We talked about the history of blogging, from its early days in the 90s through the "warbloggers" of 9/11, to the national elections of 2004 and 2008. Scott describes how blogging has become a tool for personal expression, political change, and holding the mainstream news media's feet to the fire of public scrutiny. Scott also talks about the history of Salon Magazine, and what social media sites like Facebook and Twitter mean to the future of blogging.

Scott blogs at wordyard.

Watch the video here. As always, this is the raw video, and the real interview starts a little way in. We had a bit of voice trouble after my introduction, but that cleared up after a minute or two.

It's an adventure story about the son of pious snake-handling parents in a small town, who leaves home in the company of the nephew of the President of the United States, and goes off to war and New York. The novel has adventure and romance and comedy and sea voyages and rooftop foot-chases and leaping from building to building. It's great fun.

I also talked to Wilson about his 24-year career, past books including Darwinia and Spin, his writing process and favorite tools, and how working for a Canadian civil rights organization was great education for a writer.

Update, 6:30 pm:Welcome, Boing Boing readers. Thanks to Cory for blogging this podcast. If you enjoyed this episode of Copper Robot, and want to hear more, here's how:

Join us live alternate Sundays at 6 pm PT in Second Life at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island, for fascinating conversations about technology, books, pop culture, science fiction, and politics. Coming this Sunday, July 12, at 6 PT, we'll talk with Scott Rosenberg, co-founder of Salon.com, about his new book, Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, And Why It Matters. Read more about that interview.

Don't have access to Second Life? No problem. Interviews are videocast live on the Web on our live videocast page.

We post the videos soon afterwards, so you can watch episodes anytime.

Or listen to the podcast. Subscribe with iTunes or your favorite alternative podcasting software RSS.

To find out about upcoming episodes, stop in at the blog (you're soaking in it), or join the Copper Robot group in Second Life, or sign up for the Copper Robot Google Group.

More about Copper Robot.

When: Sunday, July 12, 6 pm.

Where: The lovely Seaside Theater, World2Worlds Island or watch the live video on the Web.

I spent all day Friday glued to Scott's book Say Everything, which traces the history of blogging from its earlier days in the faraway 90s, through the warbloggers immediately after 9/11, and through to the present, where bloggers have helped shape the outcome of the last two U.S. Presidential elections. Scott doesn't just write about recent historyâhe played a part of it, as co-founder of Salon.com, which pioneered online journalism.

Scott seems like a particularly appropriate guest here; because Second Life sometimes seems to me to be a community of people on blogs, Plurk, Twitter, and Ning, with a virtual world incidentally attached.

Hope to see you when we interview Scott Sunday, July 12, at 6 pm.

Read Scott's blog, wordyard.

As always, if you miss the interview, you can catch the video later on this blog, or listen to it later as an audio-only podcast download.

The first version, which I uploaded Sunday, had bad volume problems. I sounded all right, as did guest Michael T. Rose of The Unofficial Apple Weblog. But Gina Trapani, of Smarterware and Lifehacker, sounded a bit distant. And Second Life's ArminasX Saiman, of the shop Electric Pixels and the blog Second Effects, sounded like he had a bad case of the mumbles.

I did the best I could to clean it up, which wasn't enough. After uploading the MP3 to this blog, I mentioned the problem to Mike, and he recommended The Levelator, a free, cross-platform tool for solving exactly the problem I faced: Equalizing volume levels between multiple speakers on a podcast.

As Mike describes Levelator on TUAW: "The really nice thing about The Levelator ... is that it has, for all practical purposes, no controls. Drop a file on it, wait an appropriate amount of time and watch the blinking lights, then take your output file and continue on your merry way; the final file will simply sound way better than the original did."

It's cross-platform, running on Windows, OS X and Linux, and it's a miracle-worker. I spent a couple of hours banging on the original recording, trying to fix it manually â Levelator did a much better job in seconds.

If you avoided listening to the original MP3 because of the audio problems, re-download it and give it another try. If you listened to it all the way through, and strained your ears, I'm sorry, I can't help you, except to offer you soothing ear ointment.

Wilson is the author of more than a dozen novels over more than 20 years. His work frequently features miraculous changes to the entire world: In Darwinia, it's the entire continent of Europe being replaced by an alien landscape in 1912. In Spin, set in the present day, the stars suddenly disappear one night as the Earth is completely encapsulated in an opaque shell. The world of Julian Comstock is relatively mundane â all that happens there is the complete collapse of civilization.

As usual, this is the raw, unedited video, the conversation starts a short way in.

We talked about the iPhone 3GS, of course, and how the upcoming Snow Leopard operating system is likely to prove to be bigger than the 3GS. We also discussed the return of Steve Jobs, and whether the spinning beachball spins the other way in Australia and New Zealand.

