Some thoughts on the topic of journalism in virtual worlds that came from a Thinkbalm post a few days ago.
Watching the papers fold across the country is sad at one level, but indicative of the paradigm shift occurring across the spectrum of things. Clearly the financial model that sustained the news industry has changed. Our little town paper, a weekly called Sevendays is doing great, but frankly the local Gannnet paper, the daily Free press isn’t worth reading. Plus its already old by the time they print it and distribute it. The need for investigative reporting is greater now than ever, but how is it going to be financed? Thinking about news, i am more interested in Twitter ‘news’ now. I find myself looking for good sources there. So this presents a vision of the future. Aggregator sites are getting my attention, so much news, so little time. Readership is obviously up, way up, but what are we reading? New media. So I would say there are a couple of ways for this to go; aggregators and new literacy’s. How that fits into paying for investigative reporting remains to be seen.
Terraforming Ontos2
Reporting on my little virtual world, a sim in Second Life, or one I am developing in the reactiongrid provides new challenges. I want to be able to ‘look inside.’ Maybe a miro site with streams like Ustream Virtual Tales in the virtual world realm. SLCN is stagnant, even in HD. We want it all, now. Thumbnails of streams growling at me when I have my morning coffee, and every time I browse, or in the background of my screen. Then if I am tempted I can digg into it more. You now the old saying, all news is local? maybe I made that up. But it may be that some of that news is also global. So how do you separate it? For the immersive internet to immerse more people it needs to be readily viewable. That’s the take I am thinking about. I need a VW web cam bot with brains streaming all the good stuff, in a way I can find it among all the other news vying for my attention. As for a financial model, If I can think of it I’d be wealthy, right?
Filed under: Creativity, OpenSim
