Just a quick reminder about our meeting on Tuesday, March 13th.

I hope you can attend.

JZ

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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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