed up and places in crazy places.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

After all, we didn't make the dahls; they were given freely by Bryn and Wizzy and I are just wacky. Since the dahls are high-prim (68 prims each) the LEA sandbox is about the only practical place to make such a thing, and that's what we thought the LEA sandbox was for, so we used it.

Read any darker meaning into this you want; the circus is just a weird play dollhouse. We played with the dahls before and had fun; like playing Barbies (especially because we can make all the props and outfits, not have to buy them).

You can read Crap Mariner's blog and see some great photos he took on Flickr.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I've posted another small video of the build "Storming Heaven" done for Betty Tureaud's 'Tower of Babel' in Inworldz.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Inworldz Dreamz & Visionz Art Festival opens today

2011-11-12T12:01:00.001-08:00

Alizarin Goldflake, soror Nishi and I ride
La Toymaker's magical coach and horses;
we haz sparkle ponies!

Some of the most spectacular builds you've seen in any world are on display at the Inworldz Dreamz and Visionz Art Festival, opening today at 1:00pmSLT/IWT/PST.

IWzUrl: Inworldz Dreamz & Visionz A Stage

Sponsored by Inworldz Founder Elenia Lewellyn and organized by arts patron Jeri Rahja & Quadrapop Tree, the Festival runs from Nov. 12 to Nov. 22 and features many amazing artists from both Second Life and Inworldz. Some photos from Bradd Laval and from Jeri should wet your appetite for this extravaganza.

From November 12 to November 22nd, the public and judges will be viewing the works created, while enjoying some of the best performers available at the stage on Sim A. Builds not possible in Second Life and a layout that reminds me of the London Expositions make this an event not to be missed.

The Map Links below will take you to a pavilion (designed by Alizarin Goldflake) in the center of each of 4 sims hosting this event. From there, a teleport board will take you each artist's dream & vision.

IWZurl: Sim A
La Toymaker
Richard Muni
Scotsgraymouser Janus
Snoots Dwagon
soror Nishi
Juanida Deharo
rigg torok
Alix Walpole
Nico Bascom

IWZurl: Sim B
Bradd Laval & Leanna Caerndow
Julia Hawthor
Katharina Svarovski
Maximillian Svarovski
Dannon Robbiani
Teal Freenote
Miso Susanowa

IWZurl: Sim C
Nicci Winsmore,
Praline Barjowski
Tigger Genira
Alizarin Goldflake
Betty Tureaud
RAG Randt
Mira Karu
Neeks Karu
Nickola Martinov & Micheil Merlin

IWZurl: Sim D
Strand Starsider
Ub Yifu
Scarp Godenot
Xzavia Yifu & Zauber Paracelsus
Wizard Gynoid
Noa Sawson
Macaria Wind & ML Smith
Ole Huss
Cat Cotton

List of Performers:

November 12th - Opening Day
12 Noon DJ Vickie Day
1 pm Declan Greenfield
2 pm Rafella Docherty
9 pm Ichie Kamachi

November 13th
12 Noon Torben Asp
1 pm Prowess Rayna

November 14th
12 Noon CECI Dover
1 pm DJ Vickie Day

November 15th
12 Noon DJTommy Seetan
1 pm DJ Julianna Michigan
2 pm Dirk Quarmac

November 16th
12 Noon Chandra Deed
1 pm DJ Vickie Day
2 pm Josie Anderton
8 pm DJ Starhawk Courtois
9 pm Oshi Shikigami (Poetry)

November 17th
2 pm DJ Thumper Love
8 pm DJ Winter Solstice
9 pm DJ Boo Zipper

November 18th
1 pm DJ Astoria Luminos
8 pm DJ Boo Zipper
9 pm DJ Winter Solstice

November 19th
12 Noon Torten Asp
1 pm Eliz Watanabe
2 pm Slow Motion Circus
8 pm Quantamis Navarathna
9 pm Prowess Rayna

November 20th
12 Noon Melodee McDonnell
1 pm BGSinger Buble (Hermit)
2 pm MrMikie String
8 pm Ganjo Mokeev
9 pm Oshi Shikigami (Poetry)

November 21st
12 Noon Josie Anderton
2 pm DJ Boo Zipper
8 pm DJAyameko Kibala

Closing Day - November 22nd
1 pm Marky Helstein
8 pm CelticMaidenWarrior

You can check here for an updated Performer's List, which is still being added to at this time.

Festival Judges McCabe Maxsted, Jayjay Zifanwe and Velazquez Bonnetto will all be making their rounds to decide on the two best items on each sim between today and Nov. 22. This is a huge event, with many virtual artists showing what is possible in Inworldz, and not to be missed (and not because I have work there either!)

The official Inworldz Dreamz & Visionz blog

Festival Team:

Building – Alizarin Goldflake

Graphics – Miso Susanowa

PR/Media – Nazz Lane / Briawinde Magic

Scripting – Zauber Paracelsus

Events/stage manager – Sunbeam Magic

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Implacable Iron Fist of Google

2011-11-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, after a nice walk in the autumn woods, I came home and found several emails and Twitter notices from friends that my blogs were gone. I checked the addresses and this is what I received:

"This blog is no longer accessible. The name is unavailable for new accounts."

WTF?!?!

After following the breadcrumb trail left for me by Blogger, I got to a page that informed me:

"There has been suspicious activity related to this account. To confirm you are the account holder, Google must send you either a text message or a voice message with a code you must enter..."

After I entered a phone number and got the Confirm Code, my blogs were immediately accessible again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Google pretends to be helpful

For the past two weeks, every time I logged in to post on my blogs I've had an interrupt page from Google, stating that "for my convenience should I lose my passwords" it would be handy to have a phone number to use as another confirmation. There's also been a link in that page that said "skip this step" so of course I did; my password is very strong, nonverbal and would be pretty hard to break unless under a sustained and targeted attack. No robo-sniffer or password dictionary cracker is going to get it.

With Google suggesting it would be a good idea and also offering me a link to skip this step, it's implied that this is not a required condition of using Google products (in this case my blogs on Blogger, unfortunately snapped up by Google recently).

The real deal

This morning's research session was dedicated to what Google calls "Two-step Verification Process" which was launched in mid-February and is just getting around to all your Google accounts.

"Over the next few days you should see a link on your Google Account Settings page that allows you to enabled 2-step verification. This new feature adds an extra layer of security to your Google account by requiring a special passcode in addition to your normal password."

Google Adds 2-Factor Security to Gmail, Apps [Krebs]

Here's a big blah-blah page from Google about "two-step verification"

"2-step verification helps protect a user’s account from unauthorized access should someone manage to obtain their password. Even if a password is cracked, guessed, or otherwise stolen, an attacker can’t sign in without access to the user’s verification codes, which only the user can obtain via their own mobile phone. Requirements: a mobile phone that can receive the verification code via text message or phone call, or an Android, BlackBerry, or iPhone. These devices use the Google Authenticator mobile app to generate the verification code. "

"You enable 2-step verification for your domain in your Google Apps control panel. The user enrolls in 2-step verification... Note: You can’t force your users to use 2-step verification, they must opt-in themselves."

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Real security

I've talked before about secure passwords: 16-character non-word, alphanumeric+special characters passwords kept on a single password-protected file on your computer/usb key and using copy/paste for logins, or using something like Passkey to hold your passwords.

I've also spoken about the "security measure" of "secret questions" - giving an associated (in your mind) answer to such questions as "What was your childhood pet's name?" in light of social networking and the fact that once something is posted to the net, it's out there forever (using tools like the Wayback Machine). So I recommend choosing your question (if this alternative is offered) or using an answer that is completely unrelated to the questions but associated in your mind with the question:

Q. What was your childhood pet's name? A. Squanomish
Q. Where were you born? A. inmymotherswomb
Q. What was your favorite sport? A. escapingbullies

Combine those with the ASCII and spelling variants: Squ@nomiish, inmeyem0therzw0mb, ezkapeingbullieyes and you have a second layer of security, not easily guessed.

And the final simple rule: never use the same password for more than one service.

So the password:
6D9F1$%&3[invisible space/ascii character Alt + 255]15~>#b+

is going to be pretty hard to crack by an automated dictionary-cracker. Combined with the type of answer to the above typical "security questions" and the best-practice of never using the same password for more than one service, your account is going to be much more secure than someone using the password "Fluffy" for all their accounts.

The fact is that, like a house, you can never be completely secure, but you can make it very difficult for a burglar to break in. Given that option most burglars, especially the random, doorknob-turning kind, will go elsewhere to much easier targets. Like a house, if you are the specific target of a dedicated cracker, nothing is going to stop them, but such cases are a lot rarer than you think. I mean, unless you're a multi-billion-dollar CEO, an attorney in a messy divorce case or a bank, who is going to specifically target you?

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Google Two-Step

It's obvious by now that all this blah-blah about "enrolling" and "allowing" and "opt-in" is plain bullshit. So is the supposed "security" offered.

The 30-day browser cookie set by users that click the "Remember verification for this computer" checkbox means that if your computer is stolen, the thief can still access your account without having to provide the second step of verification, and likely not even the password if your computer was just sleeping and browser already open.

You'll have to repeat this process every 30 days, meaning Google's going to require a constant correlation between your username and your phone number. Change numbers? You're going to have to go through hoops to restore access to your accounts. Change computers between laptop, desktop, netbook or tablet? Delete all cookies on browser close to get rid of trackers, spies and supercookies? Same deal. Google wants to know where you are and what phone number you are using every 30 days.

Go ahead; try to opt-out, sucker

From more than a dozen posts explaining how to "turn off two-step verification" from both Google and many bloggers, you get this information:

Q.16) How can I turn off 2-step verification on my Google Account
A.16) You can turnoff 2-step verification, by going to Google Accounts –> Using 2-step verification –> click on Turn off 2-step verification…

Here's the separate section on "how to turn off two-step verification"

Another article telling you how to turn off two-step verification

"In order to turn off two-step verification, visit this page or log in to your Google account and go to Settings >> Account Recovery Options >> Recovering your password. That page will tell you you can "add more information to your account to increase your account-recovery options."

Both ways will take you to this:

click the picture for the Big Picture

Notice that if you have not "opted-in" or "enrolled" or "allowed" this process previously, you will still have to fork over a phone number, receive a verification code and enroll in the program in order to reach the settings page where you can turn off the process, which will happen every 30 days.

Remind you of Facebook much? It should. There's no way to opt-out currently without first opting-in, and all Google's fanboy press and mealy-mouthing about "opting-in" or "enrolling" or "allowing" are straight-out lies. The interrupt-page I was receiving for the previous two weeks whenever I logged in offering to be "helpful" and offering me a link to "skip this step" was a smokescreen.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

FSCK Google

Am I alarmed by this? I certainly am. I am alarmed by Google pretending this is an opt-in service, repeating that idea in various words and meaning absolutely the opposite.

fsck: a Unix-based system utility for checking the consistency of a file system. Generally, fsck is run automatically at boot time when the operating system detects that a file system is in an inconsistent state. [fsck is analogous to the Windows utility chkdsk]

I am alarmed by Google's persistent and consistent efforts to delete anonymity from the net; to consolidate its holdings and bring them into line with its stated mission of becoming an "Identity Provider"; Google's connection to OpenID and the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace [PDF link to whitehouse paper], which Google calls the Kantara Initiative (shades of the D.H.A.R.M.A. Initiative!).

I'm not the only one.

Identity Crisis: The Delusion of NSTIC

Real Names: Google+, Government & The Identity Ecosystem

Google & NSTIC Leading the March to Digital Totalitarianism?

Botgirl's curated “Nymwars News and Commentary” site

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

After yesterday's little adventure and today's research, I am accelerating my efforts to completely remove myself from the Google ecosystem by using viable alternatives to every single product Google offers. I do not like liars and Google has proven to be no better than Facebook in regarding me as a slab of meat to be bought and sold for their profit, telling press about "optional" services that are in fact compulsory now.

Google has now proven to me that they are in fact dead-set on "doing evil."

Google must have forgotten everything it knew about the net; I can think of a dozen ways to get around this type of forced identification and access off the top of my head and during the coming weeks I will be researching even more ways to keep my electronic privacy protected.

What you do is up to you.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

[double-posted at Netpolitik]

66:75:63:6b:20:47:6f:6f:67:6c:65

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

New post @Netpolitik: Internet Under Fire

2011-11-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

Many bills are approaching Congress to limit, invade or otherwise break the internets that you love.

Netpolitik: Internet Under Fire

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Virtual Occupation: Political Action In Second Life

2011-10-23T06:26:00.000-07:00

Anonymous Artist

On October 22 at 6:36pmSLT (Pacific Daylight Time, the inworld time of the virtual world Second Life) OccupySL performed their first Virtual Occupation of Capital Exchange, "the #1 Stock Market Simulation Game in Second Life."

The Rules of Engagement are somewhat different in the virtual environment, as the owner of a "sim" (an area of virtual land) can "boot" (remove) and "ban" (prevent re-entry) avatars from the area using server tools (which happened, as detailed below) so a continual Occupation is not technically possible. However, a public artist's sandbox hosted at the Linden Endowment for the Arts [LEA] was chosen as a secondary/fallback site that would allow OccupySL to set up a sustained "artwork" to raise awareness and promote discussion of the issues of the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Together and related contemporary global social change movements.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Politics of Art

Lest you think this was some sort of personal attention-getting stunt, I beg to remind you of the long history of artists who felt the need to speak out about the social and political conditions of their time: from the classical (Picasso's Guernica and Massacre In Korea, Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Marat, Goya's The Third Of May 1808 and The Black Paintings, Édouard Manet's The Execution of Emperor Maximillian and The Barricade (Civil War), Otto Dix's Erinnerung an die Spiegelsäle von Brüssel (Memory of the Mirrored Halls of Brussels), the work of William Hogarth and the satirical art of 18th-century England) to the contemporary (Banksey, Ai Weiwei, Barbara Kruger, Chris Ofili, Tania Bruguera, Tamara DeLempicka, Jenny Holzer, Steve Shepard, Käthe_Kollwitz, Ben Shahn, the Bogside Artists, Dorthea Lange, Diego Rivera, Sue Coe, Richard Hamilton, Hans Haacke, Andres Serrano, Marcus Harvey, Andy Donato , Eric Johnn, Graffiti, cartoons and the China/Avant-Garde Art Exhibition in Beijing in 1989 and zhengzhi popu (Political Pop) movement in China), art and politics have been inextricably combined.

Art & Agenda - Political Art and Activism - 50 Stunning Political Artworks - The Top 10 Pieces of Political Street Art

Contemporary Art In Virtual Environments

I'd also like to remind you that artists like Eva and Franco Mattes ['Synthetic Performances'], Cory Arcangel ['Super Mario Clouds', 'Various Self-Playing Bowling Games'], Miltos Manetas ['SuperMario Sleeping', 'Flames'] Harun Farocki ['Serious Games I-IV'], Joseph DeLappe and the ElectronicOrphanage, Jodi, Mind Games and
Game Modification, Hacking, Patching, Avatars and Code-based Practices within Contemporary Art projects/shows have used virtual & game environments to make artistic statements of a political nature.

The US Army also uses virtual worlds...

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Second Life Left Unity is the seed organization of the OccupySL group and has been raising awareness in Second Life of the issues surrounding the RL #Occupy Movement since shortly after Occupy Wall Street, inspired by the 15-M/Indignants Movement in Spain, captured the imagination, concerns and frustrations of thousands of people across the globe. SLLU has raised money for #OWS through donations and virtual concerts and distributes information, links and support for #OWS from within the virtual world of Second Life.

Just because we live, work and play in a virtual environment does not mean we leave the physical world and our concerns outside. If you are inworld and are interested, use Search to locate the OccupySL group and join for information and updates related to OWS and OSL actions; the Twitter hashtag is #occupysl.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

OccupySL - Action: Stock Exchange

The virtual 1% meets the virtual 99%

The first action of OccupySL went smashingly. As planned, we rallied at the SLLU OccupySL area and agreed to act in strict accordance with #OWS principles: no griefing, no harassment, no provocative or mean comments (no violence)... just raising awareness. When all were ready, we teleported into the Exchange...

... where we were immediately greeted by MR CEO and his greeter-bots and group-join script. In fact, we were continuously asked to join the group by this bot/script even in the midst of our brief exchange with MR CEO. MR CEO seemed on the defensive from the very start, accusing us of griefing him (in the first 30 seconds) and then getting increasingly harried and aggressive (just like some RL ("real life") Banksters we know, yes?) despite our polite and friendly comments and greetings.

If virtual worlds like Second Life are a reflection and microcosm of the physical world, nothing could have illustrated these principles more plainly than our encounter at the Stock Exchange. Perhaps the questions raised earlier this year about the business model of the Stock Exchange, its treading close to the rules regarding in-game gambling and the subsequent attention had MR CEO on guard; we will never know.

What we do know is that our action mirrored events surrounding the RL Occupy Movement. The confrontation between the Bankster and the Occupiers was immediately fraught with intolerance, misunderstanding, bad communication and no curiosity, interest or even civility on the part of the Bankster.

We OccupyLEA

Action: Fallback

As agreed, and reflecting the RL Occupy Wall Street which was forced to abandon its planned Occupation of Chase Plaza for Zucotti Park (now renamed to 'Liberty Square', it's original name before Brookfield Properties bought it as a zoning requirement - kinda like the SL 'land bonus' prims), we moved to the public sandbox at LEA5 and began to set up our tents in what we have rechristened 'Liberty Squared' (L²).

While we were setting up, Thirza Ember, who had advance press notice of the Occupation, IMed me and told me that MR CEO was making various wild claims (again in spooky syncronism with the RL Occupy Wall Street action) that we "griefed his sim" and "used scripts to crash his sim."

Comparing notes and screenshots, we observed that the sim was set to no-script, meaning there was no possibility of us "using scripts" to do anything there, as script running functionality had been disabled (which you could verify yourself by visiting the sim).

