Grady Booch might not be a household name, but he's the Chief Scientist for IBM's Rational Software Corp. unit. In a recent interview with Computerworld, Booch has held forth on a number of topics, including his take on SL. His approach to explaining the value of SL to himself is practical:

"IBM has 50 or so islands that we own [in Second Life]. We've derived business value by using it internally. I can look at the lectures I have done and say, "I have saved IBM money." Certainly the company saves huge costs on employee travel and accomodations by holding meetings in SL. Why isn't this being trumpeted more often as worthwhile to the average user? He has a bit more to say, so go check out the rest of the interview.

Australia's The Age has a new interview with Philip that is pretty much by-the-numbers, except for its terminal quote, as in this post's title. This was Philip's response to a question about SL's interoperability with the Internet, which Philip claims LL is working on, to the extent that (as I understand his remark) he'd like a resident's SL identity and credentials to be the same regardless of where he goes throughout the Web.

Furthermore, Philip believes that there will be interconnection between virtual worlds, and it's here that he says that great quote above. I love talk like this!

This is the thirty-second in a series of mini-interviews with the residents of Second Life. For the most part, I'll try to leave the responses unedited, except where editing will grant greater clarity.

Ancora Quintus made her way into my heart mere seconds after I met her, by telling me that she reads SLI all the time. And, though her Snapshot answers below don't mention it, she's involved with the Kuurian Expedition, giving her instant street cred. Good to have met you, Ancora, and I look forward to talking with you further!

Your SL name:
Ancora Quintus

How did you first come to SL?:
I saw the Business Week article and flipped out. My current computer couldn't handle SL and I was bound
for film school (for yet another degree) and needing a lot of heavy duty computer hardware, so here I am.

How did you choose your name?:
I liked the Latin last name. My first name comes from Michelangelo 's phrase, "Ancora Imparo" which means,
"I am still learning." So, as if there wasn't enough to learn in RL, I took on another life.

What's your favorite thing about SL?:
The learning opportunities, the creative opportunities, the freedom, the spirit of all of those smart people and the potential. And of course, my wings.

What do you like least about SL?:
Griefers, the fact that people in RL look at me like I'm crazy when I talk about it, and that it isn't like the Holodeck on Star Trek ... yet.

Favorite hangout/store?:
Love the Blarney Stone. Never get pestered there. Great people. I like to ride my motorcycle on the streets of
Dublin.

Name one new feature you'd like to see added to SL:
I want a motion capture suit that I can plug into my computer so my avatar can mimic my movements.

Shout outs:
The Blarney Stone, Brad Niven, Grizzy Grizzwold, Doug Latrell, Frank Koolhaas, Joshua Perenti, Douglas Story, Skye Lewellen, and Farblestans Alva! You guys make SL rock!

Make no mistake about it, Gavin Newsom is his own man. He's unafraid to speak his mind, and more importantly, to do more than talk about issues that affect everyone in San Francisco. He's somewhat of a local hero, and with LL in SF, it's a natural fit for Newsom to be interviewed by Adam Reuters on the 26th of January at the Davos Conference in Switzerland.

Mayor Newsom has a lot of great things to say, and you can hear them all and see video of the in-world simulcast. On the subject of Linden Lab: "They're home grown and we're going to make sure they stay there. In fact at the rate they're growing I'm not sure we'll have enough office space to keep them.

Adam Reuters: Is that the promise of a tax break I hear?

Gavin Newsom: It's not about money! It's about creative industry and about people - and there is no better place to find creative people than San Francisco, in fact the entire Bay area."

(Via Reuters)

Jane McGonigal was recently interviewed by CNet's Daniel Terdiman in their SL headquarters. McGonigal, Lead Designer for 42 Entertainment, was responsible for the I Love Bees Alternate Reality Game (ARG), which promoted the First Person Shooter Halo 2.

It's an interesting, if short, interview, covering a broad range of topics. However, the most interesting bit of the interview, in my mind, is the quote " ... I haven't been very successful having new social interactions in Second Life. So maybe there are people like me who like the world but need help navigating the social sphere and finding ways to contribute."

It's always nice to be given an award, if it's in a spirit of honest good will. I've got to say, though, that I've never heard of the Cullinane & Green Report, the people who are giving Philip their first EDGIE Award for creating SL, the 'Next Big Thing'.

You can listen to their podcast here, wherein they interview Philip, and discuss all manner of ways in which SL can be influential in the time to come.

Irving Wladawsky-Berger is the head of technical strategy and innovation at IBM. His job seems to be making sure the company catches the front end of any new technology waves. As such, he is leading IBMs efforts into Second Life. As you probably already know IBM has been setting up shop in Second Life sense the beginning of the year and is getting ready to open 12 new islands including the project with Circuit City I wrote about earlier. Joining their previous effort, the Almaden Research Center, which is basically a step 2 from orientation island.

In an in depth interview with CNET Wladawsky-Berger explains IBMs efforts to launch a new Emerging Business Opportunity in 3D Internet and virtual worlds. He seems to be very clear that IBM's interests are greater than just Second Life and extend to the concept of Virtual Worlds at large. When asked how IBM and Linden Lab work together Wladawsky-Berger responded with, "...we would like to collaborate with them more, especially in the area of standards and open source. I think it would be very good to get the various virtual-world communities to participate in efforts to define standards and to define what it means to interoperate across virtual worlds..." Is this the beginning of Second There, or maybe Virtual Laguna Hotel? Most likely not, because the structural differences in these worlds are rather large, but I would like to see smaller battles won. Like the ability to transfer characters between worlds.

