MFA - From Liane Maertens

This here I was invited as Moda model to participate at MFA showcase, and I got realy involved with the wonderfull and generous idea of the coordenations.
MFA started as a clothing fair called the Merovingi Clothing Fair on 2 sims, with the good feedback recived from the visitors and contestants among with some suggestions how to improve the show. One of these, where to not select fashion labels but to let people nominate themselves.
So the organization asked Second Life residents in January to nominate who they think should participate. Every Second Life resident was invited to nominate one (1) fashion company who only exist in Second Life, only Second Life businesses could be nominated. Fashion Labels that has a business registered in Real Life could not be nominated. in each 5 given categories.
Judging will be based around 5 categories:

1. Best Female Fashion Label
2. Best Male Fashion Label
3. Best Goth Fashion Label
4. Best Furry Fashion Label
5. Best New Fashion Label

Over 5000 nominations later, the top 5 nominees in each category has been invited to attend. The top five (5) labels that gets most nominations are offered to participate at the MFA Show-grounds. Here, they were offered a spot on the grounds where they could put on display there creations and offer visitors a chance to have a close look at there work before voting.

Last year’s show event helped to raise money for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, and this year the plan are make things even bigger, by raising money for Doctors without Borders and the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

This year the show is twice as big, spread on 4 SIMs in Second Life. In comparison to passed shows, the coordenation didnt hand pick designers, instead they left the Second Life community nominate and vote for those it thinks should be the winners. During the week-long event, visitors are offered to visit the show grounds and vote for who they think should win, in each of the categories. Each Second Life resident could vote one (1) time. Voters must had minimum 30 days old to vote.

Also this year, they award a brand new Apple iMac 20" computer to each winner, and an iPod Nano is raffled among those who nominate and vote!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Osmium/191/198/22

London School of Journalism

Morgue McMillan Public relation of the London School of journalism send me this important notice. It is nice to have a real life journalism school also on Second Life. I will be glad to have some articles of the students publish here. Congrats Morgue and all London School staff, professors and students.

This is a nice tip for those who want to be an journalism. London School of Journalism.

Established for over 80 years, the London School of Journalism provides journalism courses, freelance classes and creative writing lessons by distance learning.

The LSJ has been at the forefront of teaching journalism and creative writing skills for three generations, and continues to lead the way in developing new and effective teaching methods. It also offers 3, 6 and 9 month attendance postgraduate diploma courses in Journalism in London, and modular 24 month online distance learning postgraduate courses.

Although best known for its journalism courses, half of the students are involved in other forms of writing - short stories, novels, children's fiction, poetry, cartooning and English courses.

The presence of the LSJ in Second Life is one more step in the development of new teaching and learning methods. It took Titan Thorne and Indego Hax little over 3 months to build the sim, which includes a main building called the Student Union that contains a general public relations area with announcements as well as an amphitheatre and a club for dancing and events.

Furthermore the Learning Curve will provide the students with all the assets needed in SL and for their learning experience. The LSJ also plans to offer free lectures all throughout their distance learning programme every other week and will co-operate with the writing community in SL like The Guild of UK Writers, Written Word and INKsters as well as with Rockcliffe University.

For further information please contact Titan Thorne or Indego Hax in-world and they will be glad to answer any question, or visit the website of the London School of Journalism at http://www.lsj.org/.

The sim will open officially on April 26, 2008 at 10 am SLT (6 pm GMT) with a public lecture (it is a free event, but it is needed to contact Titan Thorne via IM to attend as it will be a group event), music and readings.

Their virtual campus is here:

Virtual style? In another life

This is based on an article in the London Financial Times on the fashion industry and how real-world fashion companies are braving the virtual frontier. Also, this is part of my history inside the metaverse. I was surprised when I read a line about me on Fiona article. This is because I took part on the Lacoste contest. Below you can see my pictures. Well I didn’t win but I got media coverage.

