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I get obsessive with my reading of Second Life related news. I want to know what is happening in every sector, every topic, every hobby or interest, because at the end of every presentation I give about Second Life, I face an audience from a random assortment of disciplines and the question I dread most is the one I can’t answer. I want to be able to provide an example that relates to any subject matter, I want to be able to say, “Oh yes! There is an example of how Second Life is being used for such-and-such,” and I want to pop right over to that location or pull up that news story and link the audience member’s interest to a real virtual world example.

The only way to do that is to read everything you can get your hands on about Second Life. Events, experiments, new builds, new organizations, progress reports for projects that have been happening for some time – and the Second Life world only continues to grow and become more complex over time, and so do the number of websites, blogs, and even in-world news feeds that send a steady stream of info about in-world happenings. Even a speed reader can’t quite keep up with it all!

But there are some shortcuts, and some sources are better at ferreting out the “good stuff” better than others. Most Second Lifers know about the mainstream news outlets – Second Life News Network, Second Life Herald, Second Thoughts, New World Notes, and the magazines like the Konstrukt, Metaverse Messenger, and Avastar, but there are some other sources of news that you should add to your list if you haven’t already, and if I’m missing some of your must read sources, let me know that too.

Read The Grid Live. I’m not sure when this site started, it gradually creeped up the Fleep’s Favorite Sites list over the past few weeks and I recently moved it to the tippy top of my must read list on the feed reader. The magical Aribella Lafleur writes in-depth travel reports, and the site’s daily summary (here’s an example) condenses half the blogs I used to read and finds sources that weren’t even on my list. That’s impressive.

Follow Malburns on Twitter. Malburns Writer seems to be in touch with all of the socio-cultural-economic-music-art scene happenings and he must have one of the most extensive SL related reading lists out there. He sends a steady stream of tweets about the grid, slurls to live events, and even if he doesn’t write for any of the major news sites, he’s my favorite reporter on the ground and a good friend to boot.

Follow BlogHUD on Twitter. I’ve posted previously about how terrific the BlogHUD is for posting reports from in-world to your blog, but creator Koz Farina keeps adding to the tool in ways that make it easier and better all the time to report on Second Life happenings, and the steady stream of real time in-world reports includes pictures, slurls, and often text descriptions that have often alerted me to things I didn’t know were happening. Fans of Torley Linden will like this too, as he is a frequent BlogHud contributor.

Check SLCN.tv every single day. Think of this as the CNN Headlines TV channel for Second Life news junkies. Whatever great in-world event you missed because you had to go to a meeting or because it was happening in a different time zone, there’s a good chance SLCN.tv covered it and you can go view the archive. They also webcast events live so you can get access to great in-world events even when you can’t be in-world. Nevermind the fact that the staff are absolutely wonderful people. [Disclosure: SLCN.tv has covered many events I’ve organized or participated in and they do all of this for absolutely no charge, so I am indebted to them for many reasons, but that’s all the more reason you should add them to your must-see list!]

Read MUVE Forward and The Story of My “Second Life”, two of the best education focused SL blogs out there. Even if you aren’t an educator, you should know about the great things educators are doing and these two sites are not just on top of the current events, they also provide analysis that helps place what’s happening into a bigger context. Very good stuff.

There are tons of other great sites, great people, and great tools to keep you up on Second Life events, but these are the ones I’ve come to rely on. Thanks to the people who make them work, I can almost always reach into my bag of tricks in front of an audience of educators, no matter what college or department they’re from, and show a relevant example. Hopefully it will help you too.