Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds

1. Indiana University’s Edward Castronova has a fascinating piece on media violence, aggression and policy. For me, the key point made was:

To begin at the end: Scientific research should not be framed as the pursuit of evidence for something. To do so violates the important norm of disinterestedness. You are not supposed to care how the numbers turn out. The proper way to think of things is “What causes Y?” not “Can I find evidence that X might effect Y?” The Y here is violence in society. We know that the main causes of violence in society are parents and peers. A disinterested scholar would stop there. Yet in media violence research, the norm is to go looking for a link.

2. Metaverse TV show, Life On Line is now up to its eighth episode, the latest episode features: Microsoft evangelist Zain Naboulsi and Aussie musician Hughie performing ‘Slap That Ass’ (from an album produced with Kirk Pengilly of INXS):

3. Metaversum, creators of Twinity, are recruiting a range of positions:

Ruby/Rails Developer, Senior Manager Business Development (Singapore)
Manager Business Development (Singapore)
Senior Developer (Singapore)
Junior Developer (Singapore)

Intern Commercial Partner & Business Development
Intern Marketing & PR
Intern Marketing & Online Redaktion
Intern Community Management
Intern Product Development