WWDC was, of course, two weeks ago, but almost all of the discussion in this podcast is still current. Unfortunately, the sound quality isn't great, while you can hear me and Mike Rose pretty clearly, Gina is less audible and Armi sounds like he's mumbling. Give it a try and see if it works for you. Update 6/29: Mike recommended a free cross-platform tool called Levelator for cleaning up volume levels on a podcast â it's a miracle-worker. Thanks, Mike. I cleaned up the audio and re-uploaded it.

But I feel like Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall, a comedy team that had the good fortune to break through to the Ed Sullivan Show, which was, at the time, every comedian's dream -- but had the bad fortune to do it on the day the Beatles made their American TV debut.

The main act on Metanomics that day will be Kevin Werbach, a key technology advisor for the the Obama transition team, which advised the incoming President on key issues during the 77 days between Election Day and the Presidential Inauguration. Werbach currently advises the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the Commerce Department, and is an assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School.

Read more about the event and join us.

Metanomics rescheduled the program a couple of weeks ago; we got started but had to bail out because of technology problems. Read my InformationWeek write-up based on the few minutes Werbach got to speak.

I'm reading Julian Comstock now, and it does a great job at one of my favorite things that science fiction books do: Letting you inhabit another world for a little while. In the case of Julian Comstock, the world is America, 175 or so years into the future. Forget about your flying cars and orbiting hotels -- this is a world where fossil fuels ran out, the population has collapsed, and America in the late 22d Century looks a lot like America in the early 19th, with animal muscle once again the primary source of power, the United States fighting wars on the North American continent, and ruled by a Christian theocracy, the Dominion.

One thing I'm enjoying very much about the book is that, despite the way I describe it, it's not a rant. Despite all its problems, Julian Comstock's America is in many ways a nice place to live, and the characters enjoy life.

At least for now. I'm just starting the book.

I mentioned that Wilson is the author of one of my all-time favorite novels. It's Spin, which starts with three teen-agers laying on the grass on a warm summer night in the present day. As they stare up in the sky, the stars disappear. Spin tells the story of why the stars went away, what happens to the world because of it, and follows those three children as they grow up and grow old and their lives take very different paths.

I hope to see you next week for our interview. It's 6 pm Pacific Time/Second Life Time Sunday, June 28. As always, you have several options for joining us.

You can join the live audience at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island in Second Life.

Watch the live video on the Web.

Or wait until afterward, when we'll have an edited audio podcast available -- look for it here or subscribe with iTunes or your favorite alternate podcasting software.

Second Life's Zen Paine and Treet.tv compiled the interview into a 6-1/2 minute video for Dancing Ink, and I'm happy to post it here.

More about Dancing Ink and 3DSquared.

Watch the full-length video of the interview.

I am now a month behind in getting the audio podcast of that interview posted. I am the worst copper robot in the world. *Hangs copper head in shame.*

The WWDC runs all this week, and next Sunday we'll hash out what happened with three experts on Apple: Gina Trapani, founding editor of the blog Lifehacker, now blogging at Smarterware by Gina Trapani. She describes herself as a "software and self-improvement junkie" who blogs about "using your head (and great software) to get better at work and life." More about Gina, by Gina.

Michael Rose, a 15-year Mac and magazine publishing veteran, blogs at The Unofficial Apple Weblog. He's also creative director for digital solutions at MJM Creative Services.

And ArminasX Saiman is a Second Life entrepreneur and blogger, he makes and sells particle effects, like fizzy champagne glasses and creepy fogbanks, at his shop, Electric Pixels, and blogs at Second Effects.

For my look at WWDC, read my InformationWeek article: "Preview: Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference."

As always, you have several options for joining us.

You can join the live audience at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island in Second Life 6 pm Pacifc Time Sunday, June 14.

Watch the live video on the Web.

Or wait until afterward, when we'll have an edited audio podcast available -- look for it here or subscribe with iTunes or your favorite alternate podcasting software.

This interview generated a lot of interest, members of the adult content community in Second Life packed the sim and grilled the Lindens with questions.

In the second part of the interview, we talked with Joe Miller, VP of platform and technology development (Joe Linden), about some of the new technology coming down the pipeline for voice in Second Life.

We had a full sim of residents, including many adult business owners who grilled the Lindens on the new policies.

Discussion starts about 20 seconds in, until then it's all typey typey typey.

Audio podcast coming hopefully later this week, I'm behind on editing it. I'm always behind on editing podcasts. But this week I'm really behind, I still haven't edited and posted the podcast from our show on virtual worlds from Louisiana to Egypt from nearly three weeks ago. Apologies to everyone waiting.

