Another Canadian School To Hold Class In Second Life

This time it's Loyalist College, specifically the Post Graduate E-Journalism progam as described on this page.

Additional information is available in audio form by accessing this linked file.

Embassy In Second Life... Is This Getting Out Of Hand?

CNet's doing interviews in Second Life.
Reuters has a news bureau in Second Life.
Now Sweden has announced that they are planning to establish an Embassy in Second Life.

Why?

The first two resulted in good (though often unpredictable) press for both companies, but does Sweden need this kind of press? It will be interesting to see if they pursue this as well as how they plan to leverage the expense to benefit their citizens in this virtual world.

Davidreport.com provides an interview that provides insight into these questions. You can find that interview here.

From that interview:

Our mission is to increase the knowledge about and interest in Sweden around the world. To do that we need to constantly find new ways to communicate with our target groups and to reach them, where they are most likely to be open to our message. Our aim is to find and inspire a selective group of people which is hard to reach through more traditional channels. Second Life is one of many channels to use and explore.

More Mainstream Second Life - NPR This Time.

Pffffft. Why do I hear about these things the day after they happen?
Apparently NPR's "Talk of the Nation" did a spot on Second Life yesterday that would have been great to listen to... hopefully there will be something accessible in the archives.

I'm told that there wasn't a lot of information about life in the game itself, but rather it focused on the commercial application of the world - not surprising given the program's target audience, but kind of disappointing nonetheless.

Update: Sweet, they posted the program which is accessible here. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Reuters Shows Its Face In Second Life.

Clearly virtual worlds are no longer a secret. Either that or Reuters accidentally hired someone who has a clue about where things are going with technology these days.

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or bad one. It clearly signifies that something significant is going on. It also signifies that many cool things are likely to end. What happened when the mainstream media began to 'get' what was going on with music on the internet? Lawsuits. What happened when they began to understand how bittorrent could be 'misused?' Lawsuits.

I hope that the extended publicizing of virtual worlds and the fact that they are meaningful not just as simple entertainment but also represent economic opportunity and venues to influence/understand culture doesn't attract the wrong kind of people to the table.