At the recent SLDevU conference in London, I understood the vision behind the online virtual world, Second Life, to a much deeper level: a platform for the 3D Internet - a richer, more compelling and more collaborative space for information and communication than our current, flat-screen Web.

Created by visionary programmers and inhabited by curious explorers, soul seekers, revellers, entrepreneurs and a frenzy of big-bucks brands, I wonder if we could turn this new Frontierland into something greater than our First Life?… Read more…

A time for goodwill, for giving, for sharing… Or a time for consuming, for devouring, for spending…

As Christmas hype reaches its zenith, millions of last-minute shoppers stock-up on their obligatory must-gives. I wonder how much money is spent each year on unwanted gifts. Still, you’ve got to give something and it is good for the economy…

An Idea for Next Christmas
There’s no need to buy new, expensive gifts when the world is already full of perfectly good but unwanted possessions. And because so many of us have things that we no longer need, why not organise a local community bring-and-share for Christmas presents?…

People would bring good quality items to give away, and they’d take home gifts from others. Perhaps there’d be a small fee for each present, which gets donated to charity.

Would you want to take part?

Prout (PROgressive Utilisation Theory) is a visionary socio-economic system to encourage a cooperative society. A new short story competition has been announced for writers to open a window on a future, Proutistic society. From the press release:

IMAGINE A SOCIETY IN WHICH…
…food, clothing, housing, education and medical care are guaranteed to everyone.

…most farms, banks, industries and services are run as cooperatives owned by the workers.

…there are no multinational corporations.

…different voices, languages and cultures are respected.

…there is self-sufficiency in food, medicines, clothing, housing, and local transport.

…the environment is protected and restored, all agriculture is organic, waste is recycled and renewable energy is used.

…universal spirituality is valued, not religious dogmas or conflicts.

…leaders are selfless servants of the people. Read more…

Black morning.
Clouds, muggy and moody,
Smother the mouth
of the city.

Thousands of bodies
Slide to the grind,
Underground.
Faces straight and indifferent.
Lost
in folds of paper
and fatigue.

Walls plastered with
Where to go
What to wear
What to buy

Thousands of bodies,
Thousands of faces.

Each a different form
of an endless You.

There are plenty of wrongs to right in the world. We can but deal with one at a time…

I don’t know about you, but email spam really annoys me. There’s something repulsive about deceitfully and repeatedly forcing useless products onto millions of people who really couldn’t care less about viagra logo enhancements or anything else on offer. So…

Take Action
If you’ve ever made your email address public on a website, the chances are that it’s been detected by a spam robot and added to its database.

For the benefit of such bots, I’ve written a little script to churn out scores of random addresses, with a link to a page that has more of the same. The result is the SpamPit. May they never come out again…

To Add a SpamPit to your Website… Read more…