I’ve often thought that there’s a set of things that become interesting if you work in virtual worlds that collectively might comprise an aesthetic.  Things like avatars, anime, dolls, theater, economies and reward systems, cosplay, gachapon and Burning Man.  This is evidenced often for me in the Flickr feeds of my friends and colleagues

.

My Son Theo looking very "virtual world"

I’m not sure what any of these have in common, but clearly there’s a shared set of principles, both aesthetic and rules-based that are predominant in virtual worlds but are beginning to assert themselves in the real world. As a father, what I find fascinating is how much these principles have to do with very childlike impulses for role-play. Also, as a father, I must confess that we are using virtual world principles to raise our children. Most of this is done by all parents (”If you pee in the potty you can have a candy”). The question is really how much you raise the bar. Right now, Theo has a whole economy that he’s defined, which measures his good deeds (sharing, being a good listener, etc.) and gives him stars. He can spend these stars as he wishes. Last week he traded in 20 for a $14 skateboard. Anyway, does anyone see these linkages? Is there a virtual world aesthetic?

I’m super proud to announce the launch of a project we’ve been working on for a while.  It’s a Facebook app built using Scenecaster that plays a lot like Myst.  We hope you enjoy it and look forward to seeing you in the Quest.

Opening Screen -- You'll Need Your Friends to Find Eternal Life

Better Place is a Palo Alto based startup committed to creating an all electrical vehicle grid.  They’ve recently become a MoU client (and they’re fantastic).  They’ve been signing up countries — so far Israel, Denmark and today, Australia have come on board.  Below is a video giving an overview of the concept from a year ago and below that, a Seesmic discussion started today asking, “How can we get more countries and local governments to sign on for the investment, job creation  and energy independence of Better Place?”

better place partners to bring electric vehicles to australia

This is the one I did in October 2007 in San Jose.

This was from March 2008 in New York.

And this was September 2008 in LA.

Is the Internet Watching Us?http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/fashion/28truman.html?_r=1&oref=slogins

Here’s a link to the NY TImes article by Sarah Kershaw.

And here’s some stuff about the Panopticon.

The SXSW 2009 Interactive Panel Picker closes Friday (8/29) at midnight.

Reuben is putting together a panel discussion - The Inevitable Future of Virtual Worlds, description: Virtual worlds and 3D interfaces are changing the flat web into an expressive experience. Copyrighted material of celebrities and real world talent are shaping the online experience through the distribution of virtual goods and likenesses. Google Lively continues to push the envelope as it introduces 3D socializing to mainstream Internet audiences. This panel will explore how virtual worlds are making the immersive web a reality for Internet consumers.

I proposed two how to demonstrations. Machinima Kung Fu - Sure machinima looks easy - record a game, drop it into iMovie and do some voices - but there’s actually a little more to it than that. This session will cover all the tech of making machinima - from hardware and software to in-game strategies to post production issues.

And Custom Video Players For Your Show - You’ve got a unique video show, why not have a player that matches? This session will take you through detailed examples using two popular Flash video players. We’ll show you how to create custom skins and get them set up on your site.

See you in Austin!