Linden Lab plans to institute a new "Adult" rating for graphic sexual and violent content in Second Life. Residents who participate in those activities will have to verify their real-world age by presenting real-world ID. Adult content on the mainland will be segregated into its own continent (although it can continue on private islands). Linden Lab says they're doing it so that people can control their Second Life experience better -- people who find adult content offensive can avoid it, while those who want it will be able to find it. But the proposal also has opponents, who state their case on this page of Linden Lab's bug-reporting, feature-request, and feedback system, the JIRA.

We'll have two of Linden Lab's legal team to discuss the new regulation: general counsel Marty Roberts and deputy general counsel Ken Dreifach (SL: Marty Linden and Ken Linden).

Later, we'll be joined by Joe Miller (SL: Joe Linden), VP platform and technology development for Linden Lab, to talk about the state of voice communications in Second Life. The company recently announced that its 18-month-old voice offering is on track to do 15 billion total voice minutes in 2009 (compared with 65 billion minutes for Skype last year). Linden Lab recently introduced AvaLine an optional service, which assigns in-world phone numbers to avatars so that residents can receive calls from outside phones. The company upgraded its SLIM client for exchanging text and voice messages inworld without running the graphical SL viewer. They say they plan additional upgrades, including voice recording and automatic voice-changing software (which they call "voice fonts") in the future.

Finally, we'll be talking with Catherine Smith (SL: Catherine Linden), VP of marketing communications, about some of the community-building efforts Linden Lab has been doing recently, from the revised Showcase to the upcoming sixth Second Life birthday.

As always, you have several options for joining us.

You can join the live audience at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island in Second Life 6 pm Pacifc Time Sunday, May 31.

Watch the live video on the Web.

Or wait until afterward, when we'll have an edited audio podcast available -- look for it here or subscribe with iTunes or your favorite alternate podcasting software.

Our guests were Rita J. King (SL: Eureka Dejavu) and Joshua Fouts (SL: Schmilsson Nilsson) of Dancing Ink, as well as Spencer Zuzulo (SL: Hiltz Zilz) of 3DSQuared. Dancing Ink has been working on a couple of projects bringing Egyptian bloggers together with the U.S. government to stimulate the free flow of information, while 3DSquared as been working with underprivileged kids in Louisiana to use online game technology to get them interested in learning, creating, and developing the soft skills needed to have successful careers.

I'll be joined by other Second Life celebrities, including blogger Hamlet Au and particle merchant ArminasX Saiman.

Second Life's custom of pseudonymity is actually a lot like how the real world works. It's the transparency of the flat Internet that's weird, not Second Life.

I'm writing this at a coffeeshop. If I choose to strike up a conversation with the guy sitting at the next table, he and I will each decide how much personal information to divulge. We'll each decide whether to share our full names, where we live, our professional backgrounds, marital status, where we grew up, religion, politics, and do forth. It's a dance most of us do instinctively; we call it "small talk."

That's a lot like Second Life, except in SL we also use made-up names. If the guy at hue next table and I exchange names, we'll use our real names. Probably. Unless we have nicknames. Or he might just give me a fake name, and if he does, how would I know? It's not like I'm going to ask for government-issued photo ID.

On Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other flat Internet sites, your biography is a matter of public record. But it's the flat Internet that's strange in that regard - not Second Life.

I use my RL name, Mitch Wagner, in Second Life. To my knowledge, there's only one other person in Second Life who does that. I do it so that my SL and RL professional identities are linked. But I recently created an alt for SL play. The name is extremely similar to my RL name. Some of my SL friends know my alt's name. It's no big secret. But my RL identity doesn't appear anywhere in my alt profile, and I find I rather enjoy the pseudonymity.

Our guests Rita King and Joshua Fouts of Dancing Ink Productions are using virtual worlds to promote conversations between different cultures. The company has focused on Islamic relations recently; last year, they hosted Egyptian bloggers in conversation with a U.S. diplomat in Second Life. This week, Dancing Ink will follow that event up with a video broadcast of a U.S. Centers for Disease Control briefing on swine flu from the American University in Cairo.

King is creative director of Dancing Ink. In the past, she reported on corporate corruption in relief efforts in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina. Fouts is chief global strategist at Dancing Ink, with a focus on gaming, virtual worlds, and digital diplomacy.

Rita is Eureka Dejavu in Second Life; Josh is Schmilsson Nilsson.

We'll also be joined by Spencer Zuzulo, of Louisiana-based 3DSquared, a non-profit that's using gaming and digital technology for workforce development among disadvantaged young people, still ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

The interview is 6 pm Second Life time (which is also Pacific time), Sunday, May 17.

Join us live in Second Life at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island.

Or join us on the Web for live streaming video.

We'll post video and an audio podcast recording of the event here afterward.

