Some thoughts and links as we approach 4.16.08

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of a tragedy that many of us still find hard to imagine actually happened on our campus. I will probably take some pictures at Memorial Park and post them to mark it. A new movie has been created about the SL memorial:
http://www.slodcast.com/media/virginia_tech_640x480.mov

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of talking to a group of students at Virginia Tech who were part of a class working on digital archives related to the event and its aftermath [http://www.dl-vt-416.org/]. My talk was about the memorial in Second Life, and I talked a bit about Second Life itself (mentioned the "weird" along with that which reflects RL). I was a bit long winded, but everyone seemed interested - lots of good questions. One person asked why, on the memorial marker designated for the shooter, was a picture of the South Korean flag displayed. I could tell that it was something that he felt was not appropriate, given that no other flags appeared. I told him that the flag was represent the shooter, as I did not want to display his face (nor will I). I should have also mentioned that the flag represented victims - his family was a victim, and certainly many South Koreans felt victimized by his violence. However, I told him that I would cover it up out of respect - I did that last week. Since the flag might be interpreted as blame, I can see his point. I am glad he mentioned it, as the point of the memorial is not to hurt or offend anyone.

Let me just say again how thankful I am to Mr. David Marston (of Maryland, USA) for his tireless efforts in creating, designing, building, and maintaining the VT Memorial on "Memorial Park." As I told him today while chatting in SL, his efforts are every bit as important as RL memorials and remembrances.