cybered things

Daniel Terdiman (GreeterDan Godel), of CNET News.com chatted with Adam Pasick (Adam Reuters), Reuters‘ bureau chief in Second Life.

Why did Reuters open a bureau in Second Life?

[10:03] GreeterDan Godel: so…in order to keep this as smooth as possible, if you can refrain from shouting out questions, that’d be great

[10:03] GreeterDan Godel: if you have questions you’d like to ask, IM me

[10:03] GreeterDan Godel: and I’ll save some time for those at the end

[10:03] GreeterDan Godel: hi, adam

[10:04] GreeterDan Godel: welcome

[10:04] Adam Reuters: sorry i’m late

[10:04] GreeterDan Godel: no worries

[10:04] GreeterDan Godel: we wer all just getting acquiainted

[10:04] Adam Reuters: hi everyone

[10:04] GreeterDan Godel: were there still folks outside?

[10:04] Adam Reuters: a few people wandering around, not sure if they’re here for this

[10:04] GreeterDan Godel: lemme just go do one more check and we’ll get started

[10:05] littlegrub Schack: hi dan, like your neclace …

[10:05] Kevin Paisley: hmm

[10:06] Liv Kamloops: oops

[10:06] GreeterDan Godel: hey, we’re about to get started…come join us

[10:07] GreeterDan Godel: ok…sorry…there were a couple more outside

[10:07] GreeterDan Godel: i need better signage

[10:07] GreeterDan Godel: i’ve learned

[10:07] GreeterDan Godel:

[10:07] Dexter Tones: Hehe

[10:07] GreeterDan Godel: you ready, adam?

[10:07] Adam Reuters: yep

[10:07] GreeterDan Godel: ok…

[10:08] GreeterDan Godel: so, i want to welcome you all to the CNET amphitheater

[10:08] GreeterDan Godel: thanks for coming

[10:08] GreeterDan Godel: and thanks to Adam Reuters for joining us

[10:08] GreeterDan Godel: this has been a pretty exciting week or so for you, Adam, I’m guessing.

[10:08] GreeterDan Godel: What has it been like?

[10:09] Adam Reuters: you could say that…..the reaction to our launch went waaaaaay beyond anything we had expected

[10:09] Adam Reuters: now the attention from the mainstream press is dying down a little, i’m looking forward to getting into the reporting

[10:10] GreeterDan Godel: how so? what did you expect?

[10:10] GreeterDan Godel: and…what was the most surprising press interest you got?

[10:10] Adam Reuters: we thought we might make a little splash — instead i’ve been getting interview requests from poland, columbia, brazil, new zealand….

[10:10] Adam Reuters: it just shows how much interest there is out there about SL

[10:10] GreeterDan Godel: wow

[10:10] GreeterDan Godel: nice

[10:11] GreeterDan Godel: do you think the interest is in SL or in Reuters doing something that sounded new and unusual?

[10:11] GreeterDan Godel: i mean…to those reporters in brazil, etc?

[10:12] Adam Reuters: well, mostly the former. but people know the name reuters, so they wanted to see what we were doing in SL

[10:12] GreeterDan Godel: right

[10:13] Enrique McConachie: did you guys stop talking

[10:13] GreeterDan Godel: so..tell us how the Reuters bureau come about?

[10:13] GreeterDan Godel: whose idea was it?

[10:13] Adam Reuters: as far as reporting on whathe idea originally came from a conversation between our CEO tom glocer and philip rosedale at the sun valley conference earlier this year

[10:14] Adam Reuters: they came to me a few months ago and asked if i wanted to run the bureau

[10:14] GreeterDan Godel: is that because you were reporting on the internet?

[10:14] Adam Reuters: actually, less than a few months ago — it feels like i’ve been in SL for ages but it really hasn’t been that long

[10:14] GreeterDan Godel: *about* the internet?

[10:15] Adam Reuters: i’ve been writing about tech and media for a while, and *somehow* i’ve gotten the reputation w/in reuters of being a bit of a geek

[10:15] GreeterDan Godel: is that a good thing at reuters?

[10:15] GreeterDan Godel: at cnet it’s good, but in some orgs, it might not be

[10:15] Adam Reuters: well, it certainly worked out ok this time

[10:15] GreeterDan Godel: good point

[10:16] GreeterDan Godel: what was your initial reaction to being asked if you wanted to do this?