P.S. People who obsessively watch the Copper Robot schedule will note that we had original scheduled representatives of Linden Lab to come in this week to talk about the new regulations for adult content. We ran into some scheduling conflicts, the Lindens will be on May 31. And it won't just be about adult content -- we're lining up a veritable Lindenpalooza.

Penelope is the founder of three startups, most recently Brazen Careerist, a Web service to help companies locate hard-to-find find job candidates.

Prior to Brazen Careerist, Penelope worked at marketing for a Fortune 500 company, played professional beach volleyball, worked on a French chicken farm and spent time in a mental ward to control her bulimia. She's written candidly about all those experiences, as well surviving 9/11 -- she writes that she was "standing at the bottom of the World Trade Center when it fell" -- and the end of her marriage, and her post-marriage dating and sex life.

Read some of her career advice:

The connection between a good job and happiness is overrated.

Social skills matter more than ever, so here's how to get them.

Bad career advice: Do what you love.

Want more Penelope? Buy the book.

This isn't the most interesting video ever made. Penelope wasn't in Second Life at all for the interview, and I wasn't in-world most of the time because I kept crashing. Also, as with all our videos, it's unedited, so it starts with a few minutes of silence and idle chit-chat. You might want to skip watching the video and just wait to listen to the audio-podcast, which will be up later this week. I'm just sayin'.

And don't miss our interview this Sunday with The Brazen Careerist, Penelope Trunk.

Our guest next week is Penelope Trunk, who writes about "the intersection of work and life" on her blog Brazen Careerist. I've been a fan of Penelope since I met her two years ago; her blog and columns are well-written, well-researched, well-thought-out, and they often defy common wisdom. Her writing is also very personal, and frequently provocative; I expect we'll find out week whether a copper robot can blush.

Penelope is the founder of three startups, most recently Brazen Careerist, a Web service to help companies locate hard-to-find find job candidates.

Prior to Brazen Careerist, Penelope worked at marketing for a Fortune 500 company, played professional beach volleyball, worked on a French chicken farm and spent time in a mental ward to control her bulimia. She's written candidly about all those experiences, as well surviving 9/11 -- she writes that she was "standing at the bottom of the World Trade Center when it fell" -- and the end of her marriage, and her post-marriage dating and sex life.

Read some of her career advice:

The connection between a good job and happiness is overrated.

Social skills matter more than ever, so here's how to get them.

Bad career advice: Do what you love.

Want more Penelope? Buy the book.

Penelope often writes about job advice for people in their 20s, but I've asked Penelope to talk next week for people a bit older than that -- Generation X and the Boomers, the generations I fit into. The business world seems to prize youth above age and experience, especially in the tech industry. And yet middle-aged folks are literally in the middle of their working life; if you started your career at 22, straight out of college, and you retire at 65, you'll be halfway through your working life when you're about 44. How can you make the most of the second half of your career?

The interview is 6 pm Second Life time (which is also Pacific time), Sunday, May 3.

Join us live in Second Life at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island.

Or join us on the Web for live streaming video.

We'll post video and an audio podcast recording of the event here afterward.

Hope to see you next week!

What kind of interviews do you do?

We interview anybody who has anything interesting to say, on subjects including technology, books, politics, television, pop culture, science fiction, Second Life, and more. Past interviews include science-fiction writer Charles Stross, and cast of the Web sitcom "The Guild," including Felicia Day, who appeared on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.. We also had P.W. Singer, a scholar the Brookings Institute, who talked about his recent book, Wired for War, about real-world battlefield robots.

Mitch Wagner? Who's that?

Mitch Wagner is the Copper Robot. He is a veteran technology journalist and executive editor for InformationWeek.com. He is a leader of InformationWeek's social networking and community strategy. He writes about Apple, social media and Web 2.0. In addition to writing, Mitch podcasts, creates Internet videos, and is one of a team overseeing newsletters for InformationWeek. He was previously a reporter and editor for InternetWeek, Computerworld, Open Systems Today, and the New Jersey Herald.

I'm not in Second Life, but I want to catch the show.

No problem! Watch the live video.

What if I can't make it at the time of the live interview?

No problem! We'll post recorded video on the Copper Robot blog.

What if I don't want to sit and watch the video at my computer?'

No problem! We'll post an edited, audio-only podcast a few days after each interview. Watch for it on the blog.

What if I don't want to keep coming back and checking the blog to see if the podcast is up?

No problem! Just subscribe with iTunes or your favorite podcasting software.

What if I don't have a computer?

Well, then you're screwed.

Sounds great! How can I find out who you have on upcoming shows?

Visit the blog regularly, or subscribe to the feed in your RSS reader.

Or sign up for our Copper Robot Google Group to get e-mail updates.

Or sign up for our group in Second Life -- just log into Second Life and search for "Copper Robot" in Group search.

Or follow Copper Robot on Twitter.

You keep talking about this "Second Life" thing? What is that?

