Coming March 22nd, 2008 - 4th Annual Satellite Exhibition. Learn more about science, space and innovative scripted creations in Second Life.

Looks pretty neat.

From the group information:
4th Annual Satellite Exhibition
This year’s event is in March 2008

The exhibition seeks to demonstrate the various autonomous, moving, scripted projects that Second Life residents have created.

Hosted by Timeless Prototype

Gold sponsors:
Wayne Porter

Read more

Popularity: 17%

Here is a post from New World Notes that talks about some of the actual popular places in Second Life, the ones that aren’t using camping and other ways to suck in traffic, just honest to goodness busy sims. I will be checking some of them out in the coming days to let you know if they are worth visiting or not. I noticed a couple looked like bondage sims, and some of the stuff I have heard about some of them is really nasty.

After launching my search for SL’s True Communities (i.e., without camping chairs or excessive freebie giveaways), I asked Tateru Nino to apply the same head counting methodology she uses to track visits to real world corporate sites. Here’s her top twenty for last week:

NORSIM MultiSIM (Goth RPG) Traffic: 43,646.
Nude Island (Mature Social) Traffic: 29,198
Avilion Grove (Fantasy Role-playing) Traffic: 26,578.
Phat Cat’s Jazzy Blue Lounge (PG Social/Shopping) Traffic: 23,220.
Heavenly Rose Gardens (PG Social) Traffic: 15,154.
Hedonistic Isle (Mature Social) Traffic: 15,120.
Midian City (Goth RPG) Traffic: 14,986.
Bound and Determined (BDSM Social) Traffic: 14,818.
Blackheart’s Cafe (PG Social) Traffic: 14,717.
Independent State of Caledon (Steampunk Role-playing) Traffic: 13,608.
Laguna Nude Beach (Mature Social) Traffic: 13,406.
Bare Rose (Asian Role-playing/Shopping) Traffic: 13,205.
City of Lost Angels (Goth RPG) Traffic: 13,152.
Capture Role-play HQ (BDSM Role-playing) Traffic: 13,104.
Lost Gardens of Apollo (PG Social) Traffic: 12,936.
New Citizens Incorporated (Education/ Social) Traffic: 11,808.
Toxian City (Goth RPG) Traffic: 10,901.
Icedragon’s Playpen (Casual Gaming/ Social) Traffic: 8,803.
Isle of Lesbos (Mature Social) Traffic: 8,232.
The Shelter (Education/Social) Traffic: 8,220.

In fact, the only regular overlap between this New World Notes chart and the Linden chart is Phat Cat’s, and this week, Nude Island. (Which despite what the name suggests, actually seems to be more of a beach-themed casual social area, than a 24/7 naked orgy. Least the couple times I’ve visited.) For that matter, there are far more PG-oriented communities with an emphasis on socializing (The Shelter, Ice Dragon’s, New Citizens, Lost Gardens, Blackheart’s, Heavenly Rose, Phat Cat’s) than Mature-rated sites with an arguable focus on sex (Nude Island, Hedonistic, Bound, Laguna, Capture, Lesbos.) Seven to six. Source: NWN’s True Community Search: NORSim dominates the Top 20 Sites for week ending September 30

I wouldn’t say one more PG sim is “far more” than the mature sims, but you should check out Tateru Nino’s blog for more mixed reality headcounts, and check out her postings on Second Life Insider.

Popularity: 8%

What: REAL LIFE EUROPEAN CITIES IN SECOND LIFE

When: Monday, September 10, 2007 at 20:00:00 UTC time

Where: Webheads hut at Edunation

Description: Second Life has its fair share of Real Life cities that people have created. Why build a recreation of a Real Life city in a virtual world where what you build is confined only by your imagination? Do these places attract native speakers from these countries and people interested in learning the language associated with the cities? What can you learn about culture from visiting these places?

Join us for the discussion tour and find out the answer to these questions and more.

As the best part of last week’s tour was having a guide speak us through it in Wonderful Denmark, I thought I could attempt to do something similar in..

Barcelona
Liverpool

and if anyone comes along who’d like to give a tour of another destination, please let us know. Here are some of the other cities I proposed visiting last week…

Moscow
Amsterdam
Lisbon
Brussels
Dublin

NOTE: If you activate the Second Life Voice Client before you come, you will get more out of this experience: In Second Life, go to Edit ->Preferences->Voice Chat and click on the box ‘Enable Voice Chat’

Second Life URL. via REAL LIFE EUROPEAN CITIES IN SECOND LIFE

Popularity: 8%

A new group called Gridsafari is forming and looking for people who want to explore all of the virtual worlds available on the 3D web, so if you are bored with Second Life, this may be an opportunity to make new friends and find other virtual worlds to explore. They have created a Google Group to make it easy to see what the group is doing, signup here.

Many Metaversed readers are residents of Second Life, but Linden Lab’s virtual world is not the only 3D social, commercial space out there. So, for those looking for a little adventure, or perhaps just a better understanding of the current state of the 3D web, GridSafari.com has been put together.

The 3D web is young, some might say not even realized to any significant degree as of yet, though new virtual spaces are popping up almost ever other week, and a veritable gold rush in the conference, consultancy and publications space is in full effect. At it’s heart though, Metaversed, of which the GridSafari group is part, is about exploration, discovery and curiosity. We want to know how these environments might be used for business, and about the technology they employ. We want to experience, and scrutinize what’s laid before us and consider the possibilities of a future where what we’re doing now is no longer the domain of the Meta Geek, but part of everybody’s daily online routine. Source: GridSafari.com Launches - 3D Adventure Group to Explore New Worlds

The first Safari will be announced this week, and will probably be to Kaneva.

Popularity: 2%