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.

Last Sunday I left for Japan to keynote the inaugural Japanese Virtual World Summit and attend the Tokyo International Film Festival.¬† The event was created by the Kadokawa Publishing Group with help from Japanese virtual world developer Meltingdots.¬† I traveled with our esteemed CCO Douglas Gayeton, whose enthusiasm for all things Japanese led me to some of the cooler epicurean experiences of my life, including sumo stew called Chanko, Yakitori, (skewered barbequed chicken including gizzards, skin, hearts and liver).¬† An episode of Douglas’ film “Molotov Alva” is showing in the festival.¬† We also hung out with a whole bunch of great virtual world creators, Net pioneers and media folks (see the picture below taken by Joi Ito right before we walked the red carpet on Saturday.

The unexpected highlight of our trip turned out to be an near total immersion and obsession in the toy stores of the Akehabara district, which feature robots, transformers and millions of tiny toys fromthe longstanding Japanese anime and character culture.¬† We bought close to 400 of these, focusing primarily on “Gashapon”, the small vinyl characters dispensed from coin operated vending machines in Japan. ¬† These will be carted today in a large suitcase to the MoU Sausalito offices where they will be greeted with joy by fellow MoU’ers (Gregory and Emma in particular).¬† Once Douglas returns (he is now in Rome),¬† I promise to upload the photos of our trip to Flickr and begin sharing how these toys will become integrated into the MoU creative process.¬† How’s that for a cliffhanger?

The Economist quoted our CEO Reuben as it surveyed Silicon Valley’s “Summer of Facebook.”
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AdWeek took a closer look at our Omnicom news last week.
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Well this afternoon Electrolux, the Gronstedt Group, and Millions of Us finally unveiled a plan we’ve been working on for quite a while. First we announced the winner of the “Invent a Word” contest. Doubledown Tandino won himself $100,000 Lindens with his word “Metapparatus - An all encompassing tool used in a virtual world to make interactions and processes easier.” The other 30 participants in the word creating exercise will earn $1,000 Lindens each as well.

Then we came to a very special announcement for our project: the Electrolux Innovation Grant Program. This is a program to really engage the Second Life community and work with them on their terms, not in pre-canned typical corporate experience way. Since Electrolux has been strongly committed to recognizing innovation within both the real world and the virtual one, this grant program is the perfect way to foster and encourage innovative minds within the community. Already the reaction from the kick off ceremony this afternoon has been overwhelming and positive.

Here’s a few choice quotes from users at the event:

[12:55] Sin Trenton: Thanks you guys for arranging this

[12:46] Doubledown Tandino: this is incredible!! ive actually been looking at ways to do this. i had no idea how to submit inventions.
[12:52] Doubledown Tandino: finally i get to utilize all these doodles and scratch pads of stuff i couldnt make!

[12:55] MSo Lambert: I’m really excited to see how Electrolux is engaging the Second Life community, thanks so much

So now we need to spread the word and let people know about this program so we can get some cool proposals in before November 1st. If you or someone you know is an aspiring Second Life inventor, creator, or innovator, get involved. Let them know we’re looking for cool people or teams to sponsor.

Here’s the official grant program guide:

Are you a Second Life innovator, creator, or inventor who wants a chance to make the great idea you’ve always had come to life? Now you can have the help you need to make your visions a virtual reality. The Electrolux Innovation Grant Program is looking for creative teams or individuals to help support cutting edge new ways of making all of our Second Lives even better.

Electrolux Innovation Grant Program

Assignment:
Second Life residents will be encouraged to submit ideas for useful devices designed to solve a specific challenge. They can present ideas already in development or projects that are still in the concept phase. They can work either as a team or as an individual.

Electrolux will decide among the submissions which projects they deem worthwhile, feasible, and able to be completed. From the projects they select (a number at their discretion) they can then award them significant amounts of grant money in Linden dollars based on merit.

Submission criteria:
1. Describe the problem you’re trying to address.
2. Describe a thoughtful, cutting-edge and innovative solution that is based on consumer insights.
3. Describe how you or your team is prepared to meet that challenge.
4. Describe how long you think it will take your team to complete the project.
5. Be as detailed as possible. How is this innovative? Will it be free or for sale? How will it help Second Life users?

Judges:
A private team of Second Life innovators, Electrolux employees, Gronstedt Group representatives, and Millions of Us members.

Grants:
Grants will be awarded in amounts of $25,000 Lindens for accepted proposals. Upon reaching a decided upon halfway milestone, a second $25,000 grant will be given. Projects that are finished and released into the community will be given a final $50,000 Linden award grant.

As a special recognition, the project completed and deemed most innovative by the judges will have its inventor or team avatars be permanently added to the display of great innovator paintings in the Innovision Hub.

Disclaimers:
Entrants own the intellectual property rights to their entries. Electrolux will NOT own the invention. If inventors would like to name or include Electrolux’s Innovation label on their product somehow of their own choice, we definitely are open to that.

Deadline:
Grant proposals should be submitted by Thursday, November 1st. At that time grant winners will be contacted within 7 business days by Electrolux. Further group meetings to discuss projects will be held weekly at the Innovision Hub.

Submissions:
Send your Electrolux Innovision Grant Program proposals to carola.lundell@electrolux.se

Alright Second Lifers, get the word out there!