It's a virtual world -- a 3D representation of a physical world that exists entirely in software, where you can log in and look around at buildings and landscapes, and make friends with other people who use Second Life. Build, play and listen to live music, create art and share it with other people, give or attend live performances, play games, make movies, create photos, run a business, and more -- pretty much anything you can do in the real world you can also do in Second Life.

You can also fly.

Second Life has about 650,000 active users worldwide.

Oh, yeah, I remember a lot of hype about that a couple of years ago. I thought it went out of business though.

No, not at all -- the hype was ridiculous, but Second Life is still around and thriving. According to Linden Lab, the company that creates and operates SL, it's growing and profitable.

Sounds great! Where can I sign up for Second Life?

Right here. Send me an instant message once you're signed up; my Second Life name is "Mitch Wagner," same as my real life name.

Is Copper Robot a solo operation?

Absolutely not. Our hosts are World2Worlds, which manages events for real-life businesses in Second Life including Intel, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, IBM and Microsoft.

Also, Crap Mariner gives us a lot of crap. Visit the Copper Robot Flickr Group, which he set up, for photos of past events.

Why the name "Copper Robot?"

I'm glad you asked! The copper robot symbolizes, um.... the dehumanization of the modern zeitgeist in the face of the existential realpolitik of... um....

Oh, heck. There is no great, profound reason for the name.

I like robot avatars in Second Life. I like the sound of the name "Copper Robot." So I found an avatar called Friendly Robot, made by Ed Bumstead -- visit his shop, ED Creations.. I customized the avatar a little bit, and the Copper Robot was born.

I want to talk to Mitch about suggesting an upcoming interview/giving him piles of money/a restraining order. How can I get in touch with him?

My e-mail is mitch@wagmail.com

My Second Life name is "Mitch Wagner," same as my name in real life.

Skype: Mitch.Wagner

Twitter: MitchWagner

FriendFeed: MitchWagner

Is Copper Robot affiliated with InformationWeek, its parent company, TechWeb, or TechWeb's parent company, United Business Media?

No.

We had a little bit of a bumpy start, and the video starts with Charlie talking in mid-sentence. But the interview worked out well in the end. Watch and enjoy.

Because of the late start, the video doesn't have introductions. But you should have no difficulty telling us apart; Charlie is the English guy and I'm the American. (Also, I'm the robot).

Charlie is the author of Halting State, a mystery novel set about a decade in the future, where virtual worlds and online multiplayer gaming have become mainstream; Halting State and Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End have become sort of a bible for visionaries designing the future of the Internet, the way Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and William Gibson's Neuromancer were in the past. Like the Stephenson and Gibson novels, Halting State is a ripping entertaining read.

Charlie also wrote "Accelerando," also near-future science-fiction, about three generations of an unusual family passing through the next stage of human evolution, known as the Singularity; the novel is told from the point of view of the family's intelligent robot cat.

We'll talk to Charlie about science fiction, surveillance, technology, politics, writing, and wherever else the conversation takes us. It's sure to be fascinating; hope you'll be there.

If you're in Second Life, you can join us at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island. The conversation is at a special time, 4 pm Second Life/Pacific Time Sunday, April 19.

Watch it live on the Web.

We'll post the video here after the event is done.

Also, you can catch the audio-only podcast here at CopperRobot.com or subscribe with iTunes or subscribe to the (RSS) feed with your favorite podcatching software.

Hope to see you Sunday!

P.S. The previous links on book titles go to Amazon. I'm seeing reports that Amazon is censoring GLBT books. I'm reserving judgment until the story has a chance to play out -- in particular, until Amazon has a chance to respond. If Amazon is, indeed, intentionally censoring LGBT books, I'll be changing those links pretty fast.

If video is more your style than audio podcasts, you can watch a video recording of the Guild interview.

The first 18 minutes are pre-show, with a little interesting conversation between our guests and a lot of long silences, "Where's Jeff?" "Where's Mitch?" and random loud noises. Then the show starts and things move right along.

World2Worlds, which hosts Copper Robot, really went all out this time -- Rissa Maidstone created terrific avatars for all the actors, making them look like the characters in the game-within-a-show on The Guild. "It's meta-meta-meta," Felicia said during the interview, noting that the Second Life avatars were created based on drawings done by a fan. World2Worlds also did a great job managing the larger-than-normal crowd, which strained server capacity, and providing assistance to the three actors, who were in Second Life for their first time. And World2Worlds provided video streaming and audio recording. I'm exhausted just describing what they did.

I'm working on editing the audio-only podcast, and plan to get that posted here later this week. You'll be the first to know.

Kimâs been taking the lead orienting Felicia, as well as Jeff âVorkâ Lewis and Sandeep âZabooâ Pareekh, in the use of Second Life (a process which I just learned this week is known as âonboardingâ â isnât that a great word?). They seem to be having a good time with it.

