Community Mobilization

McKinley HS to run Teen Relay For Life

The Washington Post reports that Mckinley High School in Washington DC is getting ready t o run a Teen Grid Second  Life Relay For Life. They school is a unique learning institution that has specail science and technology focus. Students apply for admittance and spend 4 years in intensive classes in Computer Animation and Design, Biological Sciences, and Forensics. We have been working with them and their Assistant Principal Rick Kelsey for a while now that the kids are back in school it looks like they are ready to go!

Herbie Hancock Remix Contest - Speaks VOLUMES!

I know it is a bad play on words but the fact that Herbie Hancock is running a contest asking for a remix of his own music speaks volumes about community engagement. Herbie is opening up his art form (ironically jazz its self is a very open art from taking cues from so many various genres) and allowing the creative community to play. As a measure of course he is encouraging a new level of interaction with his art - from listening to co-creating. If only other brand and marketers could feel comfortable with constituents, admirers co-creating the experience. I admire the fact that this is in conjunction with the launch of the Pangea Island (supported by Universal music Germany) in SL. More on that in a later post.

WKRP DVD Release Event Party Downtown

WRKP In Cincinnati DVD release has been on the back boiler because FOX is has been unwilling to spend great amounts of money to relicense the entire soundtrack for the DVD release. Wired wrote in 2005 that WRKP would neve be released .... ever due to the copyright and licensing issues. In a cheap end-around Fox replaced all of the great classic rock tracks with what can only be described as elevator music. This is a perfect case of how Copyright laws as they stand desperately need to be updated.

The DVD release is today and the city of Cincinnati is celebrating. Yes, celebrating with a huge sing along in downtown. At noon dozens, maybe hundreds, possibly thousands of Cincinnatians will stream to Fountain Square in down town to join Bootsy Collins in a resounding chorus of the original theme song ... no doubt violating some standing licensing and copyright. We will all be summarily hauled off in paddy wagons and charged $1.25 fines for the violation. I will post pictures following the mass hysteria later this afternoon.

Make Magazine Keynote

Phil Torone and Limor Fried, of Make magazine, were the featured Keynotes this afternoon. They did a real nice presentation on some of their creations as well as as featured some of the creations and hacks of others. What I enjoyed was the explanation of the spirit of the hack, the ingenuity that comes out during a modification, or a new design. One of the neat idea I took away was that you can speed the accessibility of a product artificially by making it open to the public. In short this is what they are doing with their laser engraver - giving away the tools and technology in hopes that the overall costs of the application will fall drastically, and quickly.

SL Book publishing

SL residents (and friends) Aimee Weber and Catherine Omega are publishing their first book called "Creating Your World: The Official Guide to Advanced Content Creation for Second Life." Most certainly not a fiction novel this highlights a growing trends of treating the virtual space like any other. I think the most unique thing about the book is that there is such a need for high level content creation in SL that the general population of residents are not learning / self teaching themselves fast enough to fill the demand. I can't wait for a 'Second Life for Dummies'.

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Local DJ's arrested in P2P Marketing Effort

It is a common practice in the hip-hop world for music industry producers to send DJ's tracks to put onto mix tapes and distribute to fans. The idea is that it is free marketing for new artists and tracks, and that it will wet the appetites of consumers to purchase the whole album. Recently Fulton County Police shut down a studio producing mix tapes of legally licensed music. The Sound of Young America reports that the RIAA may have made a huge blunder arresting the same DJ's that helped launch the careers of artists like TI. To make matters worse Fox 5 (which did not put the story on their web site) produces a scare-tactic report insinuating that these marketing activities are certainly accompanied by illegal and illicit problems.  Billboard also has a report on the incident.

Santaland Diaries

Over the weekend we went to a our second play at the Horizon Theater here in Atlanta. I am sad that we never knew about it before. We saw an absolute gut-busting comedy called the Santaland Diaries written by famed author and satirist David Sedaris. The star and University of Georgia drama professor, Harold M Leaver, was simply fall on the floor funny and he was joined by a supporting cast that took the play from good to amazing. I do not think I have laughed that hard in a long while. It is playing through the end of the year so you have time left to go see it!