Contrary to MR CEO's private IM dialogue with Thirza and any1 accusing us of crashing his sim (with or without scripts), we were in fact ejected and banned by group tag and then MR CEO rebooted his own sim. No one did anything to MR CEO and certainly not anything that would crash his sim; he seemed to convince Thirza of this but fortunately all chat logs and screenshots agree that the usual 2-minute-warning drop-down box indicated that MR CEO was the person who "crashed" his own sim:

[the only edits made in this chat log are to remove "so and so is online/offline" lines; the name of the STOCK EXCHANGE has been made generic and spaces are put between relevant sections for readability. Raw logs are available if needed and can be verified by Linden Lab]

OccupySL HQ
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Flagg/223/67/94

Baxter Aubin: About time to do it...
Merriam Galaxy: should we go now?
NTropy Sellers: I'm ready
Merriam Galaxy: yup :)
Ringo Stark: 3
Baxter Aubin: Yep
Ringo Stark: 2
Ringo Stark: 1
Ringo Stark: go!
Miso Susanowa: YAY!
Teleport completed from http://slurl.com/secondlife/Flagg/223/67/94

The region you have entered is running a different simulator version. Click this message for details.

Automatic group invite SL 2.3: To join our group, open `Local Chat` and click the given link.

GREETER-BOT: Hi Miso. We hope you enjoy your visit to [STOCK EXCHANGE].
SECURITY GREETER BOT: Hello Miso. At [STOCK EXCHANGE], your safety is our top priority.

Automatic group invite SL 2.3: secondlife:///app/group/[STOCK EXCHANGE]/about
Automatic group invite SL 2.3: To join our group, open `Local Chat` and click the given link.
Automatic group invite SL 2.3: secondlife:///app/group/[STOCK EXCHANGE]/about

ANOTHER BOT (Suit Black): Hi Miso. Click on the large bottom monitors to receive a landmark and notecard on companies listed on the [STOCK EXCHANGE]. Enjoy your visit.

[STOCK EXCHANGE] Office Assistant: [another bot! Sheesh no wonder the guy crashed his own sim; it's infested with bots!]
Click the buttons below to receive more info on our services. IM MR CEO if you have any further questions. We appreciate your interest in [STOCK EXCHANGE]!

Miso Susanowa: Hello Mr Bot
Miso Susanowa: oic
Wizard Gynoid: hiya crystal.
Miso Susanowa: hi Crystal :)
MR CEO: Well this is awesome (this is the first thing he said to us!)
Ringo Stark: we are here!
Wizard Gynoid: this is what democracy looks like
Ringo Stark: and we are the 99%!
Miso Susanowa: occupy sl!
Baxter Aubin: Hiya MR CEO. :)

MR CEO: So now you're picking on someone who makes $40,000 a year?
Merriam Galaxy: Hi MR CEO
MR CEO: I think this is pretty misguided
MR CEO: I'm no millionaire
NTropy Sellers: It's not personal, MR CEO
Merriam Galaxy: it's just a symbol, MR CEO
Ringo Stark: nope
Ringo Stark: join us!
any1 Gynoid: Hiya MR CEO!
Merriam Galaxy: it's not directed at you
Merriam Galaxy: yes, please join us :)
Miso Susanowa: and if you don't make that much, then you are also the 99%
Miso Susanowa: hi! :)

MR CEO: This is my lot, so it is directed at me
Merriam Galaxy: not at all
NTropy Sellers: Well, we're not here to grief or harm. Just to raise awareness.
MR CEO: This is griefing
Merriam Galaxy: not in the least
MR CEO: Please leave my lot, I haven't done anything to any of you people
Baxter Aubin: It's directed at the media, the public, the politician. It isn't personal.
MR CEO: No, this is personal
MR CEO: I haven't done anytning to any of you
Liqwid Lancaster: lol
MR CEO: I don;t go to your lots within SL to grief
Merriam Galaxy: please, MR CEO, it really isn't
Ringo Stark: time to fly
Miso Susanowa: we've just shown up MR CEO...
NTropy Sellers: This helps you, MR CEO. We're giving you traffic and free publicity.
MR CEO: You aren't helping me at all - you are harassing me
Liqwid Lancaster: I was about to say, I never saw anyone give up free traffic :p
MR CEO: I don;t go to your lots in Sl and harass you
MR CEO: So why are you doing this to me?

Merriam Galaxy: it's not you, it's about what wall street and stock markets do
Miso Susanowa: no one's harassing you MR CEO, really
Ringo Stark: you can always eject us
Baxter Aubin: You seem like a nice guy, MR CEO. I have nothing bad to say about you personally.
Miso Susanowa: we just came! No prims, no junk, no crashing
Miso Susanowa: no violence
Merriam Galaxy: nope, we are very nice ppl

[System Message] MR CEO ejected and banned you from this land. You are no longer allowed here and have 15 seconds to leave.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Others were able to remain for a little longer, as it took a few moments for the ejection/security program to get to them, but no one was on the sim longer than 10 minutes, and most of that 10 minutes was spent by the documenting parties at the sim border where they had been thrown by the banning.

At OccupyLEA, comparing notes

Thirza Ember: hey someone used a script to crash his sim
Thirza Ember: or so he says
Thirza Ember: I thought you guys weren't going to grief
Miso Susanowa: nope
Miso Susanowa: sticking to exactly the OWS principles
Thirza Ember: well, he says not and he's going to report you
Miso Susanowa: and no one tried any scripting at all except for the hold-sign scripts
Miso Susanowa: well, thats fine, we logged everything
Thirza Ember: you did crash his sim
Thirza Ember: i was there when it crashed
Miso Susanowa: no one griefed Thirza we all agreed on that for days now
Miso Susanowa: he did mass ejects
Miso Susanowa: and any1 is a stockholder there [any1 Gynoid is a full member of the [STOCK EXCHANGE] and thus has every business being there.

any1 Gynoid: the freaking CEO is claiming we attacked with scripts...
Miso Susanowa: did anyone try to run scripts there?
Miso Susanowa: besides simple holding scripts?
Miso Susanowa: in the signs?
Kitten Mai: Don't think so.
Merriam Galaxy: nope, not me
Ringo Stark: nope
Thisbe Blackadder: all i have is my ao
Kitten Mai: My boots may be resize scripted but that's it o_O
[again, screen captures support our claims that the land is set to NOSCRIPT]

Thisbe Blackadder: all we did was tp in and stand there *shrug*
Kitten Mai: Yup
Liqwid Lancaster: he restarted the sim
NTropy Sellers: How could we grief with scripts when no scripts are allowed on his land?
any1 Gynoid: HE crashed the sim ... he admitted that
any1 Gynoid: rebooted on purpose
NTropy Sellers: Speaking of scripts.. how does one get a script to run here when scripts are not allowed??
any1 Gynoid: He's p*ssing himself because he might lose prims or some such nonsense...
Merriam Galaxy: an angry businessman protecting his property from a perceived threat

Miso Susanowa: you say he admitted crashing his own sim?
Miso Susanowa: do you have that log pls?
any1 Gynoid: yes big time... he rebooted the sim
Miso Susanowa: he is claiming we crashed his sim
Liqwid Lancaster: He rebooted it because I got the little 2 minute warning tab as I was leaving
any1 Gynoid: plus we all saw the warning messages
Miso Susanowa: i got "you are no longer allowed here you have 15 seconds to leave
Miso Susanowa: which is some kinda [security] orb
Akabn9 Ewry: the warning messages mean it was a controlled reboot. MR CEO did it on purpose.
Merriam Galaxy: he shut it down, there was a 2 minute warning
Ringo Stark: me, i got ejected and banned
Gabriella Glenfadden: i had just arrived and got the 2 min warning
Miso Susanowa: total transparency
Kitten Mai: I just got ejected. Didn't see the 2 minute warning.
Miso Susanowa: and no one ran any scripts or anything?
Baxter Aubin: I was ejected, no warning.
Merriam Galaxy: I was ejected to the edge and couldn't walk back
NTropy Sellers: It's a no script sim.. how could we grief with scripts?
Thisbe Blackadder: i was ejected and banned at 18:39, then tped here
Merriam Galaxy: I took screen captures of it
Miso Susanowa: great Mirriam! can you send that to me email pls?

No, OccupySL did not crash the sim; the owner did [rebooted]

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The bigger story here is of course not MR CEO at all, but exactly the kind of thing that is experienced by the RL Occupy groups every day. We were polite; we did not go somewhere we had been forbidden to go [and do not plan to go again now] and yet an instant antipathy and hostility to the simple message of the 99% Occupiers came into play.

This is why OccupySL was formed; to raise awareness of these issues.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

ACTION: OccupyLEA

Fortunately, the action at LEA was another parallel to the RL OWS events; As I was making the tents nice and tidy, two of the "owners" of the sims, PatriciaAnne Daviau and Solo Morningstar, came by. They expressed interest in the OccupySL movement and were very gracious and kind, giving me a tag (I had lost mine previously given when the Sandbox was new, some time ago) so that the tents could stay at L² in keeping with the guidelines of the self-curated gallery at LEA5. This is a reflection of the RL events at Zucotti Park in the first few days of the Occupation when the "owners" of the park, Brookfield Properties, told Mayor Bloomberg that the Occupiers could stay (before political pressure was put on them by the Forces of Wall Street).

At present, only our tents are there and a skeleton of the Media Center, which will contain links to RL Occupy information, websites and videos as well as links to the OccupySL site and actions. We will be working on those over the next few days and it should be very interesting!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Any1 Gynoid's writeup of the Occupation of CapEx

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

You can see more of our first action on Flickr in the OccupySL Group and in my own set. You can also read about the RL Occupy movement in my series 'Taking Wall Street By Twitter: an exploration of the power of electronic democracy' on my other blog, Netpolitik.

SLurl: OccupyLEA Base Camp

SLurl: OccupySL Infohub and networking

Keep Calm and Occupy Second Life

This pooled collection on Flickr - Protests, Political Art, Democracy, Social Change - is a set of photos and artwork dealing with contemporary movements of global protest, including Occupy Wall Street.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

We are the virtual 99%.
We do not forget.
We do not forgive.
Expect us!

41:72:74:20:49:6e:20:52:65:76:6f:6c:75:74:69:6f:6e

My name is Anonymous Kitty

and I approve this message

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Machinima, UWA last call, Art110 and friends

2011-10-21T03:59:00.000-07:00

CITY

Link to You Tube: better resolution and size

I finally got around to filming CITY, which was first created in early 2009 and shown at the Brooklyn Is Watching open-rez area, where it remained for an (unusual) 6 weeks and was written about by Siri Woodget (who took fantastic pictures). CITY won Honorable Mention for Immersion in the January 2010 round of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, and was shown once more at Pirats Art Network gallery in November 2010 (where my good friend Apmel amazingly bought one and has written about it several times). I even wrote a dab about it myself.

CITY is filled inside with light and movement and takes some exploration and some forebearance for the integral sound. Here is the display card for CITY:

"I lived in Los Angeles for 18+ years, most recently on Hollywood Blvd. & LaBrea, just one block catty-corner from the famous Mann's Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Los Angeles is a stage show; a Hollywood production. The city looks lovely and shiny from a distance or on television, but that reality is lived by less than 1% of its population. Most of us live in a "behind the scenes" reality of filthy streets, unresponsive or missing police, no air conditioning, crime, mini-mall blight, high unemployment, racism, virtual slavery (undocumented but useful workers) and incredible noise. This city is never quiet. It is never still. It is not 'Baywatch' or 'The OC.' Everyone doesn't live in Santa Barbara or have a pool.

This piece is about illusion being just as much a part of "real life" as anything "illusionary" in SL.

The sound for this piece was recorded out my own apartment window between 12-3am on various occasions; at times the sound in my apartment exceeded 130db! The side photos were taken in my apartment and outside it. The floor and ceiling are overlays of traffic patterns on the all-encompassing freeways, as are the flowing parts of the "star."

To experience CITY fully, please right-click the glowing star and SIT; Mouselook is recommended."

I am very pleased to have learned enough machinima to help you experience CITY the way that I feel it. I have entered this machinima in the MachinimUWA IV : Art of the Artists contest.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Note: because of some of the comments I have read on machinima pages, I'd like to clarify that except for the two whiteout transitions to the wall photograph sets, there are no special effects in this machinima - what you see is what you can experience yourself from inside CITY, especially in Mouselook mode.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

CITY: Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the machinima consists of the soundscape of CITY mixed in to an adaptation of a 138-track soundpiece of mine called "The Angel Is Aerodynamically Sound" which I have worked on now for two years. I have no keyboards, so everything is hand-done, note by note, sample by sample, in a sequencing program. It features many world instruments and voices.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Big Winter

Big Winter is now showing at the last UWA 3D Open Art Challenge *sniffle*

I cannot begin to describe what Jayjay, Quadrapop and FreeWee Ling have done for the arts community through this program in three years. Beyond myself, I know that they have encouraged so many artists to show for the first time and brought much of the arts community in Second Life together to meet, view each other's work and to have a rallying point for community.

I am very sad it is coming to an end.

Corcosman Voom has also taken a nice photo of Big Winter.

PS: if you right-click on the figure, you will sit on the rocks and stare at her; good for photos :)

SLurl: Big Winter @ UWA

my good friend Apmel has written two very nice posts about Big Winter:

Heartbreaking Cooling [when she showed at Kelly Yap Galleries]

At the last UWA 3D Challenge, where he has awarded me the unofficial Gallery Villa Apmel Award in a tie with ush Underwood's Popeye the Sailor's Heritage ^_^

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Art 110

My students from Cal State University at Long Beach's Art 110 Virtual Art Galleries program are busy building the galleries for their artists; I can't wait to see them done!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

... and finally, just cuz, here's Trill Zapatero as the Magical Ballerina Horse...

... Wizzy Gynoid demonstrating her mastery of zazen by sitting on Rod Humble's Sparkle Pony Linden Bear...

... and finally, one of Lalo Telling's friends sent him this scan from a real menu:

Miso to go!! ^_^

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Klouting Klout - Social Metrics Fun!

2011-10-19T15:18:00.000-07:00

Today on Twitter we had a lot of fun with Klout.

It started out with a few people mentioning they had "+K"'d some peeps... and then Lady Sakai started things off with this tweet:

so if we mention @klout do we get more #klout ? If you #klout me should I #klout you? & how do we #klout @klout ?

Well, how could I resist? I tweeted back:

@Lady "Mommy! Lady S is klouting me!" "I told you not to klout each other!. Klouting is not nice; someone could get hurt. Klout. Klout

... which just seemed to open the floodgates... participating were Lady Sakai, Gypsy Quixote, ideajuice, Whiskey Day, Anthony Hocken, Inara Pey... and it went like this:

#klout me babey Oh yeah ... ok that just sounded wrong no #klout for me Im guessing? Is there something like #klout porn? [LS]

@Lady "He slowly removed his breech KLOUT, and she was hypnotized; she felt like she had just been KLOUTED between the eyes." [MS]

@miso @Lady You two klout that out! [GQ]

@miso that just earned you a #klout in the #klout corner Missy wannabe #klout *taps #klout foot* [LS]

@Lady just gave Lady S a +K in Klout on Klout. [MS]

@Gypsy mind your own #klout ther Mister. Stop hogging our #klouts [LS]

@Lady @misosusanowa How 'bout cloud klout? Can we work it out? [GQ]

@Gypsy thas gonna be mah new Rapper Name: Cloud Klout. Or punk band. Or Indian name. Or something. [MS]

@Lady @miso Hey You! Get off of my klout! [GQ]

@Gypsy Cause I've seen Klout from both sides now. [MS]

@miso oooo babe .. oh #klout me right now, I want you #klout so bad I wanna scream #KLOUT [LS]

@Lady@miso We can work it klout, we can work it klout. [GQ]

Lady @miso You mean "how much klout could a cloud klout klout if a cloud klout could klout klout"? [GQ]

@Anthony wot? dont leave #klout out it will feel all left #klout cc: @Inara [LS]

@Gypsy aaiiyeee! *gives Gypsy +K on cloud klout on Klout* [MS]

@Lady Klout sounds like a medical affliction to me :-D [AH]

@Anthony "Damn this leg! Got a touch of the klout" [MS]

@miso @Lady @Gypsy Will you Klouts stop Klouting around? some of us are trying to work! [IP]

@miso Send in the klout, there oughta be klout. [GQ]

@Gypsy @Anthony @Lady so, the term "breech klout" now has a new meaning to me... [MS]

@Inara aw you #klout us you really really #klout us \o/ cc: @misos @Gypsy [LS]

Klout: side effects include inflated sense of importance, paranoia, premature ejaculation, incessant boasting, and sometimes death. [WD]

I gave +K to Zanesville Monkey on Cloud Klout. [GQ]

@Whiskey I just gave Whisky a +K in Medicine on Klout [MS]

I had done a kinda-lame Queen parody but Ideajuice did a much better one so here's his:

@miso Webbie you're a voice make a big noise phishin for the noobs gonna be a big site someday, you got Flash in your space,

@miso big disgrace, and lots of ad banners all over the place :-) [IJ]

@idea WE WILL WE WILL KLOUT YOU! [MS]

@Lady Oh YEAH, you really Klout me now! you got me so I can't sleep at night! YOU REALLY KLOUT ME! YOU REALLY KLOUT ME! [MS]

I gave @miso +K in -K Idea [IJ]

@miso *flutters eyelashes * me #klout you very muchly xxx [LS]

@Lady"When Boy Meets Klout" a new series on Some Cable Network [MS]

@Lady @Idea @Anthony @Whiskey @Gypsy @Inara American Express... don't leave Klout without it. [MS]

... so that was today's fun with Skewing Social Networking Metrics. I needed that laugh! Thx friends :)

*** and a late entry due to time constraints from Lalo:

@miso @Anthony #Klout, klout, let it all out, these are the things I can do without, come on... I'm talkin' to you, come on.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

This One's For You, LL

2011-10-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

Just a tiny post to make you aware of a rant making the rounds:

"Longtime Googler Steve Yegge posted an insightful rant on his Google+ page about how Google is failing to make platforms of its products. He also shares some interesting little tidbits about his six year stint at Amazon working for the 'Dread Pirate Bezos'. The rant was intended to be shared only with his Google coworkers, but was accidentally made public. Steve has since removed it from his page, but it has been reposted elsewhere."