New World Notes gave us a nice writeup. âAs fans of 'The Guild' know, we never actually get to see the game theyâre so obsessed with. (Day told me they wanted to avoid copyright issues, and thought the 3D graphics would distract from the characters.) So itâs a treat to see them finally realized as avatars in Second Life.â

New World Notes Blogger Wagner James Au interviewed Felicia a couple of years ago.

The blog has a nice collage of photos of Felicia's Second Life avatar, the cartoon avatar used in the titles of The Guild, and Feliciaâs pretty real-life headshot.

Catch the interview Sunday, April 5, live at 6 pm Pacific/Second Life time at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island or listen to the podcast here later. Read more here.

The Guild gleefully plays with every stereotype about online gamers: Anti-social, obsessive â one of them is actually a grown man who lives with his mother (I canât remember if he lives in her basement or not).

Felicia plays Codex on The Guild, the befuddled redhead who opens each episode by talking to the camera. In addition to her work on The Guild and Dr. Horrible, Felicia appeared as Vi, the potential slayer, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She also has a recurring role in four episodes of the current ABC Family sitcom Roommates.

Jeff plays the fussy guildmaster Vork. Heâs an alumni of Acme comedy theater, the Groundlings, and Second City. He wrote and acted in HBOâs Sketch pad 2, and wrote for Nickelodeonâs Catscratch and Dreamwork Animationâs Toonsylvania. He finished a screenplay, For Christâs Sake, and appeared on My Name Is Earl.

Sandeep, who plays the priapic Zaboo, is primarily a writer/director. He created the Comedy Central-produced Web series The Legend of Neil, about a guy who gets sucked into Zelda. He founded and runs EffinFunny, a standup and sketch comedy community.

Catch the interview Sunday, April 5, live at 6 pm Pacific/Second Life time at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island or listen to the podcast here later.

BadMove is dead wrong on this issue.

Minors can already get access to the adult grid. All they have to do is tell a little fib and say they're an adult. This is no obstacle to a healthy teen-age boy from getting at porn. When I was a teen-ager back in the 70s, porn came in magazine form. We got older kids to buy us porn, we went through our fathers's stashes, we even occasionally shoplifted. Kids today can get porn on the Internet -- without even leaving the house! All they have to do is lie about their age.

The best way for a parent to keep their kids out of trouble -- or anywhere -- is to participate in activities together with their children. And the Teen Grid prevents that, adults are forbidden from logging on. In the name of protecting children from adult content and predators, Linden Lab has taken away the best safeguard protecting kids from harm.

Not that I blame Linden Lab for this. LL is an American company, and my fellow Americans are completely and utterly hysterical and crazy on the subjects of child molesting and child pornography. They go around taking measures in the name of protecting children that, at best, do nothing, and at worst, put children in even greater danger.

"Stranger danger" to children is exaggerated. The biggest danger to kids comes from adult family members, friends, and trusted authority figures. Not people the kids met online, but people they know in real life.

The biggest danger to kids online isn't sex predators, it's cyberbullying. One great protection against cyberbullying is the presence of community-minded, nurturing adults, to tell bullying kids to knock it off. You know, like the kind of adults likely to use Second Life.

danah boyd has done extensive research into the subject of child behavior online. One of her most disturbing conclusions: Children who are preyed on online by adults aren't lured into trouble -- they seek it out. They aren't tricked into having sex with adults, they want it. The problem with these kids isn't the evil Internet -- it's their horrible home lives. And the Teen Grid will do nothing to stop these kids from getting into trouble, these are the kids with the fewest qualms about lying about their age and going on the main grid to look for trouble.

Read more about Singer and his book in my InformationWeek interview, and on the Wired for War Web site.

The type of animation that Ill Clan practices is called "machinima." It's computer animation produced in games and virtual worlds like Second Life. The process is a lot like making a real movie, complete with building sets, scouting locations, and dealing with sometimes-uncooperative extras.

Join us at 6 pm Pacific/Second Life Time this Sunday -- that's March 22 --  at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island, or catch the podcast here later.

P.S. Kerria and Paul are charming and funny, but I'm not sure that the conversation will actually be "madcap." It's just that I like the word, and don't get to use it much. See also: "zany," "mis-adventures," "hi-jinks."

Red Light Lessons: Creating a Second Life Amsterdam of Adult Content Will Likely Create Even More Controversies

When I tell people I visited Amsterdam, most of them immediately ask if I went to a hash bar, or caught a live sex show. Sad to say, hardly any of them ask about Van Gogh. A year or two after Second Life's red light continent is in full flower, what do you suppose people will ask, when you tell them you're a Resident of SL?

