Virtual politics ascended to a new level yesterday when Rep. George Miller (D-CA) gave a speech in the just-opened virtual House of Representatives chamber on Second Life. But Miller had to wait - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) came first when she was sworn in as the first female Speaker of the House, an event that was broadcast live within the Second Life chamber.
Miller briefed the invited guests on the top priorities of the new Democratic-controlled Congress. As testament to the fact that virtual worlds have their own topsy-turvy logic, Miller said that what he liked best about his participation, which was conducted through an avatar that resembled him, was that he got to interact with “people.”
“It’s a very different forum for a member of Congress,” he said. “It’s also very exciting, because it gives us an opportunity to interact with people … that are interested in what’s taking place in the United States and the Congress.”
Live videos from the “first life” House of Representatives will run in the virtual chamber and Democrats plan to make future appearances in the cyber facility. Although Miller is the first sitting congressman to appear on Second Life, former Virginia governor and one-time presidential candidate Mark Warner gave a talk in the virtual world last August.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:08 PM | Print | Comments (0)I’m already overwhelmed (and yet slightly bored) with the news coming out of CES and the show doesn’t begin until Sunday. But in the race to pull ahead of the pack, so many companies are planting their stories ahead of time to ensure they don’t get lost in the massive, and mostly forgettable, coverage of the world’s largest trade show.
We already know that one hot topic at CES is the rivalry between HD formats, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. But, two other major themes have emerged from all the pre-show coverage.
The BBC’s Darren Waters has this pretty good overview piece highlighting the home networking crush of announcements at the show, many of which will center on getting video from the PC to the TV. (BTW, the BBC and Waters are psyched about CES — they’ve even put up a blog devoted to the show. The most interesting item on the BBC’s CES blog is a description of the BBC’s decision to send someone —Waters— to cover the show for the first time in 1999.)
The gargantuan event is even swallowing up the entertainment industry, as this piece from AP’s May Wong discusses. CES used to be about gizmos and gadgets, but now the studios, cable industry, phone companies, TV syndicators, you name it, all show up in force.
“It gives you pause to reflect what CES has become and what it means to our company,” CBS President Leslie Moonves said. “It used to be one would go to see what the cool gadgets were. Now one goes there to see what cool gadgets are going to use our content and who the various players are that we’re going to be heading into the new era with.”Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:17 AM | Print | Comments (0)
During its first full day, the 110th, Democratic-controlled Congress got to work on new legislation and one of the first tech-related bills introduced was The Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2007. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), John McCain (R-AZ) and John Sununu (R-NH) aims to permanently extend an existing ban on state and local taxes on Internet access.
The moratorium on taxes for dial-up or broadband Internet access services, which was first enacted in 1998, is set to expire this November. Cable operators and phone companies, of course, praised the bill.
Other tech-tax developments yesterday: Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and John Ensign (R-NV) introduced a measure to repeal a federal excise tax that applies to standalone local phone service subscriptions, a tax that has already been repealed for bundled services Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), meanwhile, went in the opposite direction and introduced a bill that would require broadband service providers to pay into the universal service fund, payments that would no doubt be recouped by new surcharges applied to customers’ bills.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:00 AM | Print | Comments (0)
Blogs We Read
