It seems like everywhere you turn people are talking about Second Life.
Those who love it, those who think it is overhyped, those who wonder what value it could possibly have, those who believe that it must not be ignored, those who wish people would stop talking about it and those who say it freaks them out.
I have to be honest that I am on the fence about it, but it seems to me that one of the strengths of Second Life is that people can meet and network without worry for travel costs or the constraints of geographic location. Just recently, PR blogger Mike Sansone talked about how nice it would be to meet up with others to talk about social media in his homestate of Iowa.
So, I like to play to the strengths of things. I had a brainstorm, why not hold a Second Thursday in Second Life? So, I have organized the first meeting for Thursday at 3 p.m. central time (U.S.). I have put together a time clock that shows the current time in many of the most common time zones for PR bloggers. You can add or subtract to get the time we will be starting.
Jeremy Pepper has agreed to be on the hot seat, although we welcome a discussion versus a monologue or un-seminar, with a hat tip to Josh Hallett.
Lee Hopkins has agreed to be our host at his and Allen Jenkins new Comms Café in Second Life. Maybe we will get a few folks from Text 100 to attend and tell us how they propose to get media into Second Life for press conferences when they won’t even attend the real-life ones. Also, to tell us where they are building their new office?
At our un-meeting, we can talk about Second Life, but we don’t have to. We can also just talk about public relations and what is coming down the pike for our profession.
Here are the details of the meeting, with apologies to those that can’t make it due to time constraints. It is hard to find a time that everyone can meet worldwide, as you can imagine.
What: Second Life Second Thursday Worldwide
Where: Comms Café in Second Life
You can find the café by logging on to the Second Life client, hitting the search button, entering “Comms Café” and then teleporting there.
When: Thursday September 14, 2006 (Friday in Australia and India)
Time: 3 p.m. Central Time U.S., and 20:00 GMT (figure out what time we meet in your timezone)
If you haven’t registered for Second Life and want to attend, it is free, I strongly suggest you do so well before the meeting time, it takes awhile to get the hang of simple stuff (like walking for instance). Which is one of the drawbacks to SL.
My name in Second Life is Kamichat Watson. Real creative, eh? I actually like my first life just fine, so this is not escapism for me.
I hope to see some of you there. Spread the word, and if you think that this is a stupid idea, let us know that too, better yet, come and tell us yourself.
[Update: We met, we had a great time and if you want to wade through it you can connect to the 12 pages of transcript of the first meeting of PR's Second Thursday in Second Life. I only cut the chatter before and after the main meeting, and it was a lot of chatter. I will update with a post that contains my impressions of the whole thing tomorrow. Best I can tell, 21 people showed up at one time or another. It was interesting indeed. There will be a meeting next month at the Text 100 new diggs, more on that later.]