Join us at 6 pm Pacific/Second Life Time Sunday, March 8, at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island, or catch the podcast here later.

And in coming weeks:

March 22 at 6 pm, weâll talk to Kerria Seabrooke and Paul Jannicola, two machinimists with the Ill Clan, whose Second Life machinima includes Tiny Nation, about a group of gentle backyard creatures and their plot to kill the human residents of the suburban home they live behind. Ill Clan also did the machimima for last yearâs the Second Life-based episode of the TV show CSI: New York.

April 5 at 6 pm, weâll bring you two of the people behind the Web sitcom The Guild, which follows the real lives (such as they are) of a guild of players in a medieval massively multiplayer online game. Our guest Felicia Day stars on The Guild, as well as writes and produces it. Previously, she appeared as Penny on Dr. Horribleâs Sing-along Blog, as well as a recurring role as Vi, the potential slayer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Also joining us will be Kim Evey, who produces The Guild, sheâs an actor and producer whose credits include Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. Her company, LKG Productions also produces other webisodes including Two Hot Girls in the Shower. She appeared on Boston Legal, ER, Journeyman, Shark, and more.

The Galaxy very nearly hit an iceberg this month when it ran out of fuel ("fuel" = money). Stirling was simply going to shut it down, but instead he found an anonymous benefactor who's going to keep it up and running.

Also joining us is ArminasX Saiman, proprietor and creator at one of Second Life's top particle stores, Electronic Pixels, and author of the Second Effects blog, where he shares great insights about the state and future of Second Life and doing business in-world.

We'll talk to Bill about the Galaxy and what he's doing next, ask ArminasX about his business, and generally discuss the broader issues of doing business in Second Life.

Copper Robot is moving to a new time, 6 pm alternate Sundays, starting this coming Sunday, Feb. 22. As always, you can join us in-world for the live show at World2Worlds Island, or catch the podcast audio recording here later.

I know that the 6 pm time is going to make it tough for our European friends to join us. I really struggled with the decision to move the time, but ultimately real-life considerations required the later time. I apologize for that. If you can't make the live show, you can still listen to the podcast. And the new time might actually make things easier for some of our friends in Australia and Asia, where it will be Monday morning.

And mark your calendars for these upcoming Copper Robot programs:

March 8, 6 pm: P.W. Singer, author of the book Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, which looks at the present-day use of robots on the battlefield. This isn't science fiction -- this is reality -- robots are killing people, and helping America fight its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Singer argues that, as a society, we need to start taking the moral and political issues seriously. I interviewed Singer for InformationWeek.

In late March or early April, we'll bring you two of the people behind the Web sitcom The Guild, which follows the real lives (such as they are) of a guild of players in a medieval massively multiplayer online game. Our guest Felicia Day stars on The Guild, as well as writes and produces it. Previously, she appeared as Penny on Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog, as well as a recurring role as Vi, the potential slayer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Also joining us will be Kim Evey, who produces The Guild, she's an actor and producer whose credits include Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. Her company, LKG Productions also produces other webisodes including Two Hot Girls in the Shower. She appeared on Journeyman, Shark, Boston Legal, ER, and more.

Alizaâs links:
Twitter
Bio

Blogs:
Living in Tok
Social Media Mama
Social Media Social Good
Aliza Shermanâs Rants & Raves
BabyFruit

When sheâs not rubbing her hands together to stay warm, Aliza consults with companies on using social media and Second Life for business. This year, she co-founded Conversify, a social media consultancy that defies Web 2.0 trends by having a name thatâs easy to pronounce. Sheâs working on her 8th book.

In the 90s, she founded the Internet company Cybergrrl, and Webgrrls International, an organization for professional women on the Web that grew to more than 100 chapters worldwide in its first year. She was named by Newsweek as one of the Top 50 People Who Matter Most On The Internet, and this year was named by Fast Company as one of the Most Influential Women In Technology.

Weâll talk with Aliza about life in Tok, doing business on social media and Second Life, and whatever else the conversation brings us.

Alizaâs links:
Twitter
Bio

Blogs:
Living in Tok
Social Media Mama
Social Media Social Good
Aliza Shermanâs Rants & Raves
BabyFruit

Join us for our talk with Aliza in Second Life on World2Worlds Island or download the podcast later from this blog.

Avatars don't need health care, but the people at the keyboard do. That's why a Chicago marketer, who previously worked on the Budweiser "Wassup" campaign, organized a hearing on health care policy for then-President-elect Obama in Second Life.

Susanna Matukas, a Chicago-based freelancer in marketing and advertising, signed up on the Obama transition site, change.gov, after the election. She learned, through that site, that the office of the president-elect was looking for citizens to organize hearings on how the U.S. health care policy should be changed. The reports would then be submitted, including photos and video, to the office of the president-elect.