[10:16] GreeterDan Godel: did you know much about SL at that point?

[10:17] Adam Reuters: i had heard of SL but never had been in-world. To be completely honest, when i first heard the idea i was a bit dubious. but even as i talked it over that first time, i saw that it could be a great idea if done well.

[10:17] Adam Reuters: i think that’s typical of SL — the more time you spend, the more it makes sense

[10:17] GreeterDan Godel: from that perspective, what did you think “done well” would mean?

[10:18] Adam Reuters: offering something useful to the community, and being a learning experience for reuters. if it was just a quick PR hit, i wouldn’t have been interested

[10:18] GreeterDan Godel: right

[10:19] GreeterDan Godel: So what do you see as the “mission” of Reuters here in Second Life?

[10:19] Adam Reuters: this is my full-time job. i badly want it to succeed

[10:19] Adam Reuters: our mission…..hmmm…..if we can provide good financial news and data to the SL business community, and find a new audience among SL residents, I’ll be happy

[10:20] Adam Reuters: why does the typing animation not work here, btw?

[10:20] GreeterDan Godel: so it’s as much about bringing the rest of reuters’ news into SL as about sending SL news out?

[10:20] GreeterDan Godel: it’s something I have to deal with with my contractor

[10:21] GreeterDan Godel:

[10:21] GreeterDan Godel: oddly, it was working before

[10:21] Adam Reuters: it’s twofold — we bring in RL reuters news for those who want it, and i write stories specifically for SL residents

[10:22] GreeterDan Godel: how do you plan to differentiate your SL coverage from that of the bloggers?

[10:23] Adam Reuters: well, there will be a certain amount of competition — that’s inevitable. but there are so many good stories, especially in the economy and business sector that i’m focusing on

[10:23] Adam Reuters: we’re just getting started — we’re hoping to do a lot of quantitative stories about the economy, for example. that’s one area where reuters has a lot of expertise

[10:23] GreeterDan Godel: for sure

[10:24] GreeterDan Godel: so would you say that means your stories will be less “on the ground” type of reporting, and more higher-level?

[10:24] GreeterDan Godel: that’s how I would define my coverage, largely

[10:24] Adam Reuters: no, i’m hoping to cover the whole range, within the area of specialization i mentioned

[10:24] GreeterDan Godel: or will you try to do a lot of both?

[10:24] GreeterDan Godel: right

[10:25] GreeterDan Godel: So…how involved were you in the design of the bureau?

[10:25] GreeterDan Godel: not the building of it, obviously, but the design concepts

[10:25] GreeterDan Godel: the Reuters feed HUD, for example

[10:25] Adam Reuters: electric sheep did the design work, and deserve the credit. we pointed them toward our headquarters in ny and london and asked them to create an architectural mashup

[10:26] Adam Reuters: the HUD funcitonality came out of our discussions with ESC. a lot of the look and feel came from a reuters designer named al ming

[10:27] Adam Reuters: it does look cool tho right?

[10:27] GreeterDan Godel: it does

[10:27] GreeterDan Godel:

[10:27] Adam Reuters: we’re hoping to add functions as we go

[10:27] GreeterDan Godel: i have to ask: what was your budget?

[10:27] GreeterDan Godel: i’m a little jealous

[10:28] Adam Reuters: i don’t know the exact figure — luckily i didn’t have to sit through those meetings. but it was a relative drop in the bucket for a company our size, which is partly why we were able to do it in the first place

[10:28] GreeterDan Godel: nice

[10:28] GreeterDan Godel: how many people at reuters were/are involved in making this happen–beyond yourself as the correspondent?

[10:30] Adam Reuters: hmm, roughly 10? a lot of people pitched in on design, PR, the back-end techie stuff.

[10:30] GreeterDan Godel: that’s good. Are you the only person working on this full time?

[10:30] Adam Reuters: the core team was me, guhan selveretnam, nic fulton and evan maloney

[10:31] Adam Reuters: the four of us are devoting a lot of time on this, but i know the other three have some other things on their plates

[10:32] GreeterDan Godel: so…i understand that Reuters pays its reporters pretty well, especially ones like yourself that have been around awhile

[10:32] GreeterDan Godel: plus…you’ve got all these other folks

[10:32] GreeterDan Godel: involved

[10:32] Ashwin Machin: hi.. is there an event happening?

