You are hanging on a VERY thin thread

I was reading some plurks and stumbled on one from Hyang Zhao, who wanted to reset her password for SL, but seemed to have forgotten her security question. Peter Strindberg wrote a blogpost about it.

So, even when you have a premium account with all your private information, credit card numbers, RL name and address, you can not change your password at LL. It must not be easy for Hyang to find support on that matter since she is Russian, and will have to call to the US, which she already did, but without any result so far.

After being on the grid for more than two years, this proves again what you money is worth to LL, what you are worth to them. You're just an avatar, a genuine pig to them. They use your information to improve their game, their business, without thinking of the people who brought them so far as they are now. It is a shame.

I know Hyang is getting support from her friends, but at the end, she will have to clear it with the Lindens. And if they can not help her, she will have to build her personality in SL from scratch, although she is a well known person in the community.

I only can say, beware! You're just a number, an avatar...not a person!

Avatrait Gallery Presents: Giving

Yes we are still here, still ready to show you some of the best Artistic Digital Impressionism on the grid. Come join us May 30th for the re-opening of one of the coolest gallery builds on the grid.

This will be a multi artist event which also features the top three winners from our May "Giving" art contest.

There is still some work to do, but I am convinced that we can have a fresh new start with this show, don't miss it!!!

The Avatrait Gallery eventually not on the ModaSL sim

Some doubtful and unsure weeks we have been through.

Several weeks ago we had to reorganize the show of Joshua Morane to the Avatrait Garden, which was in fact a location on Shoshana Epsilon's sim. Our Gallery, which was up from December, had suddenly disappeared, due to technical reasons. In the meanwhile we were looking for a new place where we could build our gallery up again.
We received a generous offer from ModaSL , and Track Hax, the owner of Avatrait, did not hesitate a moment to accept this offer (see previous blog article). We were back in business , so it seemed. But after the excitement of having a place to start again, the board realised that, maybe we agreed to soon with this deal. Avatrait wouldn't be a stand alone company anymore and would probably have to deal with other circumstances. As we were thinking of how we could made this new start happening on ModaSL, we received another possibility.
Although we will probably still have some events with the co-operation of ModaSL, we have now a completely new location, thanks to one of the Avatrait artists, and dear friend, Mecca Merosi.

We have already built the gallery back up again, and are preparing the next show at the end of May. Location will be announced approximate a week before the show.

We are grateful to the people of ModaSL for the proposal which they made and hope to be able to work with them in the near future.

Don't let your virtual creations DIE - WILL your WORK day

Bettina Tizzy made a recall on flickr to share all works inworld, so that the works will not die, if something happens to you or if you leave the virtual world. This effort includes ALL virtual creations, not just art. She wrote:

"Dear fellow photographers of Second Life:

About two weeks ago, virtual artist Vanfarel Kupfer died. Had he not left copies of most of his work (no trans, no mod) with his virtual girl friend, Native Aeon, his only legacy would be what is currently rezzed today.

Avatars in Second Life devote thousands of hours to creating content, and all that work is LOST when they die. Yes, even if they backed up that work by giving it to an alt. Even if they gave their account password to someone. When you die and unless you have taken appropriate measures, no one, not even Linden Lab, can legally access your work. It is simply lost forever.

I have been in communication with Linden Lab regarding the correct procedure for "willing" one's artwork - or for that matter, any assets - in SL. Legally, the correct and ONLY procedure boils down to this: support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=441...

In a nutshell, I propose that we establish one day a year, May 18, to encouraging content creators to "Will your Work."

The goal would be to celebrate Van's art while at the same time encouraging people to either give copies of their work to one or more avatars (not their alts) whom they trust, or add them to their Real Life will.