I'm posting this rant and link because there's one single, simple sentence in the midst of it that applies to Linden Labs; that encapsulates my feelings, and that of the other Second Life critiquers:

" The problem is that we are trying to predict what people want and deliver it for them."

LINDEN LABS, THAT LINE IS FOR YOU.

Pehaps there are Lindens who check my blog to see what the "sl haytr" is on about this week. I can only hope they read this and understand this is something heartfelt from a long-time Google employee that applies to LL, or to any of the hundreds of companies I have watched bite the digital dust in the last 25 years.

If I didn't care about SL, I'd let them sink into the tar pits and go on to other grids rather than remaining there, paying tier month after month and promoting the educational and artistic uses of Second Life and virtual worlds, as I have been doing for half my life.

Now you can all go back to talking about how much I "hayt SL" again.

[better click fast; that rant may be taken down at any moment]

InWorldz Dreams & Visions Art Festival

2011-10-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

The founder of Alexanderia's Kingdom, Jeri Rajha, is pleased to announce the organization of an arts festival in the virtual world of InWorldz!

The "Inworldz Dreamz & Visionz" festival will be a juried event with prizes to be awarded to the selected first and second place winners on each of the four SIMs.

Applications are being received now for up to 64 plots for either individuals or for teams of up to four artists. The festival will commence on November 1st with the plot assignments and plots open for build. Then on the 12th of November an opening event will be held and the artist's
works will be open to view and the judges will begin their selections.

Information for Artists:

- If you haven't already done so, you will need to create an account and log into InWorldz. Applications are available through festival organizers and in key locations throughout the grid. Additionally festival information can be obtained through the Inworldz event forum.

- 64 plots available - each 32 x32 m ground foot print, with 900 prims each
plot

- Low lag scripts (scripting guidelines will be supplied)

- Individual or teams of up to 4 creators

- Builds must not be commercial - no selling or advertising other than a NC
or LM to gallery or store of the creator/s

- Gifts are ok - please use the giver script supplied

- Plots will be allocated by lot (i.e. randomly)

- Creators will be supplied with a foot print prim with path and orientation
indicators to begin building offsite if required

- Sky platforms over the plot are allowed but must be above 500m, not be
larger than the ground footprint and have a TP to the platform on the ground

Prizes:

- 1st and 2nd prizes will be given for each SIM (4 first & 4 second)

- Prize money will be raised via tip jars on the SIM's

- All contributing creators will get a small participatory monetary gift

Application Process:

IW residents can send their completed Application Notecard to Jeri Rahja. Also IM her so she can chase any NC that get lost. Once all plots are filled the plots on the SIM's will be allocated by random ballot. The lucky 64 individuals/teams will be notified via NC and IM and supplied with a creator's package which will include further info on how to proceed.

Key Dates:

October 1st - 25th applications for plots open

October 27th - Plot allocations go out

November 1st - SIM's open to creators

November 12th - building completed - events start - judging starts

November 21st and 22nd - Judging concludes

November 22nd - prizes announced and presented

Festival Organizers:

Jeri Rahja & quadrapop Tree

Festival Sponsors:

IW Founders represented by Elenia Llewellyn

Festival Team:

Building - Alizarin Goldflake
Graphics - Miso Susanowa
PR/Media - Nazz Lane / Briawinde Magic
Scripting - Zauber Paracelsus
Events/stage manager - TBD

Festival Judges:

- McCabe Maxsted
- TBD
- TBD

Netpolitik Post: OccupyWallStreet and the Internet

2011-10-06T00:09:00.000-07:00

If you read my blog and you love the internet and what it can do, including virtual worlds, please read this post and find out how ACTA and NSTIC, as well as pending legislation, will cripple or reduce the internet that you love.

OccupyWallStreet and the Internet
Why it matters to everyone

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

GrailQuest - A Build by Trill Zapatero at Burn2

2011-10-03T00:45:00.000-07:00

better res/size on You Tube

Trill Zapatero's build at Burn2 in Second Life is a wonderful, dense journey through the classic Grail Quest. She has a deep understanding of the mythology of the Fool's Journey and incorporates the symbols of Tarot and other metaphysical disciplines with tremendous artistic skill in making each stage of the Journey visually compelling. This is one of her masterworks.

Her finely-brushed layered textures are rich and deep; at each station of the build, it pays to sit and let the lush use of color and layering entrance you. Mythical, poetic and wonder-filled as well as being thought-provoking and entertaining, this is one build you won't want to miss at Burn2.

Grail Quest

SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burning%20Man-%20Black%20Rock/231/112/24

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The music is "Venus, The Planet of Love" by William Zeitler, who is a master of the glass armonica (also called glass harmonium) invented by Benjamin Franklin. A sound that was said to "drive men mad with longing," in Mr Zeitler's hands becomes a thing of haunting ethereal beauty. He's released 10 cds, so go on over to his page and pick one up; I already have 2.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes: Trill has not only done the build, she also designed the Fool's outfit I'm wearing. And she is also... the Night Horse!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Demonstration: A Video for OccupyWallStreet

2011-09-28T02:14:00.000-07:00

WARNING: graphic footage

Soundtrack: The Rolling Stones - Live in Brussels, 1973
'You Can't Always Get What You Want'

compiled video footage from Occupy Wall Street action
September 17-25, 2011

The Collection of Holala Alter

2011-09-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

You might know about the article published in the Spanish arts journal Arte Y Parte in December 2010 that highlighted many Second Life artists. That article was written by Julio Juste [SL: Holala Alter] and is a very scholarly look at the art and artists of the metaverse (particularly SL]. I wrote about that article here.

Holala has published a small piece about his collection of virtual art, which is quite extensive. It is in Spanish, so what follows is an automatic translation. (if some kind soul who has actual working Spanish would like to translate the article to provide a better and more-nuanced translation, we would both be happy! Please email me if you can do this!) The original article is here:

La Colección Holala Alter - Spanish

Notes on a collection of art SL
Julio Juste/Holala Alter

When I visited in autumn 2008 [resident] SpaceXcape, I met my future vocation in Second Life (SL): SL collecting art, which postponed until the end of the first draft of my dissertation, a study of the metaverse and verification in SL. The critical tools and theoretical formulations on the virtual self and the imagination of it, exposed in my academic research, have had an extended practice in personal enjoyment and critical appreciation of the artistic works of art developed in SL, and I defined as weightless.

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This collection arose from a personal desire. A wish is a fabrication and is preceded by a feeling. The initial criterion that gave rise to this collection was the collection of works in SL and SL, whose creators handle the physics of this medium, and exploit what is a feature of the metaverse: the construction of an imaginary writing.

I appreciated the bold imagination and synthesis code, which requires, to some extent, to relegate some instruments of the fine arts. Virtuosity is a consequence manifested in the work, rather than a test of manual skill of the artist, as an exhibition of his skill.

What counts in this art is the emotional event that will trigger a state change. The imagination that show these artists gathered at The Collection Art Holala Alter SL is the result of a thought, an abstraction that does not abandon its virtual nature, because it manipulates matter. The reality has not materially. There is no interaction with matter, but with the mathematical thinking that will govern the pixels, with the intent to convey a certain meaning and feeling. A sustained metaphor semantics which creates a new physics.

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There was another question that, prosaic, was no less important: their economic viability. Even when the money in SL has a sense of miniature, the gradation of prices in this simulated world does not always keep consistency. So I set a maximum threshold under which the acquisition is always marked by the interest of the work, regardless of the name its author has assayed.

Do you guarantee the artistic interest of the work a high price? Taste in art is very subjective. After the attraction of a particular work arouses in me, is subjected to an internal debate: What? What resources the author has used to cause that attracts me? What is the key to his thinking?

Faced with an emotional situation that could qualify as outright, I value the relationship between writing and imagination when deciding on a purchase.

The concept differs from market seriously RL/SL in principle and until now there is no secondary market nor is there value; in art, the use value prevailing on the exchange value. The owner is not allowed to change the price, or transfer the work. The play is a guy who generates copies, close to the discharge of a song very rarely what is sold is an original. I do not know, in this case, if the author grants permission to transfer the work to another owner, and if allowed price change.

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What time of SL art portrays this body of work? The collection began in 2009 but has not yet been completed. It brings together artists born since 2006, coincides to a considerable extent, the generation of Holala Alter (2008), and leaves room for artists who have appeared recently exhibiting his works.

The relationship to these artists and their works, including the role of the self in this art, my avatar is part of it, or confused, or merges with the work, in this case, the self
appears as the work of art. It so happens that in the metaverse and the thing I equate to the extent that everything here is representation, the representation of a representation, and develops into a state subject dips. Immersion is the involvement of self with the environment, the consummation of the metaphor of electronic life.

The metaverse is necessarily diving. There are clues in this art that appeal to me greatly: its development in time in SL, the space is an act, is process, and exploits the topological symmetry to achieve meanings that expand the realm of the imagination.

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This collection includes works from the SB, but fit the criteria for the collection because the paradoxical relationship speculate SL / RL, and highlight the links between the two lives.

Art is the most artificial speech and the first man who invented and which is opposed to nature, although representing, abstracting, reducing its scale and subject. The other idea of identification between art and nature as art, it seems remarkable when assessing the works for possible acquisition.

In another sense, not always the works are for sale. And in some cases, my efforts to purchase certain works have been unsuccessful. So that the chances of executing my desires, sometimes away from my decisions based on them.

Artists in the collection:

Aneli Abeyante, Aloisio Congrejo, Anley Piers, Betty Tureaud, Binary Quadrity, Blue Tsuki, Cherry Manga, Chuckmatrix Clip, DACO Monday, Elie Maurice, Fiona Leitner, Fuschia Nightfire, Giovanna Cerise, Gleman Jun, Glyph Graves, Gracie Kendal, Heinky Shelman, Hypatia Pickens, Ichtyo broome, Loki glas, Luko Enoch, Maryva Mayo, Max Bobair, Miso Susanowa, Mitou Waco, Nessuno Myoo, Robin Moore, Sabrinaa Nightfire, Saiwun Yoshikawa, Buterbugsmetropolis Robo, Shellina Winkler, Shoshisn Shilova, Sistagrlro Wei, Treacle Darlandes, Tani Thor, Typote Beck and Yeti Bing.

CSULB Virtual Art Gallery Fall Semester!

2011-09-21T19:42:00.000-07:00

Last year I was invited to take part in the Cal Sate Univerity at Long Beach's Virtual Art Gallery program, part of the Art110 course at CSULB as an artist-of-study. You can read last year's program here.

I am pleased to be again asked to participate in this program, curated by Glenn Zucman (SL: Lothar Leborski), an instructor at CSULB who is featuring a lot more Second Life artists this year in the program. It's very cool; Prof. Zucman and his TA Elizabeth Juarez (SL name: Mu5icliz Frentis) are very serious about the possibilities of virtual art.

Here's what Prof. Zuckman said after last year's class:

I’d hoped to have as many of the groups meet with their artists as possible, but without the pressure of a formal requirement, few actually did this. Your group got to meet with you in SL, and another group was able to meet F2F with an exciting performance artist / sculptor, Jocelyn Foye. Most of the other groups had much more minimal contact with their artists via email or Facebook.

I think actually interacting with your artist is so important, that I’m restructuring the course for fall, making this a scheduled part of the work. We’re also letting go of wonderful but dead artists like Ana Mendieta and amazing but inaccessible artists like Banksy, and putting together a group of Second Life artists they can meet with in-world, Southern California artists they can meet F2F, and a few New York and beyond artists they can meet with via skype.

A lot of my friends have been asked to participate this year: Gracie Kendal, Betty Tureaud, Trill Zapatero, Douglas Story, Desdemona Enfield, Vaneeesa Blaylock, soror Nishi, Wizard Gynoid, Tuna Oddfellow and Alizarin Goldflake. Quite a stellar lineup!

"The students will create both an architecture (or un-architecture) for the gallery, and also work with the artist to curate a compelling and insightful exhibition of their work. Note that we have 2 sections of this course, and would like to have a team from each section work with you, so there would be 2 independent, different galleries created. We will give you 3D copies of both galleries and also 2D photos of them."

There's a Facebook group and a student wiki. The students will speak to the artists about their work, tour some of their installations and galleries and then construct their own virtual gallery on the CSULB sims.

He says "The commitment from you should be minimal. We'd like for them to have one in-world meeting with you... we would like them to spend an hour or so with you so they can develop an understanding of your work and your ideas. This, and permission to exhibit your work, are the main things we are asking from you."

I had a BLAST with the students last year; I spent a lot more than one hour with them. It's true that a lot of time was spent explaining the basics of SL... but that made me think back to when I was a noob, and made me think harder about exactly what I was doing and how I was approaching it; that gave me a better understanding of my own work, so we all learned something. I really enjoyed talking with the students while I explained what LMs and TPs were, how to move stuff and how to rez a prim. Nothing like the enthusiasm of a noob to give you a vicarious thrill as they rez a wooden block :D

I'm looking forward to it again!

Watching Social Media - Occupy Wall Street

2011-09-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

two new posts @Netpolitik, both dealing with the 'OccupyWallStreet' operation going on in NY at Wall Street since Sept. 17th.

Taking Wall Street by Twitter

This first is very messy, "real-time" blogging post; grabbing tweets as the situation unfolded and attempting to stay with the stream. Lots of conflicting information about what was happening and some observations about the 'media grey-out' happening domestically when foreign media (notably Russian, Egyptian and Spanish) were putting front-page or lead stories up. Lots of great tweets reproduced.

Taking Wall Street by Twitter - Day 3 - News

This post is a bit more coherent, summarising some of the issues, fact-checking on stuff like Twitter censoring hashtags, Yahoo email killing mail sent with the hasgtag or link to OccupyWallStreet.org (videos of this happening) and Facebook deleting user's wall and post items in the same manner (video of this happening)

There's a lot of links to both independent (blog) media and mainstream media collected over the last 3 days as information starts to get out.

Definitely Netpolitik material; it's not all cheerleading but it is a fascinating look into using social media to "organize" a protest, how information and disinformation can cross swords and how mainstream media can be routed around by the network.

The Treasure of the Social Madre

2011-09-13T18:05:00.001-07:00

Mini Review:
Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg meet up with grizzled prospector Scott McNealy and decide to join with him in search of gold in the wilds of the Internet. Through enormous difficulties, they eventually succeed in finding gold, but nyms, bloggers, and most especially greed threaten to turn their success into disaster.

MEMORABLE QUOTES:

McNealy: Aye, me old gaffer was a People Miner in Ought Eleven; struck a rich vein in the MySpace Mountains but the Company jumped his claim...

Urchin: Mister, what does it mean when a company cashes out?
Schmidt: *sweat drop* *grimace*

Nym: ID? We ain't got no IDs. We don't need no IDs. I don't have to show you any stinking ID.

Schmidt: You talk about that data like it was real people.

Zuckerberg: Conscience. What a thing. If you believe you got a conscience it'll pester you to death. But if you don't believe you got one, what could it do t'ya? Makes me sick, all this talking and fussing about nonsense.

Schmidt: I think I'll go to sleep and dream about piles of data getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Zuckerberg: Do you believe that stuff the old man was saying the other night at the Marketing Conference about data changin' a man's soul so's he ain't the same sort of man as he was before findin' it?

SPECIAL DOUBLE FEATURE

COMING SOON TO AN INTERNETS NEAR YOU!

New post at netpolitik

2011-09-12T02:34:00.000-07:00

"Faithful To Thee, America, In Our Fashion"

Betty Tureaud's Matrix & revisiting 'code dreams'

2011-09-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

Betty Tureaud has a cool new build at Danish Visions called 'The Matrix' which incorporates QR codes, which are gaining some current attention because of several new apps for the iPhone for reading these codes. These codes are not new to Japan and many European nations where they have been widely used for a long time.

My installation for last year's Artbreaker! show at Pop Art Lab, 'code dreams', contained many types of coded information which had to be discovered like easter eggs or hidden treasure. Among the coding systems used were QR and barcode; some were textures on things, some were sculptures and some were in tonal sequences. If you want to know all about that installation you can read this older post:

Deconstructing code dreams - breaking the 6th wall

Betty's work jogged my memory and inspired me to dig out the QR and barcode bitmaps I used in code dreams and put them up on Flickr. Such codes are fun to play with and not limited to merely commercial uses. If you have a QR or barcode scanning app, you should be able to scan the code blocks and get the text, links and other information contained in the codes. Have fun and realize that information can be all around you; it's sometimes up to you to discover it and read the meaning.

code dreams QR & barcode set on Flickr

And don't forget to visit Betty's fabulous installation at Danish Visions:

SLurl: The Matrix at Danish Visions

PS: here's the manifesto for code dreams in QR code:

On scanning this QR stamp you should get the following text:

"There is information all around you; hidden meanings in the patterns of the world. Some people are aware of those hidden meanings; we call them shamans, witches, wizards. They read signs and wonders, trends and currents and know their meanings."

Machinima: The Zinn/War & Peace

2011-09-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

In June, 2011 Trill Zapatero curated the War & Peace show at The Howard Zinn Center for Social Consciousness and the Arts, a fantastically-detailed build Trill did on the Four Bridges Project sim in Second Life.

This is one small film of the Zinn, which is still open and can be reached in Second Life at the SLurl given below. I urge you to visit and take in the fantastic work of Trill and the contributing artists and learn something about Howard Zinn and the work being done at Four Bridges in Second Life.

