Next Thursday through Sunday is the fourth annual Netroots Nation convention, the pre-eminent gathering of progressive bloggers, online activists and politicians from all over the country. The convention itself is taking place at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA, but there is also an online cognate to the convention called Netroots Nation in Second Life, which takes advantage of the streaming audio/video and online collaboration capabilities of Second Life to bring Netroots Nation content to people who would otherwise be unable to attend the convention. I'm proud to serve as co-director of communications for Netroots Nation in Second Life, and I'm even prouder to be part of an amazing team of people who have been working for months to pull this thing off. In addition to bringing you streaming video of some of the convention's biggest events, we're also putting together exclusive online discussion panels on subjects ranging from mountaintop removal to the situation in Iran, as well as exclusive online social events. And we have a little announcement to make...
On Thursday, August 13 at 12:15 Eastern (9:15 Pacific/Second Life Time) we will be hosting a screening of Silent Partners, a documentary that goes under the surface of Don't Ask/Don't Tell and shares the stories of some people directly affected by the law but who, by necessity, must remain silent to the point of invisibility: the same-sex partners of soldiers serving in the military under the cloud of DADT. Silent Partners is an episode of a larger series called In Their Boots produced and distributed by Brave New Films, a company well-known for producing some of the best progressive documentary films in the business. Ohhhh, but there's more: after the screening of the film, we'll be bringing you a live Q&A session with Richard Ray Perez, Executive Producer of In Their Boots.
Administrivia you'll need to know in order to see the screening: to participate you'll need a Second Life account. Visit SecondLife.com and register, then download the software. Log in, then click on this link to take you to the NNSL welcome area. If you're so inclined you can go through the amazing tutorial our New Residents staff put together (I highly recommend it as it will teach you how to move around and interact in the Second Life environment), and then follow the signs to the Netroots Nation Arena where the screening will take place. If you're the kind of person who wants step by step instructions for how to make the most of the NNSL experience, I highly recommend Moody Loner's great series called "How to Second Life". Click here and then go through posts 1 through 5 for highly detailed instructions on how it all works.
I was already excited for the start of Netroots Nation and the Second Life half of the convention, but now I'm over the moon. My sincere thanks go to Richard Perez and all the folks at Brave New Films for agreeing to participate in this. I also would be remiss if I failed to mention my dear friend Zath aka Progressive Witness, who did a lot of the heavy lifting (and will do a lot more!) to pull this off. I hope you can join us!
EDITED TO CLARIFY: YOU DO *NOT* NEED TO ATTEND THE CONVENTION IN PITTSBURGH OR BE REGISTERED FOR THE CONVENTION TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS FILM SCREENING AND Q&A. THE EVENT TAKES PLACE ONLINE IN SECOND LIFE AND IS *COMPLETELY FREE*. JUST DOWNLOAD THE FREE SOFTWARE AND FIND THE NETROOTS NATION ARENA AND YOU'RE IN!