jeremyvaught

Hosted on Orange Island in Second Life, the panel was moderated by John Swords, run technically by Jade Lilly, and on the panel with me were, Torrid Midnight, CC Chapman, Stuart Warf & Mackenzie McArdle.

If you interested in what we had to say about Podcasting, Podcasting in SL, the future of podcasting, as well as answering questions from the capacity crowd, check it out at orange-island.com, a Metaversatility project.

Early last year, when there was such a thing as an active secondlife.reuters.com I attended an event by Reuters with a lot of assistance by the company I worked for at the time, the Electric Sheep Company.

So the significance here is I was talking to Mel Mcbride and I was reminded of this, and that Reuters used the pictures I took of the event in-world for their story, and some pictures even made it to the main site at Reuters.com.

You can see the story here if you are even remotely interested.

After having committed huge amounts of time to Second Life before this summer, I have pretty much taken the summer off. I jumped in for a while today, and re-enjoyed it. Did some searching around, visited new places, visited old places… Had a short chat with Eric Rice which I haven’t done in a while. He invited me to a party he is hosting in San Jose coming up during the Virtual Worlds Conference. He really bummed me out because I had been trying not to think of the conference and surrounding activities because, well, it bums me out. I REALLY enjoyed the first conference in New York City early this year, and met a lot of great people. My good friend Jean-Ann Mills will be speaking at this conference, and I’m insanely jealous. :-)

I’m reminded of when I wanted to meet Corey Bridges of multiverse.net in NYC at the VW Conference. The conference was over, and everyone was saying their last good byes, so I figured, “Well, now or never.” Corey was finishing a conversation, I walked up to him and said something like, “Hi, I’m Jeremy Vaught with the Electric Sheep Company.” (which I was at the time, for a few more days anyway) And he said, “Hi, I’m Corey Bridges.” To which I replied, “I know. I know who you are, and now you know who I am.” And Jerry Paffendorf (also of the Sheep at the time) who was nearby said, “That’s the way we role at the Sheep.” It was a pretty funny/awkward moment. But I smile a big toothy grin each time I think about it. If you know me personally, you know this is not the way ‘I’ usually role.

That’s all I have, if you read this entire post, thank you. Come back again :D

As I’m pondering the question of whether themed virtual worlds will be attractive or not, my mind is going in all directions, so I’m writing this out to get some clarity. The different issues as I see it:
1. Second Life, the VW with the most hype, is not themed, but has themed aspects (furries, trekkies, etc… there are many)
2. Should I differentiate VWs and MMOs? MMOs have thus far been largely set, not flexible in terms of user control. You are there to play the game, not alter your surroundings. (please take with a grain of salt, I have not played many MMOs or spent much time doing so since the MUD, something I need to change)
3. Perhaps the answer to my question is, “of course they will be attractive to small groups (relative to the population as a whole), there is no need for another ‘catch-all’ VW like Second Life.”
4. Seems like there were more… I’ll add them as I think of them…

I’m not here to answer this now, just ask the questions.

Hey folks, I’m just laying it straight out there. I’m a looking for a new opportunity. (this is fancy speak for a job) I have some ideas for starting my own thing, but I’m not convinced I’m ready to jump at doing my own startup yet. So if you have a moment, allow me to tell you about myself.

My last job, I was a Project Manager / Producer for the Electric Sheep Company. In resume speak, this is what I did:

Held the position of Project Manager overseeing the corporate builds in the virtual world of Second Life. Successfully ran multiple short and long term projects simultaneously. Participated in all stages of a project, including the creative design stage with the client, conception of the idea, and execution of the launch. Worked closely with the clients to convey their needs to the builders and scripters. Managed time frame, scope, and budget of the project to insure that the client’s expectations were being met. Even though I worked remotely, I was easily able to communicate with clients by using basecamp, phone calls, emails, and Instant Messages. Mediated between clients and creative teams when conflicts arose and resolved all discrepancies.

Before that I was a PHP Software Engineer for Fidelity National Financial. What I did:

As the sole corporate PHP developer, I created and maintained dynamic web sites and databases. I initially had to build my entire development environment and managed full implementation from development to deployment. In the course of my job, I initiated, planned, and executed every aspect of my projects. I effectively organized the budget, time line and scope of projects by maintaining communication with clients and providing appropriate documentation and deliverables.

Before that I worked 8 years at UPS doing all kinds of things. Let me tell you about what I did most:

District Software Engineer
Created applications to assist operations and management to complete tasks which were time consuming and provide valuable, timely information. I used VB.NET, SQL, VB6, and MSAccess to accomplish this.

Technology Support Technician
Troubleshot and resolved problems with networks, PCs, and applications both on site and at a regional help desk. Additionally I lead project teams to implement and upgrade new technology solutions integral to UPS’ core business.

Supervisor
Provided leadership for group of operations employees as a Supervisor. Skills include relationship building, time management, job assignment, job skill development, evaluations, and mediation.

