Pixels and Policy

Pixels and Policy Editor to Appear on Feb. 28th's "Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe"

What a way to celebrate six months covering the policy and international business applications of social media and virtual worlds! After two successful stints on Pooky Amsterdam's impressive Second Life-based television shows, we've been invited to appear on another Treet.tv program - Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe!

Treet's description sums up our feelings on Beebe's great show, now in its third year:

“TONIGHT LIVE WITH PAISLEY BEEBE” is the highest rated virtual TV show, with many thousands of viewers tuning in every week. It can be seen live on inworld virtual screens, online at Treet.tv or later on iTunes. Between 50 – 70 avatars in Second Life watch the live taping at the virtual S.L studio at Northpoint every Sunday at 6pm PDT.

“Tonight Live” informs and showcases the best things in Second Life, locations, creators, Musicians and issues important to virtual world residents. If you want to know what is happening in your virtual world? this show is a MUST see.

Pixels and Policy Editor Max Burns will be spending the episode discussing the current virtual business climate with Paisley, as well as various hot topics on the use of virtual worlds for everything from personal expression to national security. It'll be a great show, and we're absolutely thrilled to be participating.

Mark your calendars, we'll be appearing February 28th, 2010 at 6pm SLT. You can watch live from inside Second Life, or pick up the feed on Treet.tv's website.

2009 in Review: Virtual Worlds Take Over Hollywood

As James Cameron's 3D epic Avatar surpasses record after record for a newly-released film, many in Hollywood are looking for the next big film. A few years ago it was teen wizards. Last summer it was sparkling vampires.

2009 may well be known as the year virtual worlds got their big-screen endorsement.

Pixels and Policy looks back at how three major films explored virtual reality and attracted new converts to the world of interactive synthetic environments.

Interactive TV Promises Smarter Consumers

                Ready for your virtual closeup?

Lawrence Lessig argued in his book Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity that the bulk of consumers learn about new technology through old technology.

Americans learned about the radio from newspapers. They heard about the television via radio. My mother learned about the Internet from a dancing baby on Ally McBeal.

Now television programmer RDF USA – creator of such high art as Wife Swap – wants to put the synthetic world on the small screen. Sleuths uses "mobile participation television," blending community interaction with interactive advertising.

Multiplayer Gaming: Bigger than Hollywood.

Forget watching Iron Man and thinking you're superhero-with-attitude Tony Stark. Multiplayer video games allow you to be a Tony Stark-type character.

It's this interactivity and customizability, says Tom Chatfield

of The Guardian, that explains why multiplayer gaming has surpassed moviegoing as society's imaginative escape of choice.

Pixels and Policy investigates.

Augmented Reality Finds a Partner in The Music Industry

There are plenty of situations where a graphical overlay of helpful information might be useful, but augmented reality is still struggling to find potential consumer applications beyond iPhone novelty.

Now an emerging augmented reality company might have found a friend in need - the sagging CD music industry.

Pixels and Policy takes a look at how an old dog might be learning some new tricks.