Frogg Marlowe has been interviewed for MTV, and you can see a short piece of the segment on MTV.com. I believe there will be a longer bit on MTV at some time tonight, but I'm much too mesmerized by the action of Frogg's enormous feet to go check it out. Enjoy the clip!

NOTE: We have it on good authority (I'm looking at you, Torley!) that this clip won't play outside the US. "Copyrights restrict us from playing this video outside the U.S." If one of you enterprising young rapscallions would like to create an accessible copy of the clip for, you know, posterity, I'm sure it would be well received! And if it were a QuickTime clip, then we could play it in-world too! But far be it for me to encourage the further degeneration of the American youth by engendering a spirit of... I just lost my train of thought. Congratulations, Frogg!

(Thanks, Adri!)

While I'm on the subject, is it important for residents to have to provide their RL names when being interviewed for an article? Some construe withholding such information as evidence of shame, or trying to hide a vulnerability. Others might say that their SL personas are truly a different entity altogether, with their own viewpoints and ideas. Does anyone really care?

It's apparently a long-held convention that, when writing about virtual worlds and the people who inhabit them, if the writer is to interview a resident, the resident must also give his/her/its RL name in addition to the in-world name. This has kept some residents from speaking to the media, as some view their RL details too sensitive to divulge.

However, this trend might be changing for the better. In this article, both RL and SL names are used. Munchflower Zaius gets the dual treatment, while Our Own Tateru is allowed to retain her privacy. Good on ya, naplesnews.com!

CNet recently debuted a podcast interview featuring employees Charlie Cooper, Daniel Terdiman, Neha Tiwari, and Leslie Katz speaking on the subject of MMOs such as Second Life and World of Warcraft (which, to this day, I can't read the name of without hearing in my head "Wheel! Of! Fortune!"). It's a rather short 'cast, with the end result being a sort of bemused, indifferent-seeming "So, why do you crazy kids like this sort of thing?" approach by the host. Given that Daniel Terdiman has been writing about these things for a while now, the whole interview seems a little disingenuous and late to the party, especially since CNet itself has created a virtual headquarters of its own in SL.

It's tantamount to asking "Okay, convince me: why are we doing this again?"

(Thanks, Corey!)

Kermitt Quirk is the by-now famous inventor of Tringo, the heralded game-within-a-game now ported to the Nintendo DS. Australian news source The Age recently interviewed Kermitt and grabbed a little video of both his land and a short introduction to Tringo itself.

Now, I've not played Tringo, because frankly I don't need another method of frittering away my time; I'm the addictive type, and I know it. Kermitt, however, is another example of 'residents gone good', to be lumped in with the likes of Anshe Chung and Our Aimee -- that is to say, residents with an impact so great that they've become the RL's touchstone to SL. While the videos are short, Kermitt comes across as a fairly sober-minded individual, which is probably a good thing, considering all the overblown hype the mainstream media usually generates around SL. Go check it out; links to the videos are at the bottom of the article.

(Thanks, Corey!)

Since she's either too busy or too shy to mention it, Our Aimee was recently interviewed by Secondcast, regarding the UN's "Stand Up" project, which she helped architect. Just under an hour, the interview is fun to listen to (and also features Chance Takashi, by the way) and it's always great to hear Aimee's trademark giggle!

This article appeared in May of this year, but it's worth the mention for many reasons. First, it's a well-written piece, and covers a great deal of territory. Second, it asks (if not answers) a few of the questions many new residents ask themselves, including "What do I do now?" Third, and this might have flown under the radar of some, it's one of the few such articles that apparently did not require its interviewees to furnish their RL names.

However, there is a little slide show of the residents mentioned in the article (including the author), with insets of their RL selves, though, again, no names appear. There's even a related podcast.

Written with a sense of humor, and well-researched, I'd point to this article to show people who wonder what SL's all about. Favorite quote: "Oh yes, this is seriously weird."

(Via Business Week)

Intellagirl Tully is taking a huge step forward in changing the way education is taught in our colleges: she's teaching her class half on campus and half in SL! From Intellagirl:

"I teach at Ball State University in Muncie, IN where I am a PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Composition. My project was funded by the Ball State Center for Media Design. The course is a second semester core writing course (so it's a class that all students have to pass to get any degree on campus). There are 35 sections of the course being offered this semester on campus but mine is the only one with a SL component. There are 18 students in the class ranging from sophomores to seniors. The course goals are to introduce students to advanced academic writing, rhetorical concepts, and research methods."

I was able to interview her and her class last week, and it was a fun Q&A for everyone. The editing on this one is a little loose, to capture the back-and-forth of the students involved. We were cut a little short by the sudden crashing of the sim, but I saved everything we'd said up to that point. Enjoy!

Intellagirl Tully: Hi Akela!

SLI: Heyo!

Bobsesnstien Crispien: AHHHH!!!! A YETTI!!!!

Sapphire Undercity: :)

Intellagirl Tully: Akela is a reporter for the SL Insider.

Bobsesnstien Crispien: Oh ...

Kalyan Visconti: Cool!

Jash Tandino: Welcome Akela!

Kalyan Visconti: Hi!

Intellagirl Tully: He's here to ask us some questions and then we're going to do something super fun to blow off steam.

Proserpina Visconti: YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!