[10:32] Raven Rodinia: Yes, in the theater

[10:32] GreeterDan Godel: i’ve been asked this questions, and I know it’s hard to answer, but…how do you plan to make this effort cost-effective?

[10:32] Ashwin Machin: any idea what?

[10:33] Raven Rodinia: an interview is going with Adam Reuter

[10:33] Ashwin Machin: aah. thanks.

[10:33] Adam Reuters: right now there is no direct ROI — we’re not selling subscriptions or advertising, for example

[10:33] Raven Rodinia: y w

[10:34] Adam Reuters: but it has the potential to be a very valuable source of experience and exposure to a new tech-savvy community

[10:34] GreeterDan Godel: how do you, and I supose, more importantly, your bosses, measure success in this endeavor?

[10:34] Adam Reuters: and it’s a tiny project for reuters. i think my bosses are happy to see where it leads without having a direct source of revenue for now

[10:35] GreeterDan Godel: (this is a question I have to answer too, btw)

[10:35] GreeterDan Godel:

[10:35] Bill Bentham: You could sell homing pigeons

[10:35] Adam Reuters: i of course couldn’t give away our internal metrics for success….. but broadly speaking, we’re measuring visitors to the secondlife.reuters.com website and use of the HUD

[10:35] Adam Reuters: bill, our CEO is always talking about those pigeons…..

[10:36] GreeterDan Godel: so in a broad sense, you measure success in traffic?

[10:36] Bill Bentham: Don’t want to lose touch with history

[10:36] Adam Reuters: but there is a pont there — we started off with pigeons, then rowboats (which got us a 1 month beat on the lincoln assassination), then undersea cables, then the ‘Net, and now Second Life

[10:37] Adam Reuters: dan, traffic is the easiest to measure but it’s not the only yardstick we’re watching

[10:37] GreeterDan Godel: i see

[10:37] GreeterDan Godel: what else?

[10:37] Adam Reuters: well, the caliber of my stories, for one

[10:37] Adam Reuters: so the pressure’s on….

[10:37] GreeterDan Godel: indeed

[10:38] GreeterDan Godel: do your bosses have a sense for how much other coverage is being done about SL and virtual worlds?

[10:38] GreeterDan Godel: are you expected to produce scoop after scoop?

[10:38] Adam Reuters: i’m sure they’d be ecstatic if i did, but no, i think they’ll give me some time to learn the ropes

[10:38] GreeterDan Godel: nice

[10:39] Xantha Oe: how are you going to disseminate new in-world?

[10:39] Adam Reuters: what about you?

[10:39] Adam Reuters: xantha, primarily through the HUD, displays in the reuters atrium, and on secondlife.reuters.com

[10:39] GreeterDan Godel: well…

[10:39] Xantha Oe: thanks

[10:40] GreeterDan Godel: the truth is…as far as more mainstream media goes, I’ve had this beat largely to myself for awhile, at least insofar as regular coverage

[10:40] GreeterDan Godel: but, obviously, now, that’s changing

[10:40] Xantha Oe: it’d be great to develop in-world index surrogates to the RL indices like the S&P, Nasdaq, etc.

[10:40] Adam Reuters: must have been nice while it lasted

[10:40] GreeterDan Godel: yes

[10:40] GreeterDan Godel:

[10:40] GreeterDan Godel: so…i don’t really know the answer, honestly

[10:41] GreeterDan Godel: let me ask you about this beat, though…

[10:41] Adam Reuters: how about we take some ?s from the audience?

[10:41] Adam Reuters: oh sorry

[10:41] Ashwin Machin: what about censorship? this resets the world of reporting all over again. no one can censor, atleast not in the western world

[10:41] GreeterDan Godel: are you short of time?

[10:41] Adam Reuters: i need to jump in about 20 mins

[10:41] GreeterDan Godel: i have a few more…then some audience quetions lined up

[10:41] GreeterDan Godel: okay…

[10:41] Adam Reuters: cool

[10:41] GreeterDan Godel: that should be fine

[10:41] GreeterDan Godel: um

[10:41] GreeterDan Godel: a beat is a beat, of course

[10:41] GreeterDan Godel: what are some of the similarities you’ve seen covering this stuff?

[10:42] GreeterDan Godel: to a “normal” beat?

[10:42] Adam Reuters: the more time i spend in SL, the more it feels like any other beat

[10:42] GreeterDan Godel: how so?