... or watch in better resolution on You Tube

Contributing Artists:

Em Larsson, Drumstick Ah, Igor Ballyhoo, Oona Eiren, Plot Tracer, Novia Halostar, Filthy Fluno, Chrome Underwood, Asmita Duranjaya, Trill Zapatero, millay Freschi, Pol Jarvin, Larkworthy Antfarm, Fiona Leitner, Mona Mendes, Aaron Hughes, Gamma Infinity, Bobbi Laval, pixel Reanimator, Newbab Zsigmond, Miso Susanowa

SLurl: War & Peace at The Zinn

One of those Moods

2011-09-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

Thinking about the net, then and now; friends, life, time, change...

"They were hiding behind hay bales,
They were planting in the full moon
They had given all they had for something new
But the light of day was on them,
They could see the thrashers coming
And the water shone like diamonds in the dew.

And I was just getting up, hit the road before it's light
Trying to catch an hour on the sun
When I saw those thrashers rolling by,
Looking more than two lanes wide
I was feelin' like my day had just begun.

          Where the eagle glides ascending
          There's an ancient river bending
          Down the timeless gorge of changes
          Where sleeplessness awaits
          I searched out my companions,
          Who were lost in crystal canyons
          When the aimless blade of science
          Slashed the pearly gates.

It was then I knew I'd had enough,
Burned my credit card for fuel
Headed out to where the pavement turns to sand
With a one-way ticket to the land of truth
And my suitcase in my hand
How I lost my friends I still don't understand.

They had the best selection,
They were poisoned with protection
There was nothing that they needed,
Nothing left to find
They were lost in rock formations
Or became park bench mutations
On the sidewalks and in the stations
They were waiting, waiting.

So I got bored and left them there,
They were just deadweight to me
Better down the road without that load
Brings back the time when I was eight or nine
I was watchin' my mama's T.V.,
It was that great Grand Canyon rescue episode.

          Where the vulture glides descending
          On an asphalt highway bending
          Thru libraries and museums, galaxies and stars
          Down the windy halls of friendship
          To the rose clipped by the bullwhip
          The motel of lost companions
          Waits with heated pool and bar.

But me I'm not stopping there,
Got my own row left to hoe
Just another line in the field of time
When the thrashers comes, I'll be stuck in the sun
Like the dinosaurs in shrines
Then I'll know the time has come
To give what's mine."

Neil Young, Thrasher - Harvest, 1972

Neil, Rust Never Sleeps tour, 1979

Dr. Google, the IGP and Darth Schmidt

2011-09-04T00:27:00.001-07:00

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt reveals his dastardy plan.

Insane Google Posse, yo!

Darth Schmidt confronts Botgirl

New Post at Netpolitik

2011-09-02T15:02:00.000-07:00

New post on my other blog, Netpolitik:

Nymwars: Parsing the Signal

All Your Nyms Are Belong To Us

2011-08-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

In A. D. 2011 war was beginning.

Netizen: What happened.

Nym: Somebody set us up the bomb.

Netizen: We get signal.

Blogger: What!

Nym: Main screen turn on.

Netizen: It's you!!

GOOGLE: How are you gentlemen.

GOOGLE: All your nyms are belong to us.
GOOGLE: You are your way to destruction.

Nym: What you say!!

GOOGLE: You have no chance to survive make your time.
GOOGLE: Ha ha ha ha . . . .

Netizen: Blogger!!

Blogger: Take off every "Nym"!!
Blogger: You know what you doing.
Blogger: Move 'Nym'

Blogger: For great justice.

[larger version of the above frame on Flickr]

Google Baby

2011-08-29T07:48:00.001-07:00

Google Baby

Google baby, slip some email under the tree, for me
I've been an awful real name
Google baby, so verify my profile tonight

Google baby, I really like to type on my blog, I flogged
until my fingers were weak
Google baby, so verify my profile tonight

Think of all the mail I have missed
Think of all the apps that I had to desist
My data could be oh so good
If you'd check off my profile list

Google honey, I want a map and really, that's
not a lot; I've been consuming all year
Google baby, so verify my profile tonight

Google cutie, there's one thing that I really do need, TV
to cut the cord to the box
Google cutie, so verify my profile tonight

Google baby, I'm filling in my profile, real name
the same as it says on my bills
Google baby, so verify my profile tonight

Come and sniff my profile free
for marketing purposes, please use me!
I really did believe in you
let's see if you believe in me
Boo doo bee doo

Google baby, forgot to mention one little thing, a ring
on my cheap prepaid phone
Google baby, so verify my profile tonight

verify my profile tonight
verify my profile tonight

Oh, Google! *giggles*

(In case the midi plugin won't play for you or you are musically unaware of this song, it is Eartha Kitt's perennial Christmas favorite, "Santa Baby," about the consequences and games of being "kept" and coddled; covered by a million people but here's Eartha doing it best: Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby on You Tube)

Machinima: Creative Power

2011-08-27T22:05:00.000-07:00

soror Nishi's beautiful build in Inworldz, "Creative Power."

Heart of Darkness

2011-08-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

Maybe you see further than I can see,
or maybe things all just look differently;
Maybe I'm nothing but a shadow on the wall,
Maybe love's a tomb where you dance at night;
Maybe sanctuary is an electric light.
I get so tired it's like I'm another man;
and everything I see seems so underhanded.
and I don't see anything that I want;
and I don't see anything that I want.

Image, object, & illusion go down to the corner,
where none of the faces fit a human form;
where nothing I see there isn't deformed;
where in a secret lab works Doctor Moreau;
and no private eye's gotta tell me it's a long goodbye...
I get so tired it's like I'm another man,
and everything I see seems so underhanded;
I don't see anything that I want;
And I don't see anything that I want.

Lookin' into
Lookin' into
I'm lookin' into
I'm lookin' into the
Looking into the (heart)
I'm lookin' into the (heart of darkness)
Lookin' into the (heart of darkness)
I'm lookin' into the (heart of darkness)

Heart of Darkness

Pere Ubu

Hearthan Records, 1975

Ballad of the Nym Berets

2011-08-16T00:32:00.000-07:00

Ballad of the Nym Berets

Typing people on keyboards;

These good souls - ladies and lords;
Folks who mean just what they say -
The good peeps of the Nym Beret

Honored names upon the net;
Chatting friends; best evar yet!
A hundred folks I've met to date,
And they're all proud to wear the Nym Beret

Folks who give generously;
Intelligent peeps; the kind you need;
They are real, just like they say;
But Google spits on the Nym Beret

Well-known nyms upon the net;
Chatting friends; best evar yet!
One thousand folks I've met to date,
I know them all by their Nym Beret

Back at home, the typist waits;
Her honored nym has met its fate -
No matter what she has to say,
Google stamps on the Nym Beret

So pick a name that don't sound weird -
Make it dull or you're gonna be speared;
And then suspension is your fate,
You'll be marked as a Nym Beret

for Botgirl
photo © 2010 by Raven Haalan

ADDENDUM: for you non-musicologists, this is a parody of a hit song from 1966 by Ssgt Barry Sadler called "The Ballad of the Green Berets", a super-pro-military quasi-hymn that became very popular. That link will show you the video on You Tube :D

Sidenote: the midi file playing was first created and used on my 1996 site, which also gives this blog its title (continuity!). At that time, the parody was Ballad of the PINK Berets, refering to my Battlenet all-girl mech team, which won 1st place 2 yrs in a row :P

State of Mind at SLCC & Silly Videos

2011-08-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

I was very surprised to have Inara Pey tweet me last Saturday and tell me I should listen to Rik Panganiban (SL: Rik Riel), Community Manager at the Non-Profit Commons give his keynote speech "We Built This City: Creating a Better World" at the Second Life Community Convention (SLCC). I had missed the speeches in realtime and figured I'd get around to watching them later, but I called up Rik's recorded video stream. Here's the teaser:

"Rik Panganiban will give a rousing opening keynote, highlighting some of the coolest applications of Second Life toward bettering the human condition and saving the planet. He will also address some of the current and upcoming challenges facing the "public good" sector in virtual worlds."

I was very pleased to see him feature my installation "State of Mind: The Politics of Information" in his presentation, calling it "a really powerful use of satire and dark humor to talk about government surveillance and privacy issues."

Mostly Rik spoke about the privacy and identity issues State engages (which is understandable as they are currently on everyone's mind lately). The installation is very info-dense and takes several hours to encompass all the hidden and interlocking themes (not to mention the carry-away Documents Briefcase).

I am glad not only for myself but for the Four Bridges Project & sims, particularly millay Freschi, Trill Zapatero and Coyote Longfall for their continued support of this installation in Second Life. It was very difficult to do and continues to occupy time and effort, as these issues are only growing. He also mentioned Loup Erin's "Television Rules The Nation," which Loup was kind enough to let me feature in the installation because of the way the theme of the piece dovetailed with the message of State of Mind.

You can read a bit about the installation here, on my new blog Netpolitik and at the Four Bridges site although I really need to do a thorough post on it someday.

Thanks Rik; I am proud to contribute not only to my own enjoyment of Second Life but to the dialogue and debate surrounding the very dark issues State of Mind seeks to engage.

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Silly Videos

Ok, still playing with my flycam and editor but I did two silly videos (that may be yanked off You Tube, because WMG (Warner Music Group) thinks they own Wagner and Pomp & Circumstance -_-).

Anyways, here's the one that's a tribute to StS (Santeri Ojala)'s brilliant shreds and the new art form of shredding-

weaselFEAR - Bunny Bologna (an animal shred)

Ride of the Avatars (with Trill Zapatero as Da Pony)

and my tribute to Wizard Gynoid being unsuspended from Google+

Wizard Gynoid - Heroine of the Nymwars

enjoy (before GoogleTube yanks them)

A Guide To Responsible Meeroo Hunting

2011-08-11T01:11:00.000-07:00

omnomnom!

Since the Meeroo Liberation Front [MLF] has become active, led by the anarchist @BritishMeeroo, Meeroo aficianados have come under increasing attack. We have been splattered with fake Meeroo blood while sporting our Meeroo winter coats; we have been hounded in the press; we have been misrepresented and misquoted. We, the responsible Meeroo Eaters, would like to ease public fears that we are monsters, bent on destroying Meeroos willy-nilly for our own gain and pleasure. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Know Your Prey

This is not a Meeroo! Despite superficial similarities, the above is a part-human Furry and not to be confused with a Meeroo! Please use this handy Meeroo Identification Guide to ensure you are well-versed in the appearance of your prey.

Domesticated Meeroo are not permissible nor acceptable prey. Any Meeroo that is not wild, including ranch-bred Meeroo, is not a legitimate target. Please only hunt wild Meeroo; those that have escaped and those that have run away from their neglectful, disinterested owners. You wouldn't want a cute little girl like this crying because you shot her pet Meeroo, would you?

Hunting Responsibly

We have established that the wild Meeroo is the only acceptable prey. Let us talk about the ethics of Meeroo hunting.

Many Meeroo escape back into the wild because of the inattention and neglect of their owners. Whether through lack of food or love, Meeroo escape and cause environmental havok in a similar way to the rabbits of Australia or the wild pigs of Hawai'i. Like wise, when wild Meeroo herd together, they are more susceptible to disease, weakening the herd and transmitting the diseases to their young, who grow up afflicted. This is not healthy for the herd.

Wild Meeroo are often desperate, pitiful creatures, following people around, clinging to their ankles and moaning. Starving Meeroo are a very pitiful sight - they may take to assaulting vehicles at traffic stop points, smearing a dirty rag around your windshield while pressuring you for money for "cleaning your windshield"; they may hang around stores where women shop, panhandling berries and frightening children. They have been known to engage in gangsterism and hoodlumry. They may carry ticks or other parasites.

For these and many other reasons, we believe in hunting Meeroo. Certain guidelines should be observed in order to be a responsible Meeroo hunter.

Rules for Good Sportsmanship in Meeroo Hunting

1. No domestic Meeroo should be hunted. Enjoy them and study their ways. Do not lick your lips around domesticated Meeroo or make comments about recipes or tastiness; you may frighten them or their owner. Restrain yourself. Remember, some people have pet cows, pigs and chickens too.

2. Meeroo should not be indiscriminately hunted from helicopters ala Sarah Palin. Responsible hunters do not hunt for the thrill of killing. Real hunters do not mass murder animals for "sport."

3. Only hunt as many Meeroo as you can reasonably eat at one time or freeze for later. Do not overhunt Meeroo. There will be a plentiful supply owing to the transient nature of human affections (and the price of berry bowls). Be patient; if you hunt them, they will come.

4. Wild Meeroo have a huge range owing to the dearth of indigenous virtual flora from which to feed. Never hunt Meeroo in the same area twice in one season. Range far and wide while hunting Meeroo in order to give the species some "breathing room."

5. Utilize all parts of the Meeroo, not just prime cuts. Remember, this animal gave its life for you to live so please treat a dead Meeroo with respect. Collect the bones for soup; the hooves for gelatin or buttons and the tendons and ligaments for bow strings, boot laces and woven mats. The tails may be added to a variety of fashions or worn simply as a different type of Furry attachment. The hollow bones of the Meeroo make excellent flutes and whistles; claws and teeth may be used as jewelry. Meeroos are small, but a coat made from Meeroo hide is very warm, snuggly and weatherproof. They also make stylish purses and handbags.

6. Use weapons that will stun a Meeroo until you administer the coup de grâce; terrifying the Meeroo while it is already in pain is a bad spiritual thing. It will also taint the meat with excess adrenaline, making it "gamey" and "sour." Remember, you are not a murderer; you are a responsible sportsman and hunter. Do not toy with your Meeroo but dispatch it with the utmost haste and care. A hunting bow will ensure that you maintain your woodscraft skills; a small club may be carried to stun a Meeroo weakened by an arrow until the finishing blow.

7. Never ever hunt immature Meeroo. The sense of this should be apparent. It is against the law to hunt immature Meeroo. There is not enough meat on them to make it worthwhile anyway.

With these simple rules, one may hunt Meeroo in a responsible and conscientious fashion; far more responsibly that the consumers of cows, pigs and chickens do; hunting only for food, not sport and dispatching the prey in a swift and humane manner, utilizing all parts of the Meeroo.

Remember, you are a Hunter in direct contact with your prey, unlike the consumers who passively accept the plastic-wrapped loaves in the grocery as some kind of natural form of edible animal. You have accepted the reality of Life and participate in it fully. Honor the Meeroo for the bounty he gives you.

And you will also have some wonderful Meeroo recipes to share!

New Blog - NetPolitik

2011-08-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

I am separating my work Netpolitik/The Politics of Information from this blog: it will be accessible at Netpolitik - http://netpolitiks.blogspot.com.

The older articles here will remain, but also be copied over to that blog for ease of use.

I hope to see interested persons there; I welcome comments, feedback and debate on these issues.

Netpolitik:The Revolution Will Not Be Monetized

2011-08-08T04:46:00.000-07:00

The Information Revolution
Will Not Be Monetized

You will not be able to stay home, nyms.
You will not be able to log in, click once and zone out.
You will not be able to lose yourself in blogs and forums
or be AFK or BRB
because the revolution will not be monetized.

The revolution will not be ip accessible,
The revolution will not be in the cloud;
You will not be combed, cultured or deep-packet scrutinized;
No one will grab your metaphorical genitals with their metaphorical
rubber-clad hands and rummage through your most intimate communications.

The revolution will not ask you for your government-sanctioned and approved identification for verification that you are an eager consumer with cash in hand ready to grease the wheels of progress. The revolution will not follow you on Twitter or trail your dossier to make it easier for you to log in to websites. The revolution will not demand an extra tax to support the outmoded business models and obscene profits of an old and rotting media cartel which privatized a public commodity and stole the network from you to line their own fat pockets. The revolution will not be monetized.

The revolution will not be quantized, synthesised or facially-recognized. The revolution will not come to you over an unlimited line with traffic-shaping, hidden caps or peak hours. The revolution will not come as an attachment in your free email or downloaded movies from The Pirate Bay, or hand you maps on your GPS or phone. The revolution will not care about the latest watered-down product being pushed by the Marketeers as a ringtone, because the revolution will not be monetized.

The revolution will not be LOLcats, or a collection of adorable kittens, or hamsters, or llamas or ponies. The revolution will not be Flash ads, Flash cookies, Flash menues or flash actors. It will not be the Revolution of Linux on the Desktop. The revolution will not care if you use vi or emacs; the revolution will not do Windows because the revolution will not be monetized.

The revolution will not be emailed, downloaded, posted on You Tube or have a Facebook page. It will not be in your Circles or on your contacts list. All channels may not be available in all countries. You will not get to vote thumbs up or thumbs down or leave comments about the revolution. The revolution will not be Farmville and the revolution will not check your social network before employing you.

The revolution will not come in all resolutions and all 32M possible colors including several Alpha channels for transparency. The revolution will not be in your iPhone, your iPad or your iMac; there will not be an app for everything and Androids are not going to save you. The revolution will not be 4G or 5G or 8G or the BeeGees because the revolution will not be monetized.

The information revolution will not be monetized,
will not be monetized,
will not be monetized,
will not be monetized,
the revolution will be no Facebook, nyms;
the revolution will be streaming live.

Created on Twitter
Remix/Homage to Gil Scott-Heron, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

ADDENDUM 08.08.11

Thank the gods for the internet
(UK Riots)

I was caught in the middle of the Los Angeles Riots in 1992. I spent days taping local news because the media was given direct orders from the President to censor outgoing footage (look it up). There were very few of us on the internets at that time and information was being dispersed by forums, newsgroups and email.

What we saw on the ground conflicted heavily with what I saw over CNN and other external media. The story about Daryl Gates, then-Chief of the LAPD and his criminal actions in pulling the police from the city after the Rodney King trial over an internal power struggle were not reported. Likewise, external media outlets were downplaying the spread and extent of the war zone which LA had become, making it appear to be "small pockets of violence" when in fact my city looked like Beirut.

