POST-WARNER INTERVIEW WRAP-UP

As it happens (and this is surreal) the best on-the-scene report on Governor Warner's appearance in Second Life comes not from the SL blogosphere, but from Dana Milbank, acclaimed Washington Post columnist, seasoned reporter of the US political scene, and author of Smash Mouth: Two Years in the Gutter with Al Gore and George W. Bush--Notes from the 2000 Campaign Trail. 

His column, "Do You Have a Question, Pixeleen Minstral?" includes excerpts of the chat transcript before and after the event, including appearance of well-known avatars like Spin Martin, Rik Riel, Millions of Us CEO and NWN sponsor Reuben Tapioca, and though he mispells her name in the very title, SL reporter Pixeleen Mistral.  Of course, I take strong issue with Milbank's notion that I "cut off audience questions, quickly turning the session into a digital version of a Bush town hall meeting"-- the unkindest cut of all!-- since the event was always intended and described as just a short introductory meeting for the actual open-ended town hall planned in early October. 

That to one side, Milbank's reportorial eye catches some emblematic moments of the Second Life experience, including the clearing of griefers in the beginning, and the ongoing difficulty for new users to just sit down.  Worth reading, read it all here.  If Milbank does such an exceptional job despite his limited background with SL, maybe it's because he has some previous experience as an avatar, of a kind:  after the Vice President's unfortunate if darkly amusing hunting accident, to the outrage of many conservatives, he engaged in some roleplaying of his own. 

There's more big media commentary from the Post's political blog, CNN/Money, and Red Herring, commentary from political blogs like Daily Kos, United Conservatives for Virginia (!), and SL resident Thomas P.M. Barnett, and a hat tip from Instapundit and Huffington Post; game blog conversation comes from Kotaku, Game Politics, and Joystiq.  More, no doubt, to come.

Update, 9/5:  In this post's Comments, Forward Together's Nancy Mandelbrot has thoughts on planning and running Governor Warner's event last week, and opens the floor to suggestions for the Governor's next appearance in Second Life.

Update, 11:50AM:  Just launched a new survey, right column, middle page: "Do you want to see more real world politicians and campaigns in Second Life?"

Update, 9/3:  Mark Warner-in-SL was also featured on CNN's "The Situation Room", where it appeared between a report on fighting cancer with stem cells, and controversy over Donald Rumsfeld's statements about 9/11 and appeasing fascism; it was also noted on the August 31 video podcast of the G4 gaming network, where it appeared between a story on the reality TV show "Survivor" and a contest to select the hottest fembot.  Additionally, there's a substantial report on The National Journal's Hotline. (Via the real life blog of Warner staffer Nancy Mandelbrot, who offers a nice post-event wrap-up of her own.  Evidently, the Governor's showing in SL came down to a close office vote: "on the virtual Mark Warner -- tie or no tie?")

Comments

[Haney Armstrong]

I agree that he took some cheap shots but that is really too funny. Be sure to read the whole piece.

Hamlet, I thought you did really well. It's really hard to let questions fly otherwise you have several conversations going at once.

[Gavin Stevens]

What a mess and a waste of time that thing was. The gov should be glad there weren't more reporters there. No news, no anything. Warner wants to run the country, and they run this thing like that? I couldn't figure it out, and I had a story to file.

I haven't seen anything that stupid since Kerry was shooting at ducks, or Dukakis was riding on a tank with a helmut that was one size too big.

If that's an indication of Warner's press/advance team, I would fire them all. I certainly don't want them running the country.

The only funny moment was when he disappeared, and people didn't know if it was over or not.

Here are a few of the things I wanted to ask:

* VA's $6 billion deficit turned into a $544 Million surplus. How?

* The double-digit unemployment rate in VA plummeted in 12 of 13 of the most distressed counties? How could that be done nationally?

* Why does VA have the second best employment (lowest unemployment) rate in the country?

They should have had a real press secretary/interviewer, who knows how to call on reporters.

Wake me up when you figure this thing out.

[Soen Eber]

Would I want more politicians and main-stream media in SL?

I think my major concern would be how they would cover the SL universe, especially since there's a lot of fringiness in these parts. SL is still burning through seed capital and needs to keep investors happy, and that would include some smart message management.

If you're going to be running establishment types and media mouthpieces through here, you might wanna create a space similar to teenspace, call it "civic space" or something with tight controls that more closely mirror conventional society. Someplace where CNN or Honda can create a "corporate presence" without having to wonder who their neighbors are.

What you have here is all very fun and very much of a blast to play in, but is probably too much for people whose words get magnified with barrels of ink and hours of television time.

[Nancy Scola]

Thanks so much for a hosting what turned out to be a great event.

In retrospect, one thing that could of gone better was how we managed who and how folks got into the event. Space was limited to about 60 or so by technical constraints but we at Forward Together should have done a better job giving direction on how to get into New Globe Theater and letting the early arrivals stay.

We need improve on this for our town hall later in the fall. I'd love to hear thoughts on how we do that. Do we do an open guest list? First-come first-served? Focus on getting repeaters distributed?

[rikomatic]

Thanks for asking for our feedback, Nancy. I think you were in-world when I told some of the Forward Together folks that I thought what Mark Warner did was not without risk and even somewhat brave. There are lots of possibilities for derision of a politician "playing games" and "flying around" with furries and robots.

At the very least audio and probably video is going to be necessary to show participants in these virtual events that they are dealing with a real flesh-and-blood human being with good ideas and strong principles. That can't adequately be conveyed just with a nice avatar and quick typing.

Slightly more coherent thoughts here.

There's also a wiki page on how to effectively organize Real Life / Second Life events that might be of some help. Good luck!

[Mabb Dilweg]

Hi there,

I do not want more (or even this) politicians in SL. As a non-American I have absolutely no interest in your politicians. Yes, I can and did ignore the whole thing but there's another reason aside from lack of interest in the politics of a country other than my own, and a general disillusionment and cynicism with all politicians...

This is SECOND life, not first life. SL has its own politics and culture. Please let's not pollute that with fly-by-night appearances by people with no interest at all in SL who are just cashing in on the current Groovy Thing to spin your cool-points.

I realise that this is terrific publicity for LL and we can all trainspot mentions of SL in the mainstream media and feel like we're part of Something Big but after the dust settles, none of these d00ds have any interest in SL so why fete and pander to them? Doesn't the mainstream media do enough of that already?

This is just a stunt, so how about we keep those OUT of Second Life. I'm really enjoying the lack of that kind of rubbish in my alternate world.

[Nancy Scola]

Rik, we're kicking around the idea of having Governor Warner connected via audio for the next town hall event and letting folks submit questions via text. He'd probably be more comfortable that way and would be able to respond more quickly and fluidly to what's happening in the audience. In your mind, are there negatives to doing it this way?

[rikomatic]

Nancy, I think audio of Gov Warner with people submitting questions via IM to an in-world moderator is probably the way to go. Having Gov Warner's avatar in-world I think makes participants feel more like he is there with them.

Meanwhile those not in SL can still hear the audio portion of the event, and perhaps can still submit questions via IM through AIM or Yahoo.

Mabb is probably representative of a good percentage of SL residents, who want RW politics far away from their virtual playground. Nevertheless, for those of us who do want to see this medium used to facilitate dialogues between policy-makers and citizens, I think it's an important step that you alls are taking.