[10:42] Adam Reuters: once you get over (or maybe embrace?) the weirdness, it’s much the same job — you find interesting people, read as much as you can, and chase up the interesting story ideas you find.

[10:43] GreeterDan Godel: right

[10:43] GreeterDan Godel: talk about some of the differences?

[10:43] GreeterDan Godel: what do you find is your biggest challenge?

[10:44] Adam Reuters: well, we’ve had to do a bit of work adapting the reuters editorial guidelines to deal with the fact that avatars are anonymous vis a vis their RL identities

[10:44] GreeterDan Godel: right

[10:44] GreeterDan Godel: so you’re allowing sources to be in their avatar names?

[10:45] Adam Reuters: i know it breaks the metaphor a bit, but i ask people to provide their RL identities. not everyone wants to, and that’s their right.

[10:45] GreeterDan Godel: what are some other major differences you’ve encountered?

[10:45] Adam Reuters: i also take into account the reputation that is built up over time in SL. i’m much more likely to trust a quote from someone who’s been here a while.

[10:45] GreeterDan Godel: good point

[10:45] Adam Reuters: no other biggies i can think of — but i’ve only been on the job a week

[10:46] GreeterDan Godel: SL has gotten tons of positive press - and I’ve certainly written a lot of it.

[10:46] Adam Reuters: yes

[10:46] GreeterDan Godel: but there are also many stories that should be critical that can be written

[10:46] GreeterDan Godel: what do you see as some of those?

[10:47] GreeterDan Godel: it is a business, after all, with all kinds of problems

[10:47] Adam Reuters: hmmm….think i’ll gracefully pass on that one — if i have a story you’ll have to wait until i publish!

[10:47] GreeterDan Godel: well…broad topics?

[10:47] Adam Reuters: ok. property rights. contract law. scalability issues.

[10:47] GreeterDan Godel: gotcha

[10:48] Adam Reuters: i’ve done my best to keep reuters’ relationship with linden at arms length, so if there’s a critical story to be written there won’t be any problems

[10:48] GreeterDan Godel: and as you’ve started covering this beat, how do you explain it to friends/family/colleagues that don’t understand what SL or virtual worlds are?

[10:48] GreeterDan Godel: and how this can sustain a full-time reporter’s time

[10:49] Adam Reuters: i’ve had a lot of practice. but i’ve found the best way is to get them in front of a computer and *show* them. my parents love it now — they have avatars and hang out in the reuters building

[10:50] GreeterDan Godel: so you find showing is the best way? Explaining doesn’t work so well?

[10:50] GreeterDan Godel: nice on your parents, btw

[10:50] Adam Reuters: it’s hard for some people to conceptualize it. visual aids always help

[10:51] GreeterDan Godel: ok, great…well, let’s do some audience questions. How about you IM me if you have a question?

[10:52] GreeterDan Godel: Her’es one: Gabriel Riiser: There was a slashdot article recently about several “virtual world builders” like Matt Mihaly who are criticizing SL and Linden for being too much about PR and not enough about the quality of the world itself.

[10:52] GreeterDan Godel: what’s your take, Adam?

[10:53] Adam Reuters: hmm, i think i’m going to use that old reporter’s dodge (which happens to be true) and say that i think i’ll report the facts and leave the opinions to smarter people

[10:53] GreeterDan Godel: but surely, you must have noticed that LL is rather adept at PR?

[10:53] GreeterDan Godel:

[10:54] Adam Reuters: well, you don’t get to a million subs by being dumb…

[10:54] Adam Reuters: sorry, meant to say “registered avatar names”

[10:54] Adam Reuters:

[10:54] GreeterDan Godel: janelane reardon wants to know about corporate last names…Do you find that having the last name Reuters works for you as an identity (I’m probably screwing up her question a little bit)?

[10:54] Gabriel Riiser smiles

[10:55] GreeterDan Godel: in a community with many whimsical names?

[10:55] Enrique McConachie is Offline

[10:55] JaneLame Reardon: (u phrased it a lot better)

[10:55] GreeterDan Godel:

[10:55] Adam Reuters: it’s a bit weird having my employer “own” my name but it’s a good, non-fakeable way to signify who i am and who i work for

[10:55] GreeterDan Godel: was there much discussion about the name issue?

[10:55] GreeterDan Godel: i mean…as far as using “Reuters” as your name?

