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IBM’s Ian Hughes (aka Second Life’s epredator Potato) flags a segment of the BBC Newsnight’s Geek Week 2.0 that examines the nature of the self in cyberspace. The 11-minute segment (click the virtual death link) is a really interesting examination of what it means to inhabit a metaversal presence, and well worth watching. (Second Life appears after about 7 minutes, for the fanbois out there who don’t want to watch the whole thing.) (more…)

Tony Walsh flags a couple of interesting stories from the world of virtual finance today. The virtual world of Entropia Universe is apparently auctioning off five virtual banking licenses, each with a two-year term, for vendors who will provide real-world banking services to players of the game. Meanwhile, over in Second Life, Kyle Polulak’s Crystal Studio (here’s their blog) is already experimenting with automated teller machines that would allow you to deposit L$ to a real-life bank account, with the transactions presumably being reflected in real-world denominations, according to an SLNN article. (Polulak, aka SL resident Fox Diller, is based in Canada.) (more…)

A press release from new-media marketers the Virtual Interactive Agency flags a new project they’re putting up in the virtual world of Second Life, in cooperation with something called the Ohio University Virtual Campus, which seems to have a few sims in SL. The new project is a “virtual security pavilion” that will house displays and demos by information security companies during a “virtual business fair” to be held February 5-14. The site mentions a conference fee of a whopping US$3,700, but that seems to include the Virtual Interactive Agency building out your booth for you. A limited number of billboards will also be available at US$425 each. In any case, it’s an interesting project. One wonders whether the firms represented there will address information security on the Web, in Second Life, or in some combination of the two. It will also be interesting to see whether a compelling event can be organized in this way, by presenting a conference center and then asking people to show up, rather than the other way round.

Les Moonves, president and CEO of CBS (yes, the television network), spoke about media convergence in his keynote speech yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show, and in the same breath mentioned a number of projects the network has going — including a planned Star Trek build in the virtual world of Second Life, which will be handled by the Electric Sheep Company (3pointD’s sponsors). Moonves also mentioned projects in the works with other partners, such as Sling Media and YouTube. Linden Lab founder and CEO Philip Rosedale took the stage with Moonves to demo Second Life and show a Sheep-produced machinima apparently featuring an early version of the Star Trek build. Nice for the Sheep and Linden Lab to be involved in such a partnership — and to be mentioned in the company of a site that was bought for $1.65 billion. This is also part of the growing trend of media convergence with virtual worlds that I’ve been so interested in lately. And Moonves says there’s more to come. “Anything is possible,” Moonves said. “Audiences know that, content people know that, and innovators in the digital space know that. In the weeks and months to come, we’ll have a lot more news on how we’ll be working with the interactive community in ways both big and small.”