Here's what I personally saw and video/photographed:

- Three boys standing in a burning, collapsing Payless shoe store, trying on shoes to make sure they were stealing the right size.

- A furious gun battle right outside my apartment between rival gangs of looters.

- The Chief of Police smiling at the cameras as he allowed his men to remain leaderless.

- The local news telling us after 3 days that the National Guard was coming, which cheered us all... except then they told us the Guard would have no ammunition with them.

- Local news media showing affected areas and non-infected areas; basically telling everyone where there were no police and what were good targets.

- A very white, very Cali young woman in her 20s in a toy Suzuki jeep (pricey) back it into an trendy/exclusive Melrose clothing store's front window and shovel dresses and accessories into the jeep.

- A legitimate social protest becoming a match to the explosive social undercurrents and continuing accumulation of injustices prevalent in Los Angeles at that time. The protest devolved into a mindless violence against unseen and unfightable conditions across racial lines.

- Many honest, beautiful and brave black women and men stand in the path of rioters, crying and begging and also talking back to the looters, telling them they were damaging their own community, that they were thugs and that they did not speak for the black community this way.

- Many people of many colors protecting and supporting the Korean and black businesses and homes, sometimes at the threat of imminent violence.

It took approximately 30 hours for the local newspeople to start censoring footage; for the local anchors to agree on the story that was to be told and to sanitize their previous coverage using words like "well we can't always go on what we see" and "these things can be taken out of context" while meanwhile urging us in covert subtext to "do what you have to do to remain safe" (ie- the police aren't going to help you and you'd better get a gun). Information on the status of the violence was being tailored and shaped for us by the media and the government.

We did not have You Tube or Twitter or blogs or Plurk then. Personal cell phones were not in use. I thank the gods that we have them all now.

Please do not overlook the incredible possibilities the internets open for us in the consumer attraction to the Big Shiny. You probably don't know what it's like living without it, but I remember.

My video: I'm On Fire - The 1992 LA Riots

NetPolitik: A Primer - Introduction

2011-08-06T03:52:00.000-07:00

"This is truly a transformative event on the global scene - namely that for the first time in human history - for the first time in all of human history - almost all of mankind is politically awake - activated; politically conscious and interactive." - Zbigniew Brzezinski

"The Net's made up of billions of mice... working parallel all at the same time, all trained to touch the right plate, to register On or Off... human microcomponents inputting data, calling it up, changing the patterns over and over... They'd never imagine the real reach of the supersystem they were a part of... human brains were limited function, but they were cheap, flexible, reliable equipment... and when they were linked together into a network, with superseed access fusing them into a whole, those puny, slow-moving human-sized intelligences became something more..." - Joan D. Vinge, Catspaw, 1988

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The controversy and debate over the Google+ "real names" policy, aka Nymwars, has emerged into the general public's awareness over the past few weeks and I cannot be more thrilled. The issues of identity, transparency, marketing, monitoring, data farming and security have exploded into the mainstream media and are being talked about, debated and discussed openly and with great vigor. I have waited half my life for this moment.

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Logging In To The Future

When I first logged on to the Nets circa 1983, I was very young; younger than most of my contemporaries (unlike today). I was part of a new society, and like any smart young person, I wanted to know the rules and reasons; the social codes of conduct of my new society. I wanted to know them because I wanted to be part of the community.

My training in anthropology/sociology as well as my extensive studies on symbolism, societal rituals and underlying structural assumptions made me aware of this society from an outsider's (anthropologist's) perspective. It was an elite, true; based mostly on technical knowledge and accessibility. But it was also an egalitarian and purely-democratic elite; you could elect yourself to this elite with only application and study. This was exactly the opposite of most hierarchical societal structures, which is why it was an exciting field; this was something new in human relations. You didn't have to be born into the right family or have the right connections (except for a modem). You could be as good as your intelligence, study and practice could make you. You could learn almost anything about the technology you wanted to, using the resources of that very technology [bootstrapping].

The Technical Self Becomes Political

So I began to spend an increasingly huge amount of time on the nets, eager to explore a field that was brand-new in my time; a huge opportunity for any student. Cyberpunk and cypherpunk were engaging in speculation and debate over issues of artificial intelligence, datamining, accountability and pervasive presence all triggered or inspired by the new technology explosion. People like John Perry Barlow were discussing the political ramifications of software and communications, spurred on by Operation Sundevil and the infamous raid on Steve Jackson Games. Also in the news was the Morris Worm, which became the first conviction under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. [for a great read of the political underpinnings to much of today's internet law, read Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier - Bruce has generously made this seminal book freely-downloadable at that link]

In my quest to understand both the tech and the society I had found, I thought, read and wrote about both technical issues (such as how to get that yummy fuschia HTML text) and... politics. I could not avoid politics; it had started to intrude on the technical net world. From my readings of cybertheorists like Donna Haraway (A Manifesto For Cyborgs, 1985) and Sherry Turkle (The Second Self, 1984), my very-extensive collection of cyber/cypherpunk and the current newspaper headlines and BBS forums, I became aware of the politics of information.

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Environmental Variables

Just as today most of us are very aware of the currents, fads, trends and common issues affecting our online presence and access to information, my world in those days was very informed by the speculation and debate surrounding the intrusion of government and corporations into what had mostly been a private playground and workspace of the technical crowd. While I was straining my poor little artist-brain to understand the equipment necessary to get online and join this society, I could not overlook the political ramifications of these intrusions (at that time, Operation Sundevil was as hot and widely-discussed an event as Nymwars).

As a socio-anthropologist I had to become conversant with the human aspects of this new technology; the affect on the societal structure, dialogue, language and behaviour. Any true study of a society must encompass the political and power hierarchies of the tribal unit; the significance of ritual, codes, religion and authority on societal structure is exactly what the field is about.

Watching The Network Grow

The reason I found all this tremendously exciting [outside the pure technical wizardry] was that I was in the right place at the right time to observe the primal foundations of a new societal structure. I could not help but relate the growth of the physical network and its effect on the members of its' society to the structures of agrarian, hunter-gatherer and industrial societies and the effect of their brand of technology on their social structures [see the effects of the cotton gin on US politics for example, or Henry Ford's sponsorship of the assembly line model or his labor philosophy]

I found that many of the early common net discussions, without an established or rigid hierarchy, would eventually respond in a self-policing manner to trolls, crackers and other "disturbers of the Commons." Sure, there were micro-hierarchies; some based purely on authoritative knowledge (Richard Stallman, Vint Cerf, Bruce Sterling) and some based on control (sysops, forum moderators, IRC channel controllers). But now, rather than one person or group being in complete control of the debate by controlling and channeling access to information, opinion and discussion as was previously the model of most human societal structure since the beginning of history, suddenly there were channels that could not be controlled. The debate could not be shut down from one central source; indeed, the structure of the politics mirrored the structure of the network; designed to be self-routing, to circumvent obstructions and restrictions and to carry the signal forward by reconfiguring the route.

Tourist or Traveler?

The Net was inventing its own codes of conduct, based on a new democratic model of access to information and open public channels. Far from being the "lawless Wild West" that the mainstream press continues to trumpet as a model, I saw it more akin to a tourist town: at times invaded by hordes of gum-chewing, photo-snapping masses of "day trippers" using the technology without a fundamental knowledge of the structure or history of the town.

[Many tourists are notorious for paying little heed to the local character, customs or ethical social structures of the towns they invade. But the way to truly know a society or culture is not to snap a photo and go away after getting drunk in a local bar and pissing on the town square's beautiful garden, where many locals come to rest, to admire, to meet-and-greet and interact]

The way to understand the rich culture of a society is to participate in it; to observe, to think and speculate; to interact and engage the locals and to listen to a different model than the one you carry around in your head. If you go to Paris and eat all of your meals in the Paris McDonalds, or you go to Hawai'i and spend all your time in the Hilton, you are only imposing your own long-held models of society and culture. You're masturbating in a mirror and thinking you are learning. All you are seeing is a pretty backdrop of scenery; you might as well have stayed home, spared the expense and spent your time looking at pretty pictures in travel magazines.

A traveler, on the other hand, goes to places to experience them as they are; as a different physical and socio-political environment. A tourist comes to skim a surface; a traveler (or socio-anthropologist) comes because they wish to participate in a different reality.

On The Dig Site

I became aware of the tremendous potential of the networking model as a state/phase transition from the linear, heirarchically-dominated model that has held sway over human discourse and politics for hundreds of years. I began to view my studies through the framework of similar sociological observations made about the impact of technology on societal structure - the assembly line, the cotton gin, the recurve bows of the Mongols, the printing press. Each of these technological inventions had a tremendous impact on the structure and behaviour of the societies that adopted them. Society adapted to the technology; in turn, the technology created new structures in that society.

I was on the ground floor observing the invention and formation of a new societal model based on the structures of a new technology. Hot dog! This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I was completely smitten, jazzed and overwhelmed with gratitude to What Powers May Be for the chance to participate in this paradigm-changing event as a serious student and member.

I studied everything - my own computer, the programs I used, the structures of the net from a technical perspective (what exactly is TCP? IP? How do they work? What's ICMP? Why should I know about it?) based on the need to configure my computer to interact with BBS systems, telnet-reachable systems and game servers. Because I wanted to play in this environment, I had to understand my environment to a greater or lesser degree in order to accomplish what I wanted to do.

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Portrait of the Artist As A Young Hacker

One of my observations was that having to think in terms of interconnected complex layers of multiple subsystems was analogous to what I did as an artist: juggle shifting layers of symbolic abstraction to synthesize an end/aim/purpose/communication. The net is a huge Magic Mirror, feeding back what is put into it in the same way a network or program produces results depending on how the data are obtained, cross-indexed and referenced. The artist functions in a similar way by self-ordering the quest for meaning, assembling data (elements), defining the desired end/function and producing a work of art. Cybernetic models were applicable to both processes.

This was a complete revelation to me; as a lazy right-brain/intuitive Generalist, I was forced to strictly discipline myself. To operate my own computer I had to understand my computer; how it worked, the subsystems inside it, the software to configure it and the theory of how it functioned in a networked environment. To say that I had many more tearful nights of frustration than the average "natural" geek is an understatement [maths != me]. I persevered for several reasons: I knew I was a lazy right-brain Dreamer type and I thought computers could at least give me some structure to exercise and expand my left-brain. I had the motivation to do so for both artistic and sociological reasons. I started to see what the concept of networking was truly about.

I made myself learn to build computers because it was cheaper, but it also required me to learn about disk drives, throughput, memory buses, sideband processes, concurrency, latency, power requirements and balancing all that off in a superior system that did what I wanted it to do (and cost me less than systems less efficient, powerful and streamlined than mine) . Understanding the complex system of a computer and observing the even more complex structures of a local network, a wide-area network and the giant metanetwork that was the result of all the minor networks linked to it expanded my mind in many directions.

I saw the art of it; the beauty and symmetry of it; I saw the logic of it; I saw how the processes linked together in a model almost biological in its ability to configure, reconfigure and self-adjust along cybernetic feedback lines. I was living and absorbing network theory and realizing it dovetailed with my socio-anthropological studies, which were in turn based on my desire to understand my craft from the roots of civilization to the present - art as a communication of human experience.

Is it any wonder I have spent half my life exploring this fontier?

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An Artist's Perspective

As I have watched the network grow and the impact of that on communication between larger groups of people than has ever been possible before, I have also watched the invasion and exploitation of that network and this new thing by the forces of both government and corporations.

I have watched as these new forces inpacted on the system which I had been studying, in the same way I would observe the effects of a new program or process introduced into my computer or a new element introduced to a socio-political matrix ["Look Ma! The Wheel!!!"]. They are an integral variable of force and vector in the program and in the structures of both the network and society. They affect the group/tribe's consciousness and their myths, stories and minds; they are as significant as the invasion of Britain by the forces of Julius Caesar.

This is my real avocation as an artist; beyond creating "stuffs" to market or expand my ego/presence in the world, I wish to/am born to/can't help but listen to the ghosts of my people; to their dreams and daydreams, their deepest hopes and most fearful demons, to their experience of humanity through a calm afternoon in a field of flowers to a raging storm aboard a ship at sea; from the feelings of aloneness and existential angst to the bright flame that is family and community.

As an artist and socio-anthropologist, a student of the system and the Net, I have objections and reservations to altering the basic and fundamental structures of the network or a society by outside forces, particularly for their own profit with no understanding or concern for the structures they are exploiting. I object to inefficient structures in the network because they are not best practices for the network. It is a politik informed as much by network structure and aesthetics as by political theory.

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Power Struggle

I have seen progress in computing and technology retarded on many fronts over the last 15 years. I have watched as the political forces of government and business have gibbered in fear when they finally realized what we meant when we labeled it "the Information Revolution." I have watched, as Brzezinski [quoted above] says, the formation of what I can only consider the emergence of Electronic Democracy - the voice and political awareness of many more people than previously imagined suddenly able to discourse between themselves, outside approved "channels" and the ability for them to provide instant feedback to decisions generated from within their respective communities.

And I have seen something else; how for moments at a time, despite inter-tribal differences and rivalries, the entire Net will sometimes come up with a world-wide consensus on some issues or become aware/discuss/interact as a whole with some issues (as we are seeing now with the Nymwars debate). And that is a completely new phenomenon, as Brzezinski says. Very exciting.

Unfortunately, this political behaviour/awareness is at a huge variance with the hierarchical power-control model of many societies. The attempt to treat a network or bandwidth as "limited" is a false model; we cannot propagate rare earth minerals in the same way we can propagate networks [add capacity]. The network is not a limited resource.

A network also functions best when it is open; from tribal structure to the internet, the free exchange of ideas and information is the best possible model for a society and for a system. This is at cross-purposes to the people who wish to be the gatekeepers of resources in order to control the chain of supply-and-demand. It is also at cross-purposes to the interests of many State actors, who wish to control their populace and the channels of political expression free from ideology. It's no different from the forces of Business and Church being united in their efforts to control the printing press and the ability of people to read and write for their separate purposes.

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The Politics of Information

I have also seen how the twin forces of State and Business have run parallel in their efforts to "reign in," control and force the network and its citizens into historical, hierarchical models in order to maintain ideological and economic hegemony.

I won't use the term "conspiracy" here; let's instead call it colluding or perhaps "trending". For varying reasons but working towards the same aims, both Business and State have sensed the threat of the Nets to their old models of control. They are viewing the network, with its multilayered levels of cybernetic feedback mechanisms, as a linear, mechanical process. This is a mistake; both the computer and the network demonstrate the synergistic effect of many logical steps creating a process that is larger than those steps, just as a collection of colored pigments, canvas and brush can result in a painting that produces an effect on human consciousness far beyond its mere physical components.

The computer is not a linear machine; it is a machine that can make itself into many types of machines; a meta-machine. The Net is not linear. The network/program has technical hierarchies, true; but they are based mostly on the best/most efficient solution to a local problem. The Net was designed from the ground up to have the intelligence to reroute its own structure in imitation of the human brain. The Net was designed to allow access from many ports over many different protocols. The Net is even more revolutionary than the linear printing press in its ability to feedback virtually instantly from more input sources than a book could possibly have.

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As a technologist, things that affect the throughput or efficiency of communication [bad programs] are undesireable. Resource hogs [rogue programs, bad allocation requests] are something to be tracked and fixed... or killed. A corporation's ability to destroy part of the functionality of a device I have legally purchased [Sony] is a technical problem, to be fixed or routed around. A State's ability to compel me to put all my personal informations in the hands of corporations to buy and sell with no regard to basic security practices [Sony hack, BofA hack, ad infinitum] or any requirement or responsibility in the handling of that data is a severe flaw in system integrity.

As an artist, I realize that I have been privileged to be so fundamentally involved in the growth of this medium. I have lived on the Net and taken part in it's tribal and societal rituals and knowledge for over a quarter of a century. I have learned the Stories and Myths firsthand; I have seen and participated in some of the Great Battles and the rise and fall of business empires. I have read its Declarations of Independence, I have been at many of its Waterloos, its Wounded Knees, its Gettysbergs, its Continental Congresses.

I find that many in the newer generation of netizens do not know how politics invaded the net or do not know where to start on examining these political forces that are causing it damage, just as many people are unaware of a virus in their system while it is wreaking havok on their data structures. They do not know the context of previous bills and events involving the Nets to place something like H.R. 1981 - (PCFIPA of 2011) in perspective as a dangerous and underhanded political maneuver. They don't know that while corporations try to marginalize techs by tarring them all "hackers," those very companies are hacking you to track you and shovel ads down your throat even if you elect to delete their spyware.

I think people make better decisions when they are informed of all sides of the debates and issues. Despite the mainstream media's silence/downplaying/ignorance of our history and politics, the current issues that are affecting the growth and accessibility of the Nets and information access have a rich history of thought, speculation and action. Today's netizens can benefit from knowing this history so that they may continue to enjoy and experience this amazing environment in the future. The nets are interactive; get involved.

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This series of posts are all tagged netpolitik and/or the politics of information for easy search on this blog. They will be my non-linear personal experience and knowledge, cross-referenced with external links where applicable. Yes, they are long and dense; no, they are not casual blog posting. Don't eat them all at once or approach them linearly - hope around, hyperlink; taste bits. Follow the White Rabbit.

I hope these posts will form an information-nexus for further investigation into these observations from a digital socio-anthropologist and artist. I also hope they will inform the newer generation of netizens with the history, the structure and the amazing possibilities of the network model and environment and awaken them to the efforts of these system hackers [political forces/viruses] to infiltrate and suborn the natural flow and functioning of the network.

I hope people will feel a sense of pride in the history of the Nets and a desire to become active participants in their community. I hope they will be spurred on to research these thoughts and opinions and make up their own minds and write about it, discuss it and communicate it. I hope they will realize what an awesome privilege and responsibility it is to be part of the World Net and how, if they wish to enjoy their home and lands, they must be informed of the underlying forces and stressors on the structure of this techno-body politic in order to take an active and informed voice in the debate over the future of the Nets.

