Up until a few weeks ago, our growing production team was managed directly by our President and co-founder Chris Lassonde. Chris loves that part of his job, but our expansion, and Chris’ other demanding gig as our de facto CFO, inevitably led us to start looking for a VP Production. This is a critical position in our company; it’s where our creative rubber hits the client-deliverable road, to abuse a cliche, and that’s why Chris was involved from the start…so the search wasn’t easy. We needed someone with proven management discipline, a creative streak, an open mind, and a love of technology. In a resurgent Silicon Valley, there are only so many such candidates. It’s thus our good fortune to announce that web entrepreneur Bart Cheever has joined us.

Bart recently helped San Francisco Gavin Newsom put together the Mayor’s Digital Advisory Council, a group that advises the Mayor on promoting the growth of the animation, visual effects and videogame industries across the Bay Area. Among many other webby accomplishments, Bart is recognized for creating the early, highly influential digital media showcase the Low Res Film Festival, which created one of the very first sites to show video on the Internet (in 1994) and included seminal work from filmmakers like Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola.

More importantly though, I have quite accidentally discovered (via his LastFM feed) that Bart has taste in music that can only be described as *amazing.* This makes sense given the rumors around the office that Bart’s a weekend DJ. Check out the list and marvel at its soulfulness, bootyshakingality and historic insight.

It is with great pleasure that I announce that Sibley Verbeck, former CEO of the Electric Sheep Company has joined Millions of Us.

OK, I’m kidding, but you have to admit that he throws a mean “M”!

The Journal’s Emily Steel led her interviewee quotes with an overview from our CEO Reuben Steiger: “This is now a category rather than a single phenomenon.”
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Electronic Musician Kirsty Hawkshaw and Second Life Filmmaker Rob Wright Collaborate

We are launching an artist-in-residence program to discover and celebrate the work of emerging artists in the virtual world and social network space.

The first artist-in-residence will be UK-based Rob Wright, known as “Robbie Dingo” in Second Life. Wright has won widespread acclaim for a short film ‚Äì a 3D interpretation of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” ‚Äì that was produced entirely in Second Life. His first project commissioned by Millions of Us is a film interpretation of the song “Meteors” by Kirsty Hawkshaw and produced by Ulrich Shnauss. Kirsty is a prominent figure in electronic music known for her distinctive vocals and her work with the band Opus III. This video can be seen above.

Millions of Us’ artist-in-residence program will sponsor a number of artists in the coming year. The artists will collaborate informally with the Millions of Us creative team and work independently on their own projects. The relaxed atmosphere, unstructured program, and technical resources provided by Millions of Us are intended to spur unconventional results.

“Millions of Us is committed to finding the best talent in virtual worlds and all new media in order to bring them to a larger audience,” said Douglas Gayeton, Chief Creative Officer. “This is in part because we want to bring the freshest thinking possible to our campaigns, but also because we are inspired by the rapidly evolving work being produced by today’s digital artists and want to give back to the community.”

For more information on how to apply for the Millions of Us artist-in-residence program, please contact Celebrity Millionsofus within Second Life or via email: celebrity@millionsofus.com.

The video can also be found on YouTube.

Hey all!
So, Reuben and Douglas have gone to Japan and are back….well, Douglas will be back shortly. So, my husband and I surfed through the internet and found that Japanese sites had already posted a ton of stuff about Reuben, Douglas, and Millions of Us! Another interesting article we found was in Japanese about Gossip Girl and the HUD! http://www.secondtimes.net/column/tour/20071011_gossipgirl.html So keeping the spirits of Japanese goodness, I will continue the blog….in Japanese!

ルーベンとダグラスは日本にいる時に、Gossip Girｌ　のレジデントがすごい増えました～！信じられないで、Moderatorの人々と一緒にいろいろなイベントとゲームを企画しています！あいにく、英語分からなければちょっと難しいかもしれません。でも、上のサイトを呼んでHUDの基本的なやり方がわかります。ゲームが本当楽しいよ！でもゲームしなくてもいいですよ！Upper East Side　にショッピングとイベント（ダンス　パーティーとファーショん　ショー）ありますよ！実はゲームをやれば、ポイントをたまって、服とか（WB　SIMとGossip Girl SIM内）アパートの家賃として使えることが出来ます。お楽しみに！

(*Since Reuben and Douglas were in Japan, Gossip Girl residents have grown! The Moderators and MoU have been planning events and loads of good stuff. However, it may be difficult if you don’t understand English, but you can still learn the HUD usage by going to the site above. It’s really fun~! Right now there is shopping and events like dance parties and fashion shows in the Upper East Side and shortly you will be able to exchange those well-earned points into items like clothing or rent for apartment on the WB or Gossip Girl) sims. Have fun!!!)

Indulge me in a few hypotheticals. Ever felt like attending a business meeting in Second Life on your mobile phone? But you’re in the midst of downloading a huge video file of your niece’s Quincea√±era…and did I mention that that you’re relaxing at a vineyard in South Africa with a phone registered to a Taiwanese carrier?¬† Plus you need to do all this within the parameters of your regular monthly service bill ‚Äì no roaming fees, no data fees, none‚Ķ

This is the just-over-the-horizon world of 4G, or fourth-generation telephony,

4G is expected to offer extremely fast broadband capacity with peak speeds reaching 1000 times faster than DSL, continuous connectivity, extraordinary reliability and quality with significantly less “delay” to support real-time services,  These capabilities will enable the support of multiple”channels” of high-definition video simultaneously, in concert with a variety of other applications.  As importantly, 4G is anticipated to offer unprecedented capabilities for personalization of services, coupled with support for virtually any communications device.  In aggregate, these capabilities will deliver a communications experience very different from what is available today, and this contest is designed to tap the creativity and ingenuity of people around the world to visualize the kinds of services that may be available in the 4G future.

Tall order. And the best people in the world to make it happen are our clients at Alcatel-Lucent ‚Ķthe people behind, oh, the laser and the private branch exchange. In the spirit of user-generated-content, they’re actually seeking your help in designing the ultimate 4G gadget ‚Äì by imagining what 4G will do for you in the Xtreme Innovation contest.¬† Naturally, there are prizes. Check out Alcatel-Lucent Island which launches at 1 PM SLT today for contest details, and start dreaming‚Ķ.