She decided to hold hearings in Second Life, to allow people to access the meeting who might not be able to make it to a real-life event. "We had people that participated who are suffering from chronic illness, or who have child care issues, or who are traveling on business and can't necessarily participate in a three-hour meeting in their community," said Matukas, who goes by the name "Siri Vita" in Second Life. The Second Life hearing was one of thousands held across the U.S. on health care issues

People telling their story in Second Life included a woman from Omaha, Neb., with a double problem: her health care provider won't pay for treatments for her rare genetic disorder, and she has an autistic son who needs $40,000 annually in therapy. Also speaking out was an Indiana cancer survivor who spoke of the limited medical choices in her area, and a Denver resident with multiple sclerosis who runs Virtual Ability, an area for disabled people in Second Life.

Weâll be back again in two weeks, Sunday, Feb. 8 at 11 am Pacific time, when our guest will be Aliza Sherman, an indefatigable networker and social media marketer. Alizaâs always been one of the most interesting people on the Web 2.0 scene, but her life became even more of an adventure not too long ago when she and her family moved to the tiny, remote village of Tok, Alaska. Alizaâs blog, Living in Tok is a fascinating account of adapting to life in Tok. where the population is 1,400 people, and the temperature routinely dips below 50-80 degrees below zero in winter.

I get cold just thinking about it.

Until she moved to Tok, Aliza was best-known as a leader in using the Internet and Web 2.0 for marketing and bringing people together. Sheâs active on Twitter as AlizaSherman, and in Second Life as Cybergrrl Oh. Back in the 90s, she founded Cybergrrl, Inc., an Internet company, and Webgrrls International, an organization for professional women on the Web that grew to more than 100 chapters worldwide in its first year. She was named by Newsweek as one of the Top 50 People Who Matter Most On The Internet.

Today, Aliza consults with companies and nonprofits on their social media strategies, including social networks, blogs, podcasting, virtual worlds, and more. Sheâs working on her 8th book.

Sheâs very busy â read her bio here â and I think she has about eight million blogs. In addition to the Living in Tok blog, she also runs Aliza Sherman Rants & Raves, and Babyfruit.

You can join us for our talk with Aliza in Second Life on World2Worlds Island or download the podcast later from this blog.

Hope to see you there!

We have three guests who will help us settle that question, all of them politically active in Second Life and real life:

GenJCChristian Homewood, a liberal who blogs satirically at Jesus’s General.

Wyatt Forster, organizer of the Grand Old Party, a very busy Republican and conservative group in Second Life.

And Siri Vita, who organized a hearing on the Obama health plan in Second Life, and reported on the findings for the office of the president-elect. Check out this terrific video by Draxtor Despress about the healthcare hearing.

We’ll meet at the World2Worlds Seaside Theater. SLURL

Reminder: Follow Copper Robot here, or by joining our group in Second Life, or on our Google Group.

If you think your friends and groups will be interested in this event, please pass the word. And if you have any questions, or comments, or ideas for future Copper Robot interviews, let me know.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Our friends in Extropia are hosting a discussion with science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson at their regular Saturday Salon event this week, noon Jan. 17. Robinson is probably best known for his award-winning Mars trilogy - Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars, which explore the near-future colonization of Mars. Heâs also known for The Years of Rice and Salt, which looks at more than 500 years of alternate history in a world where the Europeans were virtually wiped out by the Black Death, and the world is dominated by Muslim, Chinese, and Hindus.

Read about Robinsonâs appearance in SL on the Events in Extropia blog.

SLURL

Philip Rosedale

The Philip himself will be guest of honor at the popular Metanomics series, kicking off the spring season. Hear from Old N00b Hair himself at noon Monday, Jan. 19. Read about it on the Metanomics Web site.

SLURL

Crap started a Flickr group for Copper Robot â please contribute your pix. Chimera Cosmos posted a couple of good pix on Koinup as well â theyâre here and here. Thanks, Chimera!

Crap is hard at work on upgrading our hamster-driven rubberband-powered audio recording system for the next show â hope to see you there!

SLURL

Eshi is a fashion designer and artist in SL. In real life, she’s an American immigrant from Eastern Europe who had to fight to stay in this country after her husband died abruptly, less than two years after they were married. We’ll talk to Eshi about her story, and what she’s been doing since she finally got her green card. If you want to read up on Eshi beforehand, read the New World Notes article on Eshi getting her green card, and my earlier article in InformationWeek about her predicament.

Can’t make it to the show? No problem, we’ll make it available as a podcast right here.

As an alternative to checking this blog for updates, subscribe to our Google Group, or join the Copper Robot group in Second Life.

See you tomorrow!

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 mitch@wagmail.com, or contact me on Skype at Mitch.Wagner.

I hope to see you at Copper Robot!