The idea to publish this article is to show part of my history inside Second Life; Give a tip about business and brands on the metaverse - In my opinion this is a very new internet platform and real life companies aren’t using it very well; Also, introduce my new article about fashion tips and trends on Déjà vu magazine: Deja vu international.

Virtual style? In another life
Based on text By: Fiona Harkin

No longer the domain of tech-geeks and real-world businesses are vying for a virtual presence - especially fashion businesses. After all, think of all those perfect-bodied avatars to dress.

"Aranel is fun and spunky. She is happy-go-lucky and really easy-going but has an addiction to shopping for clothes." So reads the online description of one avatar beauty applying to take part in Lacoste's Second Life virtual modelling contest. The French brand has joined the likes of American Apparel, Reebok, Adidas and Calvin Klein fragrances in tapping the growing marketing potential of virtual worlds.

Unlike American Apparel and Reebok, Lacoste has chosen not to open a store in Second Life, but has instead launched a competition on its website, where players can upload images of their avatars to be judged in an online voting competition.

"By going as far as virtualising the product, Lacoste is demonstrating that an item of clothing is infinitely more than a piece of fabric," says Ivan Beczkowski, web consultant at BETC Luxe, which is behind the Lacoste project and sees it as a way for brands - even luxury ones - to reinforce their identity and engage the consumer.

"By becoming involved in Second Life, Lacoste is investing in this new virtual living space, a space that has become a powerful economic reality and a decisive territory for brand expression and expansion," adds Corinne Perez, managing director of BETC Luxe.

Well, she would, wouldn't she - though with avatars such as Anna Avalanche, pictured on the Lacoste website in a revealing Brazilian bikini, and Salvatoree Rossin with his steroid-pumped torso, it's hard to imagine the style of Second Life avatars fitting in with the clean-cut Lacoste image.

Still, says Sabrina Dent, alias Sabrina Doolittle, of Linden Lifestyles "Critically, there are no really effective advertising channels in SL, and therefore no in-game mechanism that allows a brand to dominate, no matter how much they spend. The playing field is still very even between real-world brands and in-world brands and, in fact, the real-world brands do a much poorer job of reaching consumers.

"Having said that, Second Life is a micro economy and there is no real-life brand that's here to make money. It is an excellent platform for building relationships, cementing brands and building consumer loyalty - yet few real-life brands are doing those things correctly in Second Life," adds Dent. "Take Lacoste. It has little or no in-world presence; it's just running a vapid photo contest on its website."

"Overall, I'd say, most residents are indifferent to the large companies that open outlets in Second Life," says Celebrity Trollop, Second Life's fashion oracle and the managing editor of online magazine SecondStyle.com. "Second Life is driven by the new and now. If you open a beautiful store like American Apparel, it will be popular for maybe a month, but as new content fails to appear, traffic and sales will quickly erode."

So what are the sartorial codes of the virtual world, and how can you win your fellow avatars' approval? "Second Life allows you to be a celebrity in your own lunchtime," muses Dent. "You can design the body you've always wanted, and indulge your fashionista fetish for very little money. You can be the most attractive, best-dressed version of yourself you can imagine."

It figures then that having achieved a perfect body, most Second Lifers choose to flaunt it. Cue an overwhelming array of bootilicious clothing and bare midriffs which would horrify real-life fashionistas. Second-Life style isn't about the latestPrada shoes and Louis Vuitton 'It' bag. Instead, there's an appreciation of technical craft, especially as anyone with Photoshop can be a virtual fashion designer. "There are some extraordinarily talented people in Second Life," says Dent.

Then there's Crucial Armitage, aka Peter Lokke. A former manager of a Pathmark supermarket for 16 years, he gave up his real- life job to further his career as a virtual clothing designer and land baron, with 70 stores throughout Second Life. One of the 35,500 players experiencing a "positive monthly Linden flow" in April, Lokke says he makes enough money to support a family of four.

"I believe the great majority of players prefer something a bit simpler with a touch of flair and sex appeal to it," Lokke says. " I never rush anything I make. It is this process that I think makes my items stand out."

