(extract authorised by Dept. Interstellar Trade and Commerce from Galactic Census 3162)

Shawk Pertwee, is a custom builder who specializes in pretty large things. Cyclopean builds and colossal avatars, primarily. Though he's been known to make some smaller stuff, it's the big things he's most well known for.

Right now, the biggest thing in his pile of assets is the sim Hamnida. While a chunk of Hamnida's been donated to NCI as NCI South, the rest is given over to the Freeport Alliance, along with a fair-sized bite of sim Kaseyo.

Shawk started Freeport originally in the hopes of building a market that would acquire a lingering population of sci-fi themed regulars, giving it that future-bazaar on-another-world feel, and hoping to draw a little profit on the side. These days, the notion's a little different, just focusing on having the operation support itself, but the living-market idea is still nascent.

This news story announces that Rivers Run Red is partnering with 10 content companies, including the Sci-Fi Channel, to bring broadband television into SL. The details are in the article, but here are some thoughts:

You're already sitting in front of a monitor for hours on end; do you want to add a second, smaller monitor to that?
There's something meta about the recursive nature of you watching your avatar watch tv
Advertising is mentioned; if there's already an uproar over in-world RL companies advertising, who's going to want to sit through more of it?
The possibility of Machinima on your broadband tv is nice, but again, why would you watch it even smaller than you would on your PC?
Why? Why are they doing this?

Is the point of SL to emulate as closely as possible RL? Why not build some broadband movie theaters? Netflix in SL?

(Via MediaGuardian.co.uk)