Second Life’s public image could be revolutionized through a PR campaign with stories like those in the Drax Files. http://t.co/niVgJRBx66
— Botgirl Questi (@botgirlq) March 12, 2014
Botgirl Questi recently tweeted the above and whereas I wholeheartedly agree that Second Life’s public image could be revolutionised via such a campaign, I would hope it would be one done without Draxtor Despres and I say this for totally selfish reasons.
The Drax Files and The Drax Files Radio Hour are absolutely superb mediums of promoting Second Life. However one of the reasons Drax can reach the parts other mediums cannot reach is because he’s editorially independent. I doubt this would be the case were Draxtor working on behalf of Linden Lab, rather than working on behalf of his love of Second Life.
An example here is that Drax will soon be talking to Emily Short who was a lead developer of Versu. Linden Lab have of course, very disappointingly ditched Versu, but I would certainly fear that a Linden Lab sponsored Draxtor Despres would be unable to engage in an interview like that or with any other former Linden due to a conflict of interests.
This works in other ways too, for example on The Drax Files, Drax has interviewed content creators, would he be able to do this were he sponsored by Linden Lab? I ask this question because I feel a lot of content creators would cry foul about Linden Lab playing favourites by promoting certain content creators if Drax was endorsed by Linden Lab. However as Draxtor is independent, he can interview who he likes, when he likes and not be questioned over his choices. This allows for some superbly positive interviews and Draxtor delving into all sorts of areas.
Draxtor can also cross the boundary into Linden Lab by interviewing Lindens themselves and he does that again in the latest edition of The Drax Files Radio hour in which he has an excellent interview with Widely Linden regarding Oculus Rift intergration in Second Life. This is a fascinating and exciting interview. Widely explains why Linden Lab have taken their time with this intergration and taken into account that people using an Oculus Rift supported viewer are also going to want to do everything they can do in the standard viewer, building etc.
This is well worth listening to. Could this have been done by a Linden? Quite possibly, would they have been able to have pulled it off as well as Draxtor and Jo? I’m not sure, they do a superb job of interviewing Widely and ask questions from a user point of view, whereas a Linden interviewing Widely may well miss out on some of the points raised.
Draxtor, like Tyche Shepherd, does fantastic work for the Second Life community but they most certainly both benefit from being independent. I do feel that Drax, Jo Yardley and Tyche Shepherd deserve more than a pat on the back from Linden Lab, but I much prefer their editorial impartiality being allowed to prosper.
“Impartial”? Drax, Jo, Inara, Wagner, Daniel etc are being spoonfed by Peter Grey. Do you REALLY think they are going to be allowed to express adverse opinions without their privileged access to resources (people and free tablets – did they have to give them back after the SLGO trial – we should be told!) being terminated? LL exerts draconian censorship within its own web properties on anyone who is even honestly critical, and since its own external marketing effort exceeds zero by an infinitessimal amount it is reliant on the cheerleaders to spread “good news”. The new CEO has been sucker-punched by Senderov and Grey into believing that this is the way to do it, despite it having been demonstrably unsuccessful over the last half a decade at least. Get some professionals in, Ebbe, whose greatest claim is NOT that they are an “online shopping expert” – that’s my 16 year old daughter’s Twitter tagline!
Pep (understands Ciaran is not yet on the “Team”, but still wishes he’d use afterthedeadline to proof his posts.)
For the purposes of full disclosure, I applied to join the Second Life press corps on 20/04/2010 and I’m still awaiting a response, I may have to commemorate the fourth anniversary of this event.
My understanding of the SL Go beta test is that the equipment was loaned to particpants, not all of them accepted the loan but at least people did share the fact that equipment was provided.
Peter Gray does indeed provide information to Drax, Jo, Inara and Daniel and you may have a point regarding their venom being spiked due to this. Drax, Jo and Daniel are most definitely enthusiasts, Inara is a little more tempered in my view.
I certainly need to take more care with my grammar, which is not a lot of fun but should be addressed.
Hi Ciaran, thank you so much for the kind words. Indeed my independence in both the video and audio series is very important to me. I have said many times that the video series started with the goal to be a kind of “advocacy journalism” showcasing the beauty of creative endeavors and what fulfillment it can bring to folks. I think these videos resonate because they tell personal stories which are only repetitive in the sense that my interview subjects keep emphasizing, naturally, the same things: the power of avatar-based interaction, the sense of freedom when creating, the cross-cultural communication, the richness of relationships etc. My goal here is obviously to counter the narrow mainstream media narrative of SL being the death of culture and humanity. That the company who runs SL – the name is familiar to us I am sure – benefits directly from this approach, is a given. However I am not making ads for Linden Lab, I am making a grand commercial campaign advertising a creative life which I think can be richer than one based on the pursuit of monetary gain. In re.: radio series = Jo and I are passionate because again – we love to express ourselves in this domain. We also strive to create something of a “community radio station” where the “leaders” or movers/shakers as well as the “ordinary” citizens can share their voices. It is quite a bit of leg work to schedule folks from all over the world and walks of life to be recorded and edited every week. I am not going to dignify the above comment with any response – I have recently learned how to breathe and let such delusional assessments go – but I’d like to invite anyone to call in and/or comment on the blog. Dissenting voices are welcome. However Jo and I are neither nor have we ever claimed to be an investigative media brand such as [and I admire them dearly!!!] Bill Moyers, Democracy Now or Media Matters. Allright, back to reading The Nation magazine [in paper form!]