Virtual World Journalism and Entrepreneurship

Download the video (Quicktime)
Download the audio (MP3)
Metaversed video archive at SLCN
Subscribe to the SLCN Metaversed feed

Originally scheduled to be a discussion with Daniel Terdiman about his exciting new book "Entrepreneurs Guide To Second Life", this week's session of Metanomics took a dramatic shift as Robert Bloomfield managed to book two last-second additions: Hamlet Au of New World Notes and Urizenus Sklar of the Second Life Herald. The discussion ranged over a wide variety of topics, from what kind of mindset an entrepreneur should have to what kind of journalism is needed in a virtual world.

One of the audience members, Kronos Kirkorian, created a great gallery of images and not only covers the event from Metaversed Island but from several of the Event Partner locations as well. All images found there (including the one above) should be credited to Kronos Kirkorian if used elsewhere.

Below I've summarized the main points of focus in the discussion, but it's worth listening to the event in total via the links above.

Daniel Terdiman

Terdiman spearheaded the efforts that made CNet the first mainstream news organization to create a permanent Second Life presence. He has also recently released a new book entitled "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Second Life: Making Money in the Metaverse", which details how to identify, develop, launch, and profit from your own business in the virtual world.

The biggest mistake new entrepreneurs make when entering Second Life is that they can just come in and start a business right away. He recommends that people spend several months in Second Life and really work out what genre of business they want to get into. "Becoming part of the fabric of the world", said Terdiman, is critical. The biggest surprises and challenges involved in running a business in Second Life can be overcome by becoming a part of the culture and community.

Wagner James Au

Also known as "Hamlet Au" in Second Life, he was Linden Lab's official "embedded reporter". Currently he runs New World Notes and writes for GigaOM, as well authoring several books: "Second Life", "Second Life: The Official Guide ", and an upcoming book "The Making of Second Life: Notes from the New World".

He offered up some history on Second Life. The old revenue model was to tax residents based on objects created in addition to monthly charges. Under this model, growth rate stagnated and residents revolted. Linden Lab brought in experts to think this through: Julian Dibbell, Edward Castranova and Lawrence Lessig. It was Lessig that suggested that people be allowed to own the content they create. This simple suggestion became the basis of residents retaining the IP rights of their creations, and also of buying and selling Linden Dollars for US Dollars. It also led to a new revenue model: selling land and charging monthly land fees.

This was around 2004, and Second Life has been expanding ever since. The companies only really got interested in 2006, but the economy was already booming by then.

Peter Ludlow

Known in Second Life as Urizenus Sklar, in the real world he is a Philosophy Professor at the University of Toronto. While they weren't mentioned during the session, he has written several books of his own including "High Noon on the Electronic Frontier" and "Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias", and most recently "The Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid that Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse".

Ludow challenged what we really mean when we're using the term "entrepreneur", and also asked the question about what percentage of people in Second Life are in fact selling things. While a third of the population are creating things, maybe half of those are selling what they make. While there are numbers that show that 50,000 people draw more Linden Dollars out of the economy than they put in, he'd like to see a comparison of that to how much those people could have made babysitting.

From the backchat, JenzZa Misfit pointed out that people who get paid directly in US Dollars aren't showing up in any current statistics.

Journalism In Second Life

Terdiman's take on journalism in Second Life is that it is financially viable as an enterprise. He reports that Cat Congo claims she makes a full-time living via advertising dollars from the Metaverse Messenger. Au echoed this sentiment, saying he could make a full time living via blogging if he didn't live in San Francisco.

We were also reminded of the hazards of reporting from virtual worlds. In an interview with Anshe Chung last December they were heavily griefed in what has become known as the "penis incident" (Warning: video contains graphic content.) Terdiman wasn't able to get future interviews with that particular person as a result.

In Ludlow's opinion the business model for journalism in Second Life is probably a non-standard one, in that you aren't going to make as much from banner ads as you might in future consulting work or book deals. He also feels that not only is there room for many different styles of journalism, but that a wide variety of levels of credibility and accuracy enhance what everyone learns.

The Future

Since the year is ending, Robert asked what the new year might bring. Terdiman expects a world technologically superior to Second Life that will still be incapable of catching up for a few years because they won't have the several years of content built up. Hamlet Au disagreed, saying that critical mass in another place like HiPiHi, Metaplace, or one of MTV's new worlds may be easier to achieve since Second Life's growth may have plateaued. Ludlow mentioned Ogoglio, but said it doesn't matter since it's about the people who came to Second Life in the first place. A lot of the people he knows in Second Life came here from The Sims Online, and he expects a mass migration to come again.