The more astute among you will have noticed a new ad to the right of the posts: it's for the upcoming Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo, which runs October 10 and 11 in San Jose. All manner of industry leads will be there, with many of them speaking, including Adri Saarinen from Metaversatility; Corey Bridges from the Multiverse Network; Giff Constable from ESC; Edward Castronova; Jeska, Robin, and John Zdanowski from LL, and a bunch of other MMO players.

I plan on being there as well, so anyone in the area or already planning on going to this event, drop me a line and let's have our own mini-SLCC right there in SJ! For those of you planning on going but without your ticket yet can take advantage of this great discount code when registering online. The code is VIPATTENDEE, and it will save you 10% on the registration rate! You can check out more information at the conference website.

I'm excited; are you excited? I can't wait to meet representatives of MMOs that I've made fun of! If I don't return from this event, you all know why!

(Thanks, Tim!)

If you're an Australian, you know the ABC's (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) program, Four Corners. You probably nod and look thoughtful thinking of the in-depth coverage of important and sensitive issues covered by this long-running Australian icon.

If you're anything like me, though, that's probably tempered by some cringing at the pieces by Ticky Fullerton -- to be honest, I mostly laugh, but I do rather feel sorry for the people and organisations she covers. Four Corners is airing a piece by Fullerton on Second Life this coming Monday.

"Life 2.0 -- Market and Society on the Virtual Frontier"

Edward Castronova is author of the book "Synthetic Worlds: The business and culture of online games" is working on a new book ("The Fun Revolution"), to explain to people who know nothing about virtual worlds why they should pay attention. Cory Ondrejka is the Chief Technology Officer for our own Linden Lab. On the Zócalo podcast (One hours audio-stream, courtesy of KPCC - Southern California Public Radio), Castronova and Ondrejka speak to Ethan Lindsey about virtual worlds.

Castronova says that there are at least 20 to 30 million people using virtual worlds right now, and that number is growing exponentially. "If you're going to argue that virtual worlds have no effect on the real world, that's like arguing that America had no effect on Europe."

In the same issue as our previously-posted article, economist Edward Castronova (who has a mention here) provides some intriguing thoughts on the economy on SL, and how it might influence our changing usage of the Internet.

There are a couple of other articles in that issue as well, but 'Virtual Worlds, Virtual Economies' seems to retain its relevance.

Things are starting to heat up concerning media covreage of SL. Latest to join the fray is The Economist, with both online and print versions of their story.

For once, an article about SL that doesn't mention sex at all! The piece is filled instead with an examination of (what else?) the economy of SL, sprinkled liberally with quotes from various 'Net noteworthies such as Jaron Lanier, Virtual Reality pioneer; and Edward Castronova, Indiana University professor and author of "Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games".

This article is also noteworthy to me in that it's the first such piece that defines the term metaverse (which the Economist has as 'metaphysical universe'), and makes the attempt to provide a pronunciation of MMORPGs (apparently it's pronounced 'morpegs', which I've never heard before). Well done and cautiously optimistic, this is worthwhile reading.