The Tuesday, Mar 13th meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet Users
Group (RMIUG) will discuss "Second Life: First World"

Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com), is a virtual 3D world built
and maintained entirely by its residents. Boasting over 4 million
residents (with over million logging in over the last 60 days) and
over $1.5 million dollars in transactions, it is
as vibrant as any major city.

The World of Second Life has a vast array of people, entertainment,
experiences, and opportunity. Because everything in Second Life is
controlled by its users and supported through a Marketplace, the world
has grown in ways its inventor, San-Francisco based Linden Labs,
probably never imagined:
* Dell Computers opened up its on Island in November offering residents
the ability to purchase PCs for the Second Life and their "first-life"
selves
* Sam Palmisano, IBM's Chief Executive Officer, held a town
hall meeting in Beijing and Second Life (he has his own avatar) to
announce a $100 Million investment in real and virtual world
initiatives.
* Starwood Hotel tested a new loft style hotel in Second Life and got
lots of feedback from visitors
* Anshe Chung, one of Second Life's virtual land real-estate brokers (her
real name is Ailin Graef), has become a millionare (that's in REAL US
dollars)

For our next meeting, we will explore Second Life and
learn about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
(NOAA) own virtual education island in with of its residents,
Hackshaven Harford (aka Eric Hackathorn).

Eric Hackathorn (eric.j.hackathorn@...) started with his first
computer before he learned to ride a bicycle. His father was kind
enough to allocate him
100 KB of the family's 10 MB hard drive: one of the first commercially
available of its kind. Since that time, he has spent a majority of his
time dabbling in all things computer related. After graduating from
high school, he started working for the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colorado. At the same
time, he attended the University of Colorado majoring in electrical and
computer engineering. He continues his work at NOAA today as an IT
specialist. Recently Eric has taken a back seat to his much handsomer
counterpart Hackshaven Harford. Hackshaven is Eric's avatar (a virtual
representation of himself) and exists only in the virtual world known
as Second Life. Together they have been busy designing a public 3-D
space to highlight the research NOAA performs.

Links:
NOAA/ESRL's Virtual Education Demonstration:
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/outreach/sl
Second Life: http://www.secondlife.com/


The meeting is Tuesday, March 13th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm (with optional 6:30
pm start for refreshments and informal networking). The meeting will be
held at The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at 1850
Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. To get to NCAR from the Boulder Turnpike
(US 36) or Broadway (US 93), take Table Mesa Drive west towards the
mountains for approximately 2.5 miles into the foothills. NCAR is at
the top of the hill. For door-to-door driving directions, go to
MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/), click on Driving Directions,
enter your starting address, NCAR's address, and voila! Park in the
NCAR lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to point you to
meeting, which is held in the main
auditorium, right off the lobby. The meeting is free and open to the
public, but we may pass the hat to help defray expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is usually enough
room to
accommodate all attendees, but it's impossible for us to predict how
many people will show up for any given meeting. Seating is always on a
first-come, first serve basis, and in the event of more attendees than
seats, we won't be able to admit additional people into the auditorium
after all seats are filled.

Thanks to our three sponsors who help make RMIUG meetings happen:
---------------------------------------------------------------
MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com)
which provides Creative and Technical talent for Web, Interactive
Media, Marketing Communications and Software Development projects, is
the sponsor of food and beverages for RMIUG meetings.
ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based software company
that provides semi-custom web-based applications, sponsors the RMIUG
meeting minutes.
Copy Diva (http://www.copydiva.com)
which provides marketing project management, marketing communications
consulting, and web content development is the AV sponsor for RMIUG.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring Internet-related Product
information, brochures, and business cards which will be displayed on
an information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group. To subscribe or
unsubscribe, see http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html. You can also
reach the RMIUG "Executive" Committee at rmiug-comm@.... Our web
site is at http://www.rmiug.org/


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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are their guests. NCAR
has security regulations in effect that we must follow in order to use
the facility. If any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these
simple regulations, I would ask that he or she not attend and instead
read the minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be followed:
1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing ID if requested.
4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy are expected when
dealing with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this policy, please
contact me directly.
Thanks, Josh Zapin (josh@...).
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