In even more resume speak, allow me to talk about what I have done outside of the box called a job:

I started blogging in 2003 and continue to do so now. I started creating and producing podcasts in late 2005, and since have been asked to contribute to many other podcasts besides my own, including the creation, implementation and production of a podcast for a major triathlon website.

I joined the virtual world of Second Life in April 2006, and have since become more and more involved in the expansion of Second Life and the metaverse as a whole. I also explore and investigate other virtual worlds, from Kaneva, There.com, and Entropia Universe to IMVU and Habbo Hotel and more.

I am very passionate about new media and the new marketing ventures that come as a result of new media. Something I have always enjoyed is meeting and talking with leaders in new media. I have been a member of the Orange County Podcasters and participated with them at last year’s Portable Media Expo. I am currently in the Social Media Club in Phoenix and the Arizona Podcasters Group. I also am currently organizing Podcamp Arizona.

I have successfully forged many friendships in the social media community, and look forward to continue to network with people in this exciting field.

I have excellent investigative and communication skills and put them to use in all my ventures including new media and learning ways to enhance it, consume it, create content in it, and spread it to a wider audience.

And finally, in case you were curious, I have a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from Devry University.

If you would like to get a hold of me please contact me in one of the following ways:
email: jeremy@jeremyvaught.com
phone: 623.670.2365
im me in Second Life: Jeremy Flagstaff
aim: jeremyvaught
comment here on my blog: http://jeremyvaught.com/blog
or on my Second Life blog: http://SecondLifePodcast.com
send me a message in facebook — and while you are there join the New Media group I started, almost 900 strong now in less then a month
send me message in Flickr — while you are there, check out my 2,400 pictures that have 18,500+ views
jaiku: jeremyvaught
twitter: jeremyvaught
kaneva: jeremyflagstaff
linkedin: jeremyvaught
last.fm: jeremyvaught
myspace: jeremyvaught
skype: jeremyvaught
look me up on Technorati
send me a message on YouTube: jeremyvaught
search for me on Google, I’m almost every link you find on the first several pages

Oh, and there is more, in fact you can get more on my onXiam.com profile.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Jean-Ann Mills (Jane Calvert in Second Life) was on awesome on the national show, The Morning Show, on Fox. The clip is 20 minutes, so it is in two parts. Check it out below.

Here is the direct link to part 1, embed is below.

Here is the direct link to part 2, embed is below.

I’m stuck… I’ve not been blogging or podcasting. I don’t think I’m in a rut, I think I’m just overwhelmed. I am looking for a job, and I am trying to get my kids back, two things that are quite stressful. However, aren’t we all busy? I twittered about a month ago, I said:

Arrived at DFW, decided on the plane I don’t take enough risks… even the silly ideas could end up awesome, or spark it

And I have been thinking of this again. Partly inspired by those out there doing just that. CC Chapman with One Guy’s Thoughts, Chris Pirillo with his ustream stuff, Justin.tv, the Chris’ (Penn and Brogan) with Podcamp, Eric Rice with Saijo City in Second Life, iJustine with Tasty Blog Snack, and many, many more.

For another example, I give you Irina Slutsky, she recently alerted me to the Vlog Deathmatch. I watched her video along with everyone else’s. Were most of them goofy? yep. Were most of them silly? yep. Were some of them good and entertaining? absolutely. Who lost out by doing this project and putting something out there? nobody!

All the folks I have mentioned above have moved to do something different. They are going out on a limb, they create content, and are forging new spaces. What do I do? Analyze. What should I be doing? I should be going out on a limb, I should be creating content, I should be forging new spaces. Sure I blog and I podcast from time to time, but I need to do more.

So this brings me to my next point. By creating content, even if some of it is lame, is this a negative thing? Sure, consistently bad content will drive folks away, but is it worse then not making any content at all? I’m thinking so.

So I was trying to come up with tagline for my blog, and Mo Hax in Second Life helped me out. He posted a pic of me on Snapzilla, and his comment makes for a good tagline. Best of all, I can claim I didn’t say it. (Plausible Deniability) :-)

So from here on, I’m a King of New Media, and not, a ’self described’ King of New Media.

I take my simple pleasures where I can

UPDATE:
Mo apparently was prompted into saying I was a New Media King by the wonderful Jane Calvert.
Transcript from Second Life:

Jane Calvert: Jeremy is a new media king
Mo Hax seconds that

Found this do to it being twittered by Jason Calacanis, I love this video.

can’t get the video, direct link is here:

The rest of the videos that Jason rounded up… some gems in there

Not long ago, the author Dean Koontz held a reading of his yet to be published book, “The Good Guy,” and did about 45 minutes of questions and answers with the audience.

The event was held in the Bantam Dell Bookstore on Sheep Island, and the audio was distributed to 8 others places in second life. I was at Mr. Koontz’s house for this event to stream the audio. If you missed it, you can catch some of the video and audio that was recently released by Bantam Dell on a webpage featuring what they are doing in Second Life.

You can also get the direct link to the video here: