A farewell

Posted on January 9, 2013 by | 2 comments

By the start of 2013 the Second House of Sweden project has officially been closed down.

The project was by all standards a success. We managed to make a definite mark in the virtual world of Second Life as well as creating a lot of publicity in the first [life]. This blog shows some of the events that took place, and perhaps more importantly tells the story of why a government agency such as the Swedish Institute decided to embark on the journey of creating the world’s first virtual embassy.

What you can’t read about in this blog, but could only experience, was all the interesting meetings that took place between different individuals (virtual or not) from all over the world. From the opening ceremony hosted by Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt, and the Virtu-Real project which enabled meetings between visitors of the real world House of Sweden and it’s virtual “twin” Second House of Sweden – to everyone that just stopped by to see what the fuzz was about.

Although it is always a bit sad to leave a dear friend, at the Swedish Institute we constantly look for new ways of communicating our belief in openness and innovation, and no project (should) last forever. You could say that Curators of Sweden was in 2012 what Second House of Sweden was in 2007. What 2013 holds in store remains to be seen.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

avatar at ShoS

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Posted in Announcement

Midsummer celebration at SHoS

Posted on June 17, 2009 by | 1 comment

midsummer

In the words of the organizers:

In modern Sweden, Midsummer’s Eve is celebrated on the second to last Friday and in June. It is arguably the most important holiday of the year, and one of the most uniquely Swedish in the way it is celebrated. The main celebrations take place on the Friday, and the traditional events include raising and dancing around a huge maypole. One typical dance is the so called “frog dance”. Before the maypole is raised, greens and flowers are collected and used to cover the entire pole.

Sounds a bit odd huh? Well it is very odd indeed and now you got the chance to celebrate this in Second Life. Right now, in front of the SecondHouse of Sweden you will find a traditional Swedish outdoor dance floor, a maypole, market booths and much more.

Tina (PetGirl) Bergman, Ewa Aska and Jesper Printz are organizing this event for everyone in Second Life.

The celebration starts at 01.00 PM SLT and continues through the whole magical Swedish Midsummer Eve night, a night when the sun doesn’t set.

Ikaros String (DJ ) starts the party incl ring dances at 1 PM (22.00 CET) – 2 PM (23.00 CET)
Bara Johnson – a fantastic Swedish live artist recongnised from both RL and SL will play at 2 PM (23.00 CET) – 2.30 PM (23.30 CET
Noma Falta is a musician playing blues and soulful rock in virtual worlds and In-person around the globe. 2.30 PM (23.30 CET) – 3 PM (24.00 CET)
Jesper will live dj right after Noma 3 PM (24.00 CET) ’til late.

Hearty Welcome to Midsummer’s Eve in Second Life!

Tina, Ewa & Jesper

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Swedish%20Institute/71/212/30

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Posted in Announcement

Where did we go? Where are we going?

Posted on May 13, 2009 by | 4 comments
Where did we go? Where are we going?

I thought it appropriate to comment on the fact that the blog hasn’t been updated in a while. Stefan Geens, a.k.a. Belmeloro DiPrima, who used to run this blog has moved on to work on a Chinese version of www.sweden.se. He is still present in Second Life and at the SHoS though, just not responsible for organizing events and other activities.

Coinciding with Stefan’s focus on other tasks, we also had to decrease our presence in the form of SHoS guides. And as you all know, people brings more people (in RL as well as SL), and consequently, less people brings less people.

As the Second Life hype has subsided, we have worked harder to find Swedish partners interested in doing SL events, and also to achieve the level of public (and media) attention that we require in most of our activities on and off the web. Looking back the past year, we feel that the Virtu-Real installations, the US election event, the RL/SL E-learning seminar, the Pride festival and the Swedish national day celebrations – to mention a few – where all good examples of such collaborations.

Stay tuned for news about an event that will take place soon at the Second House of Sweden.

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Posted in Announcement, Blogging Second Life, Second House of Sweden

From Sweden with love

Posted on February 12, 2009 by | 1 comment

Ms. Tina Dahl has made sure that Valentine’s day on Saturday doesn’t pass unnoticed in Second Life. Even the Second House of Sweden is now covered in hearts of different sizes. Romantic, beautiful, or even a little creepy. :) You be the judge.

valentines-at-shos

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Posted in Announcement

The making of Virtu-real goes Tokyo

Posted on December 26, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Studio unreal have posted a video of the making of their installation at the Embassy of Tokyo. You can watch it here.

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Posted in Announcement

Season’s greetings from us

Posted on December 18, 2008 by | 1 comment

seasons

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Posted in Announcement

Report: Lucia celebrations at SHoS

Posted on December 18, 2008 by | 1 comment

lucia1

Except for some lag and crash problems the Lucia celebrations of 2008 turned out to be a great success.

lucia2

Or let me rephrase that: Because the Lucia celebrations turned out to be a great success, we had to deal with lag and crashes. Having events in SL can sometimes be a dual-natured experience, since the popularity of the event (read “too many people”) will cause instability problems for the sim and its visitors. This time, not even the blue dragon Linden who showed up could do something about the lag issues (he was jokingly begged for help by some of the visitors). However, it was nice to see that the event was so popular that we could barely fit everyone.

lucia3
This year’s Lucia, PetgirlBergman, fainting before the big performance. She was back on her feet in time for her grand entrance though.

We would like to thank Petgirl Bergman (who also wore the Lucia crown for the evening) and the Swedish People in Second Life for all their work and congratulate them on such a successful execution. Myself (Nex Canning) and my colleague Ylva Yedmore were able to focus on enjoying the performances and the celebrations, with no griefers or other mischief to take care of. Thank you also to all of you who showed up to enjoy the celebrations into the early morning of the 13th. (Also, thank you Tina for the pics as my computer didn’t properly render the Lucia outfits, or much else for that matter.)

lucia4

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Posted in Uncategorized

Virtu-real goes Tokyo in action

Posted on December 10, 2008 by | 4 comments

Here’s how you can interact with Virtu-real goes Tokyo from anywhere in the world, not just in SL or the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo:

Send a short email to tokyo@virtu-real.net. Leave the subject line empty. In the body, write a message of up to 30 characters.

emailview

Within seconds of sending it, the message starts raining out of the sky at the Virtu-real installation at the Second House of Sweden, like so:

cool

emailfalling

emailaddress

Who gets to see your message? Anyone visiting the installation in Second Life at that time, but also visitors to the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo, where two screens on either ends of a real-life installation look into the virtual space in real time.

In the Second Life part of the installation, there is also a screen that lets you see into the real-life embassy in Tokyo. As I was writing this article, some schoolgirls in Tokyo had discovered that if they danced in front of one side of the installation and then dashed to the other side, they could see themselves dancing on the screen inside Second Life, due to the 10-second lag for buffering. They were having a grand time, doing this over and over again.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Virtu-Real goes Tokyo preview shots

Posted on December 7, 2008 by | Leave a comment

It’s down to the final hours before “Virtu-Real goes Tokyo” goes live, both in Second Life and at the Swedish embassy in Tokyo — on Monday, December 8, at 2:30am Second Life time (10.30am Stockholm time, 6:30pm Tokyo time.

In the meantime, here are some screenshots to whet your appetite:

snapshot_009

snapshot_004

mrkobayashi_01

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Press release: Swedish Lucia in Second Life – 2008

Posted on November 29, 2008 by | Leave a comment

By the people of Sweden in Second Life (and funded by the Swedish Institute)

After last year’s huge success, Lucia visits Second Life again in 2008!

Every year on December 13, Santa Lucia arrives in Sweden to announce the Christmas season. This year, she will once again visit Second Life as well – and the festivities start Friday evening, December 12.

The Lucia celebration features a procession led by a woman representing Saint Lucia, who — dressed in white robes, with a headdress of candles — repels the darkness with a halo of light. The procession is accompanied by the singing of traditional Swedish songs.

The Lucia event in Second Life gives participants an opportunity to meet a real Swedish Lucia, listen to her entourage of singers, see a Christmas tree, visit Santa, receive Swedish freebie gifts, and dance to Swedish and international music, including live performances.

By tradition, the identity of this year’s Lucia is a well-protected secret until the December 12.

When: The procession will be held twice: First, on December 12, 1pm Second Life time (4pm New York time, 10pm Stockholm time); the procession is then repeated four hours later at 5pm SLT (8pm in NYC, 2am in Stockholm on 13 December)
Where: Second House of Sweden, on the Swedish Institute sim
http://slurl.com/secondlife/swedish%20institute/70/212/30

Organizers of this year’s Lucia event in Second Life are Ika Cioc, Ewa Aska, Charlotte Rhino, Belze Fraker, Cur Waydelich and producer Tina (PetGirl) Bergman.

All residents of Second Life are very welcome to attend.

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