If uniqueness and craftsmanship count, perhaps more luxury retailers should be getting involved? "The 'participative democracy' of the net takes nothing away from the magic of luxury brands as long as their appearances on the web show both understanding of this new world of expression and convey their extraordinary status," says BETC Luxe's Perez, referring to the Lacoste project. "I am convinced that internet users will appropriate and twist the codes of a universe that stays inflexible and formatted in reality."

But to what end? Accessto a niche group of online early-adopters with enough cash for the hardware needed to run Second Life? Dent is firm in her belief that Second Life has added value for a brand in witnessing the way players shop. "Anything I see in a high street or a Bond Street window, I can find a semblance of in Second Life, and it has its own couture brands, too.

"What I see an opportunity for, however, is smaller fashion houses trialling design concepts in Second Life. If you're trying to decide if a consumer group will prefer one pattern over another, Second Life shoppers can very likely provide you with statistics on that. And, with the correct market intelligence, design houses could also extrapolate data about price points - all with corporate anonymity."

Adds Trollop: "You couldn't ask for a better creative Petri dish to grow a market winner."
The bigger issue, then is how Second Life could change the way we shop in real life. It offers the opportunity to try before you buy. It fosters shifting identities, with avatars changing styles from day to day. (On the flip side, it could also lead to more demanding real-life customers.)

No wonder Aimee Weber, who built American Apparel's Second Life store as well as virtual versions of the company's real-life outfits, says: "I predict the real fashion world will have a season or two in the near future that will be advertised and heavily influenced by the virtual worlds."

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008


The complete article can be found here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/733d2398-05a6-11dc-b151-000b5df10621.html?nclick_check=1 or here: http:http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto052320070811047333

Please, leave comments of your thoughts if you wish. Do you think real life companies don’t know how to use correctly SL? Do you think that real fashion world will be heavily influenced by the virtual worlds?

This is my pictures for the Lacoste contest Fiona Harkin refer to.

Anna Avalanche Lacoste 01
Upload from Anna Avalanche

Anna Avalanche Lacoste 02
Upload from Anna Avalanche

Anna Avalanche Lacoste 03
Upload from Anna Avalanche

What is coming up next on Second Life?

This is a Reuters article: The last big feature: “HTML on a prim” by By Eric Reuters.

Speaking last summer at the Second Life Community Convention, Philip Rosedale pledged that stability would be Linden Lab’s top priority for the coming year, plus two major new features: the introduction of voice, now live in the virtual world, and the ability to access web pages inside Second Life.

Earlier this month, Linden took a major step towards realizing the second half of Rosedale’s wishlist with the release of a new test version of the Second Life software. Insiders call the long-awaited feature “HTML on a prim,” for the ability to display the language web pages are written in (HTML) on the basic building blocks of Second Life objects (prims).

What it means, to hear Linden Lab executives speak, is to allow people to share the any experience that can be had on the World Web Web, collectively through Second Life. “You can have the experience of watching a video — dare I say YouTube? — with other people at the same time,” Rosedale told Reuters last week in a Second Life interview.

The current test version has nowhere near that capability. Only one URL, or web page, can be used in a given parcel of land. Eventually URLs will be tied to virtual objects, a substantially more difficult task. But as a prototype the functionality works.

Rosedale, noting the shift in his Second Life usage towards educational institutions and non-profits, said he imagined the earliest uses of the new feature would lie in creating “virtual white boards” to share ideas between people in remote locations.

“Today, you have to take screenshots of your slides and upload them as textures, which normal people just aren’t going to do,” he said. Coding a presentation as a webpage is substantially easier.

Eventually, more capabilities will be added. “We’re shooting a lot higher then just ‘HTML on a prim’,” said Samuel Kolb, a Linden developer working on the project. “Anything you can do on the Web, you should be able to do within Second Life.”

Rosedale shied away from promising a deadline for the general release of the new feature, but when pressed said he hoped to have a first version by the end of year. “If you wanted to be all Steve Jobs about it, you wouldn’t say anything to the public until it was all ready and finished,” he joked.



