New World Newsfeed: Presidential Campaign Guru Joe Trippi Talks Meet-Ups in Second Life

Recent SL-related dispatches from the outside world...

Despite some tentative probing by Senator Clinton's campaign, I thought 2008 was too early to see major party Presidential candidates set up an official presence in Second Life. Now I'm not so sure: while this recent ABC World News video mostly focuses on unofficial headquarters in-world, it includes a striking quote from Joe Trippi, the man generally credited with revolutionizing Internet-era campaigning. Where you might think he'd dismiss SL as an irrelevant forum, since it's small compared to YouTube, Facebook, or other leading Internet sites that most campaigns are concentrating their firepower on, he says something entirely different:

"We wouldn't think anything of going to a neighborhood headquarters where there's 400 people, why not go to your headquarters in Second Life and have conversations with 500,000 people?"

Two things stand out to me here: this is eerily parallel to something I wrote in 2006, when reporting on the first use of SL as a campaign tool.  Also: Trippi knows that the current active user base of Second Life is about half a million, suggesting that he's following the world closely.  But for whom?

Comments

[larryr]

reality check.

SL office for a candidate will get blogged by 50 and read about by 500,000.
but truely visited by the 400.

Id be surprised if more than 1000 unique visitors had shown up at any political office in sl around the time ( 24hr window)of a planned event.

that said, 500,000 blogger reader -gossips- yacking about a candidates 3d office in a vr world, and then ABC brodcast news reporting on one real or not, is a great bang for the buck as a general branding issue.

i hope the "savant" trippi:) truley understands its not the numbers who matter any more in modern- disfunctional - politics. :)but who and where they are.

lets hope the 400 he ignores arent in florida "again"..lol

[Shelly]

Could some one email me a concise list of campaigns that Joe Trippi has been envolved in from the smallest to the present?
I needed this yesterday!
[email protected]

[Lillie Yifu]

Joe is currently working for the John Edwards for President campaign.

[ThirdRail]

Check out this article, it outlines a strategy on how the Edwards campaign could defeat Hillary Clinton. Check it out at http://thirdrailradio.blogspot.com/