About Canary Beck

Canary Beck (aka Becky) became a resident of Second Life in 2007, after watching a CNN report on a new virtual world.

Highlights
Canary Beck has managed the picturesque Italian waterfront region Basilique since 2012. There she hosts two weekly events and builds artistic performances. In 2013, Becky founded the Basilique Performing Arts Company that produces large-scale, theatrical productions. Two well-known productions are Paradise Lost in Second Life and Romeo and Juliet.

Canary consults for many well-known Second Life brands. She is Marketing Manager of The Phoenix Firestorm Project, Inc. developers of the Firestorm Viewer. She also does marketing for SL Blogger Support, Blogging Second Life, and The Liaison Collaborative.

Canary enjoys singing, doing voice-over work and putting on photographic art exhibitions. Paradise Lost had a 9-month sell-out run on the SL Marketplace and received over 100 positive reviews by media across Second Life. Her most recent project is a full-length machinima version of Paradise Lost in Second Life.

Since 2011, Canary has blogged at www.canarybeck.com. Her posts are unique, evidence-based pieces about the social science aspects of Second Life. She uses psychological and ethnographic approaches to help better understand virtual experiences and ourselves.

Research
Canary’s research activities involve creating educational quizzes about Second Life History. She also authored one of the largest studies related to sexual behaviour in Second Life. Her current projects include writing a book about Virtual World Behaviour and Etiquette.

Recognition
The Second Life media, community groups and Linden Lab recognise Canary’s contributions and perspectives. Draxtor Despres featured her in the “DraxFiles World Makers Episode 18: Paradise Lost”. She has shared her views on marketing Second Life as a featured guest on the DraxFiles Radio Hour with Jo Yardley. The Linden Endowment for the Arts awarded her a 6-month Artist-in-Residence grant to host the Romeo + Juliet Experience. Linden Lab has selected her photographs as Second Life Pic of the Day. They’ve chosen her region, Basilique, as a location for the Second Life Inworld Meetup in May 2015.

Contributions
Canary’s primary external contribution is now to the Phoenix Firestorm Project. There she is at the helm of recruiting new Second Life users through the Firestorm Gateway Project.

Canary contributes to New World Notes, the most popular blog discussing Second Life. Here she writes surveys of Second Life user behaviour and tips on metaverse etiquette.

She contributes and consults to Second Life Blogger Support. Here she writes articles related to marketing Second Life blogs. She also supports bloggers in getting help from the SLBS community.

Canary redesigned the front and back end database systems at Blogging Second Life (The Stores & Creators List). She is marketing director for The Liaison Collaborative (TLC). TLC is one of the Second Life’s most famous monthly shopping events. She also designed that website.

When not in Second Life
In real life, Canary has a background in behavioural and social psychology. She has been a marketer for years and owns a busy internet marketing consultancy in London. Here she specialises in primary market research, website design, conversion optimisation, and search marketing. Personal interests include history, anthropology, gender relations, communications, health and gaming.