What you think about this innovation? Had you hear about it? Do you think this will transform Second Life? Please leave your comment about this topic.

Tetê Espíndola, RL Brazilian singer show

EVAPORAR, Nature's breathing sighing within our souls...

Tetê Espíndola is a real life Brazilian singer noted for her creative compositions always in dialogue with the Brazilian musical avant-garde and from the mid-70s singing the importance of the environment, Evaporar (Evaporate) is her 15th record, full of poetry and songs of birds. She will present her new songs and perform LIVE at the Bradesco Cultural Center. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bradesco/23/62/27

19th Annual National Service Learning Conference

My friend Rhiannon Chatnoir just sends me this invitation:

Starting now (April 11 ) in the NMC sim Teaching, as part of the National Youth Leadership Conference live events, Global Kids' workshop on Using Virtual Worlds to Promote Service-Learning - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/110/117/23


The National Youth Leadership Council will be hosting its 19th Annual National Service Learning Conference in Minneapolis from April 9-12th, 2008. The NSLC is the largest gathering of youths and practitioners involved in the service-learning movement where participants connect through three days of plenary sessions, featured forums, and service projects.

Friday the 11th, Global Kids will be streaming the key events live onto the web at our blog http://tinyurl.com/67pt8l, and hosting live events in Teen Second Life on our Global Kids estate and on the Main Grid in the NMC sim Teaching (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/110/117/23).


Schedule of Events

Join us for Day 2 of great plenaries, performances and speeches from the Learn and Serve Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.


Date: April 11th, 2008

Be sure not to miss Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an activist who helped end racial segregation in South Africa!

7:00- 8:30 a.m. (PST)
Plenary session with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, human rights activist and Nobel laureate
Archbishop Desmond Tutu's faith in and commitment to the peaceful destiny of South Africa earned him the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize. He served as his country's voice of conscience during its long struggle against apartheid. During those years, Archbishop Tutu soothed the spirits and rallied the hearts of his people with simple words of passion and dignity. Those words also united the world against South Africa's apartheid regime.

8:45 - 10:15 a.m. (PST)
Responding to Tutu's Global Call to Action
Calling all youths! Don't miss this opportunity to hear young people's reactions to Archbishop Desmond Tutu's plenary address and global call to action. You will spend this session responding to issues discussed in the plenary session such as Jewish relations, Darfur, and HIV/AIDS.

12:30 - 2:00 p.m. (PST)
Tabitha Gkid's workshop on Using Virtual Worlds to Promote Service-Learning!
This session highlights some of the exciting work that young people are undertaking both on- and off-line to address significant problems faced by youths in the 21st century. Come hear what youths around the world are doing in virtual worlds at Global Kids, a New York nonprofit, to promote service-learning, and learn how you can do the same in your community!

2:15 - 3:45 p.m. (PST)
Youth in Media: Leveraging Our Power
Are you a middle or high school student who feels that you have creative media ideas to help change the world? This forum will feature panelists whose lives are focused on making change through media. This forum will ask, document, and seek to answer questions such as: What is the media feeding young people? How can media and service effectively complement each other to make change?

Déjà vu - May 2008 –

The Déjà vu - May 2008 - is now available with very nice articles. The front page cover is an interview with Space Junky band. The music is fantastic and you can download a copy.

So don’t lose reading it Deja vu international.

My article is about Fashion trends and tips. In the article I would like to give my personal fashion tips and suggestions. Please don’t understand this as an obligation to be beautiful. “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself aloud” (Coco Chanel). This is only Anna Avalanche thinking of myself aloud. Lol!

The magazine is fantastic and I would like to have a feedback from my readers. This is very important for me to make better article. So please leave your comment here about my Déjà vu article Fashion trends and tips.

You can also read the fine articles:






Silver Lining in home and furnishing from SC Tracy World’s traditional outfits from Antonella Munro
Japan “hanami” in around the world

Food and Yoga for your health and pleasure.