Welcome to Copper Robot

It’s a new year, and time for a new Second Life project.

Way back in the misty prehistory of 2007 and early 2008, I did an interview program in Second Life for InformationWeek called GridTalk. Our guests included Biz Stone, who was then launching a new service called Twitter. We also had science fiction writers Charles Stross, Joe Haldeman, and notable people from inside the Second Life community. I had a great time doing it, and it was pretty popular in Second Life — but it became apparent that this wasn’t something InformationWeek should be involved in. It just didn’t seem like something the InformationWeek audience was hugely interested in. At least not yet.

So I killed GridTalk.

But I missed doing the interviews, and late last year I decided to start an interview program that wasn’t affiliated with InformationWeek.

I got together with a couple of my Second Life friends, and we decided to launch Copper Robot. It’ll be available in Second Life, or for later download as a podcast. We’re working on setting up a live, Web audio stream as well.

Our first episode is Sunday, Jan. 11 — that’s six days from today. Am I nervous? No, of course I’m not nervous — my palms are normally this sweaty.

The format will be talk. Just talk. I love shows like Fresh Air, and This American Life, and the old Tomorrow show from the 1970s, where interesting people just sit around and have a conversation about interesting things.

We’ll talk about anything I’m interested in: Technology, politics, literature, television, science fiction, science, LOLcats, business, Twitter, Facebook, Second Life, and more.

Our first guest: Eshi Otawara, a talented and well-known Second Life artist who recently overcame some real-life problems with U.S. immigration law — she faced deportation from America because her husband died before the government processed her application for legal residency. We’ll find out from Eshi how she’s doing and what she’s up to in Second Life and in the atomic world since she won her green chard. We’ll also talk to one or two of Eshi’s SL friends to help her tell her story. ‘Til then, read New World Notes’s update about Eshi getting her green card, and also my article on InformationWeek that covered her predicament.

Also, Crap Mariner, one of my partners in crime in Copper Robot, will take the microphone for what we hope will be a regular feature: A Few Minutes Of Crap. He’ll talk about his new project, Tunes in Second Life. More about that.

In addition to Crap, I’d like to also thank my other partners-in-crime in this project: Rissa Maidstone and John Zhaoying, of World2Worlds, creators of virtual events for global business.

To be a part of the Copper Robot community, you can see the show in Second Life at the World2Worlds Seaside Theater, Sunday, Jan. 11 at 11 am Pacific time, and every other Sunday at the same time and location thereafter

Join the Copper Robot group in Second Life to stay on top of updates and future shows. Or join our Google Group or watch this space for updates.

Not in Second Life? No problem. We’ll have podcast recording available. We’re still setting up the podcast, when we’re done it’ll live at http://copperrobot.libsyn.com or http://www.CopperRobot.com

Tell your friends about Copper Robot. Suggest guests. Contact me in-world — my avatar name and my RL name are the same, Mitch Wagner — e-mail me at [e-mail], or contact me on Skype at Mitch.Wagner.

I hope to see you at Copper Robot!