Hmmm. I forget how to blog. I haven’t had much time the past few weeks.

Er, actually, I forget how to get all ‘meta’ or whatever it is people say I do. So let me throw some spam your way. Er, useful promotion and information.

Metanomics Summer Season
The summer season of Metanomics will kick off in a few weeks and I’ll be jumping in to do some hosting as we take a look at some of the nuts and bolts of virtual world development. Which doesn’t mean, of course, that I won’t also go off on a tangent about the psychosocial meaning of virtual architecture, but we’re going to try to keep this conversational and, um, summery.

The idea of the Masterclass is to bring together some top virtual world talent to give viewers some insight into the art and discipline of things like 3D content development and immersive story.

So mark this down on your calendar, and keep an eye on the Metanomics Web site as we post full details and flesh out the community forums.

JUNE 8: Special Mixed Reality Event, 11 am PDT/SLT
Held in conjunction with the mixed-reality conference on New Market Dynamics out of Copenhagen, Denmark, this show will feature a cross-reality panel.

Host Robert Bloomfield will lead a Second-Life panel including Robin Teigland, Edward Castronova and Tom Boellstorff as they discuss the purchase of virtual islands, leasing of towns, recruiting avatar employees and more. The episode will include a stream from the live event in Copenhagen and the panel in Second Life.

JUNE 9th: Virtual Worlds, State of the Union
Bloomfield will return on Wednesday June 9th at our usual show time (3:00 pm PDT/SLT). He’ll be interviewing Paulette Robinson and other guests who will provide insight from the recent Federal Consortium of Virtual Worlds meeting held in Washington. Paulette is involved in setting up a government-wide virtual worlds resource center and infrastructure to help bring immersive technology to all of the Federal agencies. You can read a good background on this project here.

JUNE 16 – 18 (all day) Idea City
OK, now this isn’t really a Metanomics event, and tons more detail to follow, but for three days the Idea City conference will be streamed into Second Life. This is a huge coup for Second Life. Idea City is an incredible conference of thought leaders speaking, this year, on the topic of women. Check out the partial presenters list which includes Faith Popcorn, Judy Collins, Erica Jong, Tan Le (the founder of Emotiv) and others.

We’ll be trying something that almost seems like heresy in Second Life: charging admission. The real life conference costs $4,000 (yeah, that’s dollars, not Lindens) to attend, but you’ll be able to view the same content for a few thousand Lindens for the duration.

The full schedule and more details will follow, but keep an eye out – there are some really intriguing tracks and if nothing else pop by for the topics that interest you.

JUNE 23: Metanomics Masterclass, 3D Content, with Sandcastle Studios and Others, 3:00 SLT
I’ll be interviewing Reed Steamroller, Gianna Borgnine and possibly another guest on the process of creating 3D content for virtual worlds. For those of you who ARE content developers, it will be a good chance to get into a discussion on the ‘state of the art’, the impact of mesh imports, and the development pipeline. For others, this will be an introductory overview that will give some insight into the creative, decision and execution process of creating environments and objects in virtual worlds.

JUNE 30th: Metanomics Masterclass, Immersive Storytelling, 3:00 SLT
What’s the difference between a game and a story? How do you construct engaging narratives in virtual worlds? How can you use immersive storytelling for brand engagements, education, or just plain fun? Another Masterclass session which will hopefully inform both expert developers or those setting out to create their own immersive stories.

JULY 7th: Metanomics Masterclass, Virtual Architecture, 3:00 SLT
Keystone Bouchard and other guests will join me for a discussion of architecture in virtual worlds. We’ll talk about the translation of real-life practices to a virtual environment, the differences between creating a real and a virtual building, and where the tools and techniques are headed.

Right. So mark the above on your calendars, and see you at Metanomics.