[10:56] Adam Reuters: we thought about using the name “reuter” (no ’s’) because that was the name of the founder, but i figured i’d quickly get tired of having to explain that

[10:56] GreeterDan Godel: gotcha

[10:56] GreeterDan Godel: here’s another one from the audience:

[10:56] GreeterDan Godel: Jeremy Kindley: ask him if he can expand on his thoughts on the second life economy. will it become more favorable for SL business owners?

[10:56] Adam Reuters: so are you chaning ‘godel’ to ‘cnet’ ?

[10:56] GreeterDan Godel: oh

[10:57] GreeterDan Godel: not sure yet

[10:57] GreeterDan Godel: we may just create a group

[10:57] GreeterDan Godel: but I like my 2003 birthday

[10:57] GreeterDan Godel:
[10:57] GreeterDan Godel: but actually, as more and more cnet folks join…we may well have to

[10:57] Adam Reuters: jeremy, i’m just getting into that issue, so i couldn’t say for sure. what issues are you wondering about, specifically, that make the economy unfavorable?

[10:57] GreeterDan Godel: actually, jeremy seems to have departed

[10:57] GreeterDan Godel:

[10:58] Adam Reuters: no follow-up for you, jeremy

[10:58] GreeterDan Godel:

[10:58] GreeterDan Godel: let’s see…a couple more and then we’ll conclude

[10:58] Adam Reuters: i’ve got time for one more

[10:59] GreeterDan Godel: Liv Kamloops: here’s a q: do you see sl becoming an interactive version of the internet? if so, how?

[11:00] Adam Reuters: this questions probably has the potential to make me sound like an idiot. HOWEVER…..I think it makes a lot of sense for there to be a 3D successor to the Internet, and SL looks like the best candidate at the moment

[11:00] GreeterDan Godel: how come you think it’s the best candidate?

[11:01] Adam Reuters: it’s a relatievely open platform, content created by users, non game-based….it makes sense that some virtual 3d world or worlds is going to be what’s next. maybe it’s SL– who knows?

[11:01] Adam Reuters: (we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think it was a possibility)

[11:01] GreeterDan Godel: fair enough

[11:01] GreeterDan Godel: well…

[11:02] GreeterDan Godel: it seems we’re out of time

[11:02] GreeterDan Godel: so…let me thank you, adam, for taking the time to do this

[11:02] GreeterDan Godel: especially since we’ve now gone into evening in your neck of the woods

[11:02] Adam Reuters: thanks for the questions everyone. if you haven’t yet, stop by the reuters atrium to pick up a news hud. i also have office hours, there’s a link on secondlife.reuters.com

[11:02] Adam Reuters: thanks for having me

[11:02] Dexter Tones: Thanks very much, gentlemen.

[11:02] Adam Reuters: i’m off to the pub!

[11:02] Kellie Amiga: *applause*

[11:02] GreeterDan Godel: and thank you to all who showed up. sorry if I didn’t get to all your questions

[11:02] Liv Kamloops: ty, me too!

[11:02] Kala Pixie: *claps*

[11:03] Jewles Rootes: thank you

[11:03] Nexus Burbclave: *claps*

[11:03] GreeterDan Godel: it was my pleasure, and very nice to meet you

[11:03] Captain Idler: Cool, thanks a lot.

[11:03] GreeterDan Godel: i’m sure we will meet in real life before too long

[11:03] GreeterDan Godel: the fraternity of virtual worlds reporters is rather tight, actually

[11:03] Adam Reuters: you’re in SF?

[11:03] GreeterDan Godel: yes, in SF

[11:03] Adam Reuters: heheh. who?

[11:03] GreeterDan Godel: i’m actually married to one

[11:04] GreeterDan Godel: kathleen craig, from Wired News

[11:04] GreeterDan Godel: well…again, thank you all

[11:04] Adam Reuters: adios, amoebas

[11:04] GreeterDan Godel: this interview will be edited and posted on cnet news.com probably on wednesday

[11:04] Kala Pixie: Welp, Dan, time to go, got my show ^_^

[11:04] GreeterDan Godel: have a good show, kala

[11:05] Kala Pixie: Will do.

[11:05] JaneLame Reardon: thanks!

[11:05] GreeterDan Godel: we’ll find a time for you to come and do an interview here

This entry was posted on Monday, October 23rd, 2006 at 8:44 pm and is filed under Digital Culture , internet . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.