And I hope above all for the emergence of a truly Electronic Democracy; a new model of human relations and interaction. We surely need one.

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Machinima: Daddy (Venomous Constrictor)

2011-07-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

My second machinima; this one of 'Daddy (Venomous Constrictor) - for Sylvia' -a painting I did when I was 16 and remembered and reconstructed in 3D in Second Life. It won the Phi Designs Prize in the University of Western Australia's 3D Open Art Challenge June, 2011 round.

The machinima features the voice of Sylvia Plath reading her poem 'Daddy', written in October 1962 shortly before her suicide and published in her posthumous collection 'Ariel' in 1965.

If the embed doesn't work for you, you can view the machinima on You Tube here (and it's larger @340p)

You Tube: Daddy (Venomous Constrictor) - for Sylvia

PS: Mera Kranfel has written a nice post about 'Down On The Data Farm', my entry for the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge for July.

In Defense of SaveMe Oh [a limited-time offer!]

2011-07-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

Probably didn't see this post coming did you? Especially if you know anything about my interactions with SaveMe over the past year and a half or so. We've tangled before.

But I logged in to SL today amidst some kind of crapstorm and spent a few hours investigating this polarizing issue.

This is the notecard I received... multiple times from multiple sources:

Hi, friends,

You may have heard that Igor Ballyhoo deleted his account on July 23, 2011 (you can still find his profile, I think it takes about six months for it to be removed). The reason for this was he could no longer endure the persistent bullying and ongoing harassment by SaveMe Oh. She has been attacking him for the past year or so, part of this has been ongoing on her blog, part of it has been at gallery openings and part of it has been via private IM.

Many of the Art groups, and also CARP, discussed earlier tonight what could be done about this. We want Igor back and SaveMe to be removed. While there is still some RL business that needs to be affirmed before any action can be taken, letters from art houses and art groups could greatly contribute and also personal letters from creaters and art lovers like you. Also we will look into steps that can be taken in RL concerning the blog where she writes her lies and harrasses innocent people.

While we realize this is not an easy undertaking, we want to move forward with our plan. SaveMe Oh has terrorized SL long enough and nothing has ever been done about it. We ask you for your support in the form of a Letter of Complaint addressed to Rhett Linden, Director of Experience, Linden Lab. Drop it in his profile. The more people show that the terrorism Saveme Oh is acting out on SL is not longer possible, the more chance there is she will be removed from SL forever.

Thank you.

[emphasis mine]

First... I'd like to address this notecard.

OMGWTFBBQ? drama

1. The use of the word "terrorism" twice in this note is despicable and unconscionable. It is the ugliest sort of hate speech imaginable given the current world situation and particularly when the Oslo shootings and bombings are still front-page news. It's irresponsible and hysterical, which is what these people accuse SaveMe of; it is pure unadulterated high-school drama.

2. It doesn't take anywhere close to six months to delete a profile.

3. SaveMe has a blog where she is free to write whatever she wants to write. If you speak to a lot of people about her, they generally will tell you "I don't bother to read her" in the same way they don't bother to read Prokofy Neva's Second Thoughts blog/site. I don't happen to like Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin's blogs either, so I just... don't bother to go there.

Mute is there for a reason. I have muted SaveMe before, after telling her I was going to. I've also muted Igor, for reasons that I will explain later.

Igor is not a helpless victim here. He is not tied up, hooded, manacled nor being shocked with bare electric wires. He doesn't have to go read SaveMe and he certainly has Mute available, as he well knows, having muted me before. So I call bullshit on this whole dramatic fashioning of little Igor's helplessness, esp when he takes great pains in this community to pass himself off as some tough-guy and is the rudest male I have yet met in Second Life after Georg the Janitor.

4. Oh, so it's definitely a witch-hunt... going after SaveMe's blog? About a problem in Second Life??? Really? I have read her blog at different times. Yeah, it's offensive sometimes; yes, it's cruel sometimes, as I have made a point of telling SaveMe before when we've had our tussles. But seriously, I have never seen anything close to libel, slander or any legally actionable offense.

5. I really love the campaign to send letters to Rhett Linden, and the thing about "removing her forever from SL." That's simply hysteria; anyone can change their MAC or log in from a dynamic IP. It's also quite as vindictive and dramatic as what these people's "protest" is about.

So this notecard being passed around, duplicated and spammed to every imaginable group just looked like exactly the same kind of crap that's being used as an accusation: pure drama and power politics.

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Igor and Me

Now I guess it's time to talk about me and Igor.

The first time I met Igor was at a "tea party" at S&S Galleries with Ally Aeon, Rose Borchovski, me and then Igor dropped in. Among the first things Igor said to me were sexual comments and innuendos that I simply do not stand for in RL or in VL. This is no surprise to people who know me, or know him; it is a common mannerism of his, observed many times by many people. He thinks it's cute or tough or cynical or something. He also made belittling comments about women aimed particularly at me and my work; not critique but patronizing male bullshit and quasi-porn-actor speech.

As is my wont, I began replying wittily/teasingly. Igor didn't seem to be able to take what he dished and it swiftly turned into surliness on Igor's part and hardness on my part to not let someone acting like a high-school emo-goth slap at me repeatedly without talking back.

He also played the "my life has been tougher than your life" card... which was stupid of him, not knowing my life. Many of my friends in SL do know my life and where I have been and what I have seen, including, yes Igor, people dying in front of me (1 by bullet, 2 by OD).

At one point, I told Igor, "Unless you apologize for your rude and sexual comments, I will hear nothing of what you say." Remember, this is all in public chat in a room with other people. So I was certainly conscious of what I was saying.

Igor then decided that I had been "unforgiveable" to him and that unless I apologized to him for not listening to anything he had to say unless he apologized, I was on his shitlist. We went through a little semantic tête-à-tête as to why I blanked him in the first place, but Igor refused to understand that his sexual innuendos and brattly vulgarity were the thing I objected to and blanked him for. I was supposed to apologize to him for finding his verbal bullying offensive and asking him for an apology! So I was like, ok that won't work, Muted him and just put him on the "ignore: wallpaper" list.

However... for months afterward, when we'd be at the same show, Igor made it a point to point out he was ignoring me, and then use this opening tell the story of how I had wounded him by being rude and out-of-the-blue muting him and generally being mean and terrible. A big drama, about how I had wronged him. After that... I decided to keep Igor on Mute. It's adult. I just let him go. I didn't care what he was saying about me. I mean, wtf drama right?

I thought this was the end of it and was determined to just let him shoot his mouth off; people will realize after awhile what someone is about. Unfortunately... I started to notice that a few of the galleries which had been asking me for my work suddenly dropped me off the shelf. I also found a similar thing with certain groups in SL.

Yes, I wondered, but contrary to popular opinion, I am not always paranoid. I let things float until I was approached several months ago by two separate gallery owners, who wanted to know "what's this with you and Igor?" I was kinda baffled, having let the whole thing slide almost 8 months ago.

I learned then that Igor had been talking to at least these two owners, giving them the story of poor Igor and the mean Miso. This was confirmed by a couple other people through chat transcripts... and it fit perfectly Igor's well-known abrasive and "tough-talking" persona. What I learned was that, far from being an adult about it, Igor continued his grudge campaign for over a year.

So let's start with that perspective. I'm upfront about it, as I try to be. I might be crazy, emotional, wrong or overexciteable but I try damned hard to be upfront, to hang with my mistakes and attempt to correct them; to be responsible for my self/avatar in my community.

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SaveMe and Me

I'd heard a lot about SaveMe Oh but never really tangled with her until a few things came up where she was interfering with someone else's performance. I understand her position and the debate; I just don't agree with her. But I neither kiss her butt in fear nor get hysterical when confronting her. At times I've Muted her; at times I've supported banning her from an area when she is disrupting someone else's performance. I've gone to see their work, not SaveMe's, and I have taken the trouble to talk with her, debate with her, express my own opinion to her.

She's made posts about me too. In my quest to understand, I read her entire blog back several years to understand her position. To me... this is nothing new; agitprop and such derivative "art movements" are at least a century old; I've participated in some myself (as when I ran all over LA "remixing" Shep Fairey's OBEY glyph, which I happened to dislike as an art work).

So... I quit reading her blog *shrug* SaveMe is completely upfront about her method, which I call the "Tar Baby Principle." The more you react to SaveMe the better she likes it; the more material there is for drama and the easier it is for her to make her point; drama is her stated métier. So I just quit reading and responding to her, in the same way I quit reading Prokofy Neva's Second Thoughts. "It's pointless to attack a Tar Baby" is the moral of that old fable; or in modern internets parlance, "please don't feed the trolls."

So... she was Muted off and on at various times... and I quit reading her blog, and told her why. I wasn't hiding my distaste for her methods or disagreement with her position. However... I was also quite willing and ready to debate with her on the merits of such an approach. When she quit slapping at me (making me part of the performance) and started talking to me (communicating) I was willing to listen; that was the condition I made clear to her.

And one thing I do know about SaveMe: she's upfront about what she's doing. I don't have to like what she's doing; her approach and theory and aim are something she has a right to do and I have the right to not agree with. I don't like her methods, but I do respect upfrontness. There's always Mute, Ban and "don't go here."

And Igor is far from the first and only person who has been treated to the SaveMe Oh Experience.

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Not Buying This Pony

Of course, all of that is my opinion (except the verified chats and dialogues involving Igor). And I'm certainly no SaveMe Oh champion or syncophant. Neither do I have a particular axe to grind with Igor other than stated. He's a derp; I muted him; when I happen to run into him at some opening I just keep the Mute on and I am fine with his greyness. I don't go out of my way to be rude or nasty to him; I don't react at all; he's wallpaper. And that's my adult right. If I see something of his I honestly like, I tell people so. I don't confuse my personal distaste for Igor with his work. I don't go around slamming his work or whispering to gallery owners about my own distasteful experiences with Igor... until this point, when Igor is being painted as some kind of angelic being trammeled by the unspeakable evil that is SaveMe.

But this fracas, and particularly this notecard, is way over the line. I understand that two of the galleries pushing this notecard out, the main "organizers" if you will, have already banned SaveMe from their premises. So wtf? She can't go there and harass Igor. IMs can be muted. He can AR her if she really crosses TOS. And he is stupid to keep returning to a honeypot website which tells you right up front that it's purpose is to create drama.

My personal belief is that Igor's persona and romantic dalliances caught up with him finally, as it usually does to noobs who don't have a clue or are unable to stand by their persona, mistakes and all, and attempt to understand, grow and change in exactly the way you have to do in RL. He got his knickers in a twist and took his marbles and went home. That's his choice too. Alizarin Goldflake has been a target of SaveMe's but she hasn't deleted her profile and gone home; neither have I, nor have many other of SaveMe's ~~victims~~ unconsenting cast members.

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So neither person in this drama is exactly on my hit parade list. However, this campaign to "get SaveMe permanently banned from SL" using the hysterical, completely-out-of-line and morally-reprehensible "terrorism" label is so much bullshit that I'd have to rent a fleet of trucks to haul it away. The subtle plea "kill SaveMe and Igor will return!" is really pitiful. Add to that the vindictive nature of the "and we'll see about your little ~~dog~~ blog too" and it's just icing on this dramatic poopcake.

NetPolitik: A Primer - CH1 - TCA

2011-07-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

Prelude and raison d'être

Responding to a volume of tweets and comments on some of my recent posts swirling around the Google+/#plusgate controversy regarding pseudonyms and mindful of remarks by botgirl questi and soror Nishi as to "some of us don't know this history," I am starting a series of posts that will revolve around the political landscape and battles for the control of this medium (the Internet, particularly the Web). I will be tagging these posts with 'netpolitik' although they are supported by my previous posts tagged "The Politics of Information" which can be searched on this blog using that tag.

These posts will contain many links to information in support of my position, hopefully being a resource and starting point for people to inform themselves on these issues and understand what is behind certain legislation, attitudes and memes regarding the use and abuse of the internet by corporate interests.

I am sure I will get a slew of TL:DR replies or comments about these posts. I am torn between writing small capsule paragraphs in today's micro-byte infostyle and providing an informational nexus and index. My position is that if you don't know the history and political context of the development of the Internet, you're going to be either blithely ignorant of the moves that Facebook, Google and other companies are making and the extent of collusion between government and the media conglomerates in the accessibility of information available on the nets, or you are going to get your butt caught in a slamming door because you aren't watching, and your future "internet" will be merely a one-way broadcast medium to push product at you, keep track of you and rifle through your personal information for the benefit of corporations - just a new television, run by soap companies.

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Thesis

The internet and the world-wide web are the modern equivalent of the printing press in terms of dynamic impact on the way society accesses and distributes information. Just as there were battles for control over the printing press because of its ability to permanently alter the structure of society and make available for wide distribution the thoughts and opinions of the common man, outside the Church and State's control, so there are now battles to contain and control the Internet. These battles have been ongoing and continue to accelerate as the power of this new medium of mass communication begins to show its strengths and weaknesses.

The separate vectors of this assault and campaign of control led by the forces of Corporate and Congress can be traced in the history of the creation and expansion of the internet.

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BACKGROUND

This section/post will give some background to my later posts; terms, issues and focus.

The Web- A Short History

[Wikipedia - World Wide Web]
[Internet Society - A Brief History of the Internet]

Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau had published the formal proposal to build a "Hypertext project" in 1990, working off Berners-Lee's original proposal in March 1989 for a system of marrying Hypertext to the then-existing Internet to create the WorldWideWeb [W3].

On August 6, 1991, Berners-Lee posted a short summary of the World Wide Web project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup marking the debut of the Web as a publicly available service on the internet.

ViolaWWW for Unix was the most frequenly used browser for the WWW until April, 1993 when the Mosaic browser was introduced [and yes, it was made possible by funding from the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 (HPCA), initiated by Senator Al Gore, which is why you hear all the jokes about Gore inventing the internet, although he never actually said nor claimed it]. 1993 also saw the release of several other browsers into wide use, including Cello, Arena and Lynx. Slipknot, released in 1994, was also very popular and there were at least a half-dozen other browsers sharing market space.

The World Wide Web Consortium [W3C] was formed in October, 1994 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Berners-Lee when he left the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The W3C was to be an international standards organization for the development and distribution of code standards for the W3 (world wide web). Netscape Navigator 0.5.6, a browser using large parts of the Mosaic code, was released at this time.

The Browser Wars

[Wikipedia - Browser Wars]

In mid-1995 the new World Wide Web had begun to penetrate the awareness of the general public. Netscape Navigator was the most widely-used browser at that time, beating out most of the others by virtue of its ease of use, integrated office suite functions (email, calendaring, HTML editor, etc) and its continuing expansion of functions, benefiting from its close relationship with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the original developers for the Mosaic codebase.

Many companies had licensed the Mosaic code for their own browsers. All the browsers at that time had agreed to adopt the standards and code regulations of the 3WC to ensure interoperability and the functional standards that made the web work.

Enter Microsoft. Although MS had released Internet Explorer 1.0 in August 1995 as part of the Windows 95 Plus Pack, it did not see wide distribution, as this was a monetized reworking of the Mosaic code and only available as a paid expansion pack for Windows 95. In November 1995, MS released Internet Explorer 2.0 as a free download.

At this time, Netscape Navigator and the rest of the Mosaic-based browsers were free for personal use, only charging for company and corporate licenses. Internet Explorer lagged behind Netscape and many of the other browsers in functionality and expansion ability; a problem MS will not be able to overcome until the release of Internet Explorer 4.0 in 1997.

The Browser Wars will play a part in later chapters of this material.

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The Telecommunications Act of 1996 [TCA]

Signed into law on February 8, 1996 by then-President Bill Clinton, this bill purported to foster competition among companies sharing the underlying infrastructure of networked technologies. Buried in that legislation was an amendment - Title V - The Communications Decency Act of 1996 [CDA] - which proposed to "regulate pornographic material on the Internet". This amendment is the precursor to the Child Online Protection Act [COPA] of 1998; the Children's Internet Protection Act [CIPA] of 2000 and the current pending PROTECT IP Act as well as scores of bills passed in the intervening 15 years, using the specter of pornography (later switched to child pornography), terrorism and fear to push through legislation that favors media cartels and the government's interest in strangling the free flow of information.

[Section 230 of the CDA added protection for online service providers and users from actions against them based on the content of third parties, stating in part that "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider". Effectively, this section immunizes both ISPs and Internet users from liability for torts committed by others using their website or online forum, even if the provider fails to take action after receiving actual notice of the harmful or offensive content. We'll return to this important proviso later.]

Promises, promises

The TCA was actually a deregulation of the 1975 FCC cross-ownership rules put in place to limit media concentration and monopolies in the radio and television space, preventing companies from denying accessibility of airspace and broadcast space to other companies through the conglomeration and consolidation of media and denial of the common carrier infrastructure built with US tax dollars as the telegraph and later telephone copper wiring.

The TCA was supposed to foster competition, fairly distribute the use of infrastructure paid for by the public and allow for the collection of a levy handed to the telcos to upgrade and improve the national backbone and fiber-optic cables, requiring "fiber to the curb" by 2006. The Bell companies — SBC, Verizon, BellSouth and Qwest, claimed that they would step up to the plate and rewire homes, schools, libraries, government agencies, businesses and hospitals, with a fiber (and coax) wire capable of at least 45 Mbps in both directions, and could handle 500+ channels... if they received financial incentives. This wiring was to be done in rich and poor neighborhoods, in rural, urban and suburban areas equally and would be open to ALL competitors, not a closed-in network or deployed only where the phone company desired.

