Snowy’s awesome build at my Sunset Myst sim is showcased on the ‘SL Things to Do’ site – a great blog that lists all sorts of cool places to visit in SL. Lovely photos by Lainy Voom and a nice write up about the sim, too.  Thanks, Jenn!

Frequent visitors will probably have noticed that my posts have been few and far between lately. Sorry ’bout that. I’ve been very busy with several projects in-world and have had less energy to devote to other tasks. Here are a few links and other things that I have been meaning to mention:

We had an opening celebration at my Sunset Myst sim for Snowy Hoobinoo’s out-of-this-world floral creations. A great time was had by all. Snowy handed out some free, flowery wings that made us all look like a mobile flower garden. Lots of cool avs and fun people in attendance. You can see pictures of the event on Snowy’ Flickr stream, Tim Deschanel’s, and mine too.

Speaking of pictures…Koinup is a great way to share your SL pics. It sort of like Flickr, but just for snapshots and videos from virtual worlds. I especially like how they gather together all the shots from specific sims into one group. They also track the ‘coolest’ images and places. It’s a great way to find new places to visit in-world. My Koinup page.

The SLurl site has been upgraded. The map loads so much quicker now and the images include more detail. Whatever they did it sure is a nice improvement.

LL reports on the growth of Second Life in 2008 – and of course this brings out hundreds of angry comments from folks who are stilled sore about the OpenSpace mess. Zee Linden is in amongst the mob, taking things in stride and engaging in  honest and informative conversations. Way to go Zee! I’m psyched that SL has grown so much and am very optimisitic about the future of our virtual world.

My friend Thoth Jantzen has expanded upon his Kaleidoscopium idea and created the Disorientation Station. :)  His virtual, immersive kaliedoscopes turn any YouTube video into a hypnotic sensory overload. Very cool, but be careful if you have work to do – time flies when you’re inside these things :) Check it out in-world.

Time for another round of Second Life blog, news and Web links that I’ve collected over the last week.

• Forbes chats with Mark Klingdon about a Second Wind for Second Life.
• iReport tours Imperial College London’s virtual medical school.
• East Carolina University allows some High School students to attend classes via SL. “In the long term, it means we could serve a far greater number of students because were not dealing with the constraints of space and transportation.”
• According to the Gartner Hype Cycle, public virtual worlds like SL are going through a period that they call the Trough of Disillusionment on our way to the Slope of Enlightenment and the Plateau of Productivity.
  
• New World Notes points us to a website that maps SL versions of RL locations.
• Tateru Nino notices that contrary to what the mainstream media thinks, businesses are not abandoning SL in droves.
• Crap Mariner showcases SL musicians via the Tunes in SL gallery – a catalog of SL musicians who sell their music on iTunes.

This is the first in a series of weekly posts where I’ll share a few blog posts, new articles, and other Second Life related links that may have fallen through the virtual cracks over the last 7 days. I’m a bit obsessed with Sl news, so I might as well share the fruits of my info-overload addiction. :)

• Fast Company talks about The Second Life of Second Life. “I think at first, everyone was there strictly for the hype and sunk their money into 15 minutes of fame,” Involve’s Stein says. “Now they’re analyzing what they’re doing and seeing how Second Life breathes.”
• Massively reports the LL might be changing the rules for child Avatar skins.
• Market Watch reports on LL’s newest hire, Howard Look. “Very early on in my career I recognized the transformative power that 3D technologies can have on human interaction and communication. Linden Lab is taking the power of 3D technologies much further than I had originally thought possible”
• LinuxInsider muses about SL and RL laws.
• Second Life Updates provides a few tips about using multiple gestures for Machinima.
• Vint Falken talks with Peggy Sheehy about using the SL Teen Grid as a teaching tool. Includes a great video interview.
• NPiRL let us know that we can now watch all 10 episodes of “Molotov Alva and his search for the Creator” online.
• Jaz Beverly shares her favorite bits of a panel discussion on Orange Island relating to Virtual Architecture.
• Dusan Writer wonders about communicationa and branding.  “…when I think about the incredibly rich branded experiences of places like Loco Pocos or Golgothica, I wonder if it’s at all possible for the tools, technology and creativity on the Grid to support a next wave of ‘conversational marketing’ or ‘brand stories’ in the coming years.”
• Metanomics talks with some Electric Sheep about their post-SL activities.

I’ve heard of Primgraph Magazine, but I don’t think I had ever read an issue until today. It’s an SL publication dedicated to Steampunk and vintage sims. It’s a good read if you’re into this sort of thing, well written and beautifully presented. This month’s issue has several great articles about one of my favorite SL communities, Steelhead.

Primgraph has chosen a really great way to publish as well, a site/service called Calaméo. It’s sort of like YouTube for documents. Check it out: