Cape Town Conference: The virtual world of Reuters in Second Life
Posted by Kim Hawkey on June 5, 2007 at 11:02 AM
Reuters has found a new way to engage with real customers through its virtual counterpart, according to Adam Pasick, a virtual journalist at Reuters.
In a master class on Web 2.0, Pasick told the 2007 World Editors Forum about the virtual Reuters news bureau that exists in the 3D virtual world known as Second Life.
Pasick is also the bureau chief of the virtual Reuters bureau, which opened its doors in October 2006 and is modeled on their real bureau in Times Square.
Pasick said Second Life was “not a game”, but a “virtual community created by its users”. It has its own economy, currency and marketplace and the virtual bureau “reports on the economy as it would in the real world”.
Second Life provides a means to engage with the nearly seven million residents of the virtual environment. For Reuters, Pasick said, “it creates a community around the news”.
By Kim Hawkey, Wits University Journalism
Pasick is also the bureau chief of the virtual Reuters bureau, which opened its doors in October 2006 and is modeled on their real bureau in Times Square.
Pasick said Second Life was “not a game”, but a “virtual community created by its users”. It has its own economy, currency and marketplace and the virtual bureau “reports on the economy as it would in the real world”.
Second Life provides a means to engage with the nearly seven million residents of the virtual environment. For Reuters, Pasick said, “it creates a community around the news”.
By Kim Hawkey, Wits University Journalism
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Invest in time:
I met Adam just after the session. One good piece of advice he gave me is that, go slow in Second Life. Second Life gets you more visibility and lets you to do more experiments. But, familiarising yourself with the second life atmosphere can take a period of 8 to 12 months. So, Second Life can earn you Linden Dollars, but only after a heavy investment in time.
Amit Tekale, Sakaal Papers Ltd, Pune, India
There is also a danger of ignoring a community which includes many citizen journalists. It is often interesting to see what is written in weblogs and ignored by the mainstream.
It is actually something which has become predictable. :-)
Yes, go slow with Second Life, but the key is to actually check your email and follow up with members of the community who attempt to engage you. This is something that dear Adam has failed dismally at. (Although I did enjoy him hanging up on Meg Whitman during an interview, can't imagine getting away with that in a real life situation.)