Also on May 18 and for one week, and working with his beloved Native Aeon, Vanfarel Kupfer's work will be exhibited at four locations: his former home sim, EnLuminaria, the Crescent Moon Gallery, the Blackwater Gallery, and Chakryn Forest. Understandably, Native is still very much in mourning over her loss, and when I asked her how I could help, she stated that her greatest wish is that Vanfarel's work become known throughout the grid. So be it.

I am asking all my fellow bloggers, photographers, community leaders and more to join me in writing about and promoting May 18th - on Monday, May 18th - as Will your Work day, to generate awareness of this important objective. If you speak more than one language, please help us to get this message out to your fellow residents in their native language. Won't you please help?

Feel free to create your own artwork. Help us to get the word out with your powerful images.

Here's to enduring great virtual content!
Bettina"

Lost World in the new issue of Role Magazine

Role Magazine is pleased to announce the publication of our May, 2009 issue. As we celebrate the release of our 6th issue we take a closer look at the challenges surrounding enforcement of residents’ Intellectual Property rights including trademark and copyright issues.

If you’re considering strolling down the aisle during the upcoming wedding season, be sure to look at our fashion spread which features a lovely selection of nuptial attire. As always, we bring you articles on the latest trends; hot finds and kawaii, fashion tips for men and women; and, features on the subjects of house and living, art, music, literary, travel, property and more.

See an article that might interest your friends or group members? ROLE Magazine blog posts can now be easily shared by linking directly to your Plurk or Twitter page.

ROLE Magazine continues our commitment to our advertisers by providing verifiable readership statistics on our website.

As always, the team at ROLE Magazine thanks you for your continued support and encouragement!

The article I wrote this month for the Role Magazine is about "Lost World" and more in particular lolmac Shan and Kiya McMahon.

Freak Show & Avatrait @ ModaSL!

Avatrait began in Second Life back in 2007, initially as a service that allowed SL residents to order high-quality framed prints of in-world portraits of their Avatars. As we reached out to talented S.L. photographers, we discovered that there was a whole new type of art being produced in Second Life, and decided to open up the Avatrait Gallery to feature the best of these artists.

The Avatrait Gallery not only produces virtual art for sale in-world, but creates real-world versions available to order. As popular as the Gallery has been, the amount of Second Life art that can be featured in it at any given time is limited, so we decided to develop a web site that would allow all those interested in this new genre to store, share, and even sell their works.

As you all noticed, the gallery has disappeared for a couple of weeks now, and that is also why we had to move to the gallery garden for Joshua's show, which was a success, btw.

We had to look for a new location and found it eventually. All need still to be rebuild, but the co-operation with ModaSL is a fact.

What is behind the project ModaSL?
ModaSL is a sim dedicated to Fashion, Glamour, Design and Art related to Second Life. Its not commercial approach will allow creation, presentation, promotion and design of all new trends related to the world of fashion and all its derivatives. Composed of different areas depending on the examined field, ModaSL tend to become a solid point of reference for those who create and follow fashion, and new insights about the virtual design. The channels are muliple infact: two exhibit areas, one indoor and one outdoor, as a gallery space and for dynamic presentation of objects of design. There will be two runways to make way for new stylists or new collections. And also a cinema / auditorium to provide space to art film linked to Second Life, an information point where Miss Bliss Janus welcomes questions, giving informations and advices about new shops and new international trends, an "Outfit of the Week" area with references to combinations and LM, a building dedicated to bloggers, which will become home base within the metaverse of all important fashion blog runners around Second Life, a fashion school and last but not least, the famous Fashion Café, meeting place for parties, discussions and community. And finally, about 1000 meters high, you can now find the famous Freak Show, an area dedicated to the Visual Art of Second Life.

ModaSL is part of the region that includes ItaliaSL, both Jacopo Perenti's SIMs, and that ModaSL will be completed shortly and is going to be ready to host fashion shows, exhibitions, galleries, presentations, and many more.

More information on the Avatrait gallery will be up soon.

So, stay tuned Freaks and Avatrait fans!!!!!! A lot of fun and art @ ModaSL!!!!!

Sunshine in the virtual world doesn't always mean the same in RL

It has been a while that I have written a blog post, but every day seems to have fewer hours.

I had a lot of things on my hand, not only in SL, but also in RL. This meant for me that I was not able to work on pictures, the way I would like to do. And certainly did not even think about blogging, for which I apologize to all (how few they may be) readers, who are or were anxious to read about new adventures or experiences.

The next couple of days will even be very crucial for my future in SL, as some decisions are about to be made, which can turn my virtual life upside down. This can be either way.

I have been inworld for two and a half years; I enjoyed it very much, learned a lot and could do my most favorite thing: taking and post processing pictures. So not all was in vain after all.

Companies are rising inworld, and people with professional skills are taking over from the amateurs. Magazines, galleries, clothing shops etc. are more and more based on real marketing strategies, with people who are doing the same jobs in RL, or at least related to it.

It will be more and more difficult to start a new business, without having the knowledge of running a business. This also means that other avatars, who are the co-workers, will have or get more stress to get their things done.

The virtual world is and will always be a hobby for me, but you will have to find the right balance between the two worlds, not that the virtual world will become that important, that your real life begins to suffer from it. Some friends have experienced it, and decided to take it easy on the virtual life, and to secure their RL. Everyone will have to decide for their own, how far they can go with “the game”.

It is not easy to start a company, these days, and become very well known in the virtual world, building an image, which speaks for itself, and having the right people at the steering wheel. But when these people decide to take a step down, it is a tragedy for the company. It can happen in RL too, but to replace worth full people in SL is not a sinecure.

Where in RL you can almost say that people are replaceable, but in SL you will have not the same insight and visibility on people as you have in RL.

Will I be doing the same activities in the future in SL, will I take it easier? All questions I can’t answer. I still like to work on pictures, as main activity, but I just don’t have the time to do so.

Things will be more clear in a couple of days, I hope.

Wedding contest at Role Magazine

Click the picture to go to Role Magazine.

Bryn Oh in April's Role Magazine

The April's issue of the Role Magazine is out again. Don't miss it!
In March alone there were already 8.700 readers, not counting the inworld readers!

For this edition I have chosen to interview Bryn Oh, a talented artist from Toronto who has displayed her art together with Feathers Boa on the Role Magazine Headquarter on the Concetta sim. You can still visit the art installment of both artists.

Click on the image below to read the Role Magazine.

Koinup- Murku Second Life Comics Contest

Press release

Calling all SL/RL cartoonists! Koinup proudly announces its Comic Strip Contest. The Comic Strip Contest is the first of its kind and Koinup proves again that they are continuously raising the bar on their contests and helping artist to challenge themselves and win big doing it. For all of you who love to draw and are artistically creative this is definitely a contest designed specifically for you. The contestants will create their comics by using the Murku Hud, created by Deep Semaphore. Each contestant must contact Deep Semaphore in-world to find out how to get their own personal Hud. The fabulous prizes for the grand prize winner include $10,000L and a chance to exhibit their creation in the upcoming Museum of Comics. There will also be honorary mentions that will get the chance to have their inventive works viewed in the museum as well. Each contestant can submit as many entries as they want. The contest features two categories which are Cartoon and Comic Strip. The Cartoon category consists of a one frame work with graphical comic elements. The Comic Strip category features a small story created as a comic’s book. Submissions can be entered from now until April 26th. Get yours in today!

For more information and how to enter please visit: http://www.koinup.com/group/second-life-comics-contest

Unlike other social networking sites, Koinup is still strictly for virtual worlds, making it the first of its kind. It is easy to create a profile, share your works (i.e. machinima, pictures, stories) on the site, as well as join the groups and participate in the contests. Koinup is growing rapidly and invite you to join so that you may participate in this as well as many of its upcoming contests and events. Koinup is the wave of the future, don't get left behind!