Category: Featured
Roof collapse highlights European Parliament circus' wasted millions
By Alan Osborn
Once again events at the European Parliament have reminded us of how easy it is to brush aside things like common-sense and good financial management when a nation’s self-regard is at stake.
Metaverse Messenger is Second Life's top newspaper
By Kristan Hall
The Metaverse Messenger (M2) is a weekly newspaper (published as an online PDF at http://www.metaversemessenger.com/) covering Second Life. With a
readership of over 63,000 residents, the M2 is the most widely read newspaper in Second Life.
It was created by Kristan Hall and Alan Seeger (known as Katt Kongo and Phoenix Psaltery in Second Life) in August 2005 to provide the millions of
residents of SL with a news source influenced by and distributed in the style of a conventional newspaper. Though there are a plethora of publications
in Second Life, the M2 was the first of them, and the team is comprised of people with years of journalism and advertising experience.
Publisher Kristan Hall was a seven year veteran of journalism, with a two year degree as well, before founding the M2. She is featured in books such as
Second Life: The Official Guide and The Entrepreneur's Guide of Second Life. Hall is an expert in virtual worlds, as she has participated in a multitude of
MMORGS since 2002. She has been a resident of Second Life since June of 2005.
Alan Seeger, the publication's advertising executive, is the author of a book of original poetry and song lyrics. He has also written for several publications,
including a popular music website. Besides being an author, he has worked in the theatre, television, and radio, as well as being a composer, photographer,
and graphic designer.
M2 columnist Christopher Simpson, currently a professor at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario, brings a wealth of knowledge to both his features,
aptly titled First Life, Second News and Ad Nauseam.
Donnell King, who is employed with the M2 as a staff writer, is an associate professor of speech and journalism at Pellissippi State Technical Community
College in Knoxville, Tennessee. He also helps manage the college's Second Life presence, and oversees the college's journalism intern program with
the M2.
News Manager Dominic Scott has been with the M2 since its early days, and is currently a second year journalism student at University of Wolverhampton.
The M2 has been featured in media sources such as De Nieuwe Reporter, Metro Times, www.channel4.com, The International Herald Tribune,
The Guardian, Adweek, AAJA Voice, Austin-American Statesman, The Phoenix, Business Week, Clickable Culture, and many others.
The publication has enjoyed tremendous success, with advertising purchased by major companies such as Vodafone, The Weather Channel,
Rate Point, Dell Computer, Wiley Books, Caldwell Bankers, Accounting Services of John Horner, Warner Home Movies, Brian Ulaszewski (who ran
for the office of the second district of the Long Beach City Council), and others.
Katt Kongo at work...
International News Services' virtual reporter - on Second Life
By Keith Nuthall
International News Services has an unorthodox correspondent called Belinda Blessed. She is unusual, in that she does not actually exist. She is a virtual reporter and is operated by agency writers who report on the virtual world Second Life.
Local politics trump global free trade – even for India’s great liberaliser
By Raghavendra Verma, in New Delhi
Working out the World Trade Organisation: its rules count, everywhere
By Keith Nuthall The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the globe’s deal making forum. When conspiracy theorists claim the there is a plot to create a world government, they often accuse the WTO as being a nascent international authority. And guess what? They have a point. WTO agreements are global in scope, and enforceable within the organisation’s disputes settlement procedures.
Understanding the European Union: how does it work?
By Keith NuthallThe European Union (EU) is a complex political organisation, but businesses and industries wanting to trade or work within Europe need to understand its workings. To stay within the law, and also to influence the development of EU regulations and directives, it is essential that some managers really know how legislation is agreed in Europe and where to get the information about these laws.
Confronting problems multilaterally can be less than effective
By Eric Lyman in Rome
There are problems in the world that cannot be confronted with any success by a single state, no matter how powerful. Big environmental issues and world hunger and poverty immediately come to mind, along with many regional peacekeeping needs and most economic and trade-related problems.
Enter multilateralism, the consensus-driven process that democratically pulls countries together for collective problem solving, usually under the auspices of an umbrella organisation such as the United Nations or the World Trade Organisation.
Brussels mourns EU pioneer
David Haworth, in BrusselsWith the return to power in Rome of Silvio Berlusconi, Noisy Politics will also make a reappearance in the corridors of European Union power. The age of celebrity is such that it’s easy to overlook the possibility of a modest, exemplary life of achievement in what is often reviled as a “grubby trade”.Lebanon's turbulent friendship with the international community
By Paul Cochrane, Beirut How the Lebanese view international institutions and the world at large depends on sectarian and political allegiances. With Lebanon a microcosm of the macro political-economic issues facing the Middle East today - due to the country’s geographical position bordering Israel and Syria, and the country’s political-sectarian divisions between Sunnis, Shias, Druze and Christians - Lebanon is where the powers that be flex their muscles. The European parliament still making mistakes at 50-years-old
By Alan Osborn, Strasbourg THE EUROPEAN Parliament turned 50 years old this March. There will be no celebration of the event in Britain and probably not much in other European Union (EU) member countries. Most people know of the parliament only as the source of scandals like fiddling expenses or the provision of lavish wining and dining for its members. An American TV company once introduced a profile of the parliament by saying "So you think Europe doesn't have boondoggles? Boy, have we got news for you!"