Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Reuter's Second Life Bureau

Reuters has opened a new bureau in Second Life.

SL just continues to grow and expand, with marketers seeming to move into the space at an amazing rate. A news agency certainly seems to make sense, but I wonder what sorts of news we're going to get. I have a sense that they will report on real-world events that involve or impact SL (and other virtual worlds). For example, the primary question right now seems to be about taxation. That is, if someone earns a LindenDollar, and we know that the exchange rate is about 274L$:1USD, well....shoot the government get some cut of that?

I wonder if they are going to start reporting on events that occur wholly within SL? If a big fight breaks out, or two SL celebs start to date, will that be covered? There certainly seems to be a big opportunity for a GossipBlog.

Well, we'll see. I have a sense that a lot of this development right now is done is a way that is very self-aware. The companies moving into SL want everyone to know that they've moved into SL. Which is fine: for a while there it was news that a company launched a Web site. Now, it's just another-day-at-the-office.
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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with your "self aware" comment. Businesses (perhaps like the rest of us) aren't entirely sure what to make of Second Life yet. Will it become the dominant alternate reality? Will it be one of many important virtual worlds? Or will the whole concept of a virtual world not based on a particular special interest fizzle? Companies signing up for Second Life identities no doubt figure that it doesn't cost that much, and they can promote their involvement to show how forward-looking they are.

5:20 AM  

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