idiots

The blogosphere is currently up in arms over a recent Time article where they state that the virtual world of Second Life is one of the world's worst websites. Linden Lab's Torley Linden responded in the company's official blog stating: "saying “Second Life is a website” is as accurate as saying “This bowl of fruit is a banana” or “The color red is the rainbow”."

The article's dozens of other inaccuracies aside, this is a good example of something that is becoming more and more apparent: old media outlets are becoming more anachronistic by the day. A measurement of worth according to the unpublished criteria of an anonymous writer for a corporate held publication isn't worth the pixels it darkens on your screen.

Nick and I are coming to the realization that new media demands more of its sources simply because the public demands more of the new media. Articles like this one from Time about something the writer clearly knows nothing about can only be one of two things: a clever ruse to get people to go to the site, or an act of confusion and anger at a world that has passed them by.

Poor Sweden. First they were rudely pipped to the post by a country with a population the size of a small town as the first Embassy in Second Life, then when they do finally open the "Second House of Sweden", the day is blighted by Danish protesters. The Danes, who dislike the Swedes as much as Brits dislike the French, and vice versa (in a kind of historic, squabbling neighbors way), were protesting that too much real life was encroaching on their "fantasy world". The attitude is familiar. In the 90's, when the first McDonalds opened in Copenhagen, there were actual riots in the streets, as Danes, who live in a country with virtually no homelessness or poverty, and where it's a grand life to be unemployed and the national ambition is a summer house by the coast, protested Globalization. Recently, there were burning cars and looted shops over in the streets of Norrebro, when the owner of a house being used by "anarchists" (read: rich kids who're "against it!"), dared to want to sell it. The fact that one guy outside the Swedish Embassy had been there protesting for 8hrs really came as no shock, the most exciting thing to happen in his week so far had probably been the theft of a bicycle.

If you want a more in-depth look at what appears to be a pretty large scale mixed reality launch, check out Joel's report here.