The conference lasts through Sunday, July 20, so there is still a chance to join in the fun, and I highly recommend listening to some of the sessions that have been taped on ustream.tv. Every session that I have either attended live, or viewed on tape has been excellent. The panels are chocked full of excellent presenters, and the topics are completely relevant to the issues and challenges that we are facing on a daily basis. More importantly, the sessions are not focused on merely defining the issues, they provide practical suggestions for positive action that everyday people can engage in to start working toward long term solutions to the issues.

Attendance is totally free and open to the public. They ask that you remove your extra prims before attending the big events like the keynote speeches to cut down on lag. There were over 50 avatars at the opening keynote speech on Thursday in the Netroots Arena, and the lag was not a significant problem. The audio and video feed from the Austin venue was not very good quality unfortunately, but the workaround to that was to use the ustream feed and to turn off the SL audio and video. That way I was able to enjoy the interactivity of attending the event with fifty other people while still getting a decent feed.

I took some picture of the fantastic venue that the Netroots folks built in SL for the convention to give you an idea of how fun it is to visit, even if there isn’t an event in progress. Stop by anytime (slurl is on the NNinSL site). There are always quite a few friendly and helpful folks there to answer your questions or to show you around. However, they have provided site maps and event schedule info boards everywhere so you can find your way around by yourself quite easily.

Netroots Nation Headquarters

Netroots Nation Headquarters

Netroots Nation Ballroom

Netroots Nation Central Patio Area

Keynote Speech in Netroots Arena

Keynote Speech in Netroots Arena

See you in Second Life.

Another book that I purchased recently, Designing Your Second Life, is also full of useful information, but is not nearly as technical as the advanced guide.

I missed the panel on Global Poverty with Susan McCue from ONE (formerly Harry Reid’s chief of staff) at the Yearly Kos Convention yesterday, but I found the archived stream from that session. Check it out.

The ONE Campaign had a kiosk at the YKSL site, according to a post on the ONE blog. I stopped by there this morning, but no one was there (probably because the main part of the conference ended last night). I didn’t realize that this part of the site had so many interesting vendors, I wish I had visited this area of the site during the conference.

Update: I have acquired a Second Life ONE Console (pictured below). If you want one, join the official ONE SL group – ONE Campaign – and IM ONE Binder requesting a ONE Console. The object contains ONE wristbands and ONE T-Shirts (See my avatar below decked out in ONE gear.)

I am delighted with my experience attending the Yearly Kos Convention in Second Life. I’m not saying that there weren’t problems, but they didn’t overshadow the fantastic experience of attending this event virtually. This was by far the best event that I have had the pleasure of attending in Second Life. There were as many as 30 avatars in a single section of the Stadium at times and there was no lag at all. The attendees were attentive and did not distract from the sessions by chatting about inane topics. IMs and chat discussions were intelligent and stimulating for the most part, and it really added to the impression of attending the event live, in real time. They also had microphones at the SL venues that you could touch and submit questions to the moderators at the Chicago site. Even more impressive was the fact that they actually used many questions that were submitted through the SL interface. Totally awesome. I did not regret paying for this level of access to the convention for one second.

The Presidential Forum and Breakouts with the Candidates

Hillary’s breakout session was held prior to the forum with all of the candidates. Her breakout was streamed to the YKOS Arena in SL, and although the video was not as crisp as the Stadium venue, it was quite acceptable. Hillary was well accepted by the crowd, and she seemed relaxed and genuine. Here are a couple of snapshots from that session.

The presidential forum was held at the Netroots Stadium, and the audio and video quality was excellent throughout this session. The candidates present were Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Sen Dodd and Mike Gravel. The session consisted of two moderators asking questions that were submitted via the internet prior to the session, and taking questions from the audience. The moderators did an admirable job of making sure each candidate got adequate time to answer the questions, that candidates did not monopolize the floor, and that each candidate got questions that were specifically directed at him/her. The quality of the questions was remarkable, and it was obvious that the candidates realized that they were speaking to an extremely well informed audience. I will leave political analysis of the content of the forum to others who are more experienced at that occupation, but I did take some pretty good pictures of most of the candidates. Here are some of the better ones.

The last major event of the convention is tonight’s closing keynote speech by Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the Daily Kos at 7:30 Central Time. You can view that event on ustream.tv on my blog embeded on the August 2 post, or you can go to ustream.tv.

What a great convention, and a wonderful interactive Second Life experience!

The first session I attended was the Future Leaders forum which was in the Netroots Stadium in Second Life. The session itself was unexpectedly engaging and exciting. It featured progressive candidates who ran in 2006, and will run again in 2008. I was impressed by each and every one of these people. They were practical, as well as passionate. They are running for office because they want to make a difference, and they have strong feelings about where our country should be headed. It is also worth mentioning that the audio and video quality in the Netroots Stadium is excellent, which really adds to the experience. I almost felt like I was in the auditorium in Chicago.

I attended another panel in the Digby’s Corner venue (not sure what panel it was…) while I was waiting for the lunchtime keynote session. The audio and video quality there was not as good as in the stadium (one of the YK folks explained to me why – mostly has to do with $$s), but it was quite acceptable. I had some good conversation with other attendees at this session. I really enjoyed it.

I am back at the stadium now listening to the lunchtime keynote with Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), CLC. I don’t always agree with Andy’s point of view, but he has some excellent insights into the state of employees in America today.

Below is a snapshot from the Netroots Stadium today.