Reading Radar

Johnny Ming (John Swords in RL) sent a reply to one of the posts about the Orange media event today, and that plus a little reflection made me want to post my response to him. I emailed him a copy so he’d get it personally as well. Thanks, John, for your input, and here are my thoughts in response.

Yes, you’re absolutely right that Secondcast was notable in that it was all people who were in it were all very active residents in second life. That showed in the passion you guys had in the topics you talked about. I remember hearing banter back and forth between your group over things and you could tell it was genuine and that you were residents of the place, not people who were podcasters who happened to be in SL as well. One thing I’d also point out is the humor many of you had and enjoyed bringing out in the podcast, lest anyone think I was taking your comments as arrogant. I don’t believe you are an arrogant person in the least. The very few times I’ve had occasion to come into contact with you, you’ve always been accessible, humble, and seemingly very easygoing. I like that in a high profile podcaster. I wish it were more common.

I was actually thinking about this tonight as I woke up (can I blame a cold for making me grumpy today?) and had to admit, in that context, some of us owe secondcast a nod as an inspiration for doing an SL related podcast done as SL residents. You were definitely the first real SL podcast I listened to, although IIRC, Goddess and Banana claimed to be the first, but since I wasn’t around when they started, I couldn’t tell you who came first. I never listened to them. But I did learn about SL from you guys as I started off my journey through this particular metaversion known as second life in 2006.

One thing I would like to stress in all my comments here is that I’m not mistaking myself as some important high-profile representation of the new crop of SL podcasters. While I am a current SL podcaster, let’s be honest here, I’m very small time in terms of listeners and certainly impact in SL. I’m not confused about my place in the world, and I hope I didn’t come across that way. I’ve never achieved anything on the level of anyone on the panel, to the best of my knowledge, and I’d like to acknowledge that fully.

So what bothered me particularly about the Orange media panel was not the credentials of anyone on the panel. It seemed on first blush that Orange was not grokking the current state of podcasting in SL, and that’s what bothered me. I interact regularly with a number of various podcasters who have current, apparently popular podcasts in SL that I think should have been included. I know we keep bring up the example of CC, and while he’s certainly a big name in podcasting I don’t really think he’s been a big name in SL podcasting. I know that whether you agree or not, you can understand the distinction, since your group WAS individuals who were residents first, from very early on.

Having said that, I enjoyed the panel a lot once you steered it to the future. I think you’re a person who will be involved in exploring the evolving forms of podcasting as things continue to change, and I’m looking forward to subscribing to your upcoming podcast, The Shack.

Most of all, I’d like to say thank you for being a good sport about all this and for doing a good job listening to the chat at the event today and being fully engaged with the audience. That’s greatly appreciated.