[This was not DSL, which travels over the old copper wiring and did not require new regulations. This is not Verizon's FIOS or SBC’s Lightspeed fiber optics, which are slower, can't handle 500 channels, are not open to competition, and are not being deployed equitably. This was NOT fiber somewhere in the network ether or only on the intranets of the telcos but directly to homes. The FCC now defines broadband as 200 kilobytes per second in one direction — 225 times slower than what was promised in 1992]

In exchange for building these networks, the Bell companies ALL received changes in state laws that handed them excessive profits, tax savings, and other perks to be used in building these networks. It is estimated that $300 billion dollars in excess profits and tax deductions has been collected for this purpose.

(not) Built on lies

But there was a problem with this - the networks couldn't be built at the time the commitments were made. TELE-TV and Americast, the Bell companies' fiber optic front groups, spent about $1 billion and were designed to make America believe these deployments were real in order to pass the TCA.

Instead of spending the money on these promised networks, the Bell companies used the money to enter long distance markets, roll out wireless and inferior ADSL services: customers paid for a fiber optic wire and got ADSL over the old copper wiring with old and failing routers, switches and exchanges. Network capacity was lied about and the network was oversold.

[Verizon and SBC are rolling out new fiber optic services but want the laws changed again. These services are crippled, closed networks. FIOS’s top speed is only 35% of the Asian standard, and yet it cost $199 vs $40 for 100 Mbps in many European countries]

What the TCA really was about was deregulation and an open invitation to telcos, media conglomerates and lobbyists to swoop into the vacuum left by the breakup of ATT on antitrust grounds in 1982-1984. On the promises of the telcos, the FCC succumbed to lobbyist cash and sold out the protected common carrier infrastructure to corporations to use as they saw fit.

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The Net Speaks Back

Written in outraged response to government's intrusion on the development of the internet through the passage of the TCA, John Perry Barlow, an early and influential voice on the web, published the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace on Feb. 8, 1996. Although anthemic and polemic, Barlow's opinion was shared by many of the top technicals, theorists and legal scholars of that time, who saw in the TCA and the embedded CDA the beginnings of censorship and control over the channels of communication the net was opening. They also saw the first attempts by corporations to use Congress and lobbyists to shape the net for the convenience and profit of the entrenched entertainment industry, who had already begun consolidating companies and muscling out new businesses built around the net with bagsful of cash to attorneys, congressmen and the FCC.

Barlow was not alone in his perception that something underhanded was going on. Articles began appearing online and in print media pointing to something rotten in all this quickly-moving legislation:

The Telecommunications Act of 1996:A Commentary on What Is Really Going on Here

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 - Mauer School of Law

Those few who protested and claimed the Act would lead to mass media consolidations were surprised by how quickly that consolidation happened. Within just a few years, radio stations, over the air TV stations, cable TV stations and telephone companies were eaten up by the larger, richer companies in a feeding frenzy that has resulted in the limited, false "choices" we are forced into today. Rather than "encouraging competition," the TCA allowed consolidation of the media and control of all information received by people to a small group of sources, all of them incestuously feeding content to their own networks in a war for eyeballs (and click-throughs).

Yes, we were called "paranoid" then too. Read some of those papers and ask yourself how many of those warnings and prophecies have now proven to be a very prescient foresight of the media landscape today.

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The TCA still generates an tremendous amount of analysis and debate, being the foundation of the collaboration of media conglomerates with the FCC and Congress which affects us currently. The TCA not only opened the door for the abuses of duopoly/false choice that we have now but is the root of all the other internet regulatory bills and legislation passed in the last 15 years in style, tone, deceptiveness and false or broken promises. Far from being history, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 affects everything you do online today.

Some Further Reading on the TCA:

1997-2002

False Premises, False Promises: A Quantitative History of Ownership Consolidation in the Radio Industry

Lessons from 1996 Telecommunications Act: Deregulation Before Meaningful Competition Spells Consumer Disaster [Consumer Reports]

Fallout from the 1996 Telecommunications Act [PDF file - Common Cause]

Moyers on America . The Internet @ Risk . Resources . Timeline

Com101- Intro to Mass Communication: Media Economics [Cabrini College]

A Little Analytical Honesty Please...

A Tale Of Two Worlds-In-A-Browser & Time Travel

2011-07-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

Cybertown 2011

I am time-traveling today.

In 1997 I was one of the pioneers in ColonyCity, which later became Cybertown - the second of the big Virtual Worlds at the time (the other was AlphaWorld/ActiveWorlds where I was also a homesteader). This was my introduction to Virtual Worlds and a very exciting time. We had worlds which ran in any browser (with the plugin); could build and chat; send email from inworld; video on surfaces and stereo sound. I spent many hours in these worlds building and chatting with other pioneers.

Fast-forward to today. I have been invited to participate in the beta testing of Unifier from Second Places. I spent some time poking around in there despite the "public opening" being tomorrow...

Because of this experience with Unifier, I decided to do some deep searching and... found the archived site for Cybertown 1998, which still lists my Resident Apartment at Cybertown Colony 16! Wow, 13 years of virtual world exploring... so here begins the Tale of Two Worlds and some ruminations on virtual worlds history and progress.

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Unifier 2011

Unifier @ Second Places

I contacted Mark Duffy at Second Places; I wanted to see how far "worlds in a browser" had come since the late 90s and he was kind enough to send me a pre-beta registration. I logged in very late (3am) and did not encounter anyone; after all, the actual opening is not until tomorrow.

Setting Up

I popped inworld without too many problems; I had to authorize a plugin and wait a bit, but the plugin integrated smoothly with Firefox (unlike the problematic Active-X control for Cybertown 2011). I took a few minutes to cycle through the 3 male and 3 female avatars currently offered for beta exploration and chose the Brunette with the tank top (must say, 1 of the male avatars looks rather thuggish). This initial world (area) is an outfitting room; there's a mirror and what we'd think of as a pose stand. It loaded fairly quickly; about 15 seconds for 6MB.

The interface is a combined worldview/chatpane/sidebar that reminded me strongly of the interfaces of Alpha and Cybertown, as well as that of Virtual Places (a 2D web-page-world chat program akin to The Palace) (see pics above).

Rezzing In

I chose to rez in the Castle Hall and immediately noticed the dynamic shadows from the fire flickering on the wall. I spent a few minutes playing with the controls, esp the View and Camera controls. One thing I noticed was that using the arrow keys shifted my view around the compass by 2 points; If I was facing East, one arrow tap would face me South. To get a view inbetween those required me to use the mouse to click on the camera controls.

The camera controls are a bit wonky at this time. There's a Zoom Out and Zoom In button. If I clicked the Zoom In button first, I was able to zoom in. However, once I had clicked Zoom Out, both buttons acted like Zoom Out and I quickly became very far away, looking at the build from outside in a Blue Space (familiar to me from SL); using an arrow key to move luckily reset my camera. There's also a Mouselook mode which makes the world fullscreen and eliminates the chat pane and sidebar. Wandering between rooms in the Castle was instant transporting - when I walked through a door, there was a slight delay and message while the new section loaded.

I rezzed at a third-person viewpoint. Unlike grid-based worlds, my POV was set behind me but slightly down... which meant I had a perfect view of my butt and had to keep using the camera controls to raise the POV. Unfortunately, when I used an arrow key for walk, as opposed to holding the mouse on the Forward camera widget control, my POV would default back to... my butt. This really should be adjusted :D

Moving Around

I decided to become a bit more ambitious and teleported to New York Buildings. This is a big world; probably among the largest at this time. It took about 40 seconds to load and I believe the info said it was 20MB. More of the interesting dynamic shadows. I tried another world, Media City, which also took about 40 seconds to load.

When I walked in both these worlds, I observed the most aliasing I had seen since 16-bit 256-color gaming. Building faces, light poles and fixtures flashed, flickered and looked like seeing a landscape through a fence while driving by. Windows, building ornaments and corners; everything was animated-stripey, like walking towards a moiré pattern.

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Future, Meet Past

Here's where I started comparing what I was seeing to the VRML worlds of the late 90s. The Second Places FAQ tells me that these worlds are built in 3D Max (or comparable programs) and imported.This is what started me thinking about VRML (and sent me on the search that ended up finding Cybertown).

I am also curious about the tech being used. Since I had to allow a small download, I assume this is a browser plugin or extension very similar to the plugin Netscape Navigator required for VRML. So is Unifier (and by extension all the Second Places) VRML-based? The lighting is certainly better; the first worlds were flat-lighted (think everything Full Bright) and the shadows I saw in all the worlds (areas) within Unifier gave a nice little immersion/realism.

Memory Lane

I remember that in Cybertown movement was somewhat jerky depending on your modem's speed and the time of day (yes, we used modems then). I remember that you'd pray you didn't crash too much and have to redial in and relog in; thankfully that is no problem in Unifier.

The tools we used to build then were the same, though - 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, Bryce3D, POV Ray Tracer, trueSpace and others. We had some "jaggies" on edges (depending on how good your graphics card was) but nothing like what I observed in Unifier in New York Buildings or Media Center.

I know Unifier is a beta (v0.7) technology for portable browser worlds. Obviously, I have been in very early VWs before and I was also in Unifier before the actual opening, so my observations are quick and not a serious shakedown of the world/tech. I have a lot of patience; to me a beta test is a proof-of-concept and not a grown and polished thing. I also look forward to tomorrow's opening, when there will possibly be people there to chat with and explore. This is not a serious look at Unifier/Second Places. It just got me remembering and thinking...

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There's No Place Like Home - Cybertown

Finding Cybertown still operational (though passed through many hands by now) was a chance to go look at a VRML world from approximately 13 years ago. I emailed Support and they pulled my ancient username/password and sent it to me. Unfortunately of course it is very, very out of date. Cybertown is also now a subscription service, and although I dimly remember that I had what we now would call 'developer' status for being a Homesteader and a Builder, that of course did not carry through 13 years and several ownership changes, so I had to go in on a Visitor's permit, which limited my available worlds.

I also had to download the blaxxun plugin (a classic VRML rendering engine). Firefox didn't like it (as my FF is multiple-armored and armed) so I blew the dust of InternetExploiter and let it be the goat. You can access Cybertown in a "2D mode" for simple chatting, but to see the world you must install the browser plugin (an Active-X component which may make people leery, although if I remember correctly this is an MS problem; Netscape didn't handle it through Active-X).

Rezzing In To The Past

The "view my avatar" setting did not work; I was in 1st person/mouselook mode; possibly a problem with the browser. The movement was smooth. Many of the controls, including flying/walking/speed controls (which would be nice in Second Life) and others are accessed by right-clicking the screen; so are setup and other options.

The buildings were all very geometric, much the way I had remembered them. Think Second Life in limited-faces; the Obelisk, for instance, was 8-sided/octagonal with no curving; most things in Cybertown are made up of straight lines/surfaces. However, there was none of the jagged aliasing/flickering I saw in Unifier.

It was a memory lane avalanche as I stood in the City Hall, gazing at the golden plaque with the Cybertown Pledge which first thrilled me in the 90s -

"As a Citizen of Cybertown, I pledge to uphold each of the principles of Cyber-etiquette and to encourage my fellow citizens to do the same. I will strive to maintain a family-oriented community for all fellow citizens and newcomers alike."

[Sadly, my old apartment is unavailable to me as a non-paying member, although I have doubts it would still be there even if I was. I do remember laboring over model replicas of a DEC PDP-10 and a generic desktop computer, which served as clickable inworld-to-external email interface and teleport directories to my self-contained VRML worlds. Yup, we had that then :)]

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Progress Report and Musings

Cybertown 2011 had problems, although to be fair it is probably a browser problem; IE was moaning to itself about pop-up windows and crashed-but-refreshed tabs. Obviously a lot of the code is old and this kind of behaviour is expected (an old site of mine that linked many sound files to text-clicks is unable to function today because all the fetch-code has been changed). I did not have this problem in Unifier. Still... I didn't see a very big difference between Cybertown and Unifier. Both had their glitches. Both of them are remarkably alike in the interface. Both of them accept .3ds and other common 3D tool file extensions. Both of them showed more artifacts than SL/Gridworld.

What is sad to me is that I was looking at a world from 1997 and comparing it favorably with one from 2011. I've been eagerly following the "worlds in a browser" action, believing that portable worlds, accessable from any browser, are a key to wide adoption of the 3D format for virtual worlds, just as the HTML spec was the basis of the WWW.

In some ways, Second Life/The Grids have disappointed me. No dynamic shadows, rather flat compared to many 3D games and MMORPGs, mono sound uploads, less camera/avatar control... in some ways more-smoothly integrated, but not really a long way from 1997 and Cybertown. The Unifier demo is in some ways less impressive than the Cybertown operating today (taking into account Unifier is an announced pre-version beta). We still are for the most part tied to programs we must set up on our machines to access today's virtual worlds.

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To me, seeing and remembering my old worlds, there has not been a lot of progress at all from 1997. I don't have Second Life circa 2003 to compare it to Cybertown or Alpha/ActiveWorlds, which is why I want to emphasize that my poking about in Unifier was not a serious exploration of that tech and worlds.

It just reminded me of how much was lost when the bickering and warring over trying to lock up the browser/WWW market caused a crashing and fracturing of the rapidly-evolving computer tech at the time. It's hard to explain the sense of exhilaration and progress of the time between 1995-2001 when the web was evolving new things monthly; huge leaps in showing animation, pictures, sounds and videos came at quarterly-or-faster intervals. VRML 2.0 was poised to make a huge change in accessing the web, only to be destroyed in Microsoft's deliberate sabotage and mangling of the WWWC's standards and protocols with illegal "extensions".

I wonder what kind of progress could have been made with the VRML 2.0 spec or further; there were exciting branches and whole areas opening up in the 2.0 spec as compared to VRML 1.0. What we now would term "media on a prim" was beginning to show up, as well as animation, better object rendering and handling and a lot more world-to-web data exchanging routines than I see even now in virtual worlds.

What would be possible in "worlds in a browser" today if the tech had been followed and developed, or if Sun wouldn't have let VRML become sidelined, a casualty of the Browser Wars? Certainly more advanced than Unifier (sorry guys). I'd be willing to bet more advanced than Second Life and all the rest of the extant VWs. It's this experience and knowledge of what was possible 13 years ago and what led to it being lost that worries me about the current Grid platforms and state-of-the-art. I've been waiting a long time to see this revolution in accessing virtual spaces.

[Wizard Gynoid, who tried unsuccessfully to meet me in Cybertown (browser/IE issues) turned up an interesting photo on Cybertown's Help page; look familiar? :D]

Talking to the Hand... in 1997

Here's a Flickr set of pics from both
Cybertown 2011 and Unifier/Second Places

Googlemonkey!

2011-07-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

Looks like there's gonna be some...

*slips on shades*
monkey business here.

YEEAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

G+ and Beyond - What's Your Target?

2011-07-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

Being Prepared like a good Girl Scout

So, so; Google+ is now making noises and hopping on the "no pseudo names" train.

What I have been doing for the last few hours is downloading all my mail from Gmail to make sure I have all my friends' addresses. You know you can do this right? And that you can set up your email program (you DO use one yes?) through POP3 or IMAP to fetch your mail at intervals and remove it from Google's servers? I hope you do; it's a very valuable ability. It's also easy with any number of email programs like Thunderbird or a dozen others.

I never liked the idea of my mail hanging out on someone else's servers, subject to disk crashes, catastrophes or availability of other persons. I have always downloaded my email off a provider's servers... because I was schooled this way for many good reasons. Some of those reasons are becoming more apparent every day...

I've also made sure that anything Google-connected is downloaded, like my You Tube videos, and am researching other hosting providers. I've also downloaded and archived this blog. If Google decides that I am not a valuable person, then I will take my value elsewhere. They, like FaceBook, would like you to believe they are the only ones you can use for these services. I think... if they make a few more moves like these, they will quickly find out how arrogant and myopic that view is.

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I just wish to explore one simple question: why, exactly, is my "real name" important?

Miso Susanowa has a growing profile on the net. That name is used to browse Google (which carries ads); to look at web sites with information I am interested in (which serve ads); to comment and post on various blogs (which carry ads); to view news (which carries ads); to view You Tube (which carries ads)... you get the idea.

So, here's a profile attached to "Miso Susanowa." It knows where I go; it knows what I look at and what I click. It knows what my interests are.

Isn't that the purpose of the stated rationalizations for this kind of prying? So I can be served targeted ads by marketeers? So my profile can be sold to other marketeers so they can target me with their ads and sell more stuff? So... what's the problem here? They're reaching me. They're targeting me. They have my eyes and interest. They have a bead on me. I will buy just as much of their stuff as Miso Susanowa as I will as Ms. X.

What is my Real Name anyway?

Let's be open and stop pussyfooting; to the government and to the IRS and various other institutions, I am not Ms. X at all. I am a number. A number associated with a name put on a birth certificate. A name I can legally change (and plan to do so). A name that is not a permanent etching, unlike, say, a Social Security Number, which I cannot change, even if I change my "real name." I can change my "real name" with less effort than I can change my bank account or credit card numbers.

These numbers that follow us around are what Vernor Vinge refered to in his seminal cyberpunk novella "True Names". Don't kid yourself; to Facebook or Google, you aren't a name! You are a number in a database that is attached to a name. You have no "real name"; you have a System Name. To a programmer, "Miso Susanowa" is a meaningless assemblage. It is tagged with a coded number which is your True Name to that system. You aren't anybody at all. You have various flags attached to your number, one of which may be your "real name." But your "real name" is not magic, nor holy... nor really of any significance to a machine.

Snooping on Google's "real names"

Here's a little example: try pinging [directions for Windows here] www.google.com in a window. Here's what I get:
Reply from 74.125.225.50

That is the 'real name' of 'www.google.com'. In fact, that's only the IP address of the name 'www.google.com', the front-facing public nameserver; just one 'true name'. Do you know "Google" has about 2000 or so 'real names'? Like its' Public DNS, which actually has two 'true names': 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 [and this is nice to know if you have filtered DNS from Comcast or Verizon or ATT or anyone- yoiu can use Google's public DNS to skip all the inter-service tossing/ad spam]. So... what's 'Google' then? It's a pseudonymous name for a whole bunch of virtual things.

