Friday, October 5, 2007

Newbie is now "Second Life expert"

Ironic, isn't it? But true: to a big group of former skeptics, I'm now their go-to person for info on virtual worlds.

On September 25th an event that I've been planning for months finally happened: a live-audio reading and author Q&A in Second Life, organized by me, in a gorgeous sim designed and built by the good folks at purplestripe. By all measures it was a successful event -- attendance was good, and we got some decent blog buzz before and after; but to me, the real measure of success was that the folks I work with are now, finally, starting to get it. A large part of the planning process involved selling the concept of an in-world author event to TPTB where I work -- no small feat considering the deep-seated skepticism around all things digital and SL in particular.

On the day of the event I arranged for my office PC to be moved into a boardroom and hooked up to a projector, so that anyone who wanted to could view the event as it happened, live. I wish you could have been a fly on the wall when people saw SL for the first time and realized its implications. "You mean to tell me that each avatar represents a real person?" "So these people could be anywhere in the world right now? And they're all hearing the same audio we can hear?" "You mean I can chat with more than one person at a time, in real time?"

One small event for an avatar, one giant leap for the Great Unplugged. :)

A few snapshots from the event:
The build:

Chloe looking studious:

1 comment:

Bargainista said...

Jenny, congratulations to you and Chloe. Wish Paradise could have joined you.