Art Shows in Second Life
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 12/07/2007 - 18:31A week ago, I attended an art show in Second Life organized by students in Joe Sanchez’ class, Working in Virtual Worlds.
Tomorrow, there will be another art show worth checking out. Sky Hye will be opening her new gallery in LBD Villiage in Centro Italia. The opening will start at 1 PM (SLT) and will go on all day until 10 PM (SLT). I have another engagement for much of the day, so I will probably stop by at the gallery in the later afternoon, Second Life Time.
I met Sky at a networking meeting in Second Life a while ago, and got a chance to look at some of her work. I really enjoyed it and encourage everyone to attend. If you want to read up on Sky Hye before attending her artshow, you should check out the blog post that Sherpa Voyager put up about Sky on Second Seeker. While you’re there, spend a little time and check out some of the other wonderful posts that Sherpa has put up.
For those of you who come to read my financial markets posts, I’ll have more of them soon enough, but I do want to remind everyone that there is more to Second Life than just the financial markets.
National Presidential Caucus
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 12/07/2007 - 13:40Back in October, I wrote about the Florida Primary Mess and the National Presidential Caucus. Well, today is National Presidential Caucus day and there aren’t a lot that are organized. My wife and I talked about organizing one for our home town, but there were too many things going on, and she is on the road up to New Hampshire to canvas for John Edwards this weekend.
We did have an event that was close to the caucuses being imagined. The Advancing the Dialog Presidential Proxy Debate had all the trappings of the caucuses, bright people presenting their views about the candidates they support. The one thing that it lacked was the actual caucusing at the end and any sort of tallying to see who won.
In New Jersey, they are having their own Presidential Caucus this evening. It looks like a great event. If you’re in New Jersey, you should try to make it.
Many DFA groups held caucuses or strawpolls at their monthly meetings. John Edwards won the Democracy for NEW YORK CITY Caucus. In the discussion there, it is mentioned that he also won in the Oakland, CA and Austin, TX caucuses or strawpolls.
Clinton won a strawpoll at a local fundraising dinner in North Coast, CA. As I commented about the Presidential Proxy Debate here in Connecticut as well as in my earlier post about the National Presidential Caucus, these sort of events, I believe, return us to the sort of democracy that is essential our country, a democracy where everyone participates, instead of simply a democracy where people watch a few ads, listen to a few soundbites and go to voting booths as uninformed voters.
Chris Angle declares candidacy
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 12/06/2007 - 14:57Yesterday, Chris Angle, 58, of Redding, filed forms with the Federal Election Commission to run for Congress in the 4th Congressional District. Chris will be running as a Libertarian candidate. Chris is a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) and in 2004 filed for a patent for a ‘Process for incorporation of exchange traded portfolios (a.k.a. exchange traded funds) into life insurance or annuity policies with an optional principal protection feature’.
His website should be up in about a week and I am expecting to receive a copy of his platform shortly. I spoke briefly with Chris this afternoon and congratulated him on his decision to run. While I traditionally vote for Democrats and for that matter, no longer even live in the fourth congressional district, I was glad to welcome Chris to the race. Our democracy is made stronger by a lively, spirited and respectful debate. I hope that Chris will bring that to the 4th CD race.
Establishing Trust in the Second Life Financial Markets
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 12/06/2007 - 12:18A key commodity necessary for the smooth functioning of any market is trust. The less trust, the greater the difficulties. In Second Life, where we only know people by the pseudonyms of their avatars, where we don’t know if someone has an alternative avatar, and where recourse is much less than in other aspects of life, trust is all the more necessary.
Unfortunately, between various scandals, fraud and stupid mistakes, the financial institutions of Second Life are not highly trusted. In order to address this, people banded together to create the Second Life Exchange Commission. It is a noble idea, that so far, has failed to live up to its promise.
IPOs in Second Life
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 12/05/2007 - 18:20Last night on the Atlas Virtual Capital group in Second Life, there was a lively discussion about various IPOs in the Second Life stock markets. What leads to a successful IPO? What role should the exchange take, and many other topics. I thought this would be a worthwhile subject to explore a little bit.
As I write this, there are fourteen companies that have IPOs going on in Second Life, a fifteenth just completed its IPO. Over the past week, at least L$ 1.2 million have been invested in IPOs. So, what do we know about these companies and the exchanges they are listed on?
ACE has four companies in IPO, including KAU, the company whose IPO just closed. Nearly L$ 800,000 of the money invested into IPOs were done on ACE. The biggest was WJUV Radio, which accounted for nearly 60% of the IPO shares bought. KAU brought in L$ 200,000, which accounted for about 25% of ACE’s IPO volume.
The second largest player in the IPO market over the past week was VSTEX. Over L$ 250,000 was invested in IPOs through VSTEX. BNF is the company that raised the most on VSTEX, bringing in over L$ 83,000.
The World Stock Exchange (WSE) has three companies in IPO right now. Between them, they’ve raised just under L$ 140,000. The vast majority of it coming for Fund Second Life (FSL) which raised over L$ 100,000 over the past week.
The International Stock Exchange (ISE) has only one IPO, VLADA. Over the past week, they brought in around L$ 42,000.
The Second Life Capital Exchange (SLCapEx) does not currently have any IPOs underway.
Beyond all of this, there are various private placements which take place, as well as people making deposits in banks, and so on. Clearly, financial services are an important sector of the Second Life economy. However, there is a lot more that needs to be understood about these companies, which I hope to explore over the coming days.