So, to me, the stated rationalizations and reasons for this creeping movement to "real name up" everyone have a hollow ring. If all they want is my eyeballs to sell me stuff, they have them. I don't change names, especially ones I have invested a great deal of time and effort on over several years, in establishing a basis of trust and accountability to my community. I stand by my name; it is a good name and I have put a lot of effort into promoting it... just like 'Google' did.

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An Open Statement to FB, Google+ and anyone else concerned:

I have, over the course of 25+ years online, promoted you; I have brought you eyeballs and purchases through my exploration and recommendation of technical products and issues. I am trusted on the basis of my knowledge, my willingness to discuss technical issues and the incredible amounts of time I put in on field-testing and disseminating your offerings.

I recommended people switch from AltaVista to Google when A-V became mired in the same pathetic crap you seek to push (but with more teeth now). I can honestly say that every single client machine I have ever worked on for the last 10 years I have provided with both a desktop icon to quickly reach Google, reset their "home page" to Google and made sure Internet Explorer or someone else can't hijack it. You don't think that kind of exposure, recommendation or PR is valuable just because I use a different name?

I have switched people from Microsoft products to Linux and OpenOffice (and now that that got polluted, LibreOffice); I have switched them off Photoshop; I have vehemently switched them off Norton products as being shoddy, havok-wreaking products. I have shown them why dumping Adobe's Reader software for much better PDF readers is a lot better for them. I have switched their purchases from Well-Known-Brand-Name laptops (which were crap) to reliable and well-built laptops; I have recommended nVidia over ATI (until nVidia succumbed to some bright-boy MBA's cost-cutting measures).

I have brought you thousands of dollars in trade on my recommendations. I have denied thousands of dollars to companies who's products, service or aims are questionable to the consumer. Under various names.

If you wish to toss all that real purchasing power away on some wet-behind-the-ears baby MBA or bean counter's smoke-and-mirrors idea of how to farm all of my talent, goodwill and reputation just to make a bump in a quarterly... you go right ahead. I'll watch you sink into the tar pits that took all the other tiny-brained dinosaurs while I cheerfully recommend much better alternatives. You have been warned.

[By the way, Google; how's your competition going with duckduckgo or Blekko? Remind you of anything? Reminds me of when everyone started dumping A-V for Google when their search engine became bloated with self-important crap, spammed links, ad-choked boggy pages...]

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Names Have Power

I have three names I can "conjure" by on the net. One you see before you. The other two had their time and place. But if you took all the posts created by those three names over 25 years, you'd find a consistent person behind those names. My views and positions have not changed that much in all of that time. You'd know you were reading the same person.

I do not sit down to "craft a false identity;" I speak through an idea; a presentation of myself. That self is consistent. I do not do this for nefarious, illegal or criminal reasons. I do not do it to deceive.

You have my words, my thoughts, my opinions, my dreams, my critiques and my indulgences. You can assemble a pretty good portrait of a human being from those posts. You can see the continuity and the existence of the me I choose to make public.

I can see no reason that makes sense to me on why all that needs to be linked, cross-indexed and tabulated with a governmentally-approved name and number unless it is the desire of some people to know every single thought, action, (bowel) movement or interest of mine at all times.

This is called totalitarianism and I will not conscience it, nor would the men who suffered and died not only for this country's freedoms but for the freedom of men and women everywhere in many times and places. I don't care what you label it; isn't that what this is all about, labels?

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This is the Information Revolution: we move outside the established channels because they no longer serve us; we seek our own communities and establish our presence and our reputations by our words and actions; we speak amongst ourselves and we use the tools of a free press to do it, uncontrollable by gatekeepers and sluice-gate operators who seek to stem the flow of community under the guise of commerce. This is the true meaning of "information just wants to be free"; not free as in 'free beer' but free as in 'free to move between people.'

And that scares the Gatekeepers shitless. And now you know why what's happening is happening.

Data Aggregation vs. Stalking: Tough Call

2011-07-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

There's this guy you know.

He follows you around all over town. He goes into the bars and dance clubs and tells all the creepy guys who are offering you drinks, cocaine and other dubious lures to get you to go home with them your "real" name and address, because all you gave to those guys is a first name you invented (Trixie from Poughkeepsie) to keep you safe from predators.

He roots through your trash to gather receipts like A.J. Weberman rooting through Dylan's trash, assembling a profile on what you read, your Tampax purchases, ATM receipts, frequency of bowel movements.

He lurks beneath your windows, trying to catch a glimpse of you naked in the shower, or relaxing by the fire. He collects your discarded clothing. He even saves your used Kleenexes.

He badgers your friends, wife or husband for more information. He keeps track of your bank deposits, what movies you watch, what records you listen to. He analyses everything you write for "clues" to your "inner nature."

He does this as some professed "I love you!" thing. He makes up logical reasons for such behaviour and self-justifies it. He explains he just "wants you to be safe" and "he's looking out for you" and "it's all harmless anyway."

In physical life, we call such people stalkers. They are creepy. We are even warned about them over and over by "the authorities." There's laws against this sort of behaviour.

So... what's the difference between aggressive data aggregation and stalking? Tough call...

Identity and Transparency: The politics of information

2011-07-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

In physical life, I go out for a walk. I stop at the bank. The bank knows certain things about me; my accounts, my Social Security number, my phone number (one of them), etc. They don't know what breakfast cereal I like; they don't know my health history; they don't know my preferred news sources.

I leave the bank and go to the bookstore. They might know my credit card number (unless I pay in cash). They might have one of my phone numbers if I give it to them. They might keep a list of the books I've bought (if I filled in their "customer survey"). They don't know my bank account number or Social Security number. They don't know a lot about me; I mean... it's only a bookstore. They might not even know my "legal name."

I leave the bookstore and go to the coffee shop. Those people don't know anything more than (perhaps) I like sugar twists, I like double milk for my coffee and I usually come in at a certain time (providing the same person is on shift at the same time daily). They don't know any of the preceeding information. Why do they need it, when all I want is coffee and a doughnut?

No one thinks this is unusual. No one thinks I am "hiding" anything. No one thinks such behaviour is "shifty" or "suspicious." No one thinks I am "concealing my identity behind a first- name-only relationship."

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Why should I provide an X-ray and proctoscopic detailed report on everything I do in my life to, basically, shopkeepers? Because that's what a lot of this internet jazz is about, isn't it? A bunch of shopkeeps, who want me to buy stuff. Just... store clerks. Yet they want information I do not give to my bank or my doctor all at one time, let alone some random store owner like K-Mart or the local deli.

It's been shown hundreds of times that these people, who really have no business in my business, are unable to secure their information. Unlike many, I actually investigate and study these breeches of information. Like most who do, the figures are clear: more than 3/4 of these breeches are inside jobs and sheer negligence, as they always have been. Sony got "hacked" not for monetary gain but to demonstrate their failure to meet the requirements of data handling and security to which they are legally responsible.

So, it is somehow "suspicious" of me to be wary of turning over sensitive data, which has no bearing on my purchasing some widget from a store, to people who have shown time and again their inability to protect such information? Don't give me that jazz about "hackers" or I will have to inundate you with links to statistics and charts on the last 100 high-profile data losses. Google them yourself. As an old professor of mine used to say, "do your own homework."

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"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." This seems to be the huge mantra being pushed these days. It is used as a justification to require me to submit to a data examination that would put an IRS audit or OB-GYN exam to shame. This is a classic straw man argument.

Am I "hiding" when I don't tell the bookstore my SSN? Hiding when I don't tell the bank I like Cocoa Crispies? Hiding when I don't tell the coffee shop what I bought yesterday and what medicines I am taking? Sounds ridiculous when you put it that way, yes?

And this vaunted transparency does not work both ways. It is a one-way mirror, which is not transparency at all. When police installed cameras in all their squad cars, they did it with great hoopla. Yet now... those cameras are being quietly removed. Why? Because they showed things the police don't want shown or subpoenaed. Malls can film me; I can't film in a mall. I can't take photos of public buildings, yet those buildings can train cameras on me.

The TSA can stick their fingers in my genitals but I cannot take a photo of them doing it without the threat of my camera being confiscated, my name put on a "hassle list" and the chance of a nice cosy interrogation in some small room. I can't film a cop tasering someone, even if I am standing well out of the "area of conflict."

The proponents of this one-way transparency crap use "violation of civil rights" as a cover for denying the filming of a public servant (police) doing the job I trust them to do and pay for with my taxes. They throw up unnecessary roadblocks and delays to deny information requests they are legally required to answer. In fact, they do everything they can to hide information from me.

So who is it that has "nothing to hide, nothing to fear"? Who is it that wants to stick alien probes into me and suck out and coordinate every single scrap of data I produce in my entire life, and yet will not let me access public information under legal requests? Who is it that fears cameras and accountability? Who is it that pushes "transparency" on me under the cover of fear-mongering (terrorism, 'think of the children') and yet fears transparency on the other side?

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I have nothing to hide. But I refuse to get naked and allow the jellied finger to probe me simply because I want to talk or shop. Just because "it's the internet!!!" doesn't make common sense nor common practice suddenly "strange" or "suspicious."

It's a lot more suspicious to me, this push towards "total accountability" and "total transparency" on my part when I can't get the same from public agencies that use my money for funding. When my bank makes me jump through hoops to get my money but has a website "hackable" simply by reading the URL (which is a complete failure on their IT team's design; this "hack" has been known since pre-web days).

When I do not have to hack to get your info; there are many companies that will simply sell me your info in bulk. Don't believe me? Do some quick research. Yep, they'll sell me everything you filled in on their little forms (banks, insurance agencies, you name it) in bulk, for pennies a name.

The only reason that makes sense to me about this "call to transparency" and "accountability" is a bunch of shopkeeps that want to buy and sell me as a commodity. The information they glean from me is not for my benefit; it's for them.

Oh, and there might be one other reason: there are laws pertaining to the gathering of intelligence by the State and the Government. However... when the State and the Government are merely buying information from these companies... they're just another customer. It's only business. See how slick that is? A nice way to route around such unpleasantness as the laws and Constitutions that are held up to us as guidelines.

Transparency? Sure! Quit hiding the backroom negotiations and text of the P.R.O.T.E.C.T.I.P. Act! Stop hiding the deals to turn a public utility (the data transmission lines we paid for) into a private enterprise. Stop seizing domain names without a warrant which I can access. Show me the budget breakdown for the TSA. Quit hiding the medical reports about backscanner radiation exposure levels...

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This is not "transparency;" this is an interrogation in a room with one-way glass.

"Time As A Helix" at Split Screen

2011-07-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

Time As A Helix of Semiprecious Stones at Split Screen Installation Space

Dividni Shostakovich has asked me to install "Time As A Helix of Semiprecious Stones" at the Split Screen Installation Space as an "interim" work while the featured artists get to building for the next show.

This is a nice offer, because I had to abstract "Time" from its environment for prim and particle considerations at UWA, where it won joint 3rd prize in May as well as the Tornado Gallery prize. The new installation has the sounds and effects that I have set up in Inworldz for this piece.

It is a sketch of midnight walks I did in the deep desert and mountains in California, when I could let my body armor relax and open myself to the vibrant life energies surrounding me.

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For the best experience, turn to Midnight in Environmental Settings. This work features an extensive soundscape so please have local sounds turned up. You also want your Particles set to at least 4096. Right-click on the Grid and SIT, then trail your camera behind you as if you were following your avatar.

Because this is an "interim" installation, I cannot say how long it will be at Split Screen.

SLurl: Time As A Helix @ Split Screen

You can also watch the machinima on You Tube (better quality)

With A Little Help From My Friends

2011-06-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

"What would you do if I sang out a tune?
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song,
And I'll try not to sing out of key"
- The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends"

Today I was ambushed. Nazz Lane asked me to be inworld to talk about a project we have been discussing about Twitter. Luckily, I was able to wake up in time and get inworld, although it was close. He asked me to go see something of Trill Zapatero's and he TPed me there.

What I found was a party; a party for me. Nazz, Trill and millay Freschi had plotted together. So many good friends were there. I had trouble keeping up with IMs, gifts and chat because I was crying and it was hard to see the screen or keyboard; I was overwhelmed with emotion.

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Because of my recent health problems, I've been kind of crabby and depressed lately, and not inworld much. I also was trying to get over my admittedly-childish post about the logo and... just falling back into my old shell again.

The friends who came also know that the whole time I have been in SL, the last 3 years, my life has been tumbled and upset and ripped apart and I have not been at what I think of as my best as a person. I have not lived up to my own idea of my "best ability" and it is also a constant source of worry to me, letting my friends down by not being able to give them the "best of me."

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So this party was just overwhelming to me. I don't have much of a family in RL; this community is what I think of as my family. I believe in this medium and in these worlds for the betterment of humankind; that people can find family and community and work and play and love together despite differences in age, location, gender, race, creed or lifestyles; that this medium of communication is the most important invention in my lifetime. It is why I have spent over 20 years on the nets and why I think that's worth putting life-energy into.

Today, these friends showed me such beliefs are not in vain. They gave me a gift more precious than anything: to know that they care about me irregardless of my status, my station or my mistakes; to know I had friends and family. I haven't had much of that in my life and it is a treasure to me worth more than any material thing. I know that a few stayed up past their bedtimes to be there, or came especially when they aren't usually in SL (like White Lebed).

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For once, I won't go on and on (i know huh? Rare moment; appreciate it while you can!) I can't; there aren't enough words to say how much meaning this had for me. 200 lbs just fell off my heart :) My love to my friends who came to MisoDay:

Nazz Lane, Trill Zapatero, millay Freschi, briawinde Magic, Mommaluv Skytower, Jayjay Zifanwe, Maiko Yheng, Wizard Gynoid, Isabella Alphaville, Alizarin Goldflake, White Lebed, Coyote Longfall, talkwithmarie Resident, Vaneeesa Blaylock, orb Thursday, Ormand Lionheart, TeuffelHunde Mandelkorn, Inae Indigo, soror Nishi, Casondrenee Whybrow, FreeWee Ling, brinda Allen, Reezy Frequency, Mik Frequency, Indigo Lucerne, Skylar Smythe, shellina Winkler, Petey Karfield, Zayra Ametza, Taralyn Gravois, Razzap Snookums, Scottius Polke, Fuschia Nightfire, Scarp Godenot, Aletheia Lyre and Zayra Ametza; pls forgive me if I forgot anyone, I was crying (happy) half the time and missed a lot :)

Racism in a virtual world

2011-06-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

Well, since I am the poster-child for fuming posts this week, I might as well make good use of that for something that has offended me deeply and to the core.

A friend in a VW (not SL) and I have just had a conversation in that world. This person is a person of color; I wouldn't have known this except that I met them in RL. And to me, in RL, such things are minor artistic details as far as I am concerned; as relevant to me personally as hair or eye color, height or weight, age or sex or gender. A detail of a surface shape that is mere wrapping over a human soul.

Now I am not blind to the political repercussions of these things. Such things affect how people are treated, which affects their outlook and their beliefs; they are part of their political reality I will never be able to encompass.

Like the following, as told to me:

My friend had a partner inworld (The Builder) who she has generously given free land, workspace and tier to for months and months. She has supported his business. She has supported him at her own cost through her generous spirit. And they were personally involved.

The Builder was in contact with someone who is supposedly "a big name" in sim owners inworld. This Big Name had for weeks been expressing nasty racism to the Builder about his partner, my friend. He let that go on for weeks without telling my friend about it because he was courting the business opportunities that Big Name could give.

This Builder packed up his stuff from my friend's sims in the middle of the night and went with the business opportunity after informing my friend of all these previous conversations and IMs to him littered with these racist comments. He's stupid too, because now Big Name wants him to pay 50% of the tier fee monthly. Good. My concern is not with Mr Builder but Big Name.

Pixels have no color (or all colors)

Big Name was reportedly making racist statements for weeks, cultivating Builder for her own purpose; to snatch him away from my friend as a moneymaker. Big Name actually had one of the Big Cheeses of the World move her sims so they wouldn't be next to my friend's.

As if that matters in a virtual world. Physical locality. Does Big Name realize that they may still be on the same server? Probably not; this Name is such a low mind that a complex realization like that may be beyond her.

I cannot express my outrage, distaste, horror and fury at such an attitude or conduct from a pesron supposedly intelligent enough to use a computer to access virtual worlds better than I did in a notecard sent to Big Name inworld:

[BIG NAME],

I am a friend of [my friend]. What she has told me regarding your conduct, your words to her and your blatant racism is an affront to any person with intelligence. It is also insanity to believe that gender, sex, color or orientation mean anything in a world made of pixels.

I do not believe people like you belong in these new worlds. I don't care who you are, what pitiful power you think you wield in a virtual world or what you think of me; your opinion would be less than useless to me given your own narrowminded and provincial views.

I've never encountered you inworld and I thank God for that.

Don't bother to respond; you are blocked and muted as suitable to one of your low mentality and ugly personal views on race.

Miso Susanowa
Artist

I will never rent a shop on her sims or allow her to purchase a single piece of my own work no matter what incentives are offered. I will never buy a product from any merchant on those sims. Yes, it is unfair to the merchants who may have no idea of this type of behaviour and outlook. But I will in no way give or funnel a single penny to such a person nor take a single spacebuck from such a person. I do not care what such a person will say about me, my work or anything else. My reputation will not be built on tacit aggreement or approval of such bigotry and ugliness, no matter what it might cost me in sales, talk or anything else tangible. If I sell my soul for such material gain I am nothing.

What is more insane to me is that Big Name is in a world made of pixels. There are no colors here. There's no height, weight, age, skin color, racial background or any of the other surface shapes of life. All that is here is your mind and what you bring with you.

And narrowminded bigotry has no place here.