Coming to the second life press near you soon, a second life press conference with invited reporters from the second life press. Just who the second life press are is a mystery to me but it would appear that the Lindens have selected and nominated special representatives. Did Nobody Fugazi get an invite?
This does show that LL are willing to work on new ways of communication. Unfortunately it also undermines current means of communication, and if these press conferences are used to announce new features or reveal more information than is divulged at office hours, it pretty much makes office hours redundant for some LL management … maybe that’s the plan?
The new governance office hours have certainly taken the sting out of Robin Linden’s office hour and anyone who has attended a non technical office hour surely can’t have missed the fact that very little gets said during that hour. People typing away with different agendas, criss-crossing questions and very little time for a specific answer.
So a press conference type meeting does indeed have potential, but do the representatives of the mysterious second life press have the maturity to take this bull by the horns? I’d wager that the answer will be no. Egos will clash, etiquette will be ignored and the result will be a non technical office hour chat log, but with official endorsement from LL on disclosure.
If LL are going to recognise anyone as the SL press they should start with Reuters, who as a news agency actually know something about etiquette and self control. Eric Reuters won’t wallow in his own self importance.
There is something ironic in the fact that Robin Linden regularly asks at her office hour if there’s anyone from the press there, yet LL can apparently do nothing to prevent a third party site from divulging a chat log in full.
However the dangerous side of this is if these press conferences replace non technical office hours, if the only source of communication with senior Lindens becomes via a channel through the mysterious SL press, if Robin Linden withdraws even further from public view, then we’ll see a distinct backward step in communication.
Furthermore some of these websites will surely have an advantage in advertising stakes with the LL seal of approval that they are the authorised press, which will lead to accusations of bias, especially when some of the invited few are banned from future press conferences for not being able to act responsibly in a public place.
If LL really want this to work they should also get one of their own reps to create a blog section on the official site detailing these press conferences. That way there’s always an official point of reference.
This does to me seem like typical LL excitement over an idea, I’d have preferred them to start this by inviting the recognised press, SKY, CNN, Reuters and then spreading it to residents if they thought the potential was there, but once again LL jump in with both feet and I don’t expect the results to be pretty. Hopefully I’m wrong because I’m all in favour of improved communication.