What famous people would you like to see do a town hall in SL?

What I'd really like to see is setting up video streams in SL so instead of just repeating the chat from a townhall, we can repeat a live video of the townhall all over SL. That's live video of the SL client, not the person themselves.

And then, I'd like to start inviting famous people (well, famous to us SLers) to come in and do little chats with people.


Neal Stephenson
Ray Kurzweil
Larry Niven
Vernor Vinge
William Gibson

Just a few.

The only problems might be, a) do they have the bandwidth (time and network), b) do they have the computing resources, and finally c) would they charge?

Definately Niven and/or Gibson.

Niven is my all time fave Sci-Fi author, btw. Chip, are you reading this? Take that Tasp out of your skull you wire-head!

Kevin Mitnick would be a hoot!

Terry Pratchett

Well, there are many more potential problems than those. lol Anyway, I did an online event with Larry Niven a couple of years ago. He was a great guest speaker, although there were technical difficulties. Having run numerous big online events with celebrities, my number-one piece of advice is to make sure you have a dress rehearsal well in advance of the actual event so you can work out the guest's technical issues. Oh yeah, and make sure you have the guest's phone number and a fast, accurate pinch-typist.

Gene Ray of the Timecube.

Dr. Michio Kaku - His enthusiasm and way of explaining things are almost unmatched in his fields.

Brian Greene - Also a very awsome guy who has done tv interviews (was on david letterman) does a great job of explaining string theory.

I highly support the above suggestions as well, Ray Kurzweil's vision of a nano-tech enviornment is one I'd love to see SL eventualy become.

Also Peter Chung (creator of Aeon Flux) would be awsome.

Or Joss Whedon.

SWEET! I would LOVE to have that guy on Audio! Tellin us all how evil academia is bastardly queer!

Although if he wasn't available I'd like Neil Gaimen.

Or Steven Hawkings.

Siggy.

Howard Dean.

Of course Neal Stephenson first, hope we can have the Black Sun Club open when he visits the metaverse he imagined in Snow Crash

I would love to see Kurzweil as well, he has been my idol as one of the smartest person I know who can predict the technological advancement. It's interesting you included him and Vernor Vinge, both argue about the singularity sometime in the next 30-40 years.

David Hasselcrotch

Yeah, I included Neal simply because he's probably written the closest literary representation of SL. I'm not really a big fan, but I have to admit he sure came close.

Plus, yeah, Black Sun would be an awesome place to do the town hall!

Larry .. well, I included him because he's one of my favorite all time sci-fi writers.

Ray, because he's probably the most successful futurist of all time that I'm aware of. He is my #1 role model in life. He talks a lot about SL type stuff.. I'm pretty sure he's been in here. He must have!

Vernor .. well, it all came from him. Gibson, Stephenson.. in a lot of ways they just borrowed from him.

Gibson, well, because he's probably the most artistic of the crew, though technologically, the least sophisticated / original.

Orson Scott Card of Ender's Game and Advent Rising.

Jeff Brown, so he could receive his just reward.

And of course, more writers in general.

jms
neil gaiman
clive barker
harlen ellison

first, the ones i know of and agree with:

Neal Stephenson - for obvious reasons
William Gibson - admit it, it would be interesting
Terry Pratchett - humor makes the world go 'round
Neil Gaiman - while his would be a "must see", i'd rather see what he'd do with SL

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Second, a few i would suggest:

(someone get me a time machine) Douglas Adams - R.I.P.
C.S. Lewis - it would be an interesting take on SL
Will Wright - The Sims, SimCity, Spore... besides the similarity, there's alliteration too!

and...

Gene and Dean Ween - yup. really. their view would be... unique and possibly enlightening.

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Last, a small venting session:

i could have been on that list. seriously. do you know how frustrating it is to have come up with an original idea.. hmm.. at least a decade ago and see it come to fruition by someone else's hands? while i'm ecstatic that SL exists.. i imagined something similar back then, but it was more like SL in the future. one where SL has been combined with some features of Spore, then include an interactive and completely customizable ecosystem.

then there was the story i started writing in 1991. it was called 'Technotine' and it centered around a detective in the future who was investigating something weird going on with a new drug... yup, Technotine. but anyhoo, the point is that in my story people were commonly using something i called a 'CAV-card', standing for Compact Audio Visual card. yes, in 1991 i had imagined... flash memory. ARGH!!!


i apologize for my venting and please don't misconstrue it as an attempt for pity or recognition, i deserve no such thing. i simply need to beat myself about the head periodically over not finishing and publishing that story. (and everyone i know has heard it too many times.. lol)

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anyhoo, this is a good idea and i hope to see it implemented.

Stephen King
Anne Rice
Clive Barker
Brian Herbert (but only because Frank is no longer alive)
Neil Gaiman (Sandman was the only comic I ever *read*)
Orson Scott Card
Mary Griffith
Margret Atwood
J.k. Rowling

If they were alive:
Isaac Asmov
Robert Heinlen
Thomas Paine
Tolkien (of course)

Prokofy Neva

The name doesn't ring a bell.

Dennis Leary.

Yeah, Card is my second favorite of all time sci-fi writer. More for worthing chronicle (now saga, crazy to think this book went out of print!), Speaker for the Dead, Wryms, Songmaster, Treason and and some of his other earlier stuff.

Linus Torvalds

Neil Gaiman
Terry Pratchett

Vivienne Westwood
Betsey Johnson

I bet a lot of these names would generate some major slashdot press if they were to do some townhalls in SL.

Think of the people signing up just to get an account so they can chat / watch the heavies!

Ideally, we'd have to set the townhalls up in a way that some experience occurs which you can only experience if you're actually in world.

How about "Get your picture taken with <famous persons name here>"

Now that'd be cool, heh.

Seems an interesting commentary on the SL crowd, or perhaps just the more vocal forum chums, that the wide majority of nominations are for authors.

Were it possible, I'd love to hear Dr. Martin Luther King. Or Dr. Seuss. =)

I just logged on today.
What, what's that you say?
I said I found a sim
in which two prims
were made by him
with scripts to play
but were blown away
by a Chung push gun.

Oh my! No fun!
What will Philip do?
Will he be blue
at the pushgun gag?

Maybe just lag?

Probably because I started it out that way.

What famous people who weren't authors (preferably alive, heh) that you'd like to see? Ok, and actually might do it?

I'd like to get Al Gore in here I think he might go for it. He did, after all, invent the internet!

Maybe also

Steve Jobs
Avie Tevanian (I wrote him email once.. he replied!)

Uma Thurman

..... L. Ron Hubbard.

Neal Stephenson
Pierre Omidyar
Isaac Asimov
Shigeru Miyamoto
The Wachowski Brothers (don't laugh! ... okay, laugh)
VIPs from IEEE
VIPs from Blizzard's WoW team (even though I don't play)

and, for the hell of it: Sean Connery