I'll be honest with you: this is my third Netroots Nation, and it's going to be the highlight of my year. I waffled for far too long on whether I could/should go to NN09; I really can't afford it, and it messes with some other plans I had for this fall...but the truth is that I can't NOT go. Four days of celebrities, Kossacks, great discussions, the Big Dog, Howard Dean, food, drink, late-night chats on the patio...it's going to be great and I can't wait. If you're like me, you've been flipping through the NN09 schedule since the day it came out and salivating over all the great things you will be doing this weekend.
But there's more. There's three events that aren't on the official NN09 schedule that I think you should know about. The best part is that they're not even taking place in Pittsburgh. They're taking place in cyberspace, and they're absolutely free and open to anyone, whether you're attending Netroots Nation or not. Jump over the fold and we'll talk.
Welcome to your Second Life.
Down the road a piece in a land called Pini there's a place called Cafe Wellstone. It's an outdoor dance club, but it's not just any dance club. The floor sparkles with pictures of Rosa Parks and Sen. Paul Wellstone. The DJ booth reverberates long into the night with the sounds of Alicia Morgan, The Clash and Muskrat Love. The club owner, known only as The General, is an imposing-but-warm figure. Get to know him and he'll take care of you. The dancers aren't your ordinary dancers, either.
There's Rocky and Jane, owners of an awesome little roadhouse called the Lonely Yak. Twice a week the party moves to their place. There's Trouble, a brassy blonde who works a day job as a security guard and at night lets her hair down to the twangy unironic lyrics of Alanis Morrissette. There's Zathras and Hypatia, a married couple who often sneak away to the ice rink on their winter paradise. There's Roisin, a free spirit and artist, and not far behind you'll find her green-and-red-haired partner Vex. There's Skal, a strapping Nordic chap who occasionally takes his shirt off in public and rocks out harder than any other folk musician I've ever known. Next door there's a great little bookstore, Jackson Street Books. The proprietors, Bookem and Dano, will help you find rare and out of print books from anywhere in the world. And then there's the activists. There's Michele, a peace activist. There's Padmini, working for the rights of prisoners. There's an Amnesty International donation jar on the bar. And once a year these people come together and put together a gathering of progressive activists from all over the world.
Their world. Second Life. Thursday is the kickoff of the third-annual Netroots Nation in Second Life, the online cognate of Netroots Nation, and you're invited. You can peruse the schedule here, but there's three events you need to know about that you will not see in Pittsburgh. They're exclusive to Second Life, and we hope you'll stop by.
THURSDAY, 9:15AM PACIFIC:
Join us for an exclusive online screening of Silent Partners. Silent Partners is an episode of a Brave New Films series called In Their Boots, which goes behind the scenes of the war in Iraq to bring you real stories of our soldiers. Silent Partners goes a step further by spotlighting the pain that total silence brings, shedding light on those who must, by necessity, be invisible: the same-sex partners of soldiers serving under the cloud of Don't Ask/Don't Tell. The screening will be followed by an exclusive Q&A with the filmmaker, Richard Ray Perez, hosted by Daily Kos's own cskendrick.
THURSDAY, 10:45AM PACIFIC:
Netroots Nation in Second Life's programming director Zathras Afarensis sits down with some of Second Life's foremost peace activists for a discussion of ways to leverage social media in the fight for a free and peaceful world. Called "First They Ignore You," the panel includes SL activists Millay Freschi, Cotton Thorne and Siri Vita, who will discuss the power of social media in the wake of the Iranian election crisis.
FRIDAY, 1:30PM PACIFIC:
We've never done this before, but we're thrilled about it. Join us for "Organizing in Second Life and Other Virtual Environments", a discussion of how to use Second Life and other similar social media to assist you in organizing people around your cause. This panel takes place in two planes of existence: in real life in Pittsburgh and online in Second Life. We'll walk you through exactly how Second Life works and what you can do with it, and interview some of Second Life's best-known activists (including General J.C. Christian of Jesus's General) for the "do's and don'ts" of online activism.
FRIDAY, 4:00PM PACIFIC:
The world may be racing to find sources of alternative energy: wind, solar, nuclear, hydrogen, but the truth is that a significant portion of America's energy still comes from the most insidious of fossil fuels: coal. Coal comes cheaply, but it doesn't come easily. Filmmaker Michael O'Connell travels to Appalachia to show us how coal is really mined and to show us the devastation that occurs when the coal company comes in to blow the top off a mountain. Join us for an exclusive screening of his film Mountain Top Removal, which will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
If you're an existing Second Life resident, teleport here to the NNinSL welcome area, then follow the signs to the NNSL Arena.
If you're not, first you'll need to visit SecondLife.com, sign up for an account and download the software. Then open Second Life and log in, then click the above link. Our New Residents staff has put together a great series of tutorials to teach you how to interact with the Second Life environment. Learn to walk, learn to change your camera view, learn how to talk to others...it's easy!
OTHER ITEMS OF NOTE:
In addition to the above events, we'll be live-streaming much of the content from the real-life convention in Pittsburgh, including all of the keynote speeches, the debate between Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak, and the health care town hall with Howard Dean. Check out the schedule here.